Sean wandered into the Realm Defenders building with no idea what that name was supposed to represent. Emma had waved him toward the nearest door to look for NPCs – apparently they were just standing around and it should be obvious. The interior was spacious and intricate, even grander than the Adventurer Training, but he focused on the ground level first.
It became obvious. Or rather, some people were clearly in a hurry – including those wearing low-lvl player tags such as his own. But a few were standing around, idly looking left and right… like some video-game NPCs.
Sean approached one of them: a woman in her mid-to-late 20s, brunette, a pleasant face without makeup, hair tied in a braid, and wearing a simple, long dress. She stood a dozen steps from the entrance, in front of a reception desk of sorts. Before he could formulate a question or an opener, she turned to him and asked, "Hello adventurer, how can I help?"
Sean stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh, hi…" he half-mumbled, then quickly collected himself and tried, "But how do you know that I'm… an adventurer?" She glanced up at his player tag. Sean followed her gaze, then nodded. "Right. Of course…" he commented while stepping closer. "I thought only we could– Wait, are you an NPC or…" he trailed off. It was definitely the strangest question he had ever posed to someone who was 'obviously a person' and who stood literally right in front of him!
"Yes, but I prefer the term 'locals,' if you don't mind?" she suggested.
He apologized hastily, "Sorry, I didn't mean to–"
"Not at all, how can I help you?" she interjected.
Sean took a moment to process this. A reality-game, fully physicalized, of course.
"Do you have a name?" he asked. "Or just 'a local' ?"
"It's Sasha," the local said. "Nice to meet you, Sean."
"Yeah, nice to meet…" Sean started and wasn't sure what to say. He had so many questions: about the game, about the NPC life, about… everything! But he also knew that Emma was probably looking for any party, and finding another sufficiently phone-obsessed Healer might be a chore – so he focused on the most pressing issue: "How do I get rid of…" He pointed up at his player tag and added, "This thing? Or just hide it, however it works."
Sasha answered calmly, "Certainly, I can help you with that. You should seek a priest for this – even a lowly apprentice will do. To ensure you can perform it independently in the future, you may wish to ask whoever you encounter to guide you through the process. Would you like me to direct you to the nearest temple?"
Sean couldn't shake the feeling that he was listening to an LLM… Right. NPCs. It was so weird – but he asked, "I'm in a bit of a hurry, are there any priests in here? Or– What is this place, anyway?"
The local explained, "You are currently inside a Realm Defenders branch in Lobehelm. These offices are dedicated to organizing defense against the onslaught of monsters attacking the realm and threatening human civilization. The Realm Defenders initiative is a collective effort across all the nations of Erea to bring together daring adventurers in the shared goal of–"
"Okay-okay, I'm not here for an infodump, umm…" Sean interrupted and sighed. He had kinda asked for it. So weird! But for now, he focused on the most important request: "Can you just– Any chance you could help me stop displaying the…" He gestured up at: "Yeah, whatever this is?"
Sasha answered plainly, "What you're referring to is an adventurer's tag. You should be able to learn to display or conceal it with a bit of practice, but it is generally recommended that you consult a priest for any interactions with the magic system or anything that would otherwise require–"
"Okay, I get it, thank you," Sean cut in and slowly exhaled, already growing tired of this conversation. He thought that robocalls had been bad enough… But he also realized, "Wait, an onslaught of monsters?"
"Certainly, I can provide you with a summary of these events," the local began. "It all started approximately seventeen years ago – I was but a young girl when the monsters came. My family and I were forced to abandon all our belongings and flee–"
"Yes-yes-yes, but I mean…" he interrupted and paused, then clarified his question, "But how do you– How do the Realm Defenders fight it?"
Sasha elaborated, "They issue various tasks for adventurers to contain the endless spread of monster waves that threaten–"
"You mean like quests ?" Sean asked impatiently.
The NPC nodded and offered, "Yes, something like that."
"Where can I find these quests?" he followed up. "Do I need to ask various NPCs– Erm, I mean, various locals?"
