Catlen searched around the shabby house for anything that she could use as a splint for her finger; two broken twigs, split pieces of firewood, broken remnants of a clay pot...
She scurried around like a little mouse from corner to corner, looking for her objective. When she finally found two twigs that looked sort of sturdy, she ripped off a piece of her threadbare skirt to secure them on either side of her finger.
It seemed like a very simple operation, or at least that was what she had imagined. However, Catlen had overestimated her ability to be nimble while the world crumbled around her.
Pulling a knot tight with her teeth? No problem, except that dust kept falling into her eyes from above and she accidentally bit herself twice. Her teeth were also sharper than expected, and blood flowed out of the wound until the splint was almost rendered ineffective.
Everything was covered in dust, so wiping the blood off her hand didn't seem like a desirable course of action. With the roof seemingly crumbling over her head, Catlen found that her options for choosing were dwindling expeditiously.
She cradled her hand and prepared to duck out of the house as quickly as possible. There were flying lizard creatures in the air and orcs on the ground, but she couldn't continue to stay in the house. It was only a matter of time before someone noticed the intact house with the sealed door, and by then she would be dead for sure.
So, she decided to take a chance.
As long as she could locate some appropriate ruins that weren't on fire, she could hide until the next opportunity to run came up. Then, she'd grasshopper from ruin to ruin until she was out of harm's way.
Just her luck to have glitched in the middle of an orc invasion. Thankfully, the houses around were made of mudbricks, so the ruins were somewhat reliable to hide in. Taking advantage of the chaos would prove safer than staying inside.
But soon as she ran out, a hard impact to the back sent her flying into a flaming pile of ruins. Catlen felt an overwhelming heat beginning to sear her skin, making it feel tight and painful. She rolled past the burning beams of what had once been the village hall, ducking into the crack of a fallen wall, and came to a stop after crashing into a wooden pillar.
Catlen nearly coughed her lungs out from the impact. The world around her was spinning again, and a dull pain was spreading in her chest.
Twice in less than half an hour, she was so disoriented that she suspected her head was concussed. Catlen lamented her fate and hated her curiosity. If she had just taken the game card out of the headset and put in some normal video game, would she be having such a hard time at the moment?
The answer was, probably not.
She had already hit her body so many times that it hurt everywhere. If she needed more evidence that she was really in a video game and not hallucinating, then she'd have to die and respawn.
The cynical thought hadn't even finished crossing her mind before she heard a suspicious crackle above her head.
Dust fell...
"Oh sh—" The wall came tumbling down, crushing her instantly. Her body dispersed in a show of shimmery lights.
"Player ID 'Ittygreenybitties' respawned. Save point activated."
Catlen sat up with a purple complexion. She was clutching her chest in fright and looking around at the shabby house she had first woken up in with bewilderment.
"What the hell."
Just like before, the circumstances were exactly the same. The house was crumbling, and the screeching of monsters came in from beyond the windows.
"Did I seriously respawn?" She scrambled to her feet and opened the window again, dodging when a talon came razing through the air toward her face.
There was still pain in her hand, and her finger was bandaged in the same shoddy attempt at a splint, so she had definitely respawned, but had not healed.
"Okay, that's normal. I died injured, so I respawn injured. Totally normal game procedure." Catlen pat away the dust on her skirt and carefully opened the door of the house.
The last time she had gone out indiscriminately, she had been sent flying. She liked learning from experience, so it definitely wouldn't happen a second time as long as she could help it.
Catlen waited until a creature flew past the house, screeching and roaring. It looked like a snake with the wings of a bat, and it only had two hind legs with razor sharp talons. When it flew, it moved like a snake through the air.
It was like a dragon, but not a typical dragon. Calling it a wyvern was also inaccurate. She had never seen any similar creature in the games she played, so she didn't quite know what it was, but the orcs had come riding on many of them.
