The crowd in front of the plaza was teeming, restless players gathered around the 8-Piece Suns guild hall. For the last three hours, the leaders of all the major guilds had been holed up in there, trying to figure out what was going on, and what to do. Occasionally, there had been shouting even louder than the crowd.

The doors burst open, scattering the adventurers on the steps. Zaigo Keeber (also known as Alec), level 67 head of the 8-Piece Suns strode forward, nailing a proclamation to the door.

“Alright you bums! Everybody’s got eyes, so they can read it whenever they want! Listen up! All the guilds, and this was a unanimous decision, have decided to outlaw any adventuring unsupervised for the time being!” At the boos and chorus of groans he twisted the ring on his hand, growing to twenty feet tall. “I said, this was unanimous! This’s for your own safety, *bleeps!* Until we know what’s going on ourselves, solo raids and quests are hereby forbidden for the next three days! You wanna go out and get yourself killed, be my guest! But I’m betting there’s gonna be some smart ones mixed in with you lot, so be patient! There will be groups going out to level up, you want to see action, sign up! If not, hunker down! God *bleep* it, *bleep*, these *bleep*ing *bleep*s are gonna *bleep* it all up…” he muttered in a booming voice, shrinking down to go back inside. Jamie shook his head as the crowd gathered up to read the proclamation or mutter angrily to themselves in the square. He headed into the inn, carrying a paper bag.

“I’m back!” he said, opening the door to their room. Alex stopped his relentless pacing. Jamie arched an eyebrow at the battered chair in the corner.

“We can’t actually get hurt in the game, and I needed to…vent.” The chair’s back collapsed. “If I can’t actually damage them, vhy not use my fists as instruments?” he continued as if nothing was wrong.

“Objects have thousands of hit points.” Jamie said.

“And?” the vampire said, drawing himself up imperiously. Jamie shook his head, towering over him.

“Never mind. I got those gloves, and the food you wanted.” He set the bag down and Alex dug in, biting down savagely on an apple and relishing the crunch.

“I…don’t get to eat simple like this very much.” He said, and it wasn’t a lie. Bah, this child could never understand. While blood was delicious, exquisite, supreme even, having the same thing every day for centuries became routine, no matter how fresh it tasted on the tongue. He could not remember the last time he’d eaten anything without the sanguineous tang. If he was stuck here, he was going to enjoy it as much as he could.

“But that’s no matter. Vhat did you find out?” Alex said, licking his fingers.

“Not much. You heard Zaigo, no one knows what’s going on, only that we can’t log out. At least the panic’s died down for the most part, people’re resuming as normal. Mostly, I guess. Best they can.” Jamie said, looking out the window. The inn had a view of the plaza, and everyone who wasn’t swearing vengeance on the devs or the guilds was loafing around, aimless and despondent. He’d seen it everywhere- a lot of people seemed depressed, unable to muster the will to even stand. “Everyone’s on-edge.”

“I’m not surprised.”

“Some are actually celebrating, since they can’t do anything else they’re going wild. I heard some guilds’re smashing stuff and PKing, and raiding NPC holds and stores like no tomorrow. With all that going on, I can see why smaller parties and solo players are sticking to the towns. The Green Dogs are out, too.” he said. Alex grunted at that.

“But that glitch you spoke of, has it affected anything else?” he said, frowning.

A couple hours after the logout crash, there had been chaos. And when there was chaos and anarchy, especially in a world full of monsters programmed only to kill you, there were deaths. Normally, one dropped their gear and came back five minutes later, missing experience points, but something funny had been happening to the respawn system.

“Seems to work fine for the most part. A couple players apparently took like a few minutes later to come back, that’s all I could make out.” Jamie shrugged.

“I see.” Alex stroked his chin. So their brains didn’t seem to be in danger, even if they died.

“Yeah, but we’re still cut off. That’s what scares me.” Jamie said, looking away. Whatever glitch knocked out the logout system, also disabled the internet messenger function. They were completely in the dark from the outside. The in-game messenger was fine, but anything that was sent out to people in the real world failed. “I wonder if my sister’s worrying. I hope not too much.” He sighed. He’d seen all kinds of anime about this exact situation. Now that he was living it, he wanted to hurl if he thought about it for too long.

“Mmm.” Alex grunted noncommittally. The question remained: what did they do now? They stared in silence for a long minute. “I vould suppose those on the outside are vorking to get us out. How many did you say vere on vhen ve found out?” he asked.

