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Thread: Infinence

  1. #11
    Complication. Kon's Avatar
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    It's been over a week. ._.

  2. #12
    Mushmom XxKiraYamatoxX's Avatar
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    I'm baaaaack! =)

    No updates until tomorrow, it's kinda late. Not to mention I finally got the computer upgrade I always wanted (+ a Wii!), so I got a lot more games to play. Well, don't expect me not to update, this fic is just too good an idea to let go. >.>
    Monster Hunter Tri Status:
    - Hunter Rank: HR1 (Yay, me noob)
    - Favourite Weapon: Switch Axe
    - Current Most Proficient Weapons: Switch Axe, Hammer
    - Current Armour: Barroth Set + Lagiacrus Set
    - Current Most Hated Monster: Rathalos
    (Stop flying, wings fer' brains!)

  3. #13
    Complication. Kon's Avatar
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    Word.
    ._.
    I need more.

  4. #14
    Mushmom XxKiraYamatoxX's Avatar
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    I feel like writing a big fight. >.>

    Chapter 4

    There were a few people combing the woods; I managed to avoid them all by crawling through the undergrowth. When one guy looked in my direction, I went silent, but it appeared that he was just looking at a squirrel. The rest of the path to the Hideout was relatively safe, so I took to a sprint, hoping the sounds of my black leather boots on the grass and earth would go unnoticed.

    I managed to reach the waterfall safely, but I still didn't know where the Hideout was. That was pretty much the point, Hideouts were always hidden. Once a player got close to the X mark on the map, it was up to him or her to actually find the Hideout. I looked around for a while. The waterfall splashed down from the top of a rocky cliff, and the waterfall pool had a piece of rock jutting out of the bank towards the waterfall's centre. Could the Hideout be behind the waterfall?

    Walking up onto the rock, I tried looking through the waterfall, but I couldn't see anything, even with Sharp Eyes. It sure seemed like there was no other place for the Hideout to be. After taking a few steps back to the bank, I dashed back up the rock and jumped into a roll through the waterfall.

    The water battered down on my body for about half a second, but the power of it was enough to make me flinch. It hurt! But that didn't matter, because I rolled right through the waterfall into a medium-sized cave big enough for a person to live in. Gasping for air from the force of the waterfall, I got up and shook my hair out. "Whoa..."

    There was a chest in the middle of the cave; it looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. I slowly walked towards it, wary for any traps lying in wait. When an examination of the cave revealed nothing, I took a more confident stride and knelt down in front of the chest to check the lock. A wrought iron lock held the lid in place. "Nothing I can't handle......" I murmured, reaching into my pouch for my lockpicking set.

    Lockpicking sets were essential for any dungeon explorer, since you never knew when you would find a locked chest. They could be found in different types, with the better ones having higher success rates. Skeleton keys could also open locked chests, but they broke after a few uses. My seradium lockpicking set had never failed me before with its 95% success rate. It had cost me a few billion gold to buy, leaving me broke right after. It was worth it though. The best one was the loradium set, with a 99% success rate. That one cost 10 times more than mine, and was extremely rare to find.

    As it turned out, I didn't even need the lockpicking set. When I touched the lock, the body simply fell away from the shackle, leaving the chest 'unlocked'. Smiling, I stowed the set back in my pouch and opened the chest.

    A wave of darkness burst forth from the chest, knocking me over. When I got back up, it was gone, leaving only the chest and its contents. Those waves only appeared when the chest contained something important... My heart was already starting to race again. I looked into the chest to see a string bag and a jar which I immediately recognized as an automatic armour upgrader because of the markings. These combinations would always end up with an armour upgrade material inside the string bag.

    Armour upgrades were normally only available at blacksmiths, but these automatic armour upgraders could do it without one at no cost; just the materials were needed. They were very rare, but it was hard to fetch a good price. If you sold one, the selling price would have to be lower than the blacksmith's stated upgrade price, and that changed every level the armour was upgraded. People preferred to use it themselves. Armour could be upgraded every 10 levels, with the materials easily available from dead monsters or mines until level 90, at which point the materials could only be found in dungeons. The leather armour I was wearing was my level 90 armour. Although it didn't look like much, the leather was imbued with magic.

