Somnium Online

Player Two

"Welcome to Lucid gear" a voice in Elizabeth's head murmured smoothly, "we will now begin loading the installed application."

Then, everything went black. She felt a rushing sensation, like falling, but on the ground, and then something hard beneath her. Carefully, she tried opening her eyes.

She was sitting on a patch of dirt in the middle of a medieval city. Buildings rose up from the ground all around her, and in the distance she saw a magnificent clocktower.

Unsure of what to do next, she stood, and took a few cautious steps forwards. Her boots clacked on the cobbles of the city streets. Wait... She glanced at her clothing.

"What the-" she muttered. "When did I put these on?" She was wearing a plain purple t-shirt with a leather chest plate buckled on over it. She also now spidteda pair of thick grey pants with leather pads sown into the knees.

The clothes fit perfectly, actually, everything fit perfectly. Her body was even the same size and shape as it was out of the game. There was a weight at her hip, she glanced downwards again.

Buckled to her hip was a long knife, or was it a short sword? She didn't really know. One thing was for sure though, this game was insanely realistic.

"First time?" A male voice called. A twenty-something man with sandy hair and a cheerful smile waved from across the road. He wore similar armour, and a longer sword was strapped to his back.

Elizabeth waved and called back over the bustle of the street "Yeah, I'm waiting for someone!"

He jogged over, grinning. "Well then would you like to hang out with me until you find him?"

Elizabeth looked around cautiously. "I-I don't know if I should."

The guy extended his hand. "I'm Sam, nice to meet you."

Elizabeth gazed at him suspiciously, but his green eyes sparkled happily. He was just so... cheerful. She shook his hand, his grip was firm, but kind.

"I'm Elizabeth, it's nice to meet you."

Sam's grin widened. "Wanna head on over to the guild hall? Your buddy's bound to pass through there at some point, and you can register yourself while you're at it."

"Um... sure, I guess." It was at that moment that Elizabeth realized she had no idea where Eric was, much less how to find him. That idiot of a bodyguard had even forgotten to tell her where to meet him!

"To the guild hall then!" Sam cheered. "Sorry if I sound a little excited, I just haven't been able to get anyone to join a party with me in a while, and playing on your own isn't as much fun."

Elizabeth nodded, that sounded reasonable, this game was pretty big. She couldn't imagine how hard it would be to navigate on her own.

"So what's with all the NPCs?" She asked as they walked roughly in the direction of the clocktower.

"Shhh!" Sam hissed, glancing around to make sure no one had heard them. "They really hate being called that, frankly, the more time we spend here, the more danger we're in."

"What are you talking about? I don't see any monsters here." Elizabeth asked.

Sam checked to make sure they weren't being followed. "Listen, when players first started arriving here, a few of them didn't realize the natives weren't just background programs.

So they did some stuff, and now everyone's kind of pissed at players. It shouldn't be too bad, but you've got to watch your back."

Elizabeth thought for a minute. "What about the first player? What happenned to him?"