In a brilliant flash of blue light, Veronica woke up and regained her composure. She looked around before the realization hit her; her head stopped being blinded by the sudden light. “What the-” she started asking herself while slowly moving forward.

  She was.. In the town square of the Holy Cathedral City? She blinked, before blinking two more times. Her surroundings stayed the same. The brick medieval buildings decorated the sides of her view, with the middle being a decorated fountain atop of smoothed brick road.

  Veronica looked downward to the road, but noticed her legs were… gone? They weren’t gone, but different- ghoulish even.

  “What the-” she thought to herself again before looking at her hands.

  Her hands were different as well. She panicked and ran further into the city, before coming across a mirror shop. she glanced through the glass; her heart stopped for a moment.

  Her face was no longer her face- It was the face of Casey’s character. “This is a funny joke,” she thought to herself before taking four deep breaths.

  “Okay, maybe this is some sort of VR update, and I fell asleep?” Veronica thought before she readied her mouth for an attempt to deactivate the VR, even if the townspeople looked at her with strange glances, some of terror.

  “Turn off VR!” she said loudly. Nothing happened. “Deactivate Virtual Reality!” she said even louder. Still, nothing happened. Her panic increased and she started pacing, still in front of the mirror shop.

  “Damn, Damn!” she said out loud, before running to a townsperson to ask for help. “Uh, show dialogue options?” she said in a delirious state while trying to activate the NPC dialogue.

  The townsperson looked at her with a look of fear in their eyes before yelling, “Guards! T-there is an undead here!” Confused, Veronica prepared to ask the woman what she meant.

  “Guards?” Before she could ponder on the thought, she heard the sound of around ten to twelve people storming towards the area.

  “Stop right there!” a loud man yelled. She turned to see him, he was a knight clad in armor at the front of the group of people, her mind now confirming them as eleven.

  “Uh, there seems to have been a misunderstanding,” Veronica started. Before she could finish her words- She was hit!

  “Holy shit! Ow!’ she yelled out as her eyes focused on where the hit had come from. A cleric had used a light spell on her, and it burned like hell.

  “Take that, undead fiend!” The cleric said as she prepared another light spell. Veronica tried to run but another hit had landed on her, just as painful as the last.

  “What the shit is your problem?” Veronica yelled out in response to the pain that was followed with a burning sensation. The cleric readied her staff to hit her again, but In the moment she thought she had no other options, she remembered how Casey’s character could summon skeletons.

  “Summon Skeleton!” she said out loud right as the blast was nearing her. Three skeletons rose from the ground, the first one being destroyed instantly by the blast.

  Veronica took the opportunity to run in the opposite direction of the square, hoping that eventually she could escape the city or find a safe route.

  As she ran past the maze of the city, she started to realize she already knew the layout of the district she had run into. The clerics and knights were still hot on her trail, but the time she bought with the distraction was useful enough.

  “Over there!” One of the knights yelled while pointing to Veronica’s direction as she passed a market stall. They were catching up, badly. She yelled to summon three more skeletons, but this time she felt… weird.

  “Damn! My mana must be running out,” Veronica said while passing up a row of stalls in the chase. As she ran, she turned back to see the lead knight beheading one of the skeletons. Its head fell as it lost its grip on the market awning it was clinging on to bite at the knight.

  Gritting her teeth, she pushed a market stall over; to the dismay of the merchant, and continued to run. They gained on her after finishing the last skeleton. Veronica was out of mana and out of options.

  “You die here, fiend.” The knight said as he cornered her in the dead end of a city alley. “Get it over with, this trope has played out longer than it needed to,” Veronica said as she settled in the realization that she might die, or whatever happens to pixel people.

  She pondered how she never got a chance to learn about the circumstances that brought her here, why it happened when she used Casey’s computer. A meaningless prank had led her to the situation she was in now, “How stupid of me!” she yelled in the corners of her mind.

