• Title: Zero Fantasy
    By: Kee Seong (Joe) Lee

    Chapters 1 & 2

    Chapter 1: The Future’s Worst Video Gamer
    The words GAME OVER flashed while evil laughter ensued in the background.
    “God damn it!” I threw down my Reality-Sphere gaming consol. “Not another one! I was on the last level! Screw this, I’m quitting this game!”
    “Will you shut up?!” my sister shouted from her room. The automatic door to my sister’s room opened to let her out and she flopped down next to me on the couch.
    Alexandra Casanova was by far the most irritating sibling anyone could ask for. One couldn’t walk into a room that she was in ten minutes ago because of all the perfumes that she liked to test and try on. Her latest was Heart-Skip by Leopold Donavelli, and I reluctantly admitted that this one was endurable (considering how much perfume that she normally doused herself in).
    She looked at my video terminal and smirked. “You gave up again, don’t lie, cuz I know I heard you.”
    I mumbled about stupid brunettes and how they should be subjected to the seven circles of hell.
    She rubbed her hands together gleefully, “Dress up time!” she gloated.
    I groaned, why must I be forced to submit to such a cruel and unjust fate?
    Whoops, I nearly forgot to introduce myself. Hi, my name is Genesis Casanova, a prodigy at FAILING all video games known to man, and adopted at the age of four by my army-general-of-a-father for my unique genetic content. I have what is called a hyper constitution, for every on muscle fiber that a normal person has, I have about eight to seventeen times more. The only problem with that was that I really didn’t know my own strength and I had the appetite of ten grown men. Unfortunately for me, all the muscle fibers don’t bulk up, but get stronger and a lot denser than normal muscle ever gets. Why is it bad you ask? If you have long hair that goes all the way down to your thighs and slim with toned muscles, you can possibly be mistaken for a good looking GIRL! That is not EVER a pleasant experience, but I still won’t cut my hair, I rarely have split ends or knots in my hair and I’m not letting my vain older sister forget THAT! Not to forget the promise I made to an old friend. Unfortunately, my sister won’t let me forget my rather feminine appearance either.
    “You lost the bet yet AGAIN! Oh dear lickle younger brother of mine, when ever shall you learn not to make a bet with me about you FINISHING a video game? You’ll never win.” She gloated as she oozed self-confidence and arrogance.
    My left eye twitched, I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of a response.
    “I have the PERFECT pair of shorts and this great t-shirt that I have been DYING to see you wear.”
    God, why couldn’t she have died wishing to see me in those monstrosities that she calls clothes? Clothes are meant to cover the body, not reveal it!
    “Good thing that all your hair seems to be focused on your head, otherwise I would have to go through the hassle of convincing you to shave your legs.”
    “GOD FORBID!!!” I screamed as I ran out of the room.
    After my elder adoptive relative chasing after me with lipstick and eyeliner as screams of horror tore themselves from my throat, we emerged from our house with my sister in full “Shop-a-holic” mode and me in grey shorts that only reached halfway down my thighs with what seemed to be shoe-laces criss-crossing down the sides of them, a black and pink t-shirt with gore-mimicking words screaming “Bite Me”, as well as a Grey Earl baseball cap that I refused to take off.
    “Come on, I’ll find you a better hat.”
    “No thank you, I happen to like this hat. It hides some of the damage you’ve done to my face. I swear I’m going to get pimples from your excessive use of make-up.”
    She scoffed, “You, pimply? From the thirteen years you’ve lived in this household, I have yet to see you with one blemish on your skin.”
    “It’ll happen one of these days.” I said as I got into the driver’s seat of my Levi-Car, my sixteenth birthday present from my father. It was a military grade RAV-M7, the Levi-Car with the best protection rating, and voted best vehicle of 3176. He offered only the best of protection to his (quote, unquote) perfect, and oh so lovable son.
    We made a bee-line toward Gamma-4 Mega-Shopping Complex. (By the way, why is a straight line to a target called a bee line? A real bee-line would really just be going all over the place for thirty minutes before I even headed in my targeted direction, but we’re going on a tangent here.)
    We parked in the Grav-Pad garage and we took the elevator down into the shopping complex. We got off on the fourth floor and my sister began dragging me through the clothing stores and make-up booths.
