I only had enough time to gather two stacks of loose sticks and a handful of stones before I encountered my first real human. It struck me as oddly jarring, the way it moved. I hoped, knowing I'd be wrong, that there'd be something about them that was different, that they'd be better. Everything about us is supposed to be a simulation of them. 

Maybe I just expected to be impressed.

"Okay. I think this is a good enough spot," said the tall one. Their armor rattled as they gestured with their halberd towards a clearing of trees. "Go ahead and chop some of those down. We could use the logs, and who knows, you might even find some legit loot too." It was hard to make out anything about them except their class. Lancers were generally the only ones who ever bothered with two-handed pole weapons. 

"Uh. With what?" The shorter one was far less intimidating but in a game like this, nobody was ever unintentionally ugly. A sleek jawline, high cheekbones, a smooth complexion, all of it was just part and parcel. 

"With your axe," said the Lancer, matter-of-factly. 

"I don't have an axe. I'm a sword-boy, remember?" To prove their point, they began to fling their shortsword around, taking imaginary chunks out of the air. 

"No," the tall one reached into their imaginary inventory, pulling out a handaxe, " your handaxe".

The very pretty sword-boy's eyes widened, their hands reaching out towards the Lancer's axe, just as it was put away. 

"Remember the mats you got from the Break my Bones quest? You can craft with that. Hell, if you've got enough leftover or if you wanna scour the forest floor for some more, you can probably fashion a shovel, and maybe even a fishing-rod if you picked string as your starter item." 

I began to look at my own inventory. Sixteen sticks? yup, I got enough for this. 

"So, two sticks," the shorter one says, counting them out loud retrieved them. I follow along from the bushes careful not to rustle the leaves or step on a twig. "Okay, now what?"

"Then you cross them." I could hear just how tired the Lancer was. There was a growing tension in the way they almost pleaded with the other one as if to say why didn't you just read the guide?

The sword-boy did as the tall one commanded, their eyes widening as the sticks began give off a soft light. A User Interface rendered over top of them, the Crafting System. Immediately, I began to ape their movement, trying to keep the glow of my own UI from giving away my position. As the short one swiped between their options, I zeroed in on the three items that I wanted. 

1 Stone Hand Axe crafted.
1 Stone Shovel crafted.
1 Stone Hand Knife crafted. 

Oh crap. Did that just auto-post to the local text chat? 

The Lancer began, "okay, good job, now—".

Yup. That's right. NPCs are always set to write out our actions for the hearing impaired. It would be up to the player to opt out. I didn't think this part through, did I?

"Woah, hang on, I haven't even made one yet!" protested the short one, interrupting their friend. They raised their hands up, reflexively, to prove they don't have anything. The tall one looked puzzled for a moment then pulled up another UI screen.

"It's probably another player. Let me just toggle over to Friendly PvE, just in case." They lift off their helmet and shake loose their hair. I was shocked at just how normal they seemed. Almost insultingly average. I had to assume they were a No-Filter player. The Common Player Glossary would describe that as someone who disables the default Glamour filter and actively chooses to display their true, authentic, albeit flawed, self. I all of a sudden felt very aware of my own face. We were supposed to be average looking ourselves, actually. Literal averages, of the players faces. At least, the faces of the players who don't bother to read the fine-print. 

The Lancer makes a flurry of gestures, and soon both of the players registered differently. A thick border, like a glowing outline tracing the silhouette of their bodies, flickered to life. I assumed a green outlined indicated a friendly target. Looking at the short one first, I suddenly noticed something above their head. xXDark_Kizu_KunaiXx. Wow, an edge-lord. Am I surprised? I turned to look at the other one; Brightshade. Is there a word for feeling intimidated-by and embarrassed-for the same person simultaneously?

"We mean you no harm, I'm just showin' my friend here the ropes." There's barely a pause before they continue, "I'm power-leveling him through the tutorial quests. Should finish out at level 10, and I've got room to rush you too," another pause, "for a cut of your rewards."

I could stay quiet. I could even run away now, try and figure out how to use the stone axe on my own. Then again, where's the fun in that? Screw it. No day like today, or something like that. With a bated breath, I step out into the clearing. 

"Hello Brightshade and ex-ex-darkkizukunai-ex-ex! I'm Rynne! Hail, and well-met!"