Sean walked throughout the crystals of the Zalra. He had been walking for a good hour and a half now, and grew tired. This seems like a good place to train, but it's getting late. He tried to open the menu to log out. It didn't open. "What?" He tried again. Still, nothing. "I swear, I'm not in the mood... I just respawned from fighting a demon abomination, I want a break!" He tried to activate investigation mode to check to see if he has any weird effects. It didn't activate. Thoroughly annoyed, Sean let out a loud yell. "AGH! WHY CAN'T I USE MY INTERFACE!?" He fell to his knees, slamming his fists into the ground. @Raid @Bradwynne @Hanno Futaba
Hanno was walking around after that whole fight, he had a meet up with his friends and after they said their goodbyes, the Faerin decided to wander around the Terrasphere a little more. That battle was intense, and he would never think he would actually cry out for his friends when he woke up. That game... He held his chest, something happened inside him when he died, though he wasn't entirely sure of what happened. But that death wasn't free, something changed, and he was a little scared to discover it. 'I don't know what happened, but that thing... The way it killed us, the way it did all that. It almost felt like it was getting somewhere that couldn't be called a game anymore.' It was at that moment, that Hanno realized he couldn't let his friends die so easily, he needed to be a better tank. The Faerin turned to the troubled player. 'Interface?' Actually, stopping to think about... He tried opening the UI, and it worked, everything was there. After checking this up, he walked close to @Sean Poteitoku. "What you mean you can't use your interface? You can't select stuff on it or it doesn't open?" Those would be the closest thing to be assumed, it could be a bug. But something felt scary about it.
Raid walked along the path considering the events that had taken place not too long ago. He looked around but didn't really see anything. The battle against Titanius was still on his mind, as were the images he had dragged up from Raid's memories. Things he would have to work on burying again. Looking up Raid saw a player... Was that... Yes! It was the pyromancer he had seen in the fight against Titanius that got crushed by its tentacles! He was here now, looking about. He made a motion to open his UI and then waited... Nothing. They tried again seeming confused but to no avail. Finally seemingly in a rage they threw themselves to the floor and cried out, "AGH! WHY CAN'T I USE MY INTERFACE!?" Hmm they seem to be having a problem... Raid approached then to the fallen player. They seemed very stressed, understandably so if what they said was true about their UI. They wouldn't be able to use their invintory or assisted abilities or... Log out... This is serious. Are you alright? Raid asked as he came up to the side of them. He didn't know what to expect but he certainly didn't think he would find someone stuck in the game. Raid had never heard of something like that happening. There were tons of rumors about the game but he had never heard something like this to be confirmed. Terrasphere really was a dangerous game it seemed. "What you mean you can't use your interface? You can't select stuff on it or it doesn't open?" A small Faerin Raid had also seen in the boss fight asked. It seemed other people in the area were starting to take notice. I can't leave him like this... Raid thought for a moment and mentally shrugged, helping them was more important than his persona. If they couldn't log out their life would be interrupted, or worse in danger! Maybe we can do something to help you. My name is Raid, what's yours? Raid looked to them and held out a hand to get them back on their feet.