“About 19 million.” Jamie said. Alex let out a low whistle.

“Qvite a few. Definitely trying to save us. In the meantime, I guess ve try and look for a solution to the problem ourselves.”

“What do you mean?” Jamie said, tilting his head. Alex huffed.

“Use your brain! Who knows how long it’ll take for them to find a vay out of this mess. I’d rather spend my time doing something constructive.” Besides, who could trust those damn developers to get them out when they were the reason they were stuck here. He scowled, and Jamie shrank back. “Either vay, I’m just level vun. I need to build up.”

“H-Huh? You…didn’t level up?” Jamie asked nervously.

“Vhat do you mean? I haven’t killed anything in this game yet, I need more experience and gear.” he snapped.

“Uh. You, you don’t kill anything to level up in RFO. You use the menu, you have to do it manually.” Jamie said.

“Vhat?”

“Yeah, see?” He pointed to his screen, where he was now level 20. Alex’s eyes bugged out.

“How did I not know this!?”

“D-Did you go through the whole tutorial?” Jamie asked innocently. Alex scowled, eyebrow twitching.

“How does vun level up, then?” he said through gritted teeth.

“W-Well, open up your menu. It should have given you the points automatically, but you assign points yourself.” Frowning severely, Alex opened his screen. He hadn’t noticed at the time, but he had gained four full levels from his encounter with the Green Dogs.

“Vhat! I’m level 5!?” he exclaimed. Such an increase for merely fighting, no victory.

“Yeah. PVP doesn’t give much xp even relative to level. I heard the devs made it so you’ll lose xp if you player kill when the level difference is too big.” Jamie said nonchalantly.

“That’s…hmph, nevermind.” Alex said quickly. He checked his stats. His STR and SPD were both at 10 apiece, and he had 20 points to put into his stats. “Um…how does vun do this?”

“You can assign points mentally, or use the button on the side.” Jamie offered. Alex glared at him for daring to suggest something so obvious, then reached out a hesitant finger to put another point into STR.

“Huh. Very vell. I suppose I need to hit harder.” He put four more points into STR. But then he thought of how much damage mere debris had caused, and put five into TGH. He looked at his hand. The ability to shoot things and hit harder was also powerful. He put ten points into SPC.

“Um, one of the greatest strengths of the Raider class is their speed. It’s why they get such a large bonus to it.” Jamie piped up, red-faced. It took everything he had to speak up, but then Alex’s build would be unoptomized. He could barely watch him putting points into TGH.

“Heh?” Alex grunted.

“S-See, every class specializes in different things. If you put p-points into a non-specialized stat, you’ll never be as good as those who do, and the benefits usually aren’t enough to make much of a difference. Your class wasn’t designed to take hits, the points will do less for you than, like, a Knight.

“I can see that.” 6 HP form an attack’s debris. “However, I make my own choices.” He was about to hit the button to exit and finalize his spread, but he saw Jamie flinch. Rolling his eyes, he took 5 points from SPC and put them in SPD. “Better?”

“I-I suppose.” the Magus said abashedly. They looked over Allocrax’s stats: STR: 15, TGH: 5, SPC: 5, SPD: 15, HP: 47, MP 30. “It could be worse.”

“Hmph. Vhat’re your stats then?” Alex challenged. Jamie pulled up Sahalazar’s stats. “Let’s see. STR: 0. TGH: 0. SPC: 95, SPD: 65, HP…wait, 95!? The *bleep*!?” he said.

“Y-Yeah. I’m kinda, highly specialized. That’s why my spells hit so hard.” Alex stared at that huge number, comparing it to his puny SPC. “But, I’m like four times your level. Of course I’d have a lot more points.”

“Enough!” Alex barked, dismissing the menu and turning away form an MP bar with 237 points. His eyebrow twitched. “This’s all very vell and good, but ve’ve got to figure a vay out. Somevun must know something about vhat’s going on, ve just have to find them.”

“Well, if they do, they’re not saying it. It’s been a full day, but no one’s heard a peep of why we’re stuck. You’d think the admins would say something.”

“Admins?” Alex asked.

“Administrators. GMs. The people who run and monitor the game.”

“Hmm. Are these administrators here as vell?” Jamie opened his mouth to answer, and realized he couldn’t.

