It wasn’t so much that the island stopped expanding out in a wave of creation and more that we couldn’t see anything happening after a while. The first minute or so was awesome as the world came into being a few hills, trees, or streams at a time, but then those same terrain features started blocking the view. Can’t see the rest of the forest through the trees and all that. There were some points where a mountain zoomed up out of the plains a few minutes in, and the plains just kind of went on forever on one side, but eventually things were popping in so far away you needed a telescope to see anything more than dots. Needless to say, nobody had a telescope.

A few people had ignored the spectacle, not too many, but there were some of the more anthropological types staring up at the mural or the carvings on the outside of the building. There was a ton wall-space to go over, so they would be at it for a while. A football-field sized building has a lot of wall space. That was just speaking to the ground floor, even. There wasn’t a way up to the roof or into the bell tower that I could see, but there was a stairwell down. A stairwell down to a locked door rumors said, but that just meant that people couldn’t get into the basement to explore yet. Somehow someone would figure a way in there, I’m sure. Not only is this a crowd of curious college types but some of them had decades of dungeon delving experience by now.

I would have been super stoked to figure out all the secrets of this new cathedral-style building, but I had a hunch that I would much rather find some food first before I got hungry again. It might be the trauma of the black space or just my natural human instincts kicking in, but that was my goal. Also, a cathedral seemed like an unlikely place to store food for the newbies. If you considered this like a virtual reality game, then either there was a town where they handed out bread and water to new players or we were expected to live off the land. With not town in sight, well. . .I should get walking.

“Hey, Omni!”

. . .huh?

“Oh, cool, you stopped. I wasn’t completely sure at first.”

I was almost out the door, and then somebody started calling my game tag. I didn’t recognize the voice though. Looking back, she looked familiar, but only a little. Either I completely forgot them after years of gaming while using the same name, or they tweaked their voice and their appearance in-game. Being the lazy and self-absorbed gamer that I am, I just changed my hair color in-game and let special effects and game events modify me further. Other people though. . .

“Hey, Omni, you broken or something? Don’t recognize your best guildmate ever?”

“Welllll. . .”

“Seriously? I didn’t mod my character that much. Just some height, a little different face, longer hair, maybe a few other small tweaks. . .”

Hmm. . .maybe. . .

“Buffy?”

“. . .Yes.”

“You also had a lizard tail.”

“That’s the part you focused on?”

“Yes?”

. . .

“I mean, no?”

“Too late, ass-man.”

“I’m not. . .whatever. How did you know it was me?”

“The jumpsuit, obviously.”

Hmm?

“You know that you are one of the very few people with a patch on your shoulder that marks you as maintenance crew, right?”

“Yeeeeess?”

. . .

“In my defense, I never really look at my own jumpsuit that much. . .”

“Sure, sure. More importantly, what’s going on? The captain sounds mostly clueless or at least unwilling to say much, and everyone else looks mostly lost. So spill.”

“Spill what? Why should I know anything more than anybody else here?”

“For one, you weren’t in VR whenever whatever this is hit, I don’t think. Two, you seem to be wandering away from the most interesting landmark we have here with a purpose. Finally, you’re doing the shifty eyes thing you do whenever the guildmaster catches you doing something you aren’t supposed to.”

She almost has a scowl on her face now. I can almost see the resemblance to her healer now. Same look she gives me when I just got myself killed by running out of heal-range and we fail a raid.

“Well, I’m not completely sure what’s going on, but probably space aliens.”

“Ok. Longer version please?”

“Creepy aliens probably kidnapped us, put us here, wherever here is, with some sort of teleportation powers. It seems roughly game-like with the cathedral full of VR pods and the fantasy style landscape paired with the world loading in like it did.”

. . .

. . .

. . .

“Right, so why are you wandering away from the cathedral? If we go by your logic there’s probably some sort of class system or something to unlock there, maybe magical powers, and at the very least strength in numbers with all the other people.”

“I’m looking for sandwich trees, obviously.”

. . .

“No really, where are you going?”

“Ok, maybe not sandwich trees, but maybe some fruit or berries out there so that once I get hungry trying to figure out what the whole mess back there is about, I can do it with a full stomach. I almost skipped lunch earlier, and that was just a gross banana flavored nutrition tube.”

“Smart enough, I’m coming with.”

“Fine by me, lets go.”

And so we were off, walking bravely toward the tall grass. A grand adventure in the works with miles of pristine wilderness ahead of us. The breeze blowing ever so slightly, sun shining down, and the scent of fresh grass combining into a perfect day. I charted a course out towards some of the trees I saw out on the plains, staying away from the hills since monsters could easily hide behind those. Coming up onto a stereotypical goblin camp from two feet away would be bad without any real weapons or armor.

Out in the plains we would only need to worry about shorter creatures, if there are any creatures, and the larger ones would be easy to spot from a ways away. Obviously, smaller things could be dangerous too, but if I was right then this area would only have low level slimes or rabbits or something like that.

Right, like that rabbit there, hopping its way out of the grass. Pretty much the second most stereotypical of role playing game enemies behind the slime and slightly ahead of the rat. The wolf is up there too, but usually higher on the totem pole, especially for VR games. Instead of a perfectly normal rabbit, it has a small, nubby horn affixed to its head. The beady black eyes, brown fur, and fluffy tail are all normal. Just like how it froze the second it saw us. I froze too. Holding an arm up in front of Buffy so that we can think for a second before acting.

It’s a rabbit, so we can probably take it if its hostile, and it might even be a passive mob. Added to that, it hasn’t moved, so if there’s something like a turn-based combat system in this game, we might have initiative and don’t want to waste that. Some of the more hilarious VR games I played on the ship were turn based actually. Very similar to that game that kids were playing on the playground when I was younger. ‘Ninja’ or something like that.

“Hey Omni, it’s just a ra-AAAAGH!”

Wow that thing can jump. It took the eight feet or so between us in one leap and managed to hit me right in the chest. That really hurts. I think I’m bleeding. Everything feels so. . .warm. . .