Katagawa

Hokori was glad that the young man accepted her offer, though he seemed to be stumbling over his own words. She quickly followed him towards the exit. When he asked for her name, she shook his hand, "Katagawa, nice to meet you. I was getting some equipment, seems that the smith is having a little bit of difficulty with it at the moment though. No sense waiting around when there are things to be done." She realized that if the two of them were going to work on the quest together, they should be a party. She fiddled around in the menu, grumbling about how not intuitive it is, and eventually found the party invite. She sent one to Cosi, and waited for him to accept it. In the meantime, she made sure that she had all of her gear equipped and ready for use. She didn't expect the quest to be that difficult, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

@Cosi

Hokori had just turned in her own package and was checking on her stats when she noticed someone else come and talk to the blacksmith. She realized that she might be able to do this quest with somebody, and decided to approach them. Once they were done talking with the smith, she made sure not to surprised them by being right there when they turned. Instead she walked up to them a little after than began to head out. "Hello, you wouldn't happen to be starting the quest here as well. I noticed that there will likely be combat and figured it might be a good idea to go at it with a partner." She was a little nervous talking with someone in this game for the first time. She was always nervous talking with others in a video game, but it was even weirder here. Here, she was not only the strange gamer girl, but it was also an attempt at emulating a real conversation. She did her best to hide her nerves, using all the public speaking skills she had learned while taking her general education courses those many years ago.

@Cosi

Hokori quickly turned in the package to the old man, and he looked towards her kindly. He offered some more rewards for further help. It seemed that she had dragged herself into an entire quest line. At least it meant that she would be able to make some quick progress in levels. She accepted the new quest and quickly scrolled through the rewards from the previous one. There was quite a bit of stuff that she had gotten and she was also able to invest some more into her skills. She quickly went through her options and made a decision before looking at what she needed to do for this next quest. As she did look over the quest objectives, she noticed another player coming in to turn in a package. She quickly realized that she could band together with them for the quest. It seemed she wouldn't have to do this all alone after all.

Hokori continued to work her way around the plaza, hoping that she would find the shop eventually. She knew it might not even be here, and then she would have to be looking for it somewhere in this large town. She double checked to see if her map had a marker on it, and in fact it did. The problem was that it was so large a marker that it really only narrowed things down to a large radius around the starter plaza. Glad that she was at least looking in the right place, Hokori continued to work her way around the plaza with the NPCs. Hopefully she would find it soon. Even with a narrowed radius, she didn't want to be out searching for too long. She had other places that she wanted to be, like getting to the front lines. It didn't take her too long, but she did eventually find her way towards the shop she needed to find. It was a simple little smithy, with another kind old man manning the workstation there. She offered the package, hoping for the quest to be over.

Hokori began by looking around in the main plaza for where it could be. As her eyes scanned over the masses of people in there, she noticed a few smith shops that were on the edges. She couldn't tell which were run by NPCs, though it was quite likely that all of them were. There wouldn't be much space for players to run their shops here, and she thoughts she had remembered seeing all the spaces filled when she was first brought back here for the announcement. It seemed that it may take a little while to find the one she needed. She began to make her way around the plaza, checking in with each shop and inquiring for Lyle. Though none of the NPCs pointed her in the right direction, they were at least prompt in saying that they weren't who she was looking for. Perhaps she needed to be a bit more direct with her questions.

Hokori drew her mind away from thoughts of what would happen after the game. When that objective came closer, she would make sure to address it in full. She would need to keep some avenues open before then, but she needed to make sure that people got out first. She realized that in her mental haze she still hadn't left the old man's apothecary. A little embarrassed from standing there for so long, she quickly headed out to find the blacksmith's shop. She knew of a blacksmith, though it was player run. It was possible that the game would point her there, but there was no way it would be able to tell her which shop to go for before people had professions. That meant that she would need to be looking for an NPC shop. She didn't know of any NPC blacksmiths, but perhaps she just hadn't stumbled across it yet.