    All I needed to upgrade my armour to the next level was shadowsteel, described as steel magically melded with shadows to become like cloth, yet able to withstand more force than steel itself. But when I opened the string bag, what I found inside wasn't shadowsteel ore. It was shadowsteel's big brother, shadowtitanium. The descriptions were the same, just that the word 'steel' was replaced by 'titanium'. Shadowtitanium was the armour upgrade for level 110.

    Wait.

    I quickly pulled my character scroll out of my pouch. "I leveled up...?" I blinked in surprise. According to it, I was level 110 now! "The gang boss......" I realized. That fight earlier had leveled me up without me noticing! I had been too focused on my reputation when I checked the scroll before... but that meant that I could now upgrade to shadowtitanium armour...

    Emptying the string bag into the jar, I capped it and shook it. The shadowtitanium ore melted instantly and began to change shape into armour. When it was done, it shook violently and the jar exploded, throwing me to the ground for the second time in the past 3 minutes. That was supposed to happen; I felt myself lose a little health.

    The new armour was just lying on the ground when I pulled myself back up. It looked almost the same as my leather set, completely black with a few markings on it. I couldn't see much when it was lying in the cave's darkness, so I just touched it. There was a flash of light, which disappeared to show my black leather set on the ground. I was now wearing the shadowtitanium set. It felt exactly like cloth, yet it still had the characteristic sheen of metal...

    The top was still a band around my chest, but it was thinner and showed more of my character's bust. When I stretched my head back to look, I could see that the back was just made up of strips of cloth, making my character look barebacked. The bottom's front was a V-shaped piece of shadowtitanium following my crotch line that completely revealed the side of my hips, whereas the back of it was just like any other panty. The game didn't seem to want to show too much of my butt. Well, it was still ok to me.

    My shadowtitanium gloves fitted exactly to my hands, and had a slot for a crest on the back of the hand. I could also see a crest slot on the portion of the top covering my right breast, but I hadn't selected a House yet, so it stayed empty. At level 110, a character could join one of many Houses that could provide stat bonuses and new gear. I had just reached that level. My boots were just... boots. Made out of solid shadowtitanium. Nothing much.

    I admired my character's new look for a few moments before closing my eyes and preparing for logout. The explosion of the automatic armour upgrader wasn't really loud, but it was enough to draw attention from people just nearby. I needed to get out of here fast before anyone came.

    "Commencing logout process."

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    I pulled off the V-band and left it on my side table, reclining on my bed. Sometimes, the real world was better compared to Infinence... I wondered if the computer running the game ever thought about it. After all, it was advanced enough to do that. The sound of a car downstairs jolted me up. My parents were back......

    The rest of the day was spent by lounging around the house and watching TV along with an internet chat with my other friends over a messenger service on my laptop. Ironically, the laptop was originally intended for schoolwork. I still did some of my homework on it when I wanted to, which was quite rare. Instead of homework, a few games were installed on it and there were quite a few music and video files sitting in the 2 TB hard drive. When I had to bring it to school, I simply turned anything that wasn't homework hidden to hide it. The teachers never thought to check.

    Before going to sleep that night, I set the alarm on my handphone. Being late twice in a row was enough to get... 'disciplined'. Usually it was just some counseling, but sometimes the disciplinary teacher took it into her own hands and brought out her cane. Luckily, I hadn't been caned by her yet, and I wasn't going to let her. Her victims were often seen howling in pain... and there were rumours flying around that she once beat a bear that tried to attack her into submission with her cane. If she did play Infinence, she would probably make a great beastmaster...

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    I woke up at 7 o'clock the next day, a full hour before school started. Now I had the time to get ready. After brushing my teeth and combing my hair, I changed into my school uniform and headed downstairs for breakfast. My parents were already at the dining table, munching on their own toast. "Morning," I nodded at them and took my usual seat at the small round table. Once I took my seat, my mum looked up.

    "You're not going to school today."

    I froze with my toast halfway to my mouth. "The teacher called earlier to say that there was a fire at school that burnt up half the classrooms, including yours. School'll be closed for a few days, but there WILL be replacement classes once it reopens," and with that, she went back to her toast. I was momentarily stunned by the news. The school caught fire...? Recomposing myself, I put my toast into my mouth. This was good news to me, although the replacement classes were the opposite.