    All the things she bought were expensive, but my sister was incredulous of the price tags as she swiped her credit cards.
    I groaned, dad was soooo going to kill me for not being able to restrain her.
    Without my sister’s consent (and using some of my father’s stealth training abilities) I went down to the second floor, the electronics floor, and I proceeded to look around at the new releases.
    “Elven Glory…. Beings of Another Dimension….” I mumbled to myself as I checked out all of the more recent games. Some of the boys who were shopping were staring at me and practically drooling, God, that’s awkward. I don’t blame them though, what guy doesn’t wish he could have a girl that enjoyed playing videogames? I honestly sure wouldn’t (although many did play now with the more realistic games). Anyways, I was walking through the video game store I was in and then I saw IT.

    An excerpt from the book “The Nerd’s Bible: The Uber Dictionary, year 3176, version 27”
    ZERO FANTASY – n. the best Multi-Media-Online-Role-Playing-Game and #1 in the gaming world ever since it’s premier release in 3124.

    This game was so popular that the company could not meet consumer demand.
    In short: this was one game that I was not and could not miss out on.
    I had to push through a crowd, which wasn’t that hard, to get one of the game sets for Zero Fantasy. It is probably the game with THE best, true action in the world.
    It came with a headset which came with a monitor that covered one’s eyes, headphones on the sides, and it worked of the Subconscious-connection system. It modifies and converts one’s consciousness into data and transfers it into the private online game server. I play video games, not make them, so it’s a bit hard for me to explain.
    After avoiding a tidal wave of hands reaching for my game and a single credit card swipe later, I left to avoid all of those who were willing to attack me for my game. However, the first few who tried were all dumped quickly into a nearby trash-drone and the crowd realized the need to back off. As I went up the escalator to the third floor I saw my sister coming down to the third floor.
    Aw, s**t. Here doth fury cometh.
    “Where the hell were you?”
    I held up my game triumphantly.
    “That thing? Didn’t you try to get that game since you were twelve? I thought you had to preorder it?”
    I shrugged, “I guess I just got lucky. I didn’t even know that they restocked this game today… or ever.”
    She slowly smirked, “I bet you won’t last three months.”
    “I’ll take that bet, the usual wager?”
    “Deal, you lose, you become my mannequin again, but if you win, I promise to never dress you up in girl’s clothes again.”
    I grinned; there was no way I was going to lose this time.
    “And Genny dear, you’re going to have to carry all the bags.”
    “BAGS?? As in PLURAL?”
    “Uh, duh?”
    I looked at the fourth floor and there were two security droids guarding the bags to make sure that no one would steal one. My jaw dropped; there must have been over 40+ bags!
    We went to the fourth floor and I picked up the bags about twenty or so in each hand and lifted them. They weren’t THAT heavy, per say, but I could almost hear my poor bones groan under the pressure.
    “Ugh! What did you put in these bags, rocks?!”
    “Oh, suck it up. You’re stronger than that.”
    People stared at us as I took the bags to the Grav-Pad where our Levi-Car was situated and I had to fit the bags with my amazing Tetris skills in both the trunk and the back seats to fit them all in and I sat in the driver’s seat while my sister rode shotgun as we headed home.
    After a seventeen minute commute back to our apartment-home, I unloaded the bags and put them in my sister’s room to let her fend for herself inside the jungle I had created and I hurried back to the car to get my game.
    I gleefully ran to my room with it and I unpacked it. I turned on my computer and hooked up the system for the game while skimming through the instructions. I put on the game-gloves, the game controllers for Zero Fantasy, and put on the headset.
    The monitor turned on and the Zero Fantasy logo came up along with the symbol for the company that created the game, the Data World Corporation, a front for the military... don’t ask.
    As soon as I these symbols came up I felt myself losing consciousness and it seemed that the world around me had melted away. I found myself drifting in a green and black room that was apparently designed to look like walls of primitive computer chips from the twenty first century. I looked at my hands and I gasped in surprise, it was completely white, I’m pale, not white! Not only that, but my skin was glowing! I looked at the rest of my body, and it was exactly the same.
