[IC] Yugioh - Digital Advance

[Darkmoon Angel]

Server 573

One of hundreds of servers connected to the main computer system at Cairos Tech. Here resides The Terminus, a vast virtual world created by the head of the multi-billion dollar company, Lucerne Cairos. It is here where duelists from around the world take part in Advanced Duels, a round based system created specifically for the virtual world. Players first logging are given a select amount of starting cards to choose from, the creation of an optional virtual avatar is given, and finally, with a username entered, players are transported to the hub world. A large platform atop a tower, with many similar towers dotting the virtual landscape, each one representing a different server. The pristine white platform, with blue glowing lines of energy running across it, held at its center a guide building of sorts. Where anyone could come and ask for directions to specific zones, or help for particularly tough fights. Holograms of the iconic Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Dark Magician stood above in combative poses.

Behind the guide building were a lineup of portals, each one leading to a completely different environment. Upon entering the hub, all newcomers received a message. Once opened, they are greeted by the friendly and adorable face of Tour Guide From the Underworld.

“Welcome! Hello! This is your favorite underworld tour guide, here to welcome you brave new duelists to The Terminus. Here, Advanced Duels are the name of the game, and I’m here to show you ropes. In The Terminus, duelists are given up to two partner monsters and a few spells and traps. These monsters may seem weak at first, but with through hard-work and training, they can become much stronger. Advanced Duels do away with the typical turn based, phase changing you’re all used to. Instead, duels here are played out in more open ended battles, with you commanding your monsters to attack, defend, or even dodge oncoming attacks. Be warned that taking too many hits will result in your monsters returning to their card forms for a good rest, so be mindful of what your monsters can and can’t handle. Use spells and traps to give your monsters an extra edge in a fight, but use them sparingly, as they will go into a cooldown after being used. The goal of The Terminus is to reach the end of all the worlds that lie before you, defeat the bosses within, and claim fantastic rewards for yourself or for your friends if you have partied up. Many worlds await you, so I hope you all have fun dueling here in The Terminus. If you have any specific questions, please refer to the staff at the Guide Center. Thank you, and good luck!”

The message ended with the devilish tour guide waving with a fanged smile. At the portal section, one portal was open to all newcomers. Leading to the World of Grace. Duelists, new and veteran alike, chattered amongst themselves. Discussing strategies and forming parties to take on the worlds ahead of them.

[The Irish Tree]

Mina Fortuna // Minimax

It was something to be said when an online game had so many servers that they hit the triple digits, and with the brief character creation, tutorial, immediately realizing that her avatar looked incredibly generic next to the actual NPCs, deletion of first avatar, then remaking, Minimax would officially take their first steps into the world of Terminus a bit behind others. She'd experimented with a different monster as her first partner in the first go around, quickly finding that her Card Trooper partner didn't really suit her playstyle. After doing a quick mental run of the numbers, and realizing that a partner like Cuben offered a mix of luck-based strategy as well as good odds for risky support cards, that became her final choice for this go around.

In the hub proper, Mina's first stop would be to check the Guide Center for anything she might have missed on her first go around, then starting up a party recruitment. Which meant more than it usually did for online games, since Terminus seemed to also have a focus on socializing with other players. Made sense for a game based off a card game that needed at least two people to get going. As for how to advertise, she had an idea. Summoning her duel partner, Mina had a mind to test out just what the AI in the game was capable of. The 9x9 Thunder Monster would emerge from its card and stand before her, about knee high and looking up at her as if waiting for a command. "Alright Cuben, first up...let's advertise a little bit," Mina would say before picking Cuben up by the bottom of his blocky body and handing him a picket sign, formed out of a text box that Mina was typing in. Once it was done, Cuben would be holding a sign that read:

"LFG: EN / DEU OK, New Players Stick Together! Thunder Level 4 High Defense, Luck Effects."

...That did the trick in that other game she played usually, so now it was a matter of actually getting someone to look her and Cuben's way.

[Ryik]

McCoy

Getting day 1 Terminus access involved jumping through more than a few hoops, but once he was finally in, instead of directly entering the digital world, he was stopped short with instructions to choose some starting cards. He had a few ideas to go off of, though it seemed that the original effects of duel monsters didn't always correlate with their advanced duel counterparts, so he'd largely have to go in blind. It's not like he's ever participated in an advanced duel either.

After spending a bit of time trying to go through the list of available monsters, he realized that, with how big the catalogue of monsters was, there was no chance he'd get through it all, and even if he did, he didn't know what some of the cards were even talking about in the first place. Eventually he felt like he was spending too much time on this when he could be progressing in ways that could render his starting conditions obsolete (which was totally not just his impatience talking) and he used the system's card recommendation feature where it did a brain scan before throwing a set of seemingly random cards at him. None of them looked repulsive at first glance, (though he had to wonder why it gave him a jelly blob and a cat of all things) so he accepted the recommendations blindly and moved on to avatar creation.

