She was suddenly granted consciousness and opened her eyes. A blue abyss surrounded her on all sides, and she floated in it like water. She had no body, no memories, though her mind understood some things on a basic level. Like light, and how it filtered through her water-like surroundings from a distant place.

Or like the screen that appeared before her, reading [Character Creation].

She blinked at it. There were a lot of options, but all of them were pre-filled.

Option

Setting

Value A

Value B

Sex

Female

-

-

Race

Human

-

-

Hair

Wavy Long

Platinum Blond

Curled Bangs

Skin

Pale

-

-

Eyes

Green

Dark Limbal Rings

-

Height

[------|-------]

5’2”

-

Weight

[-------|------]

112lbs

-

Bust

[---------|----]

36in.

32E

UNDO

RANDOM

RESET

ACCEPT

There were so many more options; details for every part of the body, but she was focused on the eyes. Why did they have to be green? Sky blue was her favourite colour.

The [Eyes] setting flickered and changed to [Sky Blue]. The blurry shape of a figure hovered behind the screen. She tried to focus, but still couldn’t make it out clearly. Something about it was familiar to her.

A loud ding sounded and a bright message appeared. Click [ACCEPT]!

Surprised, she tried to look around for the origin of the noise. But there was nowhere to look. No voice accompanied the message, but she got the impression it was impatient with her. If she had a face with which to frown, she would have. Well, she thought, if this gets me a body…

She focused on [ACCEPT].

She thought something interesting would happen, like she would sprout limbs and soar off to somewhere with something to look at. Instead, a new screen appeared.

LEVEL

1

HP

68

DEF

9

STR

5

M.DEF

10

DEX

5

ATK

6

VIT

5

M.ATK

8

MND

5

AGI

5

CHA

5

LUCK

1

RESET

ACCEPT

Five four-sided dice in different colours appeared and rolled across the sheet. To her disappointment, the numbers that came up [1, 2, 3, 1 ,3] were assigned automatically.

Unassigned Skill Points

20

As she focused on the numbers their description appeared as a tooltip, but she didn’t give it much thought. The highest stats were VIT and CHA, so she added five more to each of them, leaving four each for MND and STR, and two for DEX.

LEVEL

1

HP

97

DEF

18

STR

10

M.DEF

15

DEX

9

ATK

10

VIT

13

M.ATK

16

MND

10

AGI

5

CHA

13

LUCK

1

RESET

ACCEPT

She found herself thinking of the words, “defensive spellcaster,” but wasn’t sure what they actually meant. Or what the context of these statistics even was. Would she wind up deeply entrenched along a certain path if she committed to these results?

If she’d had a body, she would have shrugged. She focused on [ACCEPT] again, and a new screen appeared. She was hopeful this was the final one.

Given Name

Family Name

Suara

Kurisol

RESET

FINISH

Her name was Suara? Suara Kurisol. She wondered where the name came from as she focused on [FINISH].

The screen flickered out, leaving her floating alone in the water. It was cold on her skin.

Her skin. She held up her hands, and turned them over to see both sides. A body! She was clothed in simple beige rags, except her feet which were bare. There was an elegant sky blue glove on her left hand that matched her eyes.

As she tried to sigh, water filled her nose and she panicked. Suara tried to swing her arms, but they struck something below her. She pushed off it, bending her body, and found herself sitting up waist deep. She blew water from her nose and shivered. She hoped she wouldn't always wake up that way.

Voices murmured around her. She was sitting in a water fountain in a town square. People were passing through in crowds, shopping at the variety of stalls set up around the plaza. There were a lot of different races, from elves to animal folk, all mingling together. The buildings were short with red-tiled roofs that slanted towards the square.

She placed a hand on the stone edge of the fountain and dragged herself out onto the cobblestone with a tumble.

“Is that an NPC?” someone said nearby with a surprised tone.

Suara pulled away the hair that had fallen over her face and noticed a dozen pairs of dirty boots all pointing towards her.

“Her character ring is green, like an NPC,” another voice said.

“What is an NPC doing spawning in the Player Fountain?”

