Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Is This Real?

I woke up and gained my composure. I looked around before the realization hit me and my head stopped being blurry. “What the-” I started asking myself while slowly moving forward.

I was.. In the town square of the Holy Cathedral City? I blinked, before blinking two more times. My surroundings stayed the same. The brick medieval buildings decorated the sides of my view, with the middle being a decorated found atop of smoothed brick road.

I looked downward to the road, but noticed my legs were… gone? They weren’t gone, but different, ghoulish even.

“What the” I thought to myself again before looking at my hands.

My hands were different as well. I panicked and ran further into the city, before coming across a mirror shop. I looked through the glass, and my heart stopped for a second.

My face, was no longer my face- It was the face of Casey’s character. “This is a funny joke,” I thought to myself before taking deep breaths.

“Okay, maybe this is some sort of VR update, and I fell asleep?” I thought to myself before I readied my mouth for an attempt to deactivate the VR, even if the townspeople looked at me weirdly.

“Turn off VR!” I said loudly. Nothing happened. “Deactivate Virtual Reality!” I said even louder. Nothing happened even then. My panicked increased and I started pacing, still in front of the mirror shop.

“Damn, Damn!” I said out-loud, before running to a townsperson to ask for help. “Uh, show dialogue options?” I said confused while trying to activate the NPC dialogue.

The townsperson looked at me with a look of fear in her eyes before yelling, “Guards! T-there is an undead here!” Confused, I prepared to ask the woman what she meant.

“Guards?” Before I could ponder on the thought, I heard the sound of around 10 to 12 people storming towards my area.

“Stop right there!” A loud man yelled. I turned to see him, he was a knight clad in armor at the front of the group of people, my mind now confirming them as 11.

“Uh, there seems to have been a misunderstanding,” I started. Before I could finish my words- I was hit.

“Holy shit! Ow!’ I yelled out at my eyes focused on where the hit had come from. A cleric had used a light spell on me, and it burned like hell.

“Take that, undead fiend!” The cleric said as she prepared another light spell. I tried to run, but another hit had landed on me, just as painful as the last.

“What the shit is your problem?” I yelled out in response to the pain that was followed with a burning sensation. The cleric readied her staff to hit me again, but In the moment I thought I had no other options, I remembered how Casey’s character could summon skeletons.

“Summon Skeleton!” I said out loud right as the blast was nearing me. Three skeletons rose from the ground, the first one being destroyed instantly by the blast.

I took the opportunity to run in the opposite direction of the square, hoping that eventually I could escape the city or find a safe route.

As I ran past the maze of the city, I started to realize I already knew the layout of the district I had ran into. The clerics and knights were still hot on my trail, but the time I bought with the distraction was useful enough.

“Over there!” One of the knights yelled while pointing to my direction as I passed a market stall. They were catching up, badly. I yelled to summon three more skeletons, but this time I felt… weird.

“Damn! My mana must be running out,” I said while passing up a row of stalls in the chase. As I ran, I turned back to see the lead knight beheading one of the skeletons, Its head fell as it lost its grip on the market awning it was clinging on to bite at the knight.

Gritting my teeth, I pushed a market stall over to the dismay of the merchant and continued to run. They gained on me after finishing off my last skeleton. I was out of mana and out of options.

“You die here, fiend.” The knight said as he corned me in the dead end of the a city alley. “Get it over with, this trope has played out longer than it needed to,” I said as I settled in the realization that I might die, or whatever happens to pixel people.

I never got a chance to learn about the circumstances that brought me here, why it happened when I used Casey’s computer, all that kinds of stuff.

I closed my eyes and prepared to accept fate, but then- Cling!. I opened my eyes and saw that the knights sword had been curved to the left. I looked the left of the alley and saw a figure run towards me, grabbing my hand as they ran at mind-boggling speeds.

As the figure ran, I could catch glimpses of their appearance in the gaps of light that shined throughout the alleyway.

With on glimpse I could see their tail, the next, their scarf. I pieced together that I had been saved by a Beastkin rogue of sorts.

After the last glimpse of light, The figure let go of my hand. “Okay, I’m nearly out of mana and your ass isn’t making it easier to manage,” The boy said as he opened his bag and drank a stamina boost potion.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He was slim, with short black hair, complemented by his black-gray cat ears and tail. I truly met a Beastkin rogue.

“Thanks so much!” I said, the grateful tone probably sounding like desperate attempts to prove myself worthy of saving.

“Yeah, yeah,” The boy started. “I drank that stamina potion for a reason, we can’t talk here,” with that acknowledgement, the boy held out his hand again, I held it and he continued running.

After a good 3 minutes of running, we eventually made it to a large crack within a dead end in an alley. “Welp, go inside.”

I looked at the guy puzzled while slightly raising my eyebrow. “Huh?” He giggled a little before repeating himself.

“Go inside the ass crack of the alley?” I was confused and was about to ask him what he meant, but he pushed me into the crack.

When I gained my composure, I stood up and looked at my surroundings. I was in a place full of multiple people, players or former players of Lacritia. They all stared at me as if I had done something.

The rogue cleared his throat before swaying his hand outward, “I present to you, Safe Haven!”

“Uh, okay?” I was still very much confused. “It’s a safe haven for players of Lacritia who got stuck here,” he walked to the corner of the first room of the safe haven and sat down. “My names Cardinal by the way, Card is fine,” He held out his hand to me again.

