The world of gaming has changed drastically from the days when men and women could only sit by themselves in a room huddled by a radio listening to Franklin Roosevelt talk through his fireside chats. No one ever suspected that gaming would become such a massive part of the world from America to Korea to Russia, and the rest of Europe. Be it consoles or PC the gaming community has grown to an amazing size unlike any other in the world short of sports. There have been entire generations of children raised under the banner of gaming's pro and cons. It's ups and downs but the industry still thrives unlike anything else in the world. That is why multiplayer has thrived in modern day and has become a major selling point for any video game. The social interactions allows people from all over the world to make friends with one another that normally would be impossible. No other game has harnessed the social aspect of games better than the world of Massive Multiplayer Online games better known as MMO's by the public.

These games have a rather sizable audience that ranks from thousands to millions of people and though not as popular due to the excessive amount of 'grinding' and subscription prices involved in them they still are some of the most sought after games in the market. Though some have gone the traditional route of paying through the months some have gone the way of simply buying a game disk and going online. Though through technological advances one can now digitize themselves into video games essentially turning oneself into data bits and going into the virtual world itself. Though there have been a few...mishaps in the new system of gaming there hasn't been anything life threatening involved. However laws in some countries are required to sign a waver saying that they can't sue the company for any mishaps or problems one may experience after entering one of the machines known as "Digital Modifiers" by the company that allow people to enter the game itself.

One game that has aimed itself to revolutionize the gaming community is by having it's players pay for a fee for them to be entered into the game's databases once and then simply ask to enter a machine whenever there is one nearby. This game is Neverland Online and today is the day that they intend to release a massive update to fit the bugs associated with the game since it's release as well as tweak some game mechanics. Thankfully with the advance in technologically one can keep playing the game as if it was normally going though it takes slightly longer than usual to update thanks to it and some people are forcibly kicked from the game by mistake as a result. Regardless with a gamer community the size of about four million people there is bound to be problems with fixing...and bad people willing to do what they want to others in this virtual world...

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Carl had just gotten out of school today it being a Tuesday he felt the need to go out and run around the school for a bit. However life would get in the way of that. School as usual was a killer on the heart and soul of a free runner like himself so he decided it would be best to just chill out at home today if not go back online and go into the world Neverland. He had recently gotten back into it just to have fun but hey it seemed everyone and their mom was playing it these days. The thing had come out just a week or two prior to this and already there were elite clans popping up and try hards. It made him not want to play it sometimes. But the game was just too damn fun to give up on. I mean how many other games out there really had the experiences you can have by hoping into a game and playing it first person literally? It was all a moot point because people were playing MMO's all of the time now and be it third, second, or first person views they all had some degree of popularity. One way or another people were drawn to these games. It wasn't much longer before Carl would be at the store anyways. With his stuff being dropped off at his house by a friend he wouldn't need to worry about his books.

She nodded, before asking her mother to excuse her for the night.

Akiyama Momoka retired to her room, locking the door behind her, then closing the blinds and the curtains to all her windows. Another day, another long session of being proper and prim before the world. Stripping her clothes down to her undies, she wrapped herself in her blanket, sitting down in front of her computer. She had long decided the real was boring to live in; same old things happening, promises made and broken, politicians arguing over everything, different paint but the same machine.

With a crack of her fingers, Momoka opened her computer to a flood of PMs from people asking for her help on a variety of games. Hardly anything out of the ordinary, she'd receive a hundred over requests sometimes. Her fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard, clacking rapidly with barely a pause in between as she cycled through to the next PM.

"...there..." After several minutes of rapidfire typing, the last PM was finally dealt with.

It seemed that what little information she had garnered in the game was being very well received, but as they say, she had yet to catalogue the entirety of the game as well as experience enough of the endgame content to really be giving advice on it. Which was why, for now, she was running a character specialized for earning as much money as possible. Potions, she had noted, was valuable, considering a lot of them never go out without at least one healing potion, and since it was used almost daily in raids, PvP siege battles, and even in PvM contents, especially Boss classed monsters. Healers are fine and well, but using magic still drains a lot of mana.

Yawning, she looked at the clock. She should get going soon, there's a lot she needed to do ingame and she wanted that good spot near the back of the shop she frequented.