    After breakfast was done, I went back up to my room and changed into my casual clothes; a T-shirt and a skirt of average length. It sure made me think about my choice of clothing in Infinence... then again, this was the real world. Infinence was a video game. Things were quite different. Which reminded me. That guy in the black cloak that had rescued me... I wondered who he actually was. Something about his voice really bugged me; it was like I had heard it before.
    Monster Hunter Tri Status:
    - Hunter Rank: HR1 (Yay, me noob)
    - Favourite Weapon: Switch Axe
    - Current Most Proficient Weapons: Switch Axe, Hammer
    - Current Armour: Barroth Set + Lagiacrus Set
    - Current Most Hated Monster: Rathalos
    (Stop flying, wings fer' brains!)

  5. #15
    Lord over All masterchocobo's Avatar
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    Thanks for all your descriptions on Infience. What I like about this is how you switch between the game world and the real world occasionally, making this a good read.

    Only thing that turns me off is the resurrection cost. Otherwise, I'd love to play this!
    I feel so acknowledged now that I've seen 17 people quote me in their sig. And 4 unfortunately.

    Hot girl here:
    Spoiler!

  6. #16
    Complication. Kon's Avatar
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    Infinence reminds me of lucid dreaming.

  7. #17
    Mushmom XxKiraYamatoxX's Avatar
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    Well, Infinence sort of... represents my dreams. Not the fic itself, just the game in the fic. That's the kind of game I'd like to play. I get bored quite easily, and a game with infinite possibilities just... you know, fills everything up.

    Today's (13th December) my birthday by the way. Whee!

    Chapter 5

    I got back on my laptop again since my character would still be in Outlaw status until around 5 pm today, and I didn't want to login to get myself killed. Still, chatting with my friends got a little boring after a while, so I got up and took a walk around my room to stretch my legs a little. I was just about to take the seat again when my dad yelled, "Traya, someone's here to see you!"

    Opening the door, I rushed out and down the stairs to the living room area. Who could it be? Really, the question didn't need to be answered. My dad would only yell that phrase when the visitor was someone he was familiar with. "Hey Traya," Scotty waved from the sofa, sipping on a glass of orange juice. I smiled and ran over to sit beside him. He was wearing a T-shirt with a sporty design and shorts. "So you two are in the same class now?" my mum asked. The both of us nodded. I thought I saw the faint hint of a smile on her face, but she wiped it off instantly.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "Nice room," Scotty remarked as I led him into my room and sat down on my bed. "Thanks," I smiled. He looked around for a few moments, with his gaze finally landing on the V-band lying on my side table. I noticed that he stared at it for a few quiet seconds. "So you play too?" I asked, snapping him out of his dream. "Yeah. I'm level 110, a custom warrior-type character," he replied. Reminded me of that guy that saved me again. "Same level here, hunter-type," I gave him my details. He seemed a little surprised, but he shrugged off the look. The moment of silence lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like hours to me before Scotty finally opened his mouth. "Wanna... go out?"

    Again, what seemed like an eternity of silence followed. My mind struggled to process those two words that had just come out of Scotty's mouth. Go out? Before I had time to reply, he grabbed me and pulled my head towards his, locking our lips together in an embrace. I blinked in surprise; it took a few more seconds for me to realize that he had just kissed me. Rather, he had stolen my first kiss. When I tried to struggle for release, my arms failed me.

    "Wh... what're you doing?" I spluttered through our locked lips. Eventually, he broke off, wiping his lips. "Actually... I started liking you ever since we were little. We hadn't seen each other for years since we split up in middle school, you know. I really missed you then," he confessed. That... Those 3 sentences really stunned me. He actually had a crush on me since childhood? It came as a really big surprise; I had only ever thought of him as my best friend, nothing more. Now... did he consider me his girlfriend? My mind was in a mess......

    He continued staring at me, and I stared back. To be honest, my eyes were actually blank. I was only thinking about the complications of having a guy in my life. Then again, wasn't it natural? Girls WERE supposed to live with guys...... but my mind was rejecting part of that. I wondered why...... "I need... some time to think..." I turned my gaze to the floor of my room, then at the mirror. There were clear patches of pinkish-red on my cheeks. I quickly looked away.

    I didn't even know what I was supposed to think anymore.