Bradwynne again found himself in this crystal wasteland known as the Crystallized Zalra. The area was one of the most inhospitable areas for the common adventurer, but he needed to train here for the time being. He needed to strengthen himself for the next missions on his plate. But fortunately he had one less thing to worry about. After his death, he had respawned in some temple he knew nothing about. He expected himself to respawn in the Maithe Woodlands after his death, as what had happened before, so he freaked out. Fearing that his UI might have been compromised, he then tried to open it, and fortunately he could still access it. He then thought about the players who could not use their UIs anymore. Were the things they said really true? Here he was, dead to a creature that was formed by Dissonance, and yet his UI was still there. Was it a lie to scare them so that they could not continue fighting that monster? Well to be fair to those people, he had not seen them use their UIs to equip some weapons or other things. And so he delved into wondering if all of the things the two said were really true, and, if that, if it was random or needed something to happen first. But, he thought, if he was to investigate those things, he needed to be stronger to tackle the ensuing challenges that would be meted to him in the future. He had clearly failed to keep himself alive in that battle against Titanius, and so he needed to be stronger to keep himself alive in the future battles. There's no one who could say what would happen in the near future. He continued traversing deep into the area, hoping that he could see something that he could battle with. Of course he would pick one that he could fight, and still survive. Suddenly, as he was looking for something to add to his trophy of hunted creatures, he heard a shout, and he was startled. He was startled not at the shout, but the contents of the shout. His face turned pale, as he did not realize that much that that happened to another person. And so he then rushed towards the direction of the shout. If the redhead felis (@Sean Poteitoku), the white-haired human (@Raid) and the teal-haired faerin (@Hanno Futaba) would look towards their side, they would see a blond human running towards their direction, wearing a navy vest and a white cravat with an aquamarine brooch over a long sleeved button shirt, navy pants, and black knee-high boots. His two weapons, a katana and a dagger, was sheathed on his left side, and he was ready to unsheathe them once the creatures in the area would become agitated with the redhead's shout. As he finally arrived, he then panted, signifying that he had ran for quite a distance. After he had finally rested for a bit, he then said, "You can't use your UI right now? Damnit, never thought that what those two people had said at the meeting was true! All right, I would try to help. But first off, we should find an area somewhere that is safe. I fear that with all the shouting that you did, some monsters would flock to this area and would give us a hard time." He then looked left and right, seemingly watching out for some monsters that would go their way.
As Sean yelled, he couldn't help but think. No interface means no logging out, no logging out means- OH SHIT. He started to tear up in the eyes, now fully aware of the circumstances. "Are you alright?" "What you mean you can't use your interface? You can't select stuff on it or it doesn't open?" "You can't use your UI right now? Damnit, never thought that what those two people had said at the meeting was true! All right, I would try to help. But first off, we should find an area somewhere that is safe. I fear that with all the shouting that you did, some monsters would flock to this area and would give us a hard time." Sean looked up to see three people suddenly around him. One was a white-haired male, another a little fairy girl. He could see a blonde male just reaching him. "Maybe we can do something to help you. My name is Raid, what's yours?" Sean got up onto a knee. "So, apparently I can't open my interface. My name is Sean, and I died in that demon abomination fight. Twice. This is starting to turn into some Sword Art Online shit." He processed what the newer of the arrivals said. "Wait. A meeting?" He looked around for a safe place to go, noticing a small cave. "That cave seems safe, let's go there, maybe? What meeting? What did they say?"
The Faerin saw the two men coming to assist the troubled player too, they were all players that fought against that abomination and he even recognized one of them better, it was @Bradwynne that he healed before giving his last strike on the monster, about @Raid, he saw him fighting against the creature, but he didn't interact with him. If they were all there, that probably all of them were resting a bit because of the clusterfuck of a challenge that it was. But seeing this situation, it was impossible to rest properly. Both of them came offering help, but the blonde one began talking something about a meeting. So losing the control of the UI was something that already happened before? Hanno's chest felt tight right now, it could have been him or one of this friends... He looked at the troubled one, with a sad expression. 'Sword Art Online.' He frowned at that comparison, but then remembered something he thought at the start of his journey: A sweat drop could be seen on his forehead, things could reach that point? He hoped not, but it wasn't time to think about that, the priority was helping out that guy. First they needed all the details possible, and it looked like that blonde man had a few informations about it. In that crisis, any hint was very welcome. "Nice to meet you. My name is Futaba, Hanno Futaba." He introduced himself. That cave didn't look like the best place possible, but it was the only option on that moment. Hanno nodded, "Let's go then, in this moment every second counts." Without saying much more, he began walking toward the cave, looking around to make sure they wouldn't get a surprise attack.