"...Damn it, why isn't it turning on...?" Ralph was in his room, tinkering with a broken, old handheld gaming console he found lying around in the trash. He managed to obtain a new casing + screen, and all that was left were some of the broken electronics. The kid was fiddling around with the charger after he had replaced the battery, but for some reason it just didn't want to let electricity be generated. "Maybe the wiring is off...?" Ralph tried cutting the copper in half and mending it by melting a bit of his own wire to re-connect it. Didn't work, as expected really. The voltage meter still didn't give off a reaction. "Damnit..." Alright, that's it. He gives up. There's no way in hell Ralph's fixing this thing any time soon, not with the way things are currently going. He'd just have to break his brains over it tomorrow, as this is getting the kid nowhere. The improvised mechanic gathered all the parts together and put them back into the desk drawer that served as their storage space, followed by turning off his desk lamp.

And now Ralph has to clean up his mess of tools that laid strewn all over his workbench, sighing heavily at all the required equipment just to fix a simple handheld. This little pet project was turning out to be more trouble than it's worth, but damn if he's not going to keep trying. If Ralph actually manages to pull this off he'd have something to actually be proud of, but as things stand it's just not happening. All the work equipment eventually found it's way back to their original storage spot, a good half hour having passed since the cleaning started.

"Wonder if Jim has any answers to this issue..." Ralph muttered to himself, thinking back to the other mechanic enlisted in his school. He studied more theory than actually getting hands-on experience, so maybe they'd be able to think up of what the issue was. But not that it mattered, since Ralph decided to leave his room for a bit to get some fresh air. He flicked off the light switch, closed the door behind him and made his way towards the staircase. "Dad? I'm going out for a bit!" Although it was obvious where he was going. The teenager didn't exactly have anything to play Neverland Online with in his house, so the plan was to make his way over to a machine to enter. It was fun to play, even if the guy had only joined just recently.

Ralph was walking around outside, having the hood of his jacket resting on his short, golden hair. Didn't like to be seen much, that's for sure. The streets were real busy today too, cars were even at a standstill for a minute or so because of all the traffic. It made the walking teen curious as to what was going on, but he couldn't be asked to care beyond that simple curiosity. The faster Ralph got through this crowd, the better. He spotted a few guys around his age walking around with some girlfriend they probably didn't know longer than a week, which caused a click of the tongue in reflex. It was pretty sad, seeing people easily pick up and toss around emotions like that. Nothing the guy liked, not one bit.

Eventually Ralph stopped in front of a small building. It was one of the entry points into the game. Ralph let out a breath of air before pushing the door open. He paid for two and a half hours worth of time, with as little words involved as possible. Some people working there recognized Ralph while the kid was looking at all the machinery that was lined up. "Here to play again, Ralph?" One of the attendees asked, with the boy just nodding his head once in response. They didn't have much of a job besides recieving the monthly fee and showing the new players how to enter. It didn't take long for Ralph to find the machine he was looking for. It was always the same one, it was familiar and trusted. He took a deep breath and entered it, about to be taken from this world and into a digital one...

...

The sun in the sky shone brightly on Yumanite's forehead, it being the one part that wasn't covered by the fur helmet on his head. He was at Han's crossing, the long frilly black hair of the character model resting at his sides. He was a small man, but a powerful sorcerer nonetheless... Or, well, would be, considering right now they're just a low-level shaman with two spells. Yumanite glanced around the town hub, seeing all players bustling with activity. "Ah. The young adventurers, eager to set out and make a name... Or join an established foundation that has a set name. But I am not interested in all that, I am only here to learn the ways of all magic... In the All Father's name." After that little monologue was done, the man stepped into town and looked around for any quests to be found, but they're all a little too high level. It seemed Yumanite still needed to grind up some more levels before taking on true danger...

Sories quickly got on the bus impatiently waiting for it to arrive at her stop. As soon as it did she raced out and made her way into her house. As she dashed up the stairs she yelled, "Mom I'll be in my room." Sories heard a polite sound of affirmation which was more than enough for her. Sories quickly logged in and checked her stats. Only level 5, she would have to get much stronger, no way she would let that geek beat her. Soreis checked her rival's information. Ha, he was only level 4; she had already taken the lead. She looked around, seemed like things were pretty active today, not it mattered to her. She tended to stick to solo play, playing with others was basically asking to be let down. Sories un-slung her bow and prepared to go hunting, there was no way she would fall behind, not now that she had the lead.