"Hmmmmm..." He held his scruffy chin as he stared contemplatively at an A-posing model of himself, before eventually deciding to quietly add one inch to his height before moving on, changing nothing else. Well, nothing except for adding back his hat, which he had taken off to put on the headset. He was a hat guy.

Finally, it was time to enter a username, and he went with the one he'd been using since his teenage years: Konoha Koi. It didn't really mean much other than being similar to his real name and a reference to his favorite Naruto character, Kisame, who was a weird shark man. Everyone shortened it to Koi in conversation as a matter of course and being called "Koi" felt normal in a way that other usernames didn't.

Finally arriving in the hub world, he took a couple of minutes to just take in the sights. It was his first full dive VR game, and, at least based on first impressions of graphical immersion, it certainly lived up to the hype.

Okay, sightseeing over, time to get down to 'bidniss. An in-game mailbox was flashing at him and one expository Tour Guide dialogue later, his first order of business was figuring out where to go. Neither of his monsters actually seemed very strong offensively, and while one of his traps would help fighting with one of them, his cat cards seem to only help his Dark Cat with fucking around. as for Attribute Bomb... wait, why was he given this card in the first place? What the hell is this card?

At least his spells seemed to have practically nonexistent cooldowns. That was nice, because he had a feeling he'd be relying on them to get anything done. His much more straightforward traps, however, did not offer him the same luxury.

After entering the guide building and coming to stare blankly at the array of portals leading to various worlds with descriptions that waxed more poetic than strategically helpful, he decided to tap out and go to the nearest NPC for advice on where he should start.

@Darkmoon Angel

[Olive Fontaine]

Eternia

Shai had been eagerly setting up for the launch of the new Duel Monsters VR game. She had locked her doors, and given the house staff strict instructions that she was not to be bothered. There were plenty of snacks and drinks at the ready... there was no telling how starved she'd be when she finally came back to the real world.

The character creation was unusually invasive - boasting the ability to use your real appearance in-game, and even to scan your brain for potential card matches. Perhaps that was to be expected with a next generation game, but Ms. Gillespie felt a bit worried about the brain scan. Her paranoia was acting up at the mere mention of it. Besides, she liked to pick her own cards, anyways. There were so many cards to look through, so it took her quite a while to get her small starting deck together. She mostly stuck to a demonic theme. She grabbed a few monsters that suited her style, almost on a whim. But she made sure to get some decent spells and traps to support them.

Once all was said and done, Eternia entered the Terminus - the landing zone for new players. It was smooth and cybernetic all over - so it didn't quite feel realistic yet. The dark-haired girl tried to maintain a detached cynicism, but the full-dive technology was quite remarkable. There were hundreds of other platforms in the distance. The draw distance alone was insane. 'Thank goodness they didn't overdo it with the bloom,' she thought. Above her stood the majestic Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Given that there were only a few copies of that thing in the real world, she wondered just how exclusive it would end up being here.

She sat through the introduction from the tour guide, smiling like a child at one of her favorite monsters in the flesh. The rules still seemed a bit vague to her, but it was good that they were changing things up. A straightforward stat comparison wouldn't make for very fun combat. Itching to get started, she went over to the portal area and decided to join a party. If this was like an old-school rpg, going solo at the beginning wouldn't work out too well. She sent an invite to the first person she saw advertising in the chat: "Minimax". She wasn't sure that they'd get on together, so her first message tried to establish a safe distance between them without being too cold.

"This will be my first run. I can't promise I'll stay in this group forever, but if you're useful then I'll stick around. I'll probably be playing all night. I'm excited to see what they have in store for us."

Eternia tracked this person down among the crowd. Minimax was a nice-looking woman with colors in her bangs and an interesting ponytail. Shai's character was very different, with her intense style and monochromatic black attire. She wondered what cards Minimax would be bringing along.

[Azure Bubbles]

Blake took his time with character creation.

If Cairos Tech was going to drop him into some massive virtual duel world, he was at least going to look good doing it. By the time he finally loaded into the hub, his avatar looked exactly how he wanted: pink and fabulous.

The place itself was… a lot.

White platforms. Blue glowing lines. Giant holograms of Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician looming overhead like the company really wanted to make sure nobody forgot what game this was based on. Around him, new players were already chatting amongst themselves.

Blake, for his part, stayed where he was and let the welcome message play. Petit Angel floated near his shoulder, as threatening as a plush keychain. Dunames Dark Witch stood a little farther back at his side.

By the time Tour Guide finished explaining the basics, Blake had already picked up on one thing. Most people here were probably going to see a guy wearing pink with a cute monster, and make assumptions fast.

