He didn't know what to feel, but he thought to himself "I can't believe it, I am actually in a world that's just like a video game!"

The voice began to speak once again. I can assure you all that while this world may work a lot like a video game, it is no game. Death here is permanent, there are no saves, no do overs, your health isn't going to magically heal itself, you will need to eat, sleep, drink, you can get sick, and you will feel pain. So, please don't take it lightly, but feel free to have fun and explore this new world I created... Oh, and do try to get along. I have sent a few million of you here, and I'd prefer it if you didn't all just start killing each other. The monsters, and other creatures are fair game though.

Once the strange voice finished speaking Brandon was finally able to move, and he instantly began turning his head in every direction taking in his surroundings. The two boys that were in front of him began doing the same thing too, and now Brandon could get a look at who was behind him.

There were two girls standing behind him, one on each side a few feet away from each other. The one that stood behind him on his right side was a fair skinned girl who looked to be around his age. She had red hair that she kept in a pony tail, and Brandon could see her green eyes. She looked to be a few inches shorter then him, but pretty average height for a girl. The other girl who was initially on his left side was probably an inch or two shorter then her. She also had fair skin, black hair that went down past her chest, and blue eyes. She also had slightly pointed ears that he could barely make out through her hair which she kept the backside up with a hair clip.

He could now also see the faces of the two boys that were in front of him as they turned around. The one boy that was on the right who had blond hair had white skin, and what he could only describe as misty red eyes. He could tell right away that the other boy was Asian, and his eyes were brown with a golden hue. He was just a little shorter thn Brandon as well.

Right then a notification popped up on the top left of his field of view. It was barely noticeable, and it would probably be very easy to miss if he was in a situation where he had to focus on one thing.

Right then he also noticed on the bottom left of his field of vision a status bar that had Brandon's name with his level next to it, a health bar underneath that currently read 50/50 HP, and aan empty bar below that with 0/100 EXP to the right of it.

When he looked back up to the top left of his field of vision there was a notification. Quest started: Equip starter gear.

“What?” Brandon thought to himself. “How do we do that?”

He could also see a look of surprise in the others faces, so he assumed they all received the same notification. After that a tutorial screen with pictures opened up. It showed Brandon where he could find his equipment. Brandon though about the equipment section of his menu, and it automatically opened up. In it he saw a few items.

Iron Armor

Iron Sword

Iron Shield

Iron Boots

Iron Gauntlets

Iron Helmet

He saw this list of equipment, and thought about ruining each one, then all of a sudden he was wearing everything.

“Huh. Whoa, what just happened?” Brandon said out loud. He looked down at his hands, feet, and even his chest. He saw a sword on his hip, and was holding a shield in his left hand.

“Whoa, this is amazing!” Brandon looked up in the direction of the voice he had just heard, and saw the blond boy. He was wearing a white gi, and had a could grey gauntlets that looked like they were made of iron too. He also had a white head band, but for some reason he didn't have any shoes.

Originally, everyone around him was wearing the same villager clothing that he was, but how they all had some kind of armor, and a weapon on them. The boy with long black hair had the same armor as Brandon, except he had a small hammer instead of a sword. The red haired girl had simple brown leather armor with brown hand wraps, a quiver with arrows, and a bow on her back. Finally, the girl with black hair wore what looked like a simple blue mages robe, and held a small stick in her hand.

“It's probably a wand.” Brandon thought to himself. Then Brandon received another notification. Quest complete. Gained 5 EXP.

Once he saw this notification another showed up saying +5 EXP, and the empty bar on the lower left of his vision filled up just a little. Next to it Brandon saw 5/100.EXP.

“Wow, we really do get quests and XP for completing them.” Then Brandon suddenly received another message.

Main Quest: Learn about the world

“Learn more about this world. That's kinda vague.” Brandon thought to himself. “What does that mean? Do I just go explore? Is there a certain location I have to go to, or an item I need to find? Maybe there's an NPC.”

Brandon continued to think to himself for a moment when suddenly he heard the same blond hair boy shout "Ah, this doesn't make any sense. What am I supposed to do?"

Brandon suddenly looked around at the others surrounding him, and they also had looks of confusion and frustration on their faces. He thought they probably all received the same message again.

Brandon decided to look at the quest tab in the character menu to see if there were more details there. It opened up the moment he thought about it, and he saw the big words "Quests" at the top left of the screen. Underneath it there were categories each with an arrow pointing sideways next to them.

The categories were Main Quests, Side Quests, and Daily Quests. He wanted to open each of them up, and suddenly all of the arrows next to the category heading pointed down. Underneath Main Quests he saw the description again saying "Learn about this world", but there weren't any further details on the quest, and there was nothing under the other two categories either.

Yet another message appeared on Brandon's screen. Acquired: guide pixie.

“Huh?” Brandon said out loud. Then he remembered when he was in that strange blue void that the synthetic voice had mentioned he had received a special box, and that box had contained a guide pixie. He remembered the picture of a woman with blond hair, a red dress, and small wings protruding from her back that looked like the wings of a firefly.

While he pictured that woman in his head, out of nowhere she appear floating right in front of him with her head pointed towards the ground.

“Whaaaat?” Brandon shouted to himself. “What the... who are you?”

The small woman lifted her head up and smiled at Brandon. Hello, my name is Trinity, and I will be your pixie guide! She sudden began to grab the ends of her dress, and curtsy. It will be my pleasure to work with you from here on out Mister Walker, she said with great enthusiasm.

“You're a guide Pixie?” Brandon asked. “What exactly does that mean?”

Trinity's smile all of a sudden widened even more, and Brandon could tell right away how overly enthusiastic she was about her job.

“Well, my purpose as a guide pixie is to provide you with general information on locations, monsters, items, and even magic. I'm not all-knowing, but I can give you a lot of information that is not yet readily available due to how new this world is. I'll be a big advantage to have giving that most people will be in the dark about these things.”

“I guess I can see how that can be an advantage.” Brandon said while scratching his chin. “So, what can you tell me about my current location?”

Trinity looked at him, then she begam to start flying upwards. Give me a second, she said as she flew up above the tree line. After looking around in every direction Trinity flew back down towards Brandon, and during this whole time the other four people standing off in the distance were also watching Trinity in amazement. As she came down she began to speak. “We are currently located on the Mirage Islands. That's a lucky break if you ask me. You couldn't ask for a better starting point.”

“Why's that?” Brandon asked with a curious look on his face.

“Well, the Mirage Islands are a place that you can only find if you have a guide pixie who knows it's location, find a special map in one of the dungeons, or if you have been to them before. This place is secluded from the rest of the world, so there won't be a lot of people coming here. All of the islands’ treasures will be yours for the taking.” She explained. “Oh, and theirs as well. Hey, look they're coming over!”

Brandon turned his head towards where Trinity was looking, and he saw the elf girl walking over in his direction.