RTU

Chapter 10 - The First Quest

The sun started to set beyond the horizon. Beautiful cool oranges, pinks and light blues spread across the canvas of the sky. The wildlife from outside of the village settled down and given to the chirps of crickets. Torches lit up around the entrances for the lone late night travelers. The cinnamon apple bread down to just a few crumbs. Wendy, the waitress, lit up all the lamps on the tables. The flickering flame brighten the room up casting the darkness into the corners of the room. She started sweeping even though there wasn't much to sweep. The bartender now gone from his post behind the counter. Dee and Bu's white suits beneath their leather armor glowed and occasionally pulsed with energy.

"Let's get some rest for now agreed?" yawned Bu. He looked at Dee who was staring into space. "What's on your mind buddy?"

"I'm trying to find where to log out. I mean, there has to be a way to log out of the game." Dee flipped through the menus that came up before him. "Ah there it is. Log o.."

"Hold on there. Not so fast," interrupted Bu. "If we log out now, do we go back being.. you know?" He held up his right hand squeezing and releasing it.

"I was curious myself, and I figure that the only way to find out would be to log out," suggested Dee.

"This just feels so real. I guess it's too good to be true. After all, it's still a game right?" sighed Bu looking sadly. "Looks like it's about eight or nine o' clock. Remember, the RT2 energy transfers happens at midnight on the dot."

"I don't think we will be doing anything more tonight. It would be a good time to log out. I will go first and log right back in to let you know," assured Dee.

Bu nodded, "Right."

Dee stared in front of him as the menu screen appeared. The list of options scrolled up following the focus of his eyes. "Logout!" The menu remained in front of him and so did Bu. "Logout!"

"Let me try. Logout!" announced Bu. "The games broken man. Is this some kind of glitch or something? Mr. Montgomery couldn't have missed something this simple and important."

Dee sat there staring at the table scrolling up and down. There was no other option to choose. Bu started to panic as he got up and began pacing back and forth. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead, which reflected the flickering lamps on the tables. Dee closed his eyes and thought back to when they first arrived to Adrenaline Corp., Mr. Montgomery's speech, then the portals and now here. Something finally registered in his head.

"Hey, I have a feeling that logout option was put there on purpose with no intentions of working," guessed Dee rubbing his lower lips with his thumb and pointer finger.

"What do you mean?" Bu said confused.

Dee recounted, "Think about it. When did we ever log into the game? We came here from the Teleport Station. Then we entered through the PongBlong portal. How can we log out if we never logged in?"

"Why would Mr. Montgomery do that? To fool us?" Bu wiped his sweaty forehead.

"That I don't know. It was definitely put there to make it seem like it was a game. He probably assumed that we would not log out right away. Hence, why we never got any proper instructions," predicted Dee.

"We're stuck here forever?" Bu slammed his fist on the table.

Dee sat intently and focused. "Let's rest for now. We can think better in the morning. One things for sure, we are going to be here for a while. That means we have to reach max level as soon as possible along with obtaining better gear, so we can find a way out of here. At a low level, we are limited to only places like these."