Jester turned as TESMEI spoke, looking for the person she had seen, although it appeared no one was there. He shrugged, turning back to her. "Miss TESMEI... I'm afraid I don't know. But if it was her, then I should say we might want to keep our eyes peeled. She's supposedly quite dangerous."
He pushed himself off of the stall, regaining his balance as he turned to walk back toward the Chaos Gate. "Shall we investigate?"
TESMEI continued to stare off in the direction of the bridge. She took a moment to think it over, then turned back toward her stand. After closing the shop, the Twin Blade nodded to her comrade and they would both run off toward the bridge.
________________________________________
On the forums, a commotion is being made over a new event. The thread speaks of a Steam Bike Race between players in an event that supposedly rivals those of the late R:2 generation.
Steam Pro Grand-Prix & Battle Royale?
New event is here! ~ SoranStar
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Can't wait for the event, I'll win for sure! ~ EdgeBlade
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What are the rules for the event? ~ Doug
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^ Please answer someone who knows. ~ Tomix
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1. All participants must have a Steam Bike either their own or access to one by someone else.
2. All participants must be partnered with another player.
3. Any player knocked off the Steam Bike is disqualified.
4. Although players must sign up and ride with another player, they can win even if on their own.
Hope that helped! ~ TESMEI
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What's the prize for winning? ~ EdgeBlade
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Hasn't been announced yet. ~ TESMEI
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Cool, anyone want to partner up? ~ Doug
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The rest of the thread seems to go on about people looking for teams.
_________________________________________
Raven and Scythe seem to have ignored the young Harvest Cleric. They instead continue their discussion. It seems to be both a mix of info about a group of 'hackers' and the upcoming Steam Bike event.
"What do you mean, you have to enter." Raven said, some what irritated at Scythe. The girl responded.
"It's too hot right now, The L.o.J. will be there without a doubt." Scythe turned and walked further into Net Slum. The further that they went, the further the truth of Net Slum became apparent. Raven gave quick pursuit after his teammate.
"We need to be there, in case the hackers strike." He was cut off before he quite finished saying the word strike.
"No, just one of us has to be there." Scythe continues, crossing her arms as she thought it over carefully. "If you participate, I can better watch for any hacker sabotage."
"So I'm the bait |:<..." Raven said with a greater sense of irritation. Scythe said nothing but simply nodded with a teasing smile. Raven let out a sigh.
The Adept Rogue had stopped. The moment he heard that this was a place he wasn't supposed to be he turned to walk toward a chaos gate. After locating one, he exited, moving back into his novice server, 'Delta'. He appears at the root town, 'Mac Anu'.
True Blade looked around for a moment-- he questioned if he even wanted to play anymore. He then took in a deep breath and went back to the Chaos Gate. He felt like doing something a little different this time. Instead of grinding, he would go to a dungeon and attempt to finish it.
He enters into the Chaos Gate and vanishes. Moments later he reappears within a forest. He swiftly unsheathes his sword to dodge fire from a Goblin Mage as he stumbles to regain his stance. He grits his teeth as he lets out a loud yell before rushing in, his blade ripping upward as multiple blades appear out of its edges, ripping into the goblin multiple times-- hitting it multiple times before tossing it into the air. He saw an opening before pushing off of the ground into the air with it, glowing brightly. Then, using the momentum from the last strike he lifts his blade upward, slicing across the Goblin Mage's chest, dealing multiple hits with a blue crescent wake before he brings his blade above his head and back down with another crescent wake, knocking the Goblin Mage down with multiple hits still striking it-- one of then knocking its HP down to 10% before the final hits knocks it down to Zero. True Blade lands down before pushing off of the ground with a rush.
