Towns and Towers:

A New Land

By Shawn Kass

Dedication

To my wonderful wife Elizabeth,

My true partner in this reality, and all others.

Chapter 1

        “No babe, I’m just getting in now,” said Sam into his cell phone as he walked through the door of his apartment.  “Why don’t you come over?”

        “I can do that, but can we go out for dinner?  I’m starving.”

        Putting his keys on the wall hook, Sam closed the door behind him and said, “Sure, Quinn.  What are you thinking: burgers, pizza, or something else?”

        “I don’t know.  You can decide.”

“Oookay,” said Sam, drawing out the word as he tried to think of something else, clearly understanding that his first few options weren’t what she was interested in having for dinner.  “I’ll come up with something.  When do you think you’ll be here?”

        “Probably about ten minutes.”

        Doing the math in his head, Sam figured that ten minutes to her normally meant about thirty in real time, but with her previous comment that she was starving, he could knock off at least a little and estimate that she would be over in about twenty or twenty-five minutes.  Accepting this, he said, “All right, see you then.”

        After Quinn hung up on her end, Sam sat down on the couch, and put his cell phone on the coffee table.  Seeing his Pita Dual Screen gaming system sitting there on top of his latest copy of Gamerz magazine, he figured he might as well kill the time by trying to beat the final boss in his most recent Japanese roll playing game, or JRPG for short.

        Sam had played first-person shooter games, also known as FPS games, and racing games in the past.  He even tried a few fighting games with friends, but his real passion was for role playing games where he could develop a character, level them up, and save the world.  He didn’t know exactly what it was, but something about them spoke to his inner hero complex, and allowed him to feel the things that were happening in the game, like there was some actual progress going on rather than just beating up or shooting some random enemies which in the end simply advanced the plot but didn’t do much else.  The other benefit, which he was all too happy to point out was the fact that most games cost between thirty and sixty dollars, and those other games usually only lasted between ten and twenty hours before a player finished the main story line.  JRPGs, on the other hand, tended to last for a hundred hours or more, especially when the player was a completionism, like himself, who tried to make sure he got every possible weapon, artifact, and item available as well as went out of their way to face off against every boss, including the secret hidden ones.  When you did the math it meant that he was only paying fifty cents or less per hour of play time, versus the three to six dollars an hour the other games offered.

        Pressing the ‘power’ button, he let the game system run through its startup procedure, and then selected the Alter World game he wanted from the menu.  Once loaded, he picked up with his character standing at his most recent save spot, which happened to be the last one in the game, just outside the Dark Lord’s Temple.

        Opening the menu, he checked his character’s stats and confirmed that Kyoshi, the name he typically called all of his characters, was a level eighty-nine Cleric who had already maxed out his strength and health meters.  His intelligence was doing pretty well, as was his dexterity, and he was equipped with several legendary items, which were some of the best gear available in the game.  He had thought about getting the other two pieces to complete the ensemble, and grinding out the last ten levels to hit the character’s level cap, but that would require him to trudge his way back to the closest town and talk to the guild master who would end up sending him off on yet another side quest.  Knowing from past experience that all of that would take hours, and that Quinn would be here long before he could get all of that accomplished, he decided to just go for it as is, see what the boss was like, and take his chances.  Whether he made it or not, he knew he would end up reloading the game later so that he could get those last items and levels either way.

        Pushing forward on the left analog stick, he walked his character up to the front doors and entered the temple.  Once inside, several creatures attempted to attack him, but he defended himself with a few sword strikes and a well-placed spell.  Continuing on, he made his way deeper and deeper into the structure clearing room after room until he finally came to an ornately decorated wooden door which was four times taller than his pixilated avatar.  It didn’t make any sense why the door was so large, but it had become a staple for most JRPGs, and so players accepted its grandiose appearance along with the game logic which dictated that elaborate puzzles always needed to be completed while a player made their way through a dungeon full of monsters.  It didn’t make sense, but these things had been around for so long, they were now expected to be in most games.

Taking a second to prepare himself, Sam opened the game menu, selected one of his three remaining healing potions along with his second to last herb, which replenished his magic supply, and had his character consume them.  Looking at the clock on his cable box, he saw that he had been playing for fifteen minutes already, and had somewhere between five to fifteen minutes remaining before Quinn arrived.  Determined to do what he could, he used the Master Key he had picked up from a monster guarding one of the previous rooms, and entered the Dark Lord’s inner sanctum.

        The Dark Lord’s wretched voice began to ramble on with a string of speech bubbles running at the bottom of the screen, but Sam didn’t care about the boss’s reasoning, nor his transparent attempt to convince Sam to join the forces of evil and to serve him.  Instead of sitting through all of it and waiting for the Dark Lord’s monologue to finish, Sam held down the right trigger button on the Pita Dual Screen and watched as the screen skipped through to the final fight.

