NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: Days
———?????———
<10: 03 am>
“<At this current moment, we are still investigating the effect this phenomenon had on the world at large. All we can advise is to keep yourself safe and secure in this new age.>” The guy on the TV said.
“For a guy with big ears he sure doesn’t hear a lot to tell.” Dad cracks a pretty lame joke at the expense of the guy’s large dog ears. “Whatever, we were planning on not doing anything anyway.”
“Guess I’ll… go to my room then?” I said, wondering if they really don’t have any other plans.
“Go have your fun, kid. Just make sure to come back down for lunch.” Dad casually said.
“Dear, I should be the one saying that.” Mom playfully replied.
“Right then… See you two at lunch.” I said before walking back upstairs and going into my room, and of course locking it just to be extra careful… And time to change back.
“Whew!” I let out a sound before sitting back down at my desk and scrolling through the net as usual. With so much free time and… whatever the hell I just got, there’s many things to do with so much time for it.
I have the checklist right here of things I should try doing, like experimenting with all the power a Superhuman is supposed to have. It’s such a weird name for something that seems rather complicated.
My room is rather spacious, so I can try something out, but probably not everything. I also want to check how people are doing online as well, just to know the full extent of this ‘Mythical Eclipse’ that causes everything to happen these past few days.
Karra’s stream has been pretty good with keeping everything up to date. She’s on that grind for sure, and I don’t think she’ll ever come to me for opinions, unfortunately. I’m not very popular, Jeff is about the only one actively hanging out with me. At least I didn’t get bullied, so I’m not too hung up about school life, not that I need to worry about that for… a few months, at least.
…Speaking of Jeff, he had been texting me stuff about Karra’s stream too. Just throwing ideas around, all that crap. Also the same kind of story with my friends on Harmoni, in fact they chat way more now with free time on their hands.
*Ring* *Ring*
…Speaking of Jeff.
———Jeff———
<10: 31 am>
“<So you called me and showed yourself in your backyard… To discuss magic?>” His tone is strained, hearing my reasoning for calling him.
“Sure did. Since no one is posting themselves having it yet, why don’t we try to do it first?” I said, very hyped up about it.
“<...But you don’t even know if it exist, let alone if you can do it…>” He skeptically replied. “<Also, why ask me? What about the other guys?>”
“They already blew me off.” I honestly answered. It’s a shame they don’t try to be more excited about this stuff.
“<Oh… Well, I guess I’ll help?>” He said without much confidence. “<I mean, if we can find that magic can be performed, then maybe we can safely navigate the streets?>”
“You’re still scared about those? I think they mostly clean those up since the very first day.” I said, remembering all the reports about people actually turning violent at each other in panic. “I still go to the nearby diner.”
“<I’m talking outside our own neighborhood here…>” He clarified. I guess I haven’t gone beyond that since I got back. People are quarantining themselves and my family and I aren’t that different.
“That could be an adventure in itself.” I said, thinking it might be fun, if a tad bit dangerous.
“<...You’re an idiot. Anyway, what’s your plan on getting magic working?>” He said and-
“I’m glad you asked. I got a list of them right here!” I said, proudly showing the list of stuff from the internet I’m gonna try out.
“<...Good luck.>” He said, giving me some encouragement.
<11: 42 am>
“Haa… Haaa…” I feel like… collapsing…
“<No luck, huh…>” Jass remarked… As it feels like I’m dying.
“Better luck… next time…” Need to take a long breath.
“<...Anyway. I feel like playing some games in the afternoon. You up?>” He said, like he’s pitying me… but…
“Sure… dude…” I mustered out. Can’t believe I tried all kinds of poses, jump around, tense up my muscles, shout things out, none of it worked… “Is EX-VR up now?”
“<It should be up in a bit, yeah.>” He responded. “<Why? I haven’t played it in a while, and as far as I know, you haven’t either.>”
“Some people say it’s going to be a good reference for knowing how to use magic. It’s still just a theory though…” I explained, knowing that it’s probably more absurd to say that.