She smiled ever so slightly and waved to the side of the entry hall, then explained, "Not at all, there are bulletin boards for any adventurer to use whenever they need–"
"Alright–thanks–bye!" Sean cut her off while already leaving in the direction the local pointed him to. He should probably learn more about the world and the game, but not from some silly NPC – where else… maybe Reddit? He wished he had brought his phone here.
The side exit opened onto another, smaller hall. The walls were lined with several boards, which in turn were covered in notes. Some newer players were examining the posted messages and arguing among themselves. The veterans merely entered and left quickly. Some NPCs – or those Sean assumed were NPCs – were standing at the walls distributing something… Candles? Right, he remembered the quest candles from the lecture.
It was noisier than the entry hall, but not loud enough to be distracting, so Sean walked up to the nearest quest board. There were over two dozen notes pinned to it with various tasks: kill 10 overgrown rats outside the west gate, hunt 15 rabid dogs in the south forest, exterminate 12 dire rats in the sewers. The pattern was clear: go somewhere, kill monsters, get paid. The lvl-one quests were valued around '1s10c' – whatever that meant… silver and copper, maybe? The lvl-two ones were worth barely over two silvers. Sean couldn't see rewards with more than eighteen coppers, so he assumed that one silver was probably worth twenty coppers – which made the currency math simple enough.
But the quests only topped out at four silvers for a lvl-five. He concluded this must've been a starter location, but it was odd: there were clearly more experienced players coming in and leaving – they wouldn't be grinding the starter areas, would they? He searched the other boards for more advanced tasks… not only were they all low-lvl, but they had the exact same instructions – just in different positions on the boards.
…which suggested that the offers were individually personalized, and it made sense for Sean to only receive starter quests while still at level one.
It felt a little odd to have actual paper notes presumably 'read' differently for different players, but that was the only explanation he could think of. He decided to test it by standing near one of the NPCs until the first more experienced-looking player came along. It turned out to be a young woman in shining steel armor, complete with golden ornaments and shoulder pads. Very professional and sophisticated, clearly not a newbie.
She extended her arm to the NPC and said, "Docks werewolf outbreak escalation."
The elderly local lady reached out and took the burnt-out candle with one hand, placing a fresh one in the outstretched palm. The local started to say, "Would you like to meet…" Except by then the player was already leaving. Sean felt stupid for noticing that the old NPC woman seemed saddened by the other player's dismissive attitude.
But it confirmed his suspicions: different players were seeing different quests. He stepped over to the NPC and tried – just to see what would happen: "Can I have the docks werewolf escalation, too?"
The elderly-looking NPC turned to him and stated, "You are too inexperienced for that, adventurer."
Sean nodded – it would be silly for a fresh player to visit some advanced area. So he asked, "Okay, then how about… rats outside western gate, please? I don't have the previous candle, since this is my first quest."
"That's quite alright, young adventurer," she said and offered him a lit candle. He had no idea where that thing came from, but he accepted it. The local woman continued, "Would you like to meet our esteemed leader?"
"Is this part of the quest?" Sean asked. "To be honest, I'm in a bit of a hurry…" It was silly, but he felt almost sad about disappointing the perfectly human-looking NPC. And she was beginning to frown – the wrinkles and creases of her skin painted a sad picture. He sighed and added, "Fine, maybe I can see the leader once I'm done with the–"
"Then come!" the elderly woman cut in with her voice raised as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him aside. "There isn't much time, we must hurry…"
That… he could agree with, possibly – but before he could ask what the urgency was about, they passed through a double door that was being opened for them by some mysterious mechanism. By then it felt too late, or too awkward maybe, to retract his overinterpreted consent. Sean heard some laughter from behind him, but focused on wherever the NPC was leading him. The door opened into a narrow but tall room, almost a small nave, with a dozen guards standing at attention and an old man sitting at the other end of the chamber. A red carpet led through the room, the guards on both sides.
The door closed behind them and the local woman motioned Sean to continue forward. The old man bore many scars on his face and medals on his exquisite uniform. He stared at Sean from the elevated chair and spoke in a booming, practiced voice, "Fighter Sean! The Realm is in grave danger – are you willing to risk your life in defense of everything that we love and hold dear?"
