RTU

Chapter 8 - I'm Baack!

"Hey there partner!"

Dee stopped dead in his tracks right before entering. He turned his hover chair around.

"Hey," Dee said cautiously.

There stood a rather heavy built black man about six feet tall. With a sling on his right arm, the shape of a cast could be seen underneath the white suit's sleeve.

"The names Charles. Charles Bu, but you can call me Bu. That's what people call me. What's yours?" he initiated.

Wondering why anyone would speak to him, he replied, "Dee Rogers."

"Looks like you were planning on going in by yourself. Looking for a companion?" insisted Bu.

"Sure you could use someone like me?" Dee looked down at his legs.

Charles held up his right arm, cocked his head back and raised an eyebrow. They both laughed at the fact, but the truth was that they both needed each other if they were going to survive in this game. Dee held out his hand, and they shook on it. Once their alliance had been established, they entered through the portal.

Upon walking in, Dee could only describe it like stepping into a painting. The colors of the world around them soon faded away off to the side of their view. In came, the colors and landscape of Pongblong. The oranges, yellows and reds filled the area around them. Suddenly, they found themselves on the outside of a small village. The ground beneath them took texture and they could feel the gravel from under their feet. There were but maybe six houses, a tavern and a church. People could be seen walking, feeding chickens and children running about. The village people waved at them as they passed, and the kids ran between them chasing one another treating them like any other person there.

"I can't believe this is all so real. Montgomery, you sure did it this time, and I love it haha!" bellowed Bu as he bent down to pat the children's head with his hands. The kids laughed and took off in and behind one of the houses.

Dee analyzed the area carefully. He saw other players in their white suits in the neighboring forest, yet too far to make out anything else. The cool breeze rustled the leaves dancing in the trees. They would need to get going and questing soon. There just had to be some sort of tutorial guide for the initial game play. In-game tutorials were the best way to get players to learn quickly while playing at the same time. It would consist of very simple quests that provided game play basics with starting gold and armor.

"Hey you see that?" asked Dee.

"Yep, I do. Apple Green Village. It appears that we are seeing descriptions of places and things when we focus our attention on it. D-E-E, so that's how you spell your name. Pretty simple. You haven't gotten any stats yet," laughed Bu.

Dee observed. "Ah, so that's how it works. Let's take a look around town real quick."

"Good idea. Every safe location should have some sort of Inn, item shop or place of resurrection," added Bu.

They walked along the dirt path observing everything while navigating through the menus displayed on their cornea by the RT2 Nano-bots. Interesting facts about Pongblong appeared everywhere as well as miscellaneous descriptions about every unusual object. Quality work could be seen in everything from the tall copper statues to a rusty milk can. Adrenaline Corp. had also carefully inserted references to familiar events and pop-culture idols from earth.

Let's take a look in the church," replied Bu and paused for a second. "Dee, I...I just want to thank you for letting me join you. You and I both know that we would only drag others down. You know?"