It felt like a thousand similar comments were bombarding her. She stumbled to her feet and looked over the people staring at her. When she focused, she could see blue rings on the ground around their feet. There was a green one around hers, but she didn’t know what that meant.

“I’m not an ‘NPC’,” she said. “I’m a person.” Her voice was higher-pitched than she expected. But then... what had she expected?

A lanky brown-haired elf bent forward and laughed. “That’s what every NPC says!” The others all joined him in laughter. Were they laughing at her?

She thought to change the subject. “What city is this?” she asked.

The elf narrowed his yellow eyes at her. “What? You don’t know where you are?”

A human near the elf chuckled. “Every NPC should know what town this is… and every player too.”

The elf shook his head, planting his hands on his hips. “Maybe it’s a Game Master messing with us.”

“It’s probably a new NPC from the update today,” said a green-furred… rabbit-man? He had small horns that made her unsure what he was supposed to be. “She said she’s a person, like NPCs do when you try to mess with them out of character. A player would have said they’re a player, right? She must be bugged.”

A woman with shoulder-length blue hair spoke next. “The patch notes did say ‘incredible new people’ were added.”

“That doesn’t sound like me,” Suara sighed. She was bored and frustrated with this conversation. She wanted to find out where she was, and what she should be doing. Maybe she would even learn who she was. For some reason, she felt no urgency about it. Like she had all the time in the world.

She turned to walk away from the crowd and the elf ducked in front of her to block her path.

“Hey,” he said. “Not so fast, cutie, I want to see what you are.”

“No thanks,” Suara replied.

He shook his head, a toothy grin crossing his face. He squeezed his gloved left hand shut and when he opened it, a swirl of energy spun out from his palm and illuminated his fingertips. With his whole right hand he grabbed the red light on his index finger and drew a card from it. The card flashed white and a dagger appeared in his hand.

Suara stepped back. “What…?”

The elf lunged towards her and plunged the dagger into her chest. The wound pulsed with sharp pain. She stumbled back, clenching her fists.

A screen flashed [96 Piercing Damage]. Another appeared at the upper-left corner of her vision. [HP: 1/97 {[][][][][][][][][][]}] -> [{|____________}]

He pulled the dagger out, and her blood spurted across the cobblestones.

Her hand rose shakily to touch the blood, but as she unclenched her fist, the same power she had seen the elf use lit up her hand. But unlike the elf, only one of her fingers glowed.

“Huh, I didn’t think you’d die…” the elf said. “But NPCs can’t be damaged in towns.” He shrugged. “Guess you’re not an NPC after all. Are you a new player? How do you only have one card when everyone starts with forty?” He chuckled. As if stabbing her were some joke.

His attitude was making her unhappy, and the pain in her chest was making her nauseous. What would happen if she bled to death? Could she? She grabbed the light on her finger with her other hand and drew the card.

It sparkled with a shining crimson border around a holographic red face

The card disappeared in a flash, and a black katana appeared in her hand. It was the elf’s turn to look surprised, as she drew the blade across his chest.

[1563 Slashing Damage], the pop-up read. His HP bar appeared momentarily and she watched it drain quickly to 0, but she couldn’t see the exact numbers of his health.

The halves of his body crumpled on the ground and blood pooled around him before he vanished with a shimmer. The dagger reverted into a card, and then shot like a bolt of light into her left hand.

EXP Received

2050

Level Achieved

1->5

SP Received

4

To Next

769

She stood in wide-eyed shock as everyone stared at her.

“What the hell card was that?” someone asked.

“Was that a Unique?”

A splash from the fountain startled her and she looked over her shoulder to see the elf intact, sitting up and coughing out water.

“You just got one-shotted by this noob, Xander. She got your Iron Dagger card.” The horned bunny said, trying to hide his laughter as his friend climbed out of the fountain.

Suara was uncomfortable being gawked at and stabbed, and she was worried the elf would attack her again while her HP was low, so she turned and walked away as briskly as she could. She needed to find someone who could help her orient herself in this world. Someone who wouldn’t stab her for the fun of it.