    My hands reached for my head, no hair, no ears, and no facial features whatsoever.
    “…what the hell is wrong with me right now? Is this supposed to happen?” I wondered nervously.
    “Ah, another new character to make!” I heard a gleeful voice behind me. I saw a young man behind me who looked like he was about twenty five or twenty six years of age behind me.
    “First of all, we have to wait for your personal data to upload.”
    Just as he said that I saw my weird, ghost-like body turn back into my normal body. I felt an awkward tingle all over my body as this happened.
    “Alright, consciousness has successfully merged with game server. Now, there are four major job classes you can choose from, Warriors, Magi, Archers, and Oriental Fighters. Take your pick.”
    The choice was too obvious.
    “Warriors.”
    He nodded and then asked me, “What race do you want to be? You get a choice from the Elven-Tribe, the Orcish-Tribe, the Beast-Tribe, and Human-Tribe.”
    “Are there different types of Elves and Beast-Men?”
    “Yes, the specific characteristics that you get from each tribe are all based on the personality assessment that our company derives as we upload your consciousness, as well as your level of intelligence.
    I pondered about my choices; I wanted to be an Elf or a Beast-Man, but I wasn’t sure how I would end up looking.
    “Is it possible to preview the form that I would get?” I asked the Admin, or I supposed he was the Admin.
    “Yeah, sure.” He brought up two images that looked almost just like me, the elf form was slightly taller and slimmer than I was and I had almost white blonde hair which made me seem even more effeminate. Not to mention the ridiculously pointed ears that extended a good five inches from my head. Hard to understand the fetish some people have for that.
    The Beast-Man form of me still kept my hair as black as it already was, perhaps even darker. I had black wings that sprouted from my back and my eyes were yellow and hawk-like instead of my normal chocolate brown. There were even some feathers in my hair, but they were silver in color and few in number.
    “Well, this is an easy choice: I want the Beast-Man form.”
    The Admin nodded, “Good choice,” he told me, “being an avian Beast-Man actually gives you the gift of flight, but I will warn you, you’re bones are hollow and easier to break even though the rest of your body will get tougher so that you can handle changes in pressure better for flight.”
    Who cares about a few hollowed out bones when you can fly without the use of a jetpack? Or a jetpack license?
    “It’s ok, I’ll take it.”
    He nodded and I shivered as I turned into the Beast-Man. It was an unpleasant feeling, having ones bones hollowed out and wings sprouting from one’s back. Then a few swords appeared in front of me.
    “Alright now, it’s time to specialize your job class. Each one of these represents a different aspect of the Warrior Job Class.” He told me and pointed at the long curved daggers. “Such as the Thief Job Class, they specialize in speed and use some abilities that give them increased speed as well as some traps.” Then he pointed to the other end of the line of swords, “On the other hand, this giant blade here is for Heavy Knights, they focus on strength, but someone of your build might not be able to lift this weapon.”
    I walked over to the sword; it looked similar to a large kitchen knife. It was eighteen inches wide and six and a half feet long. It was bladed on just one side and the bladed side was parallel to the back of the blade for about five feet and slanted sharply toward the back of the blade to form a sharp point.
    I lifted it and smiled, it was actually lighter than my sister’s shopping bags.
    The Admin widened his eyes in surprise.
    “How in God’s name did you lift that?!” he exclaimed and then a data screen popped up in front of him and I could see my personal information on there. “A hyper constitution? That’s unexplainably rare, but it would… explain things… and you….you’re…. MALE?!?!”
    I burst out in laughter. I held on to my ribs which were now more fragile and threatened to crack from the great guffaws that were bursting from my lips.
    “Y-you s-sh-sh-should s-see the look o-on your face!” I managed to get these words out of my mouth with much difficulty.
    He flushed with embarrassment and I laughed so much more I thought I was going to burst a lung.
    “Ahem, well, everything seems to be in order.” He muttered, “I assume that you are going to be a Heavy Knight?”
    “Yup.”
