Antares

<Starting iris scan. Done.>

<Starting facial scan. Done.>

<Starting brainwave compatibility test. Done.>

<Starting configuration setting. Done.>

Alice heard the various booting up alert of the virtual reality gear, which made her both sad and angry at the same time.

I bought this six months ago and it's just booting up now. I feel sorry for this virtual gear of mine. Alice thought to herself.

<All test done>

<All safety procedures completed>

When the last of the system prompts was heard, Alice immediately logged on Antares. Alice's vision immediately did a 180, and blanked out for a second before brightening once again. The view that Alice saw was a beautifully rendered garden full of trees, flowers, butterflies, and other insects. The garden was extremely beautiful and can be mistaken for something real. As she was admiring the garden, the character creation menu appeared slowly and she created her in-game character with every aspect in her mind, but that was immediately thrown out the window and created an elf avatar when she saw it.

Name : Alice

Class : Novice

Level : 1 (0/100)

Race : Elf

Strength : 10

Agility : 10

Intelligence : 10

Constitution : 10

After creating her in-game character, the scenery once changed into a small village. This is the beginner village called Village of Aanvang. According to the game lore, Aanvang was a hero of the past, he was the only hero who decided to train new people to fight monster littering all of the world of Antares.

The Village of Aanvang was small with only a handful of buildings and less than 30 NPCs. Knowing the basics of fantasy games in general, Alice immediately go towards when the village chief is. The village chief can be found in front of the biggest house in the village, however, when Alice got there, the village chief is nowhere to be found.

With the village chief gone, she knocked on the village chief's house. The one who answered Alice was a tall woman.

"Hello, how can I help you?" The woman asked Alice.

"Hi, I'm Alice, an adventurer. I'm looking for the village chief, can you tell me where he is?" Alice asked the woman.

"Oh, I'm Hefda." The woman introduced herself. "My husband is currently not here. I think he's in Houth's hut in the forest. Houth is this village's woodcutter and my husband has been called there. Would you like to go inside our home and wait for Hodof to come back?" The Hefda continued.

"I'm grateful for your offer but I must talk with your husband. I'll go to the woodcutter's hut, I'll take my leave now." Alice politely declined and was about to leave the chief's house when she is stopped by Hefda.

"Wait." Hefda said holding Alice's arm. "Can I asked something for you to do?"

"Uhm, sure. Why not?" Alice answered.

And with that, Hefda immediately rushed inside her house and after a while she came back outside with 3 boxes in her hand.

"Deliver these to my husband and Houth, its packed lunch for them. The third one is yours." Hefda said and gave Alice the 3 packed lunch. "Thank you."

< Lunch box (Quest Item) acquired>

< Lunch box (Quest Item) acquired>

< Lunch box acquired>

<Quest "Deliver Lunch" start>

When Alice acquired the quest, she was confused. There was no indication that Hefda gives quest. She thought to herself if this is a hidden quest or if this is just how one can acquire quest from NPC's ; starting a dialogue and saying the right words. After thinking for a while she looked at the mission

<Quest "Deliver Lunch"

Description:

Hefda has asked you to deliver packed lunch for Hodof who is at Houth's hut in the

forest. She also packed lunch for both Houth and you.

Quest Reward:

25 Exp

25 copper>

The delivery quest was standard and there's nothing questionable to it so Alice immediately started on it. She was about to step into the forest when a sudden thought appeared on her mind.

Where in the forest is the hut? Shoot! This is harder than I thought. There's not even a quest marker on the map. The freak!?

As she was contemplating on what she should do. She saw some children playing in the clearing near the forest. She approached them to ask if they know where Houth's hut is.

"Hello children, can I ask you something?" She started. "Do you kno------"

Before she can continue her questions the child nearest to her started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Waaaah!! Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger! Stranger danger!" The child keep screaming as he ran away with tears in his eyes.

While this was happening, the other children also started to run away screaming "Stranger Danger!" as loud as they can around the village.

Alice's mind blanked for a moment. Then she heard a snicker coming from some of the other new players who happened to be nearby.

What the hell? Stranger danger!? This is so embarrassing.

With Alice's face flushed, she ran into the forest to avoid the eyes of the other players. As she was starting to get her mind together, a system prompt appeared.

<Title "Stranger Danger" acquired>