I'm not sure how long I walk for, but it feels like an hour, maybe two, before I reach the forest. Not that I'm complaining, a long walk through the green, grassy field with the light brush of the breeze is heaven compared to my usual life.

When I get close, the forest stretches off to either side, and its pretty sparsely populated by trees. There's plenty of room to walk and not too much brush either. Pretty welcoming, I guess. I go into the forest, just kind of trying to continue walking in the same direction.

Out of the beating sun, it's so much cooler, I sigh and wipe at the sweat all down my arms and face. It isn't long before the slick, wet feeling abates. I'm surprised the game bothers simulating that, though it's clear they're shortcutting things like actual evaporation, given how quickly I dried off and the lack of sticky-salty, after-sweat feeling left behind.

Shrugging it off, I keep walking. Before long, I feel the air change around me, suddenly more damp, and the forest thickens significantly.

In fact, when I turn to look around me, even the areas I've already gone through are more difficult terrain than before. Where in the world am I? For now, I just keep walking like before. It's slower work with tangles of thornbush and bramble forcing me to weave repeatedly to avoid them. It's quickly getting darker too, tree cover thickening substantially to block the midday sunlight.

It feels like hours later when my stomach starts growling at me. Come on, I have enough trouble feeding myself in the real world, why do I need to bother with that here too? I'm complaining about that, as well as being really thirsty, for a while longer on my aimless trek. Part of me is wondering where all the monsters are, but given my utter lack of equipment, I'm glad to go without them for now.

At some point, an indicator pops up. I give an excited wave to the camera and open the stream chat. I hope this new one at least sticks around, I could really use someone to talk to while I walk.

' Where are you?' my new viewer asks.

“You know, I actually have no idea,” I answer with a shrug. “I was in a field and this forest was the only thing around, so I came here, and I'm kind of just walking.”

' That's super weird, where did you log out?'

“I...” I can't help but scratch my cheek. “I have no idea really. I was force logged out during the opening cinematic, so...” I shrug again.

' lolwtf for real?'

I giggle into my hand. “Yup. I'm kind of just playing it by ear now. Any advice?”

' Try to get back to town.'

' You have any gear? What's your build?'

I throw up my empty inventory and swing the camera around over my shoulder so it can see in front of me. “No gear,” I start with a wave. Just my starter clothes. “My build is basically a ranged assassin.” I pop up my character sheet too so he can take a look.

A minute passes, and he still hasn't responded. I frown a little, glancing back at his name in the window. Jengin55. “Umm, Jengin? You still there?” I ask sheepishly. There's a delay, but then his next message does come in.

' Yeah.'

O...kay...? He's still there, just not saying anything? Maybe it's taking him a while to look over everything. It took me a ton of time too, so that's pretty understandable now that I think of it. Or he's watching at work and just had something to do for a minute. A ton of people do that. Reassured somewhat, I keep walking, waiting more patiently this time, until he eventually sends another message.

' You have a really weird build.'

“I kind of put it together without looking anything up first,” I explain. “Even after I did my research, I think it should be decent. Just need a few more levels to fill out the gaps, you know?”

After a brief pause, he comes back.

' Oh, long-term design. That makes a lot more sense.'

' Anyway, if you haven't, you should make your specials before you have to fight.'

“Specials?” I ask, turning halfway back to look into the camera.

' I mean Empowered Attacks. Everyone just calls them specials.'

“Huh, alright.” 'Empowered Attacks' is a mouth full. I pull up the menu for that and start setting them up. It looks like... you kind of put the attacks together from a list of components, by slotting them together. And the available components are generated by Abilities. There's not much here since I only have a few Abilities, so it doesn't take long.

I do have to ask Jengin for some clarification, and he quickly points out that I have a maximum number of Empower Points I can allocate across all my specials. They cost more or less stamina (or mana) dependent on their point cost, and I get an overall cost reduction the more points I leave unallocated. And, I can edit and delete them whenever I want, so there's no need to worry about getting locked into anything.

That... alright, that isn't too bad. I mean, I don't actually have a weapon, so I can't make use of bow specials, and skip those. I set them up to work with my barehanded melee attacks for now. Without much thought, I put together the obvious ones. A counter attack, a sneak attack, and then my curse spell. That takes the first twenty points.

For my last one, I hook Stunning Blow, Sneak Attack, and Melee Spell Trigger together. When I select the spell trigger option, it actually pops up a list of my spells, with the Dark Curse spell that I just made sitting there. “Convenient...”

I name it 'Assassinate.' The total comes to thirty for just the one skill, and brings my total to fifty. Guess I should stop there, those leftover fifteen points will reduce the cost of using what I have.

“There, I have some attacks now,” I tell the camera, before double checking that Jengin didn't leave while I was distracted. Oh good, still there.

Wait, there are others too! “Oh, I didn't see you join,” I perk up, tail swishing excitedly. I shift the camera further to my side as I turn to it and wave. Another glance at the chat shows two new viewers.

