Paradigm Shift

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Paradigm Shift

Ryan had known that today was going to be a bit off. Novasphere Pioneers was supposed to hit the live servers, and according to the forums he’d been browsing, it hosted a slew of new content that was to remain hidden from the players. It was supposed to turn the late game into a world of exploration, discovery, and creation. Hidden craft recipes, new songs for Bards, a magic creation system, the works. The expansion was supposed to be like playing a whole new game from start to finish.

In preparation, Ryan had staved off from playing Ryuuketsu for the better part of two weeks – sorry, a “fortnight.” God, British people used weird words sometimes. Well, that didn’t matter right now anyways. What he was so confused about was how it had suddenly become late evening. The moon was in the sky, and he wasn’t sure where he was. He looked down at himself to find Ryuuketsu’s starter gear in stunningly real graphics quality had replaced his clothing.

What was this, some sort of trick? A dream, maybe? With some crazy anime plot like this, he had to be dreaming.

Looking around the area, he took note that he was in the Moon Dance Forest. The village in the middle of it was to the West, judging by the way the moon was slowly making its way down the skyline. Then again, the sun and moon might not even set in the West in this dream.

Moon Dance Forest had also been the area he’d left Ryuuketsu in, strangely enough. Was he having one of those dreams where he ended up as a character he’d played in a game again? Usually those only happened when he had been playing one for several hours a day over the course of about a week, and they rarely ever happened with MMO characters.

No, that wasn’t it. A dream was never this vivid, either. Besides, if he thought he was dreaming, his body would have woken up. Lucid dreaming had never been his thing; he hardly ever remembered his dreams in the first place.

So why was it that he was here in Elder Tale? If it wasn’t a dream, and he wasn’t being tricked by anyone, was this world suddenly real?

No, if it was real then he would have ended up on the US servers with his main character there. He’d put more time into that one, and while he probably didn’t have much of a personality planned out for it he liked to think that it fit his personality more than Ryuuketsu ever would.

Still, there was really no explaining what had just happened, or what could have caused it in the first place. Other than Elder Tale suddenly springing in to the real world, there just wasn’t an explanation that could justify what was going on here. He was Ryuuketsu, and he was going to have to figure out how the hell he’d gotten here in the first place now.

”Geez, I know I’ve wished that life was more like this game a few times now, but I didn’t think God would take that so seriously.”

HP:

MP:

Word Count: 528

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Paradigm Shift

It was lonely in the village at night. Sure, the NPCs were all out and smiling at him, but that didn’t mean that they were really alive. For all he knew, they’d only know how to speak one or two sentences – more if the designers had bothered to give them a quest to hand out.

Still, they seemed strangely animated for the usual NPCs that Adventurers were supposed to encounter around town. They were walking around town and conversing with each other. While some NPCs did that, not all of them did. What was more, with Hearing Aptitude – a skill that improved his hearing in this world, not just granting him echolocation like before – allowed him to hear these conversations in detail.

”Hey, do you see that guy over there? He looks new around here. He doesn’t look like much of an Adventurer, either. Those clothes don’t look nearly as good as some of the others that come through here.”

“Yeah, but you have to admit he’s kind of cute. It’s not every day you see someone like him working his way through town.”

And that was enough of that conversation. Ryan started humming to himself silently, negating any sort of bonus to his hearing that the skill would confer. He really didn’t need to hear characters from a video game hit on him. Right now he really just wanted to focus on figuring out who was in this world and why he was here now.

Brushing off his pants – he realized they were a bit tattered and not the best looking clothes that an adventurer could own in this world – Ryuuketsu stood and walked over to the nearest market stand he could find.

”Ah, you look like you just got out of the caverns, m’boy. What can I do you for? If you’re looking for a place to spend the night, I know the girls at the local tavern will give a strapping young lad like you a good rate.”

Ryuuketsu honestly wanted to shudder. He wasn’t that good looking, was he? His avatar didn’t look too different than his body in real life. Well, it might. He hadn’t exactly had the chance to look in a mirror since he got here or anything.

”Y-yeah. Something like that. I was wondering if you could tell me where I am right now, actually. I sort of have a terrible sense of direction.”

The man behind the counter chuckled before pulling out a map of the area from under the table. He set it on the desk and brushed it out, and Ryuuketsu quickly identified it as a map of the world of Elder Tale.

So he was in Elder Tale after all. Like he’d said before, he knew this was going to be a weird day.

HP:

MP:

Word Count: 471

[Ryuuketsu]

This Is A Wonderful World

Paradigm Shift

Was this really going to be Ryuuketsu’s life now? How the hell was Ryan supposed to deal with the idea that he wouldn’t be waking up tomorrow, checking the mail for the results of his University application, deal with the nagging from his mom and dad, play Elder Tale, and all that other stuff?

It was a nice notion that he no longer had any responsibilities, but he knew that was simply too good to be true. He’d still need to eat, and food would cost money. Even if money came from popping out of enemies that he decided to kill, that was still work that he had to do.

Not only that, but if he was here there might have been others as well. If other people were in this world, that meant that all-out chaos was likely to break out at any given moment. That was just the way people were – stupid and stubborn to a fault, and even dumber when you made them afraid.

Shaking his head, Ryuuketsu went back up to the tavern in town, entering the small wooden building and walking up to the bar. Renting a room for the night wasn’t that expensive given all the farming that he’d done back in his earlier levels, but that wasn’t as much of a problem as the uncomfortable glances he was getting from across the room.

He fled to the room he’d rented faster than he thought was socially graceful, but social grace had never actually been something he’d cared about, let alone been good at. How was he supposed to get used to being popular among game characters? He didn’t think he wanted that kind of popularity.

Well, this was nothing a good night’s sleep wouldn’t fix. Hopefully.

HP:

MP:

Word Count: 293