A Shocking Reality

Tunir had returned to his daily routine. The date with Mary was a mere memory at this point. Tunir would still look at his memory fondly though.

As usual, several players had entered Tunir's shop and were inquiring about things like weapons, armor, and the smithing career.

"So Tunir, how exactly are you going to move out of the city?" One of the players asked him.

Tunir immediately stopped what he was doing as he was asked this question. What could this player mean? Why would Tunir leave this city?

"Can you explain what you're asking?" Tunir inquired.

"Oh, well the enemy army is going to be attacking this city soon so I thought you were gonna run away or something."

"The enemy army is going to attack? Since when?" Tunir had begun to panic.

"Um, I don't know how long it's been since the enemy decided to attack, but we got an announcement today that the starter city was going to shift."

Tunir began to hyperventilate. This is a disaster. What is he going to do?

"Oh, um… Don't worry Tunir. I doubt this will be permanent. This city has strong walls and stuff so it should be fine. The city is just going to be under siege for a while so they can't allow starter players to start here."

"Well, where are you all being moved?"

"A city called Niris. It's not too far but it's definitely not as great as this place."

Tunir had to calm himself down from his current state of shock. He hadn't heard any news about this situation at all. Why had nobody warned him that this was going to happen? He doesn't want to be in a city under siege! He wants to take Mary and get out of this place!

"Tell me… Is why is the enemy army going to be attacking this city?" Tunir asked the player.

"Oh, well there were a lot of quests that pertained to getting sensitive information on the enemy armies or taking down their generals, but we were usually underleveled for them so we couldn't take them. I guess we took to long to do them so the army moved forward and is now attacking this city as a result."

"Underleveled you say? Why are you underleveled?"

"Well, I don't mean to be mean or anything but all you NPC's have been refusing to give us quests! We even try to be nice but at times even that doesn't work! As a result we don't gain enough experience points so we need to grind a lot. A lot of players just quit when they realize that the game is a grindfest so only the dedicated ones stay around."

Tunir could feel something drop inside of his stomach. This was his fault. He was the first person to deny a player a quest and from him it spread like wildfire. His home is about to be attacked and it's all his fault. The amount of guilt that he feels is indescribable.

It seems that the player took notice of this as they began to try to cheer Tunir up.

"H-Hey, don't look so glum! Even if the enemy army sieges this place I doubt the devs will allow this city to stay under enemy occupation forever! This might even just be a new event or something! Maybe it's a precursor to an expansion pack!"

Tunir had no idea what in the world this player was talking about. Devs? Expansion pack? Why is it that players always use such nonsense terms when they talk to him? Perhaps this is just a failure of the translation that players use in their own world.

"Well… I suppose I'm going to need to move to Niris then. Can anyone help me with this?" Tunir solemnly asked.

Suddenly, a brown screen appeared in front of all of the players in the smithy. The screen clearly stated "Emergency Quest" on it. Tunir remembered having something similar happen during Cold Day.

"Yes sir Mr. Tunir!" Another player energetically shouted out.

Before Tunir knew it, many players ran into his smithy and began to take everything that was not bolted down and ran off. Tunir had no idea where the players were going, but at this point he wasn't so worried about his things as he was guilty about what his actions had caused.

Tunir stepped out of his smithy and saw an amazing sight.

A covered horse drawn wagon was sitting in front of his smithy. All of Tunir's items were already placed inside of the wagon and he was ready to go at a moment's notice.

A speech bubble appeared above a player's head.

"Man, I didn't know that the devs programmed tetris as a minigame! That was impressive!"

Tunir had no idea what tetris was, but he decided to not question it. He hopped up to the driver's seat of the wagon and grabbed the reins.

"I deem your quests completed! Good work, all of you! Now if you would excuse me, I have a woman to pick up!"

At his declaration, several brown screens appeared in front of the players. Each screen read "Quest Completed!" which made Tunir feel like he was helping fix the problem that he had caused, even if only slightly.

Tunir whipped the reins and began to drive the wagon towards Mary's home. He wasn't going to just leave her here after all.

After a few minutes, the carriage arrived at the home of Mary. Tunir walked up to the front door and knocked. After a moment, Mary opened the door and a look of surprise appeared on her face.

"Tunir! What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I don't have much time to explain. The city is going to be attacked soon and we need to get out of here!" He declared. A look of panic appeared on Mary's face when Tunir said this.

"W-What? What do I do? I have so much stuff in my home!" Mary fidgeted around in place.

"Ah, don't worry about that." Tunir began as he turned around and prepared to shout.

"Emergency quest! I need help moving this women's things into my wagon!" Tunir shouted out.

Mere moments later, players began to flock to this location, like ants to honey.

"Quest?" Many of them would ask. Despite their rudeness, Tunir let all of them take the quest. They filed in and out of the home and quickly dropped off each item into the remaining room inside of the covered wagon.

"Quest done boss man." One of the players declared. Tunir went over to investigate and deemed the job done, so he stated that the quest had been completed.

Mary hopped in the passenger seat of the carriage and Tunir grabbed the reins.

"Alright, let's get out of here!" Tunir shouted as he whipped the reins.