He steps around the corner, stopping as he peers around. He spots a Goblin Guard, but it seems unaware of his presence. He sees this opportunity and rushes in for the kill. His stance lowers before he rushes in. His blade slams into the Goblin Guard's back and lifts it into the air--- multiple hits ripping into its back-- one of them causing its HP to drop to 10%-- only for True Blade to catch a Fire Ball from a Goblin Mage. He is knocked backward and stumbles, though he stabs his blade behind him to quickly regain his balance. The Goblin Guard falls to the ground, and attempts to get up, but True Blade groans and pushes off the ground, ripping his blade from the ground. He rushes along the ground; just as the Goblin Guard stands-- his blade rips upward, ripping into him multiple time, only to be caught by another Fire Ball-- but at this point, the Goblin Guard is dead. True Blade stumbles and circles around before he pushes off of his feet again-- his body is damaged, and would be more so if it wasn't for his item's special ability-- in which restores health to him whenever hit. He rushes to the side, dodging yet another fireball before the image of a tiger appears over his body, "TIGER BLITS!". The Tiger raises its claw and then lowers it with his blade as he strikes down into the Goblin Mage, his blades ripping into it repeatedly, dropping its HP to 10% repeatedly before the final hit drops it to 0. He breathes slowly, his health slowly restoring as he regains his stance and continues through the forest.
Shadow watched the other Adept Rogue's fight from atop a tree, finding himself somewhat impressed with the display. He waited, watching. He had decided that this could be a player worth observing for a moment, even if only to distract himself until something else came along. He shook off his daze, finding that the Adept Rogue had already stood, making his way deeper into the forest. Shadow raced silently along the treetops, watching the other's progress. He waited a moment, pondering, then dropped from a tree slightly behind the Adept Rogue.
"You're quite handy with those blades, aren't you? Quite good, indeed. But will it be good enough, I wonder? When the time comes, and fate calls you to action, will you prevail, or fall?"
Beneath the shadows of his hood, Shadow felt the edge of his lips curl into a smirk, cocking his head slightly to the side as he continued.
"Of course, the real question is: Do you even recognize your own potential, or are you relying strictly upon instinct? I wonder, given different cicumstances, if that little scuffle could have ended differently?"
Arsenic stopped short of the Chaos Gate, his eyes going blank as Kiryu removed his visor, the computer flashing and beeping incessantly that a new event had been announced. He smiled a bit, opening the BBS and clicking the link to the new post, his eyes lighting up as he saw the content.
A steam bike race? Sounds like something I could definitely use after the day I've just had... And I'm betting I'll run into just the people I'm looking for once I'm there...
He made a note of the event on his phone, setting an alarm to remind him 30 minutes beforehand so that he would have ample time to prepare. As he moved to minimize the window, he remembered the one rule that had previously held him up from entering these events in the past: The Partner Rule. He smirked, minimizing the BBS and returning the visor to its previous position over his eyes.
--------------------The World--------------------
Arsenic's eyes lit up yet again, as the PC turned, a newfound look of excitement crossing his face as he faced Hitomi again, walking back toward her. "Hitomi... How do you feel about a steam bike race...?"
He sat back in the center of the cathedral, awaiting her response as he surveyed the damage one last time, now certain that this could be just the distraction that they both needed to take their minds off of Scythe and the hackers, even if only for a bit.
The Adept Rogue seemed to effortlessly cut through the oncoming goblins. He was unaware that he was being watched-- he seemed to be experiencing 'tunnel vision', as he focused on one target at a time-- his Health and SP recovering naturally, and artificially through his equipment's special abilities.
("Why.. what is going on?"😉 He questioned himself as he sliced his blade down-- only to be blocked by a goblin shield-- but he pushes off the shield as his blades whirled around his edge like a chain-saw. He skidded before pushing toward the goblin-guard, hopping to the right as he dodges a twin pair of fireballs from the Goblin Mages to his right-- before rushing in on them, using the wide arc from his blade at such a close distance to cut into them both-- his blades hitting them multiple times within that first stroke, their HP instantly dropping to 10% within the first four hits, then down to Zero as his slash completes its circle. The Goblin Guard rushes in and bashes him with its shield, knocking him forward. He stumbles, and growls before whirling his blade in a circle, slicing into the Goblin Guard from the right side. The blades worked into it with its whirring blades, cutting its HP down to size before the rest of the slash could be finished to deliver the final blow. He then stops for a moment, his body glowing as his HP and SP is shown, recovered-- though not to its fullest.
("There's only one way to find out-- KEEP PUSHING FORWARD!) He continues to run forward, though a widened area begins to come into view. He blinks for a moment, confused as he stops. There is a single boulder with three goblin mages around it. The boulder shakes before it puts out two webbed feet-- then two more as a massive head bursts from the ground-- appearing to be a giant lizard. It lets out a bellowing roar as the ground is shaken.
