Alex made his way through the trees, frowning. It was a near perfect recreation. If it wasn’t for the menu and slowly-regenerating health and magic bars, he might have been fooled. But there was one thing that no matter how well they programmed this world they either didn’t or weren’t willing to include.

“Plenty of tracks.” he muttered, following the deer prints. But no matter how long he followed the trail, there were no droppings form the deer or any other animal. “Guess it’s not perfect after all.”

After an hour his paltry health and magic were back up to full, and he was getting thoroughly fed up. He’d been walking through this forest, and he hadn’t encountered anything! Just some squirrels, deer, and birds, even if those birds had a five-foot wingspan. He was promised dungeons and treasure and excitement, and he hadn’t even seen anyone other than Gil.

“Get him!”

“Don’t let him get away!”

“Yaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” Then again, that could change.

Keeping low to the ground, Alex crept on all fours through the undergrowth towards the noise. He poked his head out to see a tall young man in white robes booking it through the forest, three people in hot pursuit.

“I said I was sorry! We don’t have to fight!” he shouted back at the ones chasing him.

“There ain’t gonna be a fight!” the apparent leader howled, urging the other two on. The mage had a good lead, but it was obvious the others were faster, being warrior classes. He yelped as a handaxe sailed past his ear.

“Hmm. Doesn’t look like anything that concerns me.” Alex muttered. He would’ve liked to help the guy, but he had a strict policy of noninterference. It was better that way.

“Help! Heeellllllpppp!” the mage cried, nearly in tears as he ran.

“Grrrrhmmm.” Alex growled, sneering. Damn it. Staying neutral was one thing, but an actual plea for help? He was inhuman, not that cold-hearted. Besides, he wasn’t Alexandru Lonescu right now, so it should be okay. “Well, Allocrax has to make his debut sometime.” He launched himself forward, rolling down the hill and bouncing off, skidding to a stop between the three and the mage, squatting down.

“Whoa there! No need to rush and be rash. Is there a problem here?” he said, eyeing them one by one. All of them had a green star emblem on their right shoulders. The one who spoke earlier was wearing a horned helmet, and stepped forward.

“Step aside, man. We just want him.” he said menacingly. Alex was unimpressed.

“I-I said I was sorry! What more do you want!?” the mage said, collapsing to the ground in exhaustion and fright.

“Did he do something wrong?” Alex asked. The warriors gripped their weapons harder in reflex.

“You bet he did!” the one with an axe cried, pointing. “We spent two whole weeks trying to find that mossbear! It’s one of the rarest enemies in the game! Then this *bleep* goes and blows up a tree while we were circling it, chasing it off! The boss’s *bleep*ed!” he said. The mage shrunk back into his hood.

“I-I’m sorry, I was just practicing magic. It’s harder than it looks-”

“I don’t care! You don’t know the trouble we went to find that thing! Mossfur is super valuable, you cost us weeks and thousands in gold! You’ll pay!” the leader roared, brandishing a spear. He made to stab the mage, but Alex sighed and stood in his way.

“Look, I’m sure there’s a vay to find your moss-bear thing. He already apologized, there’s no need to go that far.” he said sternly. The leader scowled at him.

“Who the *bleep* are you?” he growled. Alex grinned and puffed up his chest.

“I? I am the mighty varrior Ale-Allocrax! The, uh, Fierce!” he said, deciding to throw an epithet onto his character. He quite liked the sound of it. The spearman snorted.

“Don’t get in the way. Outside of cities are PVP areas.” he said, grinning himself. Alex smirked and drew his sword.

“I don’t know vhat that PV area stuff is, but that sounds like a challenge. And I never back avay from a challenge.” He slightly bent over, preparing his virtual body for movement as he licked his lips, sizing them up. They all had armor, but only one was in full plate, and without a helmet. He could strike the head easily enough, and the other two didn’t have enough experience to deflect his sword with their armor. He could see it in their stance. Ahh, pure, direct combat. It had been far too long. Hunting just wasn’t the same.

But for some reason, the leader paused when he saw Allocrax’s sword. He eyed him up and down. There was a size difference, a rather large one. He glanced back to his companions, as if to say ‘are you seeing this?’ They started muttering, calling up their screens.

