The sibling had been walking for nearly half an hour. They realized that the detour route they had taken to go to the vantage point, was in the complete opposite direction of the place he was supposed to be. Furthermore, their walking speed could be described as a slowpoke. They both had played dozens of games in their life together, many of these were famous VRMMO titles. In those games, the player character’s base walking speed was fixed at 8.0 Km/h, which was obviously higher than a regular persons’ walk speed in real life. When they walk up the stairs, the character would automatically walk up 2 steps rather than a step, as well as swimming, jumping over an obstacle and sleeping, the player character would always overtake control from players automatically. There were many debates among the VRMMO community about this topic of whether the automatic controls were detrimental to the player’s experiences in the game. The opinions were divided between those who agreed and those who thought it improved the player's experiences.
But for nearly an hour since they both logged into the game, they were bewildered to discover that the system that enables automatic actions in this game was nonexistent. The players had to be the one to make all the decisions including all the minor action.
Personally, Kenichi disliked automatic controls because he felt like they take away the immersion of the RPG essence of the game. And so the fact that this game did not have automatic controls, it delighted him.
Although they both been walking for a period of time they did not feel irritated or annoyed in the least, they were more invested in their surroundings more, causing them to walk slower than they intended to. The vibrant lights emanating from the vermillion lantern hanging from walls to walls, the loud chattering from NPCs in the background as well as the players’.
As they both entered an area that looked like a market street, they were met with a sea of crowded people. They were mostly players, wearing similarly designed garment as what the sibling was wearing, doing conversations with Merchant NPCs in between rows of staples with small roofs over their heads.
Kenichi noticed that the movement of the Merchant wasn’t fixed unlike many NPC in other titles, and they moved and behaved like real people with emotions. Many questions started to appear in his mind, but what he was more curious about were the items that were laid out in each of the market stalls. There were numerous items of different colors and shapes, ranging from some that Kenichi was able to recognized and guess what could they be such as potions, spell scrolls, herbs, and crafting materials, to somethings that he simply had no idea what they are supposed to be.
Kenichi felt a slight tug on his sleeve.
“Ken Onii-chan, that building over there, there’s so many people surrounding it like moths around a light bulb!”
Kenichi followed Chiyo’s finger and met with the building at the end of the road. It was a three-stories tall building with its roof painted in coal-black which made it distinct from the other buildings he had seen thus far. The building seems to have a huge two doors entrance that is overflowing with people, entering and exiting it. There was a sign that was painted over in a language that is probably of this nation’s native’s. Although Kenichi does not know how to read it, he didn’t have to, because floating on top of the board was the Japanese-translated title of the place which was “The Quail’s Nest”. Having read that, he holds Chiyo’s small palm firmly and walked into the direction faster with confidence filling his heels with each of every step.
“Ken? Ken! Over here, Ken!”
Kenichi arrived at the lobby of the Quail’s Nest “inn”. Before the receptionist was able to greet Kenichi and Chiyo, a voice-directed to him came out from the inside of the diner. The receptionist, having heard that immediately stepped aside to let Kenichi and Chiyo inside.
Kenichi peeked his head over the door to the diner. Although the room was annotated as “diner”, for its size, it would have been more appropriate to call it as the cafeteria. The chairs and tables, made from crude wood, were spaced evenly throughout the room. Inside this brightly lit room, he could headcount up to almost 100 players sitting in the chairs eating, chatting and drinking. In one of these seats in the innermost of the room, a figure seems to be waving at him and calling out to him.
Kenichi waited slightly longer just to observe if anybody else would approach the figure, but alas no one did. The figure’s eyes do not move away from Kenichi, so
at this point, he knew the identity of the figure and walked closer.
As he walked closer to the table, he was able to see more details regarding the person who was waving at him as well as the three others sitting on the table. Firstly, the figure who was waving seems to be a human male in his early 20s with blonde hairs and blue eyes. His face looked like a typical European but the shape of the eyes looked more Asian. He is wearing something different than what he had seen others wore so far; some sort of a simple tunic, rope bracelet on both of his arms and some sort of an ornamented earring on his left ear.