The group of adventurers that walked around town were numerous and varied. Due to the neutrality clause of Han's Crossing. The banks were packed with perspective players putting their things into it and or shouting at the top of their lungs that they were selling things to various success. The town was covered in a swath of plain wooden houses and bridges that covered the various rivers that ran through the village. The main one, The All Father's Barrier, was up across the northern part of the village and acted as a natural defense to anyone besieging the town from the north from the Viking Territory, not that anyone was stupid enough to try, and the southern lake was The Great Tiber that was significantly smaller than the northern one. A small creek even ran between the two where fish migrated in game making it a prime place to fish for trout, tuna, and other such fish. A heaven for quick food stops. The NPC's that belonged to the city were playing songs and making idle small talk to the various adventurers while the quester givers gave small time quests to newbies while the higher level adventurers were going to the Hero's Guild were there were various quests that ranged from radiant 'kill blank amount of Great Boar' to 'Slay the Great Demon Demogath'. Some people were even organizing a raid on the Z. Empire most of which were dwarfs, and elves but there was oddly enough two human paladins among them. It seemed they were going to raid Hero's Folly.

The arena has free for all duels, tag team duels, classic gladiator fights, and betting on NPC battles. There arena was not as packed as usual as most people were off at the banks or questing for various reasons. But there were also a few people recruiting for some minor clans. The sun was shining high above the city and it seemed everything was going well for the city. But outside the city there were a plethora of hunters, farmers, and other peoples doing the menial jobs that let the others go on adventures. Some adventurers in high level gear were doing their things outside of Han's Crossing in order to help their lower level friends out. Boar, Squirrels, flax (for bow string), herbs, and other things were the main source of things people typically got out of the city's wilderness.

It was but child's play to slip on her oversized hoodie, put on the shoes she hid under her bed, and slip out the window. No one in her house would bother to check on her in her room anyways, much less try to get in when she locked her doors.

After that it was but a short walk to the shop, where a creepy looking attendant with bags under his eyes greeted her. Momoka didn't have to say much, just signal to the counter and walked towards her usual spot in the back. She had been here many times before, so the attendant was already used to her.



There was a lot of herbs today. Perhaps because people grew tired of gathering them in favour of something more exciting like hunting or raiding those dungeons. Thus, today, she walked cheerfully towards one of the entrances to Han's crossing, her inventory filled with potions and some random thing she picked up along the way. Finding a good spot beside one of the entrance, she took out a large piece of cloth, and spread it on the ground carefully. Scribbling on a piece of wood, she hung it on a post beside her, before arranging a variety of potions on the cloth.

'Pots for sale', the sign read clearly, words that would surely attract those people who were coming and going through this path. Just as she predicted it would, several people stopped by, buying a few potions each time. Faelethuil opened her journal, logging in the amount of people that visited her. There was a good amount of traffic, ensuring that there would be some who bought the items, but she noticed the people in parties bought more. Going on raids perhaps.

"Hmm... I should raise my level more too."

After the last of her potions were sold out, she packed up, her inventory now lighter, but her purse having more heft to it. Humming to herself, she walked back to town, looking for simple hunting missions for some quick exp, preferably one that doesn't lead to asshole PKers aiming to kill low levels to pad their stats.

Sories sighed, it seemed she had just finished all her quests which meant of course she had to go through the tedious process of looking for them again. She didn't even have the time to look online for the most exp-time efficient ones since she can't even alt tab out of this.

Sories quickly began running around grabbing as many quests as she could, it didn't matter if she didn't want to complete them she would just reject them later, at least some of them must be applicable. And its not like the reasons for doing the quest mattered, she wasn't exactly playing for the story. While she was doing this she also brought up her flechting menu and created some arrows for her next excursion. Luckily there weren't that many players in the city right now.

As Sories accepted another mission and began more crafting she collided solidly with another player crashing to the ground. "Ack!" she cried out as she hurriedly got up. Sories looked down at the other player angrily, "At least look where you're going, and apologize." she said huffily. How dare this elf girl get in her way! She was in a hurry, it seemed people just didn't have any respect, even in a game. Sories took a closer look at the person she had knocked into, hmm. If Sories didn't know better then she would've thought that she had bought potions from her before. But that was nonsense, Sories had no need of potions, after all those were only for people that got hit and didn't properly plan their fighting.

Yumanite sighed as he couldn't find a single quest, crossing his arms and taking another look around. He was near the arena, although that interested him about as much as taking on a level 40 raid. He was too level to do much of anything in both. Shaking his head, the man walks away from the scene and heads out of town. Maybe there would be some mobs to grind on, however with the little firepower the shaman possessed it would be tricky at best to kill anything too tough. Some kiting using his shade would be required, lest he lose waaaaay too much HP. Then again, doesn't cost that much for a respawn... Wait, what was he doing standing around like this? Shoving all those thoughts to the side, Yumanite upped his pace so that he wouldn't waste time like that again.