“Hey. Are, are you a Raider class?” the one with the hammer asked.

“Yeah?” Alex said, tilting his head.

“You’re only level one.”

“So?” he asked indignantly. They all snorted and laughed.

“Okay, little man. Hit me, if you even can!” the leader said, putting his spear up and grinning smugly. Alex scowled and moved, hundreds of years of technique funneled into a flash of blade that struck him across the chest, the momentum enough to spin his avatar around.

“How’s that, you arsworm-” Alex started. The spearman pointed at the -2 in white next to him. And beside that was his stat menu. Alex gaped at him. “L-Level 34!?” His HP was 183 of 185. Alex glanced at the mage, only level 18. “How-”

“Raaah!” The warrior with a warhammer slammed it down at Allocrax’s head, and only years of battlefields saved him, turning aside at the last nanosecond. He could feel the wind of the hammer as it fell. It smacked the ground, cratering it and sending debris flying.

“Aaagh!” Alex grimaced at the multiple stings from the stones and dirt, then gasped as his health bar dropped, down to 11 of 29. His eyes flickered between the mage and the warriors.

He may have been a proud vampire, but Alexandru Lonescu was not a stupid one. He sheathed his sword and took off, the laughter and mad shouts of the three behind him. He growled; he was a bloodthirsty predator of the night. He was not supposed to have to run from mopuses and douchebags! Oh, they’d be under hatches soon enough!

Fortunately, the path had a corner, and he skidded around on all fours. Even without vampiric strength, he knew how to climb trees like a squirrel, his digital body burning as he ascended the branches, flitting from one to another. He paused, panting, when he was fifty feet up.

“Hmm. So you can tire in this game.” he murmured, watching the three pass him by, scanning the forest below. Once they were gone, he counted to five and climbed down, brushing himself off as he stared at their path.

“Hi.” the mage said.

“Aaagh!” Alex cried and jumped, unsheathing his sword and pointing it at him with a trembling hand. “It’s you! Don’t do that!”

“Sorry!” he said, trying to shrink back behind his staff. “I...I just wanted to thank you!”

“Hmph. You’re welcome, I suppose. I guess I led them on a chase merry enough.” Alex said bitterly, sheathing his sword. Then he noticed the draft. “What? Nmmm.” The hammer had torn his shirt, probably snagging on a loose thread. It flapped distractingly. “Blast. And I have no needle or thread.” he growled.

“Um…you could probably get that in town. Or even a new shirt, even. S-Since it was kinda my fault, I can pay for it.” the mage offered. Alex waved him off.

“Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll repair it myself.” he said, striding down the road in the afternoon’s fading light. The mage trotted after him, trying to keep up.

“Please, I insist. I have to do something to pay you back, you did save me back there.” he said. Alex raised an eyebrow, but didn’t turn his head.

“Vhat a strange vay of looking at it. All I did vas run avay.” he said derisively. The mage shrugged.

“Well, maybe. But because they started chasing after you, they forgot about me. May not have been what you intended, but thanks to you I still have all my xp and equipment.” he said sheepishly. Alex grunted.

“How long are you going to follow me, anyvay?” Alex said after five minutes.

“O-Oh! I, um…sorry. I just, this’s the way back to Apollo City, so…” he trailed off, chuckling weakly. Alex rolled his eyes.

“Right. So, do you have a name?” he asked.

“Ah, I-I’m S-Sahalazar, the Magus. A-At least, that’s my screenname. You can call me Jamie if you want!”

“Mmm. Alex. Level 1 Raider.” he said, dissatisfaction evident.

“Oh, d-don’t let that bother you! RFO has new players constantly, everyone starts at the bottom. It’s pretty simple to level up, but it does take awhile. I mean, I got it the first month it came out, but there’s already people level 76 running around. It’s crazy, I don’t know how they do it.”

“An overabundance of free time, I expect.” Alex deadpanned. The path led down a dusty road. There was a wolf with glowing red eyes off ahead, but he stepped behind a tree and despawned in a flash of light. Alex checked Allocrax’s HP, 6 of 29. Probably for the best anyway. A couple miles in the distance lay what looked like a god-size town. “Is that Apollo City?”