    After saying this, the blade that I had picked up glowed and silvery-grey iron plate armor appeared on me. The gauntlets were light and form fitting and it consisted of black leather and plates of iron on the back of my hand and on my forearms and it came with an elbow-guarding plate. The breastplate was interesting because the metal of the armor only covered my front from the upper abdomen and up as well as my lower back leaving my navel and upper back bare, giving free room for my wings to easily move. I had a warm, thick, black cotton long-sleeve that neglected my upper back as well underneath. The boots were peculiar as it also acted as leg armor. They had a plate coming up from the long knee-guard plate which also guarded the front of my thigh as well as the outside of it. I wore black leather pants underneath the extended guard and boots as well. I had to admit, I looked pretty badass.
    “Something tells me this isn’t standard beginner gear.” I said as I inspected my new outfit.
    “It isn’t,” the Admin grunted, “We’re required to give equipment to characters that is compatible to their attributes, and there’s no point in having wings in this game if you can’t fly, so I made the armor have a weightless enchantment.”
    “That’s great! Err...don’t I get some kind of a sheathe or something for the sword?”
    “You don’t need one. Large weapons like those always come with a portability gem that turns it into some trinket.”
    The Admin walked over and tapped the center jewel on the hilt of the blade that I somehow missed and it turned into an iron band-ring with a ruby on it, the same gem as the center jewel on the hilt of the blade.
    I whistled, “So, I’m guessing that I have to tap the same jewel for it to turn back.”
    “Precisely. Also, you might want to know that as an avian Beast-Man, you come with a subconsciously active Wind Armor which makes the user faster, lighter, and guards one from all Air Magik attacks as well as projectiles, save arrows and bullets enchanted with a piercing ability.”
    That’s rather useful, you’d think that they would make one with wings a wee more susceptible to damage from projectiles. Not that I’m complaining, really.
    “Well, you are going to start in the town of Luna, one of the two major cities in Time Country. Your first quest will be to go to the Luna Town Hall.” He handed me two scrolls, one red and one white. “Take the red one to the Quest NPC (Non-Player Character) to finish the quest and accept one of your choosing. The white one is your guide to the world of Zero Fantasy. You are also starting on the West Continent, the white scroll explains just about everything, well, good bye.”
    “Good bye? What do you mean good b…” I never got to finish that sentence as I was warped (with the feeling I was being pulled into a small box, headfirst) into Luna: City of the Everlasting Moon.
    I stood in amazement, my newfound wings folded over my back as I stared at the beautiful eternal night sky. Even with the cleaning of our atmosphere and reparation of the ozone layer, we could never see this many star, a shame. This night sky is breathlessly enchanting, like if you keep looking you would be drawn into outer space.
    I opened the white scroll and it poof-ed into smoke.
    “Well, that was helpful.” I muttered.

    Chapter 2: Bones and Boxes
    “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
    Then a giant Menu screen popped in front of me.
    “Ok, that was weird. Menu, open map?” I wasn’t sure whether I was asking a question or a statement.
    The screen blipped and showed me the direction to the Town Hall and how to get there. This wasn’t too bad, I suppose.
    I spread my wings, not noticing the gasps behind me as I did so and I was airborne. I shivered with delight as I cut over buildings toward the Town Hall at the Town Center. I landed surprising a few characters that were loitering and trading with each other. I walked over to the Quest NPC and handed in the red scroll.
    The NPC took the scroll and smiled. “Thank you, I’ve been waiting for this.” and with those words a small ‘Quest Complete’ screen appeared in front of me and I pressed it with my finger and a bigger window popped up and it said the word ‘Quests’ at the top.
    There was only one quest available at the moment so I read the details on it which told me to go to the Moonlit Graveyard and collect 10 Ruby Crystals from the heads of Royal Junior Skeletons and 1 Golden Medallion from the Junior Bone Lord.
    I pressed the accept button and a map came up showing my location and it told me, “Proceed to Quest NPC to accept quest.”
    I shrugged as I closed the screen and approached the NPC again.
    “Oh, you’re back! Listen, I need you to go to the Moonlit Graveyard and get me 10 Ruby Crystals and 1 Golden Medallion so that I can have an acceptable necklace for the Festival of the Stars. Thanks so much! You’re a life saver!” she (or perhaps ‘it’ is a better word…nah, I’ll stick with ‘she’) turned around and got back to whatever she was doing.
