[ Code Crawlers ]

Everything was black. It didn't matter how much the man looked around, it all looked the same. Matsu began to loose all feeling in his body as he sat there in the pitch black darkness. Luckily it didn't last long, as before he knew it he appeared in the game and in the eyes of Kaito as normal, was this just a glitch with the new expansion? Matsu thought. But as he looked around everything felt weird. It seemed realer than usual. "They didn't say anything about a graphics upda-" this voice wasn't his either. Quickly covering his mouth, Katio was in shock, even the fact that he had the ability to use his hands like that was new and never in the game. What the hell was going on? Was Matsu in the body of his hero, Katio...?

Slowly lowering his hands, Katio felt the grass he had been sitting on. It feels like real grass... and I can actually feel it. he thought, as he started feeling everything else around him, the stone wall of Ashgate that he was sitting next to, his pants, his body, it all felt like a humans! Was Matsu trapped inside the game? After pulling up the log out screen, it refused to let him log out. Was this really happening? He needed to see if anyone could help, or if he was completely alone. Looking down once again, it was clear the new body wasn't sporting a wheelchair. So that meant one thing, it was time to finally learn how to use legs. This excited the man very much, as he always wanted to learn due to his condition his entire life. But starting from square one would be hard, seeing he's already this tall. Kaito shifted his body to the right and got into a position so he was on his hands and knees, it was still a little hard to use his legs but he was moving them. Pulling himself up against the wall wasn't going to work, so after a few attempts he grabbed his weapon and pulled his body up and used his hands to plant his feet into the ground.

Looking around again, it was weird to be up this high, and to look down and see his legs actually being used. A giant smile came across Kaito's face as he let out a small chuckle, this was all so exciting to him! Putting the pole arm forward and sticking it into the ground, Kaito kept a firm grip on his weapon and slowly pulled his left leg forward, then his right. After a few more steps it was time to try without any support, as he placed his spear on his back. The first few steps were the hardest but he actually got the hang of it! Kaito began walking around in a circle grinning as much as he could before he started jumping. Is this what it felt like to jump?! he thought. Kaito was filled with joy to the point that he had completely forgotten about the fact that he was stuck inside his favorite video game.

It wasn't long before the man was running, running up and down all the street paths and over bridges, this was the best thing that could possibly happen. Kaito was filled with so much joy he didn't know what to do, which led to him closing his eyes and started shouting as he ran. There was nothing that could bring him down now, he was fine with this new body of his, he actually liked it more. If this was his new life, he would be totally fine with that. Kaito continued to run and shout with joy as he ran over the bridge of Ashgate, hoping he wouldn't accidentally run into someone.

Shortly after wetting her tongue with a sip of her favorite energy drink, Hannah adjusted a sleek headset atop her head. A familiar blue glow lit up her face a midst a dark bedroom as her shoulders absently bounced to the electric beats serving as her usual ambiance.

USERNAME: ExeQT
PASSWORD: ***********

Gliding the glowing mouse below her palm to log in, once again Hannah proceeded to enter the world she had grown to love - not yet realizing the fate she was sealing with a simple left click.

Click.

Darkness quickly overcame her mind, the bass line playing in her ears fading out to silence. Slowly, the silence was replaced with the growing noise of a bustling city. The darkness fading now as pixels began to block together, revealing a familiar city center - but not from the point of view she was used to.

"Huh..." Hannah found herself standing beside the crystal fountain, a landmark inside the city of Ashgate, the city she would ritualistically return to at the end of every session. "Is this...?" Wide eyes took in the buildings around her; the trade house, the bank and even The Bird's Eye Tavern. All of these as realistic as ever, even the NPC's and players in the area looked real.

Her purple gaze followed a yellow feathered bird from it's resting point on the fountains edge up to the brilliantly blue sky, the warmth of the white sun pressed against her skin until she saw the view quickly slipping.

Losing her balance, Hannah came falling onto her backside. Letting out a sudden yelp, she felt a strange pain shoot up her back, "The hell...?" Rocking her hips to the side to see what she had sat on, she came to see a fluffy black tail below her. Following it's length with her fingers, her hand came to the base of her spine. "A...tail?"

