Lucas peered around as he sat on a bench, shifting so his tail went through the gap of the backrest. He was waiting for Tony at a junction where a few streets joined. The sound of running water from the fountain in the middle provided a calm ambiance, with a few benches placed nearby. Very few people traveled through, which was the main reason they had agreed to meet up here. It was on the edge of town, not too far from a lodestone, and was away from any major point of interest.

They had split up to pick a class and profession. Lucas had gone with the mage guild. He now sported a blue cloak over his clothing, and a new leather belt allowed him to store a wand at his hip. After changing into the mage class, he had gone over to the culinary hall to become a chef. A decent amount of time was spent there, getting a rundown on how the cooking profession worked.

Surprisingly, the cooking job was rather in-depth. He had prepared soup in a kitchen of the culinary hall and found it wasn’t much different than cooking in real life. The only exception was the addition of skills he could use while cooking, though he only had one for now. His new skill allowed him to chop quickly for a short amount of time, was fun to use, and helped him cut up vegetables for the soup.

Once the soup was finished, the culinary tutor had granted him some starting gear. A pot, pan, chef’s knife, and basic cooking ingredients. All of which easily fit into his backpack, but the larger items took up more than one grid of space. Even with that being the case, he still had spare room in his bag. Lucas thought he would be the last one to the meeting place, given the long introductory quest.

"Oh, right." Lucas pulled his journal out. He flipped through the pages and stopped on the friends list. They had remembered to friend each other before splitting up, which allowed them to send messages to one another.

"We probably should have tested this beforehand." He muttered, tapping his friend's name for a holographic keyboard to appear across and above the pages. With his journal in his lap, he could use it like a keyboard, minus the physical feedback of pushing keys. Thankfully, the autocorrect built into the system fixed the occasional typo.

After sending a brief message asking his friend where they were, he left his book in his lap and leaned back. It was oddly quiet. Besides the sounds of the running water in the fountain, there wasn't much noise happening in this part of town. He wondered what all the other players were doing. When they had first arrived, everywhere they went was bustling with players as everyone did the quests.

That was, until the big incident in the plaza. Lucas supposed it wouldn't be unusual for people's moods to falter after such a scene. After that one man fell prey to Death, he had seen a lot fewer people around. Not that it was devoid.

Plenty of people were still going around, such as the ones he saw outside of town and in the Guilds and Halls, but not enough to account for everyone. When the game first started, it looked like there were easily a thousand or more players. As he and Tony had continued to travel the town he would not have guessed that to be true. He couldn't help but wonder; where was everyone? Had people figured a way to log out, or had they simply not been running into people? He figured it was possible everyone was more spread out now, maybe discovering quests or other activities to do.

"Oh!" Lucas jumped when a 'Ding' rang from his lap. He looked down at his journal to see that Tony had responded.

"Almost there. You better not laugh."

"Uh, okay." Lucas typed a short reply, then glanced around. When he didn't get an immediate response, he closed his journal and pocketed it. He had to wait a few more minutes before he heard footsteps, turning his head to see the Kobold approaching.

"What is—?"

"I said not to laugh." Tony walked over to stand before the Draconian.

The Kobold had a belt now as well, a wooden flute holstered to it, though it was obvious that Tony was worried about his new attire. He was sporting a new green tunic. The sleeves from the shoulder to the elbow were puffy and slashed, revealing white fabric.

"This is all I got for new equipment."

"The weird shirt, a belt, and a flute?" Lucas looked over his friend. "I got this cloak, belt, and a wand." He motioned down to his so-called 'wand'. It was essentially a small branch, a single green leaf still connected near the pointed end.

"You barely got any new gear too? At least I'm not the only one getting screwed over." Tony sat down with a sigh beside his friend. "That one guard dude said we'd get better stuff. This shirt's stats aren't that much better than what I had before."

"Oh yeah, he did say that, didn't he?" Lucas leaned back in his seat. "Did you lose your wooden sword and shield too?"

"Let me see." Tony moved his pack into his lap. "Damn, they’re gone! I was going to use them as back up, just in case." He grumbled as he slipped his backpack on. "Class specific gear only, I guess."

"It was only some lame wooden gear, right? We’ll be fine." "So, what do we do now? It's getting late, and I'm getting tired. I thought we would've been out of here by now."

"Same here." Tony leaned back. "Looks like we're going to be sleeping in VR tonight. Hopefully, we can log out in the morning." He groaned. "The devs better be working overtime to fix this. I can't even imagine what my parents will do or say when I get out after being here overnight."

