Spoiler

wimbledon

Welp, I was hoping for a smoother way to explain the stats—but seeing as it's been 40 chapters since I promised to do that (whoops) and I still haven't actually done it (WHOOPS), I guess I’m writing a BBS chapter.

As a side note, "OP" stands for "original poster" and refers to whoever started the thread.

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———

“Amiya.” Ferris said.

“Mmgh--" He had caught Amiya mid-bite of her dinner. It took her a few seconds to chew, swallow, and then finally respond. “What’s up?”

“I’m going to the library.”

She choked on her food. After taking another few seconds to recover, she stared at him wide-eyed with a mixture of shock and horror.

“... You’re not going there to read, are you?” she asked warily.

“?? No?” Why would he ever do that?

“Oh. Okay.” Ami sighed in relief, knowing that all was right with the world. “What for, then?”

“I’m going to look at… the forums.”

“Oh. Huh… Riiiight, I did tell you to do that.”

They didn't have a computer at home, so they had to borrow the public library’s computers whenever they needed to look something up.

Since Ferris had basically no background with video games, Amiya had recommended for him to check out NSOL’s forums to learn more about the game. She wanted him to learn how to look things up on his own; if she helped him every time, Ferris would end up relying on her—which Amiya wasn't totally against, but decided that it would be better for Ferris in the long run if she didn't spoil him.

“But… is the library even open at this hour?” she asked.

Ferris tilted his head.

“... Dunno?” He would find out when he got there. “Bye.”

“Wha-- Wait a second—?!" Amiya tried to stop Ferris, but he was already out the front door and running off into the night.

———

… Despite his enthusiasm, the library was already closed for the evening, so Ferris had to come back after work the next day.

It had been a few years since he’d last used a computer; fortunately, once he’d returned from his night run, Amiya had handed Ferris a 8-page, in-depth, step-by-step guide on how to use the library computers, use the browser, find the forum webpage, etc., etc…

Ferris always liked how Amiya’s explanations were clear and easy to understand. As far as he was concerned, his little sister was a genius.

… Which was actually true, but Amiya had a bad habit of doing the least amount of work possible; in other words, she had judged her 8-page, in-depth, step-by-step guide as the bare minimum for teaching Ferris how to use the computer. That said, the fact that she had bothered making those notes for him at all could be seen as proof of how much she cherished him (which Ferris probably would have considered the more important part, anyways).

In any case, after navigating his way onto NSOL’s official forums, Ferris took a few moments to carefully deliberate over where to look first before giving up and deciding to just click on the very first message thread at the top of the page.

And, after the page loaded, Ferris saw the following: 

[Getting Started: Beginners MEGATHREAD]

> ScrunglyUncle:

This is the 1st Beginner’s Megathread, where you can ask simple questions that might not deserve their own thread. Please see the links below for various useful resources:

– Basic Stats

– Races General

– Skills General

– Weapon Advice

If you are looking for something else, feel free to ask! Hopefully someone will be able to send you in the right direction.

> Anonymous: Thanks for the thread!

> Anonymous: congratulations on the launch!

> GreaterHog (#): Thank you! We hope you enjoy our game! Feel free to contact me or LesserHog(#) for any questions regarding game mechanics or unusual interactions.

> Anonymous: oh, mods get a symbol next to their names

> Anonymous: … Wait, who’s OP, then?

> GreaterHog (#): We don't know.

> Anonymous: wat

> GreaterHog (#): They somehow beat us to making the first thread on nearly all of the different forum sections. We have no idea how they managed to do that.

> Anonymous: … wat

> Anonymous: Scary.

> ScrunglyUncle: Ho ho ho! No need to be scared! I’m just your friendly, neighborhood Scrungly Uncle!

> Anonymous: You’re not my uncle!

> Anonymous: Stranger Danger!

… Ferris decided to set aside whatever was going on in that thread and clicked on the link titled “Basic Game Mechanics”.

———

(EXTRA: The mod team regarding user “ScrunglyUncle”...)

> Anonymous: Y’all’re really just gonna let that… supernatural entity do his thing?

> GreaterHog (#): There's actually nothing wrong with the information they’ve provided, so we’re leaving his threads up.

> Anonymous: government-approved cryptid

> ScrunglyUncle: That's government-approved UNCLE to you!