"...wait." Without a seconds hesitation, Hannah pulled herself over the edge of the fountain and looked into her reflection in the water. Looking back at her was none other than the avatar she had created, a fair skinned beast girl - cat kin to be exact. In shock, she moved her hands up to feel the cat ears atop her head, fingertips greeted with warm fur that twitched to the touch.

"Oh... my... god!" She squealed, examining herself further in the water. "I'm so fucking kawaii, I can't even!" Hannah could barely control herself, stepping back, now looking over her whole body - even going as far as to grab the assets she had bestowed upon herself in the creation process that were much different than real life.

"Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh... I need to tab out and see what's going on! Is this an event!?" Bringing up the options screen, she tried to exit the game in any way she could. But it didn't work, again and again she tried but she was getting nowhere. "Damn it, what the hell is going on with this game?" She huffed, frustrated while fiddling through the holographic menu, making quite the scene in the city center.

Darkness. Strangeness. Numbness? More like dumbness. It took an exceptionally long time to log into the game, so long so that Irena began to think that it was more than simply "lag". Are the servers down again?

"Yo Eren stop downloading porn, I don't want fucking Comcast asking about your search history," she shouted, expecting to see the hallway behind her.

Well, it wasn't.

What she found behind her was nothing but the paved road of Ashgate. No, that wasn't accurate because the road was under her. As in she was floating. She could feel her ass a few inches off the ground, which was no say that she couldn't feel her ass touching anything resembling a floor. Okay, okay. There has to be a logical explanation for this. Irena did the closest thing she could to standing, which was essentially extending her legs so that she would be floating upright rather than cross-legged.

As it was, floating seemed to be as easy as walking, but flying was out of the question. The game still, for the most part, was programmed in a two-dimensional plane (or perhaps she didn't have the proper items yet). Still, there was something to be said for her ace mechanics. She dreaded to think of what the newer players were thinking once they strapped in. It was one thing to play in a first person point of view, but to actually feel everything, like actually be able to touch your weapon and feel the ground beneath your feet (or in her case, lack of it) was unreal. It was unlike anything she had played before, and she had tried out that weird game that drew blood every time you died.

Actually, while on the topic of blood...and things that draw it, she ought to see how far this update went. With the will of her mind she was able to bring up a holographic menu and exchange equipment freely, but typing was oddly absent? Or at the least it felt to access it.

"Slash taunt," she announced, but rather than actually performing the animation her voice came out and rather loudly at that.

"Oh fuck, wrong chat?" she said with a sheepish smile.

If saying simple commands wouldn't work, would that mean she would have to learn all those animations and how to actually cast spells? She couldn't do that! She played violin, not Chinese-harp-thing (yes she knew it was a Guzheng)! Okay, no calm down. You know all the items and all the abilities of every class of hero. Don't be stupid, stupid. She just needed to pluck a few strings and stomp a few minions. That'd calm her down for sure.

Floating toward the bridge she was ready to leave the city...that is until a blur of red knocked her to the ground.

"Watch where you're going dude!"

It wasn't long before Kaito had accidentally bumped into somebody, it was actually a little surprising it took that long. Kaito had knocked over the stranger that was on the bridge and led to Kaito starting to lose his balance. As he fumbled around for a bit trying to keep himself from falling over it became clear that no matter what he did it was a given that he was going to fall. Kaito's balance gave in as he tripped over something by the nearby fountain in the center of the town. Luckily he had a soft landing and wasn't hurt, did they not feel pain with this game now that they were trapped inside? No that couldn't be it, when he ran into that poor person on the bridge it somewhat hurt his shoulder. So that could only mean something broke his fall and kept him from getting hurt, maybe a soft pillow?

Kaito looked down to see he was now sitting on the back of a smaller female player who was flailing about, so lucky for him she was there, unlucky for her because she now had a larger man on top of her. As Kaito was about to get up and apologize, he noticed the user had the fluffiest cat tail. "O-oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall on you like that. Are you alri- oh! cat!" Kaito looked down at the girl and back to the tail. "tail!" Kaito grabbed the fluffy black tail and started to pet it and poke it, completely forgetting that he was still using this poor young lady as a seat. The tail felt real, like a real cats tail. It was fluffy and felt like it was actually attached to the character, it was clear this person was playing as a Beast.

