Somnium Online

Beta

Eric felt himself drifting to sleep, and then, suddenly he snapped awake. He looked up at the... sky? No, that couldn't be right, he was asleep in his... room.

Then he remembered. It was real. He was in a dream and the dream was a game. He looked down at his hands, they were the same as his normal hands.

He was wearing some kind of leather and cloth armor, this must be the starting gear he thought to himself. He looked down at his hip and saw a small short sword in its scabbard.

He was in a game. He looked around, he was sitting on a square patch of dirt in the middle of a medieval town square. There were trees, and birds singing, and dozens of people going about their day.

Eric got to his feet. He tried moving around. The game responded exactly like his real body. He thought about his movements, pictured moving, and his virtual muscles responded.

Just then, he heard the blaring of trumpets. A deep voice announced "Welcome beta tester. I trust you're satisfied with your character so far?"

Eric looked around but couldn't see where the voice was coming from.

"Oh, you won't find me like that young man. I'm the narrator of this world and have no physical form. In any case, please proceed to the Adventurer's guildhall when you're ready for your first quest. This is a closed beta so you'll be on your own for now.

Normally when the beta ends your character would be deleted, but should you manage to complete a hidden quest, you will be able to enter the finished game with your beta stats. Also, I've disabled the NPC profanity filter, haaaave fun with that."

Eric's eyes widened. This was huge! If he did this secret quest he would end up with a massive advantage over everyone else when the final game was released.

Well, quests could wait. First things first Eric wanted to explore. He approached a nearby NPC. Normally NPCs were mindless figureheads who existed only to give quests or further the in-game narrative. But in this world, all bets were off. He decided to take a chance. "Excuse me, sir, do you know where I can find the library?"

The NPC looked at him blankly, then he laughed. In a deep hearty voice, he explained how to get to the city records building. "So what you're gonna do son is you're gonna go west until you hit the open-air market, take a right until you see the clocktower, and then go east. You can't miss it."

Eric thanked him and set off. The NPC man waved cheerfully. This changed everything. There was no way that that specific NPC had been programmed to say that. Were these people... sentient AI?

While he was pondering the mysteries of the residents of this new world, Eric managed to get himself lost. He could see the clocktower over the roofs of the nearby buildings, but he had no idea how to get there. He took a break in an alley and tried to get his bearings. How can I be lost already? He thought to himself.

Then he heard a scream. "Help, help me!" The voice was female and panicked. But... that was crazy NPCs didn't harm each other they were supposed to be peaceful! A second scream, this on closer. Eric didn't pause to think, he rushed towards the noise.

"Young man, what do you think you're doing?"

Eric looked around. "Oh, hey narrator. Someone's in trouble, so I'm going to go help them."

"B-but young man, this isn't a quest!"

Eric rolled his eyes "So what? NPC or not these people seem lifelike enough to me. And if they're in trouble I'm going to help them."

"Very well then. Best of luck."

"Thanks, Narrator."

Eric rounded the corner and came face to face with a scene right out of a cliche. Two rough-looking fellows with swords had cornered a young teenage girl in an alley and were making life remarks and threats. One of the men had a long eyepatch, and the other smelled like manure. The girl had beautiful blonde hair in a ponytail and was wearing a plain dress and apron, some sort of waitress's uniform by the looks of it. The men were both clearly drunk, and that made them dangerous.

"Hey there girly, want me to show you a good time?" Said drunkard number one.

"You dropped our cake, so now you're going to make it up to us." Said the other. The girl was shaking.

"Don't touch me you assholes, I'm not going anywhere with you!"

The man with the eyepatch leered at her and grabbed her cheek. "Guess what sweetheart? We. Don't. Care."

Eric had seen enough. Thanks to his extensive knowledge of fantasy novels he knew exactly what he was supposed to do here. But in those novels, the hero was usually ten times more powerful than the men, and Eric didn't want to push his luck. So, he decided on a better tactic.

"Ah, there you are sis!" He said cheerfully stepping out of the shadows. "I've been looking all over for you, we were so worried father even got the town guard to help. They're right behind me actually. Thank you, kind sirs, for looking after my poor sister for me. I'll take things from here. I'm sure the guards will want to reward you for your service."
Eric moved to stand next to the girl.

The men took a few minutes to process this. They had heard the words sis, town guard, and right behind me. But the rest was a bit muddled by the alcohol. Deciding not to risk any trouble, they slunk off to find another bar to terrorize.

Eric sighed with relief. "I can't believe that actually worked." He said laughing.

The girl relaxed too. "Thanks for that. I was going to have to hurt them if that kept up."

Eric smiled and laughed shakily "I guess they should be the ones thanking me for saving them from you!"

The girl peered at him. "So, what's your name? I haven't seen you around here."

"Oh, I'm Eric, at your service milady." Eric gave a mock bow.

"My name is Annabelle, but my friends just call me Anne."

"It's nice to meet you, Anne."

Anne laughed "Are we friends then?"

Eric feigned indignance "How could you forget your own brother? "

They both busted out laughing. Eric knew for sure after that. Real or not, the people in this game were human.