Chapter 3- Patch Notes
Two bodies laid, buried in the snow drift that had come without a warning.
There wasn't a sound from the world, as if holding its breath in waiting to see what would become of the two.
**Rebooting
Rebooting
Rebooting
Welcome Player 1
Lee exploded from the snow drift gasping for air,his hair soaked and hung over his face.
Crawling back away from the cart he swung his head around trying to recollect what had happened.
Welcome Player 2
Dinged, it was in bold white letters at the top of his peripheral. In fact, no matter where he looked, the welcome Player 2 stayed until it faded away on its own.
Sara erupted from the snow gasping and panting heavily, their hand grabbing their body trying to make sure they were alive and well.
"What happened!" Sara shouted at Lee
"Shit, I don't know!"
"It feels like that time you duct taped your son's VR headset on my head."
"It feels like that time you made me drink celery juice for the chemical cleanse you did."
Sara narrowed their eyes on him, and he did the same on them.
However, Lee was right. They had a feeling of purity within them, like they no longer felt sluggish. Their brains were missing the fog, and were working at 100 percent capacity. It was a feeling that they hadn't felt since coming to this world.
A visual HUD began flickering in their line of sight, a health bar began growing and refilling at the top, along with a mana bar directly under it.
At the bottom left corner was shared XP 0/100
The top right had an exclamation, and a message tap, both were blinking.
"Are you seeing this?" Lee asked with concern as he lifted up too his feet.
"The video game interface? Yeah, I got that going on over here too."
"Concussion?"
"Why would we be seeing the same thing if it's a concussion?"
"Twin powers?"
"Bro. What?"
"You know, like when you know what I'm thinking?"
"No, I know what you're thinking because you zone out on food or women. Its not rocket science dumb ass."
Lee raised a fist grumbling, "one day. I swear, Sara!"
"Bitch try it, I kicked your ass in one life i'll do it in a second one!"
Lee grumbled putting his hand down. Sara rolled their eyes and proceeded to shift their eyes towards the blinking message. Staring at it brought up a white ring that filled into a full circle before popping open.
"Oh oh, concentrate on the message tab at the top right," Sara told Lee.
In doing so Lee saw the message pop up as well.
"WELCOME Player! Before you is !@#R#C ERROR ERROR"
"Welcome Players! Before you is the interface created by !@#$% ERROR ERROR!"
"Welcome! Players, please check the quest log to begin."
STATUS: INITIATED
QUEST: LEARN THE SYSTEM
REWARD:25XP
With the quest pulled up they glanced at each other, 'learn the system.'
It seemed easy enough to say the least, slowly they began going through the menu. What helped was the system prompts and arrows pointing them to look in specific directions.
It wasn't hard, most of it played like a basic MMORPG, which Lee had been familiar with.
Sara was familiar with RPG's enough to also have a pretty quick grasp of how the system worked.
There was a Party system, this was automatically assigning the two of them together. They could see their location, their health bar, their mana bar, and a small photo of them in the front of it.
There wasn't much to it though, it seemed bare bones. Most features were locked including skills, market, class branches, possibly because they weren't high enough level.
The xp showed that it was a shared system, so they leveled up together.
"This is identical to the VR for the twins," Lee said looking back at Sara who had been sitting on the cart.
"Except this doesn't suck, and doesn't require 7 HDMI cables."
The two of them smirked, the system was adjusting still, a few flickers here and there but it seemed that it was becoming more clear and slicker. It was familiar too, something not foreign too them which made it feel better.
**System Tutorial complete
XP 25/100
Reward do you accept?
Lee immediately glanced at Sara who glanced back at him, "Do we accept?" He asked with a slight eyebrow raised.
"Uh, sure, why not?"
*Reward- Marketplace Token
*Reward- 2 skill points
Further inspection of the system it was clear that they both had received their own individual skill points and tokens. When Lee shifted and moved it from one location to another, it didn't move on Sara's interface.
Lee's finger slammed into the strength skill for his new skill points so hard, it would have broken a real screen.
"Imma punch like a goddamn boulder on a chain!"
Sara however, tapped dex and stamina, even though they spent a few minutes trying to figure out what exactly it was they wanted. They figured going for the opposite of Lee would probably save themselves from Lee's recklessness later down the road
With a smirk, the duo began moving back to the village. They slugged through the snow, they were far from tired, they were like adrenaline being shot in their veins. There was excitement and preparedness rocketing through them.