    I blinked at the sudden outburst and shrugged as I lifted up into the air again and I looked around. The view was fantastic! I saw a pair of horned owls fly toward a graveyard to what I believed to be the North, so I followed them. I landed at the entrance and I could see the moss and lichen covered walls of the Graveyard and I walked through the entrance.
    Almost immediately three monsters labeled Lesser Skeletons burst from the ground, all of them missing a few bones, one of them didn’t even have an arm. I turned my ring back into my giant sword.
    One horizontal sweep with the flat of the blade was enough to utterly crush the monsters and they collapsed into a heap of bones. The bones disappeared to reveal one old bone for each of the skeletal monsters. I picked them up only to have them disappear.
    “What the heck? Wait a minute.” I opened up the Menu and opened my Items window and sure enough, there they were. “Just like every other game, huh?” I muttered, shaking my head.
    I proceeded deeper into the Graveyard and after fifteen minutes of smashing random monsters that appeared in front of me, I had only collected four of the Ruby Crystals that I needed.
    I heard a scream not too far away and I ran toward it. A group of three teens my age had found the Junior Bone Lord, the boss of this area! It was a creepy thing that appeared as if it was made out of two dozen human skeletons and it had four arms, three legs, and one GIANT skull with half its teeth missing, the other half being smaller skulls themselves, a round some of its teeth hung four Gold Medallions.
    All in all, it looked like something straight out of a horror film.
    “Crap, I need that Medallion!” I hissed in frustration, there was no way I was about to let anyone KS me.

    An excerpt from “The Gamer’s Language”
    KS – also known as Kill Steal, in which another player kills the monster one was fighting and/or searching for

    I ran toward it, but four Royal Junior Skeletons randomly burst out of the ground in an attempt to stop me, one of them even grabbing my leg. I stopped only to cut off their heads and collect the Ruby Crystals that fell on the ground.
    Sensing that some of its minion monsters had been slain, the Boss Monster turned to me. A small status window came up in my field of view.
    It stated:

    Junior Bone Lord – High D Rank Boss Monster
    Description: This Monster was created from the skeletal remains of the lamenting dead, whose souls pieced this monstrosity together. It holds onto the old relics of their sad past as a medium that keeps them bound to this world.

    Ok, and how is that supposed to help me?!
    Three legs began to move as the monster moved toward me.
    I ducked under its first swipe and my blade tore through the calcium bone like a hot knife through butter.
    It roared in… pain? Anyways, it attempted to stomp on me, but I blocked it with the flat of my blade, the sudden pressure bent my knees involuntarily. I grunted under its weight until I heard a voice.
    One of the players, a girl, chanted and cast a spell at the monster whose knee of the leg that was holding me down was hit by the attack.
    It took its leg off me in pain and desperately tried to get rid of the Magik fire that was splintering and shattering his joint with the heat.
    I leaped up and slashed its lower spine, successfully severing the upper and lower body. Unfortunately for me, the lower body had a mind of its own as it struck me with its now blackened, smoldering knee.
    CLONG!
    The knee connected with my breastplate, my Wind Armor luckily protecting me from the flames and some of the damage, but it still did a number on me. I crashed to the ground and I dropped my sword which stuck itself into the soft, moist dirt with a loud SHLUNK sound.
    I got up shakily, this thing was crazy strong! Another one of the players, another girl, came and began to heal all the damage that the Boss monster had done to me.
    “Reg Basi!” she exclaimed, her hands hovering my torso. I gasped as I felt my bones mending properly, the hollow bones really were more fragile than normal bones and I gritted my teeth as the bone fragments pulled away from my insides and rejoined together.
    The third, an Asian boy like me took out a ring with a wicked-looking four foot long blade. He flitted between the Leg-Boss monster…thing… and hacked it to pieces small enough from it coming back to life and trying to tear us to pieces.
    He somersaulted backwards and popped up and spun the blade on the ring once and it became a large shuriken. He leaped to a nearby tree and used it to vault himself higher up and threw the giant shuriken at the Boss, driving one of the blades in half-way into its left temple.
    I got up, almost fully healed. The brunette Healer looked as if she was about to complain, but I gave her no time as I ran to my eight foot long blade and yanked it out of the ground.