' what up'

' You're cute'

“Hehe, thanks,” I scratch my head and flick my ears. Huh, moving these cat ears is more intuitive than I thought it would be... Swishing my tail too...

After I get my distracted mind back on track, I look at the camera again. “So, in case you're wondering, I'm kind of lost,” I start explaining since they just got here. I briefly go over the same couple points I hit earlier to get them up to speed, and wave at the forest around me. “As you can see, I'm still in the woods, with no end in... huh.” I blink when an end does come into sight up ahead.

I kick up into a light run, camera shifting up and my shoulder on its own this time, so they probably have something similar to a third person game camera. I turn my attention back on my surroundings, weaving through the quickly thinning treeline, to finally arrive at the other side of the forest.

I pull to a stop, panting lightly, to look over the wide open landscape. I take a little while, catching my breath, and consider the view. On the bright side, there's... stuff here? First off, I'm at the top of a pretty high, steep hill, maybe enough to consider a cliff though the sides are still largely grassy.

At the bottom of the cliff though, are all the monsters I was wondering about earlier. Like, a huge army of monsters covering the entire floor of the valley. They're arranged in a kind of horseshoe shape, the side off to my right being the flat side. Eventually looking past them, similar cliffs to this one rise up on the other sides of the valley, with more forest ringing the tops.

Only the left side is different, with a... I squint. Is that a tower? It kind of looks like it, but also weirdly gray and low-poly. It sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the surroundings, like the game didn't load it right. It's pretty immersion-breaking to be honest, so I try to ignore it.

Going down on all fours, even though I doubt I need to worry about being spotted at this distance, I turn back to the stream chat. “Any ideas?” I ask.

' No clue.'

' I got nothin'

There's a pause after the first two, and I wait a few seconds for Jengin to finish typing.

' Looks like an unfinished area, you might have wound up out of bounds somehow.'

“Great... any way I can get back in-bounds then?” I ask, mouth twitching.

' Relog?'

“Alright, just a minute.” I silently groan. Relogging means I have to go back out there, at least for a bit, and I might lose my viewers when they get bored and move on before I start the steam up again. There's nothing to do for it though, so I pull up the menu and log out.

A big message comes up, with a countdown timer. I have to wait through a full thirty seconds to log out, because I'm not in a safe zone. Probably to keep people from logging out mid-battle.

After about fifteen seconds of staring, I turn to the camera. “Sorry, logout timer. Be right back,” I give a little wave and switch the stream off.

When the timer runs out, the world fades to black around me, and I wake up in the real world. Significantly more gently this time since I'm not being forced out. I take a few breaths, already missing the clean air of the forest. I look at my phone to get the time, and it's like five in the morning, so I was walking in-game for about... when did I even log in? I have no idea, most of yesterday is a blank at this point. All I know is that I need to make more money somehow. For rent?

Not thinking about that now. I have to log back in. Before I lose myself again, I restart the game and put my phone back into the little holder. I'm actually aware of my consciousness fading as the VR game starts up. The loss of my body immediately helps calm my rapidly straining nerves.

Welcome to Planes of Oblivion

The glowing message displays briefly, then fades away. This is my first time actually being aware of logging into this game, isn't it? Whatever, it's fine. I'm going to be fine.

My senses settle back into my game body, and I give myself a few extra seconds to stabilize. Yes, I can be calm here...

My eyes blink open. I take a moment to look around. “No good...” I mutter. Still in the weird probably-out-of-bounds place. I start up my stream, crossing my fingers and hoping that the delay didn't lose me my tiny handful of viewers.

I let out a shallow, relieved breath when two of the three return. That's good enough for me.

' So no good I see. :('

' sup'

I glance at the name of the other viewer to take note of it too. Then I show a goofy grin and giggle a, “Sup,” back at him. “So, relogging didn't work, any other ideas?”

' Definitely send a support ticket.'

“Alright, just give me a minute...” I tap through my menu until I find the support system and fill out a ticket with the info, then send it off.

Thank you for your report! We'll try to get back to you in a timely manner.

That... doesn't really help me out right now...

“Ok, sent a ticket, but I have no clue when they'll get to it. Anything else I can try while I wait?” I ask uncertainly.

' Try dying to a monster maybe. There's a delay, but it'll respawn you back in town.'

“Huh, that might work. I'll give it a shot.” I'm a little nervous of the prospect of dying already; this is the most realistic VR game I've played. Still just a game, I remind myself. It should be fine. Better than waiting forever for support to get back to me.

I edge over the side of the cliff. Like I thought originally, it's steep, but not a sheer drop off or anything. I slide on all fours, digging my feet into the grassy side repeatedly to slow my descent, careful so I don't end up tumbling all the way down. Swinging my tail around is surprisingly helpful with staying balanced.

When I arrive at the bottom, I look back up and it dawns on me. I could have taken a running leap off the top. The fall damage almost certainly would have done the job.