  Veronica closed her eyes and prepared to accept fate, but then- Cling!. She opened her eyes and saw that the knight's sword had been curved to the left. She looked to the left of the alley and saw a figure run towards her, grabbing her hand as they ran at mind-boggling speeds.

  As the figure ran, Veronica could catch glimpses of their appearance in the gaps of light that shined throughout the alleyway.

  With one glimpse she could see their tail, the next, their scarf. She pieced together that I had been saved by a Beastkin Rogue of sorts.

  After the last glimpse of light, The figure let go of her hand. “Okay, I’m nearly out of mana and your ass isn’t making it easier to manage,” The boy said as he opened his bag and drank a Stamina Boost Potion.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  He was slim, with short black hair, complemented by his black-gray cat ears and tail. She had truly met a Beastkin Rogue.

  “Thanks so much!” she said, the grateful tone probably sounding like desperate attempts to prove herself worthy of saving.

  “Yeah, yeah,” the boy started. “I drank that stamina potion for a reason, we can’t talk here,” with that acknowledgement, the boy held out his hand again, Veronica held it and he continued running.

  After a good three minutes of running, the pair eventually made it to a large crack within a dead end in an alley. “Welp, go inside.”

  She looked at the guy puzzled while slightly raising her eyebrow. “Huh?” He giggled a little before repeating himself.

  “Go inside the ass crack of the alley?” she was confused and was about to ask him what he meant, but he pushed her in the crack. His sudden movement was undetectable.

  When Veronica collected her composure, she stood up and looked at her surroundings. She was in a place full of multiple people, players or former players of Lacritia. They all stared at her as if she had done something.

  The rogue cleared his throat before swaying his hand outward, “I present to you, Safe Haven!”

  “Uh, okay?” she was still very much confused. “It’s a safe haven for players of Lacritia who got stuck here,” he walked to the corner of the first room of the safe haven and sat down. “My name's Cardinal by the way, Card is fine,” He held out his hand to her.

  She took a little to shake it, but she did and told him hers as well. “My name is Veronica.”

  “Well, Veronica, as I said, this place is a haven for players that got teleported into the world of Lacritia.”

  Veronica sat down, intrigued by the information she was being given. “Teleported into Lacritia?” she asked pensively.

  “Yeah, about a week ago a bunch of players got teleported into the game world, or a world like the game. Whichever it is isn’t clear, but the world pretty much functions the same as the game did, albeit with far more consequences for fucking up,” Cardinal pointed to a man who had a missing arm and was being healed by a cleric player.

  “Ouch,” she said before looking back to Cardinal to further absorb the information he was giving her.

  She was still struggling to take in this knowledge, but tried to further the conversation, “You said it’s been a week since the initial teleports?”

  “Yep,” Cardinal said while scratching his right ear. “I’ve been asleep for an entire week?” she asked with her voice slightly raised. Her concern was prevalent.

  Cardinal leaned back in his chair a little before answering. “Maybe, I don’t know. The teleports seemed to have been a week-long thing.”

  She had no idea how to take that information, so she kept asking questions. “Really? I don’t really see that many people here,” she said while surveying the room.

  “There were more,” Cardinal started before he sighed. “There were about 100 players teleported to Gritzgaldr alone… They didn’t last long.”

  Veronica’s heart sank a little at the further realization of her predicament. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “You mean they all… died?”

  Cardinal nervously giggled before he spoke, “Yep, very much dead.”

  “No respawns?” Veronica asked with some need of reassurance.

  “Nope,” Cardinal said while shaking his head.

  She still couldn’t understand all of the aspects of the situation. How did the teleports start? Why did they last so long? She had so many questions she probably wasn’t getting answers for any time soon.

  “How do you guys know for sure?” she asked Cardinal while he scratched his nose.

  “Because in the game, people respawn. No people in this world have respawned after dying, and y’know, the realistic-ass gore.”