"..OH COME ON!!" He stomps his right foot angrily as he lowers his stance, getting ready for battle. Beads of sweat lowered down the sides of his face as he looked at the boss. He had read about these, it was a Gigamouth. From his scans, it was level 15. 5 levels above him. The goblin mages were between level 11-13. He was alone, and he had to take on this thing by himself. Great.
Net Slum
Rhyme seen about enough of this city, she was not a hacker and felt she didn't belong which was fine because she didn't want to be grouped with a bunch of scrubs that had to cheat to be on equal ground with everyone else. The adept rouge made her way back to the chaos gate but passed Scythe and Raven, she glanced at the two with scowl but it was subtle, some how she felt that this would not be the last time she seen the two.
MacAnu
Rhyme stood on a bridge that went over the channel that ran through the city, she looked into the water and thought about what happened. "Maybe I should take a break..." she says to no one.
Real World
Joanna stood up and stretched and began walking around her room, it wasn't that big and it was pretty clean other then her desk which was littered with empty water bottles and monster cans. Jo jumped on her bed and stared up at the ceiling and drifts to sleep.
"Joanna... Joanna... Joanna..." A young girl whispers.
Joanna sits up quickly breathing hard and wipes the cold sweat from her brow, "Another nightmare...," she says softly. She rolls off her bed and sits back at her desk and slips on the visor the gets back in the game.
On the field
Rhyme warps in beside the chaos gate then runs off looking for her next victim. It doesn't take long to find a group of PKs surrounding another group of newbies, one by one they are cut down.
"Man this is just too easy," An edge punisher says to the other PKers making them all laugh. The harvest cleric on the ground was the only one still alive in the group of newbie friends. "Please this is the second time you guys PK'd us today just leave us alone we just started playing a couple days ago," she pleads. The PKers just laugh again, "sorry kid this world is just as harsh as the real one," the edge punisher says then raises his large sword over his head ready to strike down the harvest cleric. Just before the PKer could slice through the newbies health bar Rhyme falls upon the edge punisher with her own broad sword and the sound of a chain saw could be heard the she swings her large sword to the side of the other pk that was standing nearest dropping her hp to zero before she even noticed Rhyme.
VROOM VROOM VROOOOM!
The remaining two, a harvest cleric and a twin blade, look at each other confused then the twin blade steps forward. "Hey what the hell's problem!" He yells. Rhyme doesn't say anything but laughs, the twin blade responds with a growl, "you stupid *****, I'll kill you!" He yells before running toward the adept rouge. Rhyme's weapon disappeared in light then reaches behind her back, "you'll be daisy if you do," she says quoting her favorite movie. The twin blade swings his weapon at Rhyme but easily dodges, he then unleashes a flurry of attacks but again she dodges and it becomes apparent that she is toying with him.
"Well this is getting boring..."Rhyme says with a mock yawn. The rouge finally pulls out her duel blades and with her own flurry of strikes the twin blade drops with his hp nar. The harvest cleric tries to help his fellow pker but is far too late and he begins to run. Rhyme smiles and dashes after him and quickly catches up then slams her twin blades in his back and the lifeless pc falls to the ground. Rhyme looks down at the dead harvest cleric, "tell your friends to leave this area I'll be here all week," she says then walks back to the group of dead newbies and uses multiple revival potions and brought the newbies back. "You guys should be safe to level up now, I doubt those guys will be back anytime soon," she says then leaves after the group of newbies thank her.
Rhyme sits under a tree and looks out across the field and even though this was just a game it was pretty to look at.
Across the globe, screens suddenly become filled with static, wavering back and forth until the entirety of The World's player-populace is staring solely at static and fading graphics. After a moment or two, the screens cut very abruptly to solid black.
Kiryu tosses his visor across the room, a look of irritation now steadily growing into frustrated rage across his face. He takes a deep breath and attempts to log in again, though the servers seem to be down altogether.
"Guess I'd better check the boards?" He turns to his computer, furiously searching for a means of defining the cause and nature of the servers going down, although he can find nothing. After a moment or two, he resigns from his search, turning from the computer and grabbing a sketchpad and a few of his pens and pencils. "I suppose I should be working on that new project, anyway. Deadline is only two days away, and I still have a few pages to go... Kurosaki won't be happy if I'm late again..."
