The Lime Green Sword

Chapter Three

I thought it was a good idea to try and complete the game. The game wasn't very big, and once we completed it we would be able to get back. I knew I would have no troubles, I had a lot of game experience, Richard and Elsie both looked capable as well. They probably both played games a lot.
But Casey was an issue, she wasn't very good on her feet. If we did try to complete the game I would need to watch out for her.

Casey smiled at me, "What are you thinking Kin?"
"Nothing" I said, "What do you guys think about trying to complete this game?" Richard and Elsie stared back at me.

"I guess we'll do it, I mean we came all the way here so we may as well challenge ourselves right?" Elsie nodded and looked at me with confidence, "We'll do it, but how about her?" She pointed to Casey.

Casey was lying on the floor moving her legs like an upside down bicycle in a yoga position. "I don't want to play" she said, "I'm tired, I'll just wait for the game to solve itself."

"So you're going to wait here?" Elsie said, "You're going to be all alone you know" It would be a lot more fun with Casey, even if it were just for a few hours till we completed the game.

"I think she's scared" Richard said, "This game is extremely realistic, the fights happen right in front of you, that might make it difficult"

"I'm not scared" Casey glared at us, she stopped her kicking and rolled over. "I don't really want to, but I'll come with you only if it's faster to get us out"

"Don't worry Casey" Richard said, "I'll be here to help you out." Casey looked at Richard and smiled, it was her first time in this game, it was normal to be afraid.

"Thank you Richard, you're so sweet." She stood up and wielded her weapon in her belt then grinned, "Alright everyone let's go, I'm ready"

This game was about leveling up, each player started at level 1 then gradually progressed up the levels as they gained experience. To win the game you had to reach level 10, but your levels were reset to 1 if you died.

We left the spawning town and moved to some creatures right outside the area. They were level 0 creatures used for training, if we defeated five of them we would move on to the next level. Then we needed to defeat five level 1 creatures, and the cycle became progressively harder.

The four of us stood in a line, we attacked the monsters easily and defeated them, they turned into little silver sparkles of glitter that dissipated into the air. I attacked first, followed by Richard, then Elsie, by this time the creature was weakened and Casey made the last hit. The experience for defeating the monster was shared equally among us, so we decided to do it this way. Casey cheered whenever she slashed a creature and it disappeared into those sparkles, she really loved it.

At this point I guessed that most of the other players were also trying to complete the game, I had no idea what was happening outside of our group of friends.

An hour later we wandered back to the spawning area to see if there was any progress. Richard and Casey both had things to do in the real world and were getting bored here, they wanted to leave.

There were far fewer people standing in the area now, about half of them had gone to level up like we were, the players left behind were either the lazy ones who couldn't be bothered, or those who were upset. Warren was dealing with these players, trying to make them wait. I felt sorry for him, it wasn't even his fault for this delay, but he was the one getting blamed for it because he was the only one in contact with the outside world.

Warren broke out from the players he was talking to and spoke in a loud voice. "Okay everyone, we just got an update from the administrators, they say that they will be able to solve the glitch in the system, but they will have to install a new update into the game first."

I didn't know about this new update, but Casey seemed afraid.

"Does it mean that this world is going to change?" she said. Elsie comforted her by rubbing her hair.

"Don't worry, this game is well managed by the administrators, they know what is going on and they will solve it." She checked the game time, "It has only been about thirty minutes since the glitch happened and they're already dealing with it"

I was curious though, why were they installing an update for a game that was supposedly complete? What problems would the update solve?

Warren continued speaking over the noisy crowd, "When the update kicks in, you will experience the original environment of the game until it finishes loading, it will last about five minutes so don't worry"

Soon after he said it, Warren nodded to the chat he was having with the administrators and then closed the window. He then looked to us, "Okay everyone, the update is going to kick in now"

We all made a circle, I held on to Casey and Richard, and they held on to Elsie. But the feeling in my hands disappeared after a few seconds, and before I noticed it there was no one around me. The world looked exactly the same, and the sun was shining above us with clouds circulating, but there were no other players. Richard, Elsie and Casey were gone.

I knew it was just the update, they isolated each player to be able to update the system properly, but still, it felt a bit lonely. I didn't want to stay here like this.

I remembered Warren saying it would last five minutes, but it seemed to last a lot longer, there was no sense of time, the clouds were moving, and wind blew through the grass, but there was nothing happening. I was all by myself here in this world.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax. I hoped that when I opened them I would be back at home at the dinner table and this was all a long dream. But when I opened my eyes, it was still the same, the world around me stretched on for miles and miles and there was no one else.

Finally, before I knew it I felt sensation in my hands, and then I was holding hands, I looked around and saw other players, and Richard and Casey looking around.

Casey burst into tears. "I was so scared" she said, "There was no one else around me, I tried running but it didn't go anywhere" Elsie held her and tried whispering something.

But I was fixated on something else. I had played this game before, but I had never noticed these new stats in my window.

"Diamonds held - 4, Players conquered - 0"

Richard had noticed it before I did. "The game had completely changed" he said, "What is all of this?"

Other players around us were also mesmerised, they opened and closed their stat windows to try and figure it out.

Then Warren stood up to talk, he still had contact with the administrators so he knew all of the details, "The game has changed" he said

Yes it had, just a bit...