    Still, could I even refuse this? I didn't know what he would do if I rejected him, especially since we had been childhood friends. Why was there even a reason to reject him? He was smart, cool, handsome, and kind, possibly the best boyfriend a girl like me could ever get. The only question was whether I would like being with him or not. It just depended on him, I guess. Overall......

    "Okay..."

    He nearly jumped for joy, but he restrained himself in time. I didn't really want my parents to overhear us. "But keep it a secret, ok? I don't want to start getting rumors flying around about me," I lifted a finger to my lip. "Me neither," he agreed and grabbed my hand, "Do you know about that new carnival that just set up in the city?"

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    I simply stared. The carnival was veeeery big; enough to put in a roller coaster. The many people milling around were either gathered at the ride queues or around the food and game stalls. Scotty had paid for our entry, and we could go on as many rides as we wanted to, twice if we felt like it. "Sooo, what shall we go on first?" Scotty asked me cheekily. I looked around, my eyes eventually settling on the long line for the roller coaster. "That."

    It was the most fun I ever had in my life! The high-G turns, the drops, nearly everything on the coaster was fun... although Scotty did look a little sick when we finally got off it. I kept an eye on him, but his face returned to its normal cheery colour after a while. He was lucky he didn't vomit. He was even healthy enough to win me a big brown teddy bear at a shooting game stall. I had to hug it around since there wasn't anywhere for me to put it safely without it getting dirtied.

    I managed to find a place to keep the bear while I went off to enjoy myself; the valuables counter near the main gate. The guy manning the counter was more than happy to tell me to come back for the bear after I was done, which wasn't until before evening; at 4:36 pm. By then, I had been on every thrill ride in the carnival at least once, and still Scotty hadn't vomited. Good for him, because it wouldn't be nice to do it in an area like this.

    Before getting on our bikes to leave, I retrieved my bear from the counter and strapped it to the back of my bike. I couldn't hold it while cycling; that wold be far too much trouble since it was so big. Besides, who'd want to do that? I climbed onto my bike, clenching my hands around the handlebars and releasing the fingerprint lock, disengaging the brakes. "Hey, Traya?"

    "Yeah?" I glanced at Scotty as we started pedaling.
    "Wanna hang out in Infinence later?"

    I pondered the request for a while. Sure, I wanted to see how his Infinence character looked like...

    "Sarena port, 5.30. Fine with you?"
    "I just happened to be nearby. Done."
    "I'll be sitting on one of the docks, dipping my feet in the water. My character has long silver hair and has a bow sitting in a quiver on the back; you can't miss it," I nodded, looking at my companion.

    He seemed to be dazed.

    "Earth to Scotty, you there?"

    I had to move my bike closer and tap him on the shoulder to get a response, "What?" I sighed, "Nothing. You heard my character description, right?" He nodded and put his feet to his hoverbike's pedals. "Race you back to my house!" I took off before he even released the brakes, leaving him behind in the breeze from my bike's thrust fan. He still caught up a few seconds later despite starting late. "You DO know my bike has higher performance," he winked at me and overtook me, staying just in front of me; never a meter too far, as if teasing me.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "Try getting a better bike before you try to race me again," he smirked and cycled off down the road. I had been behind him the entire way back, much to his amusement. Not that it matters, after all... we're... My thoughts trailed off. Part of my mind still couldn't accept that I had a boyfriend now, at my age. 16 years old... It was still kind of early, though most of my friends were looking for partners already; even encouraging me to find one. Well, I have one now.

    4.50 pm, 40 minutes before our arranged meeting. My parents weren't at home; I wondered where they were. It didn't matter though. Since Sarena Port was only a few minutes' flight from the Hideout my character was hiding at, I helped myself to some instant curry noodles before walking back up the stairs to my bedroom; I doubted I'd be going down again for the rest of the day. At 5.06 pm, I was fitting Infinence's V-band on my cranium.

    "Logging in." the disembodied digital voice echoed around in my head after a few seconds of scanning my mind to make sure I really was the owner. Infinence relied on a thought-scan login method, dubbed 'passthought' by the public. If players wanted to login to their characters, they just had to think a specific word or phrase they chose. If the thought wavelengths matched, the login would be successful. Much more secure than the usual ID and password combinations of the older online games. In this case, my passthought was "strawberry chocolate".

