Author's Note - It came to light that my last chapter was really silly. How was I going to introduce a new character out of nowhere? That is why, I decided to delete it and continue Regalia Online with Keisuke and Shaw's parting. Anyway! Welcome to Playing With the Big Boys, Keisuke and Shaw have gone their own ways but what has happened afterwards now that the game has come alive?
Keisuke took in a deep breath of air filling his lungs and then exhaling softly. He opened his hands examining his palms and his digits. Everything felt so foreign, so real. He pressed his hand to his chest and could feel his own beating heart underneath the material of his tunic. Curling his finger into fists, he looked back over his shoulder at the distant figure of the Sleeping White Forest. In his mind he could see Shaw standing alone in the place that he had left him, his eyes wide and a heartbroken expression. The two of them had been friends and Keisuke just dropped him so quickly - and for a moment he regretted his decision. But there was something tugging in his chest telling him to move forward and not look back.
He swore to himself that he would come back to Shaw and Anna. But it would have to be at a latter time. Not now. There were questions that needed to be answered. This was just a game, but there were so many things telling him that it wasn't. For one - how could he hear his own heart beat? Another thing would be how did he die, shouldn't he have just revived? Why were monsters appearing in their wrong areas and what had happened to the game so far? He remembered how excited Anna was, how long she kept it a secret from him just to bring it to him now. With her over zealous ways, there was no way that she'd have made a mistake. Though Keisuke couldn't help but feel that something slipped in without Anna knowing.
A level twenty Orc showed up when he and Shaw were level one, and the Golden Knight had showed up when they were level five. Where were all these monsters coming from? They were out of their spawning patterns.
"Something is wrong," he muttered to himself.
Keisuke shook his head.
"I should go tell Anna and apologize to Shaw," he swiped his hand to open his character menu only to notice that it didn't open.
He blinked once and then twice. This was odd. He had heard stories of things like this happening in literature. Players being stuck in games, but this was foreign. He should be able to see his menu, maybe there was a glitch. Trying again and again, he couldn't summon his menu at all.
"This is weird. [LOG OUT!]"
He waited for something to happen, anything, and then the beating in his chest seemed so much louder. Keisuke put his hand to his chest once again and could feel the beating of his heart through his armor. A red hue began to surround his hand and he jerked his hand away quickly only to notice his HP gauge above his head. It displayed his HP as usual but instead of the customary red potion, it showed a picture of a heart. He turned his attention to his mana, and instead of a blue potion bottle, it showed the picture of a brain. Then finally his stamina showed the picture of a mouth with its tongue sticking out next to the gauge.
"What is this," he whispered.
"Welcome to [Regalia Online]," a familiar voice echoed to him.
