Game On

Floor 1

It's been two days since Drayko announced that we were stuck in this game. Every day people attempted to log out and failed of course. It was kind of funny in a way. You wouldn't expect people to only think of cheap ways to get out of here. I'm honestly still scared of what the future holds for us in this world. But, I know I can't sit around and be scared forever. I need to do everything I can to get us out of here. There it was again. I slipped up and said us. I've never cared about anyone, I've never wanted to actually want someone to be alive and breathing. But when I think of him, I just want him to be safe. Tempest was the first person to ever show any kindness to me. I know it was so little, but it meant everything to me. We've still been hanging around on floor 0. There is no floor boss here, and we're free to move up to floor 1 whenever we feel we're ready. The past couple of days we've been preparing our gear and practicing against the very weak monsters. Tempest is insanely strong even though he doesn't look like it. His speed is incredible for an archer. His build is the high offensive one, so he's super quick and does a lot of damage.

I managed to get scythe that I really liked as weapon. I've never been too into using lances as weapons and would rather slice up a monster fast. I feel pretty confident with my movement and attacks too. I feel like we're ready for floor 1. 

We've also met a couple of other people. The first one being the small blonde that cried to us on the first day here. Her in game name is Taylee, who requests we only call her Tay. She's got this really bubbly personality, basically the exact opposite of me. She constantly annoys me with her awful jokes and she seems like a high school bimbo honestly. She's an archer too, but she is completely built for buffing others. The next person we met was Navarre. He's a mage and a pretty silent one at that. I've actually never heard him talk once but he seems like he's pretty strong. They were invited by Tempest to join us, and though I was super hesitant about it, I fell for his puppy face and gave in to letting them come. I kind of regret it though.. I mean just watching this right now..

"Tempy! You were so awesome and cool and amazing and cool!" That blonde i***t said so excitedly after Tempest brought down another monster. I was sitting on this large rock with Navarre beside me. We had been training for hours and those two decided it was their turn to get some fighting in. I wouldn't have minded Tay if she just, didn't have that annoying voice. I understand being encouraging and all that but this just made me want to smash her head into a rock. I watched Tempest laugh joyfully and then grinned at me. 

"Hey Juniper! You see that? Think I deserved rank 1 now?" He called as he walked towards us. I rolled my eyes at that. Every day he brings that up at least 30 times since I'm still in disbelief that he was THE Tempest. "You took at least 2 minutes longer than I did." I respond with a little smile. We bicker a lot during the day honestly. I think it's the best way we can communicate with each other. It usually ends in a good laugh regardless. I noticed Tay behind him with a big scowl on her face. I wonder what got her so upset.

"I was just going easy on them! You'll see once we head up to floor 1! Which reminds me, we should head up in a few hours. If you guys don't remember from the beta version, that floor is just a large field." Tempest explained to everyone. The plains had generally easy monsters. There were mostly bears and smaller monsters. 

"I'm going to head back and pack up my stuff! Wanna come with me Tempy?" Tay asked, her voice raising at least 6 octaves. I thought I heard Navarre mutter "annoying" under his breath, but I might've just been hearing things. 

"Sure, let's go Juniper." He said looking at me with a grin. That small statement, somehow, made Tay yell in annoyance. We all looked at her like she grew 3 heads. "Why do you always bring up Juniper when I'm trying to spend time with only you Tempy?" She whined like a child. She really is annoying. 

"Well Juniper is my friend and my partner-" Tempest was cut off by Tay running back towards the plaza. I couldn't help but laugh at her behaviour. Tempest groaned in annoyance and I even caught Navarre cracking a little smile. "Tay acts like she's 7, and she's like 15 with a crush on you." I chuckle and look at Tempest's upset face.

"She does not have a crush on me. And even if she did, I could never see her in that way. I'm gonna go look for her to make sure she isn't bawling her eyes out as always." Tempest said before ruffling my hair. I hated when he did that but I think it was his way of saying "see you later" to me. It was weird since he didn't do it to anyone else. I smile as I watch him run off.

I got up and stretched before looking back at Navarre. "Hey, wanna head to the river together? I know you don't like hanging out in the plaza too much." I offer and watch as his eyes shine up. He nods and gets up following me. There's a nice river here, where nobody goes to since there's no benefit looking at it. But I did figure out that Navarre hated social interactions. He reminds me of myself in some ways. Ever since I've been in fear of dying, I want to try to change myself this one time. I might not get another opportunity to do so. 