A moment or two pass, and he shakes his head, standing and walking to the kitchen to grab a bottle of rum, bringing it back into the media room with him. He didn't consider himself a heavy drinker, however he did tend to find it helped his focus when under the pressure of a deadline. He poured himself a glass, sitting back to enjoy it as he picked up his phone, checking his messages for the day.
I wonder if Mariko is going to be busy with the servers down...... Well, never hurts to check, I suppose. No doubt she's going to want a chance to debrief me on what happened with Scythe, anyway... He hesitated a moment as his thumb hovered over the contact entry, then shrugged, sending her a message to come by after work. As the message cleared through, he sat his phone down, taking another sip of the rum before returning to the manga he'd been working on. He shook his head, looking at the concept art for the main characters, and realizing that they all favored people he knew and their in-game counterparts. He smirked a bit, relocating the scrap to the back of his sketchpad, then starting a fresh set of art for the new storyline.
He scrawled a single title: "The Losers: Waiting for Daylight" across the top, then began writing out his characters, a brief summary of each accompanying the sketches so that he could easily separate them without confusion.
Katherine blinked as she was suddenly looking at black. Her lips twisted up slowly and she leaned back in her chair. She lifted her visor onto the top of her head, turned her right and typed in a few search words on the forums. Seems people were asking the same question she wanted to ask and yet no answers. Aww Poopie.. She pulled her visor off completly and set it on the desk. She spun around in her chair hard, pushing off her desk with her feet and rolling towards another desk and tv. she picks up the controller and turns the tv to watch the news. Nothing. Must not be anything major. Good to know the servers didnt just spontaneously explode. She pushed back to her desk and goes onto her computer, waiting for when someone posts the servers are up again.
Kisaragi leaned back in his chair, slightly perturbed at the servers for completely crashing. It was a rare thing for The World to crash, but he found that it was one of the few things that truly tried his patience. He sighed a bit, then stood from his chair, walking to his personal library and withdrawing an old binder from the shelf, its contents nearly pouring from the opening due to years of wear and tear. He smiled inwardly as he walked to his kitchen table, setting the binder on the table and donning his glasses before pulling out a glass and pouring himself some scotch and seating himself, beginning to read over his years' worth of research for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Rika will be joining the game soon, if what he's told me is accurate. I should be sure that I'm not too rusty on subject matter when I sit her down and run her through the basics...
He opened the binder, starting back at the top, an involuntary smile crossing his visage as a chill ran up his spine, upon reading the scrawling notes he had started taking over six years prior. "It all began with the Epitaph, and because of that, we have Emma Wielant to thank for The World..."
As her screen goes blank, her fist strikes the wall with a mighty yell that seems to shake the souls of those around her. How dare they!? Cried Yui. After a few moments of 'raging', the girl slid her visor off her head and laid it down on the desk before her. She was irritated of course, who wouldn't be after such a happening. She turned from her monitor and headed into the other room, the bathroom perhaps? The door was only partially open and a sink could be seen from the outside. Yui turned on the water and washed her hands beneath the cleansing stream. Aah... the feeling with nice and calming. She cupped her hands to take the water into it and shovel it to her face. The moist drops of liquid dripped from her skin, leaving a soft glimmer. She dried herself off with the towel beside her-- she used very gentle strokes of the towel, almost like dabbing it off. It spoke volumes of her personality. She turned from the bathroom with the towel over her shoulders, nearly around her neck like a scarf. Yui grabbed her cellphone and headed for the staircase that lead to the roof.
_____________________________
A big, big mistake, really huge, didn't anyone ever tell you? There's one thing you never put in a trap if you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow there's one thing you never ever put in a trap..... Me.
Jasper leaned back in his chair, his headset was off and he even turned off his hard-drive. He was watching the television, one of his favorite programs, while he was waiting for news about the online black out over his cell.