The wilderness was vast, as always. It wasn't a high-level area, luckily, so even someone like Yumanite could level up without too much issue. The shaman took the staff from his back and slammed it down with the non-feathered end on the dirt in front of him. He closed his eyes, then started chanting. "Spirit of winter and the frozen lands, appear in this forest. Rise to my aide." The air became chilled and frigid, gathering and spinning in front of Yumanite. Something started materializing in the container. A small block of ice was the start of it, which grew out rapidly in all directions. Freezing the air caused a simple torso to appear, alongside two arms with elbows ending in a spike each. The neck was short, creating a round head with two small sockets representing eyes, although without mouth and nose to complete the face. Five or so icicles formed on top, looking like some sort of hair. Finally the legs were similiar to the arms, having knees to be able to move it and ending in a spike. The creature floated in mid-air and was about the length of an average person's arm, and about as wide as you'd imagine a small child to be.

The ice shade looked curious at it's summoner, floating around them to inspect. They took a liking and clapped it's spikes together as if to signal it accepts them. Then the shade just proceeded to float next to Yumanite, waiting on their command. "Summoned a curious one, have I? I am certain I summoned a true companion." Patting the summon on its head the shaman continue deeper into the forest to find something to fight.

A bit of walking later and a boar came into sight, sniffing at the ground for one reason or another. "Perfect." the man commented. The boar hadn't noticed him and his familiar yet, so the next instant where a circle of fire suddenly burst out of nowhere panicked the boar. In this small moment of confusion the shade rushed in and attacked, trying to put aggro on it. The plan worked, the boar attacking the shade which always stabbed and ran, stabbed and ran. It kept in the burning circle, which drained the animal's HP slightly bit by bit. Eventually it collapsed and died out, lying on its side. "Good work," Yumanite said to the sprite that flew back "but we're not done. We have a lot more to go..." This process would have to be repeated quite a few times, with rests in between to recover mana. It would take a while, alright...

Carl has finally arrived at the store he had jogged too quickly. It wasn't a fancy place though it was near a famous shoe store in town which gave it a bit of extra customers. It was a rather modest store besides the machines inside it also had two compartments which could allow you to access Neverland which was always useful to players. It was one of the perks that Neverland had. As long as you were near civilization you wouldn't need to worry about a laptop or home computer. After going up to the clerk he showed him his wristband to show that he was a certified member of Neverland Online. Members needed to show the clerks these in order to get into the game. The clerk, a scrawny man with bushy brown hair, nodded and told him the usual nonsense regulations he had heard so many times before and he more or less gave perfunctory yeses and no's to those random questions such as are you prone to seizures and the typical game related stuff.

After that was finished he finally logged into Neverland Online and as his paladin, clad in his shiny iron armor, stepped forward into the realm of virtual reality he couldn't help but still feel weird. Going into Neverland was weird it was like one's body was being transformed into something else entirely...well it really was in truth since he was now physically turned into data. Regardless he looked around and saw some of the Z. Empire's finest talking down to some dwarves who were low leveled mocking them about their lack of a home in game. The dwarves were not really taking it all to personally and just replied it was a game and they had nothing to be ashamed about unlike trolls who spent their lives in video games. Sighing Carl decided to stay out of it. Looking around Han's Landing he decided it would be best to ware off some of that ring rust and decided to visit the arena. Hopefully there were some low levels there competing just Like himself. He would try to fight some higher levels if there weren't but he'd get creamed...higher levels mean more skills which meant that he would get his butt beat if they were even a quarter as smart as your average snail.
===

"Oi! Shaman! Find your own grinding spot!" shouted a pixy as he floated in the air above a elf with long blonde hair. The group emerged from a bush nearby and confronted the mysterious shaman. The male elf brandished a bow and arrow in his hand and he looked fairly peeved that someone else had walked into his spot. "Do you have any idea how annoying it is to find spawn spots here in Han's Crossing? Hard as balls and when we finally find one not taken you comin' with you fancy ice magic and your bloody all father's magic and kill our prey? Not cool brah." The pixie complained as he was pushed back slightly by the elf. "Look user I'm not here to cause a fight over low level prey but we were here first. These creatures spawn nearby so we will take turns killing them? Sound fair? If that isn't enough I suppose I can break neutrality clause and put an arrow in your throat and send you back to your precious all father up in the northern half of the map. Do you fancy walking all the way back down?" the elf said in a rather blunt threat towards Yuma. "I suppose you could try to kill me as well but unlike you I don't need to go through Han's Crossing to get to my territory."