“<...You know what, whatever. I’m down. Only basically use it to waste extra time, but sure.>” He conceded. I didn’t play it that much either, but the mind-acceleration thing is legit.
———Karra———
<1: 09 pm>
Now then, all I have to do is…
*Ring* *Ring* *Beep*
“Hello?” Who is calling me right before the stream?
“<Yo! Karra! Jass and I are thinking about logging in EX-VR too! Saw you talking about streaming in the game this time around. Can we join?>” Oh, it’s a classmate of mine. Guy has always been outgoing, and thankfully never tried to contact me in the middle of the stream, at least until now.
“Sure? I guess I could use some help. I think you have heard of how EX-VR and this incident might be related?” A game with such an unknown past wouldn’t randomly go under maintenance just before this weird apocalyptic event happened, right?
“<Yeah? Jass and I were gonna try throwing some magic in the game and see if now we can do it IRL.>” He said, sounding absolutely ridiculous, but it’s not like I don’t have a similar idea in mind…
“...I think that’s fine then. Probably better than figuring it out solo.” No reason to reject that request. I don’t have a strict schedule for this stream anyway.
“<Cool! Jass had already gone into the game by the way… Where should we meet up?>” He asked, sounding pretty excited.
“At the… Savior Shrine, I guess.” It’s the starting area people usually don’t hang around at. “Let’s meet there in a little bit.”
“<Yeah! See you in a few minutes!>” He replied before-
*Beep*
-I was gonna say before I ended the call, but he did it faster than I did. Anyway, time to put on this VR headset… and log in!
<Welcome back, KaraLei>
<EX-VR, selected>
<Starting…>
<Downloading… 0%>
<Downloading… 30%>
<Downloading… 100%>
<Welcome back to EX-VR>
<Current Time-Acceleration: x5>
<10: 12 AM>
…Wait. Where am I? Why am I in this large pool of poi- “AHHH, [Warp Crystal]!”
*Zoom*
Shit! I almost forgot I combat logged after getting thrown in a pool of acid. It’s been a few days since I played so I forgot what I was doing before. Anyway, thankfully passive regen is a thing so I’ll be fine.
…Hmm, looking like I teleported to the right place, with this roman-looking temple. Let’s go into the shrine and…
*Bonk*
Ow! Is there a barrier in the way? Why is… Hm? There are two people inside the shrine. I think they were talking and now noticed me bumping into this barrier one of them set up.
“Seems like they are now flocking back in.” The one with long bluish silver hair said as the barrier quickly dissipates, I can see her giving me a quick glare which is rather ominous.
“Guess we should stop keeping this space to ourselves then…” The blonde one said, looking much more relaxed than her conversation partner. I feel like I have seen these two before, the silver-haired warrior wearing all black with a long katana, as well as the blonde one using a massive sword…
“Hey, Karra!” Suddenly I hear Jeff’s voice from behind me. Took me a bit by surprise. “Wait, are those-”
*Snap* *Zoom*
“...Aw, they’re gone.” Jeff said in disappointment as he looked around the area, with them teleporting away without a trace.
“What happened?” Jass asked as he also entered the shrine, arriving last and not catching a glimpse of those two.
“Dude! Those were two of the most important NPCs in the whole server! What were they doing just now?” Jeff said in excitement. “You know… what was their name again?”
“...Was it the final boss and the blonde assistant NPC?” Jass asked.
“Yeah! Those two! What were their names?” Jeff turned more excited.
“Okay, you two. We aren’t here to theorize on some game secret.” I said so we won’t be distracted. “We should try… Wait. Let me set up the stream first…”
Let’s just go with the usual setting… and then…
“Hey chat! We’re live!” I announced, having the floating camera set to be a bit away from me, just so people can see everything aside from my face. “As I have posted earlier today, we’ll be playing in EX-VR! I’m not exactly an expert on this, but this is basically a safe place to learn magic, or so people say.”