“I…don’t know. I don’t think anyone’s seen them, but if there were any admins they should be monitoring the game, especially now. There might even be admin characters here in town. Of course, that’s a big if, I don’t know. But if they are in RFO, they probably wouldn’t be here, Apollo City’s too small.” he said, scratching his head.

“Hmm. They could provide more clues to solving this mystery. Vhere vould the largest city be, then?” Alex asked, scratching his chin.

“That’d be Olympolis, near the Dust Drum Mountains. But that’s nearly f-five hundred miles away, and I’m not high enough level for a mount yet! The monsters would eat us alive, they’re perfectly functional, and…I’m worried about the respawn delay. I think everyone is.” he said gingerly.

“That is a problem.” Alex stared pensively out the window. If there was anyone who knew what was going on, it would probably be there. And he didn’t want to wait. His physical body could go for long periods without blood, but it would need proportionally large amounts of it in return when he woke. And a blood frenzy would definitely draw attention, and in turn that would draw the Council’s attention. He shuddered. “It beats sitting around. Come then, ve should be off.”

“B-but what about the monsters? Solo players get mushed all the time, and I’m not sure even a duo could simply be allowed out anyway, not at your, uh…you, well….” Jamie sucked in air through his teeth, not wanting to say it. Alex rolled his eyes.

“I am more than avare of my level deficiencies. And I know your gold reserve is taxed to its limit. That’s vhy before ve set out to Olympolis, ve’re going recruiting.” Jamie blinked.

“H-Huh? R-Really? You think that’ll work?”

“Of course. Vhy vouldn’t anyvun vant to stick around, vhen they could be part of a team to solve the problem?” Alex said, grinning sharply.

----------------------------------------------------------

It was past noon when they came to the fountain, slumped over in defeat. They collapsed onto a bench, the spray of the water contrasting nicely with the hot day. It had been four hours, and they were exhausted. They’d approached every lone adventurer they saw, presenting their plight and plan. The result?

“No.”

“No way.”

“Pass.”

“Get outta here, I’m twice your level combined.”

“I already have a guild.”

“Sorry, no.”

“Pfft! Yeah right!”

“Party’s full.”

“Yeah, no.”

“*bleep* off.”

“Nah.”

“Sorry, I’m a lesbian.” That last one had confused Alex greatly, watching the hulking mass of testosterone stomp away.

“Even if he vere a girl, vhat, vhy…” he muttered to himself.

“It’s hopeless.” Jamie said, leaning away from the fountain.

“It is not hopeless. Ve’ve only been at this for a few hours.” Alex growled. He eyed the drooped Magus. Obviously socially inept and lonely, but he knew the game better than the vampire did and was higher level, and willing to share his resources. Annoying, but he could be useful. Alex planned to stretch that expertise to the limit.

“We really don’t have much to offer anyway. I spent most of my money on this cloak, I can’t exactly give it to anyone else. My staff’s not special, my inventory’s practically empty...”

“Better than mine.” Alex deadpanned. He had a chipped sword, the clothes on his back, and three spells. When he reached level 5, a menu popped up concerning spell selection. Jamie had explained. There was Tanglegrass, Sparktouch, and Stalagspike. Tanglegrass caused grass to entangle a target’s feet, Sparktouch ignited objects with a touch, and Stalagspike caused a spike of stone to shoot up. Jamie had urged him to take Sparktouch, arguing the versatility. However, Alex wanted to take a spell that could actually cause damage, and so went with Stalagspike. Of course, for now it drained half his bar in one shot, and only went five feet up. At least it could be used up to ten feet away, but his Magbolt had greater range. He sighed again. That spell had better do some serious damage to compensate.

“I just don’t see how anyone would join us. Solo players are either doing their own thing or being scooped up by guilds, and the guilds are holed up in towns for now. There’s no way we could form a party like this.”

“You think I don’t know that? You give up too easy. Kids should be full of pith and vinegar, raring to go. Dig your feet in, because ve’re not stopping until ve find at least vun more person villing to join us.” Alex said.

“Man, can’t believe this.”

“Yeah, we’re level 30, but the guild still won’t let us go out on our own. They’re looking down on us.”

“*bleep* man, they still think we’re too young. So what! It’s a game! It doesn’t matter! We’re fourteen! We’re way better at videogames than they are!”

“Yeah. Except my brother has to get the one boss for me, but other than that I’m leagues ahead of everyone in the guild. You are too.”