    I charged toward the Boss and I stopped as it touched a ring on the tip of a finger that I had not even noticed before. So much for military training, I thought. The ring turned into a nine foot long version of a Dadao, an ancient Chinese sword that was also known as the Chinese Greatsword, except its handle was lengthened enough to fit into the grip of the monster. Not to mention that they normally aren’t more than four feet in length, if I remember my history correctly.
    It swung vertically and I grimaced as I side stepped. I swung down on its wrist the moment the blade hit the ground, successfully severing it. The skeletal hand fell off the handle of the blade stuck in the ground. I plucked it out of the soft loamy soil of the Graveyard and slashed it through its rib cage.
    The monster steadied itself, only to have its remaining hand struck with more Magik flame from the blonde Mage.
    Now here was my dilemma. I was fighting a twenty foot (well, now it was just about eight) undead monster, and now it had a giant blazing fist that was trying to pound me. Not to mention the stump of another wrist where there had been a hand seconds earlier.
    “Aww, to hell with this!” I grimaced as I ducked under a blazing hand that almost singed my hair. I chucked my first blade at the giant grinning skull with monsterous (forgive my bad pun) accuracy, the blade driving itself more than three fourths of the way in.
    An unearthly scream emitted from the jaws of the undead and not it began dragging its body toward me with an ardent anger.
    Three more of the blades-on-a-ring shuriken pinned its hand and arm to the ground.
    “Finish this b*****d off!” the boy, who I presumed was a Shinobi from the Oriental Fighter Job Class, yelled at me.
    I nodded and I ran toward the monster and swung away, five swings later, the remains of the monster scattered into sand and disappeared to leave the four Golden Medallions and four large sacks of money, each the approximate size of a human head.
    I collapsed and fell back, panting.
    “This game is WAY too realistic.” I said, trying to regain my breath.
    “I can’t believe that there were exactly four Golden Medallions. It seems almost too convenient.” The boy (probably sixteen or seventeen) said as he went to pick up his share of the items. He was donning a loose sleeveless blue shirt and black pants that had the lower leg bound by a shin guard wrapped in white bandage. He had rather interesting footwear, black socks and straw sandals that left much of the feet exposed, but allowed much mobility.
    The brunette (she looked like she was fifteen) walked up to me. She had on a white cloak with green tassels over an elegant silk blouse with lace frills and a knee-high matching skirt. It was more eye-catching than the blouse and was ever so slightly transparent, showing the dark grey skin-tight biker shorts that she was wearing underneath. She also had a pair of interesting white boots that were slightly on the grey side. They reached up inches below the knee and had buckles criss-crossing up the length of the boots. Her white silken gloves had lime green and azure blue runes and symbols written all over it and I could tell that those runes were the “weapons” her fighting class used.
    “Thanks for helping us with that.” She told me as she extended her hand with a small smile, “I’m Endra Jenkins, a Healer. What’s your name?”
    I grabbed the hand and she helped pull me up with a small grunt.
    “Genesis Casanova, I’m a Heavy Knight.”
    Endra’s smile grew bigger, “Wow! I’m impressed, how does a girl lift something so heavy?”
    I couldn’t help myself as I burst out in laughter and the trio began to stare at me like I was crazy. I clutched my sides in a desperate attempt to calm myself. I felt like my recently healed ribs were about to shatter again from the strain of laughing so uncontrollably.
    It took a while for me to calm down, but after a minute, I calmed down enough to be able to speak comprehensively while I wiped the tears of mirth from my eyes.
    “Are you ok?” The boy asked me, mild concern lacing his voice.
    “Yeah, it’s just that…. I’m a guy. You guys couldn’t even recognize that Genesis is a boy’s name!”
    They now stared at me like I was crazy and jaws hit the mossy dirt.
    “You… are?” the blonde asked.
    “Holy crap!” Endra exclaimed.
    The blonde took a deep breath before introducing herself.
    “Uh, hi Genesis. I’m Lucia Nightbird.” She held out her hand and I shook it.