        Sam spent several minutes attempting to dodge the Dark Lord’s bolts of lightning, each time physically shifting himself side to side on the couch along with his character, until he thought he understood the pattern.  Only then did he make his move.  His plan was to dodge twice, step closer, dodge again, and then stab his sword into the Dark Lord’s chest.  Unfortunately, it was just as he was trying to dodge the second time that there was a knock on his front door, and he lost his focus just long enough to get struck by a bolt of purple energy which took his character’s hit points down to half.

        Frustrated, he cursed aloud, and then called out, “Door’s open!”

        Coming in more hesitantly than normal, Quinn eased the door open and looked around the corner to the couch to find Sam deeply engrossed in his game.  Smirking, she said, “For a second I thought something was actually wrong when I heard you cursing.”

        Physically moving with his character to the right, Sam continued smashing the buttons and torquing the analog stick as he said, “Something is wrong.  This guy is going to kill me.”

        “Well, once you’re dead, maybe you can tell me where we’re going to eat.”

        Taking a second to hide his character behind a pillar, he used the last of his potions and healed his character one final time before he suggested, “How about Panera?”

        “I guess.  I could get a half-and-half with a sandwich and some soup.”

        Pushing his character forward once again, reinvigorated by the sight of the Dark Lord’s health bar being down to less than half, he said, “Well, I’m pretty open if you want something else.  Just give me a second to finish this guy off.”

        “Sure thing,” said Quinn before she sat on the couch next to him.  She knew when he was playing a game that one second usually meant more like twenty minutes, so she pulled out her phone, and began thumbing through her social media feeds.

        Sam continued to work his pattern, dodging his way in closer and closer to the Dark Lord and then stabbing him with his sword before he quickly backed up and hid from the boss’s retaliatory blow.  Each time his stab was successful, Sam talked some nonsensical smack, or yelled things like, “America!” at the screen as if the Dark Lord could hear him or cared about his gloating.

Quickly glancing up at the health bars, he figured he just needed two or maybe three more hits and the Dark Lord would be done, provided of course that the Dark Lord didn’t have a second form like many of the bad guys in other video games.  If he did, Sam knew that there would be no way he would have enough health to continue, and he would be looking at game over.

Just as he was thinking this, however, the Dark Lord rose up from his spot on the screen and began flying around in a chaotic pattern, calling in black clouds from the sky for a new and previously unseen technique.  As he did this, the name of this new massive attack appeared at the bottom of the screen, and Sam read it aloud, “Nightmare Storm?  What the heck is this?”  A moment later all of the clouds let loose simultaneously by lighting up the screen with what appeared to be a hundred bolts of violet energy.

        “No way!” Sam yelled at the game just as his character’s health dropped to zero, and in frustration he pressed the ‘pause’ button extra hard before he tossed the handheld gaming system onto the throw pillow next to him.

        “Did he get you, babe?” asked Quinn, sympathetically.

        “Yeah, he pulled out some super attack.  There was no way to block it and I ran out of hit points.”

        Smiling, Quinn said, “It’s all right.  You’ll get him next time.  Now, let’s go get some food.”

        Grunting, Sam rose from the couch, grabbed his keys and cell phone, and headed out with her for dinner.

*        *        *

        The two of them ended up eating at Sensational Saturdays, which was really a knock-off TGI Fridays with a little Ruby Tuesday’s thrown in the menu for flavor.  Despite initially saying that she didn’t want to order anything fried, Quinn helped herself to at least fifty percent of Sam’s sweet potato fries, a fact that he noticed, but wisely said nothing about.

        When they returned to his place, Quinn asked, “You want to watch something?”

        Shrugging, Sam picked up the remote, and said, “Sure.  What’d you have in mind?”

        Dropping onto the couch with her phone already in hand, Quinn replied, “I don’t know.  You could just put on some Netflix and we can chill.”  Then looking up from her phone, she caught his smile, and she amended, “I meant that we could have it on, and you could give your game another shot.  I know you said you wanted to try to beat it.”

        Accepting the plan for now, while figuring he might be able to turn things his way later, Sam powered on his TV and selected Netflix from the drop down box.  After accessing his computer, the TV displayed his Netflix profile, and the most recent shows he had been watching.

        From the couch, Quinn asked, “What is the Knights of Badassdom?”

        Smirking, Sam answered, “It’s a movie about a group of guys who go LARPing, and find a magic book.  One thing leads to another and they accidentally conjure up some blood thirsty demon that wants to destroy the world.  You want to watch it?”

        “What’s LARPing?”

        “Its long name is Live Action Roll Playing, but basically it’s where people go around dressed up as medieval characters and duel with fake swords and stuff.  All of the participants have to physically act out their characters’ actions while they pursue whatever goals are established within the fictional setting they are imagining.  They also have to stay in character at all times so when they interact with each other they have to respond as their character would.  You see a lot of it at the renaissance festivals.”

        Lifting an eyebrow, Quinn asked, “And you watched it?”

        Defensively, Sam pointed out the cover art of the movie as it was displayed on the screen, and said, “It had the guy from Game of Thrones.”

