A loud gong rang out, causing all the chatting to cease. Everyone’s attention turned to the giant robed figure that had appeared in the distance. “Greetings everyone, thank you for your patience. Now that we have a full lobby, we can begin.”

The guy he had been talking with nudged Lucas, a smirk sent his way. “Told ya.” He pulled his arm back to himself.

Lucas gave him a nod before glancing around. No one else appeared through doors and it seemed quite packed now. At least a thousand people, if not more, were here in this strange void. “Are we going to play the game now or what?” He asked the guy beside him.

The white-robed and hooded figure began talking. “We have randomly selected you to try out a beta version of Galondé Online.” His voice boomed across the void. The only defining feature of the person behind the robe were the white hands sticking out of the sleeves. The bottom of the robe flowed down several feet more than it needed to, not touching the ground for the simple fact the giant man was hovering a few stories in the air. “It is a more realistic version, with time matching your time zone, minimal to no HUD and survival aspects. This will be an optional mode to play once it has finished testing and goes live.“

“Until then, you will be the first ones to try this game mode. You’ll be able to play this version of Galondé until you log out, and then, the next time you log in, you will move to the normal version of the game. Any progress you make here will transfer, so don’t worry about having to start over!” The man cleared his throat. “We recommend you don’t stay logged in more than a few hours at a time for safety reasons. At the end of your play session, we will ask you to fill out a survey about your experience.”

The man’s arms rose straight up, palms facing to a sky that wasn’t there. All the eyes in the white void looked up as a multitude of red objects descended. “With that out of the way, we hope you enjoy testing out this mode! Have fun and good luck on your adventures!”

“Confetti?” Lucas’s void companion asked as the small specks of red came down. The further they fell, the bigger they appeared to be, becoming more apparent that it was not actually confetti. It wasn’t until the objects got much closer that it became obvious there were thousands of red curtains flowing down, each one aimed for a player.

“Whoa!” Lucas jumped as the red curtain above him swooped down, quickly wrapping him up into a fabric cocoon. He squirmed in its tight embrace for only a few seconds before it unraveled and flew up into the air to disappear. “Whoa.” The void was no more, and in its place there was a huge town square. It was full of people. Not just humans, but also beast-men, Elves, Orcs, Kobolds, and the occasional Draconian.

The rays of the sun warmed his skin, a gentle breeze swept through the area, and the water flowing from a fountain could be heard. Everyone was in the big circular area of a medieval-looking town, an enormous fountain seated in the middle. Cobblestone roads covered the ground in the plaza and ran out to form streets where buildings were squeezed together. White timber-framed buildings with wooden or clay tiled pointed roofs dominated the area, with the occasional cobblestone bricked building. The tallest building that could be seen was a clock tower, made of red and gray bricks on the edge of the town square.

“Ah!” Lucas jumped, his purple scaled hands raised to be examined. He was the Draconian he had made in the mirror.

“That was abrupt.” Not only that, it had replaced his clothes. A pair of brown shoes, black pants and a brown tunic, all very simple in style and look.

“This is so awesome!” A blue scaled Kobold exclaimed with a look of wonder upon his rounded muzzle. He did not have ears, instead holes like a lizard. Two horns shot straight back at a slight upward angle from the top of his head, with two smaller ones pointed back on each side below the ear holes.

“Are you the guy from before?” Lucas asked down at the Kobold beside him. The voice sounded the same. He had been a little taller than the other before, but now he was easily a foot over the Kobold.

“Oh, hey! You’re—” His gaze lifted, then quickly narrowed at the purple Draconian. “What the hell! You got the pre-order bonus?!”

“Uh.” Lucas’s expression turned to confusion.

“Man, that’s so unfair. That shit was so hard to get. Only the first ten thousand people to pre-order the Nest got it.” The Kobold huffed and crossed his arms. “Such bullshit, dude. Why have a race be only available with a limited pre-order bonus for the first month of the game's release?!” He let out a heavy sigh. “Oh well, I plan on making more than one character, anyway.”

This was definitely the same guy as before. “Er, right? Anyway, I guess we got lucky loading in beside each other.” Lucas paused for a moment. “I think that was us being loaded in?”

The Kobold waved off Lucas’s comment. “Nah, no luck involved. I’m sure they loaded everyone in with the same position as before, just into the—whatever this place is. Town center?”

The two looked around as people dispersed down the different streets that connected to the big open area.

“Maybe it’s a shopping plaza?” Lucas countered, pointing with a clawed finger at the small shops and stalls around the edges of the area.

