Cole was extremely freaked out but He knew he could not stay in there for longer so he tiptoed to the door of the little shack he was in.
'Tap! Tap! Tap!' Hoping that it was nothing serious, he checked to his left. All that met his eyes was the sand and desert. He heaved a sigh of relief then turned to look to the right where he came in sight with two red glowing eyes.
[Ding! Ding!]
[System Alert!]
[Encountered Unknown Being]
[Emergency Warrior Set Awarded]
Without granting him any time to look at the alerts, the being struck.
'Pow! Thud!'
These two sounds were heard at almost the same time. Cole felt like the game was mocking him as he was consumed by darkness. Unconscious, Cole fell.
'Pah!!!'
A slap reverberated all over the place as Astro woke up from a stinging, itchy pain in his right cheek.
As soon as Astro woke up, he heard a gruff Male voice.
"This guy is a sleeper nut. I definitely should hit him again."
'Smack'
"OUCH!"
The next slap was accompanied by a loud cry from Astro who was wondering why he was so unlucky.
"Ah, finally awake, I see" The same voice spoke.
Astro opened his closed eyes and looked from where the voice came. He saw two men of different age sets. There was an older man around his 40's who looked like life had not been too kind on him. The next man with the gruff voice seemed to be around his 20's.
Both looked to be father and son just by looking at their faces. There was a scar running around each of their left eyes.
"Like them? We got them from a feisty hunt in the east of Azaria 'The land of sand.'" The man Astro had assumed to be the father said.
"Father!!! You are doing it again. Did you forget? They are our captives."
[Ding Ding]
[You have been kidnapped]
'aaaah, very helpful system, I did not figure' Astro thought sarcastically as he accessed the situation he was in.
The father-son bicker continued as he looked at the kind of clothes they were wearing. It looked like an awkward kind of high level player gear. The father had dark red eyes and red veins protruding from his forearm. He was wearing a midnight blue shirt with a black leather halfcoat coat over it. He was wearing the same quality of black leather shorts and black leather combat boots.
It looked like a uniform as the son was wearing the same kind of clothes, the only difference being that the father had a beer belly.
" Let's ignore your big buffoonly belly and concentrate on the current matter."
"Oh, Yeah how much do you think they will fetch to the empire?" The father asked.
Just then a maniacal laughter could be heard coming from the son.
"Ha! Ha! Hahahahaha! Probably 50 Khronos." The father then joined him. "Hahahahah! Then we can get that little vacation you always talk of."
After hearing the two talk Astro realized he was not alone. Looking beside him he saw another man around the same age as him. He looked over the guy's head and saw that the man's name was shown in the colour green. The only way to differentiate between an npc and a player was through the colour their names were shown in. The colour green was used to identify a npc and red to show a player.
The guy seemed to also have been kidnapped by the father and son duo. Most of the time the NPCs had a particular kind of behaviour and a function coded but since the advancement of AI technology most of the NPCs had different backgrounds. One would say the game was a world with NPCs as the occupants with each npc living a different life and very self aware.
The npc beside him, whose name was Junaid, looked very scared of the two guys who were arguing over the price which we would be bought. Seeing this I knew there might be a hidden quest so I tried talking to him.
"Yo"
The guy did not even spare me a glimpse of his attention. I thought maybe that would have been an unconventional way of introducing oneself so I tried again.
"Hello Mister ..."
Still not even a glance.
After some while a thought hit me so I decided to take a look at his clothing. Clothes Make a Man they said and indeed the clothes the man wore screamed arrogant but riiiiiich.
'If I can manage to trigger a quest from him it will be very rewarding.' Astro thought.
Since he logged in the game, it had been a few game hours aand it seemed to be night.
The difference between game hours and real time was that 15 minutes in real time was 1 hour in game time. The game capsule restricted playing for more than 4 hours in real time. Better gaming capsules meant less restrictions allowing gameplay for longer.
The two guys who had been talking nonstop suddenly stopped.
The father took it upon himself to inform us of our current situation.
"We are bounty hunters of the north. Every year a ceremony occurs to determine the one chosen by the great deity Kármán. We are currently in Janus the great northern city of the Azarian Continent you both were abducted in Vailro, the abandoned village south of Janus but eastern Azaria. Tomorrow you are going to be sold to the empire for the ceremony. Now, until then... "
He made some hand gestures and a small black tornado appeared. I recognized it as the way magician class gamers opened up storage portals.
He stretched his hand in the portal and pulled out a big double decker bed. I was amazed by how such a big bed managed to be pulled out of such a small fist sized thing. The guy saw the visible expression of surprise I was making and said.
"Survive the ceremony and this is just a drop of water in the ocean compared to what you will be able to do."
Junaid next to me then asked,
"Will I be able to go against the Fairan kingdom?"
"They, will be just ants compared to you but, that's only if you make it through."