        Not looking up from her phone which had just chirped, she asked, “You mean Jaime Lannister?”

        “No, his brother, the midget dude, Peter Dinklage.”

        Not buying into it, Quinn asked, “What else do you have?”

        “Well I was working my way through the new Marvel stuff.  They just came out with season two of Dare Devil, and I heard that the Jessica Jones series was good.”

        “Who’s Jessica Jones?”

        “She’s a hero who used to help out with the Avengers or something, but then got out of the hero business after some really nasty guy kidnapped her, and now she works as a private investigator with an attitude.”

        Looking up from her phone, Quinn said, “Oh, I like strong females in roles.  Let’s watch that.”

        Selecting the first episode, Sam pressed ‘play’ and then strode over to the couch to sit next to her, picking up his game system on the way.  Pressing the ‘start’ button on his Vita Duel Screen to unfreeze the game, he sat down and watched the game screen to see where it would have him start off from, hoping that it would just be outside the last boss’s door and not all the way back at his previous save point.  Unfortunately, neither of these happened.  The screen just stayed frozen with Sam’s character lying face down on the lightning charred floor.

        Sighing deeply, Sam said, “Great.”

        Already watching and smiling as Jessica Jones threw a guy through the window of her office door, Quinn took a second to realize something was wrong with her boyfriend.  When she did, however, she asked, “What’s up?”

        “The system doesn’t want to un-pause.  I pressed the button a couple times, even tried a few others, but it’s stuck.”

        “Just restart it.  That’s what they always do at work when the computers go down.”

        “Yeah, I was going to, but that means I’ll lose my progress, and I was trying to avoid that.”

After pressing the usual buttons again, Sam blew out a lungful of air and accepted his loss before holding down the ‘power’ button for ten seconds and forcing it to restart.  As expected, the game screen winked out, but before the system’s familiar logo could come up, the whole screen changed to show three thick lines, one red, another green, and the last one blue.  Across the middle of these bands of color was a strange looking symbol that looked almost like the outline of Saturn.

        “What the heck?” commented Sam.

        Looking away from the TV, Quinn noticed the colors and asked with concern, “What is it?”

        “I don’t know.  The stupid thing won’t restart now.”

“Maybe someone has a fix online,” Quinn suggested helpfully.

Shaking his head, Sam pulled out his phone, and started looking up the issue on the Internet.  A moment later, he cussed and said, “Well that’s just great.”

Pausing the show, Quinn asked, “What’s it say?”

Reading from his phone, Sam began, “According to this Redit article, the RGB, otherwise known as the Rainbow Death error, echoes the XBOX 360’s Red Ring of Death and the PC Windows Blue Screen of Death errors.  It indicates that a technical glitch has occurred and that the system will no longer initiate.  There is no easy fix for this, and users are encouraged to contact the closest game system service center to see if they are still covered by their warranty.”

“I’m sorry, babe.”

Grumbling, Sam said, “It’s not your fault,” before he tossed the now useless handheld device back onto the throw pillow.  “I’ll just have to deal with it tomorrow.”

Deciding to try and help take his mind off the broken game system, Quinn wrapped an arm around her boyfriend, and pulled him in closer for a kiss before saying, “Well, you can still finish this show with me.”

Chapter 2

        During Sam’s lunch the next day, he called the game system’s service center using a number he found online, and explained his situation.  The service center operator assured him that this was a rare occurrence and after checking his purchase history confirmed that his system was still under warranty.  Relieved, he inquired about what needed to be done, and when he got home that day he packed up the broken system and went directly to the post office.  In his haste to get the system fixed, however, Sam neglected to eject the game cartridge from the unit, and accidentally sent it off as well.

        Sam realized his mistake about the same time he returned home and walked in the door, but he knew there was nothing the post office could do for him.  Firing up his computer, he sent a message off to the company and explained his mistake, hoping that someone there would be able to return his game to him when they returned his system.

        Eager to get his new system and the game back, Sam logged into the game center’s website every day for the next two weeks and tracked the progress of his claim.  He saw when they had received the package from the post office two days after he had sent it, and that a few days later it was assigned a depot number after being deemed non-repairable.  As the second week began, he saw that a new system was authorized by a customer service agent and was scheduled to be shipped out soon.  By the end of the second week, Sam got an email invoice stating everything he already knew along with a tracking code attached to the bottom, and confirmation that the game was found in the unit, but that it had also been corrupted.  The agent in charge of his claim apologized for this incident and wrote that since the data corruption was most likely the fault of the malfunctioning handheld unit, a credit for the amount of the game would be mailed to him with a new or refurbished Pita Duel Screen system.

        After reading this, the completionist within Sam was a little downtrodden by the fact that he had lost all of his progress, but recognized after a few minutes that he had already reached the end of the game, and so the credit could be applied towards a whole new game.  With that in mind, he visited the system’s online store and began researching possible replacement games for his new system.