It would highly depend on what happened to the game once it was complete. If it remained intact, or at least its database. You would be able to see which players were orange and which were green. That meant that you could at least narrow the search a little bit. Of course, there were some players who were orange from a preemptive self defense strike. That could easily cause some issues to happen with the judgement process. There would likely be no way to prove how the player had earned that orange marker. Many people seemed to act much differently in the game than they likely would in real life, so it wouldn't matter what they were like there. Even the smallest of kids could potentially have the power to kill an adult in this game. Though they were still a kid, they wold still have all the skills the game gave them. There was just no consistent way to tell.

Though they were committing terrible crimes in this game, she imagined they would probably get off scotch free, with all the same pity the rest of them were likely to receive. There would be little to prove that they had done what they did, except the word of other players. And those words would likely be discredited to their lack of mental facilities while from being in the game so long. Perhaps they would see their comeuppance, being shunned from the crowd of players that are all they have to identify with. Either that or their criminal ways would be sustained into the real world, making them get caught much easier. It was still a hallowing thought. She didn't want to have to witness people suffer further even when the game was finally complete. Perhaps she would find a way to ensure that people were held accountable, but she didn't know how she could safely transmit reliable info.

Though she couldn't find anything to get while at the old man's shop, she hoped that perhaps there were other places she could find some extra things lying around. She doubted they would be in the Town of Beginnings though. It seemed that the materials credited to a player were sent into a nebulous account, so that meant she wouldn't be able to loot off of a player. She didn't think it was a good idea to be stealing from a player anyways. She did want to hold up her own morals while in this world, though certainly some concessions would need to be made to escape. She figured that if the player was helping towards the end goal of getting out of this game or doing something to keep the death count low, it would be best not to hurt their efforts. However, she knew that there were less reputable folk that should be held accountable for their actions.

Once Hokori got the package, she noticed that the quest objective had already updated. It seemed that delivering this package was needed to be done after all. Perhaps she could try and makre her way there now, but she felt there were other things that could be done. She tried to mess around in the shop first to see if she could score anything for herself. With no luck there, she moved to see if there was a way to get some extra materials before leaving the shop. She tried her best, but couldn't find where the old man kept his stores of materials. Maybe he really was just needing materials for each player. For all she knew, the materials were despawned when she handed them over to the old man. It would be quite the cruel joke for that to happen, though it made sense. It meant that people could do the starter quest with others while still not gaining an advantage themselves.

Hokori made her way quickly back towards the old man's place in the plaza, hoping to get the quest done with quickly. Though there shouldn't need to be a rush, she did want to make sure to be efficient with her questing. Once there, the old man guided her towards his station. He had her try to brew a simple potion, which she did her best at. When she was done, she felt that she had not done a very good job. The old man seemed impressed by it though. She thanked him and was about to leave when he asked her if she could deliver a package to a blacksmith friend of his named Lyle. She agreed, both to be kind towards him and because she figured it would be a part of the quest. Perhaps there was more to the quest, or maybe there was simply another quest entirely for her to do. Either way, it was better to take the package now rather than wait on finishing the objectives.

Surely the creator couldn't have stretched time that much though. It was possible that she was just thinking of this all wrong. It had to have been at least a day in the game, otherwise there wouldn't be as many people trapped in it as there are. It would take some time before everyone who would log in before people realized the death penalty was real did so. Perhaps it had only been a week in the real world. If she were to pull something like this off then it would probably not be best to put the bodies in harm's way. Of course, if he really was killing people who died in the game, he would not be considering much about what had happened to the people. Her thoughts continued to race as she found one more berry lying on the ground. There was so much to process that she was thinking of.