_____________________________
Makoto sat up from her chair, watching the screen having gone blank. After it shuts down completely, Makoto closed The World's running system so that she could have faster access to the online apps that she has saved onto her desktop. The girls desktop isn't too different from most peoples. It contains several apps on an almost cycling pin wheel where as she moves to choose one, the wheel turns to allow for it to show. A 3D showcase that makes for a much more enjoyable sight then the default setting for internet applications ten years ago. Without a word, she activates the forums link that she has on her desktop to bring up information.
The first thing that appears are ten new posted topics on the forums. Each dealing with different things and several being connected. Makoto notes one post as being about the Steam Bike Event and it's set date. Tomorrow. She waits to dive into discussion for that topic and instead looks at others. There are three directly discussing the black outs in The World, one in the unofficial forum page and another two in the rumors section. The one in the official details CC Corps apology for the problem and how it is nothing to be concerned about-- instructions state to simply wait until the client is back up and then log back in. On the rumors section however, there are two from players telling of something going on in The World. One speaks of how they believe the occurrence is thanks to the happenings of the Demon Palace Tournament and the 'Special Skill' witnessed by the current Palace Emperor. The other is wrapped around the idea of the hackers and it's the one that seems to be getting the more attention. Makoto begins to read through some of the posts...
The hackers are coming, the end is nigh, repent. It sounds like someone's trying to put a scare in people. Oh, here's another one. I saw a guy with gear I didn't recognize in Mac Anu, was he a hacker. Someone responded... I saw a girl like that too, they must be those hackers that we've been hearing about. This is getting bad, something needs to be done... Huh?
Makoto raised her head and looked at a new post that suddenly popped up. Help. "Help with what?" Makoto asked aloud. She clicked the topic and something came up. An image attached to it.
"Someone please help me! My friend Ash got attacked by some weird player who was commanding monsters! Look, I have a screen pic here! After they got killed, they went completely quiet and when I went to their house to check on them they were laying on the floor in a coma! Please someone help me!"
Almost the second Makoto completes reading the message, she hits a button on her computer and a screen pic of the entire post including the picture is captured. Half a second later, the post suddenly disappeared. Her eyes widened. "It's gone?" She turned quickly from the forums, moving to her mail system. She brought up the character, Jester, and attached the screen pic of the post she caught. Her eyes were trembling, she was either very scared or insanely excited. After makoto's message to jester was typed out, she hit the button. send. The message is sent.. Makoto drops back from her chair and falls onto her back on the ground, staring up at the ceiling.
"What's happening to My World...."
Mariko took it upon herself to handle the details for this. The event had several factors that combined both player personal events that players made and direct game events. The setting was a field created specifically for this event, or rather a combination of fields. This was where CyberConnect came in. They created the field for the event while the details of the event were taken care of by players. It was a joint operation that marked the beginning of a new age for The World. Mariko began working out the details. So long as she held the reins, she didn't care if a player was making the choices as she was the one who could choke them out. All the information for the event began to appear on the forums, a cut version of the full thing.
The map was a combination of several,
It begins in the desert field setting with all contestants. Each contestant must have a steam bike and no more or no less then two people. One person would drive the bike, the other would fight from it. When the race begins, all riders will take off through the desert field which leads with an almost direct path through several obstacles that should take no less then seven minutes to clear. While they ride, other players could work to attack and knock them from their bike or destroy them with PK Tactics. Once the player is off the bike, they're done however a player could continue if only one person is on the bike still. After exiting the desert fields, they would make their way into a forest field, one with trees and of course, traps. There would be obstacles here as well that require a bit of quick thinking, those who couldn't think fast enough would fail to clear the obstacle and either be killed by it or the players following behind them. This is a bit less straight forward as the trees are so close together that some fancy and quick maneuvering would have to take place, else they would meet their end from a high speed crash. After the forest area is cleared, they would enter a new frozen zone. This place would be covered in virtual ice and a path. This would make steering difficult for the driver and would most likely decrease the accuracy of the fighter on back. It would be the perfect place to either gain a lot of ground or take out the ground beneath them. The race completes in a dungeon like area. This is similar to the temples in which beast statues are found. Mariko found it to be an entertaining notion, that the prize for the race would be found in the same way that the prize for a dungeon would be found. This area however has few tricks other then it's narrow corridors, meaning that if any bulk of players made it here, they would quickly be taken out by the sheer quantity of others around them. The prize itself remains a mystery, with just one promise. A rare, never before seen, exclusive in-game item that no other player can or ever will have again... unless it is taken from them. The item thus goes up in value tremendously even before the information of what it is, is known. Players across the forums post offers for teams, trades, and other information to try and get the upperhand. With her job on this topic complete, Mariko hit send and let the players ignite in their hopes of winning.