        As he had been doing all along, Sam continued to track his game system’s status, virtually watching the package as it made its way through the warehouses, delivery vehicles, and hubs which made up the complex network of FedEx delivery service.

Finally, the projected delivery date had arrived, and Sam neurotically paced back and forth from his couch to the door, pausing his TV every time he thought he heard a vehicle pull up.  To an outside observer, they might have thought Sam looked like a caged animal waiting to spring himself upon the first person to approach his door.  The truth, however, was that Sam really had to use the bathroom and he had been holding it so that he wouldn’t miss the delivery.

        As one might expect, it wasn’t until he felt like he could wait no longer, and allowed himself to use the bathroom, that his doorbell rang.  For a second he thought that the sound might have come from the TV since he hadn’t heard the truck, but remembering that he had paused it, Sam hurried to get to get out there.  This, of course, led to a premature and haphazard finishing of his bathroom business as he attempted to pull up his pants, and make it to the front door in time to sign for the package.

        Stepping outside, Sam began to frantically wave his hands as he hurried down the stairs, just barely catching the driver’s attention before the white truck pulled away.  The driver, who did not want to have to restart his truck, left it running and leaned out to ask, “What’s up?”

        Slightly out of breath, Sam said, “I…I’m here.  I just…just wanted to get m… my package.”

        Pointing back up to the top of the stairs, he said, “I left your box up there.”

        Looking back the way he came and then to the driver, Sam asked confusedly, “You don’t need me to sign anything?”

        Shaking his head, the driver said, “We really only do that for companies now.  Most residential places like this, we just drop and go.  Too many deliveries to make, man.”

        “Oh, well, thanks, I guess.”

        Sliding back onto his seat, the driver yanked down on the gear shift causing the truck’s transmission to scream out in protest, and then said, “No problem.  Have a nice day,” before he pulled out quickly.

Sam watched as the driver rounded the tight corner doing somewhere above twenty-five miles per hour, before he realized that his game system had been on that truck just moments ago, and could have very easily been damaged with the reckless driving.  Spinning round, Sam sprinted up the stairs, grabbed the box, and rushed inside to open it.

When he looked at the box, Sam found that it had the game company’s logo on it, along with their catch phrase ‘Play Life’ in the upper left corner.  Grabbing his keys as he stepped inside, he dragged one of them down along the seam, cutting through the packaging tape as it went, before dropping them back into the bowl at the door and began unpacking his new acquisition.

He found that he was already smiling as he dug his way through the little Styrofoam peanuts and withdrew a second box, this one wrapped in a thin layer of plastic.  Tearing his way through the transparent film, he flipped open the lid and slid out a Styrofoam container, which held his new Pita Dual Screen gaming system nestled inside an opaque white plastic bag.

Commenting to himself, Sam said, “You know these people could probably save a ton of money if they just cut down on all of this packaging,” before he realized that it was they probably had to use this much just to protect their product from the crazy FedEx drivers.

Lifting the unit out of the container, he slid it free of its final covering and was surprised by what he found.  The system he had sent in didn’t look exactly like his last one.  In fact, as far as he knew there were only two colors available, black and white.  He had seen while scanning various gaming websites in anticipation of receiving his replacement system, that there were rumors online about an aqua blue colored one coming out around the end of the year for Christmas shoppers, but this one was a complete surprise.  Everything except the screen was gold.

Looking back to the FedEx box on the floor, Sam confirmed that it was addressed to him, and then noticed a slip of paper in amongst the packaging materials.  Pulling it out, he read it over and found that it was simply a receipt with a redeemable code highlighted at the bottom for the amount of thirty-nine ninety-nine, the cost of his lost game.  Nothing about the receipt, however, mentioned the fact that this was a gold colored unit.

Shrugging, Sam figured that it must be some sort of limited edition model, like the Legend of Zelda units which Nintendo had released years ago for several of their systems, and made a mental note to try looking it up later in case it was so rare that it might be some sort of collector’s edition.  If it was a collector’s edition, it might be worth something, but usually that was for things which had never been opened, and he knew by looking at the mess around him on the floor that there was no way he could repackage it to make it look like that.

Accepting this, Sam left the mess on the floor, sat down on the couch, and powered up his new device.  Just as the old one used to, it displayed the company logo for a moment before it went black for a second’s worth of processing before the screen flashed and presented him with the home screen.  Satisfied, Sam pressed his finger to the screen and swiped left to see the small list of preloaded apps including a mini game he had played before, a settings icon, and an icon for the online store.  The screen then darkened and presented on overlaid image of text which offered him a tutorial on how to use the system.  Figuring that he knew everything already since this was simply a replacement system for his old one, Sam pressed the button on the right which said ‘Skip’ and then confirmed his choice before the screen returned to normal.

For the next ten minutes, Sam tapped his way through the settings menu, setting up his Wi-Fi connection and removing all of the parental restrictions in place which kept kids from playing for too long or buying violent games which have a ‘Mature’ or ‘Adults Only’ rating.  He then switched over to the online store, and input his credit card information as well as his redeemable code from his receipt which credited his account automatically.  When he was done, Sam blew out a, “Finally,” and then began scrolling through the list of games the online store had to offer.