That was fine. They usually did.

He glanced toward the portal leading to the World of Grace, then toward the nearby cluster of players forming parties. Some looked excited. Some looked cocky. Most looked loud. Blake adjusted one sleeve and looked at his partners. “Well,” he said lightly, “let’s go prove a point.” With that, he started toward the portal at leisurely pace.

[Darkmoon Angel]

The guide, who looked like Backup Secretary, smiled warmly at McCoy. ”New to the Terminus? If so, the World of Grace is recommended. The monsters and quests there should be easy enough for you to get your bearings on the game mechanics. If you’re not too sure, I also recommend joining a party of other duelists. Not only does it increase your odds of success, but it’s always better to play with others. Anything else?” She awaited for any other questions McCoy would have for her.

Parties of duelists started to leave through the portals, a majority of which were leaving the portal to the World of Grace alone. A young man with a large green bird on his arm ran out of the guide building. “Seriously?! Ah man, I didn’t even get to join a group…” he had a bummed out expression on his face before noticing Mina’s message by the portals. He sighed with relief before walking over. ”Hey, can I join your group? Name’s Jet… This is Simorgh.” The large avian, which in reality was a baby, gave an adorable chirp and raised its wings before settling back down on Jet’s arm. ”I’m glad I caught you before you left… I was stuck in the guide center trying to figure out everything.” He explained with an embarrassed smile.

@Ryik@The Irish Tree

[Ryik]

McCoy

"Nah, I'm good. Thanks for the help, though." He said, talking to tour guide like a person because exchanging pleasantries with NPCs was good luck in games like these. He gave the guide building a cursory survey and quickly found a group of a few people forming a party. He doesn't know what the limit on party size is, or what exactly the exp situation was for party play, but it was bound to be a more chill experience than figuring things out alone.

The party seemed to already have their duel monsters out, and since his Dark Cat liked to be summoned into stealth, he figured he'd go with Glow Moss as part of his introduction. He held up Glow Moss' card, trying out the "summoning" mechanics, and watched as a small puddle of slime appeared on the ground in front of him.

...

Well then.

He was about to say something to it, or perhaps about it, when a humanoid figure began to rise up out of the puddle, which shrank as it did so until nothing but the figure remained. It looked to be the size of a tall child or short teenager, with gangly limbs that didn't match the normal proportions of its hands and shoulders. Its skin was glossy and emanated a pale glow that made it difficult to discern anything through the rest of its semitransparent body, including the three orbs floating within whose colors were completely indistinguishable from the outside.

"Yo."

"..."

Hmm. Right. No mouth. Hope it doesn't feel the need to scream.

He gestures Glow Moss to follow him with a quick tilt of his head, walking over to group of three and quietly sending a join party request through the game's interface as he offers them all a casual hand wave.

"Yo! I'm Koi. This is Glow Moss. Mind if I join?"

As Minimax the party leader, gave her answer, he figured he should mention the tip he got from the Guide, in case they hadn't heard it yet. With a hand on his chin, he recounted; "The guide NPC over yonder said the World of Grace would be a good place to start, if none of you have any other ideas about where to go."

@The Irish Tree

[The Irish Tree]

Mina Fortuna // Minimax

Faster than she'd expected, Mina found her party filling up with both remote applicants and people outright coming up to ask to join.

"A pleasure to play with you today, Eternia. I'm excited for whats ahead too! "

"Absolutely, Jet. The more the merrier! Pleased to meet you too, Simorgh."

"Welcome aboard, Koi. I was thinking of starting at the World of Grace too, since we're all new," the final greeting came for the time being, before the party of assembled duelists would step to the gate and out into the world of adventure; the very first world, the World of Grace. What seemed to be an endless expanse of green stretched out from the portal's entrance, a forest far in the distance to the North that seemed like as good a spot as any to begin their adventure. The sound of the ocean's waves crashed against a cliff face to the south, and it looked like a river ran from out of the forest to that very cliff side, forming a sort of waterfall as it cascaded down to crash against the ocean.

"Alright...now, what sounds fun? The forest looks like it'll have a lot of opportunities for dueling monsters, but maybe that river has a village or...something along it," Mina offered, looking to her assembled party, before realizing that someone else was there by the portal. A young man whose avatar looked extremely pretty, enough so that if this wasn't a virtual game where Mina could assume he looked different IRL, she might have asked what moisturizer he used.

His looks being on fleek aside, it was clear from nobody emerging from the portal with the young man that he seemed to be alone...which, given that this zone was likely balanced around party play for beginners, she couldn't help but be worried that he might be in over his head going it alone. As such, a greeting message would pop up from Mina, a notification featuring her avatar's mugshot beside a message with:

"Hello there HaloHart, would you like to join up with our party? We're all beginners, and the kiosk made this area sound like parties made progressing easier. No pressure if you don't want to."