It wasn't long before the lady made a fuss which led to Kaito quickly jumping off of her and kneeling down beside her. It was a little surprising that she tolerated him sitting on her and touching her tail for as long as she did. Kaito needed to give her an apology. "Sorry for sitting on you like that, it's just so much has happened since I've logged in today and it's a little much to all take in at once. I hope I didn't hurt you, my names Kaito, whats yours?" he said with a big smile on his face as he extended his hand out to her to help her up.

Completely absorbed, Hannah tried to troubleshoot the problem. Which was harder than she imagined, seeing as it wasn't often this game would glitch. "Okay, maybe if..."

A sudden crash forced the thoughts from her head and a yelp from her mouth.

Within a split second, the blonde found herself with a face full of cobblestone - and damn, did that hurt.

"The frick?" Pulling her now aching head from the ground she realized a heavy weight was keeping her from getting back up.

"O-oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to fall on you like that. Are you alri- oh! cat!" A voice called out from atop her, before clearly becoming distracted. But before she could protest, he was petting her tail like a housecat. Worst of all, the sensation that came with the action - sending her face into a blushing fit. "I think you can like... get off me now!!" Hannah's tail went on end as she yelled, her ears going back further proving her irration.

When he finally got off her back, she let out a sigh of relief, no longer having to struggle to breathe. "Gah.." Normally, Hannah would have been more concerned with bitching this guy out, but what she was really concerned with right now was why could she actually feel pain. She only lost a couple HP from that crash, but it really felt like someone had actually barreled into her.

"Sorry for sitting on you like that, it's just so much has happened since I've logged in today and it's a little much to all take in at once. I hope I didn't hurt you, my names Kaito, whats yours?" He asked, his kind smile making it easy for her to temporarily glaze over the incident. "It's whatever~."

Placing her hand in his, he helped her to her feet with a bit of a stumble. She was about to respond with her real name, but had to remind herself she was still in game - or at least she thought he was. Examining his status on her HUD she could see his basic information;

KAITO
LEVEL 90 LONG ARM

"You can call me Cutie, pretty much everyone does." She spoke casually, uncomfortable with actually giving out her real name. Throughout her online history she has only given out her name a few times, after she had let her guard down. QT was an identity she worked hard to create, and even though the situation at hand was strange, she wasn't going to jeaopardize it.

Brushing her hands across the frilly dress of mixed purples, pinks and black she wore, her bright eyes met up with Kaito's before straying to look just past his shoulder as a blue haired woman was briskly making her way towards him.

"Uh oh, who else did you crash into on the way over here?"

Fucking scrub. Learn to use the walk command why don't you? Not hearing an apology, Irena sat up and felt herself float back to normal heights. It had been more than mere unit collision. She actually felt her head throbbing where she hit the floor as well as the potential bruise forming. It was more evidence that what she experienced was real and that perhaps the company that made this MMO wasn't complete shit after all.

She took out her Etwahl and muttered a short "Restore Spike" because despite the fact that she was in town it still hurt like hell. Her mana would regenerate and it wasn't like she needed to raid a dungeon anytime soon.

"Sorry for sitting on you like that, it's just so much has happened since I've logged in today and it's a little much to all take in at once. I hope I didn't hurt you, my names Kaito, whats yours?"

But that being said, the urge to challenge the guy to a 1v1 match was amazingly high. Who did this guy think he was, some hotshot just because he had some good looking armor? She had some goodies too like her Etwahl, her boots, and hell her mechanics weren't so bad either! He didn't even apologize to her either, he just flounced onto the next girl (Some D-Cup toting cat girl? Typical.)! Irena put her weapon away and floated until she could get within viewing range of the redhead and hovered over his information. Surely she could stomp this guy no problem...

KAITO
LV 90 POLEARM

...or maybe not. Even if she probably could outplay him she wasn't stupid. Kaito was, if nothing else, tryhard enough to grind to level ninety so she would begrudgingly respect him for that. She could still give him a piece of her mind though.

"Hey you, with the headband and the weaboo armor! Just what sort of bonebag do you think you are charging through Ashgate like you own the damn place?" she yelled, "Maybe you haven't gotten updated yet, but when you fall and hit things they actually hurt so I don't give a damn if you're level ninety or rank one on the servers but if you're going to knock me down the least you can do is apologize."