Oh well, there's a literal army of monsters to slaughter my level one ass right over there. I sigh at the thought. My first action in the game: intentionally getting myself killed. Wonderful...

No longer trying to hide, I walk straight over the valley floor, the grass here significantly more short and scrubby under my still bare feet. If this was real life, I'd have the worst blisters after all this walking without shoes.

I wonder if the gnaw of hunger and thirst will go away when I die? Relogging didn't help, so I'm not too optimistic. The monsters are getting closer now. Close enough that I can tell they're all facing away from me. It's kind of odd, how I can see the landscape decently well, but the definition of the monsters is pretty poor until I'm this close. I wonder if it has to do with my low Perception? Would upgrading that or taking the Keen Eye Skill really improve my sight that much?

I'm trying to distract myself from my nerves with idle thoughts, I realize. Even if they aren't looking at me, I should definitely be within an average MMO mob's aggro range by this point. I keep walking, gulping and realizing how much larger these monsters are than I thought from a distance.

It's finally hitting me now, as I pull up close to their feet. The ones directly in front of me look a little like centaurs, with hind sections holding six legs rather than four, their hides dark purple with a texture that I actually can't tell whether it's fur or scale. The humanoid part at the front stands up at least fifteen feet, about triple my height, with halberds clutched in their large hands. They aren't even moving, no rise and fall of breath.

These look like the same monster type from the opening cinematic, I think as I examine them.

I finally arrive at the feet of one of the monsters, somehow still unaware of my presence. Don't tell me they only use sight or something... What are they, stealth game guards with nearly zero awareness of the world around them?

I look nervously at the camera, offering a shaky smile, while my tail flails behind me on its own. A glance at the chat shows the viewers are watching silently for now. With another gulp, I slip between two of the centaur monsters, into the gap between their legs, and pass by them. As soon as I come out in front, I freeze, hunching and expecting them to kill me in the next instant.

But... they don't. Peeking up at them over my shoulder, they remain just as statue still as before. I take a few more steps, before finally turning around. Nothing. I move back and forth, directly in front of one, watching the gaze on its vaguely humanoid head continue to stoically stare out into the distance. Not paying me a single bit of attention.

Another look at the camera, and I raise my arms in a confused shrug. “Umm?” Kirma is just spamming laughter, before Jengin's message comes in.

' ...I've got nothing.'

With a dejected sigh, I walk up to the monster, wind up, and punch it. No response. “Ow,” I mutter. Even though the pain is clearly reduced, it still felt like punching a rock. I say as much into the camera, to the continued confusion of my couple viewers.

“Guess I'll keep looking?” I suggest aloud. My nerves haven't really died down, but changed form. No longer as worried about dying painfully, now I'm back to worrying over this ridiculously strange situation. My tail won't stop going at all now. I keep walking through the rows and rows of uncaring mobs, scale shrinking down smaller – closer to human size – as I go. Eventually, I get another message.

' It's set dressing.'

' They just have to look right, they don't have to do anything.'

“Oh yeah, that makes sense,” I respond. Like for a cutscene or something. But then how the hell do I get out of here? Do I need to climb back up that cliff and jump off after all? I'm most of the way to the center of the field, when he messages again.

' Oh shit I think I recognize this now. It looks really different, but this is from the invasion cutscene.'

“Invasion cutscene?”

' It plays at the start of the regular city invasion events.'

From there, he goes on to explain how there are special events where portals open and monsters attack the nearby city. That's the tower defense looking thing that I was supposed to learn about in the tutorial I apparently managed to sequence break myself out of and into this whole mess.

We, the players, are supposed to fight the monsters with the support of the towers, which are summoned by the city's defense commander in a legitimate tower defense-style game.

Apparently the monsters that come through the portals from Hexos (the world where the forces of Oblivion reside) during invasion events are way stronger than the normal field mobs, and you'll get wrecked without the towers' support buffs. The respawn timer under towers is way shorter too.

There are portal events a couple times a week, and while the times are kind of random, they're announced fifteen minutes in advance, to give the players time to get ready. They also start during evening hours in the real world, and always on the hour, so a lot of players try to be around town when they think the event is going to start.

It takes Jengin a while to type his way through the whole explanation, and I've already reached the center of the field by the time he's done.

“Thanks, Jengin. That helps a lot.” I smile genuinely, really thankful that my first viewer is willing to teach me the ropes where the game has so miserably failed for some reason. “What time is it now, anyway?” I wonder while pulling up the main menu to check. 5:55. If the event is starting this hour, it's going to be soon.

“Is the event starting?” I ask.

' Depends on your town.'

There's pause, just long enough for me to think, 'but I don't have a town,' before he follows up.

' Shit.'

' If that map is used for the real-time cutscene, it probably doesn't matter. They'd use it for any town starting the event this hour.'

“What happens if I'm in here when the cutscene starts...?” I ask, looking up into the camera awkwardly.

' Guess we're about to find out.'

' oh shit this gon be good'