Reality Break Ch. 03

Glass dispelled the depressing thoughts like Song and returned the enthusiastic words. "I, Glass, welcome you to our group! Together we will grow prosperous and awesome!"

In the train car, those who listened in on their conversation by choice or chance had weird looks on their faces. It turned out the extremely handsome High Elf player was just as weird as the Tiefling player who so rigorously bowed before.

...

"Hm? Scarlet, someone is joining our group... A Tiefling Blood Savant, that's a rare class." Blossom did what most people did when passing the time in a train, by watching the scenery and reading. Though she just now noticed Glass invited a new player to their group.

As she was the initial starter of the group, Blossom was the group leader. Eventually, out of girlish embarrassment and affection, she offered Glass the group leadership position. Being the group leader was a pretty basic thing, you could invite/kick people in or out of your group, choose who got what loot when they defeated a boss (though there are some restrictions even for a group leader, like he or she can't take all of the loot), and few other unimportant actions.

Blossom didn't know how to progress her relationship with Glass. She was unable to appeal to him outside of the game due to certain circumstances, nor did she know much about him in general. She was lost. As of now, she only wanted to make sure that those who joined her group did not attempt to get as close as she wanted to Glass. Scarlet seemed uninterested in romance, though Blossom could not fathom what went on behind that expressionless face.

As of the new teammate, Blossom thanked the fact that it was a male... Though that didn't mean he couldn't be gay. (Wait, Glass isn't gay, is he?)

While Blossom went through several different scenarios between Glass and other men of his caliber, Scarlet formulated a reply to Blossom's initial sentence. "It appears to be a healer. According to you, we only need a tank, a decent melee damage dealer, and either a ranged support or damage dealer."

(As monotone as always...) "After we get a full group, we'll be able to take on stronger bosses and pave a way to the top of the players in this game. Though of course that sounds much easier in words. Hum, we're nearly at Castle Port."

In game, the distances between various points were similar to the distance between points in Earth. SonataCorp arrogantly believed and stated that their game would be so popular that the size of the virtual world wouldn't be a problem considering the vast amount of players that would be playing the game. Apparently they believed correctly. Population in the world had reached around seventeen billion at this point. Leaders had gotten together and did their best to solve the problem of the population explosion. Not only did experts manage to effectively to sort out expanses of land suitable for human development, engineers also managed to build many homes not only on the surface, but the underground as well. Space travel, while improved upon greatly, did not allow colonization of other planets just yet. Though there have been many experiments, ongoing as well.

In any case, public transportation between places like Sandy Oasis and Castle Port was sped up so players didn't have to spend numerous hours traveling between transportation hubs. The trip to Castle Port only took the three of them around an hour long.

"Blossom! Scarlet! Allow me to introduce the two of you to my new friend, Song!" Glass appeared before the two of them with one hand gesturing towards a male player and the other on that player's shoulder. "He'll be joining us as our healer!"

"My name is Song Ha-Sup, though please call me Song! It gives me great pleasure to meet the two of you! I may be young, but I live for the day when I become a great healer that devotes his life to his friends!" Song proudly puffed out his chest and bowed deeply, he even accidentally hit his forehead against the table the two girls were sitting at. Stumbling back in pain and landing on his butt, Glass and Blossom both laughed while Scarlet revealed a rare bemused smile.

Blossom could tell instantly that Song wasn't a bad person. While he was strange and eccentric, he seemed like a fun person to have in the group and liven things up. "Well, if you're joining us, you're going to have to show off your healing skills to the max. We're going to create a full group and reach the top!" Blossom thrust a lively finger into the air towards the virtual heavens.

"OF COURSE! I SHALL SACRIFICE BLOOD AND LIMB FOR THE GLORY OF THE ALMIGHTY GLASS-NIM'S GROUP!" Song doubled up on Blossom by thrusting his hands in the air and screamed loudly enough to be heard several train cars back.

Ignoring all of the turned heads, Glass raised an eyebrow and calmly said, "That's a good point Song. We got to come up with a group name; we can't keep calling us Glass' group all the time... Though it has a nice ring to it." Glass stroked his smooth chin and beamed.

