Open Eastern Brisshal You're Likely to Succeed, if You Try

[Mari Yamazakura]

Within the region of Eastern Brisshal, once more a meteoroid screams across the night sky. A new starcalling had occurred, which, while in itself would not be worth writing home about, has brought with it another traveler. She found herself standing in a small forest glade, with only the barest of starting equipment adorning her--Some light garments with not a single weapon at her side. The young woman stretches herself, testing the mobility of this new form.

Once her tests were complete, she looked around, "what a strange tutorial. Not an NPC in sight, no caravan to heroically save, nor even an incredibly laze beginner dungeon. There isn't even a quest tracker anywhere". The whole situation was quite odd to the girl; first she couldn't find any guides on the internet, and now there wasn't even a tutorial. How the girl was meant to learn how to play this strange game could be anyone's guess, but she could at least hope it would be intuitive.

Not knowing where to begin, the girl stands there confused for a good moment, a solid five to seven seconds of silence hanging over the glade before she takes any potentially stupid actions.

After her moment to collect her ideas, she crouches down to rip up some grass. Her newly acquired grass--the most powerful item in the game, so far--is held upon an open palm. The girl waits and watches the small pile of grass in her hand, up until the wind brushes some away.

Now she had a direction, and the girl began to walk.

 

[Kakao]

He was lost, again. This was probably the fifth time Kakao had gotten lost, despite having a map he bought in Honeyhome. "Seriously, why am I so bad with directions? I can fly a plane, but I can't walk anywhere I want to go..."

As he was walking through the woods, he noticed a girl walking not far away from him. She wasn't very tall- not that he was either- but she had the form of a strong person to Kakao. A person with heart. He wasn't sure how, but he was sure she was starcalled.

"Excuse me!" The boy called out, rushing to her side. "Do you mind if I join you? I'm a little turned around by this map I got... Then I saw a nice girl named your name and thought to myself, 'maybe we can be friends'... If you don't mind, that is."

His smile was bright and cheerful. It was clear in his eyes he wouldn't let her get away easily. He craved interaction, craved the ability to be side by side with someone. "Is it alright?"

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

Someone had appeared before the, as yet, unnamed girl; this could be an opportunity, or, as the girl judged by the boy's appearance, this could even be the tutorial. Surely this boy must be an NPC, what are the odds of randomly running into another player in this starting area? Surely if this game was popular, the girl would not have been alone in the glade and would have heard of this game before.

Therefore, having understood that the tutorial for this game is just very bad, the girl decided not to resist it--as she would ordinarily do. "That sounds fine to me! I'm Yamazakura Mari, how about yourself?" she responds to the boy, notably her name both sounds Japanese and is formatted in such a manner--although this obviously does not mean she herself is Japanese, she could just be a weeb.

"I could try helping you navigate your map if you want; despite my appearances, I have an impeccable sense of direction!" for some incomprehensible reason she flexes her arm, as if her physical strength would imply she is good at navigating a map. "Where do you happen to be going today? If you don't mind me asking, that is."

 

[Kakao]

When the girl introduced herself with Japanese mannerism- or at least speech etiquette- Kakao was automatically inclined to introduce himself by his real name. Something he started to do with ease, giving her a deep bow. "I am Yokoi Anza- I mean, Kakao. My name is Kakao." Standing straight up, the boy scratched his neck with a nervous smile and laughter on his face. Good going, An-chan! You almost doxxed yourself!

Then, Mari offered to help him navigate. He was rather turned around right now. So, he took his map and showed it to her, pointing at the area known as 'Dunnstads'. "I've heard it's a lovely region with a lot of seaside border to it. I was thinking it would remind me of home a little, so I wanted to check it out for myself. I think it's supposed to be kind of far from here, but... I don't know how far, and I don't know which way to go to get out of these woods... Though to be honest, I'm not sure if I should even be going there since I'm still a beginner..." He looked around, clearly trying to figure out which direction was the right one.

"So Yamazakura-san is good with directions? What are your other talents? I'd love to hear more about you."

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

While the boy, Yokoi, spoke, Mari was processing the name she was given for him--or more the fact that he gave two different names. Maybe this was a cultural thing? Maybe he was on the run from someone? a wanted man? These sort of thoughts went through her typically empty head. Had he not been speaking, maybe he could have heard the sounds of an ancient fax machine, the likes of which someone of their apparent ages would likely have never seen or used before.

In any case, this man was definitely a very complex and deep NPC; the girl thought that the game developers must have really wanted to wow their new players. She had seen such developments many times before, a game with a loaded tutorial and nothing to do in the late stages of play.