“Yeah. That’s where all the newer players usually end up first, after coming out of the Lake of Origin. I’ll get you a shirt, I’ve got enough gold for that at least.” Jamie explained.

“Thank you, but I believe I’ll be able to cover it.” Alex said flatly, trying to walk quicker. He wanted to explore this world, not play with some hanger-on, especially one that clung to him like a remora. Suddenly, Jamie chuckled. “Something funny?”

“Kind of. How much gold do you have?” the Magus asked innocently. Alex was instantly on guard, and Jamie held up his hands. “No, no! It’s just you’re level one, and you didn’t seem to have encountered many monsters yet, is all…heh heh…” he tried to laugh off, withering under Alex’s glare.

“Hmm. About seventy, I think.” he answered carefully. Jamie blinked.

“R-Really? Wow. Uh, when did you start playing?”

“This afternoon, about three hours ago.” Alex said grouchily.

“Ah. Um, a basic set of clothes is 200 gold. A hundred for the pants and shirt. A stay at an inn is about 500 a night.” Alex slowed, his eyes widening, turning to look at Jamie. “I-I’ve got about 2000 gold on me, just from playing for a couple hours a day. You usually have to grind a bit first, I just got new equipment.” he said, embarrassed. There was only one thing Alex could say to that.

“*Bleep*!”

“Y-Yeah. A-Average pull for newbs is around 700 a day, after a couple hours playing. I’ve gotta study and do homework, so I can’t be on as much as I’d like, but I kinda do ok if I stick close to the cities.” Jamie said, scratching his head.

“That’s…” Alex looked at the massive tear in his shirt, flapping annoyingly. He sighed. A proud vampire, not a stupid one. This game wasn’t turning out to be much fun at all. “I vould be grateful to take you up on your kind offer.” he said through gritted teeth.

“No prob! It’s ok, I needed to get a couple potions anyway. A little extra to help a newb out isn’t any trouble.” Jamie said. The vampire twitched.

“Vhat did you call me?” Alex said suspiciously, stomping up to him. Jamie’s avatar was over six feet tall, and Alex’s was only 5’5, but the Magus shrank back.

“A-A newb? It, it’s short f-for newbie. A n-new player, that’s all! I didn’t mean anything by it, really!” he cried, looking like he was going to burst into tears. Alex raised an eyebrow, then sighed and turned away.

“Look, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just grab a replacement and go our separate vays, alright?” he said tiredly.

“O-Ok.” Jamie said, sounding deflated. Alex rolled his eyes again and they trudged forward in silence. Alex shook his head. Ugh.

Jamie glanced up at the short Raider ahead of him, his entire demeanor screaming pissed off. He sighed dejectedly. Another player angry at him.

They reached the town in short order, but there was a gathering of warrior-type players outside the gate. Jamie tilted his head, but Alex stopped him from going on. He’d seen the green stars on their shoulders, just like the ones who’d been chasing them before. The apparent leader, a burly man with an extra-bushy beard stood in their way, an enormous axe strapped to his back.

“Are they the ones who messed up the mossbear hunt?” he rumbled, not taking his eyes from them. Alex frowned while Jamie’s knees shook. The three pursuers from earlier stepped forward.

“Yeah boss, that’s them.” the spearman said. The boss, whose display said his name was Jax, smiled maliciously and swung the weapon around.

“Ahh, so you’re the ones who wasted two weeks of hard work. We’re a little light on crafting materials right now, that mossbear hide was supposed to bring us decent gold and a new temperature-resistant coat. You little men’re in a big amount of trouble with the Green Dog guild. Who are we, boys!” he shouted suddenly.

“Green Dogs! Green Dogs! Green Dogs!” all of them chanted, making Jamie and Alex flinch as they broke out into barking and howling noises. The two shared a worried glance. The guild leader grinned and nodded at his men.

“We are the Green Dogs, and we tolerate no disrespect from anyone, let alone a couple noobs who think they can drive us off the hunt!” he said, glowering. Alex stepped forward cautiously. This was the sixteenth century all over again.