  Veronica bent her head a little while thinking about that. He was right. The gore, NPC interaction, and graphics of this world were too advanced. That might rule out a simulation explanation, but she still didn’t have enough information.

  “Uh, did you or anyone else hear a voice and see words when you were teleported into the world of the game?” she asked Cardinal, expecting a response that affirmed her predicament.

  “Words?” Cardinal said while slightly leaning forward and pursing his lips.

  “Yeah, like mystical, weird words on the computer screen before teleporting into Lacritia.”

  Cardinal looked more confused than he did the first time she mentioned the topic.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cardinal said, determined in his answer.

  “So, that’s a dead end,” Veronica said while waiting for Cardinal’s response.

  “I wasn’t aware there was a road to begin with, but anyways, I’m hungry.” He places his hand on his stomach, which was promptly followed by a loud growl.

  “Wait, hunger is a thing in this world?”

  Cardinal laughed as he answered, “Yeah, It sucks, but at the same time the taste of food beats looking at it through a computer screen,” with that statement, he stood up and pushed his chair under the table.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “To get some Stamina Potions from the old man.” Cardinal went over to a huddled group, where the center had an old man in green robes and a long curly beard.

  After a bit of talking and shoulder pats, Cardinal came back to the table she was sitting at and flexed his acquired goods.

  “See how new and shiny these babies look?” He asked jokingly.

  “Uh, sure?” She wasn’t sure how to respond to jokes.

  “Well, I got what I need, now we go to see Millie,” Cardinal said as he opened his waist bag and put the potions in.

  “Millie?” she asked.

  “Yep. Millie, an Arcanist Class player who was teleported to Lacritia in the first wave of teleports. I’m gonna be saying teleport a lot, huh?”

  Veronica got hopeful and stood up as well. “I’m assuming she will have answers to our situation?”

  Cardinal smiled before moving towards the crack to go back outside, “That, and she probably has some new connection to inform us on the workings of this world!”

  That alone was enough for her to be convinced, so she followed Cardinal out of the crack and into the streets of the city.

  “Hold my hand again,” he said while holding his hand out.

  Veronica took his hand in hers, he drank one of the three stamina potions, and they ran fast enough to pass a good amount of buildings in only a few minutes.

  While running, Cardinal grabbed a rag and perfume from a market stall once they reached the district. It was hard to do, but Veronica managed to put it on mid-burst, hopefully concealing her identity if even for a little.

  After they passed the last building, they arrived at a giant market stall in a corner of the city. It was heavily decorated and was in front of a semi-larger brick building that resembled a witch hat at the top.

  “Well, this is it,” Cardinal said as he let go of her hand.

  “A witch’s potion store?” she asked.

  Cardinal leaned over the market stall desk while responding, “Not just that, a store that can give us information, and a store that can provide us with things to help you out of your… Situation.”

  After a few seconds of waiting, Cardinal started calling the name of the witch that owned the store.

  “Millie! We don’t have all day out here!” There was no response.

  “Welp, I’m going in,” With that announcement, Cardinal jumped over the market desk and started lockpicking the door.

  “What are you doing?” Veronica asked in concern of the consequences of lockpicking someone’s shop out in the open.

  “Millie won’t mind, she can afford ten locks, probably,” He continued to pick the door, until it made a loud clicking noise and creaked open.

  “There, now hop over and come in.”

  She hesitated, looked around really quickly, and then jumped over the desk.

  Once they were both inside, Cardinal started calling out to Millie again.

  “Millie!” He yelled with no response in their audible view

  In a hurry, he ran towards the back of the building, assumedly where most of the items are stocked, and opened the storage closet.

  “Shit, that.. That is convenient,” Veronica didn’t know why, but Cardinal’s eyes widened with horror.

  “Why are you making that face?” she started as she went to the spot he was standing in, only to see- The bodies of two Holy Knights!

  Suddenly, a loud crash was heard from a different part of the building, followed by a woman’s voice. “The hell are you doing back here?”