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "Outlaw status lifted," the AI informed me as I opened my eyes to find myself inside the Hideout. Strangely, my black leather equipment set was still on the ground; I thought that someone else would've picked it up after I left it there in my hurry to logout the previous day. Well, at least I could sell it anyway. I picked it up and stuffed it into my character's storage pouch. After sparing the open treasure chest in the middle of the hideout a glance, I jumped out of the waterfall.

    Shadowtitanium didn't seem to absorb water; it was relatively dry after my little trip through the cascade of fresh water. Sure, I could feel water on it, but the material itself wasn't even wet. Probably because it was part-titanium. "Might as well get going," I mumbled, pulling out my map and putting two fingers in my mouth.

    Moments later, the black silhouette of Reena appeared in the air above me; descending, she proceeded to land on the patch of open ground in front of me. "Being an Outlaw isn't fun, is it?" she smirked. "Oh, you..." I sighed, climbing on her back. "At least you're not one anymore. So what destination do you have in mind?" she changed the topic, gesturing up at the sky with a wing. "Sarena. I got a friend to meet," I replied, shuffling uncomfortably as her familiar presence appeared in my thoughts. "Boyfriend, you mean," she seemed to smile. "I'll let you get away with diving into my thoughts without permission this time," I laughed, holding onto the reins as Reena started flapping her wings. "Hai, hai, ojou-sama," she laughed back. Japanese for "Yes, yes, my lady." I had forgotten where I picked up that phrase, and I didn't know how Reena learnt it either.

    By 5, I was at the city's front gate. 5 minutes later, I was at one of the docks normally used for fishing. It was quite deserted at the moment. Smiling, I sat down on the wooden platform and took off my boots; leaving them beside me as I dipped my bare feet into the water. It felt great to actually relax every now and then; even if it was in the virtual world. In some cases, the real world WAS better, but I felt... more relaxed when I wasn't bound by the limits of true reality.

    I made sure my bow was in my quiver on my back, and then turned to gaze at the vast sea stretching to the horizon. The world of Infinence was spherical and rotated on its own axis; in all ways, essentially a duplicate of the Earth of reality. It even had its own day and night cycles. It made me wonder; had computer technology really advanced this far? Half a century ago, I'd have been looking at old monitors that were a rarity nowadays. People used virtual headsets instead of monitors now; the PCs themselves were half as big as they used to be.

    I forgot how long I had been thinking, only that it seemed like ages later that I finally heard footsteps approaching. These footsteps were those of steel boots on wood; a distinctive sound that easily told me that it was a warrior-type character. Perhaps Scotty? I got up and turned around to have a look at the newcomer.

    "What the...?"
    Monster Hunter Tri Status:
    - Hunter Rank: HR1 (Yay, me noob)
    - Favourite Weapon: Switch Axe
    - Current Most Proficient Weapons: Switch Axe, Hammer
    - Current Armour: Barroth Set + Lagiacrus Set
    - Current Most Hated Monster: Rathalos
    (Stop flying, wings fer' brains!)

  8. #18

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    *ahem* We all know what's going to happen next, right?

    Good descriptions and everything, nothing I can really criticize. Also, the school burning down thing bugs me. =-="

  9. #19
    Lord over All masterchocobo's Avatar
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    Funny how I didn't catch the school burning down until Denunciator mentioned it.

    Yeah, this is getting obvious.
    I feel so acknowledged now that I've seen 17 people quote me in their sig. And 4 unfortunately.

    Hot girl here:
    Spoiler!

  10. #20
    what is grind xdgr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by XxKiraYamatoxX View Post
    Game environments were created as seen fit by the supercomputer, following the wishes of the players. They could be changed the same way a character appearance was changed, only with more people thinking about the matter. The level of detail detail was very close to that of the real world, sometimes causing Infinence to be viewed as 'another reality'. Winds blew, water bubbled, bushes rustled just as they did in the real world. Anything happening to the character in the game would also be felt by the player, providing an almost lifelike sensation and adding to how 'real' the game felt.
    Started reading these stories again, noticed that in the first chapter. Yeah.
    This seems vaguely familiar to the other story you wrote. Guess it doesn't matter, this must be better I guess..

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