    She appeared to be fifteen or sixteen and had a rather interesting hairstyle. It came down to her upper back and was slightly bushy. I also noted that she had some very thin braids in random places in her hair that ended with a bead and that those braids were a good three inches longer than the rest of her hair. It was very wild, and reminded me of a lion’s mane. She had a black leather trench coat trimmed with silver and was wearing a red Chinese shirt and what appeared to be kung-fu pants of the same crimson shade. She had boots like the other girl, but these were brass toed and looked like it could break bone. Her staff having a crooked “Z” shaped runic blade coming out at the top didn’t help either.
    I also noticed that the girls were both elves, although their ears were not as ridiculously pointed as mine would have been. Perhaps it is because I am male that the ears were pointed so much?
    “Pleased to meet you.” I replied as cordially as possible. That point on the staff looked extremely dangerous as she got nearer to me.
    “Umm, can you tell me how you got your hair too look so sleek?” she asked, rather awkwardly, I must add.
    I froze, I didn’t really expect for any girl to ask me for beauty tips. I’m a red-blooded male after all; do you know just how embarrassing that is?!
    “I just use normal shampoo and conditioner… I don’t even know what brand I use…my sister chooses that stuff…”
    Wait. Does that make it normal shampoo and conditioner?
    Lucia grumbled about how a guy could have all the luck.
    The boy shook his head and walked up to me and held out his hand.
    “I’m Shiro Jang, a Shinobi.” He told me, only verifying the suspicion I had about the type of fighter he was.
    “I figured as much.” I replied as I shook his hand. “So, you guys know each other?” I asked.
    “Yeah, Lucia and I are cousins and Shiro’s been my pen-pal since my third grade.” Endra piped up.
    I nodded, and went to pick up my share of the treasure along with the girls. I then picked up my original blade and turned it back into a ring, to the amazement of the trio and I did the same with the oversized Dadao, putting the rings on my index and my middle finger in that respective order.
    “Woah! Is that what the Boss-Monster did to take out the sword?” Shiro asked with curiosity gleaming in his eye.
    “Pretty much.” I replied.
    They weren’t put away long as more of the undead clawed out of the soil. We were surrounded fifteen to four, it was lucky that I could demolish so many of the monsters with one fell sweep of my blade, and now I had two oversized blades to break apart the calcium atrocities.
    Still, I had to admit, the Dadao was heavier than my Beginner’s Giant Sword (as I found out from a status check on it later), so my movement was a bit slower, plus I was using one arm for each weapon, which really didn’t help my speed. Not using all of my strength does that, but going slower is harder and makes fighting more exhilarating.
    We easily found the rest of the Quest Items that all four of us were seeking and we made our way out of the Graveyard.
    As we walked out, Endra asked me, “Um… hey Genesis? Where did you get the wings?”
    “Oh, I chose to be a member of the Beast-Tribe, and it just so happened that I was an avian. That’s the only reason I have wings, why?”
    “Errr…. Nothing, never mind…”
    My eyebrows knitted together for a moment in mild confusion, and then loosened.
    “Ooooook. This is an awkward moment.” I said as we walked back to town.
    “Hey Genesis.”
    “Hmm?” I turned to Shiro and brushed my hair out of my face.
    “Why do you have such long hair? It goes down to your knees, and you’re a guy. What’s the point?”
    “I have my reasons.” I told him as I turned around and quickened my pace.
    Why the hell do people give me crap about that?
    Well, maybe I should explain why my hair is so long in the first place.
    When I was young child, I had a friend that always wanted to be a beautician and she made me promise that I wouldn’t cut my hair and only let her do it. Her father worked alongside my adopted father and I’m going to meet her again in about a month, so it feels good for me to know that I still kept my end of the bargain. She was my first crush, I suppose, and I just couldn’t tell her no.
    Plus, I always keep my promises.
    Anyways, Endra grabbed Shiro’s ear, twisted it, and hissed something at him so venomously that he paled on the spot before she ran up, catching up to me.
    “Sorry if the idiot offended you.”
    “It’s alright.” I smiled.
    We walked into one of the gates leading back into the city and we sold some of the extra items that we found (the non-Quest items, of course) to some of the shop NPCs as we walked back to the Quest NPC’s location.
    We turned in our Quest Items to complete our quest. The NPC thanked us with a huge smile and gave us all a box labeled “Mystery Box” by our Item Menu.