“*bleep*ing right.” Two characters were chatting as they passed the fountain, resentment on their faces. One had a tricornered hat and no shirt, gauntlets travelling up his entire forearms and his pants held up with rainbow suspenders, greaves covering his shins. The other had a hood over his face, a large sword on his back, and far too enormous pauldrons on his shoulders, overshadowing the rest of his armor.

Jamie and Alex looked at each other. Two kids, high levelled, unsatisfied with their guild, looking to go out? This was the best chance they’d likely get.

“Jamie lad, this’s our chance. Go and recruit them, I have a fine feeling about these vuns.” Alex whispered excitedly. Jamie paled. His previous efforts were supremely unsuccessful, and he’d been feeling crummy all day thanks to it.

“M-Me? B-But I’ve been trying all day, and we haven’t got anyone yet. I-I’m not a very good talker, and…” he trailed off nervously.

“Vhat are you talking about! You’ll do fine, it’s practically a guaranteed sell, all ve have to do is propose our idea and they vill jump on it. I’m sure of it.” Alex said confidently.

“Um, but, I, I don’t really know how to talk to people at my school, I’m, not very popular. C-Could you show me how it’s done?” he asked hopefully, eyes shining.

“M-Me?” Alex said, taken aback. “B-But they’re closer in age to you, you can relate to them better, obviously…”

“Aw, c’mon! You’re way better at this sort of thing, it’s p-practically a guaranteed sell, r-right?” Jamie said nervously. His nerves were too frayed from trying to recruit people. Maybe he would finally learn the secret of talking to people like a normal human!

“Um…” Alex was starting to sweat, but Jamie looked so enthusiastic, and they really hadn’t had any success, so… “Very vell. Vatch, and I’ll show you how to get a couple kids on your side.” He strode off confidently, the picture of ease. Internally he was swearing up a storm. What the devil were the kids into these days?

They looked up when they saw his shadow behind them.

“Huh? What’s up?” the one with the hat said. Alex called upon everything he’d ever watched, heard, or read on the internet about teens interacting.

“Yo yo, vhat is up homies!” he said cheerfully. “If you’re looking to get krunk and some bling, I’ve got the skinny, and can share the 411 vith you beeotches. If you’re gutfoundered for some turnt action, I’m not some hoddy-doddy, ve’re looking for some fine berries like yourselves, for we’ve got a plan that’s the bee’s knees for some hip, hep cats. These dewdroppers are baggin’ you, all these punks are Mrs. Grundys, they don’t know vhat a baaaaad dynamic duo you are. But I’m trying to say you should flat-leave and get on the trolley.”

They stared at him blankly. Jamie’s jaw fell open. Taking it as a sign of encouragement, Alex kept talking, both to Jamie’s wonder and horror.

“The pratts in your guild are trying to be the Man, mere shoulder-clapper’s the lot of ‘em. Down vith the Man, I say! But I need a couple of righteous dudes to be my spanglers, to join my funkadelic party I’m forming. So ve end up zozzled, not kickerapooed. Vhat do you say, dawgs? Is it baller? Dope? Stoopid?” He smiled at them charmingly.

They stared at him, then at each other, then burst out laughing.

“*bleep*ing what, dude?”

“Something’s stupid, alright!” They went down the alleyway, laughing their heads off, the other players who saw chuckling as well. Alex turned and rejoined Jamie, red as a tomato.

“Not vun vord.” he commanded, not even looking at him.

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“You didn’t have to.” Alex growled. There was a slow clap from behind them. They turned to see the purple-haired and armored Knight from yesterday standing over them, smirking.

“Wow. Quite the performance.” she said.

“Qviet, you.” Alex muttered.

“Don’t be like that, ‘homie’. Wow, haven’t heard that since I was a kid. How old are you, irl?” she asked.

“Vhat?”

“In real life.” Jamie explained.

“Oh. Um…I’m…50.” he said, settling on an age that would both explain his experience and temperament, and not enough to make him completely out of touch.

“Really? I knew you were older, just not like that much. I’m fifteen.” Jamie said. The Knight whistled.

“Hey, it’s all good. Rumor has it a couple of scrubs were looking around for some experienced players to party up with. That you?”

“Uh, yes?” Alex said uncertainty.

“Great. I’m joining you.” she said, her face resolute.