Having listened to the explanation of the boy's plight however, the girl immediately removes her left glove and licks her pinky finger, holding it up to feel the wind. How a technique used to get out of a cave would help one find their way out of a forest is anyone's guess, but after feeling the wind for a moment, she confidently gestures in a direction, "that way is east, we're going that way!"

With that, the girl just starts walking, in literally the exact opposite direction she was walking when they both first met.

 

[Kakao]

Kakao laughed nervously as the girl seemed lost in thought. Maybe she was someone he knew, and his name had caught her attention because of that? Or, maybe she was just wondering how he'd been so stupid? No, she couldn't think that poorly of him already. Sure, he could hardly read a map, but that was because he was used to flying planes more than walking or driving cars. The directions given by air traffic control were different! Very different! Especially with a compass built into the plane's cockpit!

She used a weird technique to guess which way to go, but Kakao blindly followed her instructions. He began to walk after her, keeping a good pace with her. Luckily, they were about similar sizes, if only an inch or two different in height- so, it was easy to keep to her strides, even if his character was a little top heavy to some extent.

"How did you learn to read maps, Yamazakura-san? I'm really bad at that, so I'd love to know what method you used to learn that skill."

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

"So, if you look over at that," she starts as she points to the compass rose, "that'll show you the directions of the map. As such, since the Dunnstads are on the right side of the map and the right side of the circle has an E on it, we now know that the destination is to the east. But! We don't know where east is. However, knowing that east is where criminals and dirty beggars congregate, we can easily determine that it is that way," and she points in the direction she is walking. How she knows where to find criminals and "dirty" beggars is however an absolute mystery. Maybe it had something to do with feeling the wind earlier?

"I learned it all in school, is that not taught where you're from?" there is a inquisitive expression on her face, as if that was somehow a real question.

Of course, it seemed like a real question because it was a real question. The girl thought is was just common sense that everyone knew where criminals congregated, so as to stay away from them. The idea that such vital knowledge may not be taught is school was a frightening idea to her, one that surely couldn't be reality--mari just couldn't imagine how many more murders there would be if people didn't know where the dregs of society gathered.

 

[Kakao]

"I understand how to read the map. I just don't know how to tell which direction is east!" Okay, so he hadn't actually read a map in a decade and as such, he'd forgotten how the compass rose worked a bit. But still! How was he supposed to know where east was? Or west, for that matter? To Kakao, directions were a bunch of wishy-washy pieces of information he didn't have access to without a compass.

Wait... Could he make or find a compass?

"Maybe I should look for materials to make a compass next. I'm a magitech technician, so it shouldn't be that hard, right? I know it has to do with magnetism in our world, so..." Wait, was magnetism even a thing in Terrasphere? It had to be, didn't it?

"Wait, your school teaches about criminology? I didn't know criminals were mostly found in the east... I would've thought the west. I wonder if that's a new curriculum? You youngsters get to learn so much more than I did at your age... Though I guess I don't appear to be any older than you now, do I?" He let out a fit of laughter, realizing he was doxxing himself as older than his avatar. "It's neat you can choose to be a different age from your real one in this... 'realm'. It's kind of nice being young all over again."

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

"You can't tell which way is east? How have you lived your life to this point? the eastern side of cities is always full of muggers and murderers, that's just common sense! Wait..." the girl comes to a sudden realization. This man must have lived a very sheltered life, how sad. "How often do you go outside, that you can live your life without knowing that?"

The girl was baffled at this man's survival to this day; maybe if he were actually an NPC, it would make sense, but the man had just doxed himself harder than the girl had ever seen before. Either he was very sheltered or unimaginably lucky. Maybe he had never set foot outside in his life--while unlikely, enough money could permit such an abnormal lifestyle.

"And what kind of question was that just as bit ago? There's gravity isn't there? Of course you could find a magnet. Nut more importantly, there is no guarantee that a compass you make will help you find your way east; north and south sometimes switch, so if your compass is made wrong, you'll end up going west."

The girl still has given no information regarding how she knows which way east is. is she even correct? were the two heading east? she had given no way to answer these questions.

 

[Kakao]

"I spend most of my day in planes," Kakao soon explained, hoping those words would be enough to explain why he didn't know about muggers and murderers centralizing in the east. Actually, he lived in Japan, which was usually on the far east of atlases he owned. Sure, they had their fair share of criminals, but he didn't think it was that bad... Was it?

