Game V.S. Gamer (A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story) *ON HOLD*

Chapter 2: Entrance

(y/n) shook her head defiantly as she turned back and looked the mysterious person she had never met before today. "We don't have time for that, Karin. For all we know, (bf/n) might not make it by the time the ambulance get here!"
"Y-Yeah, but still! I don't trust this! Not at all!" the raven-haired teen retorted.
"I agree with you, Karin. But (y/n) still has a good point. We don't really know what all happened here..." Emmet said with an even tone of voice, trying to keep himself and his friends calm in this trying time of confusion.
"Look, I can't really give you all the details, since we don't really want to cause any panic..." Kent began, then was quickly cut off by his younger co-worker.
"It's a bit late for that now... Point is, you need to get into the game and finish it with your friend, (bf/n) in your party. We can't safely close the game before the demo is completed from the outside, so we need your help," the strawberry-haired teen responded in a serious tone.
"If it's really needed, we can always lend you some help from our end," the middle-aged programmer spoke, stepping forward and adjusting his black-rimmed glasses so they set better in front of his hazel eyes. He then continued, jotting a few things down on a clipboard as he did so, "Although it is technically unsafe for the neXus to be shut down or paused at this point, Leila and I can easily manipulate the gaming mechanics for simple things like item generation and the passage of time."
"Dude, wait! You're talking cheat codes already?! I'm just starting the game! Is this demo really that difficult?!" (y/n) asked, her voice wavering slightly as she realized that for the first time in her entire life, she was actually doing heavy thinking before doing what she did best.
The three programmers all huddled up breifly, muttering several technical phrases and large words that could only come from the sacred language of well-educated nerds... Geek Speak. (y/n), Karin, and Emmet all stared awkwardly at them, trying their absolute hardest to understand what all was going on in their conversation. As predicted, they came up short and quickly gave up, settling for gathering in a private conversation of their own and trying to anticipate what would happen and how they were to go about saving (bf/n). Several minutes into the conversation, the older teens all came to silent agreement about whatever they were debating over, glancing at the three high schoolers standing nearby. Perhaps they could manage to make it through the game and find their friend. After all, (y/n) was the Gaming Goddess of (y/t). Surely something such as this was more than chance? Yes. It must have been destiny...!
"Alright. We don't have much time!" Leila decided, swiftly making her way to the other soon-to-be gamers and drawing them from their own conversation, "We need to get you synced with the program..."
"Who's going first? We need to be as efficient as possible!" Kent agreed, getting some spare wires and such and attaching them to the medium-sized machine as he spoke. "Hey, Marco. Do we have any more visors in that box over there?"
"We do have more visors, Kent," the dark-haired one with the glasses calmly responded, pointing to another box nearby as he continued, "But they're in that box..."
"Are you always this scatterbrained?" Karin questioned, crossing her arms. "Because if that's the case, I'm starting to wonder if calling the ambulance wouldn't be a better idea..."
"Hey, I could care less if he's like this all the time. If it means he has the smarts to help us through the demo, I'm perfectly okay with him..." (y/n) stated, a slight smirk on her face as she began to get into her 'gaming mode', that part in her persona where even the angriest of parents could never pry her away from her gaming console. "Whenever you're ready, I'll go first."
Immediately, the entire atrium became silent. You should know that I'm not talking 'pause-for-dramatic-effect' silence, here. I'm actually talking about the rarely-mentioned 'oh-my-gosh-did-she-really-say-what-I-think-she-just-said' or quite possibly the kind of 'it's-so-quiet-I-can-actually-hear-the-a/c-running' silence. Yeah, it was that bad. Apperantly, none of the people present were anticipating that (y/n) would step up to the plate so quickly, and, truth be told, she was mildly suprised the words had even come from her own mouth. Karin and Emmet both stared at (y/n), jaws slack as they found it just about impossible to process the information they had recently recieved any faster than half a word for every second that passed. She resisted the urge to burst out laughing at the sight, knowing that what could happen next might possibly change the rest of her life.
