Prologue II

For lack of a better term, Kopius felt great. His hunger and thirst were gone, he felt full but not heavy, and the residual aches and pains from his day's journey had vanished as well.

"It's like I got the best sleep of my life," Kopius marveled.

"The best what now?" Oh-jin said as he returned, carrying a small pouch that had a belt attached to it.

"I feel great," Kopius replied. "What's in that thing? That-–marshromo. Does it have concentrated electrolytes or something?"

"E-lec-tro-lytes" Oh-jin said, almost tasting the word. "I do not know of this substance. No, I do not," he rubbed at his goatee, "but it sounds exciting!"

"Well, what did it do to me?" Kopius asked.

"To you? No, no, no. For you, it did," Oh-jin answered. "The marshromo has several special properties. The pulp replenishes your energy, your stamina. The seeds, they replenish your mind, your mana."

"I have mana?!" Kopius exclaimed, eyes wide open.

"Yes boy, we all do! Now, pay attention." Oh-jin shot back, as if this was common knowledge.

I knew I had magic! Kopius celebrated internally.

"So the pulp and the seeds," Oh-jin was saying, "they do great things alone, but the marshromo has one other benefit: eating the fruit will negate the need to eat or drink anything for one rotation."

"Rotation?" Kopius asked.

"Yes, one day." Oh-jin answered with a smile, placing the pouch on the counter. "After eating one of these when you wake, you will not feel the urge to eat or drink until the next morning."

"That sounds very useful," Kopius said, leaning over the counter, "but can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, of course! You must have many!" Oh-jin said, glee in his voice. He too leaned on the counter.

"Are you an NPC?" Kopius asked with a straight face.

"A what?" Oh-jin replied.

"An NPC, a non-player character," Kopius clarified. "Are you a part of this game?"

"I am not sure what you mean," Oh-jin said with obvious confusion.

Kopius stared at Oh-jin as the men leaned against the counter.

Would an NPC know it's an NPC? Kopius wondered.

"It's a… are you…" Kopius sighed and trailed off. For all that the marshromo had done to revitalize his body, his brain was stuck in neutral.

"Honestly," Kopius conceded, "I don't know what the fuck is going on."

"Fuh-k" Oh-jin repeated, mouthing the new word.

"Riiight," Kopius said, shaking his head.

The man seemed fascinated by everything Kopius did and said. He gave Kopius a mild case of the creeps. Not like old-man-staring-at-the-park creepy but more like old-scientist-would-like-to-dissect-me-up-upon-my-death creepy.

Oh-jin looked to be both paying attention and lost in thought simultaneously. The goggles the man wore made it hard to see where he was looking, but his head movements and facial expressions were evidence enough. Kopius willed open his user interface to look for any changes only to shake his head in disappointment.

Nothing new had appeared..

As he closed his interface the smile on Oh-jin's face grew exponentially.

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"Kopius," The old man stated, clapping his hands together.

"Wait, what?" Kopius exclaimed.

"That is your name, yes?" Oh-jin asked kindly.

"Yes, but I didn't-" Kopius protested.

The old man giggled.

"I still got it!" Oh-jin shouted. "Do it again!"

"Do what again?!" Kopius shouted back.

"Look at your profile again," Oh-jin replied in a softer tone.

"My interface? You saw that?" Kopius asked.

"Yes! I have a skill called Peek. Please, look at yourself again," Oh-jin pleaded.

Kopius pulled up his interface, and the old man giggled some more.

"This thing must be broken." Oh-jin complained, whacking the side of his head as if to jar something back into place. "I can only see your name and level."

Wrinkles furrowed on the old man's nose like he was squinting as Kopius closed his profile.

"That's what I'm saying," Kopius said with some relief. "That's all I can see too! The whole thing was blank when I woke up. Nothing was there until I picked a name, and then the '2' didn't show up until I had gotten out of that stupid cave. No idea where '1' went."

"It is like he was born yesterday," Oh-jin muttered to himself, rubbing at his goatee, oblivious to Kopius's words.

"Yo!" Kopius hollered, snapping Oh-jin out of his wonder. "I don't know what is going on or where I am," Kopius continued in a calmer tone. "I am stuck in this game. Something is broken. I can't log out, and I can't leave."

For once the perpetual grin on Oh-jin's face faltered. His lips puckered slightly, and his head teetered as though having an internal debate.

"You are the first person I have seen or met and–" Kopius had started to continue.

"First person!" Oh-jin spat out. "How did you receive that ring then?" He motioned to the ring on Kopius's left hand.

"This?" Kopius asked, raising the hand in question. "I found it in a pile of bones before I climbed out of the cave. I found this one too."

He brought both hands together as if to show off a fresh manicure.

"They both have symbols, but I don't know what they mean." Kopius rotated the ring on his right hand until the small engraving was visible. "This one healed me."

He then spun to the other ring's symbol on his left hand. Oh-jin, now noticeably deflated, let out an audible sigh.

"This ring," Oh-jin said solemnly, gesturing to the ring on Kopius's right hand, "is used for basic healing. 'Young adventurers will stumble,' Lexsore would say." A bit of a smile returned to Oh-jin's face.

"Lexsore?" Kopius asked softly.

"Yes, my boy, Lexsore," Oh-jin replied. "He is–was… my friend."

"If you clean that ring," Oh-jin continued, pointing at the other ring, "the symbol will be two triangles, the smaller offset and a straight line reaching beyond the tallest point. It is a key of sorts."

"The symbol is a key?" Kopius replied.

"No, no, no," Oh-jin said, waving his hands about. "The ring is a key."

"A key to… ?" Kopius asked.

"Well," Oh-jin said, gesturing to his workshop, "here."

"Here?"

"Yes, here." Oh-jin answered, "The door you came through could not open without it. Well it would open, but I would not be on the other side."

Lucky for me, Kopius thought, remembering the gnashing teeth of the bush monster he had been running from.

He looked at the ring on his hand and spun it a couple times. 'Loot everything' had long been a motto for Cory–his real name–when playing RPGs. In general, the looted items would be sold for game currency–usually copper, silver, or gold; or deconstructed for parts to craft something better.

If it fit through the opening of something like a Bag of Holding (or any other storage device that folds both space and time, allowing a player to literally take everything and the kitchen sink) it went in the bag.

Rings, amulets, and other aesthetic items were no-brainers to loot. All had monetary value, some were enchanted granting low-level stat buffs or boons, and the rest, though rare, had magical properties of varying applications and degrees of power. Basic magic rings, like the healing ring on Kopius's right hand, were crucial to surviving, especially early in a game.

Though, the difference between being 'enchanted' or 'magical' got lost in the nuance of any given game, Cory had come to understand it like this: enchanted items grant passive boosts to the wearer. These boosts could be as meager as a +1 to your attack stat or as grandiose to give the wearer the location of all enemies within a certain radius.

Magical items had active abilities, often an extra heal or damage spell, that could be used in conjunction with a player's mana pool without using the player's mana. Active Abilities or Skills were triggered through an action or a spoken word, and Passives were always 'on'.

"Okay, okay," Kopius said, waving his hands around as if to stop some unheard music. It was starting to occur to Kopius that this conversation was heading in too many directions at once. "Time out," he continued, making the universal sports gesture to pause time. "Hold the goddamned phone."

Kopius stood back from the counter and ran both hands down the front of his face. When he reached his chin, Kopius made two quick jerks in opposite directions, popping his neck. Cory had held stress on his shoulders, and it seemed the same for Kopius.

"Let's start over," Kopius began, "I will tell you about my day and then maybe you can fill in some blanks?"

Oh-jin nodded in agreement.

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