“Probably both. Makes more sense for us to start the game in the heart of the town.” The Kobold used his clawed hand to shield his eyes from the sun, head turning to scan the area. “I don’t see any quest markers, or anything. That guy wasn’t joking about there being no HUD. How’re we supposed to know where to go?”

The short Kobold had made a good point. There was no heads-up display at all, not even for the current time.

“Maybe we start with something?” Lucas offered, patting along his shirt and pants. His short companion did the same, feeling up his red tunic and brown pants. “Paper?” He pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket, the Kobold doing the same.

Once unfolded, the paper revealed a map.

“The town of Uktharar.” The Kobold read out, eyes scanning over the map of a town held within the circular walls protecting it. “We must be right here.” He pointed to the center of the town that had the plaza, appropriately marked on the map as Fountain Plaza. There were plenty of other locations marked as well, but the Kobold’s attention was drawn to the different untitled buildings marked with a red circle.

“These have to be quests.” He studied the map a bit more, then looked around. “The closest one is this way.”

Lucas nodded, glancing to the Kobold's map and then to his own. “Could be.”

The smaller of the two turned and walked off, stopping after several feet to look back behind himself. “Bro, you coming or what?”

“Oh! Uh, sure.” Lucas folded up his map and pocketed it as he caught up to the Kobold, the two walking alongside one another. “I was supposed to meet up with my friend, but he might not even be here.”

“I was going to group up with my friends, except they would not be free until later, so this works out fine. I get something to brag about when they finally get on.” The Kobold chuckled. “Let’s see, we need to go down this street and—” He pulled his map up, studying it as they walked.

“Something feels off.” Lucas slowed to a stop, looking down at himself.

The Kobold slowed down as well, a puzzled look forming on his face. “Now that you mention it—” The two looked at themselves. “Oh, it’s this.”

Lucas looked over to his new friend to see the other holding onto their tail. Looking back, he took notice of his own that was longer and thicker than the Kobold’s. “Wait a second, do these—?” He reached back and grabbed his tail with his clawed hand, immediately feeling sensation in an appendage he’d never had before. “That is—”

“Awesome! I figured the tail would be like an accessory, like wearing a costume that had a clip on tail or something, but you can legit feel it!” The Kobold released his tail, then stared at it as it twitched. “Damn, I can’t move it. That sucks.” He shook his hips, tail swinging side to side. “Still really cool. Anyway, let’s go.”

Lucas had pulled his tail around to his side, a hand tracing up and down along the hard scaled top and softer underside. He could feel it all.

“Coming.” He released his new appendage and ran ahead to catch up with the Kobold. “How much farther is it?”

The Kobold slowed to a stop and pointed ahead. “Pretty sure it’s that.” A building in front of them had a short line of people outside of it. “Let’s get in line.”

“Why is there a line at all?” Lucas asked as he followed the Kobold, now standing behind the other in line. “Shouldn’t everyone get the quest, then go out and do it?”

The Kobold shrugged. “Must be something that takes place here.” He leaned to the right, trying to peer ahead at what was going on. “I wonder if—” He turned and grabbed Lucas’s arm, causing the Draconian to give a confused look. “There’s player collision.” He let go and turned back around. “Meaning everyone can’t pile onto each other to talk to the same NPC at the same time.”

Lucas glanced behind himself, people already adding themselves into the line. “I guess it’d be weird to walk through people, or maybe this is only in the realistic mode?”

“Nah, I bet it is like this in the normal game.” The Kobold moved forward as the line progressed. A dark-skinned Orc stepped out of the building holding a leather backpack, slinging it over one shoulder before walking off. “The reward is a backpack?” He asked out loud.

“That’s what everyone keeps walking out with!” A cat girl with white furred ears and tail in line said. She turned her head to look down at the Kobold. “Oh. My. Gosh. You are so cute!” She twirled around to crouch down and pat the blue Kobold’s head. “I thought about being a Kobold, but being a kitty girl was just too cute to pass up!”

Lucas watched the odd scene before him for a moment. A cat girl fawning over the small, blushing Kobold. He was happy to shift his attention away, turning his head to look at a group of people further back in line. They huddled together, each one with a book in their hands. He could faintly hear them talking, picking up keywords such as equipment, stats, and party. After a bit of thought, he reached into his right pocket and pulled out the map from before.

“Hm.” Lucas returned the map to his pocket, then reached into the other one, pulling out a small leather-bound book. He held it up to get a better look at it. The book seemed pretty plain; though it had a white oval-cut jewel embedded into the center cover and had a clasp locking the front and back cover together. No matter how hard he tried to pry it open, it would not budge and there was no keyhole, leaving him even more stumped.