Being that this was the game system’s third generation, and that all of the company’s previous games were not only compatible but also downloadable, Sam knew that he had literally over a thousand titles in which to choose from.  Using the drop down box, Sam filtered his options so that he was only looking at games which had been released in the last six months because he wanted something new, and then further reduced the list by selecting JRPGs.  In the end, he found that he only had to sort through roughly a dozen games, and most of their titles were familiar to him from either having played previous titles from their series already, or from the research he had done in the past weeks.  One game, however, was unfamiliar to him, and had a listed release date of today.  Tapping the title, Towns and Towers, he found that the description made it sound very similar to other games he had played and enjoyed in the past like Dungeons and Dragons, and Caverns and Creatures, and best of all, it was priced for the exact amount, thirty-nine ninety-nine, which he had been credited.

Sam tried to recall if he had seen anything about the game online, but when he again came up blank, he decided that since he had the free credit from the company he might as well give it a try.  Worst case, he’d have wasted someone else’s money and he would get at least a few hours out of the game.  Pressing the button, and the confirmation which appeared afterwards, Sam purchased the game and selected an immediate download.  When the screen switched to a download progress meter, Sam took note of the fact that the system only had about half a charge, and that the game’s file size looked to be huge, nearly five gigs.  This prompted him to set it down and begin rummaging through the trash on the floor until he found the wall plug so that he could hook it up to the outlet.  He knew he could probably have used the one from his previous system, but this gave him a chance to confirm that he had received everything as expected.

        Once plugged in, Sam took a minute to remove the instruction booklet and warranty, and tuck them away in the ‘everything-that-doesn’t-have-another-place-to-go’ drawer in the kitchen.  Then he cleaned up the trash on the floor, shoving as much as he could back into the box, and tossing the remaining scraps into the bin.  Knowing that he had a few minutes to kill, he returned to the restroom and finish what he had been doing earlier.

When he came back and checked the device he figured that he would have time to make himself a sandwich and possibly do a little research on the game.  He didn’t think he would have time to necessarily read through a bunch of reviews about it, but he hoped he might come across a completed walkthrough or possibly some cheat codes someone might have posted.  Sometimes the games were released in other countries before they reached the States, and other times there were leaks from within the companies that made them.  Either way, he didn’t mind a leg up on beating the game, or accessing some early loot, if possible.  To his surprise, however, when he looked at the system he found that it had already finished downloading the entire game.  Pleased, he temporarily set aside his thoughts about the sandwich and research, and sat down to start the game.

        The game opened up with the usual fanfare, showing all of the companies who helped to produce the game, and then switched to the title screen.  Here it gave him several options including starting a new game, or to load and continue a previous save, but since he had not played before and had no saved file, that option was greyed out.  Below those, it also offered him a chance read the instructions, or to look over the game’s settings.  Selecting settings, he checked the control layout so that he knew which buttons controlled what for his character, and then took a second to raise the volume of the character voices and sound effects, and to reduce volume of the background music.  His thought had always been that he would always rather hear what the characters in the game had to say than listen to pretty music someone had composed for it.  Chances were, if he wanted music he would simply use his iPod, which was loaded with his favorite songs rather than whatever the game offered.

With that done, he returned to the main menu and selected to start a new game, to which the game announced the title in a deep ominous voice, “Towns and Towers.”  The screen then immediately switched to a cut scene showing a distant aerial viewpoint looking out across a vast meadow towards a large white tower.  Just as Sam began to nod appreciatively at the game’s graphics and attention to detail, the camera zoomed forward showing a circular shaped town surrounding the tower, and then zipped past it all to focus on something else.  As the camera continued, it seemed to span an entire continent going through various terrains and climates, showing off some of the flora and fauna in each of the areas along the way.  Overall, Sam couldn’t help but feel impressed by how beautiful and hyper realistic the scenery looked as it passed by another three towers, each with their own town.  The last tower was dark and hard to see due to a thick purplish-black cloud cover which swirled portentously about it.

Once the camera passed around the tower, making sure to depict its unknown height as it panned upward to show it disappearing into the clouds, it immediately turned around and raced back the way it had come.  This time the camera flew at least ten times faster than during its initial flight, and only slowed down once it returned to the same meadow it had begun in, so that it could focus on the discrete shadow of a figure stepping out from behind a tree he hadn’t seen the first time.  Before the figure could step out into the light, however, and show Sam what the person behind the tree looked like, the screen froze and presented him with a list of options in a menu which popped out from the right.

Still smiling at all that the game had shown him so far, it took Sam a moment to realize that this was his opportunity to create his character.  The first question it asked was the typical male or female to which he selected male, as he always did, contrary to the fact that some of his friends regularly chose female characters so that they could see the character’s quote unquote assets bounce around the screen.