@Sean Poteitoku. So that was his name. At the mention of sword art online Raid recalled it being ironically mentioned occasionally when talking about new VR games. It had been an Anime about a hyper realistic VR game that had trapped people in it, forcing them to beat it to escape. Surely this was not that serious... A Blonde man (@Bradwynne) that seemed to be an experienced player then approached them. "You can't use your UI right now? Damnit, never thought that what those two people had said at the meeting was true!" Meeting? Was this something people knew about? Raid wasn't sure but the player seemed serious. He then went on to say they should get out of the open to avoid contact with hostile creatures in the area. Raid looked around wearily as creatures in the area were mentioned. He didn't really feel up for more fighting right now. Sean suggested a nearby cave but Raid was dubious of the safety it would provide. "Let's go then, in this moment every second counts." The Faerin, apparently named @Hanno Futaba said as he began to approach it. Raid shrugged and followed, praying there would not be a creature lurking in there already waiting to pounce. They all walked in and Raid held out his hand a flame quickly appeared and he glanced about. Shadows were cast all thought the small cavern, however it did not appear to contain any deadly creatures at that moment. Good. Perhaps they could figure out what to do about Sean's problem without also being attacked by ferocious monsters. Turning back to the group of them Raid spoke. "Okay Sean, so you can't use your UI. Do we have any clue why? What were you last doing that could have caused this?" Turning to the blonde player he added: "You mentioned a meeting, is this a known bug or something?"
While Bradwynne was still looking left and right for any creature that might have been startled by the shouts of the redheaded felis, who introduced himself as @Sean Poteitoku, he was hearing Sean recount about what happened before he could not use his UI. So he was another victim of this incident where a person could not access their UIs, and hence could not logout. And it was because of a creature of Dissonance, which he knew was causing such incidents. If he really was a victim of such incident, he should be attended to, as quickly as he can. Fortunately, contrary to Sean's fears that it would be like what happened in that old anime Sword Art Online, forcibly shutting off the power supply would not fry the brain as he tried it before when trying to see if the contingency measure that he would place in case he could not use his UI would work. Although he felt a little dizzy after he successfully shut out the power supply with a power timer, at least he made it away from the game alive. And so if anything, the rescue mission would be successful, so long as they would manage to break in into his house. Sean then glanced at a direction, and seemed to find a cave in that direction as he suggested to go there to hide themselves from the monsters who might have been attracted by his shouts. Bradwynne then looked at that direction, and saw that there's really a cave there. But he did not know if there was a monster lurking there, but at least it would be easier for them to swarm on a monster than being swarmed with tons of monsters. And so, Bradwynne nodded sagely and said, "All right, we go to that cave. Hopefully we do not encounter anything there." The teal haired faerin, who introduced himself as @Hanno Futaba, was of the same opinion, and so they went towards the cave, Bradwynne bringing up the rear just in case the monsters had sighted them and would go for an attack. Fortunately they had no need to fight a single monster as they made it to the cave safely. The white-haired human, who introduced himself as @Raid, then started to scan the cave for possible monsters that were lurking there, and fortunately there were no issue of concern regarding monsters within the cave as of now. And so Bradwynne decided to recount the proceedings of the meeting in the Duke's manor to them, as concise as possible. But before everything, he would first introduce himself to the three. "Before everything, I have never introduced myself to you. The name is Bradwynne Lambert, nice meeting you, Sean, Futaba, Raid. In regards to the meeting in the manor of Duke Roland Rutledge, I would make this as concise as possible, seeing we had a victim to rescue." His voice became somber and serious. "Sean, what you are experiencing right now is not new, as there were two other victims before you experiencing the same thing: not being able to use the UI. And it is completely tied to the monster that we had battled right now, Titanius, and most likely your case would not likely be the last of it. But that would be an issue that we would tackle for later, as we should know where you live right now, so that we could rescue you. Where are you using the VR unit at the moment? Don't worry about your brain being fried or something, I tried to forcibly log out and it was fine, save being dizzy at a moment."
