Re:Birth, A MMO Story

First Trapped Action: 1d31 22 - Helping others wins with 25 votes.
The top three feelings were comforted (16), surprisingly okay (7) and panic (3).

People around you were panicking as the situation sunk in for them, but you felt different. Maybe it was because you were being hugged by one friend, or because your other friend was clearly scared - but most of what you felt was that you needed to do something to help. It wouldn't help anyone if they gave in to fear now - it'd just make things worse. So you wrapped Kitan in a hug first, dragging Fluffy-nee with you as you did it, "It's okay, Kitan. It's okay. We'll be alright. Someone's gonna find out this happened. How long could they possibly keep it hidden for? I'm sure we'll be free soon enough!" You gave him a little squeeze, "And we have each other until then."

Even Fluffy reached over and patted his arm, "Yeah, don't be so scared! If you don't buck up, I'll have to take Hita-hime all for myself! Wait, actually, feel free to be as depressed as you want to be! I can have a nice time with just me and her!!!" She started to laugh at the stressed out man.

Before you could scold her, he was already moving though, his hand surrounded in white-fire once more, "I will kill you, you little vermin!" He had recovered a bit of his energy as he shook out of your hug to try and throw another fireball at the girl in question. "I'm gonna make sure she's safe from you until we're out of this mess!"

Leaving you to sigh as you watched them goof off. "Guys, now's reaaaally not the time to be playing around!" You put your hands on your hips as you scolded them lightly, "We gotta set a good example for everyone. They're all super stressed and upset too!" You waggle your finger dramatically at them, and they both stop fighting just as Kitan gets his hands on Fluffy's hair and starts to pull it.

"Yeeeesss Hime~!" Fluffy is quick to run over to support you. "I don't wanna be surrounded by a bunch of debbie downers on this vacation!"
"Panic isn't conductive to anything good, I suppose... I don't know if it's your job to care for them... but if we must."

You and your followers split up as you moved to try and offer some helpful words to the people who were worst off... though Fluffy mostly just went up to whoever was next to who you were speaking to. "Please don't cry friends," You were like sunlight, your only fear being your fear for others and how they were feeling, "We're going to be okay. You don't have to worry!" You had no actual assurances you could give them, but you were someone to talk to, and one that wasn't consumed by fear for what was coming.

You estimated there were probably about fifty players in the town - and there were only a few of you. But there were a couple of other players who hadn't lost heart too, who were going around trying to cheer people up. And a few people didn't even seem scared, marching off before you'd even jumped to action to go outside the village. The scariest though were those who were getting angry instead of scared. You watched a Tortoise threaten to beat a shopkeeper NPC to death for trapping them, only for him to be hit over the head by one of the guards you had almost been on the wrong side of earlier just before he could smack the human with his shield. In a single hit the angry man went down, before being hefted up and walked towards the guardhouse - and that at least kept the others from resorting to violence.

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"I'm sure your sister's going to find you in your pod, and you'll be okay! You'll probably be one of the first of us out of here!" You insisted it to the clearly younger Dragon, Dark-Blood, who was taking up so much of your time, telling you all about how he stole his sister's chance to play the game.

"It's my punishment for stealing her prize. I knew I shouldn't do it but it sounded so fun... now... now I'm gonna die in here!" He wailed loudly.

"Shh, shh. You're not gonna die!" You hugged the boy as he sobbed, "We're going to be okay. Don't worry."

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"I should have known this all was too good to be true! Why would they just give away a chance to play this game? I'm so stupid. So so so so stupid!" A kirin girl named Lightning Hoof was banging her head against a wall as she yelled at herself. "Nothing ever goes right for me!"

"Hey, hey. it's not that bad..." You tried your best to approach her carefully, "There's no way we're gonna be here forever. We can't lose hope yet..." She turned to give you an angry glare, but you continued, "Giving up doesn't make anything better!"

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One particular player seemed upset for a different reason, as someone with a matching name curled up on the floor. The tiger boy, Ichi-San was clearly mad as you approached just before his outburst, "Fine, you lay here being useless. I'll go save us myself, since everyone wants to be so useless." He bumped his shoulder right against you as he stormed past you.

"Are you okay?" The white tiger girl on the ground, Ichi-Chan, was just crying, "Did he hurt you...?" You weren't sure what had happened, you'd been too busy with the others to watch the whole exchange, but she was hiccuping into her own legs. She only looked up slowly when you repeated yourself after pressing a hand to her shoulder, "Do you need me to get my friend? He's a healer class."

She shook her head, "Ijustdidn'twanttogogethurttooanditmademyboyfriendmad..." Her voice was so quiet as she mumbled directly into her raised legs still. "Idontwanthimtogethurtorbemadbutthat'stooscary... Whatifdyingkillshimforever....buteventhenIcan'tgetmylegstomove..."

You gave a little frown as you looked towards where her boyfriend had gone... you were glad that your friends were way more understanding than he was. "You don't have to go fight things if you don't want to. We don't even know if that'd help. I'm sure he's just scared too, and lashing out because of it. He didn't mean it." You patted her shoulder oh so gently, "I know it can be scary, but if you need anyone I'm here for you, okay? And I'm happy to be here for you!"

She looked surprised at your sudden genuine reach out to a stranger, but buried her head once more, mumbling a "Thankth..."

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Things got worse before they got better. Within an hour of the announcement, people started to respawn at their respective Great Spirit's temple. Their stories of what they saw and felt out there were not comforting to the already scared population.

