The Virtual Experience (Chapter Two)

Chapter Two

Town

"It wasn't that bad!" I assured my cousin as we made our way out of the arena.

LotusStar, however, didn't believe me and let me know that she didn't believe me.

"Yes, it was," she snapped. "I was the last one to finish! And all the other players only lost one or two health points! I lost three-quarters! I've become the laughingstock of the entire town. I just know it!"

"Oh, you're over exaggerating!" I said. "There are plenty of players out there who've done way worse than you!"

"Really?" Lotus said, looking up at me. Even in a virtual world, she was way shorter than me. She turned to the others and asked "Is that true?"

"Yeah," said NovaFlash, flashing a big smile. "Definitely."

To which Lotus said "Hey. Look at me when you say that."

NovaFlash still wouldn't.

With a sigh, Lotus continued and asked: "What do you think, Ja - I mean LOWW?"

"Cutting it a bit close there, aren't you?" LOWW replied. "Make sure you don't let slip any of our real world names. Don't forget, this is the internet, so you never know who's really who here."

"Right, sorry about that," said Lotus.

"But enough about the tutorial," LOWW continued, "if you don't watch out, you're going to miss out on all the sights."

"The sights?" Lotus asked. "What . . . sights . . . ?"

After a slow stroll through the cobblestone chamber, we made it out of the arena and into a bright, cheery marketplace full of stalls and shops with Non-Player Characters (NPCs) vocally advertising their wares. Very fitting of the fantasy setting, the buildings were all made of wood, and the streets were a bunch of stones force-fit together, giving it that old-timey feel of A.D. medieval times. And then, there were the players.

As always, the place was packed with players, coming and going to various places, all wearing their own unique fashion. Some might call some of the players' choices out of place with the overall fantasy theme, such as the space suit or the robot costume, or LOWW's chicken mascot outfit. But there were also costumes that really fit into the environment, like that group of players in shiny, elaborate armor, or the elaborate robes of one grand wizard player. 

A few players looked like they were meeting up with friends while others stared at their menu screens, reading up on the latest news of the game. Those were just the minority of players sticking around the area while everyone else looked like they had somewhere to be.

"Whoa!" Lotus cried out.

If she wasn't wide awake before, she was now. The noise and overall liveliness of the town was enough to wake up a bear in the middle of winter hibernation. And the atmosphere was absolutely magnetic. Most people couldn't help but be drawn in by it and allow themselves to be swept in its currents like Lotus was. All the earlier humiliation and embarrassment seemed to have been wiped clean, and she was just curious and excited as any first-timer in a new world would be.

""Look at all the people here! And so many different kinds of costumes! It's like a comic book convention! What is this place?" she asked. "Where are we? And why is there colorful confetti raining down from the sky?"

You could definitely tell that she had never played a Role-Playing Game (RPG) before by her asking questions like those.

And she was right to compare it to comic book convention. Some players don't even look remotely human. And that was because they probably chose a different species to act like in the game. Other than humans, there were also elves, beastkin (half-animal, half-human), goblins, orcs, vampires, and even zombies running around town. I tried out a few different species myself, but decided that human was the one for me. 

"Technically, this place is called the Federation Capital," explained LOWW. "But most of us players call it the Town. It's pretty much the center place of the game where we all arrive when we log into the game. There are other towns that you can set as your default place to go when you log in, but most just use this place as their default town because it's more convenient. Well, that or they're just too lazy to go through the process of making another town their HQ."

"I-I see," Lotus said. Her eyes were practically spinning from all the information being crammed into her head.

I didn't blame her for being overwhelmed. If you're not used to games, sometimes you could get overloaded with so much information about all the features and how-to gamer stuff that are important to know to survive as a player.

"Basically, all you need to know is that this is where you'll end up every time you log in," I told her. "There's a bulletin board where we can get the latest news about the game, but we can also just check that on our menu screens, so that's not important. Come on. Let's take a look around."

We decided to take a turn left from the town square towards the Artisans' District where player-run shops laid.

"Players can run their own stores here?" Lotus exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yeah," I replied, nodding. We were standing in front of one really fancy-looking store that displayed various bright-colored costumes. It was really no different from any big name store you'd find in a real life mall with bright, almost blinding light shining down over the products worn by faceless, plastic mannequins, while brain-drumming loud music played in the background.

Commercialism. It is absolutely everywhere.

