ENTER: Houndras Furrer

shin pretty much rolled her eyes at this.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to: aggea

yeah, not so much from you but from lyserg. I guess he's pretty stressed. I get that.

she pulled out a list she had been given upon entering the game again. this list consisted of people who were lost to the game.
the whole thing may have drained her, and the game was now taking hold of her life but she now wanted nothing more than to find these survivors and seek them out, hoping to find the source of this and possibly end it.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

no where special. I figured I'd look for some people to party with. whats with the location he sent me?

of course she was lying. she didn't feel like going anywhere but the house. she'd just sit there for a while petting figs as he quietly purred.

frowning she forwarded the message to aggea in fear she would mess it up. it wasn't exactly a place she had went, and if she did it was way back when she was in the low tens range for levels.

sender:shin'yuuasaura
to:aggea

ugh...I hope you got that...so what's new? I see that lyserg is giddy about something. sounds like a new event monster?

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

mmm, I'll keep that in mind. I'd like to chill. my head is freaken killing me man.

this was true, it felt like something or someone was pounding her head into a brick wall. this was nearly killing her, but she figured she couldn't let the whole coma thing get her down. it was funny, people would think that since she was sleeping for as long as she was she wouldn't want to sleep. this wasn't true. she was more tired than ever and all she felt like doing was sitting there in a pill induced stupor that was supposed to keep her awake and healthy but only managed to screw her over even more.

The virtual world continued to move around her. Players walked by like everything was normal. As if there wasn't a care in the world. As if everything was normal. But for Shin, everything was anything but normal. She felt a heavy weight on her shoulders, yet the other players didn't notice. They kept going on with their everyday lives.
In this respect, the real world was the same as the virtual world.
Life goes on.
For everyone else, life must always go on.
But unlike the real world, the players had a choice whether to put that gear on and log in. Even though there was mystery that was coming up all over the server, a problem that may have caused people to disappear. So why weren't they afraid.
It was just like the question Lyserg had asked Aggea before.
Why did anyone come back.

frowning shin went along her usual way, stopping by the highland city server to see if her friend had any more items for her. usually he'd save some things for her and give it to her.
it wasn't until getting there however that she learned he was out. not unusual. he was an office worker and they were only demanded certain days. she hadn't questioned that his shop being one of the company run ingame shops had no one posted inside to sell items to players.
shrugging off any notion of anything weird going on she went on her way. after all she was losing her mind, what could anyone actually say about her shouting how something terrible had happened. this game was on a slow downward spiral into disaster and no one even seemed to care.

sender: vallestrie
to:shin'yuu

hey cheif, got some info for you. don't know if you want it now or later. meet me inside of the ruin chapel in the delta highland server. you know the pass codes to get in. shouldn't be too much trouble.

frowning she responded telling her info broker she'd be on her way.

he was right though about the passwords. they were easy enough, and weren't exactly secret. this place was a neutral area where not even monsters spawned so it's usually used for events and a place for newbs to go and practice getting a hang of the game.
walking up to the large church-like structure she moved some hair that had been tickling her nose in game. it took her some time before she reached the slightly cracked doors, she didn't waste any time in going inside.
there, at the other end of the massive building's main hall stood eight large statues. one was a large racoon dog with it's head bowed submissively, another was a feline bat with it's wings spread in triumph, another was a bear with crocodile features bearing it's fangs dangerously, and yet another was a ram mixed with a lion standing with it's head held high and a hateful glare on it's face. the other statues were crumbling and decayed. she assumed it was to keep an air of mystery around the place.
infront of those, where a decorative metal fence was placed with a stone podium carved with various nonsensical words, stood a horse player with long blonde hair tied back with purple and green strips of fabric. he smirked and gave her a wave. "you came." he said smugly.
"I told you I would...don't be stupid." shin muttered while continuing down the main hall. her own foot steps echoing off the stone walls.
"do you know why this place is off limits to monsters? it's something no one really thinks of, but when you do it makes no sense. even the town servers aren't safe from the occasional monster raid. once a month they do those attacks but they never do that here. want to know why?"
"Gee I'd love to know valle."
"because this place isn't supposed to exist. in the end they turned this place into a memorial."
"oh? and what would they be remembering by putting this here? clearly none of us know."
"okay, okay. don't get so hostile. well, you know how when the game was supposed to be let out it was postponed for no reason? well, rumor has it they did it because in the development stages they killed all the beta players. not on purpose. it was an accident, they all died of some sort of brain condition. so they put these things here to remember."
walking over to the podium she looked up at the monsters and how different they all looked. "it's a nice story in theory, but that doesn't explain why this is happening now."
"I was getting to that."
"then you should have said something."
"sheesh...you of all people should know I'm good at what I do. after all you yourself aren't the angel others think you are. you've slashed more moral gamer codes than anyone."
it hurt to think of how she got to be as good of a player as she was now. "we're not here to talk about me."
"parka, greilia, necran, and severyn. my sources say that they're the names of four of the beta players. the thing is, they've been sighted several times. the question that comes to mind is how can a player run around if they're [4filter]?"
"how can they?"
he laughed softly and shrugged, turning slightly to give a peek at the statues then turning back, standing upright and walking towards shin. "look, I don't know. what I do know is you should be careful. you just got out of the hospital right? I'd hate to learn that my number one customer is [4filter]." and with that he took his leave. patting her on the back and leaving.
it took her a while to get over the fact she felt the pat and move on.

Another message noticfaction appeared. This time the sender was Aggea.