"Hey, well since we're gonna be teammates I thought I'd tell you a bit about myself. Is that okay?" I ask gently as we talk towards the river. I saw him nod in response. "Well back at home, I'm from New York. I live in a big house actually. It's my aunts house but she's never really home. I like it though. New York is beautiful at nighttime, you should check it out whenever you get the chance." I explained as we reached the river. I sit down on a log and watch as he leans against a tree, looking interested about what I'm talking about.

"You know, I've never really understood why I'm so negative. I know in this world I seem so talkative, and happy sometimes, but back home I literally hated everyone around me. I always wished badness upon them, which is a horrible thing to do. I preferred being alone and I guess, ever since our lives have been at stake, I've just wanted to change that about myself. Is that bad?" I looked at him hoping he'd understand what I was trying to explain. I know I'm bad at explaining my heart and how I feel, but I really did my best. He shook his head and smiled at me softly. 

"I like the way you are." I hear a voice from behind me causing me to jump. Tempest came out of nowhere causing me to freak out. "When did you get there? Why are you even here?" I questioned confused actually. I thought he went after Tay. 

"Why do you have to sound like you're so desperate to get rid of me?" Tempest asked with a laugh. I didn't intend for it to come off that way but I was too shy to say that to him. "Maybe because I do. I don't like you" I retorted causing him to hold his heart in fake pain.

"That hurts Juniper. But it's also a lie. I'm your absolute favourite." He said with a lot of confidence. You're right but I'm not about to admit that. "Only in your wildest dreams Tempy." I smirk knowing how much he'd hate if I called him that.

"Oh god don't call me that. Trust me when I say my wildest dreams are something you'll love, Juniper." He said to me with a chuckle. My face turned into disgust. "I can't even begin to explain to you how badly I don't love you and Tay banging in a virtual world."

There was silence. Actually there was a small chuckle from Navarre in the back. But it was silent other than that. "I'm not talking to you for the rest of the way back." Tempest managed to say after he recovered. I looked at Navarre and we both ended up laughing loudly as we both got up and started to walk back to the plaza to find our crying princess.

Tempest stayed true to his words and didn't talk to me for our 15 minute journey home. But the moment we stepped into the plaza he became a chatterbox again, which I didn't mind at all. We ended up finding Tay crying in the middle of the plaza on the ground. She caused a big scene which Tempest somehow didn't mind. He's the kind of person who's just nice to everyone I suppose. After some minutes she finally got up and stopped crying, and just my luck, she started bossing us around. "I've been waiting here forever, I'm ready to go to floor 1 already! Juniper, stop slowing us down!" I simply rolled my eyes at that statement.

"Yeah yeah I'm really sorry. Let's go crybaby." I said and started walking towards the teleporter. I heard Tempest sigh in disappointment from behind me. It's not my fault he wanted to bring her along. Anyway, the teleporter is on every floor of this game. It can send you to any floor you've already beaten, or the one you need to complete next. However, you can't travel with someone to a floor you haven't beaten and they have. The teleporter won't function then. We all stood on the teleporter and I watch Navarre input 'floor 1'. The fields, the easiest monsters if you don't include the beginner floor.

Surprisingly, a lot of other people have started their training and accepted that they need to fight if they want to get out of here. There was nobody who had beaten the first floor yet though. I can't imagine the training here will be too beneficial either. The monsters power level is almost the same as floor 0. Part of me just wanted to walk straight up to the floor boss. But then the smarter part of me says everyone will be against that idea.

"Why don't we just straight up to the floor boss?" Tempest asks as we appeared in the large field. I looked at him surprised and then laughed slightly when I saw everyone else's reaction. Tay looked terrified and Navarre actually showed some semblance of concern for Tempests state of mind. "I was thinking the same thing actually. I did that in the beta version." I added on making Tay's facial reaction turn into annoyance. 

"Your ideas are stupid Juniper." She said with a stupid voice. It was your precious Tempys idea dumbass. Well, that's what I wanted to say but I held back this one time. "What's your idea then Tay? Cry and fight monsters?" I reply without even looking at her. She's becoming more and more irrelevant to me as every day passes. Or every minute actually. I kid you not, Tay actually stomped her foot like a child and started whining to Tempest about how mean and heartless I am. Instead of listening to her bullshit, I observed our surroundings. There were very few monsters actually. Less than the beta version had. There were quite a few teams scattered around though. Most were just talking to one another while a few of them were training. I imagine most people aren't going to spend too much training on this floor. In the distance I could see a girl by herself. She was sitting on the ground, it almost looked like she was asleep since she wasn't moving at all. I didn't really want to go out of my way to help anyone, but she was literally sitting in the battlefield, where monsters could kill her any second. I decided to make my way over there while Tay attempted to win Tempests heart. 

