Arlyth followed Gizmo out of the warehouse through a rear entrance. He instructed her to act as natural as possible, they were just two people going for a stroll through the city after a hard day’s work. No one will bother them. For being one of the three major cities on the continent of Ucha, Newgarde from a normal citizen’s prospective was a fairly mellow city. Guards didn’t bother you if you didn’t make a fool of herself, cause a ruckus or break the law. There was always petty theft and crazy stuff that happened in a city of this size, despite this; the people had simple lives and there was a weird sense of camaraderie among the citizens of Newgarde.

Arlyth and Gizmo entered an alley way about 10 feet wide. It was about 5pm at the time, the sun just now starting to set. The alley had a road made of stone, and buildings running down both sides to the main thoroughfare. There was a smattering of boxes, crates and garbage all stashed behind the buildings. Arlyth took deep breaths as quietly as she could, she couldn’t help but panic internally. One small accident that caused the wrapping to come off could lead her into a very bad situation, or If her ear managed to poke out. Doing what she always had growing up, she thought to herself “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay.”

Gizmo looked back in time to catch Arlyth muttering to herself. The man spoke to her, “Are you okay, miss?”

Arlyth snapped her head up, worried she was now the crazy lady that talked to herself. “No! I mean- yes. Just concerned about being out in the city where everyone can see me. I don’t want to cause some sort of riot.”

Gizmo frowned, “I understand, I don’t live too far from here so I wouldn’t stress yourself too much. I believe wholeheartedly we’ll make it safely.” He could sense the empathy this girl carried with her but deep down he got an unnerving feeling. It was something sinister, and as soon as he felt it he recoiled. The only thing he saw before the overwhelming urge to look away hit him was, red.

Arlyth nodded and followed the man to the main thoroughfare. The got on the street and headed north, finally walking down a road in the middle of the city, Arlyth took in the sight. The buildings were all made of dark gray stone blocks, with random red brick buildings here and there. The buildings all shared a very similar style to Gothic Revival architecture. There wasn’t as many points at the top of the buildings here, most of them not having any spires at all. The road was a black stone road, there was horse drawn carriages rolling in both directions on the road with stalls selling various goods scattered throughout. As she was scanning the buildings surrounding her, she spotted a cat sitting on a roof of a building. Arlyth could’ve sworn up and down that the cat was making direct eye contact with her, after a few seconds of holding the gaze the cat lifted its paw and started licking it. The cat was mostly black, with orangish-gold colored patterns throughout, It looked very similar to a tortoise colored cat.

All and all, Arlyth thought it was a beautiful sight. One of her favorite things about EXO was the undeniable reality of it. The cat thing seemed a bit out of the ordinary but Arlyth took it in stride. The pair followed along the road for four blocks. They then turned onto a smaller, less busy road. It was a typical side road that had five or six residential buildings on it. Arlyth could see the city wall in the distance, it was much closer than before being only about two building rows over. Gizmo approached the first house on the left side of the road it was a simple cottage made of the same gray stone as the rest of the buildings, instead of the typical block style this one was smoothed out giving it a very bland appearance. Gizmo saw Arlyth’s analyzing glance at the building and smiled to her and said “It’s not much, but it’s not out too boisterous and keeps us warm.”

Arlyth returned a smile to the man, nodding in agreement. She liked the quaint home. She had always wanted to run off to the forests in the east coast of America to live in a rural cottage, she loved this style of building and being in the forest was always her happy place and seeing this building gave her that same sense of peace. Following Gizmo into the house, she inspected the inside of the home. It was very spacious and open feeling, almost like the ‘modern houses’ you see everywhere now-a-days. There was a kitchen to the left and a sitting area to the right, there was oak cross beams extending the length of the house, the walls were painted in a slightly beige color, there was multiple paintings posted all over the walls. The furniture was made of cherry oak wood and all seemed extremely well maintained.

While Arlyth gazed around admiring the house, a woman entered the kitchen to her left, she was a short woman of reasonable build, boasting a combo of brown hair and brown eyes on a lean face. Arlyth didn’t notice her. Gizmo did however, and approached the woman with a beaming smile saying, “Hello honey!” and proceeded to wrap his arms around her in a big hug. The woman returned the hug while whispering into Gizmo’s ear, “Who is this random woman in my house, Giz?”

Gizmo knew that lying to his wife was futile. He had no intention of doing so however and recounted the story of Arlyth appearing in the locker room at work and pleading for his help. His wife nodded in agreement with his decision. She approached Arlyth and stretched out her right hand while saying, “Hello there, I’m Mya. It’s nice to meet you.”

Arlyth was again, a little startled after being engrossed in the building. She looked at the woman taking in her appearance, while extending a hand out to meet hers. “Hello ma’am, I’m Arlyth.” She said while putting a smile on. “I hope I’m not intruding, I do greatly appreciate the help you all are lending me.”

Mya’s face took on a motherly expression that put Arlyth at a sense of ease. “It is no problem to us, we are happy to help. Gizmo’s always had a soft heart. I suppose I do as well, though.” The woman said with a chuckle.

Gizmo entered the conversation by speaking to Mya, “She plans on leaving the city. She doesn’t want to stay here too long and stir anything up, she got quite a story but that’s hers to share. I’ll leave that up to her to explain, all I will add is that she isn’t liked around here for who she is.”

Arlyth looked down with a pained expression, she told Mya and Gizmo that she would leave shortly after sundown. They proceeded to show her into a room that she could use for the time being, the room was plain with nothing but a simple bed and desk in it. Assuming it was just a guest bedroom, she shrugged and headed towards the bed sitting down on it. She pulled her legs up and sat criss-cross.

Closing her eyes, she rested her head against the wall. After allowing herself a few seconds of respite from the events that had transpired today, she got to formulating a plan. Her first goal was levels, which translated roughly to power. Gear would help with that but she would just have to find that along the way and the higher level she was, the better the gear she would find would be. She wasn’t sure exactly how the quest system would transfer now that she was a pseudo-npc, she added this to the “To Figure Out” list.

Arlyth knew that you couldn’t get quests from hostile NPCs and most of them came from the city guard and city leadership. Given her relationship with the city guard thus far, she knew she wouldn’t have much luck here. She had also noticed a slight change in the way it functioned from the player system, in all her time playing she only had a handful of quests randomly update after learning more information. Knowing it wasn’t a definitive difference in the systems, she thought it was weird that her first quest had updated. Figuring her best option was to find a city that she wasn’t immediately hostile in to experiment, she thought of the next idea. Her proclamation was to take down the game’s governing AI but doing so would not be easy. She didn’t even know where to start, resolving to herself that nothing can get done at level 1, she decided she would focus on that later.

The curious gamer in her started to ponder on what being a implanted consciousness in the game world would be like, would it allow her mental speed to far eclipse that of a human? Perhaps her reaction speed would improve? Arlyth got a bit excited in spite of herself at the prospect. Getting back on track Arlyth repeated the plan to herself, step one: level up, step two: get to a new city, step three: figure out her new quest system. She decided to keep it simple for now, she was at the starting line again and had to start somewhere. After a few hours of mental talk and meditation to calm her mind, Arlyth peered out the window seeing that it was now dusk and she stood up, ready to get to grinding.