If she could change the background music it probably would have gone from Ashgate's mellow theme to the harsher bellicoso of the beast-ridden outskirts. She knew that she was causing a scene, but to hell with what people though of her. She hardly had a name for herself outside (perhaps) of being a mechanically skilled (but loud-mouthed) PvPer and this argument would be quickly lost among all the posts about the new update.

Luckily, the cat girl didn't end up smacking Kaito for using her for a chair by accident, from the look of it, she was also now stuck inside this game as well. The girl labeled herself as Cutie. "Nice to meet you, Cutie! Heh, sounds a little silly to say. " Kaito said while offering a smile. It was at that time he could sense a storm coming up from behind him. A hurricane of whoop ass. Cutie was the first to see, and as Kaito turned around, he could tell that was the stranger he had knocked over on the bridge not too long ago. It had to be.

The new woman in front of him was dressed with a blue dress and a hair color to match, only thing strange about this one was that she was floating. What kind of item allowed you to do that in this game? "Hey you, with the headband and the weaboo armor! Just what sort of bonebag do you think you are charging through Ashgate like you own the damn place?" well they were off to a rude start, I mean all he did was push her over, that was nothing compared to what happened to this adorable little cat girl. "Oiiii ghost lady!" Kaito said waving at the new face. "Sorry for charging into you like that! I was just caught up in the moment. I worked really hard on my character, I'm sorry you don't like it though." Kaito began to scratch the back of his head.

The lady claimed that when she got knocked over that it hurt, so it was clear once again he wasn't the only one with this problem. How many others were experiencing this problem. "Oi ghost lady, have you had any trouble logging out? Every time I try it doesn't let me, also like you said earlier, we can feel pain, along with everything else in this game." Kaito looked over at Cutie again, and apparently he had been rubbing behind the back of one of her cat ears, his hand just moved on his own, but he didn't stop. "For example, this cat ear feels real, I can feel the fur and it's actually attached. I don't think this is the best time to be fighting, ghost lady, we should find out whats going on with the game and as to why we can't log out and if anyone else is going through the same thing." Honestly Kaito didn't want to leave this new body, it was way too fun and he needed to try so many new things. Suddenly Kaito's stomach started to grumble. No surprise seeing he didn't get any breakfast before logging on. "You guys hungry? I got chef as a subclass, I can cook us up something real tasty!"

Just outside the sprawling hub of Ashgate were the Glassedge fields. Not too far from the entrance of Ashgate was a rather large boulder. Atop that boulder was none other than the in game legend himself, Supra. It was here he would watch the sprawling green fields of Glassedge and the wind rushing around the many players who would come here to quest. There was something he liked about this boulder. It was a nice boulder. Accompanying Supra were a small group of low level players that vied for his attention. They were all complaining about the same mysterious issue that Supra himself was ailed with. "Hey I have work in thirty minutes! I can't just stay logged on!" "Everything feels so real. It's like real life." "What about you Supra?" The level 90 remained calm and collected as he was perched upon his large rock throne. "Tch... My computer is of master quality. I built it myself. The game always looks and feels real." Despite his very real concerns about what was happening, he had to keep up appearances. While Supra wasn't phased about what was happening, Daisuke was mentally breaking down. He was able to figure out how to handle his character rather quickly while he climbed to the top boulder he now found increasingly uncomfortable. Most of the players that had gathered around moved inside the village to see if others had the same problems they had.