Blossom reddened in seeing the handsome pose from Glass but kept her calm and agreed. "That's right. Most groups, at least the more permanent ones, generally give themselves a group name. If we do that and register as an official group, we can sign up as a group for official events like tournaments or contests."

"I see, well, first off we need to come up with a group name, any suggestions?"

"I'VE GOT A GREAT ONE!" Song shouted once again before soothing his voice and saying, "'The Sexy Squad'! Because we have the beautiful Blossom and Scarlet, the handsome Glass, and the egregious SONG HA-SUP!"

"Uh, first of all... That name is far too strange and egregious is an auto-antonym, Song." Glass pointed out two things at which Blossom furiously nodded her head at. "Scarlet, do you have any ideas?" Glass didn't know what he was trying to accomplish by trying to ask Scarlet that question. He knew about the mysterious nature behind her, and he still wasn't sure if he believed it or not that she was an AI program, and a virus at that.

"I have no preference nor do I have any ideas." Scarlet replied as blandly as always. Despite having a mysterious beauty about her that was complemented by impassioned scarlet hair, it was slightly dampened by her emotionless personality. Though many would say, Glass included, that was what was so intriguing about her.

Pressing for an answer, Glass pursued. "Oh c'mon, Scarlet, it doesn't have too inventive or interesting. Anything off the top of your head. All the members of our soon to be top group should put something in. My suggestion is 'The Unholy Angels', because sometimes falling just isn't enough for an angel!"

Blossom rolled her eyes. For all of Glass' great looks and vibrant personality, he had some of the weirdest ideas sometimes. "I put forth 'The Magnificent Seven'. Seven because that's the number for a full group, and that is the name of the last movie I watched with my dad and mom..." Then Blossom drew to a whisper, "Before I couldn't see them anymore."

She spoke very quietly on that last part. She thought that spoke low enough for Glass, Scarlet, and Song to not hear. All three of them did in fact hear her words and each of them chose not to press her for why she said them. It sounded painful to talk about and the three decided to continue their original conversation for the sake of moving on.

"I am not able to formulate a decent name, but I like Blossom's suggestion the best." Scarlet's word had barely any passion to them, but Glass could see a hint of color.

"I'm with Scarlet then! Song?" Glass moved his gaze over to the Korean player.

The zany Song shook his head and quickly responded, "Yea, 'The Magnificent Seven it is! Though we'll need three more people before it'll make sense as a group name anyways."

Blossom forced a wry smile, "Thank you..."

...

Aria sat down in her chair and focused on her virtual meal. Though expensive, players could purchase an accessory for their VR systems which could feed players as they experienced any virtual world so that they did not need to leave for meals. In fact, the supplement was very similar to what hospitals gave their patients. IV fluid was vastly improved upon in the past decade to be very nutritious and healthy.

Originally thought only of an accessory for the lost and misguided VR addicts, SonataCorp gave each of their game moderators that accessory so they could continue working through meals. Many employees didn't bother and saw the technology add on as an attempt for SonataCorp to get their employees to work longer shifts. Aria personally didn't mind, as it allowed her to experience strange and delicious virtual cuisines while her body was fed a nutritional diet

In fact, Aria was currently enjoying her meal, which consisted of blackened chicken seasoned to perfection, buttered and salted eggs on the side, a crispy pepper salad, and iced tea. Her furry ears twitched delightfully while her tail swished around in elation. She loved more than anything, even more than cute guys, a freshly prepared delicious meal.

Right now, Aria enjoyed her meal on the dinner car of a train in Rebellions' public transportation system. The train just happened to make a short stop in Vibrant Shine as it continued on its course to Castle Port.

This meal gave her a chance to ignore that weirdo from before, a strange Tiefling player who had tripped her either accidentally or intentionally. It wasn't like he pissed her off, since that could easily happen to her. No, it was more like she wanted to be pissed off, but the player was far too nice and forgiving to give her a chance. She wanted more than anything to be given a chance to beat him into the ground in a duel, which she could have easily done given her skill in this game. Alas, the moment the player prostrated himself before her, she gave up. In game, Aria was a Catfolk player, base class Mage, with a Battlemage classification (Warrior/Mage).