I grab my scythe and walk over to her. I notice Navarre was following me too. I didn't mind of course. He didn't talk but I did feel comfortable around him. Plus it's no harm to have someone there while I wake this girl up. As we got closer, I took in her appearance. She had brown hair, and it was braided back beautifully. Her character was actually really pretty. She even had a blue battle dress on. I noticed a book to the side of her and recognized it immediately. 

"Navarre keep us covered. I'm going to check if she's injured, she's a cleric so I can't imagine she is but she does seem alone too." I said before quickly rushing over to her. I check her pulse and sigh in relief knowing she's still got a beat. I examined her skin and saw no injuries or anything. She can't possibly be asleep, right? Who sleeps in a sitting position, and in the middle of nowhere? I try to shake her awake but she didn't react at all. I suddenly heard a loud thump causing me to jump up. There were several humans around us. Navarre was knocked out to my surprise. What was going on?

"Hey girly, get away from the cleric. She's mine." One of them spoke, assuming the leader of this bunch. It actually pissed me off that gamers were attacking each other. He must've been the one who knocked out Navarre, and knowing him, he didn't want to attack fellow gamers. I look down at the girl beside me. She's theirs? It wouldn't make sense for them to be teammates, they left her unconscious and all alone. I felt a presence behind me and immediately swung my scythe behind me. They let out a loud scream and I watch one of the attackers fall to the ground. Everyone's jaw had dropped, which confused me.

"He was invisible.. that's impossible!" One of them said in shock. Invisibility? I see, so this guy bought potions from the item shop, and then most likely uses sleeping powder to knock people out. That's why Navarre and this cleric are asleep without any injury.

I smirk as I watch him bleed. "I'm going to say this once, and only once. I won't hesitate to put my scythe through every single one of your necks, if you ever mess with me, my teammates, or any gamer ever. I'm not a nice person, and I really don't give a s**t about any of your lives or well being. Now get out, and take this pathetic weakling with you, maybe teach him how to actually use a weapon instead of using cheap item shop tricks. With your skills, you'll all be dead before floor 5." All of them began to scramble in fear the moment I said that. They picked up the bleeding guy and made their escape. I look back at Navarre and see he's still asleep. I hope it doesn't last too long.

"Excuse me, thank you." I heard a voice to my side. The girl was awake to my relief. I smile at her gently and ask her if she's okay or hurt in any way. It turns out she had woken up just after those men appeared.

"My name is Poppy, I'm a cleric. I really appreciate your help just now." She said after she confirmed she wasn't hurt. She was back up on her feet and looking completely healthy. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Juniper, and that's my teammate Navarre. Do you have anything that can get him awake?" I ask looking at him with concern. Mages don't have strong awareness skills like lancers, so I'm not too surprised he got snuck up on like that. I did notice some bears knocked out to the side so he did do a good job on that part.

As she healed him, Tempest and Tay finally made their way over here. I rolled my eyes at how obsessive she was, but I ended up explaining everything that happened. Tay was upset that I attacked a gamer, but Tempest seemed pretty proud when he heard that. He patted my head when he heard enough, making Tay cross her arms like a child. Navarre was up in a few minutes, confused as to what happened to him. Tempest and Tay ended up engaging in a conversation that Navarre was listening to. I took this chance to talk to Poppy a little more.

"Hey Poppy! Thank you for getting Navarre back up." I said gratefully. She grinned at me in return. 

"No problem at all! If anything, I'm in your debt. Your teammates are great people." She responded to me with a sweet smile. I wondered if she was even travelling with anyone. Most people aren't alone in the battlefield like this.

"Do you have a team? We could use a cleric. And a better girl than that blondie over there." I asked her with a little hope she would agree to join. It does get kind of weird not having anyone to talk to. Tay is always all over Tempest, and Navarre doesn't talk at all.

"I would love to join you guys! I think we'll be good friends Juniper." She smiled and extended her hand out for me to shake. I shook her hand and smiled.

Maybe some people aren't so bad after all.