From there, the game gave him the option to customize his character including facial features, hair style, and general physique.  Sam made sure to check out each of the options available, even going so far as to drag the meters all the way to the extreme, where applicable, so that he could see the full range of their effects.  At one point he found that he had made his character look like a dopey bald fat black guy with a long black beard which hung down to his chest, tiny deep set little eyes, and a small thick pig nose.  The character looked down at himself as if inspecting Sam’s work, and then sat down on the ground like it was so depressed with itself that it couldn’t be bothered to continue on.

After a quick laugh, he switched most of the options to the opposite extreme and found himself looking at a tall lanky boy with pale white skin, long red hair which fell in waves down his backside, and a clean shaven face with large bug eyes and a long Pinocchio style nose.  As the character looked itself over, it seemed to consider its appearance and then tilted its head towards him like it had hoped Sam would have come up with something better.

Shaking his head at the disturbing ideal that the game was trying to convey its opinion to him about his selection, Sam went back through the menu options and carefully selected traits he thought most closely resembled his own.  By the end of his work, he found that he was staring at a reasonable facsimile of himself in digital form.  The character had short brown hair, an average looking face, and a body style which, while not speaking to hours spent in the gym in the vain hopes of looking like the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, also didn’t announce complete laziness and poor health.  The character on the screen looked himself over once more, and then stared up at the Sam as if he could see him, and gave him a thumbs up.  Shrugging off the creepy idea that his game character could see him, Sam confirmed his options, and went to the next menu.

As the new menu appeared, the character stepped fully out from behind the tree so that he could see him better, and Sam noticed that the new menu was asking him to select the character’s role.  The list of options was small, but each one gave a description which hinted towards future branches one might choose to follow.

The first option was to be a rouge, and the description stated that a rogue was a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks.  It stated that rogues were stealthy and dexterous, and capable of finding and disarming many traps in addition to being able to pick most locks.  The rogue also had the ability to ‘sneak attack’ enemies who are caught off-guard or taken by surprise, thereby inflicting extra damage, and were generally motivated by money.  It stipulated that the rogue characters were unable to wear any heavy armor and were restricted in weaponry to bows, daggers, and some short swords due to their lower strength rating.  Below that it listed several subclasses in grey like thief and ranger, but these were clearly not selectable at this time, and Sam figured that they were possible classes for rouges to grow into depending on the choices the play made in the game.

The second option was to be a warrior.  Warriors were described as fighter characters capable of receiving and dealing massive physical damage, but with lower than average intelligence.  It went on to describe them as skilled in combat, and able to wear heavy armor and use most weaponry, but unable to use magic.  Just as rogues could learn to be thieves and rangers, it appeared that warriors too had some subclasses available.  Listed in grey, Sam saw that they could become either knights, or barbarians.

The third option was for him to become a mage.  The description here stated that these highly intelligent characters used arcane magic, but were considered less effective in melee combat than any other class due to their low strength and health, but could contribute from a distance using a range of both offensive and defensive magic, as well as restorative and support magic.  Similar to the rogue’s restrictions, heavy armor, swords, and battle axes also looked to be out of the question as it stated that they would only be able to wear robes and use staffs for the duration of the game.  The greyed out subclasses here listed wizard and summoner.

The last option was something called an adventurer, and its description remained shorter than the rest stating that the character was well-rounded, and capable of proceeding down any developmental path depending on the choices made during the game play.  At the bottom, all of the previous class and subclass options were listed in greyed out text, and next to them there were two additional options which were unnamed, and simply denoted by multiple question marks.

Figuring that the adventurer class would leave him with the most options during his game play, Sam selected this class, confirmed it when asked by the system, and watched as his character’s clothing changed to what looked like a standard traveler’s shirt and pants along with a pair of boots.  A brief message passed along the bottom of the screen stating that he would receive increases in the skills he used most during each level.

Curious what would have happened if he selected one of the other options, Sam attempted to back track to the previous menu, but found a pop up text appear which stated that all choices were final once confirmed.

Commenting to himself, Sam said, “Well I guess that’s what I get for not bothering to read the instructions,” before he pressed ‘okay’ and dismissed the pop up text screen.

The next screen announced that Sam would have twenty five points to distribute amongst his characters abilities.  It was a common enough thing in these types of games, to give players a chance to customize their characters, but the second line stated that this would be the last time he would be able to attribute any points directly to his character was something Sam hadn’t expected.  Typically players received at least a point or two to invest in their character’s abilities at his or her discretion each time they leveled up, or completed a major quest.  This game, however, looked like it would only be giving him this one shot and then would automatically increase things based on his use of them.  Sam made a mental note to keep his attack options open while he played so as not to over develop one area and accidentally sacrifice the rest.