As she ate, Aria's thoughts flashed back to when she was waiting for the train. She was checking the map and saw the circle from the virus locator program she was given, it was getting smaller and smaller. The circle was supposed to get smaller whenever a foreign program, in this case the virus AI, got closer. She found it odd. The only way for the circle to get so small so quickly is if the virus AI was coming to her. Then as the circle shrunk down to the point where the circle enveloped only Vibrant Shine and the area around it, the circle expanded back to its original massive size.

(It must have been a glitch in the locator program that Riktor gave me, that insufferable corporate snob... Whatever, if it's just a glitch, it shouldn't be too serious. I'm not getting paid overtime so I see no need to report back every little occurrence. I'll begin my search in Castle Port anyways.) Aria irresponsibly ignored her duties and blissfully ate her meal.

-

In each continent, there were numerous arenas. However, in each continent, there was a main arena in that continent's largest city. And Castle Port just happened to be the largest city in Atarea. The arenas were all based off of the Roman Coliseum in general design, but the architecture was always based off of the continent's chief ancient cultures. In Atarea's case, Castle Port's arena was made with Aztec and Mayan architecture in mind.

A stoic pattern of carved stone decorated the entire arena. Instead of a circular center, the matches took place in a square center with a sandy ground with irregular patches of virtual blood. It was no wonder that this game was given a mature rating and even had its own booklet filled with warnings about what transpired in the game.

Glass noted the contrast of the arena's architecture compared to the rest of Castle Port, which had a mixture of 13th century medieval style and 17th century colonial style architecture. Glass found it all the more interesting because of that. In fact, there was a match going on between two teams of three.

Information was displayed on sides of each screen giving the team names, player names (if they didn't mind revealing them), player levels, and player classes.

For the current fight, team one consisted of a Paladin (Warrior/Priest) which kept the battle's focus on him, an Archon (Mage/Priest) which provided healing and support, and an Archer (Ranger) that provided long range attacks and damage. Team two consisted of a Dragoon (Warrior/Ranger) that fought in melee with a spear, a Hydromancer (Mage) that provided healing and ranged magical attacks, and a Thief (Rogue) that nimbly attacked from all sides.

"Hey, Blossom, who do you think is going to win?" Glass asked the girl on his left.

The four group members sat together and watched the scene with varying interest. Scarlet listlessly stared down at the arena, analyzing the individual strengths and weaknesses of each player. She speculated that she could defeat five of the six in individual duels, with the Hydromancer being the sole victor. Blossom preferred not to watch fights, but to participate considering the fact that she could watch these fights twenty-four seven. However, she still spectated with interest so that she could find a suitable fifth teammate for their group. Song Ha-Sup was fervently cheering on team one, which consisted of the Paladin, Archon, and Archer mainly because he liked the way the female Archer player "handled" the bow as he put it. He mentioned that his skill set was in healing, not planning, so he watched the match for purely entertainment. And finally, Glass, wanted to see how various classes went up against other classes. Considering how he was the group leader, he at least needed to compile a vaguely encyclopedic knowledge about in game tactics and more.

"Well, I can't say too much since special skills play a big part in this game and I have no idea, however... The forerunners of each team, the Paladin for team one and the Dragoon for team two are very similar in their melee skill. Because of that, it boils down to whose special skills can surprise the other. Still, they both have healers to keep each other alive, the Hydromancer healer for team two is more combat oriented than the Archon in team one. Hopefully the Hydromancer doesn't lose focus and attempts to attack instead of heal, the moment he does that, they'll probably take a step back too far from winning and eventually lose. Lastly, the support damage dealers... The Archer in team one is their key, she needs to keep the Thief from team two at bay while trying to kill or interrupt the Hydromancer's healing. As for the Thief, she also needs watch out and harass the enemy team frequently; the moment she overextends herself, she'll die because Thieves generally have very low health and little armor... Ah, there it goes." Blossom's long winded explanation was interrupted by the realization of her small prophecy.

