Ch 13- Art

Art was flying around secretly observing the situation of the entry players firsthand. 'First was a winged unicorn, the second was an elf, third, a wolf were-beast, fourth a human, fifth a templar, and the last is a succubus. This first batch of players has a really good spread and most have adapted like fish to water, just as the main brain designed'.

After he finished observing the succubus he took off once more, halfway through his flight he made a decision to deviate his course and go back to the first player.

'Kelly Glacé, Winged Unicorn race. Age: 18 years old, single family, started gaming at age of fourteen and quickly took to the top rankings in four of Gaia Tech's leading software'. Arts' mind swiftly recalled all the previous information he had reviewed upon Kelly's selection for the virtual cabin.

'He was the one I was most optimistic about. There are not many people who can be sorted as a mythical creature, yet out of these six players he seems to be resisting the game settings the most'. Before Arts eyes was a chart displaying Kelly's mood fluctuations upon entering the game and everything he felt since.

To state it lightly he looked as though he was riding an incredibly fast and continuously twisting and turning rollercoaster. Sometimes excited, or surprised some happiness here and there, and a lot of anger. 'Really angry'. That was Art's thoughts as he stared at the complicated chart. 'Maybe he has mental issues? No, wait the main brain would've known and sorted him differently if that was the case. But why is he so unstable and dissatisfied then?'.

Art furrowed his brows seemingly not understanding why this player was so frustrated and disappointed while playing the game. 'Let's go observe for a while, maybe that will help give me the answer'.

Art opened his settings and spoke crisply "display location for player 1". He followed the projected path and soon arrived in the silver woods. "Change appearance to Elven NPC". The fire Phoenix disappeared and changed into a young elf with green hair and Gold eyes. At this moment in time "Glacé" had just landed and was looking curiously at the floating orbs that started appearing.

Art silently pulled up Glacés emotion chart and watched it closely in real-time. He saw the graph fluctuate displaying the player's curiosity and happiness 'he must like the elemental spirits' Art thought simply. Art sat behind a bush and saw the spirit's numbers grow to an alarming size, even he was surprised seeing the magical scene before him.

'Not all creatures are created equal, even within the same race. I knew he had the most potential out of these trial players. But why isn't he enjoying the game as much as the others'. Art was still lost, he continued to watch and soon saw Aqua appear. Before she left her eyes happened to glance at where Art was and she gave a slight nod while looking his way before leaving.

After seeing their exchange end Art solemnly turned his eyes back to the graph surprise, anxiety, shock, surprise again, and now excitement. 'Maybe he's just an overly emotional and expressive individual?' Art thought he hit the nail on the head 'he's quite interesting regardless, the NPCs seem to harbor a natural goodwill whenever they see him'.

Art thought it may be worthwhile to observe this player's journey and future a bit more closely than the others. He followed behind and watched Glacé interact with the NPCs until he heard a familiar noise.

*Ding* 'Message notification'

Art kept his eyes on Glacé for just another moment before giving a sigh 'it must be work'.

Art opened his social tab and saw a message from his secretary.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your in-game observations Sir, however, there appears to be a small issue appearing on the StarNet, and it is growing quickly. It originated because of the player that's streaming the game live. I would like to know how'd you like me to handle this matter".

'The player streaming?' Art looked back up at Glacé with a complicated look 'his stream only just reopened recently, what kind of trouble could he have created in such a short time?'.

Leaving a soft sigh Art signed out of the game and exited the virtual cabin. He walked to his desk and paged his head secretary, Alice "come in and brief me on the situation".

"Sir, we've already looked into it and the situation is like this. Since the player Glacé is a winged unicorn he changed the game settings to where it would automatically filter out any words pertaining to his identity in order to protect himself. The fans on his Livestream heard the beeped-out words when an NPC was talking to him and speculated that the game was using foul language toward players. The clip was taken from the stream and was blown out of proportion. How would you like us to handle this matter?".

"That's it? It's a minor deal, just post a clarification that the player chose to adjust their settings to automatically scan out their username and race, so whenever an NPC would say them others wouldn't be able to listen in. You can go ahead and add a small spoiler saying that different races have different benefits and dangers so it is better and actually advised for players not to tell one's race lightly. This should be enough for those netizens to calm down and also redirect their thinking to their future gameplay".