"This street's called the Artisans' District for a reason," NovaFlash cut in. She had just come over after she finished admiring a red military ceremonial-themed outfit for girls from another shop. "Some players just have that creative bug and want to make something, like those clothes. All the clothes you see in these shops are made by players. Some shops are run by NPCs, but a lot of players prefer to sell their stuff, themselves. It can't compare to a real world boutique since you're not actually making a real living off of it, but beggars can't be choosers, especially for artists."

"I see," Lotus said. It was as if that was the only thing she could say. "How does it work, making your own stuff to sell?"

"How?" went LOWW. "There's actually two ways you can do that. One is to use thread and needles just like in the real world. This game actually has that function."

"Why?" asked Lotus. "Isn't that like hard work? And even if some people think that's fun, why do it in a game, when they can do it in real life?"

LOWW stared at her. With that chicken costume of his, he must look downright creepy to Lotus, because she shrank away a little from him and edged a little closer to me. Just going by his posture as he stood, I could easily picture him blinking once or twice beneath that mask of his while staring blankly ahead.

"What are you talking about?" LOWW asked. "You need money to do that sort of stuff in real life. Duh. In here, if it's just a hobby, you can do it for free. You just need to go get the material yourself by stamping out monsters."

"An easier way that most shop owners make their stuff is to upload a picture file of their art and let the game's programming take care of the rest," NovaFlash cut in. "That's how a friend of mine does it."

After looking around some more, we moved on to the regular shop district where all the gear and materials were traded and sold. That district was run by NPCs.

As always, this place was like a madhouse. It was absolutely packed with people, pushing, shoving and outright fighting through one another to get some new weapons or armor.

We all stood just a few feet outside of that district, staring as the chaos unfolded before us.

"This place is like the mall on Black Friday," Lotus said.

"Oh, it's not that bad," I said. That was when a fireball flew up and down in an arch before exploding in someone's face. What followed after that was an intense clash of swords and magic. "Never mind."

"Oh my goodness!" Lotus exclaimed. She was in utter horror and disbelief. "They're even using their weapons!? That can't be okay, can it!?"

"In the real world, definitely not," said LOWW. He cheered at one player pile-driving another. "But this is the game world. No one really dies here, and this game doesn't have some severe death penalty like other games do. Just about ten percent of your experience points get deducted when your avatar resurrects. And since towns are safe zones, our health bars won't go down. In other words, our characters can't die in here."

The two players who had been fighting both cried "Skill On! Lightning Blade!" and tossed bolts of lightning at each other by swinging their swords.

"Then does this mean you can do pretty much anything you want in here?"

"As long as it's not against the rules like outright bullying, saying bad words, or other common-sense no-nos, yeah," LOWW said. "I can even hold a concert right here, right now, if I wanted to."

"Concert?" Lotus blinked, a bit bemused.

I and the others grinned at each other knowingly. Well, I think LOWW was grinning. He was wearing a chicken mascot costume, so I couldn't see his face.

"Show her," I said.

LOWW gave a thumbs up with his right wing, nodded and then cleared his throat.

"Class Change: Bard," he said. "Equipment Change: Microphone of Sonnetra! Equipment Add: Ax of the Music Lord."

White light enveloped his plastic fish and it was instantly replaced by a microphone attached to a stand pole. A red bass guitar appeared over his chest with a strap wrapped around his neck.

He held the microphone to his costume's beak and whispered lowly: "Here's a little something for all you peeps out there, its something I like to call Skill On . . . ROCKSTAAAAAR!"

LOWW let rip a rocking guitar solo that drowned out the noise on the streets. It was loud. It was wild. And . . . it . . . was . . . awesome.

"Rock and roll!" I shrieked, bobbing my head aggressively to the music.

I wasn't the only one.

All the players stopped fighting to listen to LOWW play that guitar. It mesmerized them and got them into a rockin' mood. Soon, everyone was roaring to the music. They jumped and pumped their fists into the air while cheering LOWW on.

And as he played, LOWW literally rose above his audience, lifted up by a wood platform stage that grew from the ground beneath his feet. He didn't miss a step or rhythm as he was elevated four to five feet above ground level.

"Did that stage just sprout out from the floor?" Lotus cried out. Her mouth hung baffled by the stage's appearance.

"Don't question it!" I shouted over the rocking music and cheers. "You'll get less of a headache!"

Ecstatic to their core, the players drawn by LOWW's music chanted "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" over and over again. It went on for another ten minutes until after we slipped through and bought Lotus some new gear.

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