From as far as he could see, another player was running across the field, waving her arms frantically. Behind her were two skeleton knights. A fairly weak mob designed to be beaten by most low level players. In groups however they could prove to be deadly. "Help! I don't know how to fight them!" The girl screamed as she changed her directory to the remaining players standing around the rock. With a degree of difficulty, Supra jumped down falling to his knees. He felt a sharp pain run up his legs to his back. What's this? I can hurt myself?" He thought. Using his blade, the heavy blade got to his feet. The girl whom appeared to be a twin blade was now much closer. As she continued to cry for help she stumbled and came crashing to the ground. The skeleton knights moved in for the kill. One of the skeleton knights was mid swing when Supra was able to block the blow for the fallen player. The blow was strong enough to push him back and make him stagger slightly. What the hell? This is going to be a challenge." Supra gripped his blade tightly with both hands and swung with all of his strength at the attacking skeleton. The weight of the blade helped propel it into the side of the skeleton shattering it completely. Bones rattled and steel clanged as it tumbled to the earth. The remaining skeleton winded up for a crushing blow. "Damn it. How do I use my skills?" The frustrated heavy blade swung his blade furiously at the other skeleton, missing every time. "Grrrrr!! Death Bringer!!" He yelled as he continued swinging his blade like a mad man until finally he connected and delivered the killing blow. Supra hunched over and started panting heavily. "Whoa... You killed them..." The twin blade said quietly as she eyed the high leveled player. Supra threw his head back and stood up right before turning to the girl. Damn... She's cute as fuck... Supra thought as he extended his hand to help the girl to her feet. "Thank you. I don't know what I would have done had you not shown up. I've been having problems with the game today and I was heading back to Glassedge. Would you care to join me?" "S-s-sure..." Supra stowed his blade on his back holster and staggered into town. He lost the girl he was following in the bustle of the town center. He began to explore the looking for anybody who knew what was going on. Who knows, maybe someone had some information on what was happening today.

Ghost lady? Was this guy as blind as he was uncoordinated? Well he has to be if he ran into me. It was a stupid question that warranted a stupid answer. Despite his apology Irena still felt awash with anger as she saw him chatting to QT, also known as "ExeQT", also known as one of the unofficial mascots of their server. She was a cat girl who operated as a StoneResto (healer with stone affinity) and had fame amongst gamers both male and female. Unlike most she didn't get famous with the power of breasts, but rather the power of basement dwelling loneliness (and time she supposed).

"Oi ghost lady, have you had any trouble logging out? Every time I try it doesn't let me, also like you said earlier, we can feel pain, along with everything else in this game."

"I'm not a ghost lady Kaito or whatever your name is," Irena sighed, eyes moving over to the polearm, "and have you ever thought that it might be your client and not the game?"

Nonetheless she listened to what he had to say and frowned at what she heard. So it wasn't only her, but rather it was something that came out of the patch. If they had the same ability to feel the textures in the game and were unable to log out it was possible (probable) that she did too. She pulled up the menu and flicked her fingers to press the "log out" button but found herself still in the game. No matter how much she mashed the option she remained within the confines of her pixelated body. Fuck he's right.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

No matter how much she mashed the option she remained within the confines of her pixelated body. From the outside it might have looked like Irena was imploding, but that was just her attempt at maintaining some sort of composure as she tried to figure out what to do with this information. How was she going to play her other games now? How was she going to go to school? How was she going to feed her goddamn Neopets? She didn't want those things to starve again.

Irena took a deep breath to calm herself before answering Kaito once more.

"You know what? You're right, you apologized, you're cooking us some good ass middle eastern shawarma so it's all good," she finally answered, "although I'm not really sure if eating here is going to fill us up in the real world."

ONLYCASTSBURST
LV 75 WAVEMASTER

This chick may not have been max level, but her verbal attack skills were pretty high. Without hesitation she was all over the klutzy red head - a bit over the top for Hannah's taste but entertaining to watch anyway. Besides, she had a helpful tip to offer up between her tongue lashing.

So, it's not just me then. What a bad idea on Colosseum to make an update like that, nobody's gonna wanna go into combat!

With a sigh, the blonde wondered if maybe this was a prank by the designers, or maybe even some kind of hack. Either way, unlike the players around her, she wasn't complaining - and not nearly as frustrated as the floating wavemaster seemed to be.

And she probably wasn't loving getting called 'ghost lady' every other second.

"Kaito you know that item making her float, right? It's the Concerto...." She veered off from her train of thought when she realized that once again this guy was pawing at her - the time her ears. "Ehhhh....?" Looking up, she slipped her hands over her ears protecting them from any more molestation. Hannah didn't want to admit the feeling was nice, but couldn't just let this guy pet her constantly.

"Oh, noms?" Quickly, and quite easily distracted, her ears perked and the tail behind her started to wave excitedly in the air. "I'm totally hungry, you don't mind~?" And out came her big pouty eyes and innocent tone. "What level chef are you?" She asked, trying to seem interest - at least until the food was in her grumbling belly.