I took a little to shake it, but I did and told him mine as well. “My name is Veronica.”

“Well, Veronica, as I said, this place is a haven for players that got teleported into the world of Lacritia.”

I sat down, intriguied by the information I was being given. “Teleported into Lacritia?” I asked pensively.

“Yeah, about a week ago a bunch of players got teleported into the games world, or a world like the game. Whichever it is isn’t clear, but the world pretty much functions the same as the game did, albeit with far more consequences for fucking up,” Cardinal pointed to a man who had a missing arm and was being healed by a cleric player.

“Ouch,” I said before looking back to Cardinal to further absorb the information he was giving me.

I was still struggling to take in this information, but tried to further the conversation, “You said it’s been a week since the initial teleports?”

“Yep,” Cardinal said while scratching his right ear. “I’ve been asleep for an entire week?” I said with my voice slightly raised. My concern was prevalent.

Cardinal leaned back in his chair a little before answering. “Maybe, I don’t know. The teleports seemed to have been a week-long thing.”

I didn't know how to take that info, so I just kept asking questions. “Really? I don’t really see that many people here,” I said while surveying the room.

“There were more,” Cardinal started before he sighed. “There were about 100 players teleported to Gritzgaldr alone… They didn’t last long.”

My heart sank a little at the further realization of my predicament. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“You mean they all… died?”

Cardinal nervously giggled before he spoke, “Yep, very much dead.”

I still couldn’t understand all of the aspects of the situation. How did the teleports start? Why did they last so long? I had so many questions I probably wasn’t getting answers for any time soon.

“How do you guys know for sure?” I asked Cardinal while he scratched his nose.

“Because in the game, people respawn. No one in this world has respawned after dying, and y’know, the realistic-ass gore.”

I bent my head a little while thinking about that. He was right, the gore, NPC interaction, and graphics of this world were too advanced. That might rule out a simulation explanation, but I still don’t have enough information.

“Uh, did you or anyone else hear a voice and see words when you were teleported into the world of the game?” I asked Cardinal expecting a response that affirmed my predicament hopefully.

“Words?” Cardinal said while slightly leaning forward and pursing his lips.

“Yeah, like mystical, weird words on the computer screen before teleporting into Lacritia.”

Cardinal look more confused than he did the first time I mentioned the topic.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cardinal said determined in his answer.

“So, that’s a dead end,” I said while waiting for Cardinal’s response.

“I wasn’t aware there was a road to begin with, but anyways, I’m hungry.” He places his hand on his stomach, which was promptly followed by a loud growl.

“Wait, hunger is a thing in this world?”

Cardinal laughed as he answered, “Yeah, It sucks, but at the same time the taste of food beats looking at it through a computer screen,” with that statement, he stood up and pushed his chair under the table.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To get some stamina potions from the old man.” Cardinal went over to a huddled group, where the center had an old man in green robes and a long curly beard.

After a bit of talking and shoulder pats, Cardinal came back to the table I was sitting at and flexed his acquired goods.

“See how new and shiny these babies look?” He asked jokingly.

“Uh, sure?” I wasn’t sure how to respond to jokes.

“Well, I got what I need, now we go to see Millie,” Cardinal said as he opened his waist bag and put the potions in.

“Millie?” I said.

“Yep, Millie, and arcanist class player who was teleported to Lacritia in the first wave of teleports. I’m gonna be saying teleport a lot, huh?”

I got hopeful and stood up as well. “I’m assuming she will have answers on our situation?”

Cardinal smiled before moving towards the crack to go back outside, “That, and she probably has some new connection to inform us on the workings of this world!”

That alone was enough for me to be convinced, so I followed Cardinal out of the crack and into the streets of the city.

“Hold my hand again,” he said while holding his hand out.

I took his hand in mine, he drank one of the three stamina potions, and we ran fast enough to pace a good amount of building in only a few minutes.

While running, Cardinal grabbed a rag and perfume from a market stall once we reached that district. It was hard to do, but I managed to put it on mid-burst, hopefully concealing my identity if even for a little.

After we passed the last building, we arrived to a giant market stall in a corner of the city, It was heavily decorated and was in front of a semi-larger brick building that resembled a witch hat at the top.

“Well, this is it,” Cardinal said as he let go of my hand.

“A witch’s potion store?” I asked.

Cardinal leaned over the market stall desk while responding, “Not just that, a store that can give us information, and a store that can provide us with things to help you out of your… Situation.”

After a few seconds of waiting, Cardinal started calling the name of the witch that owned the store.

“Millie! We don’t have all day out here!” There was no response.

“Welp, I’m going in,” With that announcement, Cardinal jumped over the market desk and started lockpicking the door.

“What are you doing?” I asked in concern of the consequences of lockpicking someone’s shop.

“Millie won’t mind, she can afford ten locks, probably,” He continued to pick the door until it made a loud clicking noise and creaked open.

“There, now hop over and come in.”

I hesitated, looked around really quickly, and then jumped over the desk.

Once we were both inside, Cardinal started calling out to Millie again.

“Millie!” He yelled with no response in our audible view

In a hurry, he ran towards the back of the building, I’m assuming where most of the items are stocked, and opened the storage closet.

“Shit, that.. That is convenient,” I didn’t know why, but his eyes widened with horror.

“Why are you making that face?” I started as I went to the spot he was standing in, only to see- The bodies of two holy knights!

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard from a different part of the building, followed by a woman’s voice. “The hell are you doing back here?”