Sean's head raced with emotions. Fear, anger, confusion. But, hidden in all of that, was a small feeling of happiness. At least I don't have to go to school? He shrugged as he cautiously made his way to the cave. "Okay Sean, so you can't use your UI. Do we have any clue why? What were you last doing that could have caused this?" Sean scratched his head. "What was I doing...? It was like that since my most recent death." "Before everything, I have never introduced myself to you. The name is Bradwynne Lambert, nice meeting you, Sean, Futaba, Raid. In regards to the meeting in the manor of Duke Roland Rutledge, I would make this as concise as possible, seeing we had a victim to rescue. Sean, what you are experiencing right now is not new, as there were two other victims before you experiencing the same thing: not being able to use the UI. And it is completely tied to the monster that we had battled right now, Titanius, and most likely your case would not likely be the last of it. But that would be an issue that we would tackle for later, as we should know where you live right now, so that we could rescue you. Where are you using the VR unit at the moment? Don't worry about your brain being fried or something, I tried to forcibly log out and it was fine, save being dizzy at a moment." "So first, I didn't mean the death part of Sword Art Online, I meant the you can't log off part. Second, I'm not sure about giving randoms my address, but I have an education to pursue." He sighed. "So, my address is [REDACTED]. If I find out you take ANYTHING, I will forcibly make you pay off my Death Afflictions." {For the sake of confidentiality for the character, I will not actually be writing an address. Just act like there is one. I don't want to accidentally put down an actual address and put people in real life at danger. Thank you for your understanding.}
Hanno frowned in anger at @Bradwynne explanation. So it was those creature's fault all that happened? He wasn't liking where this was going, because a lot of players died there, just how many were stuck in the game right now? 'Fuck!' He kicked a rock out frustration, people were in danger now. But a statement of the blonde man calmed him down, apparently there was a way to log them out, at the cost of a mere feeling of dizzy and maybe a power timer if the victim is still willing to play the game. All they needed to do was go there and unplug him out of the game, right? "You actually don't live too far from me." Hanno nodded and patted Sean's shoulder. "Don't worry about this, your well being is much more important than that! Besides, I really doubt one of us are going to do anything like stealing you." The Faerin gave him a relaxed smile. "We are going to help you out." He said and turned to @Bradwynne and @Raid.
@Sean Poteitoku scratched his head, perhaps trying to recall anything in particular that may have happened to him. "What was I doing...? It was like that since my most recent death." So it had just been his death that triggered it? Strange. There had to be more to it, else it was a random bug. Raid pondered this for a moment, concerned that someone he knew could have also had this problem. The blonde haired man then introduced himself as @Bradwynne. He went on to say that he had been present at a Duke's manor where they had spoke about this problem. "Sean, what you are experiencing right now is not new, as there were two other victims before youexperiencing the same thing: not being able to use the UI. And it is completely tied to themonster that we had battled right now, Titanius, and most likely your case would not likely be the last of it." So it was a known issue, apparently not all the players had been made aware of it yet. Raid mentally felt paranoid for a moment as it was often a preached thing to not give out your personal information online, but Sean had little choice. He would have to trust people to go and bring him out of the game IRL. Sean seemed hesitant to give up the information, likely thinking the same thing that had gone across Raid's mind. Finally he sighed and responded. "So, my address is [REDACTED]. If I find out you take ANYTHING, I will forcibly make you pay off my Death Afflictions." Raid laughed, "Haha, no need to worry. We are just trying to help." Raid thought to himself, could he get there? He did some mental math and decided helping in this would be fine. One or two days gone wouldn't hurt and besides, this was too much of an interesting event to not be a part of. Though, this was about to be a very long day. The Faerin, @Hanno Futaba seemed to be in agreement as he gave a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "We are going to help you out." Raid nodded in agreement looking to the rest of them. "So what's our plan? We just break in and unplug him?"
