At first, she really had no idea how to read him.

He appeared in newbie gear, and although his face was as stony and unanimated as a fortress, she could tell he was a bit startled by the situation. For a whole minute, he just stood still, his gaze sweeping over the people crowding around him. About 30% of the people in the plaza at that time were players, but the man still seemed almost like a new statue that had been moved to the fountain in the plaza.

She watched him, if only out of curiosity. A newer player than her might have assumed he was an actual Adult who was simply taking in the fully VR world, but she knew better.

After all, it was possible to change your in-game appearance somewhat, and to younger people, this meant they could look like an adult for… various reasons. She didn’t like thinking about it, and now that the man had started moving, walking with slow, confident steps that seemed to scream “my underlings don’t say hi”, she took the opportunity to follow him. With nothing specific to do and half an hour to waste until her party appeared, she had the time to stalk a rando on the street. Newbies were always fun.

For about five minutes, the man just walked around, eyes glued in front of him as if he knew exactly where he was going. Watching him go in circles ensured her that he did not, in fact, know where he was going.

She chuckled, bowing in behind a medieval building when the newbie slowly turned his head to look in her direction.

Sneak has levelled up

Nice! This wasn’t a complete waste of time, th-,

“You’ve been following me for a while now, haven’t you?”

She swivelled around and came face-to-face with a man she hadn’t realized was so intimidating before.

She seemed to be in her teens. A healthy tan and blonde hair. William had almost missed her, but when it came to people, his senses were sharp. Having someone secretly following him was nothing new, he often encouraged it, after all, but non-consensual stalking? No, he didn’t take that very well. Though, that was in the real world. This was something else entirely. He didn’t know how to act, and right now, he was prepared to be more lenient than usual. “May I ask why?”

She gulped. “I, er, uhh…” Her light-grey eyes darted to the side. “I wasn’t following you, I just-,”

“No, not at all. Tell me, why did you follow me?” William reiterated. Her eyes flitted back to meet him, and for a moment, they just looked at each other. A stern, older man and a young, teenage girl. She must have remembered something, since all of a sudden her eyes became hard and her nervous smile flopped over into an unscrupulous frown.

“Hey, I can follow whoever I want! And you’re a newbie, too!” she said, a smirk crowning her face. “Really, since I’m your senior here, you should be greeting me politely!”

Had William been the kind of man who laughed, this is when he would have done it. As it was, he just stared at her where she stood in her strange leather clothing. She looked like some sort of rogue or something, the kind that would steal from weaklings if they looked away. Though, was he any different himself? A fellow crook. In this brave new world… that might be just what he needed. “Very well. William Ainsworth. It’s a pleasure.”

He reached his hand towards her. A lesser criminal might demand the name of another or consider others too far below them to touch, but William enjoyed treating people as equals since it usually made them all the more aware of how vastly outshone they were.

She glanced at the hand, and then back up at his face. After a moment of hesitation, she took a hold of his hand, and he took a hold of hers, which was very small and petite, perfect for picking pockets, and they shook on it. “I’m, uh. My username is TinHeadSoldier, but you can call me Tin?” She seemed a bit uncertain, but William would take it. He had never been much for using false names (not that many even knew he existed), but his fellow villains seemed to enjoy parading the most flamboyant monikers they could come up with. “Then-,” she began, glancing off a little, “can I call you Will?”

And for the first time in known memory, he froze. His mind buzzed to a stop, his eyes widened, and he wondered if anybody had ever called him that before. A little pet-name.

No, he couldn’t recall any such moment. Couldn’t even think of a person who would cherish him enough to afford him one.

“...Sure.” Now, it was his turn to break eye-contact. “You can call me that. If you’d like. You really don’t have to. It is entirely unnecessary.”

Tin didn’t seem convinced. “Dude, I’ll call you what I want and right now Will is less of a mouthful than William. Are you like a roleplay character? Is that seriously your username?” William, no… Will nodded uncertainly. “Yeah, sure. I guess that explains why you’re speaking like that… Well, anyway. Have you started the tutorial quests yet?”

And now, it was Will’s turn to stare at her. “Pardon?”

“What, are you really an adult or something? Uh… okay, open the Quest-Log, first of all.”

“...Pardon?”

Tin’s head started shaking a little as her brows grew furrowed. “Um. How old are you, exactly?”

And now, another question Will didn’t understand the reason for. “I’m 43, as of this morning.” Her face was full of questions, begging for an explanation. “My subordinate gifted me with a VR-headset under the belief that I work too hard. He’s rather fussy like that.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Wow… you’re actually an adult. No kidding? Whoa. I, um... “ Here, she cursed under her breath, huffed inexplicably, tapped her foot and turned from him, clearly conflicted. “You know what? Sure. I’ll teach you the ropes. What the hell do I care? You open the Quest-Log by saying ‘Open Quest-Log’. Once you’ve got it down you’ll be able to open it without thinking. Here, try it.”

He had no reason to doubt her, though she was acting rather curiously. “Of course. ‘Open Quest-Log’.”

Quest Log

Tutorial I (Rank F)

Objective 1: Equip Weapon

Objective 2: Exit Lupus

Objective 3: Defeat 20 Horn-Eyed Moles

-So said the blue screen that popped up. “Ohoh. Very interesting.” Of course, he had no idea what any of this meant. He didn’t know how to equip a weapon or where Lupus was or what a Horn-Eyed Mole was, but in a certain way, he was quite sure he knew someone who might help him.

“Why’re you looking at me like that?” Tin asked. Will quirked an eyebrow. “Oh! Uh… Okay, hold on, lemme try and remember, um… The first part is to go kill a bunch of moles, right?” Will nodded. “Yeah, great. Let’s go.”