“Sir, ve mean no disrespect. My companion vas merely practicing the game’s spells vhen the…bear-thing, I suppose, appeared. Vhen your people pursued I intervened, and have now learned the situation in full. There is no cause for enmity between us, all vas due to an unfortunate accident.” he said calmly.

“You expect me to believe that?” the guildmaster growled.

“You should. It’s the truth.” he said simply. The guildmaster paused, considering. Sniping a couple of noobs, one of which was only level one. It wouldn’t look good for his guild. On the other, it wouldn’t do to just forget it, otherwise the other guilds would try to take advantage.

“’Scuse me.” another player said gruffly, stepping past to enter the city.

“B-Boss…” Jax saw it was a purple-haired woman in violet armor, a disinterested look on her face. Slung over her shoulder was her kill, what looked like a bear…with…moss on it.

“You…you…you *bleep!* *Bleep!* *Bleep!* it! I see what’s going on here, you distracted us from our prey while she goes in for the kill! You’re not gonna get away with it! Surround ‘em and make ‘em respawn, boys! Take all their loot when they die!” Jax bellowed, hefting his axe.

“Excuse me?” the woman said, raising her eyebrow indignantly. Weapons were raised and the guild closed ranks behind Jamie.

“Uh-oh.” he said, eyeing them up.

“Listen pal, I don’t know who you think you are, but I found and killed this thing fair and square! I’ve never seen these two in my life!” she said.

“We’re not really together either.” Alex added, gesturing to the space between him and Jamie.

“Rraagh! Don’t try to confuse us, I know what you’re up to! Mages, fire!”

The three Maguses and two Alchemists launched balls of lightning and flasks that exploded on the ground.

“Ah! What is wrong with you!?” the woman said angrily, drawing an enormous sword from her back. It was bigger than Allocrax was.

“Silence, woman! Either give up the mossbear and all your group’s stuff, or die and lose it anyway!” Jax roared, seeing red. How dare they!

“I’m not with them, idiot!” she snapped, swinging her blade. It travelled in a slow arc, utterly decimating whoever it hit. Alex watched in awe as three people fell back, health bars dropping by nearly a third. He saw Jamie frantically dodging the swinging weapons panickedly, his health in the low yellow, almost red. He grabbed the Magus by the cloak and pulled him, backing up to meet the woman’s back with his. She swung at him, but he brought his own blade up to meet it.

“I know you’re not vith us, but they think you are, and three’s stronger than vun!” Alex said. The woman grunted and turned back to the Green Dogs, hefting her sword and parrying.

“C’mon you suckers! I’ll beat every last one of you! Haaaah!” She thrust a kick into an attacker, throwing him back into their artillery support, collapsing into a pile of pain.

“She’s qvite strong. Hitcrease!” Alex called, his sword glowing. A blade swung at his head, but at the last moment he dropped and thrust into his opponent’s chest. The Raider snarled, a -10 appearing, when suddenly he was engulfed in a column of fire, -48. Alex glanced over at Jamie, shaking behind the woman, but his staff pointed out.

“B-Burning Pillar is my strongest spell!” he shouted, flailing his staff.

“Cast something else!” the woman cried, parrying an attack at his head.

“Uh, r-right! Um…ah! Groundquake!” He lifted his glowing leg and stomped, sending a shockwave out forty feet and knocking everyone within it down.

“Don’t hit me!” the woman snarled, getting up with the rest.

“Sorry! It doesn’t work like that!” Jamie apologized.

“Forget that! Give me a wall, do some crowd control, set ‘em up!” she said, swinging again. Jamie froze, then turned bright red.

“Uh…”

“C’mon man!” She was clashing with two Raiders at once, and they were pushing her back. A Bard was bolstering their power from behind with a magic mandolin, singing and dancing. She grimaced; she wouldn’t be able to hold long, then it would be all over.

“Hit this vun then!” Alex commanded, swiping at the Bard’s instrument.

“Not today, knave!” the player said, brandishing a rapier. Alex frowned. The song was still playing automatically, it was overriding the BGM. They couldn’t keep this up.

“Clear the way!” Jax swung his enormous axe, missing the woman and Jamie. His eyes shone blue as an aura of power whipped up around him.