"Try not to think about it for now. We need to worry about finding a place to sleep." Lucas patted the Kobold's shoulder. "Wait. Is it even possible to sleep in this game? Do we even need to sleep?"

Tony raised an eyebrow as he looked at his friend. "What do you mean? Of course we need sleep."

"I know, but I'm laying down in bed with my eyes closed. That might as well be sleeping, it's not like we've been moving around or anything while playing." Lucas explained.

"I mean, yeah, we're all probably laying down in bed, but our minds are still active. Isn't the main purpose of sleep to let the mind take a break?" Tony asked.

"That makes sense. I didn't think of it like that." Lucas said. "It's weird to think we need to lie down and sleep when we're physically laying down."

"Damn. Is it really that late already?" Tony caught sight of the clock tower across the rooftops.

Lucas followed his friend's gaze. "Almost eleven o’clock? Doesn't feel like that much time has gone by."

Tony hopped off the bench. "Let's find an Inn."

Lucas agreed and got up, following the Kobold. It didn't take long to realize they didn't know where to go to find an inn, or how to go about finding that information. They asked a few people as they wandered the streets. The only person who had information was a brunette woman that was passing by.

"You're looking for an inn? There is one in each district. Just look for the big wooden sign with a bed design hanging from the rooftop. Each Inn has one. That is what an adventurer told me, anyway. I've lived here all my life, so I've never needed to stay at one." The young woman gave them a friendly smile and continued to look at the party.

"Uh, thanks." Lucas said after a moment. The woman gave a nod of her head and then continued on her way. "I didn't realize that wasn't a player."

"I'm right there with you. It even recognized your question." Tony watched the NPC walk off. "We need to look for that sign then."

They headed off once more, now with a clearer objective in mind. Lucas kept his map in hand as they meandered around the district they were in. After a few minutes, they spotted a large two story building with the inn sign from a street over. When they reached it, there was a line leading out of the front door.

"Everyone else had the same idea as us." Tony grumbled and stomped over to join the back of the line. "It's the quest lines all over again."

"The line seems to be going pretty quick though." Lucas stepped in line behind his friend.

They were already moving forward a spot. After a few minutes, they had gone forward a decent amount. The only problem was, once closer, they noticed people were leaving the building at the same rate as the line progressed.

“I can’t believe it! This shit sucks!” A man stormed out the front door, and they moved up a spot.

“It just keeps getting better and better!” An Orc woman walked out in a huff.

Now it was their turn to step inside.

"Hello there! How can I help you?" The woman behind the desk asked with a smile.

"Do you have any rooms?" Tony asked.

"I'm sorry, but we're all booked up for the night." She reached underneath her desk and pulled out two slips of paper. "I can offer you a voucher for a bedroll at my brother's shop. Let him know I sent you and he'll let you in, even if he is closed up for the night." The NPC held out the vouchers, still smiling. "His shop is south of here, the one with a chair stuck to the roof."

Tony glared at the innkeeper, then snatched the vouchers from her hand. "Come on, Art."

Lucas followed along. They headed outside and followed the trail of people leaving the inn to the brother's shop.

"Did you hear what she said? Do the stores close at a certain time?" He asked as they waited. This line was going by quickly as well; people knocked at the shop's door, explained who sent them, then traded over a voucher for a bedroll.

"I guess so. That is weird. What if people wanted to play late at night and needed supplies?" Tony asked.

"Another thing to chalk up to realism? It is a beta, so maybe it's an idea they'll scrap, cause it seems dumb."

It was their turn. Tony knocked, spoke to the man and exchanged the vouchers for two bedrolls. He handed the second bedroll to Lucas as they left the line. It was a green material that was rolled and tied up with two leather straps.

“Looks like a very basic sleeping bag.” Tony stepped aside.

“Better than nothing, I guess.” Lucas looked over the bedroll, then stored it away.

“Stupid bedroll.” A male elf took his bedroll and stormed off. “Three different inns, and they’re all full up. What a joke.”

“I was going to say we could check another inn, but that’s probably a waste of time.” Tony dropped his new item into his bag, where it disappeared.

“Agreed. Let’s go back to our meet up spot.” Lucas used his map to find their way back.

A fresh problem arose when they were back at the fountain and benches. The buckles on the bedroll could not be undone. Every time they tried, the bedroll's color flashed red a few times, then displayed text in the air above it.

“This item cannot be used inside of towns, cities, villages, or dungeons.”

"Oh, come on!" Tony kicked his bedroll. "No inns to sleep in, and the bedroll the game gives us can't even be used here? What are we supposed to do, sleep out in the woods?!"