"Are you sure? I already have the second player adaptor plugged in, if you're really ready, that is..." Kent responded in a somber tone, not allowing himself to make eye contact with her for whatever reason as he spoke.
"Yeah. Send me. If there's anything else you'd like to tell me...Anything USEFUL..." (y/n) trailed off, taking her seat in one of the silver chairs near the neXus game console as she calmly continued, "Now would be the perfect time to let me know."
Leila sighed as she stooped down behind the young gamer, begining to adjust the wires and place them on her body, her voice barely audible, as though what she was about to say could quite possibly ruin the mission, should anyone else be within earshot. "What we're going to do is send you into the game. And I mean all three of you. The multiplayer setting hasn't been finished yet, but you knew that already, right?"
(y/n) silently nodded, bringing her left hand up to move a stray hair from her face, then putting on the blue-tinted visor over her eyes as she patiently waited for the rest of the explanation.
"One of the technical problems we're having with the multiplayer capability is that players are unable to respawn or resurrect themselves. This means that you only have one life in this game, much like your friend, (bf/n). None of us are quite sure what happens to players without the use of multiple lives... Are you still willing to-?"
"Save your breath and just get me in there already! I don't know how long we have to game!" the headstrong teen snapped back, her eyes flashing with breif anger at the idea of having to wait an extra few seconds while one of her closest friends were facing the possibility of imminent danger.
Marco began booting up the multiplayer option on his master tablet, glancing down at (y/n) through his glasses. Although he was unable to make things any easier during the final battle for her and her friends in the world he had helped create, he took it upon himself to manipulate the passage of time within the game via a separate menu. When he had completed the alteration of the code by changing the sequence of several key numbers, he sat back in his chair and sighed heavily, knowing he had done what was physically possible on his end. "Alright. Kent, are you ready?"
"Yep. Second Player will be synced in three... two..."
Immediately, (y/n) felt a slight zap of electricity course through her body, her (e/c) eyes widening slightly in mild suprise before her vision went dark and she passed out.
~~
For the longest time she waited in the darkness before she managed to regain strength enough to open her eyes and take in her new surroundings. Strangely enough, she couldn't recall how she got there, nor could she sit up and get a better look around. Of course, (y/n) didn't particularly mind. At the very least, she was grateful for the quiet white room she was laying in the middle of. It gave her a chance to think without worrying about the other people who were trying to constantly give her advice about what to do. Closing her eyes, she thought intently about what had happened earlier (or what she could remember of it, at least).
As she allowed her body to relax and continued wondering about the three mysterious people she had met, and what became of her three friends, Karin, Emmet, and (bf/n), she failed to notice something important. Although the upper half of her body was perfectly fine, if she would have taken the time to sit up and glance farther down, she would have seen that the entire portion from her waist down was only half-formed. Several dozen transperant green numbers and letters circled quickly around the lengthy stretch of data that would soon take on the appearance of bone, muscle, flesh, blood, and clothing in the space of her legs and feet, the young gamer (y/n) not knowing that every detail of her mind - desire, memories, strategic abilities, personality... everything - was being transferred into the gaming world and given a physical form. In essence, she literally WAS inside Fate of Heroes - Crystal Destiny.
Not too much later, (y/n) snapped her (e/c) eyes open and sat up in alarm. There was some kind of strange noise nearby, and she needed to know what had caused it. Upon looking around, she found that the walls were made up like some sort of touchscreen. Clearly, this place had a similar kind of technology to whatever area she had previously come from, and there was a chance said technology could still be operational. A slight smile came onto her face as she slowly got up to her feet, brushing off her pants legs and stretching a bit before approaching the wall. When she had stopped right in front and was about to tap the power icon in the center, the entire room revved to life with various holographic displays and text boxes appearing around where she was presently standing. What in the world is this place? And what am I supposed to do here?