“Go where?”

“Um, just… Follow me. I’ll take you outside the city and to the Mountain-Side Pineforest. It’s a great place, I swear,” Tin said, waving for him to follow. He trusted her enough to believe her when she told him to follow her. Even if she was wrong, he still didn’t fear. Even if he couldn’t use his Power in this strange game-world, he was still a skilled combatant. He’d been taught how to handle Supers and other Villains since he was four. He wasn’t about to get beaten by some virtual creature that didn’t even exist. “Alright, this here is the gate,” Tin said after they had walked through the city for a bit.

And, well, it really was a gate. In line with the rest of the medieval town, the gate stood proud and tall, composed of misshapen boulders and planks. A few guards stood boldly on top of the wobbly structure as well as down by the side of the gate but they didn’t even try to stop the two players from exiting. “Very interesting.”

Tutorial I

Objective 2: Exit Lupus Completed

“Alright, here we go.” Tin stopped just a few short paces from the front gate, almost the second they had entered a somewhat forest-like area.

By the looks of it, Lupus, the city they had been in until now, was situated on a cliffside overlooking a rather large lake. It was surrounded by either a forest of pines or barren, empty land that bordered on stone and mountain. Most importantly, they were not alone. If Will took a little peek inside the denser parts of the forest, he found people milling about. About a dozen of them, spaced out amply, each bearing weapons of different quality and make. “First step! Will, try saying ‘Open Equipment.’”

Will trusted her. “‘Open Equipment’.”

Equipment

Rusty Sword

Durability 100/100

Grade: F

“You should see some sort of equipment in there. Press on it and it’ll equip automatically.”

Indeed, the second he did as she said, the sword disappeared from his inventory and appeared in his hand as if it had always been there. He raised it to his face and examined the blade. It was certainly not a fine blade by any means. The edge was barely sharp, and several parts were rusted and crusty. It explained the grade it got, if that was what it meant. In all honesty, as familiar as Will was with using a sword, he was unsure if this would be able to rend anything apart from the air itself. “...I take it that this is a challenge?”

Tin stared at him for a moment. “Uh, yeah, sure? Maybe? I mean, I got a dagger and all, and it was just as rusty. As soon as you finish the quest you can buy a better weapon though, so don’t worry about it, okay?”

Tutorial I

Objective 1: Equip Weapon Completed

“I suppose this is the point where I start defeating those… those moles, was it?” Will said, weighing the weapon in his hand. Tin seemed mildly confused about how he was acting.

“You’re just… okay with that? With going around with a sword?” Will nodded resolutely. “-Well, if that’s what you say, then… let’s go! If you need help, just tell me, alright? I’m level 8, so I can easily kill these guys, heheh!” To punctuate her point, she flexed one of her thin arms, materializing a normal-looking (not rusty) dagger in one hand. She seemed confident enough, and although Will had no idea what it meant to be level 8, he was sure her dagger would be sufficient. “-Oh, there’s one now! Go kill it!”

Although her words came out of nowhere, the creature did not. He had sensed it before she pointed it out, but even then, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

Horn-Eyed Mole Lv.1

The upper half of its cat-sized body poked out of the ground, revealing it to be very similar to a regular mole. Its hands were pulled back like large, bony flippers, but the more worrying part was the horns it had, which replaced the eyes. Will knew moles were often blind and all, but even then, having horns where the eyes should have been… It was a bit worrying. The size of it didn’t help either. Then… all he had to do was kill it? A bit barbaric. Having to do what he did all day to relax… In the morning, Will decided that he would ask Johan if he wanted a little break or something.

“Alright, just defeat it! As you can see, it’s just level 2, so you should probably be fine. Probably, heh,” Tin said, rudely pointing at the cat-sized thing.

That was enough motivation for Will. He didn’t like the idea of having to work to relax, but right now, he had to trust in Johan. So, he readied his blade, leaned into a stance, and prepared himself. The creature made no attempt to attack him, merely sniffing the air. Sniffing for fear, for aggression, for emotion. Will recognized that. After all, his Powers were quite similar. Therefore, it was only natural that he would know how to mask his scent. Become invisible to the emotional sensing. It sniffed the air. He approached. Sword raised, he breathed calmly, eyes sharp and focused.

He drew closer and the mole only grew more desperate in sniffing. It must have been able to hear him. But without his scent, it didn’t know anything.

That is, until he came too close, and the mole got a sniff of something else: the rust on his sword.

“KIEEE!” it gave a furious squeak, launching itself out of its hole using its strong flippers, horned eyes going first, going straight at Will.

But Will had expected it. When the mole flew at him, not only did he dodge the creature’s attack by a turn of the head, he also took the chance to stab his sword into the meek, exposed underbelly of the mole.

Critical Hit!

“KIEEEEEE” it gave a final scream before fully going limp, poofing into a little cloud of red pixels, leaving behind a pair of small horns and a piece of grey skin.

You have gained 12 Exp

Level progression: 24%

“...Easier than expected, though it was only an animal.”

Tin didn’t say anything for a while. She didn’t blink, either. “H-, holy shit…”

“Is everything alright, Tin?”

“I, um. Have you done stuff like this before?...”

Will turned away from her and looked at his still-rusty sword. “Nothing like this, no. However, I have received extensive training in the art of fighting.”

“That’s a weird way of saying it, but…” her face lit up in a strange, wavering smile. “Do you, like, want to be in my party?...”

And at this time, he didn’t know any reason to say no. “Alright,” he said. “But I need to be in bed rather soon.”

But he wouldn’t be in bed until midnight, and neither would Tin be, and not just because they were busy hunting his 20 moles.