Mariko herself backed away from her desk in her chair, taking a glass of liquor and taking a drink before looking out the window. I suppose I could try teaming up with Kiryu, she thought to herself. She turned back to the desk to continue her work, a bit irritated at the situation from that day.
Kiryu decided it best to work on his project another night, finding it hard to stop focusing on the blackout. He knew it was something that was common in online gaming, however he was having trouble shaking the thought that it might be something more serious than that. He loaded the forums, looking over some of the threads relating to it, though he found none of them helpful. In stead, he wandered over to the Event page to research a bit before he signed up for the race the next morning.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Kisaragi had nearly zoned entirely into his research when the computer buzzed in the other room, alerting him to a new message. He shook his head, standing and looking up at the clock as he wandered back to the other room. It was late. He would have to head to bed shortly, but he wanted to check out the message first. Sitting at his computer, he noticed that it was from TESMEI, and opened it to see what she had sent to him. As the image loaded, he raised an eyebrow, not entirely certain how this all came to happen. Coincidence? He hardly thought so. Several years back, he remembered something similar being reported, and The World being completely revamped after it was all sorted out. Could this be happening again? He silenced his theories within the back of his mind for the time being, and replied to TESMEI's message. We should keep an eye out for more like this, Miss TESMEI. And do be careful if you should ever deal with any of the hackers. Just in case they're somehow involved. Once it had sent, he shut off his computer for the evening, wandering off to his bed and lying down for the evening.
"Make sure that you sign in before you go to bed", Yui said over her cellphone to the recipient.
"Don't treat me like a kid, I know Yui.." Jasper replied.
Although the two were so far apart, they talked as if they were standing in front of each other. A habit grown from spending so much time together as allies on the fields of The World. Yui herself was outside of an apartment complex, sitting on a bench with a laptop on her legs. Her legs were crossed. She remembered thinking how childish Kiryu claimed she looked when she did stuff like that. Jasper on the other hand was in his room with the lights out, his computer having but two windows up. One was the update page for The World, informing players of how their services were temporarily offline. The other was the official and unofficial forums, which continued to gather more posts as time went on. Jasper's hand scrolled his cursor to the sign up list for the event. It listed him as Raven. He closed down the window and stood from his laptop.
"Yui-sama, what will you be doing while I'm riding?" At first his tone sounded casual, like one that an employee might make. The next minute however, it felt a hint of concern.
"Stop making fun of me," Yui seemed irritated. She knew that the way he said her name could be implied as a joke. He enjoyed teasing her about her nationality. She didn't take it as such however, she had other things on her mind. "I'll be doing what needs to be done of course." Her reply was not gentle. The moment it ended, she had hung up. Jasper had pulled his phone back to look at the disconnected number. He sighed, discarded his phone onto his desk, and then fell into the bed nearby. Idiot..
In front of her apartment, Yui continued to sit alone without giving much thought to her current feeling of exhaustion. She could fall asleep at any minute out here in the cold, vulnerable to the horrors of the waking world. Her eyes were weary. She looked at her laptop. She began skipping through videos and posts concerning the rumors of hackers and the attacks on players that sent them into a comatose state. She took hold of the top of her laptop and slowly closed it. Her eyes closed with it. Yui fell back on the bench and seemed to drift off into a dream like state...
"Where are you going?" The setting of an old version of Mac Anu, from the World R:1. Yui stood there, quite different looking from the real her or her new avatar. She wore light blue armor and cloth that came down in strips, hanging off her body. Her hair was green and in several long tails. She looked at a renegade fighter. The man was in leather gear. His blades were concealed at his waist. He gave a look back at her with a smile.
"I'm going to log out for the day." He replied to her.
"What are you, stupid?" Yui replied with a look of irritation. She walked up and poked his cheek. "If you don't spend more time on the game, you'll fall behind. I've already got 10 levels up on you."
