Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Individualism

There was a blinding light as she stepped through the door in front of her, and she covered her eyes with one arm as she exited the empty cabin.

It took a long while before she could see again, and by the time her sight returned, she was immediately greeted by two very obvious things.

The first was a very large set of notifications directly in front of her.

[Main Quest: Tutorial completed!]

[Reached Level 2!]

The second was that she’d emerged into a rather expansive, open plaza area.

Or rather, what would have been open.

As it stood now, it was completely packed from end to end, a steady stream of characters, presumably other new players like her, pouring out of a number of perfectly similar stone gates. An unending cavalcade of burly dwarves, spindly elves, stout orcs, and an almost unreasonable number of simple humans of all shapes and sizes.

She stood there stunned by the immediate shift from being entirely alone for many long hours (a sentiment Silk assuredly disagreed with, as they nibbled harmlessly at one of her tall ears in protest), to being completely lost in an ocean of bodies that grew larger by the moment.

It was launch day after all… it shouldn’t be surprising that today would have such a massive influx of other people like her. Even the existing players from the beta had been forced to start over with a new character from scratch, and would be coming out of the tutorial the same as anyone else.

Monica spent a while wandering about, taking in the sights and checking through her menus idly.

The town was named Keystone according to her world map, and she could tell why. Most of the town seemed to be hewn from raw stone, from the ground below her feet, to the massive gates she’d emerged from, most of the buildings, and the tall walls surrounding the town as well. It felt a bit like being in a quarry, the same rock faces staring back at her as she explored.

She’d also peeked into her status screen, checking what all had changed with her level up. Her stats had increased a few points here and there, her MAG jumping up by 4 whole points points while her MP, WIS, AGI, and LUC all touted more modest boosts. The rest all remained totally unchanged, including her insultingly low STR stat.

Wonderful. She was going to be stuck being unable to inflict damage for a long while longer, it seemed.

There also seemed to be a spot listing the skill points she’d amassed, including the extra 3 she’d gotten from the release bonus, but upon trying to do anything with them, she was just met with a message that they could only be spent at skill stores. She made a mental note to find one of those later.

With no new main quests automatically unlocking after she’d entered town, the fox had decided to simply spend time seeing the entire town, making sure every inch of it was recorded on her ingame map for later.

The shopping districts were massive as she wanders. Blacksmiths advertised swords and armor in the windows, apothecaries offered an array of potions and poisons both, tailors hung up beautiful robes and light armors, and quiet libraries offered tomes and staves for the magically inclined.

Assorted NPCs also littered the area and manned the shops, all much more generic looking than the other players she’d spotted, and clearly digital as they simply repeated programmed lines over and over every few seconds, usually asking players to visit their stores.

NPCs however were by far less common than players everywhere she looked however. She’d expected the crowds to thin somewhat after leaving the plaza…

A hesitant tap on her shoulder shocked her, jumping a bit as she turned around quickly, not expecting anyone to suddenly reach out to her.

“Y-Yes…?’ Monica asked, turning to find what appeared to be a human Ranger behind her, a bow hung over one arm and a quiver over the other.

“Oh… Oh! I was right, you were another player!” The unnamed archer smiled like an excited schoolboy. “U-Um… could you tell me how you…?”

“…? What do you-”

Oh.

It suddenly dawned on her.

In an endless sea of players all adorned in the same starting gear and basic races, she was the single face among hundreds, maybe even thousands, touting a pair of fluffy ears tall enough to add almost half a foot to her height as they peeked out from under her wide hat, and a pair of long tails that swooshed with each step.

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And if that wasn’t enough, she hadn’t spotted anyone else carrying a giant spider on their shoulder, Silk confusedly glancing at the man who’d stopped her.

“O-Oh, this is just-”

The archer was shoved aside as another player pushed forward.

“Is that spider a special quest reward?!”

“How do I get a tail like you?!”

“Hey are you a dev or something??”

“You’re so cute, tell me how to look like you!!!”

The poor Ranger that had been the one brave enough to break the seal, and players were now swarming her like she was a boss fight as she was practically buried under an assault of curious, jealous, and determined other players, the swarm only getting more aggressive every subsequent second.

She’d been right to assume the areas outside the main plaza were in fact much more empty… until now.

However, what she’d not understood until now was the reason they were now full.

A player on an unknown race, carrying a monster, had emerged into a group of every single player who’d begun today, and with no new main quest given after the tutorial, they had all decided she was their new objective.

Uh oh.

“N-N-Now, every quiet, quiet! I-I can explain, just calm down, please!”

As she finally spoke up, the crowd thinned just a bit, giving her room to stand up again finally, dusting herself off and recovering a thoroughly frazzled Silk from the floor, all eight of their eyes spinning from almost being flattened, which would have been the second most embarrassing way they died today.

The other players stared at her, completely focused on her, like she was presenting for football stadium’s worth of people. This was every nightmare she’d ever had at once.

“Now then… this is, er, very detailed, so you’ll all want to take notes, alright?”

A few players looked at each other, confused, but slowly the light of them all opening their ingame journals lit up, semi-transparent blue screens filling the packed street as they stared intently at them, ready to write down every last word, like she was assigning them some quest of cosmic importance.

“Right then! Now, for the first step, and this is very important, so make sure you get this part written down!”

They leaned in closer, brows sweating a bit from excitement and tension, hanging on to hear the secrets of this mystery kitsune.

Silence…

A heavy weight hung over the area, no one daring to speak up over whatever it was she was going to say.

Someone gulped, the sound almost deafening in the tension.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptap-

One player eventually looked up from their empty notes screen, confused as to what was taking her so long.

And was greeted with the sight of a kitsune from behind, lugging a spiderling, fleeing the area and rounding a corner in a dead sprint as the horde of players had been successfully stunlocked behind her.

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