Cyber Mortality

Chapter 3:

For a moment nothing happens. A white light appears and grows in my vision. My stomach drops as a feeling of weightlessness settles over me. I feel my limbs but cannot see them. The light blossoms in my vision until it envelopes me. I stand in a shadowed room with a large screen hovering before me.

"Welcome to Cyber Mortality!" a monotonous female voice echoes around the room. "Please take a moment to enter some data for us before creating your avatar." A text box pops up on the screen and then a keyboard.

"Please select your gender," my finger presses the 'female' button.

"What would you like to be called?" my hand pauses over the keys and I stop to think.

"Do I want to be cool or unique? I don't know..." I sigh after a moments thought and touch the capital 'D'.

"What about 'DizMay?" my finger presses the enter button and it goes through.

"Please design your avatar," the voice sounds and I do so.

"Whoa!" I chuckle and click on violet-colored eyes. I shape my avatar to have a pointed chin and stand a bit taller than I am now. Her skin is tanned and a vine tattoo twines across her right bicep. Her hair is long and black with a violet-colored cluster of hair on either side of her face.

"Please choose your entry clothes," the computer does not give me very many options. I click on a pair of black leather pants and a tank top. The final thing I choose is a pair of black combat boots.

"Thank you for choosing your avatar, DizMay. You will now be sent to the terminal. Good luck." My vision blurs and the room sucks away leaving me weightless once again. My feet bump against something solid and then I open my eyes. I suck in a breath and my mouth gapes in amazement. All around are people of every size, shape color, and gender. Trains whiz in and out of the station fast as the blink of an eye. The wind stirs and I glance down as tendrils of obsidian black hair coil around my shoulder. A vine tattoo stands out in green from my bicep. 

"May?" a rich baritone voice calls out and I spin around. Two guys stand a few feet away with scrutinizing gazes.

"Ah, so it is you. Took long enough," one of the guys snorts. Snarky attitude, he must be Flint. Short silver hair, which reaches to just above his slightly darker brows, stands out above silvery-green eyes. 

"Where are we?" I inquire and move out of the way as a troop of people bustles past.

"This is the terminal," the other guy, Nyle, grins. "I'm called DeNyle here by the way." DeNyle stands at nearly six and a half feet tall. His muscles are large but lean like the body of a spartan warrior. His lapiz lazuli blue hair is shaved short on the sides, but long on top, meeting at the back of his head to form a short ponytail.

"DizMay," I wave halfheartedly. "So how does this all work?"

"Well, we can go to one of the worlds and test you out," DeNyle shrugs. "We've got some stuff you can borrow until you get your own." He runs a hand through his long blue crew cut hair and winks.

"What do you call yourself in game?" I gaze at Flint's avatar.

"HardRock," he deadpans and pulls out a small handheld device. "We need to go."

"Where are we going?"

"Hallwyn," he replies as if I should know what or where that is. "Grab on." DeNyle places his hand over his brothers and both look at me expectantly.

When I slap my hand down, the floor falls out. I wince as my stomach climbs into my throat before I feel like I've come to the point I will die, the feeling stops and everything is still.

"You can open your eyes," DeNyle chuckles and pokes my cheek.

"Hey!" I squeal and pry my eyes open. I rub my cheek and shoot him an annoyed look.

"Traveling gets easier after the first few times," HardRock explains. He appears to not be phased at all by whatever just transpired.

"Welcome to Hallwyn!" DeNyle cheers and gestures to the forest around us.

"Wow, it doesn't even look pix-elated or anything," a grin splits my lips and I bend down to touch the grass. "Holy shit!" I scream and drop to my knees. "This feels like real grass!"

"Are you going to do this for everything you see?" HardRock groans and I raise my gaze to glare at him.

"I'm sure you had a similar reaction when you first came here," I purse my lips. 

"Oh, you should have seen him!" DeNyle snorts. "He-!"

"Shut up," HardRock slams his fist into DeNyle's shoulder with a scowl on his tanned face.

"Okay okay," DeNyle holds up his hands to protect himself. "Take this." His eyes flicker for a second and then a small sword appears in his hand.

"A sword?" I question and take the weapon.

"How else will you kill stuff?" DeNyle smirks. "Blades are kinda my go to."

"What about you?" I ask his silver-haired brother who shoots me an annoyed look. His eyes flutter and in his hand rests a western-style revolver, while on his back is a long bow. 

"I use projectiles," he shrugs.

"What does your other teammate, Jez, do?"

"She likes magic," DeNyle wiggles his eyebrows. "Especially anything with fire."

"Sounds scary," I mutter.

"Okay, so you need to open your menu and equip that item," DeNyle commands.

"You mean the eye flutter thing you guys are doing?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah basically," he shrugs. "Just think 'Menu' and look straight ahead. It should only take a second."

Menu. I think to myself and stare at the horizon. In an instant, a see-through box pops up in the bottom left side of my vision. There are three buttons. 'Skills', 'Items' and 'Stats'. I reach out my hand and press 'Items' followed by 'Equip'.

'You have now equipped your first weapon,' a voice says and from the look on DeNyle and HardRock's faces, I know it is only in my head.

"If you don't want to die in a fight you might want to learn to do that faster," HardRock rolls his eyes.

"You can equip five items to a quick menu which you can call up with code names too," DeNyle grins cheekily. "That will make it a lot easier. You will just have to mess around with the menu a bit. Now for the fun." His grin broadens and suddenly a large silver bladed broad sword appears in his grip. He clasps it with two leather gloved hands.

"What do we do now?" I question.

"We hunt," HardRock replies cooly.