Chapter 4

Opening my eyes I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the bright sun. I instinctively moved my hand up, blocking out the sun from my perspective. As my eyes finally adjusted, I looked at the beaming rays going through my fingertips, it felt realistic.

Woah...

I moved my hand down, seeing the virtual sun as I looked around my vicinity. I stood right in front of a giant pillar at the center, around me were large buildings with pillars in a circular position.

I backed up a bit, swaying a bit as I fell backwards, landing on my ass against the rocky tiles. Ow... I looked at my legs as I noticed how unusually clean it was, feeling put off by it I tried standing up, my legs were wobbly as I was still adjusting to this.

It's like walking...without...moving my body...

It sounded weird in my head, moving around without moving, like a dream. I managed to get myself into a low squatting position as I slowly lifted myself up from the ground. Easy...Easy does it... I raised my body up more and more until I was fully standing up on my legs once again.

Alright...let's try this again...

I moved my leg forward, leaning slightly as I began falling forward. I then began a walking motion, slowly getting the hang of it as I began walking in circles practicing.

I'm...I'm walking!

I was astonished as I got the hang of it rather quickly, it started to feel natural walking normally as I took it a step further, running around the place. I ran around as I looked ahead, seeing an inevitable crash into another player, suddenly I weaved out of the way quickly and kept running.

Huh...? I...I didn't crash?

I felt light as a feather, my movements showcasing my lightness as I sped around, slowing down to a halt. I wonder what Emi's doing... I smiled a bit, looking around as I suddenly realized what I had to do next.

Speaking of Emi...Where is Emi...?

I saw a bunch of people all in the same place, more players spawning in as others were chatting, some were running, and others were outside of the town. I quickly snapped my head all around, remembering that everyone here could be anyone, any person can be Emi as the sense of the unknown was settling in.

Oh...crap...

I began trying to pick out people who looked like Emi, trying to find facial or hair features that only Emi would wear. Look for a brunette...brunette... I surveyed the area walking around spotting about twenty brunettes in the area. Too many...Brunette with...a hairband...black hairband... I then looked over as I lowered it to about six brunettes with black hairbands.

Any of those people could be...

Just then I felt a hand tap my shoulder, turning around as I saw it was an older lady, standing about the same height as me, her eyes were blue as she was blonde, she seemed fit as she waved at me almost familiarly.

"Why are you still near the teleport pad Kanao?"

"Uh...do- do I know you?" I questioned.

"Quit playing around Kanao, it's me, I told you we'd find each other."

"Uh...I think you have me mixed up with someone else also named Kanao..." I responded a bit off putted by our conversation.

"No, It's you Kanao. Your black hair tie and golden eyes, I texted you over the phone remember?"

"I..."

It then hit me as I remembered Emi texting over the phone, she did describe my looks rather on point as I tilted my head at the mysterious blonde.

"Is that you Emi?"

"Bingo! It took you rather long to figure it out" Emi chuckles.

"Emi? Is it really you?"

"Yes Kanao, we went to Dairy Vendor, and you had vanilla ice cream with sprinkles remember."

"I...I did- it really is you Emi!"

I felt a wave of relief wash over me, finding Emi rather quickly. However, one thing was on my mind and that was her appearance, I thought that everyone was using their real appearances.

"Emi?"

"What is it Kanao?"

"Where are we?"

"Oh, Kanao we're in the Town of Beginnings, this is the place where all players spawn in."

"Oh...where do we go from here?"

I questioned Emi on nearly everything, Emi showing me around the Town of Beginnings. The first place we walked around in was the market, seeing it bustling with NPCs as I looked at most of the NPCs, seeing them attending their shops rather humanistically.

I felt like I was in a market in the real world, seeing these NPCs attending their shops and trying to get people to check out their shops. While Emi and I continued to walk through the market, I noticed how human the NPCs were, players drawn over towards the shops like mosquitoes to a light.

"They talk and act like real people Emi..."

"I know, these NPCs are the state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence, they're basically near-sentient."

"Near sentient...?"

"Yup, they act almost like real people, the only thing prohibiting them from being real people are their lines of codes they're running on."

"Oh..."

I watched as a shopkeeper, an elderly couple, set cabbages onto their stall, the elderly couple were having an interaction between each other that felt human.

"That's scary..."

"What is?" Emi turned to look at Kanao.

"All of this...It feels...too real to be a game Emi..."

I was really put off by the realism, I thought the game would be fantasy with magic and the usual fantasy. But instead, I was put in a simulated realistic VRMMO game.

"Hey Emi, have people become attached to these NPCs?"

"Huh, good question. So far, I haven't seen any, but if I had my guesses, I'd say probably."

"That's somehow unsettling..."

"Why do you say that Kanao?"

"Well...What if we get attached to an NPC? Knowing that they're not real..."

The thought of becoming attached to a sentient NPC was a off-putting, I shook my head as I was still being guided by Emi, making our way over towards <<Boar Plains>>.