The Thief dashed around after initially seeing what she thought was the Archer paying sole attention to the healer for a few moments. The Archer actually did do that, she focused her sights on the Archon after firing an arrow that seemed like a missed shot at first. In fact, the Archer was reserving one of her special skills called Redirection. It allowed the Archer to change the destination of any of her arrows that were in the air to any point she wished, but only once until she used the skill again. Other than that, Redirection was a fairly normal skill, though it was perfect for catching the enemy off guard.

The redirected arrow shifted its angle by nearly one hundred eighty degrees and struck the Thief in the knee, crippling her and forcing a cry of pain. The Thief fell to the ground and feebly activated one of her special skills called Dust Toss, which allowed her to grab any amount of sediment off the ground and expertly form an improvised temporary smokescreen for one or more enemies for a short duration. It was her only ranged attack, and it was more than useless if she or a teammate couldn't follow up on it.

The Thief's ally, the Hydromancer, cast a healing spell quickly on the Thief, but found he was too late as team one's healer, the Archon rushed to the Thief and finished it off with a lethal blow.

Team two's Dragoon finally saw his chance to rush in considering two of his opponent's allies were occupied and activated a skill. He stabbed wildly, pushing the Paladin back for several seconds before thrusting his spear into the ground. A dark circle formed beneath the enemy Archer's feet. The Archer failed to react to the circle and found a spear tip violently bursting from the circle on the ground and piercing her jaw. He had contemplated attacking team one's healer that way, but the Archon had used a type of shield to nullify an attack from before, and he didn't want to waste a chance to eliminate an opponent.

Blossom whispered to her teammates, "If her Perception was high enough, she could have reacted to the attack in time to escape unscathed. Oh well."

The Archer already had accumulated enough damage that the spear instantly took her out. As of now, team one had its Paladin and Archon while team two had its Dragoon and Hydromancer.

"In team matches like these, usually the forerunner is defeated last considering they are usually slow and don't do as much damage. Generally the healers are the first to be targeted and taken out if possible, if not then, then take out the support and extra damage dealers. Though considering that both teams only consist of three instead of a full group..." Blossom seemed contemplative as she continued to explain her thoughts on the fight to Glass. "Hm, Glass?" And it seemed she was talking to empty space, Glass had disappeared once again. "Um, Scarlet, where did Glass go?" She asked worriedly. Blossom, of all people, knew just how easily the handsome player could get sidetracked.

Scarlet stared as expressionlessly as always into Blossom's eyes and replied blankly, "He said something caught his interest and he would soon be back."

"No need to instant message him then I guess... Knowing him, he'll probably get lost or in some sort of trouble, however." Blossom chuckled softly to herself.

Song shoveled some popcorn into his mouth before adding in his own set of words. "Don't worry, I may not have been with your group for very long, but I do know one thing: Glass-Nim is quite a capable man with few faults!"

Song's interpretation of Glass' personality made Blossom smile. The pretty Undine player didn't know why she liked Glass so much. Of course looks aren't everything; she was a firm believer of that philosophy. However, Blossom knew that she did like him and hoped that Glass would one day see her the same way... Even if they could never meet in the real world, as her condition wouldn't allow it.

Scarlet stared silently at the arena. She knew the secrets to the predicaments to Glass, Blossom, and Song Ha-Sup. Although, as she is an AI, she did not know what to do with the information nor cared about it in the first place. Right now, what drove Scarlet were two things: Finding out the purpose behind her creation and enjoying what time she had with her group.

-

As of now, Glass excitedly was walking down the main street in Castle Port.

Being the largest city in Atarea, it was filled with various players of all races and class. Some were sitting around and pondering their next move while others were gathered together in a group and conversing. Some were barking out item names looking for a quick sell, some were operating a stall with different types of goods that catered to every possible interest, and some were actually owning a piece of property and playing their wares and services.

Glass saw a group of around ten players each wearing a small cape that reached halfway down their back with an emblem designed like a two headed lion. (That must be a guild or a clan or something...)