Shaking it off, he returned to her question about his confusion on magnets. "It's just, I don't know how things work in this world well yet. I'm still learning how to use magitech to make things. Like a projector. I really want to build a plane someday, though... That'd be really cool."

The boy grinned merrily as he spoke of his dream- one of many dreams he had in this game. He also wanted to try eating all sorts of interesting foods, even though he couldn't taste them.

"What do you want to do in this world, Yamazakura-san?"

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

"You want to build a plane, and you're questioning the laws of physics? please at least take your time, with how real everything feels, I'd bet dying hurts a lot. I personally am looking for someone, they invited me to this strange game and are nowhere to be seen." She shrugs as she pantomimes looking around, maybe she has some reason to exaggerate her actions, but it seems unlikely.

"You know, this game doesn't even have a tutorial. How are you even supposed to learn how to play if it just drops you in the middle of nowhere and tells you nothing? Almost like the devs don't want people to stick around, I certainly wouldn't have." The girl taps at the air around her head now, almost as if miming the VR headset, "these things take up a lot of resources on my network, if I weren't trying to find that guy, I'd probably be able to save hundreds of thousands of yen just by playing during times with lower network traffic. Assuming I even kept playing with how unaccommodating this game seems to be."

She picks up her walking pace a bit, she seems to walk faster than she should be able to. Maybe she has used some sort of mastery? It didn't seem she did anything in particular, so maybe not. She is still just walking though, so it shouldn't be too hard for the boy to keep up.

 

[Kakao]

He laughed nervously as he was told to take his time with his dreams. "I wasn't saying I was in a rush to do it. I can't even make a projector on my own right now. There's a lot of things I want to make, anyway. I really love tinkering with things." It was then that she began to tell him her goal of finding someone specific. "I see, so you're looking for someone. Can you tell me what they look like? Maybe I've seen them before! It wouldn't hurt to know, right?"

Besides just wanting to help, he found it curious that she'd found out about the game through an invitation. As someone who just found out about it from watching TV one day, he found it interesting to know there was any form of invitation system in this world. Who would've thought? Though it made him wonder if he should invite his nephew to join him too...

Shaking off the idea, he asked, "Wait, did you just start playing? Do you need help with the palm menu or anything? I know it's pretty intuitive, but I know some people can still find these types of things rather confusing."

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Taking his usual patrol in Eastern Brisshal, Hanno was mostly certain he could've seen a shooting star flying above, announcing that one new soul entered the game. This one, in particular, was close to him, which instantly gave him the information that Cleo wasn't going to reach for this person.

He would quickly send her a message, telling her to leave it to him while he quickly tried to approach whoever was the new face in Terrasphere.

Luckily, there haven't been sights of any enemies lately, even because Hanno took care of emptying the area the previous morning, though not entirely since he couldn't screw up with the local ecosystem.

As he started listening to steps crushing grass, Hanno adjusted his giant shield on his back, bracing himself for the encounter as he took determined steps toward int, soon pushing some branches aside and spotting two figures... Both of them look fairly new.

It was two newbies? Hanno could swear there was only one shooting star. Unless one of them were landers, or perhaps a player that was waiting for a friend. Regardless, it didn't feel like they would be able to handle enemies if they were ambushed, so Hanno took another firm step forward, finally making his presence obvious.

"Hello there-" Hanno rose his hand, smiling friendly as usual. "A duo of newcomers? You guys have been fairly common lately." He grinned, forcing an assumption to break any ice.

"How are you guys?" He asked, hoping to prompt something that would give him more information.

@Mari Yamazakura @Kakao

 

[Mari Yamazakura]

"Yeah, I just got an email from a guy who went missing a couple years back. Told me to meet him in this poorly designed game. I was stuck trying to figure out character creation for hours, and then I get dumped in the middle of a forest! No directions, no tutorial, no information at all. I don't even know how to use any of the combat abilities I picked," she complains--she seems rather agitated at the whole thing. Since meeting her, she has not pulled up her palm menu once, and does not seem like she is about to.

However once the, yet shorter, stranger became apparent, she quiets down. As he spoke his greetings, she noticed the equipment which greatly differed from Yokoi's and her own. Clearly this shitty game must have some sort of encounter with a major baddie in the starting regions, maybe a hold-over from when the developers actually had a tutorial.

"Just well enough, thank you. How about yourself? What pray tell is one of your station doing all the way out here?" she asked with obvious curiosity, surely she wouldn't be struck down in the starting region by a scripted appearance of a major bad guy. Maybe, should she play her cards right, she could extract some information. Maybe she could find the tutorial.

She did not however assume any form of combat stance, not that she had a weapon to draw anyways.