"Yui..." The male looked at her. His staring drew a red flush from her cheeks. She began shaking her head with tightly closed eyes before stepping forward and shouting at him."
"Fine! But tomorrow... You take me out!" She pointed at him, declaring. "Nothing cheap and.. I expect you to make up for the level difference!" After a few seconds of thought, the man stepped forward and took her by the shoulders, kissing her on the cheek. He left her hazed and embarrassed.
"I'll pick you up tomorrow then after school, Yu-i-chan." The man logged out before her and she closed her eyes, shaking her head more and holding onto her cheeks. He clearly got to her.
Yui's eyes opened and looked up at the sky. She felt her hot cheeks. "B.. Baka.." She stood up from the bench and grabbed her laptop. Yui walked into the complex, tired. She was a little afraid to go to sleep. The longer she slept, the more levels she lost. What if the servers came back online before she was awake? "Ehh!" She knew she couldn't think about things like that. "When I wake up... I'll make up for it by power leveling, before the event starts."
Real world
Joanna's computer goes black suddenly leaving the gamer a bit confused and ticked off. She slams her fingers on the keys the picks up her keyboard and and pretends to slam it into her monitor. "Ah well, I guess I'll just start a bit early," she says calmly placing the keyboard down.
Joanna changes into a jogging suit and began stretch and worm up preparing for a light jog before heading out to the club, "looking this awesome takes work," she says with a wink at her mirror.
After about an hour Joanna returns to her room in a hurry, she was longer then expected so she would have to get ready fast. The girl quickly throws on her club'n outfit and is out the door with her equipment.
After a long night of "work" Joanna stumbles into her room ready to collapse, however, she had a case of energy drinks and was ready to play the games. As a Ex med student she knew this was a bit self-destructive but as a young adult living on her own with an addiction to The World, she says...meh. Joanna sets the case on her desk and notices a letter from her father, she picks it and examines it before opening it and found a very short note and a very large check.
Joanna,
Writing to say happy birthday and I miss you, anyways hope you find something you really like.
-Sincerely yours,
Dad.
Dictated but not read.
"Well at least he's closer to my birthday then last year," she looks at the check and wiggles her eye brows before adding, "Japan here I come."
Kiryu yawned, the screen starting to fade and his vision doubling. He closed his eyes a moment, a frustrated frown crossing his face as he reached for a pair of glasses in the corner. He rarely wore them, although they had been prescribed to him years ago. In his view, they were more an irritant than a help. However, as of late his late-night sessions at the iluminated screen had come to strain his vision a bit more, leading him to rely moreso on them. As he slid the frames into place, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, returning to his research. He was hoping he could convince Mariko to participate in the event, as he peered over the details again. It looked like the sort of thing that might take her mind off of hunting Scythe. As much as he wanted the girl caught and questioed, a small part of him wanted Mariko not to find her. He knew Yui's whole life was the World, and that she knew more about what happened within its bounds than anyone else, even CC Corp. No, if anyone would be interrogating her, he would be the one to do so. He wanted answers... And he wanted this group of hackers brought down. Even if it meant he would have to swalow his pride and interrogate her for information, rather than figure it out himself. Alright... I need to sleep. There's nothing more I can do today. One more drink and I'll lay down for the night. He stood, wandering to the kitchen for a glass and a bottle of whiskey, pouring himself a drink and succumbing to the urge to smoke a cigarette along with it. He'd done well slowing down and damn near quitting... But today had strained him to the point of breaking his own willpower and having thi one. He decided to take it out to the back deck, rather than smoke in the house, knowing wel what would happen if Mariko made it over and smelled the lingering scent before he could eliminate it.
With a new day starting for most of the world, things begin calm, for most.
In the real world, the skies are clear over most parts. Europe seems to be suffering from some storms but that doesn't keep many players of The World from risking their lives by logging into the 'The World'. The servers appear to be well stabilized now after an all-nighter by CC Corp and several volunteers. With the game back up and running, people begin to make their way to their designated zones for merchandizing, pking, training, quests, or the event. The event won't be starting until later that day in a few hours, but the participants won't be able to stay away for too long. The area words; "(Delta) Graceful Swift Fast-Horse". The area is a mixture of other areas, one that moves in a course. The players would begin to awaken and prepare for their day.