“Searchspikes!” From his weapon black spikes ran along the ground towards them. The woman put her gigantic sword in front of her, and both she and Jamie were slammed ten feet in the air, screaming. Her health bar dropped by half, yellowing.

“Holy crap, I didn’t know he had that!” she exclaimed, landing heavily but on her feet. Jamie just screamed. Meanwhile, Alex suddenly had the rest of the guild to contend with, seeing their leader was fighting the other two. Alex checked their displays. The guild was around twelve people between level 25 and 31. Jax was level 39. He saw the woman was only 25 as she swung this way and that, batting attacks aside like a fan. He was stuck doing piddling damage with his low strength and weak weapon, unable to do more than move. And move he did, sliding under weapons, spells, and arrows as he shimmied his way through the crowd, not expecting him to go on the offensive.

“Look out!” The axe came down again and the woman parried, metal screeching as they slid down one another. “Hyaaa!” Alex jumped over her shoulder and thrust his sword at Jax’s face, and while it couldn’t have done more than a point of damage, human reaction made him duck. Alex grinned. “Miss, please take care of the group along vith the Magus. I’ll handle him.”

“What!” she said, shocked.

“Hah!” Jax snorted.

“You’re only level one!” they said in unison.

“I know. Magbolt!” He didn’t have enough MP for Hitcrease, so this was the only thing he could do with his magic. The spell burst on the guildmaster’s armor. -1. “Go!”

“Fine!” The woman shuffled off and started smacking the player chasing Jamie.

“Hmph. One hit and you’re dead, and you can’t hurt me.” Jax boasted. Alex watched as the axe was raised. He swung. “Die!”

“Indeed. But you have to get better to connect vith that hit.” Alex said, standing behind Jax. He stabbed furiously, none more than a -1, but he managed to hit him five times before the guildmaster swung his axe again. “Pathetic!”

Easily ducking, Alex scored three more hits. It was tedious, and dangerous, but his eyes and feet were well used to fighting. He danced around the bigger opponent, years on the battlefields allowing him to dodge and weave almost with his eyes closed. Unfortunately, Jax had enough.

“Vulcan Wave!” He dug his weapon into the dirt, his MP dropping significantly. Alex’s eyes widened as he threw up a large wave of lava, molten rock splashing the gate to town. “Ha! Die!” Alex glanced at his health bar, only at 2 HP. He couldn’t avoid all the splashes of lava.

“Heh…would’ve died anyway.” he muttered, adjusting his grip on his sword. He felt very nostalgic, he hadn’t been in a battle like this in centuries. A shame he couldn’t actually do anything. All this running around without striking back was tiresome, and left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“You’re a nimble one, I’ll give ya that!” Jax said with a grin. His MP bar shrank more as he dug into the ground again. “But you can’t run away anymore!” Alex glanced from side to side. A couple of his soldiers had snuck up behind him, now flanking to cut off his escape, with more than enough HP to endure the attack. He backed up to the wall behind him, eyes widening. Nowhere to dodge!

“Vulcan Wave!” He closed his eyes for the end…then fell on his rear.

“H-Huh?” He opened them to see a man with bright red hair holding out his hand. The lava had frozen in midair, tinged blue.

“You may want to move.” he said with a wink. Without delay Allocrax rolled to the side, and the man released his spell, the lava splashing harmlessly on the dirt. He let out a low whistle.

“You know PVP isn’t allowed at a town.” he said, smiling. Jax bristled.

“We’re not fighting in the town, moron!” he shouted, but a minion tugged on his arm nervously.

“B-Boss, that’s L-L-Lucien!” he whispered desperately.

“Him? Bah! Everyone knows Lucien’s got that flashy sword, he’s not even armed!” Jax blustered. “His arm’s the fastest in the game, that’s why they call him the White Swordsman. This guy doesn’t even have any gear, probably a Magus.” The redhead stepped forward, smiling.

“I’m actually a Knight. And I just got back today. The Trial gave me quite a lot of loot, along with some items that allow me to don my gear in less than a second.” He smiled at them, standing still while Jax laughed.

Then his fist was embedded in Jax’s gut, dissolving into data bits. “And I find those who camp at town to ambush newbies are trash players, unworthy of my blade.” The entire guild gasped and stepped away as Jax died, dropping all his items. The Green Dogs started to panic and run.