“Bwah? Why?” Jamie burst out, but was quickly shoved down by Allocrax.

“Vhat my companion means to say, is that ve vould be happy to accept you into our group. I believe he vas merely inquiring as to your cause, Madame!” Alex said quickly, smiling. He turned a chilling glare on Jamie that had been honed for generations. “Right?” The Magus instantly froze and withered. The Knight tilted her head.

“Your accent’s a little strange. Where are you from?” she asked.

“Europe, originally. I’ve been all over, you tend to pick things up. I’m in America right now.” he said smoothly. “Let me see…I believe it vas Riezelkhrad, vas it not?”

“Yeah. You can call me Lina, not much use for pretending in this situation. I’m sorry, I never got your names…”

“Sahalazar, m-master Magus extraordinaire. O-Or at least I’d like to say so. My name’s Jamie.” he laughed weakly, his voice cracking.

“I’m Alexandru. Also known as Allocrax the Fierce.”

“Uh-huh.” she said, pulling up the stats screens and eyeing his level.

“Appearances may deceive, my lady. Though ve have not much to offer through pure brute strength, I am confident the proper tactics shall see us through.” Alex said.

“I’m supposing that’s why you needed another player, then.” she said in a deadpan.

“You are correct, Madame.” he nodded shamelessly. She sighed. “Perhaps ve should move to the tavern to discuss this venture further.”

“Fine by me.” she shrugged.

----------------------------------------------------------

“So Madame Lina, vhat is your reason for vanting to join our endeavor?” Alex asked as their drinks arrived.

“Simple, really. I’ve got too much work to do back irl, and I haven’t heard a thing about where we’re supposed to go or what we’re supposed to do. I’m super worried about what everyone in the office’ll say. This’s just a hobby for me, that’s why I fly solo most of the time. But now that we’re all trapped in RFO, I suppose that has to change.” she said, nursing her ale.

“Makes sense. But then why were you looking to join a non-party like us? I mean, we’re not rich, famous, or powerful.” Jamie said hesitantly. Alex frowned but nodded in agreement.

“Indeed, I couldn’t help but vonder that myself, Madame.”

“Would you stop it with the Madame! I’m not old enough to be called that! Cut the ‘Madame’ crap, I’m less than half your age!” she said loudly, banging her fist on the table. They jumped, but she took in a calming breath before resuming. “Anyway, it’s simple. Now, even in this situation, I wouldn’t ordinarily join up with you guys, sorry. But literally everyone else around here I’ve found seems to either be too scared to do anything, or stuck spinning their wheels in endless meetings. And honestly, I need other people to watch my back. I’m not sure how much headway I’d make by myself. A couple low-level noobs isn’t exactly my first choice, but since you’re the only ones trying to do something about this, you’re the best players around. We are leaving, right?” she said with a raised eyebrow, taking a slow sip of her drink. Tasted exactly like ale did, but intoxication was impossible.

“But of course, Mada-Lina. All ve need is to acquire some new accoutrements, and a fresh blade for myself.” Alex said, eyeing his torn shirt disdainfully. In fairness, there were other things to worry about.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t waste any gold on the stuff around here. Crafters don’t really hang around the starting town, and the NPC stores all have junk. You can probably get either enough cash for something decent or a new weapon fighting monsters on the way. Unfortunately, the only rare drop around here is the mossbear, and that’s only armor.” she said, flicking her inventory screen at them. They could see the mossbear fur cloak, dark and shiny.

“4-48,000 gold!? That’s what it's worth?” Jamie whispered shrilly.

“Nice chunk of change.” she smiled.

“Indeed. Vell, I require a new shirt at least. This vun is distracting. If you’re ready, ve can leave vithin the hour.” Alex said, and she nodded with a grim grin.

“Finally. At last we can try to get to the bottom of this.” she said in relief.

“Qvite right. But be prepared, Lina. I have no idea vhat vent wrong, nor vhat this qvest vill require. You should be prepared to give up anything and everything, should you vish to see your home again.” Alex said solemnly. Lina’s eyes narrowed.

“Of course. Are you suggesting that I wouldn’t give it my all? Not my style.” she said dangerously.

“Good.” Alex nodded, meeting her gaze. “You can begin right now.” He slid her a piece of paper. She opened it to find…the bill. She looked up to see Alex and Jamie staring at her hopefully. She sighed and dug out her gold.