As she talked, Hannah did a few stretches to continue trying to get accustomed to her body - a glimmer of blue catching her eye. "Ooo~ shiny~.." It was then she realized who the pendant was attached to. "Oh wow, guys, look! It's Supra! If anyone knows about what's going on, I bet he does!"

SUPRA
LEVEL 90 HEAVY BLADE

"Yoohooo~!" She called out to him, waving her hand in the air as high as she could - the small stature of hers not helping in the city's now crowded center. "Over here!" She didn't know him personally, but like her he was another big name on the server. Hardcore players like him not often tolerated girls like her, messed with their ego's and all. But he knew this game like the back of his hand - at least that's what all his forum posts and streams made it sound like.

Kaito had begun preparations to start cooking the food. Cutie had run off after someone she knew and the floating lady had started looking angrier and angrier. It was expected with what they were all going through, not everyone would be pleased with having your body transferred into the made up character of yours.

Kaito pulled out the camp fire kit and clicked it like normal. With no surprise the small fire appeared before him. The fire came along with little set up to cook food on top of but that was just part of the design. All the cooking came from opening the cooking menu. Now I just need to click on what I want to make. How about.... Boar Curry Rice? Kaito thought, and before he knew it the bowl appeared before him. Giving it a little taste, it was clear this food didn't taste like... food. It didn't really have a taste. It was just mushy and gross. There was no way he could present this food to his new friends! Were they friends? That didn't matter though. So did everything taste this way?

Kaito moved around in his bag and pulled out an apple that's used as a ingredient for the curry. Taking a bite out of it, it tasted just like an apple would. So there was a trick to this then. The level of cooking didn't matter in this world anymore. Odds are you would need to cook it like normally like the real world. Was this all planned? Smart. This could become fun. Kaito thought. So that means they needed to go out and get the ingredients.

"Well this isn't going to work..." Kaito said standing up and putting away the campfire. "The way of cooking in the game just makes it taste like mush. So... who want's to come out in the fields with me to get some ingredients?" Kaito said scratching the back of his head. But Cutie still wasn't around, before anything he'd have to go find her first to let her know. But where did she go? Kaito walked deeper into the town and left the fountain area.

"Say lady, what's your name? I still don't know yet!" Kaito said as he continued walking. It was only seconds later that Kaito saw Cutie with her friend. "Oiiii Cutie!" Kaito said waving his hand as he continued to walk towards her.

How long had he been waiting for this patch, two or maybe three weeks? Though he logged in everyday Aegis's experience hadn't felt this real since the day his guild had been raided. He (well she if one wanted to go by the context of game genders) could feel the soft touch of the wind, the warm sunlight, and of course the blood of the monsters that dared touch him. Though it was pointless, farming lower level monsters helped vent his frustrations (i.e. getting chewed out by his mother for not receiving an A+ on his Pre-Calculus test) and he could be on the lookout for anyone in Alexei's old guild.

"Double Sweep."

Since the whole event he'd tracked down some of the members, but never the big five behind organizing the raid nor Alexei themself. He assumed that they had discarded their old accounts or changed names to curb suspicion, but from Tiffany (one of the players he'd killed) she should have been in the area. Was she lying? If she was, he'd basically given up the chance to assassinate anoter one of the guild's members.

Well, not that he would give up on his word. He told her that he would spare her life in exchange for information, but something about her voice was strangely terrified. Did she think he was going to kill her in real life? Strange.

"Aegis, Denizen of Ashgate."

A voice.

Aegis turned around to find a blademaster with a treasure chest in his hand.

"Oh sorry, I meant former Denzien of Ashgate. Ah you know how bad with names I am."

He scratched his head sheepishly as he drew his sword out.

"So you already know what I'm here for."

"Well, let's just say a little birdie told me that an even smaller birdie was coming after my head," he replied, moving into a defensive stance, "I know what you did to our other members Aegis and I'm not going to stand by while you have your little power trip."

Spear already drawn, Aegis's lips formed a frown. Marlo had always been one of the more reasonable members of the guild and despite only knowing him tangentially, Carson could appreciate his fatherly (but condescending) attitude.

"You can't sway me Marlo," Aegis hissed, winding up for the Triple Doom, "I spared you last time we met, but not anymore."