Moving through the pathway they saw the village coming into view, their eyes catching the sight of a person pointing their way and people beginning to gather.
"Think they missed us," Lee asked behind him to Sara.
Sara leaned forward from the cart and looked past him, "For being gone for maybe a day, they sure look eager."
"You're alive!" A person shouted, "We swore you had been taken by the Gods!" Another voice cheered with excitement.
There was a mixture of confusion in the two, they glanced at each other as the village began hugging them and cheering for them.
"Ew, ew, no, get off, stop hugging me." Sara complained with a scowl and tried to pry them from their body.
Lee felt the hugs and patted them softly back, there was a lot of awkwardness from him with it though. "Uh, yeah, thanks."
"You were gone for almost a week!" Garrick shouted, busting through the crowd grabbing Lee and lifting him up.
"A week!" Lee shouted, Sara face in shock shaking their head in disbelief.
They couldn't fully comprehend what he had spoken, had they really been gone for an entire week? Lee glanced at Sara again, they weren't so against them being hugged now understanding there was a time shift.
After an hour of explaining and talking their way out of the incident, they said they got caught in the snow drift and stayed in a temple until they had the strength to return home. Thankfully it was bought. Also, it was thankful people didn't know the roads they took when they traveled.
Slowly they slipped out of the hugs and happiness of the village for their two morons returning. They proceeded to make their way back from the village to their home, all while letting the effects of the day play out in their mind.
"So, an entire week under snow?" Lee asked, opening the interface and examining the screen.
"Seems like it, im reading the skills now."
"Beat me to it as always, do you see anything?"
"Looks like we are currently in a reboot safety net."
"A reboot what?"
"In a video game you know when you die, and you respawn and flicker? During the flicker period you can't be harmed?"
"Yeah?"
"It's that, since we were frozen during the reboot, the system kept us heated and alive, and prevented us from other effects that may occur."
"So, invincible?"
"Invincible."
The idea left them baffled, how could a system do that? There had to have been some form of magic involved, it was their only explanation. However, they also had to remember this wasn't a normal life they lived.
Suddenly, as they came over the hill of their property, a quest appeared.
"Does that squirrel have an HP Bar?" Lee said, his finger pointing towards a squirrel standing in the center of the road.
*QUEST
*Defeat 10 squirrels.
*XP 75
*Note: Squirrels may call for backup.
The quest appeared, and without a moment to register. The squirrel charged at them. It let out a massive squeak that seemed to echo through the forest.
Sara began backing away, moving off the road towards the forest in the distance. Lee on the other hand smirked, rearing back his foot to send a swift kick towards the squirrel and send it into another dimension.
"Lee, wait!" Sara shouted, but it was too late. Lee's foot fired into a kick, and the squirrel leapt over the foot and his paws pressed to Lee's chest sending him flying three feet back with pain shooting through him and his breath depleting.
*Damage- 10
40/50
Lee's eyes widened, "10 Points of damage from that!" His voice furious as he pushed himself up, the squirrel walking on his hind legs back and forth eyeing the giant.
Lee cracked his knuckles, and rolled his shoulders. "Lee, that squirrel just kicked your ass with one hit. I don't think this is a good idea-" Before Sara could finish the statement, Lee took off running towards it again.
The squirrel jumped left and right dodging his stomps and kicks, Lee's stamina began draining and depleting in doing so. "What the HELL IS THIS THING!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.
His fist swung, the squirrel lept landing on it, Running up Lee's arm his face drooped. "Squirrel Kratos…" He said with a weakness to his face as the squirrel slammed his body into Lee's face sending him slamming into the ground.
*Damage 20
*Critical
20/50
The squirrel stood over him, their eyes meeting. Claws sliding up from the squirrel's paws as he reared back to slice Lee open.
SMACK
Sara's foot kicked the squirrel straight in the face sending it flying backwards, their fingers wrapped around Lee jerking him up as they turned into a full sprint. "Shit Lee!" They yelled back at him, Lee limping as they ran.
Glancing back, the squirrel's one eye was closed, blood running down its fur as 15 squirrels lept from the forest and charged like warriors running towards their target.
Lee screamed loudly and was not dead sprinting past Sara into the forest, Sara not far behind as they vanished into the trees.
"I hate this system!" Lee bellowed as he didn't slow down till he slammed into their tree.
"The next Quest better be about finding a therapist!" Sara scolded slumping down into the ground with a heavy breath laying their head against their comfort.
Once nobodies, now thieves.
Lee and Sara are just beginning.