The Adventures of Fontur

Prolouge

Present Day Tokyo Japan…

[Reporter: The sky is filled with dark gray storm clouds with a saver chance of lightning and flooding, it’s advised that you stay indoors and wait for the storm to calm down.]

The reporters’ words start to fade

[Aresu: Welp, it looks like I’m going to allocate another day inside to myself like usual…]

He lets out a sigh and stretches his arms behind his head one after another, each making a crumbling sound almost as though you're gently crushing a bell pepper in your hands.

[Aresu: That felt…]

He lets out a prolonged and loud yawn

[Aresu: Satisfying… Anyways, it’s a good thing that work is being canceled, I’d hate trying to commute in such harsh weather.]

Aresu is currently a man around his mid-twenties (twenty-four) who works in the cyber security field for a company known as Anzen. He wears a shirt saying “world best” with loads of zeroes and ones, a comical joke for those who understand binary, and rocks a clean shaved face with his hair nicely combed over, excluding a single portion that kind of curls downwards towards his right eye.

[Aresu: Guess I might as well log onto Forntur and see if my comrades are willing to run one of the raid bosses. Let's see here… I believe I'm currently about to face Zorgoth the Vile who specializes in close-range. Shouldn’t be too tough so long as I have my one ranged buddy with me. Oooh, the drop rate for the loot is low tho… damn, might need to run it a few times. I am, however, getting a bit peckish at the moment, aren’t you as well Meowlith… my little cutie kitty. It’s about time for you to be fed.

[Mewolith: Meow… purr… purr… purr]

[Aresu: One sec my little one, let me grab you a bite and make myself some ramen, then I guess I'll log onto Fontur and see who’s online.

Forntur is a popular online MMO-RPG game that consists of magic, swords, and guns. The player's overall experience depends on the roads and routes of the skill trees they upgrade for whatever type of build their goal is; for example, a marksman who specializes in ranged accuracy, a pirate who specializes in close range agility based attacks, or a tank who likes to fight up close and personal while absorbing hit after hit for the team. As for the overall goal of the game, it's to complete as many quests as possible to become the strongest, though there is a final boss for those who think they are worthy… the Dark Dragon, he who sits atop the peak of Cliffnotes in the center of Ravanos Island, the land of the demons. As of now, the only ones to have killed the Dark Dragon were the Steelmanes, a group that consists of only the game devs in order to test each of the mechanics and ensure a fair and even fight. Besides them, those who set foot on the Island either get destroyed immediately by the high-level monsters or fail to make it halfway up the peak.

Aresu goes over to the stove to start boiling some water while Meowlith eats away at his cat food. Once the stove flame is lit, he heads back through the clutter of clothes on the floor to reach his computer so he can log onto Fontur. Just as the game starts to load, a catchy and memorable theme starts to play. Following the theme’s end, a loud crack of lightning screams outside the window while the howling wind picks up the pace, almost as though it's trying to compete with the speed of a cheetah.

[Aresu: Damn these storms getting restless. Anyways, let’s see who’s on. Looks like John and Serenia are online, though they’re currently busy fighting Korahn, the boss in the caverns. By all means good luck you two, I’ve struggled enough fighting that asshole on multiple fronts just to achieve his weapon and armor set, gata say, was NOT an enjoyable experience. I would help them, but I’ve got other things on my plate... hang on a moment, what's this…]

As Aresu searches through his friend’s list, he receives an unknown and random message from a guy named ??? who is apparently under his list of “Friends” and  “Recently Played With” tab.

[???: “Enjoying yourself today, or would you rather like to spice things up a bit? Who knows, it might even make the game experience even better than ever before?”]

[Aresu: Who the heck is this? I don’t remember ever friending a guy named ???, let alone playing with him… hang on a second, weren't? unavailable for us to use in our Gamertags since special characters weren’t allowed? How does this man have them? Guess I’ll respond, I don't want to seem like an asshole, plus I want to figure out what he wants and who he even is. Honestly, It might be Joey playing another prank on me, like last time when he faked a social media account of a cute girl I liked. Fucking Joey; love the man to hell but that was a bit too low, even for him. “Who are you? Are you Joey or some random person who hacked my account and is messing around with me?”]

[???: “Let’s just say I’m someone who likes to spice things up a bit for others; to make things more enjoyable. Now, are you going to continue playing this same boring game or perhaps delve into the unknown with a more intriguing “realistic’ version of the game? One where things look almost as they’re lifelike, in fact, you probably couldn’t even tell the difference between the normal and game world.”]

[Aresu: You know what, not a lot of friends are online at the moment, so I might as well mess around with this software on my alt account I haven't played on yet to see how “realistic” this version of his is. Sure, I’ll try this ver-]

A random voice speaks to Aresu, almost as though he was standing right in front of him.

[???: “Pleasure doin’ business with ya. Perhaps will meet in the future”]

[Aresu: Wait what? Where the hell did that voice come from, I never even sent the message.]

After that reply, Aresu, all of a sudden, starts to feel the drowsiness of his eyelids. He feels the weight in his hands, his arms, and his legs start to get heavier and heavier, almost to the point that he’s being pulled to the center of the earth. It feels as though he worked a very long and hard day and just needs the long-awaited rest, one that matters not of the location, but just rest. Calm, peaceful, relaxful, beautiful rest.

[Aresu: Wait a moment, what the hell… do… you… mea… n…]

And with that, he collapses to the floor in cold sleep, almost as though his body was put into a trance. Meowlith, on the other hand, just finished his meal and glanced over at his master who suddenly crashed to the floor. Being a loving companion, she heads over to her master's side to headbutt him, almost like she’s pleading for him to wake up.

After the strange collapse, the lighting from outside starts to go haywire, flashes gleam all over the city of Toko. The storm's pace grows with excitement as you hear the rain fall heavier and heavier. After some time, a bolt of lightning strikes down arcing towards the boiling pot of water that had just now started to spill upon the floor. This causes Aresus' roof to explode into a roaring flame of beauty that, from a distance, could look almost memorizing. Straight after this, more streaks of lighting start to strike near Aresu’s body, slightly missing his flesh, tho, you could smell the burnt hairs from his body throughout the house. Meowlith, by his master's side, starts to run around in a panic not knowing what she should do until her form starts to take that of a human. She grows a pair of legs and arms while letting out one of the most scrutinizing loud meows a cat could make, almost as though someone was torturing the poor animal. Just as this is happening, a beam of light strikes both Aresu and Meowlith as they slowly float towards the dark and gloomy sky. Within a matter of seconds, both Meowlith and Aresu vanish from the storm that enocompasses Tokoyo, but just before they disappear, a faint sound could be heard throughout the night.

[Mewolith: Meowster…]

Firefighters and police quickly rush to the scene of flames, but to no avail. The raging fire consumed all in its path leaving no traces of either Aresu or Mewolith. By the break of dawn, the storm starts to settle, but at what costs All those who used to know of Aresu, including his family, have now simply forgotten him, almost as though he was a mirage, someone who was never truly there.

~End Prologue~