While fumbling around with the book, he pressed on the jewel and caused it to sink in slightly. A color palette wheel appeared in the air right above the gem, and tapping on the wheel caused it to change to the selected color.

“Interesting.” Lucas toyed around with a few colors before settling on a shade of purple that was the same as his scales. Tapping a small ‘Okay’ button caused the wheel to disappear and a new menu appeared with jewel shapes and cuts. The default was fine enough with him, hitting ‘Okay’ once more. That menu disappeared and wasn’t replaced with another.

“Eh?” Lucas pushed on the gem once more. This time the clasp became undone and the book quickly grew in his hand, going from something that fit in one's pocket to the size of a small textbook. Opening it up showed a page with his Draconian character on it. Above it was his username, and to the right side of the first page was his equipment slots. The rest of the pages were similar. This was where all the menus had gone, not in a typical HUD, but in a book. He flipped through the pages and stopped on one titled ‘Party’.

“Hey, you have to—” He stopped mid-sentence once he looked up from his book. There was a name above his friend’s head. Looking around revealed that everyone had a name above their head now. “TonyTwoTones?” Lucas read off the name above the Kobold.

“Hu—huh?” The blushing Kobold turned to his friend. The cat girl released the scaled tail she had been holding onto. “How do you know my username?”

Lucas explained his discovery to the two. They both pulled their own journals out and set them up, while occasionally moving a few steps forward as the line progressed.

“Looks like it’s my turn. Wish me luck!” The cat girl closed her journal, which quickly shrunk back down.

“Go-Good luck.” The Kobold waved to the girl, disappearing into the building. The sound of his journal producing a quiet ding grabbed his attention, looking down to see that he had gotten a party invite from Art of War.

“Is this you?” He asked the Draconian.

Lucas nodded with a smile. “Yeah. I figured we could party up for now.” A quiet ding came from his book, his new friend and himself now in a party. The two idly chatted for a few minutes until it was the Kobold’s turn to head in.

The smaller of the two went inside the building, only to pop his head out the front door a minute later. “You need to come too. He said the entire party needs to be here.”

Lucas stepped inside, past the front door, and closed it behind him. The interior looked to be a simple home, a fireplace with seating, a kitchen and dining area, with two closed doors. He followed behind his friend to an old man sitting in a rocking chair by the unlit fireplace.

“Tony, is this the NPC?” The old man didn’t look any different from a player, nothing indicating it was an NPC.

“Yep. He’s the only one here.” Tony proceeded to the old man. “We’re both here now. What’s the quest?”

“Oh, hello strangers. Would you be willing to help an old man? My knees are not what they used to be, and I accidentally made a mess of my storage room when I tripped and fell. Could you help me get it sorted? I’ll give you something as a reward for your trouble.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll do it. What room is it?” Tony pressed the old man.

“Thank you, so much. It’s the room right over there.” He pointed to one of the closed doors. “When you’re done, let me know, so I can reward you.”

The two went to the door, Tony leading the way into the messy room. There were three small wooden chests that had fallen over, presumably off the shelving. Shirts, pants and shoes littered the floor. It didn’t take the two long to figure out what to do. Each chest was labeled with engravings; One labeled Shirts, another Pants, and the last Shoes. It only took a few minutes for them to bend down and pick up the items scattered around the floor, placing them in the correctly labeled chests. Once the floor was free of clutter, the chests were closed and placed back onto the wooden shelving.

When they returned to the old man, he stood up and slowly ambled over to the doorway of the storage room. They both shared a look, a silent agreement. This was the reason they had to wait so long in line. When the old man saw the cleaned up room, he went to a wardrobe on the wall of the storage room and produced two leather backpacks.

“Thank you again for your help. I can safely move around there now. Here is your reward. I figured some adventurers like you could use a rucksack, and I threw in a few items too.” The old man smiled at them.

They each took their backpack and left the home without another word to the old man. Once outside, the next person in line headed in. The line of people waiting had grown quite long now. The two stood outside to unbuckle their new packs and pull the flap back to be met with an empty vessel, but a menu appeared a few inches above the empty opening. It was a grid system that held a water skin, bread roll and a wedge of cheese, each item getting its own square on the grid.

“Food and water?” Lucas pondered out loud, reaching into the bag but not feeling anything.

“That dude before said more realism and survival. We probably have to eat and drink.” Tony reached into the bag as well, and then, after some thought, tapped on the bread roll in the floating menu. A soft sound came from his pack. Reaching inside, he pulled out the bread roll that had disappeared from the grid and appeared in his bag.