"They weren't even that quick, but they stabbed me and... why did they make it hurt so bad?"
"I got hit with a fireball and all I could think of was that I wanted to die rather than keep feeling that."
"I couldn't even hit the damn thing, every time I threw my spell at it, it moved!"
"I got one of them with my spear, and before I even noticed another got an arrow in my thigh, and made just moving too painful. How am I supposed to dodge like that?"

You had a vague idea of it from when you were tackled into the ground by Fluffy... but it seemed that pain was just as present here as it was in the real world. Being stabbed, being set on fire, being hurt in general hurt, and that meant things were going to be a lot harder for sure. Most V-Games simulated some pain, to encourage your primal senses and help you with knowing where you got hit from... but that was normally kept around ten percent. Hardcore games built for masochists sometimes pushed it up to thirty. A hundred percent pain would be... well, it'd be illegal. But so would kidnapping all these people.

Half of the people who went out to fight once refused to do so again. Most of the people who stayed behind too afraid before they knew the truth of it? They were as likely to go fighting things as Fluffy was to let go of you without being asked.

You'd managed to make a people stop crying and feeling like they were going to die - but you hadn't exactly given them hope. There was little hope you could give them - you didn't know how to get out any better than them. It was around this time when another pop up appeared - apparently not just for you, but for most people.

Hunger

You have become Hungry. Over time, your satiation gauge will deplete. Once it reaches two thirds filled, you will become Hungry, losing 10% to all stats until it is filled beyond this point.
If your satiation gauge lowers below 1/3rd of the gauge, you will become extremely hungry. You will lose an additional 20% to all stats, and your natural mana regeneration will cease.
If your satiation gauge ever empties, you will begin to starve, lowering all stats by an additional 30% and causing you to take damage until you restore satiation.

Dying of starvation will reset you to 1/3rd of your satiation gauge. You have been given twenty beginner's mealkits to aid in the start of your journey.


The tutorial seemed to sense when you finished reading it, because it disappeared. You checked the description of the beginner's mealkits in the moment after, noting that they filled exactly a third of your gauge. Meaning you'd probably need to eat at least two a day...

"They're telling us that if we don't get moving within a week, we'll starve to death. Continually." Kitan summed it up for you. He looked very serious as he pushed up on the bridge of his nose. You filed a mental note that he needed glasses for his character, just so his mannerisms would be more natural.
"Aaaaah~! I'll never let our Hita-Hime starve! I'll give you all my meals! I can survive with just your love, Hita-Hime!" She clung onto you with one arm, piles of little bento boxes filling her free hand as she tried to offer them to you.

"You're not gonna starve, Fluffy." You said it happily despite the dire news of starvation putting even more rain on people's parades. "We're gonna be fine. I'm not gonna let you go hungry for me, we've got this." You did your best to pat her head without knocking over the unstable tower of food that more than a few people were eyeing after she took them out of her inventory.

"Eeee~ Of course we'll be fine with you here!" If nothing else she wasn't scared of anything, that was for sure.

"With a time limit on getting started, we should make a plan." Kitan was ignoring Fluffy's outbursts for once, the current situation more pressing to the Kirin boy than the leech attached to your arm. "Did you have any ideas, Hita-chan?"

"I think we should try to get some more people for our group. If combat is as hard as people make it sound, three priests without any sort of warrior in front might be... bad." Strength in numbers was the biggest strength you had - but apparently only two of your viewers ended up in the same starter village as you. Who did you want to attempt to recruit to helping you in your future plans?

[x] A. De Na, the tortoise fog warrior who tried to assault an npc, and got a few hours in jail. He's willing to fight, and having a better outlet for his anger might be good.
[x] B. Satoshi-San and Seto, the other pair who were trying to cheer people up in town. They both seem to be Blessed Vessels, since they were dragons who clearly were wearing Katana.
[x] C. Dark-Blood, the Dragon Necromancer who is just a kid. He may be just a kid, but having a ghost summon would mean not needing to have anyone get stabbed who could feel pain.
[x] D. Lightning Hoof, the Kirin Windrunner who is mostly angry at herself for the predicament - having a strong source of damage wouldn't be out of place, and she seems more frustrated than scared.
[x] E. Ichi-San, the Tiger Claw who got mad and stormed off to go hunt. He'd already died once, but he seemed fired up to go fight some more... but he was kinda a jerk who made his girlfriend cry.
[x] F. Ichi-Chan, the Armory Priest who really doesn't want to go fight. Maybe convincing her to face her fears is for the best? At the very least, she could stand back and provide more buffs for you and Fluffy to use.

This is approval voting, because I like changing the vote method between every single vote apparently. Vote for whoever you'd be okay with becoming part of the crew/who you think would synergize best. You will (probably) get the top two, possibly even the top three depending on who are picked/how good your charisma results are.

Recruiting more people to join you was one thing - but you still needed to actually do something. Yelling at NPCs didn't do anything for anyone who tried it, so that was out the door. And you couldn't comfort people with no hope. Which meant you had a few options left to investigate with your group, new and old.

[x] H. Travel outside the village to try and level up, get loot, and hopefully find success in doing so.
[x] I. Try to investigate the town as a group, and see if there are any more specific quests to pursue for village.
[x] J. Go to the Guardhouse you were invited to, and see what the 'advice' the guards were offering meant.
[x] K. Go outside the village to explore - fighting isn't the goal, getting the lay of the land is.
This is back to raffle for now. They're all valid options! They all could be fitting to the moment! But which is gonna win?