SENDER: aggea
TO: shinyuuasakura

Alright, we're all done here. Wanna meet at Lysergs house?? If hes gonna show up anywhere its gonna be there!! I can get into the area cause the games all screwy so =^.^=

frowning shin looked at the message before responding.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

yeah, I'll meet you there. you should be careful with stuff like that, there are a lot of creeps that go to that server....

after sending the message she looked back at the statues and smirked. "a memorial huh? sounds like a load of crap to me. I'd hate to meet the poor souls that got killed by playing this game..."' she muttered while gating out and heading to the server lyserg's house was in and heading into the house.

The room was still, Shin's foot steps the only noise echoing through the house. The house was nearly just the same as she had left it.
A second set of footsteps entered the room, running fast, as if charging. It was, of course, Aggy, who called her friend's name gleefully and tackled Shin'yuu to the ground. "Shin! Surprise!"

whincing softly shin smiled weakly as she looked to her friend. "thats some welcome back." she muttered while shifting away from the energetic girl.
now sitting up she fixed her armor and looked around. "where's the npc?" she wondered out loud while shrugging it off as simply the server acting up again. "anyways, glad to see the game's not getting you down."

"Nopeh~!" Was all Aggy could think to respond, before giggling and clinging to Shin's arm. "Dunno where Lyserg went, but I'm sure he'll be back soon!! When he gets here sound I give you two some alone time??" The girls smile was as typically mischievous as all the other times she had teased Shin about the two.

the teen rolled her eyes and shook her head, "don't say stupid things. I don't know how many times I have to tell you that there's nothing between the two of us." it was piss poor response but it worked for the time being.
"so what's being going on? I miss anything good??"

Aggea put her finger to her lips thoughtfully. "Mmmm...course not. The game's no fun with you, so things have been pretty dull for me. All I've done is leveling up!"

nodding slightly the teen turned to go into storage. "I see ly's been leveling up his crafting skills." shin said simply while entering one of the chests near the corner of the room. "sheesh..this thing's full of potions. you'd think he's been planning some sort of epic mission with all the health he's packing." she added while putting some of the items she'd received earlier that session into the chest like she usually did.
it would be safe to assume that lyserg would never use it; since he barely knew how to play without the help from his brother. and she doubted that aggea would use any of the things she stock piled.
the whole thing almost seemed like a waste. all these items she received from less than savory ways just sat unused. "I guess he gave you the key to get in. maybe you can find some use for the shiz I leave lying around here!" shin teased while turning to the other player and leaning against the chest. "so what's up?"

Aggea went over by the door and stood, rocking back and fourth.
"What's up? Uh... I got a hair cut, haven't done any homework, and ate a tube of lipstick." she said sarcastically, and with a wink. "Are you ready yet? Come on!!"

chuckling shin shook her head, "nope, not yet...I'm gonna take a bit to sort through what I need. where do you wanna head out to?"

"well... I know a few places we should't go." Aggea murmered under her breath.
Then she realized Shin was ooking her way, so AAggy bit back her attitude and brightened with another tease. "I dunno Shin. You must be preeeettttyyyy rusty. Why don't we go to a low level area? I may need to baby you back into the swing of things."

"well... I know a few places we should't go." Aggea murmered under her breath.
Then she realized Shin was ooking her way, so AAggy bit back her attitude and brightened with another tease. "I dunno Shin. You must be preeeettttyyyy rusty. Why don't we go to a low level area? I may need to baby you back into the swing of things."

by the time that last comment left aggy's lips shin had gone back to searching for items. turning back with one of the biggest gunblades she owned shin looked at her skepticly. "really? you're gonna talk sh*t?" she teased while inspecting the weapon. "I'm good for where ever you wanna go."

The girls opened the door and the artifical light blew through the room long enough for Aggy to wave to the house pet and lock it. It was always an unconfortable walking through the adult district back to the gateway. "Let's just go omewhere easy and fun." Ageea whisphered to her friend. Hopefully the low level areas weren't bugged or at least fixed.

walking through the server was almost too eerie. at this point shin could feel how uneasy aggs was and nodded her head. "yeah I'll just pick up some maps from the shop. it's been a while since I went to one of the lower areas. I'm likely to get lost haha!" she smiled while pausing to stop at the misc item shop.
"hey sweet cheeks. looking pretty fine today. has your character model gotten hotter or what?" an arm looped around shin's shoulder softly, another character model pushed aggea to the side.
it wasn't hard to put two and two together from there. the model was almost identical to lyserg's, the only other thing that stood out was the hair and eyes, with the hair being a darker shade of green and the eyes being red. the model type was of rogue as well, which if you didn't religiously study model types you wouldn't really know that. "mind if I join your party?" he cooed softly while leaning in close.
the whole scene was like a big flashing red sign, to which shin calmly shrugged out of. "get lost ryojin." she muttered while finishing her transactions.
"oh c'mon! you party with lyserg all the time! I almost never get to play this game! besides I could use the training! this character's new after all!" he said while stepping back and smirking while placing his hands behind his head. "you used to like playing with me."
"that was then. this is now. c'mon aggs...lets go."she muttered as she pushed past him.
scoffing he followed pouting softly "c'mon pleeeeaaaase! I need to train this character!"

"Right." Aggs said, though it was lost between the two's dispute. She came up on Shin's side. "Shin.... At dont we let him come? It can't hurt, right?"

"the girl speaks truth. c'mon shin for old times sakes?" he chimmed still smirking eagerly.
sighing shin nods, "ugh....fine...anyways aggs...you're call on where we go."

Aggea looked up to think about it a minute, answering "Lets just do a forest area... Lets go East Furre Forest." She then got closer to Shin, grabbing her arm and hugging it a they walked, and looked back at Ryojin with keen eye, establishing that Shin was her property and he shouldn't dare try anything.