“So that’s how this works.” He looked over the piece of food, then dropped it into his pack, where it disappeared, only to reappear back on the menu.

With their first quest finished and the understanding of how to use their new piece of equipment, the two set off to the next red circle. The quest they had done no longer appeared on the map, making it easier to move onto the next one. Every road was laid out, and having the town sectioned out into districts made navigation easy. The town was huge, heading from one quest to the other took several minutes of walking. It wasn’t hard to spot the next location once they got close enough, having to get to the back of a line.

They explored their journals while waiting, discovering that they had gained experience from their first quest. When their turn came around, they headed inside to a clockmaker’s storefront, a man greeting them from behind the counter. The store showcased wall clocks and pocket watches of various designs on the walls and shelves. Tony asked if the man had any quests and the store owner obliged, saying he needed inspiration for a new pocket watch. He led the party of two into the backroom where he had a large table setup with various watch parts. The man stood by as the party picked unique pieces that would form one pocket watch when combined.

The clockmaker looked over the two sets of parts, then quickly went about putting them together. He exclaimed afterwards that these designs had given him some ideas. As a reward, he gave each pocket watch to their corresponding designer. The Draconian received his brass pocket watch and chain, an intricate design engraved onto the front. The pocket watch the Kobold received was iron with musical notes designed around the edges.

With the quest completed, the two were on their way to the next location, now able to tell the time. A quick glance at their journals as they walked showed they had leveled up, now level two. They both shared the same starting class of Adventurer and figured they could choose a class upon reaching a certain level. This motivated them, the small party quickly moving along to the next quest.

A brief walk later and some waiting in line, and they were beginning their third quest. An enchanter needed help to create a device to help identify creatures, the party grabbing various objects from around the house for the enchanter to try. It wasn’t until they proposed a magnifying glass that the enchanter found excellent results. A quick enchantment sequence later, and the enchanter disappeared into her cellar, returning after a minute and proclaiming that it had worked. She could identify the creature she had captured and rewarded the two that assisted her with their very own Identifying Magnifiers. They stored the new tool in their bags and were on their way.

The next location had them traveling through the plaza, where a commotion was occurring. A group of people gathered around an older man in hysterics.

“How do I log out? I can’t figure out how to log out! I have to go get my kid in twenty minutes!” He shouted, looking from one person to another. “I—I’m not good at video games. I only wanted to try this out before my kid came over. It’s not even mine. I bought it for him as a surprise!”

“Calm down, old man. Just take out your player book like this and—” A male Elf pulled out his journal to show the panicking man, flipping through the pages. “Wait, I don’t see any options or a settings page with a log out button.” He turned to the other people standing nearby. “Hey, does anyone know how to log out?”

Everyone nearby opened their own journals and flipped through the pages, some trying out distinct movements with their hands in the air, hoping to pull up a menu. After a few minutes, the panic spread from the man to the others nearby.

Tony took out his own journal and also found it was lacking a way to log out of the game. “Hey, it must be an issue the developers are already working on. I’m sure it’ll be fixed before long.” He closed his journal and pocketed it. “There’s no way something this big goes unnoticed.”

The others talked amongst themselves and calmed down, except for the man. “I need to go now! I can’t be late getting my kid for our weekend! He only gets to come over every other week and—”

“Hey, why don’t we go look around or something? Maybe there is a logout portal or an NPC that can help us. Come on.” The Elf patted the man on the shoulder and led him off, reassuring him as they went.

The crowd slowly dispersed, though they shared worried whispers as everyone went their own ways. New people had gathered around, not having caught the entire scene that had transpired.

“Uh, let’s get going.” Lucas offered, glancing around as he walked off. “Do you really think they're going to log off? I’ve never heard of a game using a portal or NPC to log out.”

“I dunno. This game is not like anything I’ve ever played before; it wouldn’t surprise me if they had some unconventional ways of logging out.” Tony shrugged. “It’d be more inconvenient if it was like that. I’m positive that we should be able to log out anywhere, anytime. Just makes little sense to change that up.” He glanced up at Lucas as they walked, now exiting the plaza and heading down a street to the next marked location. “Art, don’t look so worried. I’m sure the Devs are going to fix it. How hard can it be to fix the code that gives us a logout button?”

Lucas nodded his head after some thought. “You’re probably right. Let’s focus on quests. What do you want to bet that the robed guy will appear in the sky to let us know when the issue is fixed?” He said with a soft smile, looking down at the Kobold.

Tony laughed. “Yeah, and he’ll probably give us some in-game items or money for us all as compensation.”