After quickly skimming several other seemingly meaningless pieces of information, she came across a paragraph mentioning something about 'choosing a class'. At first, she was slightly confused, when suddenly her memories kicked in and she recalled several games she had used to play in the past. "Oh, I get it! I'm supposed to pick what type of character I wanna be!" she stated, thinking aloud, "Each of the six I've got, here... Swordsman, Archer, Magi, Brawler, Theif, Beast Tamer, and Twin Blade... all have different strengths and weaknesses, and I need to pick whichever one I work best with so I can move on!" With this 'new' information at her disposal, she was quickly able to make sense of the images and text she would have otherwise dismissed.
According to what she had seen, she learned much about each character class and how best they could be used. Archers had a high accuracy rating, and due to their long-ranged weapon type, they could easily snipe their opponents without getting directly involved in combat. Brawlers had high strength and fought with their fists, so were usually the best suited for close-quarters fighting. Theives had high stealth and dexterity, so were ideal for swiping weapons or money when your party was low on either, and also could disarm traps faster than other class types. Twin Blades were pretty lethal, having high speed and two deadly knives or short swords as they could easily ambush several unsuspecting players. Beast Tamers were difficult to use, mainly because their stats were somewhat mediocre and taming monsters became harder to do as they leveled up, but in exchange, they could use various combinations of monster types to single-handedly carry out a mission while sustaining practically no damage. Magi were interesting in that they had high observation skills and very high Mana Points right from the start, and they could learn offensive, defensive, and support spells of whatever level they wanted, so long as they had enough space in their spellbook to hold them and enough Mana to cast with. However, Sword-weilders were always the most well-rounded of the adventuring classes as far as (y/n) was concerned, since they carried high stats in Endurance and Adaptability, which gave them higher Life Points and a better Critical Hit Chance than any of the other class types.
Making a swiping gesture with her left hand across the screen to view the final outfits of all the characters, along with their stats for one last time, (y/n) tapped the swordsman, selecting it as her class type. A breif flash of light illuminated the room as a swarm of green numbers materialized a large treasure chest in the area nearest to the door from seemingly nowhere. It took awhile for her to catch her breath from the sudden change of scenery, but the young teen knew she had no reason to be afraid. At least, not yet. They used the cheats anyway... (y/n) thought as she calmly walked over and opened it, finding an iron longsword with a plain matching sheath and belt, along with some lightweight leather armor in her size. She had minor difficulty putting on her vest as it tied behind her back, but after placing her fingerless arm guards on and clipping her sheathed blade onto her belt, she cautiously opened the door. Having found herself in a dense forest area of somekind, she ignored the scent of pine needles and fresh foliage, and the sights and sounds of various animals chittering away in their mysterious language. She noticed that the boxlike room where she had just come out of was nowhere to be seen. It was like it had suddenly disappeared, or grown legs and decided to migrate somewhere for the rest of the day. However, not too far away, there were two identical rooms on either side of her.
Allowing curiosity to get the better of her just this one time, she swiftly ran in her (f/c)-trimmed Nike sneakers and made her way to the room/box to her left. Peeking in through the window, she was unable to see anything, except an outline on the floor and a name on the wall: Emmet. Apperantly, this was where her one friend was supposed to be, but where'd he go? (y/n) sighed in annoyance as she turned her back on that structure and made her way to the other one, which she assumed would help her other friend, Karin, make her way to this strange place. By the time she got there, she saw Karin was already cycling through the class menu for her character choice. A large smile appeared on Karin's face when she set her eyes on the Beast Tamer, and deep in her gut, (y/n) could already tell that Karin would be the best one for that particular class, even as her friend tapped the image and caused the large chest at the door to appear.
The second that Karin selected her class as a Beast Tamer and claimed her items from inside the chest, (y/n) began making her way to the door to greet her. "Karin! You're here!"
"Hehe, yeah. Wherever 'here' even is..." came the reply as she stepped out of the strange building she had woken up in, turning just in time to watch in disappear in a flurry of green numbers and letters.
"I like your gear," (y/n) commented calmly, looking over her dark-haired friend's new appearance. Karin was wearing what appeared to be a sideways belt with multiple pouches full of various monster-taming treats, along with an item pack slung over her back and a set of knee-high steel-toed leather boots. In her hand was a wooden rod used for training monsters, which could also double as a quarter-staff if she were ever forced into combat alone.