Clicking ‘okay’, Sam confirmed he had read the message and began looking over his options.  Here, the game offered a bit more description of the five basic attributes a character could have.  First, there was strength which obviously increased attack, but to his surprise also factored into what types of gear his character would be able to wear.  Next came intelligence which affected a characters magic abilities and focus, as well as the difficulty of the puzzles he would face.  From there agility was listed and described as relating to character’s accuracy, dexterity, balance, and oddly enough the chance of scoring a critical hit.  Following those Sam spotted something called constitution which determined how many hit points his character would have and how things like poison might affect him.  The last area was labeled non-combat skills, and its description spoke of personal interactions with other characters, herbal skills, animal skills, and luck.  Next to each of these attributes was a zero, which just begged for Sam to spend a few of his precious points on it.

A part of him wanted to specialize things like he had in many other games, but he had always found that his characters lacked something critical when he had done that in the past.  For instance, in one of the online game he had been playing a few months back, he had specialized as a magic wielding sorcerer and had dumped every point he received into his magic ability.  The problem was, when he got into a large fight he often found his character near death due to the fact it had very few hit points and almost no strength.

Considering his chosen field as an adventurer, he had no idea what his character would be capable of, but he knew he wanted to try and get everything, so in order to maximize his outlook he allocated his points evenly amongst all five areas hoping for the perfect balance, and pressed confirm.

Taking a second to look over his chosen character, who was looking around himself in the game, Sam attempted to take control of the character by pushing forward on the left analog stick.  Instead of moving, however, the character shook his finger at Sam and then pointed to the left side of the screen where a white arrow began to blink.  Smirking at the games attempt to interact with him, Sam pressed his finger to the arrow and dragged it across the screen as indicated.  When the new window was fully expanded, Sam found himself looking at a series of questions clearly designed to get a feel for his personality.  The seven questions asked were as follows:

1. How would your friends describe you?

A. Psychotic        B. Hermit         C. Mad genius                 D. Cold and calculating                  E. Adventurous

2. If you came across a bag of money, what would you do?

A. Take it all        B. Turn it in        C. Leave it        D. Set a trap        E. Take half and leave half for others

3. What would be your first weapon of choice?

A. Lasers        B. Fists and feet                C. Military grade weapons        D. Handguns        E. Swords

4. When you talk to yourself, it is …

A. To remember something        B. Because your intoxicated        C. To psych yourself up         D. To calm yourself down        E. Because you’re responding to the voices

5. What was the most recent genre of book you read?

A. Thriller        B. Sci-fi                C. Fantasy        D. Historical        E. Non-fiction

        6. Does the sight of blood make you queasy?

A. Yes                B. No

        7. Would you like to play in 4D?

A. Yes                B. No

        Answering the first six questions was pretty straightforward, and Sam quickly tapped his way through selecting ‘Adventurous’, ‘Take it all’, ‘Swords’, ‘To psych yourself up’, ‘Fantasy’, and ‘No’, respectively.  The last question however had him stumped, however, because he didn’t know what 4D was.  On some systems he knew that there was an option to play in 3D, and while it used to require special glasses to do so, today he knew game screens could present their graphics to players in 3D without the need for special glasses.  This 4D, though, wasn’t something he was aware of in gaming.

        Looking up from his game, he thought about walking back over to the kitchen to get the instruction manual and find out what it was, but the ten or so steps it would take to get across the room just sounded like too much to bother with.  Considering the question once more, Sam remembered something about the fourth dimension being explained in some sci-fi movie he had watched, and the movie had described the fourth dimension as being related to time.  If that were the case, then the best Sam could figure was that the game would probably use the system’s internal clock or whatever to control the day and night cycles for the characters in the game.  Doing so obviously wouldn’t make much of a difference to the game play, if that were the case, unless certain monsters or demons were only available to fight during certain times of the day or night, but overall Sam figured it couldn’t hurt, and so he finally selected ‘Yes’.

        As his finger came away from the screen he felt a tingling sensation which quickly spread up his arm, through his shoulder and across his chest, and then from there out to every cell in his body.  The sensation didn’t exactly hurt, but it scared him a little because he didn’t know what it was.  Before he could react to it, however, he felt a sudden pull as if someone had grabbed ahold of him from the inside right before he blacked out.

Chapter 3

        Waking up slowly, Sam felt confused yet oddly at peace by the feeling of warm sun on his cheek, and the smell of rich soil.  He heard something nearby like the rustling of a breeze through a tree followed by the chirping of a small bird.  All in all, it reminded him of the time he went camping as a boy in the backyard with his father, and how he had woken up then with the birds chirping away in the trees.  Groaning, he swept his arm out to the side, feeling the soft grass beneath his fingers until he ran across something hard and immovable.  After feeling the object’s rough texture, and digging a nail in to peel back some of the bark, he lifted his head and cracked his eyes open to confirm that it was a tree root.

        Looking about, Sam saw that he lay on the ground beneath a single massive oak tree with a vast green meadow spread out before him.  He had no idea where he was, or how he had gotten there, but as he tried to wake up he felt more than a little disoriented and groggy.  Turning his head left and right, he tried to figure out where here was, but as he did he immediately felt his stomach clench up with an unmistakable queasy feeling forcing him to stop before the nausea overwhelmed him.