"Umm…" Sean started, confused.
"The forces of evil grow stronger with each passing day," the man continued as if the previous question were rhetorical. "Monsters gather at our gates, threaten our very survival! Clouding all of the lands in darkness, like a dark cloud that makes everything appear much cloudier!" He paused and stood up, then stepped down from the podium – a couple of steps closer to the player.
"Uh, okay…" Sean commented, then glanced back to see if the elderly local woman was still behind him. She was not. Once he looked around, he spotted her walking up to the so-called 'esteemed leader' to whisper something into his ear.
"Fighter Sean, will you help?" the old man asked loudly, then exclaimed, "What say ye?!"
"Sure, I guess?" Sean could only offer.
The man sat back down and calmly instructed: "Then go forth and bring back… ten overgrown rat tails." He then waved Sean away.
Sean took a moment to connect the scene to his chosen 'quest' and then asked, "Wait, what?"
"Go, go!" the esteemed leader insisted, his tone turning almost melancholic. "Before it's too late for all of us!"
Sean glanced at the elderly woman who was merely nodding along by then, clearly satisfied with this outcome – or with something. So he let out a tired sigh and turned around. The two guards who were closest to the double door had already moved to open it, so Sean left undisturbed. He stopped in the room with all the quest bulletins and considered what had just happened. He glanced back at the door, now closed, and shook his head.
Was that one of the 'cinematics' that the barely-an-instructor Bruce had mentioned? It felt more like a bad joke, and he understood why the experienced player simply ignored the… what was it, a newbie-trap? Sean still had the quest candle – so he shrugged and headed back outside. He noticed the flame was behaving oddly, as if leading him toward the exit. Back in the quest-board room, he had assumed a draft had caused it – but that theory didn't make sense once he started walking.
Emma was still sitting on the bench, two dozen steps to the side of the entrance. The atmosphere in their section of the plaza had seemingly changed: there were some other mixed classes among the Healer-Mystic crowd, judging by their armor at least, and people were arguing and shouting over each other excitedly.
He approached Emma from behind and only now noticed that the lower half of one of her pant legs was badly torn. The long jeans and casual shirt seemed so far out of place in this medieval world that she might just as well have been wearing a spacesuit. Except the torn fabric was dark-brown in places – he assumed dried blood, but was it hers or some monster's? Her legs and sneakers were fine now, but he wondered what had happened out there in the fields.
"No luck with the party, I see?" Sean asked when he was four steps away.
She jumped in her seat and looked around, then complained, "Don't do… that. Why do you still have your player tag?"
"Apparently a priest is needed to toggle it," he explained. "I'll deal with the tag later if it's not–"
"No, it's not…" Emma interjected, and he was confused. How did she know what he was about to say? But she added, "Any NPC can do that, we'll– I'll just show you, whatever." She grabbed her wand-staff and got up.
She was shorter than Sean had thought, and it made him realize another detail about the players gathered a few steps in front of them. He remarked, "Funny coincidence how Healers and other casters are shorter than the rest. Do you think it might be–"
"Are you seriously making fun of me right now?" Emma cut in.
"What, no!" he protested, then added, "I'm just saying… I mean, look at this crowd. Maybe Omega picks casters for less physically inclined folks– Then again, I wasn't particularly fit either before coming here, so…"
She seemed to fume for a moment, then commented dryly, "I'm five-eight – it's you who are a freakish giant."
Sean looked at Emma, or more specifically: he looked down at her. She was at least a head shorter than him. He half-joked, "Five eight, okay… you mean in heels? Because I'm not even–"
"Enough," she cut him off and started walking to the left. "Let's go already!"
He followed her and suggested, "But– Wait, the candle is doing this thing where it's flaming the other way?"
Emma stopped, turned around, looked at the candle, stared at the horizontal flame for a couple of seconds, then glanced up at him.
He shrugged… though the gesture was mostly concealed under his leather armor.
"Whatever," she proclaimed and started walking past him and the other way !