    Shiro opened up the Questions Menu and searched up “Mystery Box”.
    A female’s prerecorded voice could be heard from the menu.
    “The Mystery Box is aptly named for its namesake. When it is opened, just about any in-game Item can come out, ranging from Weapons of all kinds, to Miscellaneous Items that can be sold in shops such as an Old Bone from a skeletal monster. This also means that a Legendary Rarity Item can be found inside.”
    I whistled, “That sounds useful.”
    “Yeah, but it also sounds rather useless. The people that made this game probably made it so that almost nobody will get a rare item.”
    “Well, only one way to find out!” Lucia burst out and she opened her Box.
    She pulled out a black cloak that was trimmed with silver and sewn with silver thread. The cloth was thick cotton and it had a flame motif reaching up from the edges of the cloak in a shade of red I didn’t even know existed.
    “Hey, this doesn’t look that bad.” She said as she put on the cloak.
    She opened up the Equipment Menu to find out more about her cloak and her eyebrows lifted to her hairline in surprise. We all peered over her shoulder and this time it was Shiro that whistled.
    “Enchanted Hell Cloak: Triples Flame and Dark affinity and increases Magik Power to 150%.” He read aloud, “Rarity is Hard-To-Find, and Quality is Exceptional. Overall, I think that this is probably the best equipment we’re going to see.”
    Endra nodded, “Yeah, this is B-rank gear.”
    “B-rank?” I inquired; I didn’t know that there was a ranking system for this game, not being able to get the game led to some moping and me not preparing myself for the time when I actually managed to buy Zero Fantasy.
    She nodded and proceeded explain how the whole Ranking system.
    “All beginners’ and lesser basic equipment is E-Rank, while the more basic to low-intermediate gear is D-Rank. C-Rank is mid-intermediate gear and is harder to obtain rather than rare; most players have equipment or are placed in one of these three ranks.”
    “Wait, players are ranked throughout this system as well?” Lucia asked Endra.
    “Yeah, in this game you don’t have a Leveling System, so people are ranked by their raw abilities, skills, and battle experience. That also means that the more you get killed, the more your Rank can drop.” Shiro answered for his pen-pal.
    “Exactly,” she continued, “Now, B-Rank gear is usually meant for some of the more advanced fighters, same with A-Rank. All of the A-Rank gear happens to be Legendary and Rare gear, while B-Rank gear ranges from Uncommon to Rare. There is also some S-Rank gear, but nobody’s managed to get their hands on one yet, they’re supposed to all be Mythical rarity: the hardest of all to find. On the other hand Quality just stands for its durability and resistance from wear and tear.”
    I let all of this sink in as Shiro opened his Box.
    “Oh, damn it! How the hell did I get a rock?!”
    I glanced and re-inspected at the grey, speckled oval stone in his hand.
    “Wait, I think it’s an egg.”
    “Really? Give it here, let me see!” Endra begged, oozing curiosity.
    He handed over the Egg/Stone and she checked the stats on it using the Item Menu again.
    “Genesis is right, this is an egg! All it says is ‘Keep this egg warm and close to your heart. When the time is right, it will open for you.’”
    Endra picked up her Box and opened it.
    She pulled out a stick.
    She fumed in anger, appearing both surprised and infuriated at the same time.
    The rest of us ROTFLOLed as we desperately tried to get the required oxygen to breathe properly.

    An Excerpt from “Easy Gamer’s Terms: The Layman’s Terms”
    ROTFLOL – Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud.

    As if that wasn’t enough, her face got progressively ruddier and passed through about eighteen different shades of color and steam, of all things, started to come out of her ears.
    We just laughed harder, who ever invented how character avatars reacted in this game was a GENIOUS!
    “Endra c-c-cal-m d-down.” Her cousin choked on her words as she attempted to force the three words out.
    “You look like a steamed vegetable, only smarter.” I said.
    That got the three of us going again and even she had to laugh at that after she noticed the steam escaping her ears as well.
    It took us all about ten minutes to fully calm down; and we all wiped the tears that were streaming from our eyes.
    “Well, I guess it’s my turn then.” I said softly.
    We all stared at my box as I slowly opened the lid.