[Darkmoon Angel]

The World of Grace stretched out as far as the eye could see, the first challenge for this newly made party of duelists. The portal behind them closed, leaving behind a stone platform with inscriptions on it. Upon closer inspection, glowing words floated up from the inscriptions.

Seek out and solve the problems plaguing this peaceful meadow. Once done, the path to the gateway shall be known.

”Problems? Figures something like this would only be peaceful on the surface…” Jet said as he sent Simorgh up into the air to get a birds eye view of the area. ”So. What are all of your strategies going into this? Honestly, I just chose Simorgh for personal reasons.” He asked everyone. After everyone had given their answers, Simorgh flew back down and circled above them before landing back on Jet’s arm. It let out a cry before pointing off in the direction of the forest. Several pillars of smoke could be seen coming up from the trees. An encampment of sorts? Or maybe a forest fire? Could be either or as both birds and animals could be seen fleeing from the safety of the trees.

”Looks like something’s going on over there.” Jet said as he started walking towards the forest. ”Well? No time like the present.” He said with a casual smile.

[Ryik]

”So. What are all of your strategies going into this? Honestly, I just chose Simorgh for personal reasons.”

@Darkmoon Angel

McCoy

"Honestly? I knew I didn't know shit, so I let the AI take the wheel. From the looks of things my cards are only good at messing around and wasting time, or maybe swarming the opponent with cat assists. Dunno for sure. Haven't tried battling yet."

It was actually a bit troubling. Attribute Bomb was an obscenely niche card, and it seemed to be the only direct and reliable offense any of his cards offered. The blurb on Cat Meeting about how unreliable the cats are certainly didn't inspire confidence. Speaking of which, Cat Meeting implies that he needs to let his cat out to mingle, so he surreptitiously summoned Dark Cat with White Tail into stealth, which ended up meaning it appeared beyond the treeline. It gave him a meaningful look before casually and silently walking away.

That means they'll follow the group, right?

...Right?

He suppressed a grimace as the others gave run downs of their own strategies, only for Simorgh to come flying back, making a racket that initially had McCoy worried that Dark Cat had attacked them while unsupervised. To his relief, numerous pillars of dark smoke began rising up above the treeline. Oh, good, it's just an ecological disaster. It was also too far off for it to have been the work of Dark Cat, so he seemingly had nothing to worry about.

"Yeah, let's go."

[Azure Bubbles]

Blake had just started moving toward the portal when the notification popped up.

He paused, glancing at it for a second longer than necessary before opening it. A party invite. That was… faster than he expected.

His looked towards the group Minimax was standing with. They seemed organized, or at least more organized than most of the people crowding the hub. Definitely better than walking into whatever this place was supposed to be completely alone.

Petit Angel drifted lazily at his shoulder, while Dunames remained diligent by his side, waiting for instructions.

Blake considered it for a moment.

Then he replied.

“That sounds reasonable. I was planning on heading there anyway.”

A second passed before he added,

“Thanks for the invite.” With that, he adjusted one sleeve and made his way over. He kept his expression. As if this had been the plan the whole time. “You can call me Blake if you prefer.”

@The Irish Tree

[The Irish Tree]

Mina Fortuna // Minimax

It looked like HaloHart was willing to join up, and another name was added to the Party HUD on the side of Mina's screen. He had said that he was fine being called by, what Mina assumed, was his real name, but breaching that kind of nettiquette was a bit too soon for her. It wasn't like she'd want to give her real name out after just meeting people after all. With that, it gave them an ample party size of five, which should prove plenty for tackling the World of Grace. With the gate shut and the sigil beneath the offering instruction on what to do next, Mina was glad that her party members were already taking the initiative, sending out their more nimble-bodied duel monsters to scout ahead.

"For strategies, I just thought that a random number based partner would be fun. But, if my cards are used together, I can boost a monster's power quite a bit and decrease an enemy's by a lot as well. The odds it works out are rather high, but the cooldown is pretty long too," Mina said, picking up Cuben and patting the cubed head he had, the small screen on it blinking from blue to green. "Let's go see what's going on with the smoke over there. On we go!"" Mina would say, releasing Cuben before starting to head off, keeping an eye out along the way for any other issues the World of Grace might have for them to solve before moving on.

Cuben would trot along, making small "plonk" sounds with each step its blocky feet took, kicking up tiny tufts of dust the entire way. It would look around at the other duel companions the party had, doing its best to figure out who it would work best with. It seemed there weren't other Thunder types, but the User called "HaloHart" did have light monsters of his own, so perhaps they could work together. Somehow.