Making New Friends
Carter looked around at his surroundings. He can only see white on the four sides of the room. He was alone as if he was in nothingness. Seconds after before a screen in front of him appeared.
'Is this what the new season looks like?' He asked himself.
He was amazed as it really looks like reality.
Unsure of what to do, he proceeded to enter a username on the screen.
"Hairy Man"
[Success! Click the start button to enter.]
"That was fast," Carter uttered as he clicked the start button in front of him.
His eyes widened when he saw something going near him. It was a gigantic mirror that was ready to swallow his whole being. Carter was ready to run away, but before he could do so, a blinding light made him shut his eyes.
He knelt on the floor in case the mirror will continue moving and fall into him, but instead, he felt a cold air passing through his whole body.
"Where am I?"
That was the first thing that came into his mind when he saw a bunch of people. Yet, the one thing that caught his attention was their likeliness. Panicking, he quickly raised his hand to touch his head.
"ARE WE ALL BALD?" He shouted out in shock after feeling his scalp.
His black hair was now gone. It was now replaced with a soft and shiny scalp, just like the others.
Carter's shout caught others' attention. He quickly apologized for what he did and run to the other side where there were fewer people.
'That was embarrassing,' He breathed out before gazing at his back to see how far he has run.
Deciding to get familiar with the game, Carter pressed the three dots on the top right of his head. It revealed 4 buttons, namely the <Game>, <Social>, <Help>, and <Account> buttons.
He clicked the 'game' word, which led to 5 more choices.
There were the status page, a quest page, skills, inventory, and shop page. Among the five of them, only the status and the quest page were unlocked. The others were still locked, with a corresponding level at the bottom.
It seems like he won't be able to access the skill and inventory page until he became level 2, while the remaining page can only be accessed once he became level 5.
"I see that the game became harder now, compared to last season."
Nodding his head, he remembered that when he played the game on his phone, before, all the pages were already unlocked. Maybe they added that to give the players more thrill since the game looks real with the use of the helmet.
Carter clicked the status page that revealed his stats.
— — — —
< Name: Hairy Man >
[ Level: 1 ]
[ EXP: 0/100 ]
[ Rank: None ]
[ HP: 100/100 ]
[ Mana: 10/10 ]
[ Strength: 10 ]
[ Agility: 10 ]
[ Stamina: 10 ]
[ Intelligence: 10]
[ Weapon: None ]
[ Skills: None ]
— — — —
"Hmm, well, that's quite normal since the game just started." Carter closed the status page and moved on to the second one that was the quest page
[ Quest Unavailable ]
[ 5: 39: 18 ]
Taking a deep breath, Carter shrugged his shoulders and closed the page. It seems like he still needs to wait until morning before the tasks show up.
What's good about this game was that it follows the time in the real world. That means it was still night, right at this moment.
He looked around and saw that there were a lot of people checking their status as well. He already expected that all of them will have the same status in the beginning.
There were a lot of players as he expected. After all, who wouldn't want the cash prize, right?
Carter grimaced. People would really do anything just to earn money in an easy way. Well, that same goes for him, so he can't really say anything about them.
He wondered, "is this game designated for men? Or are their bald girls here too?" Imagining it, he couldn't pinpoint what those women would look like.
Walking around the area, Carter just found out that they were inside the Main Plaza. The other part of the map was still locked for an hour. So, they can't really do anything but socialize with others.
It was a good thing too since Carter can get to know more about the other players. If he was lucky enough, he might find a friend or a companion in the game that he can use to level up faster.
Friends or companions were needed here, since there were tasks that required a team effort. Just like killing high-leveled monsters or a world boss. After playing the game for 3 days on his phone, Carter was able to grasp the basic knowledge he needs to survive.
The maximum level that a player could have was 250. There were 20 ranks that they can possibly have.
What he needs to do now was to build allies that were trustworthy enough because he knows that everyone on the internet can be suspicious. And he was not born a fool to believe with just petty words.
"Hello!"
Carter's body turned around when he heard a voice coming from his back. In there he saw a man in a black shirt and pants. The man has fair skin and was tall in height. On top of his head was the name "Red Balls".
"Hi," Carter greeted the man back.
The man laughed loudly after hearing what Carter said. "Just call me Joseph."
Carter nodded. "Just call me Carter then," he responded.
The two of them shared handshakes as they formally greet each other. Carter didn't expect that he would find a new friend this fast.
"I have a friend playing this game, too. I will let you meet him later, don't worry." Joseph uttered as they started to walk towards the big tree in the middle.
The main plaza was filled with huge trees and wooden benches. The ground was covered by green grass while some spots have bloomed flowers. The plaza was still surrounded by invisible walls, so the only thing they can do was wander around the area.
"Why did you want to be friends with me?" Carter asked the man when they arrived at the tree. His eyes looked at the man warily, investigating if Joseph had hidden agendas.
He sat on one of its branches and looked above him to meet the man's eyes.
"Oh, because I saw your username," Joseph replied which made him confused.
"What about my name?" He was confused about what was in his name. So far, it looks normal compared to the others he saw while strolling around.
Heck, he even saw a name filled with just numbers.
"You know, our name, when placed together, matches perfectly. Do you want to know the combination?" Joseph answered as a burst of laughter came out of his lips.
"What?" Carter's forehead creased as he watched at how the man hysterically laughed in front of him.
"Hairy Man's Red Balls."
======
So what's the color of your balls? <-_^ >