It’s only seconds until a well-meaning healer class player spots Clark, and targets him. As they pass by, the young lady raises her staff and uses lesser healing a few times. Immediately Clark’s pain meets a very welcome end, though the sensitivity of his new knob is still there.

“Th-thanks!” Clark calls as Ein carries him along. Neither of them saw who did it from in-between the crowds, but both are fairly certain she wouldn’t have healed him if she knew what his job was within the game.

They step up to an inn by the name of “the splattered squire”, emblemed pleasantly by a young man being crushed under the foot of a massive dragon. Ein places Clark back on his feet, and they forge into the ale-and-steak scented atmosphere of the inn.

A mandolinist is playing a calm tune alongside another bard player, who’s trying his best to synchronize with the other’s really quite impressive playing.

Ein nudges Clark and nods his head over to the back, where a young man with brown curly hair is standing dutifully behind a desk.

“Huh, a player as an innkeeper?” Clark speaks under his breath to Ein.

“Tricked? It’s an NPC,” Ein says.

The two step up to the innkeeper. It’s not immediately clear to Clark that the innkeeper is an NPC, because its head doesn’t track to the person nearest to them like most would. “Pretty impressive design, especially considering its inspect sheet is identical to a player’s.”

“DSO was designed to deliver indistinguishable AI experiences, check this out,” Ein nods over to the innkeeper. “Good day.”

The young man, by the name of Jonson, nods pleasantly. “Hello, sir, and a good day to you!”

Ein looks to Clark, who nods as if impressed.

“I’m going to need a room for an hour.”

Jonson draws back. “Only an hour sir?” He wearily eyes Clark, notable younger-looking than the tall and matured Ein.

“…Sir, there is no brotheling to be allowed in this establishment.”

“Wh-” Clark stops himself as he’s overcome with laughter.

“You misunderstand, boy,” Ein says, “We’re just laying low for a while.”

Clark squints in suspicion. “…And how many beds will you have?”

“Whatever’s cheapest, one bed is fine.”

Jonson sighs. “Sir, I thought I made it perfectly clear tha-”

“Whatever, I don’t care! Just give us a damn room!”

The young Innkeep flings up a pair of keys. “Two hundred gol.”

In just as much speed, Ein flings over a bag of gol, dense with ‘100’ gol coins.

“Wh- s-”

“A tip for good service,” Ein says as snatches up the keys and heads up past the job board and to the staircase.

Clark fires a glance over to Jonson as he steps off, Jonson looks legitimately surprised.

“You’re right,” Clark says, catching up to Ein. “It’s totally lifelike.”

Ein nods. “Technology has come a l-”

“No, like, super lifelike. I’m not sure if I believe you.”

Ein shrugs as they go down the hall, passing a couple more stupid role-players as they arrive to their room, ‘2F’.

“Believe me. The tech we’ve been dealing with at the office has been intense.”

Clark hums as they enter the room with a satisfying ‘click’ of the keys. Opening forth reveals a quaint, cozy room with a bed and a couple chairs, a solitary, unadorned window providing a view to the busy streets below. “So… you’re contacting the admin?”

“Yup, do whatever for a minute or two,” Ein says as he lays himself upon the bed and stretches a couple times before relaxing.

Clark squints an eye. “And you do this by…”

“Sleeping. Unconsciousness causes a cessation of the game’s projection to the player.”

“For safety reasons, I’m sure.”

“Right. Most people would be logged out, but you and me, we can actually peer past the framework.”

Clark crosses his arms. “I can, as a player?”

“Sort of. You obviously can’t contact the admin, but you can still sleep. It’d be a lot like dreaming in real life. It actually is your brain dreaming, unlike me in this case, where I’m more or less hailed by the admin when unconscious.”

“Huh, well I guess that makes sense.”

“Anyway, don’t bother me, go downstairs and make some friends, look over your skills, maybe build into something that isn’t CC.”

“Right,” Clark steps out, “Just let me know.”

“Will do,” Ein says, resting in his full suit upon the bed.

Clark just shakes his head and closes the door. Back in the old days of MMOs, it was a good deal harder to figure out if the people you were playing with were complete weirdos, but now that personalities and body language are far-better translated in games, it doesn’t take long before it’s clear as day.

Clark leans into the door post in the hall as he clicks up his stat screen.

5L4Y

Race:Human

Class:Midnighter

Faction:None

STR:943

DEX:2829

INT:5

STA:5

CHA:5

LCK:5

He’s been investing all those free Midnighter points as he gets them. In other, less demanding games he’s usually okay with waiting a few levels before sitting down with a cup of tea and enjoying a few minutes of cozy min/maxing, but he cannot take that leisure here, where the pain is real. Clark’s confident that his build is reasonable thus far, after all he just went toe to toe with a pair of cheaters and scraped by. He’s sure that as long as he maintains three DEX to every STR, he’ll be able to handle, and crit, just about anything. He’s interested in INT and LCK, but it’s not yet clear how much they effect what stat. He’ll play it safe for now and go with the tried and true: very fast, and very strong.

Clark looks to his right forearm a moment. “This is pretty cool, though,” he says with a morbid smirk.

He decides he’ll go down and glean knowledge from the other players. Some fat nerd down there is bound to know what LCK’s stat multipliers are.

Downing the steps, his measly 5 INT does not serve him with any warning, but the boy’s natural intuition is more than enough to put him on edge. Just as he rounds the corner overlooking the inn’s bar commons, he hears a “pipipi” noise.

He ducks back and slowly curls around the corner. Hero and that four-eyed freak are passing awed onlookers enjoying their virtual beer. It’s them.

With a gaze of madness, he quickly opens up his skill book and sinks in his new points in preparation, just in case.