New Game

Chapter 3: Loading Game

Sebastian looked around the town square. Players were running around everywhere; some of them spawning into existence before his very eyes. Sebastian would have loved to have entered into a game where things were flowing as naturally as a normal game would; but in reality the scene before him was chaotic. People were screaming and crying, pushing and shoving. He heard voices around him.

'This has to be a joke,' someone said from behind him.

'No way! This is awesome; now I won't have to take that test tomorrow,' said a voice beside him. Sebastian almost expected that to be Alister, as he didn't know anyone else who could sound that excited. But instead he saw a small boy with glowing blonde hair and blazing eyes.

It seemed as though the news of the game mechanics had spread quickly.

'Don't worry, I'm sure this is some big mistake. It will all get sorted out soon,' said another voice from the crowd.

Sebastian couldn't deny that the behaviour of the players around him did in fact reflect a part of his own feelings. But it wasn't helping him. Sebastian only had two objectives, finding his friends, and learning the game. And the panicked crowd weren't helping him with either.

Suddenly from within the chaos, a player approached Sebastian. A tall boy with brown hair and freckles. His skin was light green and scaley. He was clearly an orc.

'Hey you! Umm Aquila, have you seen a girl run through here? A short little girl with brown hair.'

Sebastian guessed he was going to be going by Aquila now.

Aquila looked a little more carefully at the player in front of him. A green tag appeared above his head.

Noob_slayer55

Level 1

That name was so unoriginal. And the fact that he had to include a number next to the name meant that someone else had already taken the actual name itself. And Sophia used to tease him; telling him that his gamer tags had been lame.

'Sorry, no. I've only just spawned in.'

'Do you think it's true? What everyone's saying. Apparently there's no way out and if we die in the game, we'll die in real life.'

'My Guide told me something similar. I'm not sure if it's true or if the people who made the game are just playing with us. But it's a little scary.'

'Dammit,' Noob Slayer said, 'I've got to find Rachel.'

'Wait have you seen...' Aquila asked but it was too late. Noob Slayer had already run off, disappearing into the crowd.

Aquila began wandering through the town square which was becoming so crowded with players that he could barely see a few feet in front of him. Aquila guessed that the majority of players were probably spawning in around the same time. Though he was certain that a small percentage of players had opted to skip the tutorial and enter the game before everyone else, but he definitely felt like that would probably be more detrimental than advantageous. Getting the jump on everyone by getting ahead in levels, wasn't worth missing out on the essential information that the tutorial had given him. And if they didn't know the consequences of dying in the game – that could be trouble.

Certainly everyone who was spawning in now knew about it the dire mechanics of the game. Players were yelling and screaming and panicking all over the place. Aquila had planned to wait in the spawning area for Alister and Sophia, but it was filling up so quickly that people were beginning to bump up and knock against him. He knew there was no way he was going to be able to find them in this crowd. Aquilia decided it would be better put a bit of distance between himself and the spawn in point – before it became so crowded that he couldn't move, and was squished to death if that was even possible.