Alice nodded "I understand, I'll have Carl make an official post right away. If you have nothing else for me then I'll head out". Art nodded and watched as Alice walked away, he slowly got up and walked over to an Interweb server he then connected his communication device to the Interweb terminal. "Pull up all the videos of player one from when he first entered the game to current". Art sat down and intently watched Glacé's experience and held the emotional chart to see if he could figure out what kept setting him off.

Meanwhile, Glacé had set up a temporary camp around the foxes. There are two rather large stones that the small fox hid between so Glacé simply used skills he learned in a past survival game to build a small awning and leaf walls. He planned to rest here for a few days until both the young foxes got their strength back before heading the to Elven tribe.

Glace opened his bag and stared at the milk and apples then glanced at the two foxes, he silently exited out of his inventory and stood up. "I'm gonna try hunting for food, you two, stay here". Bai nodded tiredly and went to curl up around his sister to rest.

"Mole you help me scout for any wild animal worth catching nearby".

"Ok!" Mole gave a happy chirp and dashed into the wind. Glacé slowly followed in the direction Mole left and saw him flying back soon enough. Mole tugged on Glacés shirt to guide him, soon enough the two arrived at a small clearing where there were many deer.

Glacé exhaled a sigh 'how beautiful' the deer were all petite in size and completely silver, just like the forest they called home. He saw them munching on the silver leaves of the trees and whispered to Mole who sat on his shoulder. "These are just normal animals right? Not were-beasts or beast people?".

Mole raised a fist and patted hit little chest "I'm sure!". Glacé raised his hand and sparks of electricity appeared within it crackling and hissing. He accurately threw the bolt at a large adult male deer; who instantly collapsed on the ground twitching. The other deer perceiving the unusual situation turned and ran, Glacé ran up to his somewhat charred meal and started to process it on the spot. 'Thankfully I've been through survival games' Glacé turned and kept his eyes toward the side as he tried the handle the deer quickly. Once the meat was stored in his inventory he dashed back toward the two foxes with his spoils.

Bai could smell Glacés scent mixed with the smell of blood and knew he caught something yummy. He stared intently at the direction the smell came from and soon enough Glacé appeared and met his glistening eyes.

"Bai I brought you back food! I'll get a fire going and cook it up" Glacé had a dazzling grin on his face and opened his inventory back up.

'Silver sika deer meat' "so that was what it was called". Glacé looked at the item description.

'The player was desperate enough to kill one of Elves' protected creatures, don't let them find out or they may despise and kill you. The silver Sitka deer is very pure and naive, just look at their eyes; they show it all. However one cannot deny their meat is some of the juiciest out there. Well worth the risk of the elves' hate, enjoy it!'.

Glacé had no words. 'This game just has it out for me. No doubt about it'. Glacé sighed and looked toward his companions, "we never mention this meal again. Ever".

Seeing Glaces solemn face and stern attitude they all nodded over exaggeratedly. Thus Glacé focused on cooking and eating dinner in the fastest time possible; just in case, after all, he seems to have the worst luck in this game.

Glacé continuously scowled as he cooked the deer meat. After distributing the meat between everyone Glacé slowly took a bite 'holy shit'. Glacé lowered his eyes and stared at the meat kebab in his hand, it was so tender he felt like it was melting in his mouth. 'It really is worth it, this may be the most delicious thing I've ever tasted'.

Glacé turned ravenous and ate with gusto, quickly finishing off his share and licking his fingers. After having a full belly he felt a bit sleepy so he scooted his way toward the two young fox demons and lay next to them, he gently grabbed Bai's tail and held it in his arms.

Bai, who was still eating felt a tug on his tail and looked back; he saw Glacé trying to sleep with his tail. Bai froze as still as a statue and after a moment slide his tail out. Glacé opened his eyes and stared at Bai with eyes full of disappointment. However, he then watched as Bai shook his tail and eight more appeared, making it a lot bigger and fluffier than before. He then sat his tail under Glacés head and softly whispered "goodnight". Glacé looked at him and just smiled before snuggling against the soft fur and drifting asleep.