The two of them met as they traded blows, Marlo weaving attacks between his abilities while Aegis used his spear to punish the blademaster every time that he came close. What Aegis lacked in speed he made up for in power and range.

"Tell me where Alexei is Marlo!"

"I told you she disappeared after the raid!"

Marlo sliced Aegis downward, landing a huge cut across his arm and forcing him to leap back for a few moments. Even if he looked and sounded old, he wasn't to be taken lightly.

"Tell the truth!"

Each blow brought them closer to each other, but Aegis was losing health rapidly. Whatever weapon Marlo was using, made him bleed too much for his lifesteal to be doing anything substantial and the fact that the masked man had pots to burn meant that Aegis would have to kill him with one quick burst.

"Revolver."

As Marlo began spinning Aegis spun his own weapon and knocked the swordsman to the floor before bringing the tip of his spear to the older man's neck.

"Wait! Don't kill me. I don't know what's going on with this patch but I haven't been able to log out."

Aegis hesitated for a moment, narrowing his eyes.

"If you kill me here, you don't know what's going to happen to me out there, in the real world and I don't think you want my blood on your hands. Please, think this through Aegis, Carson."

"Goodbye Marlo."

After a quick strike, Aegis left the fields in search of more monsters to vent to and perhaps, more people to interrogate.

Sting was having a weird day.


He had suddenly awoken up in the body of his ingame Avatar, Sting. At first he was confused, wondering why he was suddenly REALLY short. But after a little while, he had come to terms with it. He was stuck yah, and the log out button was missing. But hey, there were perks! He just had to figure them out!

As he wandered through the plains, he realized that walking was a difficult thing to do when you were shorter then most of the things out there. With a flutter, he suddenly remembered he had wings. Right. But it turned out that learning how to fly with a new piece of yourself was a lot harder then you might think, and he took more then a few falls trying to practice the whole action. But after a few hours, he finally had it figured out, and it was exhilarating. With a whoop, he takes off throughout the plains. Darting over the fields, a red blur to the area's green.

After wandering for a short while, Supra was greeted by a familiar voice. Rushing to his position was none other than ExeQT, a player he had encountered only a few times, mostly trolling his live streams and every now and then when he came into town. Normally she would have plenty of horny twelve year old boys flocking to her begging for cyber sex or a relationship. This was something that always confused him. Why bother paying for a subscription fee to stand around and try to date some girl you'll never meet? Plus, cute girls had no business on MMOs anyways. They're far too distracting.

"Well you must have something enlightening to say." Supra said as he was ready to about face and walk away. He saw however she was not alone however. Two other players remained behind as she ran over. Supra was still guild-less and perhaps grouping up would be the wise thing to do considering the incident in the fields earlier. He could always use a pocket healer in his party. The two exchanged pleasantries as if they were in game royalty (They might as well be.)

"These must be your friends huh?" He questioned as he approached the duo ExeQT was talking with earlier.

His expressions were as cold as the steel on his back. "Listen, Supra..." As she twirled one of her twin tails in her index finger, she tried to think of the best way to approach the situation. To be straight with him, or to attempt working her charm for his help? Oh what a notch in her digital bedpost he would be if she could manage to wrap him around her finger, but the idea sounded like a more difficult quest than Orion's Keeper. (And that was cringe worthy!)

"Something's wrong. We can't figure out how to sign out, please tell me you know what's going on. If you don't..." Irritably clicking her tongue against her teeth like a valley girl who just missed her five o'clock manicure, she whined. "... I'm like, gonna start freaking out over here." It was in that moment that the worry in her mind actually channeled right through her eyes up into his, her inner nerves ringing through.

"I'm sure you don't have time for us... but please, we need your help." Sure, these two behind her weren't exactly her friends, but right now there wasn't any time for enemies.

The server was such a joke. Everyone seemed afraid to tangle with any of the monsters or even move away from the quest-giving NPCs that were scattered around the area. Strangely (or is it logically?) enough, they still acted very mechanically, very much like their game selves which told Aegis that most everything seemed to be in order. It irked him quite a bit since it made the middle of the field very desolate, but by having many of the players clustered together, he could ask them questions wholesale.