Hokori kept searching through the forest, doing her best not to get turned around in the canopy of leaves she was under. She couldn't quite tell what position the sun was in as she picked up another pine cone, but figured it would be a little past afternoon in this world. As she was making her way through the forest, it dawned on her that she didn't really know if the game actually stuck to the same time. For all she knew, they had been living thirty hour days without knowing it. Though there was some sort of in game clock, she couldn't be sure if it was actually matching universal time. For all she knew, the clock was running slow or even fast. As this was all just simulation, there was no guarantee that they had actually been in here for two years. They could've been stuck for only hours in the real world.

Hokori continued to comb her way through the forest, looking for more berries. And though she didn't find any berries she did stumble across a pine cone that seemed like it could work. She picked it up, put it in her inventory, and checked her quest marker. It had incremented up by another one, so she figured that ti did work. She gave a shrug towards it and continued her search. Though she didn't particularly care what the materials did take form as, she did want to know what that range was. Without it, she could easily skip over several materials without knowing she had done so. Maybe there were information brokers with lists of possibilities, but there services were often more expensive than she wished they would make them. She felt that they should give the information for free to the public. She knew that they needed to make some col, but this was potentially lifesaving information that they were locking behind an artificially made paywall.

deciding she had thought enough of her build, Hokori reigned her focus in now. She was glad she did as well, as she had just passed over another berry on the ground. SHe went back to pick it up and made sure it went into her inventory. She now had two of the five she needed, so progress was certainly being made. She had a feeling based on the dialogue that this wouldn't be the end of the quest though. It was quite likely she would need to do something with these ingredients. She could only hope that she wouldn't need to searching for more ingredients if she did fail her next objective. She brushed the thought aside for now. Right now, she needed to focus on the task at hand. Though there would be many more stepping stones before she made it to her final goal of escape, she would need to take them one at a time.

Continuing her search, Hokori could feel her mind wander a bit. She didn't try to reign in her focus for the moment, letting it take its own path for the moment. She had some time to spare looking for these berries, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a short mental breakl. She began to wonder about what kind of build she could have again. She knew that she would want to go with either support or tank, as those were less common. It would be best if she knew who all was on the front lines. Though it was possible that the composition of the teams could change, it would be best to know if there was a shortage of something at the moment. She wanted to commit at least most of the way to a build right now so she could plan things out accordingly. She did hope that the game might have a respec option available if she realized she made a mistake.

As she began to look a bit closer at the ground for smaller objects, Hokori quickly came across a berry that had fallen off of one of the trees. She picked it up and put it into her inventory. She wasn't quite yet familiar with the systems, so it did take her a little bit to figure out how to put it in. She managed to figure it out eventually though and continued with her search. She thought upon what else she could do while searching for berries, and came up a little short. She didn't want to compromise her focus on the search for materials by thinking of other things, and she doubted that there were any activities she could do in tandem. At least, not while at her current skill level. If she was with someone else, she could at least socialize a little bit while doing these objectives.

Continuing to traipse through the forest, Hokori was still having some trouble finding any materials for her to gather. Though there was plenty of plants to be had around here, she was unsure as to whether or not they would work. Most of them were no smaller than a shrub. She could possibly take a clipping from the larger plants, but knowing the game it would likely stop her from doing so by claiming the object was immortal. She made an attempt anyways, and was greeted with her hypothesized result. Though sad she couldn't get materials this way, she made her search that much more close. It seemed she would need to look a bit more closely to find the smaller objects that would be the materials she needed.

I would think a beginner quest like this would increase the spawn rate of such objects, though it seems the creator's of this game weren't quite so kind to their players.

Before getting to the forest, Hokori made sure to check up on a few other spots in the plains. She didn't want to glance over anything yet and made sure her search was at least statistically thorough. She may have missed a spot or two, but that wouldn't be a good enough deterrent  from her entering the forest. There was quite a bit of vegetation here, but nothing jumped out at her as an ingredient for anything craftable. She consulted her menu, hoping it would give her some hint. She was a little disappointed though. There were no hints available for what she figured would be the starter quests for people. She hoped that she hadn't accidentally disabled the hints by getting that extra skill earlier. Even though they were quite likely to be useless to her, they may have a couple little tricks she would never think of within them.

