As Axel slowly opened his eyes, he knew he wasn't in the real world anymore, he was in a virtual world with endless possibilities, though everything seemed real, too real, "Where am I?", he faintly whispered to himself, he was standing in an open grass field, in the middle of nowhere. "What do I do? They never mentioned anything about this game.", Axel thought to himself, he looked around and saw a village above a waterfall, as he noticed, he saw faint silhouettes of people, he walked towards it, "Everything feels so real, the wind crashing on my face, the ambient noise in the background, the grass swaying side to side in rhythm with the breeze, the water crashing and flowing, how did they do this?", Axel asked himself. As he arrived in the village, a text appeared notifying him saying, "Welcome to the Elven Haven", "Elven Haven? What kind of name is that?", Axel thought to himself, "Hi! Are you lost?", a voice asked, spooked by this, Axel turned back in reflex, a woman was standing there, hands tucked in her back, with majestic blond hair, "Uh, no, I was just traveling.", Axel replied, "You don't seem like a normal traveler, nor do you look alike with our townsfolk.", the woman replied while circling Axel to examine him, "Oh how rude of me, I am Roya, it seems you are unfamiliar with our town, let me be your guide.", Roya added, "Oh and I am Axel, a pleasure to meet you Roya.", Axel replied with a grin, "You seem like you don't know anything, at all, and I have never seen your specimen before, our town is mainly made up of elves, some travelers stay here to rest after long travels.", Roya said, "Is there anything special about this world?", Axel asked, "What do you mean *this world*?", Roya asked with curiosity, "Nothing, I misspoke.", Axel replied while trying different hand gestures to see if he can access something like stats or a menu, "What are you doing?", Roya asked, "Is there something like a menu?", Axel asked thinking that she would probably know nothing about it, "Yeah, just say *System Command, Menu*.", Roya replied while a virtual menu popped up when she said the command, "Oh thanks!", Axel replied with a smile, "Strength, Intellect, Dexterity, Defense and Luck?", Axel replied while emphasizing Luck, "You don't know anything about this world?", Roya asked with curiosity, "Maybe I just had amnesia.", Axel replied cleverly, "Okay, whatever you say.", Roya relied with a slight chuckle, "Say, why don't we sit down there on that bench while we try to recover your lost memories?", Roya said while pointing at a near bench surrounded by trees, as they walk over there, Roya was clicking something in her menu, Axel looked and saw she was opening her inventory, she selected an item called An Elf's Snack, a few candy corns and candy canes appeared in her hand, "Want one?", Roya asked while extending her hand which was full of sugary treats to Axel, "Thank you, but I don't want any right now.", Axel replied, "Whatever you say.", Roya replied while nibbling on a candy cane. As they arrived on the bench, they heard a faint rustle on the nearby trees, shadowy figures were jumping on the trees, "Who are they?", Axel asked while looking slightly worried, "They are bandits, we assume they are hired by a high powered being, the bandits started to steal from us about a week ago, and they have been at it nonstop, we would usually try to fight them but our strongest warriors suddenly disappeared about 3 weeks ago and never came back, due to the nonstop attacks, we haven't had much time to train anyone to fight them.", Roya replied, with her voice sounding desperate and her face was serious, "I'll try and follow them, stay put.", Axel replied while standing up, "You can't beat them, you barely know anything about this world!", Roya replied, worried, "Don't worry about me, just don't follow me.", Axel replied while running, "Just don't die.", Roya prayed.
...
"Damn, I am impressed, their methods of securing people to test this game are of course unorthodox, but damn, this is well made and the AI feels like it's real.", Axel thought to himself while sprinting at full speed, "*System Command, Menu!*", Axel said quite loudly, "Hm, my stats are slightly higher than Roya's, is it because she is an AI? I will probably never learn.", Axel thought to himself, "Did I lose their trail?", Axel thought to himself, while he was thinking, he didn't notice that the bandits, while the evidence was slight, was standing behind trees, waiting for their moment to strike.
-To Be Continued-