"You there," he pointed to a blonde-haired wavemaster, "do you know of the Denizens of Ashgate?"

"I-I only know a little. They were taken down by the Axis of Anarchy a year ago or two," she stuttered, raising her staff, "please don't hurt me!"

"And?" he asked, urging the blonde to continue.

"What? How dare you talk to me like that? Ice burst!"

A shard of ice hit Aegis in the chest, causing the man behind the avatar to cringe but the woman on the outside merely walked forward and grabbed the poor soul, pushing her into a tree.

"Do you want to die?" he asked, "I asked you to continue."

Quickly a twin blade scrambled up to the pair, putting his hands up defensively before whispering to the mage. "Are you crazy Clara? That's Aegis, as in The Spirit of Revenge Aegis. She's been hunting down the Axis members for God knows how long and I'm not ready to see your ass in the hospital because this game's glitched out."

He turned back to Aegis with a weak smile. "Uh she didn't mean that. She just...slipped her hand. Right Clara?"

"Oh uh right!" she piped in, softly slapping her forehead, "I don't know what's up with me today!"

Aegis let go of Clara, stepping back. "So what do you know?"

"All I know is that the guild broke up six months ago (probably because of you), but some of the members are trying to reform what they used to have."

The longarm nodded and dashed away, noticing a red blur in the distance. Perhaps that person would know something too.

As the redhead began to cook Irena looked around and noticed QT veering toward a heavy blade. Supra? Was that really him? She had to squint for a second to make sure it wasn't some lookalike, but it was the real deal! Yes, he was one of those players that made a name for themselves through their famous guild raids. Kind of like a Challenger player. Sure there were others, but he was just one of the few that became famous. She could do that too...if she hadn't dumped her old account. Or well maybe not to Supra's level, but she considered herself up there with the best of them. Very few ever got to the level of the Legendary Four. They were the Balmung and Orca of the Glassedge world.

"How's that food coming along Kaito?" she asked, turning over to find him scratching the back of is head.

Not well it seemed.

"Well we could ask QT if we can pull her away from Supra long enough," she muttered as they approached the two.

"Say lady, what's your name? I still don't know yet!"

Hm how to answer that? She had forgotten that she discarded her old name and was the Glassedge equivalent of IreliaCarriesU. Should she just tell him to call her by her full username or be truthful?

"Rena. Just call me Rena."

As the two approached Cutie and her friend, the closer they got Kaito got a good look at her friends face, and he didn't look too pleased. Uh oh, we got a grouchy face over here Kaito thought. "Yo." Kaito said offering a friendly gesture. The other two looked over at this new man as if he was some kind of super hero, but Kaito had no idea who he was, maybe he was some famous player? "So from what it looks like, cooking food doesn't actually taste like food. But! I think i figured something out. Kaito pulled another apple from his big and took a big bite out of it before placing it in Cutie's hands. "Youh schee, cha ingredchientshh tashte like they acshtually shhould. Kaito then swallowed what was in his mouth. "Go ahead and give it a bite, it might be the last thing you can actually taste, but I have an idea, instead of opening the menu and just clicking a button like we did normally, what if we try cooking like we actually did in real life? I'm headed out into the fields to kill a few boars and collect a few ingredients, wanna come along? It's probably best if we stuck together. offering another friendly smile to Cutie and her friend.

As Kaito started walking towards the gate of the city it just hit him, what was combat like now? Sure he could just probably swing his weapon around like auto attack, but how does he use his moves? Does he have to perform them himself? Also what happens if we die? Do we die in real life? Kaito's train of though was broken as he reached the outside of Ashgate and was hit by a large gust of wind. Looking up and around the beautiful fields of Glassedge surrounded him everywhere. It all looked so real, it didn't look anything like this on his headset. The wind blowing, the sound of nearby farm animals, the smell of grass, the endless fields, this was all too much to take in. It took everything in him to stop himself from charging off into the fields out of excitement, as he remembered what happened the last time he ran, it only lead to some pain. "Yosh! Ikuzo!" Kaito started marching off into the fields and towards the area where weak monsters and such are usually found. Kaito only then realized he used Japanese rather than English, he's usually pretty good about using English instead of his main language but sometimes it just slips out, if anyone actually questioned it he'd give them the answer and probably apologize.