Hokori made her way quickly towards the fields, hoping that would be the best place to gather the materials that she needed. SHe wasn't sure exactly where or what to look for, but she had a feeling that the fields would be a good place to start. She quickl scanned over them, and saw a couple potential ingredients. As she approached them, they seemed to vanish from her view. Either the harvestable items were on a timer or they were hidden from view when closer. It was also possible her eyes were just playing tricks on her. She made her way around the fields and checked up on a few other possibilities, but came up with no results. She resolved that it might be more prudent to go searching in the forest. It should hold a few more items than the plain fields did. It was all just trial and error at the moment though.

The old man was kind towards Hokori, offering to teach her the ropes of the game. He simply asked that she go out and collect a few materials for him before returning to hear out his lesson. Though the task seemed a little odd, Hokori was fine to go along with it. She had had professors that were much more prone to  forgetting things for there classroom, so this was nothing new. And she wanted to learn from him, as it might mean she could find a way to progress through the game a bit more efficiently than others. Though she didn't want to treat it as a race with other players, she needed some measure of progress to know how well she was progressing. If she was beginning to overtake some players in levels, that would mean she is going quite quickly. Either that or they were going quite slowly.

After coming back from her exploration on the sixth floor, Hokori decided it would be best to stick to the first floor for the time being. She arrived in the main plaza where it had been announced that the players would be trapped until the game was finally beaten and began to look around. There was quite a bit going on, from NPC vendors trying to sell their vanity wares to players milling about. There was a fair amount of people that seemed to have defeated looks on their faces, though there were others who seemed to be walking with purpose. She knew that there could very well be some high level players walking around here with some of the player run shops she had seen. Her eyes continued to look around until she had settled onto an old man NPC with a marker above his head. She made her way towards him, hoping he would have a quest for her to take.

Hokori finished her drink and left the Inn, still a little uncomfortable with the stares she received from some of the men. Hopefully the people on the front lines wouldn't be nearly as unkind or scrupulous as they were. It was quite unsettling, but an expected part of any game's communities. She had been accused before of being a gamer simply to get boy's attention, and she never liked that. Though she was admittedly a gamer because she wanted to fit in with the other students at her college, she had found herself enjoying games more and more as a way to escape that busy life.

I guess I've come into the greatest escape yet, and who knows how long of an escape from the real world this will be. I can imagine some of the news that might be reporting on this, trying to sensationalize it and vilify video games even further.

Hokori went to the teleport pad, and decided it would be best to go back to the first floor to do the starter quests that would more than likely exist in a game like this.

With a long term goal set into place, Hokori turned her mind more towards a mid to short term goal. She needed to decide how she wanted to make her way to the top. It wasn't likely that she could get there with just damage alone. Though it was an easy way to the top if she went with some of the more popular damage builds, she didn't feel that was a good way for the front lines to be pushed forward as much. She thought instead she could focus on tanking or supporting. Though she didn't know what the composition of people on the front lines currently was, those two roles were usually what was lacking in most games communities. Most people wanted to try and be the star DPS player, with few willing to take the secondary roles. If she took those kind of roles, it was possible that she could function much better on the front lines. It was also possible that she could find herself making more friends for the harder quests.

Knowing that they were just about to clear another floor, Hokori figured she could measure her progress in relation to how many floors had been cleared since she had begun to level. She didn't know how fast the leveling system was in this game, so she couldn't truly determine what would be considered on pace for leveling up. There also didn't seem to be a consistent pace with how often floors were cleared. She had remembered seeing months in between some of the floors, but that may have been due to other circumstances she wasn't aware of. Because there was no consistency with the pacing of the game, Hokori decided it would be best to just focus on leveling as fast as she could. Though she could measure her progress against others, there was no sense in using that to truly measure worth. With some simple head math, she did figure that she could make it to the front lines before floor 30 without much of any issue.