{Isn’t that kinda dumb?}
{r you causal player?}
{u got that idea from diechan?}
{Dont know alldat but hey EX-VR new update}
{so why is it in maintenance}
“Also, here are my two friends from school… Are you two gonna use your name or…” I don’t want to disclose anything they don’t want to. Speaking about them, they also don’t look that different from how they do in real life, so that’s another thing.
“Username, I guess.” Jass is the first to speak up. Guess I’ll call Jass… Navvi? Yeah, sure.
“Meh, just call me Jeff.” Meanwhile Jeff has a different idea. That’s one way to unintentionally obfuscate it.
“Navvi and Jeff.” I introduced them. “Anyway, we’re going to be talking more about the… What do we call it? Mutant Eclipse? Magic Eclipse?”
“Do we still not have a good name for it?” Jeff asked in confusion.
“I call it Mythical Eclipse, personally speaking.” Jass meanwhile has a definite term already.
“Let’s call it that then. Chat hasn’t been of any help these past few days.” I said as we walked out of the shrine. “So, I have been seeing some vids on some of these supernatural events that have been popping up, what about you two?”
“I’ve also been watching those, but I don’t really know what to make of them aside from staying the hell away.” Jass is the one to speak up first. “I think most of us had been cooping in our room, right?”
“Yeah, and it’s kinda boring hasn’t it? I wonder if any of those mutants have any cool superpower?” Jeff said, seemingly forget about my current condition.
“If you must know, I don’t feel all that different despite the extra pair of ears and tail.” I said to bite back at his remark. “I didn’t actually test if I am stronger or anything like that.”
“So what exactly are we doing aside from talking about this?” Jass asked me.
“I wanna do a test run of playing this game before trying to replicate it in real life, aren't you two gonna do the same?” I said, still remembering what Jeff said.
“Hey, that’s mainly his idea.” Jass said, pointing at Jeff. “Guess we’re going to a dungeon? Or is there any new content in the patch?”
“I mean, gotta prepare for the real thing, right?” I said as I led us to the nearest… It’s not a dungeon, just an area outside the safe zone with actual monsters.
“Do we actually have to? I mean as a streamer you might want to go in there once, but not actually fight anything, right?” Jass said, clearly feeling rather skeptical. “Ah. Thank you for the follow.”
“Wait… Navvi, are you also streaming right now?” I was a bit taken aback. He’s usually the quiet guy in class.
“Yeah? No reason not to, since I have a channel.” He nonchalantly replied. “Mind you, I barely have even a single digit viewership, so I barely streamed anyway.”
{How did someone find his channel so quick lol}
{good to see you supporting smaller streamer}
{dude it’s not like this stream have that much ccv rn}
{double pov that’s neat}
{kinda leeching ain’t it}
“I honestly didn’t know that.” Take me aback a little bit, but nothing to worry about.
“Wait, so I’m the only one without a camera?” Jeff said, clearly feeling left out.
“Don’t worry about it, two cameras is enough, I think.” Jass casually said. “By the way, what do you guys use anyway? I just use a plain broadsword.”
“Punching all the way!” Jeff proudly declared.
“Magic for me.” Meanwhile, that's my playstyle. Probably gonna give me some clue of how to cast a spell in real life, I bet. “When this is all said and done, I think I’ll actually try tackling a dungeon.”
“...Alone?” Jass said, clearly concerned for my safety.
“I’ll be fine! Just gonna check the entrance is all.” I said to put him and my viewers at ease. Come on now, I’m not that stupid.
{This is gonna go wrong later wouldn’t it…}
{jinx…}
“...I have to check that stream and make sure you are fine…” He seems skeptical of my words. Whatever, he’ll see! Once I learned how to cast magic, I’ll even go inside to show it all to the world!