"Y-Yeah. I like yours too. Where's Emmet?" Karin wondered, a little unnerved by the sudden changes of the world she had thrust herself into.
"Oh, he's over there, probably choosing a class same as you had to," (y/n) replied, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the last of the three white rooms they had been brought here in.
"I know you're a Swordsman, and I'm a Beast Tamer, but I'm curious to see what he'll be..."
"I dunno. Let's find out, shall we?" (y/n) said with a smile, holding out an open hand to her friend as she led her to the building where Emmet was being brought into this dangerous, yet exciting world.
By the time they had gotten there, Emmet had already chosen his class and left, about ready to begin searching for the two young girls he had decided to join on this most eventful of adventures. He was clothed in a white t-shirt with a leather vest and jean capris. In his left hand he carried a tan, hardcover book with strange white and blue markings on it, a small white cape-looking thing over his shoulders. "(y/n)! Karin! Where are you?"
"Emmet! We're over here! Turn around!" Karin shouted, running towards her boyfriend with open arms.
Emmet, having heard Karin's voice, quickly whipped his head around to see the two people he had been looking for were close by, and very much alive. A large smile came across his face as he took the few long-legged strides required to grab Karin in a warm embrace, holding her tight. "It took so long for me to get here. I was worried something had happened!"
"It's okay. I'm just glad the transfer went alright..." Karin responded, going up on her toes and kissing Emmet's cheek before breaking the hug and turning to (y/n), who had sat down on a rock nearby, deep in thought. "You okay, (y/n)?"
"I'm just trying to think party strategy here," the young teen sighed, her (e/c) eyes looking over Emmet and Karin, occasionally glancing at her own armor as she continued, "We can't have anything worse than getting in a battle and not having a clue what we're doing. So, what we've got to work with as far as classes are concerned, are a Magi, a Tamer, and a Swordsman."
"What's that really mean?" Emmet questioned.
"Basically, it means we need to figure out which of us will take point during a fight. It'd make sense for it to be me, since I'm the one with the highest Life Point count, but we all need more experience before we can even think about fighting the endboss."
"Well, when I was just coming out of that room before I saw you, I thought I saw some smoke over past the forest, over that way," Karin interjected, pointing with her staff in a general direction as she continued, "Smoke usually means campfire, from my experience, so I figure there's gotta be somebody who made it, right?"
"Alright. We could ask for directions to see if there's a village nearby," (y/n) decided, standing up and stretching a bit before leading the others into the densely-wooded area.
Not even fifteen minutes into their walk, they heard a panicked cry for help a little deeper in. The three friends looked at each other, eyes widened in fear as they quickened their pace, finding a young boy about 7 years old laying on the ground, crying. He was carrying a tied-up bundle of dried kindling at his back, but his left leg had been badly wounded, as though some carnivorous beast had attacked him while he was busy doing whatever his parents had sent him for. "P-Please help me! It hurts! I want my mama!"
Deep in (y/n)'s gut, she knew that the child was little more than a string of coded data, but everything about the situation screamed that he was real. The scent of blood hanging in the air, accompanied by the sound of his frantic wailing and the sight of tears streaming down his face were just too much to take. "W-Where's your mama? Maybe we can take you to her."
"She's i-in Celestia Village, farther into the forest. T-That way..." the boy replied, pointing in the direction of the smoke Karin had noticed with one of the small, bloodied hands he had used in a vain attempt to cover the wound.
"How far is it from here, if you had to guess?" Karin questioned Emmet.
"Probably another 20 minutes if we walk. We could shave off about 5 if we carried him and ran," Emmet replied in a low voice, "And that's if we don't run into any monsters on the way..."

IF (Y/N) CHOOSES TO...
->Leave the boy be and continue on to the village anyway, proceed to Chapter 4
->Carry the kid with you to the village as fast as you can, proceed to Chapter 5
->Check Karin's backpack for supplies, proceed to Chapter 6