Bradwynne listened on as Sean gave his address. Fortunately it was not that far from his residence in Philadelphia, and so he could travel there as fast as possible. Of course time was essential in this mission in real life, and so for their target to save to be near to at least one of them was a good development. And so they should lay out the plans as fast as possible for a rescue mission. And fortunately the two others were also with him on the rescue mission. And so Bradwynne then started to gather information about what they would need for this mission. "Thank you for telling us your address Sean. Don't worry about any of us stealing your things, we will guard each other regarding that, and I am sure that none of us are thieves or would dare to steal with two others staring at him." He then looked at the two others with a smile. "All right, I would really hope that no one would call a 911 on us and arrest us before we break in into the house and rescue you. But I would need to ask what were you locking the front door with, and if there's any way to enter it without startling the neighborhood. Well of course we had no choice but to break in if there would be no other way to enter besides the doors and open windows if there were any. We would need any information we can get so that we could enter without being noticed by the neighbors that we might break and enter." @Sean Poteitoku @Hanno Futaba @Raid
As Sean approached the cave, he sighed. I really wish I didn't have to do this. But... "Don't worry about this, your well being is much more important than that! Besides, I really doubt one of us are going to do anything like stealing you." "Haha, no need to worry. We are just trying to help." "Thank you for telling us your address Sean. Don't worry about any of us stealing your things, we will guard each other regarding that, and I am sure that none of us are thieves or would dare to steal with two others staring at him." ...I'm glad I found these people. He smiled and sat at the entrance. "Well, I'm glad you're here for me... Thanks." "All right, I would really hope that no one would call a 911 on us and arrest us before we break in into the house and rescue you. But I would need to ask what were you locking the front door with, and if there's any way to enter it without startling the neighborhood. Well of course we had no choice but to break in if there would be no other way to enter besides the doors and open windows if there were any. We would need any information we can get so that we could enter without being noticed by the neighbors that we might break and enter." Sean reflexively hit himself on the head. How hadn't I thought of that? Shaking his head a bit, he looked back at the others. "Okay, when you get to my house, knock on the door. Either my mother, my father, or my uncle will answer. My uncle will let you in if you just say you're my internet friend, which is the same with my mother. My father, on the other hand, isn't so quick to budge. You have to explain my situation to him, which you should do to whoever answers anyway."
If they were going to save him, they needed to get ready as soon as possible. But before that, they indeed needed a plan. Hanno frowned a bit, doing things out of emotion was what made him not be able to protect his friends against that creature that killed them all. He sighed, but it wasn't time to think about it. "Yeah, unless there's a better way to do it." He wasn't too sure about it, he wasn't that good in that stuff, so he would probably just smack the door's lock with a kick, and that wasn't cool. 'Ah, there's also that problem. If someone find us trying to break into his house they can call the police and then how we will explain that we weren't doing anything wrong, we were just going to unplug a friend that was stuck in an illegal game? That's already wrong since the start!' He chuckled at himself, thinking about the situation. But then @Sean Poteitoku explained that they could just knock on their door and someone would aswer, which made Hanno sigh in relief, because it meant two things: If Sean hadn't find anyone to help, he would just be unplugged by someone in his house. And that their job would be much easier, unless they got to face his father. The Faerin gave a small smile, knowing how Murphy's Law worked pretty well, he already knew who they would face as soon as they got on Sean's house. "Is there anything we can say to your father that will make him accept us?" He asked to the troubled guy and turned to the other two. "And on the same note, where the three of us should meet I don't think going just one of us there will be a good idea. The more people we have, the easier it will be to convince them or think on a plan B in case something goes wrong." Hanno explained to @Bradwynne and @Raid.
So @Sean Poteitoku was a kid living at his parent's home, that was good. It made things much lower risk, even if they failed to get to him on their own, they could probably count on the parents eventually doing something rather than leaving him to starve to death or something. Probably. @Hanno Futaba questioned further about what they should say to his parents to sound believable and then turned to Raid and @Bradwynne, "And on the same note, where the three of us should meet I don't think going just one of us there will be a good idea. The more people we have, the easier it will be to convince them or think on a plan B in case something goes wrong." "Well, it looks like all of us are willing to go to make this happen... I'm not familiar with the area though. Perhaps we could just meet at the address, otherwise we can all exchange phone numbers and then call each other when we are near. Or look up a near by place to meet and set it up that way." Another problem suddenly came to Raid's mind, while at a lower priority it could still be important to the kid. If they chose to confront the parents about this, Raid doubted they would be inclined to let Sean go back into the Terrasphere again, if any VR games at all. That wouldn't be a good outcome for him. "Sean, Is there any way you know of for us to get to you without talking to your parents? If we talk to them, we will have to explain what happened and they will perhaps in all likelihood find Terrasphere to be too dangerous of a game for you to be playing. They could decide it best to just take away your VR gear or something." Raid looked around as he waited for his response. He was starting to get an eerie feeling about this cave. There still didn't seem to be anything dangerous but he wanted to go ahead and log out already so he could start heading to Sean's home.