The creature landed on the ground, swinging a wing and destroying a house on impact. It roared to the sky and slithered the upper half of it's body into a standing position like a cobra, turning around on its hind legs. Every step it took made the ground shake.
Just the creature's size made Catlen feel like hiding in the house without coming out like a hermit crab. She closed the door until only a slit was left open, and peeked out at the activity outside.
People were running and screaming in total mayhem, and the smoke and fire from the burning buildings wasn't helping. Some people directly ran themselves into the orcs, guaranteeing their death on the spot. The whole panic of the situation was disorienting everyone. But even though she couldn't see anything else, she finally noticed a problem.
It was pitch black outside, most likely the middle of the night. The starlit sky looked different from the starlit sky in the real world. The constellations weren't the same, so she could only sort of tell what time it was by how dark it was.
Nighttime would only get progressively darker before it got lighter as dawn approached. Based on the few details she could gather, it should've been around eleven at night, but the glare of the fires made it hard to tell.
Where others saw hardship, Catlen saw opportunity. She widened the gap in the door just enough to slip through, and began by putting a single leg out, followed by half of her body.
The giant snake-like creature was still roaring to the skies, swatting with its wings, stomping with its feet. It was being loud and obnoxious, so it didn't notice the figure that scurried out of the ruined neighbourhood, through the smoke.
The flying lizard creature couldn't see her, but the orcs could still sense her movements. More than once, she ducked out of the way of a falling sword, just to bump into the leg of a militant orc. Catlen tucked and rolled so many times that she couldn't tell north from south.
Actually, she couldn't tell north from south in the first place.
It took her a long time to finally scurry out of the danger zone. The fires lessened the further away from the centre of the village she went, so it became darker and darker, making it easier for her to hide. There were still orcs patrolling the surroundings, but Catlen was able to avoid them by moving slowly and surely along the edges of the shadows.
Nighttime was only an advantage against creatures of daytime. Unfortunately, orcs were no such things. Their kingdom was underground in the first place.
Catlen crawled on the ground, taking advantage of the blind spot orcs had by keeping half of her body in shadows and the other half in the lesser shadows.
For creatures with such good eyesight, contrast was their greatest enemy. The brains of orcs couldn't process two sets of opposing data at once, so it would make their eyes go blurry. It was thanks to this that she was able to escape, and as soon as she made it to the woods, Catlen ran for her life.
She ran so fast that her ribs started aching as much as her finger did and her throat went try. She'd thought that after leaving the creature's line of sight, she would be safe if she put enough distance between them.
Unexpectedly— "Ahhhhhhh!"
She fell through a hole that appeared on the ground.
Ding! 'Player ID 'Ittygreenybitties' has entered the dungeon lobby.'
Ding! 'Player ID 'Ittygreenybitties' has entered the Myriad Mermaid route.'
'Transporting...'
As soon as she came out of the pitch black tunnel, Catlen fell with a loud kaploosh.
From darkness, her eyes were suddenly covered with blue... It was the sea!
Catlen was dumbfounded. Gigantic sea creatures floated past her, with smaller creatures attached to their backs. They came in a range of colours and shapes, fully displaying the might of a fantasy world's design. Above them, introductory tags were floating.
'Lustral Jellyfish, Lvl. 1' and such.
Some fish appeared to have no teeth, while others had teeth so big that they formed bone cages in front of their mouths. Getting stuck in one of those cages looked like it must be sure death...
She shivered.
Ding! 'New Mission: Retrieve the Lvl. 0 Flaming Sea Flower.
Mission Reward: 300 XP, Flaming Vest, Storage Slot #1 - #10
Mission Time: 5 Days.'
Catlen stared at the format window in front of her eyes and squinted suspiciously. Was it just her, or did these mission rewards seem a little generous?
As a seasoned gamer, Catlen knew that the juicier the reward, the greater the risk. However, according to the map info of this entry level realm, this area was relatively peaceful.
Hmm...
While she was contemplating, a piercing screech entered her ears through the water.