“Hmph indeed, all bark and no bite.” Lucien said, arms folded as applause from the city built up. “Are you alright? Need a potion?” he asked Alex, helping him up.

“I’m fine.” the vampire said, releasing his hand immediately.

“I see. Don’t worry, then.” He helped Jamie up too, starstruck.

“Oh-OH-OHMYGOD! Lucien! I heard you’re the top player in RFO! You’re level 74!”

“75.” he said modestly.

“Thanks for the help.” the woman said, picking up the mossbear corpse. “Did you want any of this, for helping us?”

“No thanks, I’ve got more than enough items and gold for a lifetime. I’m just glad no one else was hurt. I’ve gotta get going, so good luck and have fun!” Lucien waved and jogged off, the smile never leaving his face. Jamie pumped his fist and the woman smiled too, but Alex stared at him, nonplussed. He was never very impressed with super happy, ultra-optimistic people like that. For some reason, the face of Zack Foley came to his mind.

“Here.” He was snapped out of his reverie and nearly dropped the paw the woman tossed to him. “The valuable part of the mossbear’s the fur, so it’s not much, but since you’re a new player, that’ll help you out to start with. Gotta be worth something towards a better weapon.” They both glanced at the sword in his hand, worn and chipped after only two battles. “Starting equipment sucks. Anyway, you got guts, kid. See you around.” She hoisted the bear on her shoulder and walked off.

“O-Oh! Thank you! By the way, what’s your name?” Jamie called after her.

“Name’s Riezelkhrad. Maybe we’ll meet up sometime.” she said, waving a gauntlet.

“Man, that was intense. I’m almost out of MP!” Jamie said, turning back to Alex. “Well, we should get going too. I’ll get you your shirt, and you can use that claw for something else, pawn it for a sword or get a new one forged. That’ll-”

“I could, but I von’t.” Alex said, waving a hand dismissively. “I thank you for your aid, but this game isn’t vhat I thought it vas, and I don’t find it much fun.” He would be looking into this technology, as it was truly revolutionary. But he was less than impressed with Real Fantasy Online. “I hope you have a good time, but I’ll be logging out now.” He called up his menu.

“O-Oh. S-See you, then.” Jamie said, Sahalazar’s shoulders drooping. Alex nodded and pushed the logout button.

After a moment, he pushed it again.

Then again.

And again.

“Vhat’s going on? This is the logout function, correct?” he said, brow furrowed. Jamie checked it out.

“Yeah, that’s it. Should be working.” He called up his own menu. He pressed his own buttons to no effect. He shot a frightened glance at Alex, then pressed it over and over. “W-What’s going on? Why isn’t it working?” His button presses grew more and more frantic as he began to sweat. Alex rubbed his eyes, the sound getting on his nerves.

“Enough!” he barked, grabbing Jamie’s hand. “Vill you cease that foolishness! It’s obvious something is wrong. Doing the same thing over and over von’t help.” he said, letting go with a growl. This was most annoying. His mind raced trying to think of what went wrong and how to fix it, but computer programming never interested him in the first place, so he’d never pursued it. He glanced at the other players and NPCs. “Does anyvun else have trouble vith the logout function?”

“I’ve been trying for the last twenty minutes.” one said, in yellow armor three times his avatar's size.

The sky broke open. A hundred-foot goddess in an ephemeral blue robe and golden raiment descended into the town square serenely, popups appearing next to every player with her face on it.

“Greetings, adventurers of Real Fantasy Online. This is a system administrator announcement. Due to an unforeseen accident, the logout function has been disabled. We are working to fix the problem as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we do not know when the system will be fully online again. Estimates are anywhere between two and seventy-two hours at a minimum. We apologize for this inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Thank you.” She rose into the sky, leaving the crowd shocked and confused, restless shouts and screaming starting already.

Alex stared at the sky, staring at the spot she’d faded from existence. He was stuck here? With these people?

He didn’t know if he could survive this.

“Alex! Alex! Do you know what this means!?” Jamie said, wide-eyed as the player began to howl and even stampede.

“Vhat?”

“We’re-we’re trapped in the game!”