Sitting next to the man was a Blue Dragonkin. Dragonkins are essentially bipedal dragons with no wings, their size averages around 2 - 2.5 meters, and their tails extend to their feet. What’s so special about them was that they have a special innate ability that gives them advantages earlier in the game. Those advantages include,
Breath: Dragonkins can exhale calamitous energy that deals area-of-effect damage according to their own ancestry.
Dragonic Blood: Gives them the trait of their respected dragonic ancestry.
Despite its almost broken beginning advantage bonuses, dragonkins aren’t the most popular player race. This is due to the fact that many people did not like the fact the looks of a bipedal lizard walking around town like normal people, in fact, many people found it weird to the point that there are crazed people who shamelessly caused a scene to demean Dragonkin players.
This male Dragonkin, in particular, is exuding cold vapor from the scales growing on his biceps, that are crossed across his chest. His face leaned downwards, revealing a pair of sharp, glinting turquoise eyes. Kenichi might be hallucinating, but he could’ve sworn that for a second he saw smoke trailing from the corner of the Dragonkin’s eyes.
The third figure was undoubtedly an Aarakocra. Its magnificent beak extends out from its blackened feathery head. The eyes were round and acute, looking straight towards Kenichi, studying each of his movements. Kenichi noticed the gaze, then tried returning the stare but the Aarakocra just smiled back at him. It is certainly a new feeling, seeing a bird physically smiles at him.
The fourth figure, from the physique alone, seems to be a woman due to the slim stature and long platinum hair, extending to her waist. But Kenichi couldn't see any further as she was sitting with her back towards him.
Kenichi arrived at the table with Chiyo besides him. The blonde male stood up from his seats.
“ Ken! I knew you were Ken just from your avatar! Oh and you might’ve guessed it already, but I am your senpai! explained the man loudly.
“Nice to see you Senpai...and these people are…?” Ken gazes to the sides.
“These are my friends, we agreed to play this game together once it came out”
The dragonkin nodded in response to the words Shin said. “I’m Drake.”
The Aarakocra next to Drake pushed himself forward and enthusiastically introduced himself. “The name is Bemex! Nice to meet ya!”
“...I’m…Ulticetl”
The lady that was sitting opposite of Bemex spoke up. At first, what Kenichi registered was gibberish. But as he studied her facial expression which was sharp and devoid of any particular emotion, he was convinced that something-something-cetl was her name.
“Sorry about that, she’s sort of not an outgoing person, if you are having trouble calling her name, just call her Ulti, as we do '' explained Shin while smiling wryly.
“So what is your name? Ken?” Asked Bemex.
Huh?
“Sorry I don’t understand what you are asking, you just said my name”
“Oh what I meant was your avatar’s name, like can you see what’s written in the name floating above my head?”
Kenichi looked at Bemex’s name. It is now written in bright blue letters as “Bemex”.
“It’s written as Bemex right?” Questioned Bemex.
“Try taking a look at everybody else’s name in this room”
Oh.
Now Kenichi understood what Bemex meant. Everybody else’s name in the room that he had yet talked to has ??? As their name, which is totally different from every other game he had played so far. So since when had Bemex’s name changes from ??? to Bemex?
“This game’s quite interesting you see until you learned the true name of the player or entity, their name would remain as ‘???’ until further changes, for example, try looking at my name, Ken”
Kenichi looked at Shin’s name only to get even more confused.
“Why’s your name still ‘???’? I thought I already know that you are Shin?”
“That’s because Shin isn’t really my character name. My character name is actually Freidlan!”
As soon as he finishes his sentence, Shin’s name changes from ‘???’ into ‘Freidlan’.
So now he understood why Bemex asked for Kenichi’s name. That was because he didn’t name himself Kenichi or Ken. And so what he was probably seeing above Kenichi was most likely '???'. He named himself something else that he initially thought was cool if it wasn’t mentioned to anybody else, something that he would like to keep it to himself alone because now that he thinks about it, it’s kinda cringy.
“Umm… I named myself ‘LoneBlade’”
At that moment, Kenichi’s name for the first time to everybody else’s including his sister, changes from ‘???’ to ‘LoneBlade’.
Silence filled the table. Nobody uttered a word. The only sound that could be heard was the noise from Ulti, who was sipping a drink from her mug.
Suddenly, a burst of laughter erupted from the side of the “LoneBlade”. The laughter that broke the silence as well as Kenichi’s pride and self-worth.