        Thinking back, he remembered being home, he remembered the anticipation and excitement of opening his new system, but he couldn’t remember anything afterwards.  He knew he hadn’t made plans with anyone, and didn’t think he had gone out with any of his friends to get a drink, but being intoxicated was the only logical explanation he could think of for waking up in a strange place without any memory of how he had gotten there.

        After a minute, he risked another look around, and tried to determine if he was in a park he might recognize, or if there were any parked cars nearby where a family might be setting up a bar-b-que picnic.  The good news was that looking around this time didn’t seem to affect him, or make him feel sick.  The bad news was that not only did he fail to recognize which park he was in, but he didn’t even see anything which belonged in a park.  There were no swing sets, no baseball diamonds, and no soccer nets.  To add to that, the place wasn’t just missing a parking lot full of cars, as far as he could tell, it was missing any and all sounds of traffic.  Concerned that he might have somehow really gotten himself lost in the middle of nowhere, Sam got to his feet and noticed that he wasn’t wearing his usual clothes.  The shirt he had on was bigger than the ones he usually wore, and his pants felt more like itchy burlap than soft denim.

        Figuring that he must be wearing someone else’s clothes, disturbing thoughts began to plague his mind about the possibilities of what might have happened to him last night.  For all he knew, he might have to spend the whole day finding out that he had done some truly stupid and embarrassing things, like those guys in that movie who went out to Las Vegas to celebrate before one of them got married.

        Walking beneath the shadow of the tree, intent on sitting down with his back against the trunk so he could figure things out, Sam placed his hand against the bark and froze as his eyes caught sight of the scene laid out before him.  With his mouth agape, and his eyes wide, Sam remained still as he tried to make sense of the giant white tower which stood in the distance.  Most cities had skyscrapers, but they were plural, always.  What he was seeing, there was no city in the world like this, at least not as far as he knew.  A lone building standing so tall it nearly touched the clouds, it was unheard of, and yet, something in his brain desperately wanted to make a connection, as if he had seen something that looked slightly familiar to it, but he couldn’t think of where it was or when he had seen it.

        Suddenly, Sam remembered that he had not only received his package the night before, but that he had purchased a new game as well, and started playing it.  The title of the game escaped him at the moment, but he distinctly remembered that in the intro cut scene there was a tower, just like this one.  Looking down at his hands, his arms, and his legs, he remembered the weird tingling sensation, like a million electric ants running across his body.  They weren’t there now, but he remembered the feeling of them.  Lifting his eyes back up to the tower, he finally felt the enormity of his situation sink home, and realized that he had somehow been transported in the game.

        It didn’t make sense, not logically.  No one could just enter a game, not even with the best virtual reality gear available, but that was the only explanation for it.  He had, somehow crossed over into his video game, which wasn’t supposed to be possible.  It was like what that Vulcan dude had said in the Star Trek movies, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left must be the truth, or something.  This, whatever it was, was ridiculous and straight out of the pages of cartoons and fantasy, but obviously it was real now.

        For a few seconds, Sam realized he was right where he had always said he wanted to be.  It was like a dream come true.  He finally got to be the star of his own game, and it was an JRPG which could allow him to level up and get stronger, not to mention he had the potential to learn some cool magic like an ice spell which would freeze his enemies, or a weather spell which would allow him to call forth lightning to smoke them where they stand.  Thinking of some of the other games he had played over the years, he figured things could have turned out much worse.  At least this way he didn’t have a giant gorilla throwing barrels at him from the top of a building, and he didn’t have to manually stack oddly shaped blocks as they fell from the sky.

Then his inner thoughts burst his bubble, and pointed out the fact that he wasn’t the typical teenage boy with amnesia who somehow knows a bunch of cool sword skills.  Heck, aside from that one time his buddy Dave had showed him the decorative katana he had mounted on the wall, Sam had never even held a sword.  To add to that, he also wasn’t a sleepyheaded boy who somehow overslept, and was being woken up by his single parent mother who was reminding him that he had an important meeting to attend.  In fact, he didn’t fit any of the typical models of JRPGs.  Furthermore, Sam realized that not only did he not actually know how to fight, but he also didn’t know any of those cool spells characters get when they’re in a game.  Chances were that he was going to have himself a very short adventure here.

        As he came to this last realization, it finally struck him that he could actually die here, and he had no idea what that meant for him back home.  He worried that has his body was just sitting there in his apartment while his consciousness was here in the game, like that Matrix movie.  What if Quinn came by and found him, would she think he slipped into an unexplained comma?   On the other hand, it was just as likely that the tingling sensation he had felt somehow teleported his whole body in here.  If that were the case, it would appear that he had just disappeared without a trace.  There was no way to know, and if he died he couldn’t be sure that the game would simply spit him back out, alive.  Would he be able to find a save point so he could continue and try again, or was this thing operating on a permadeath setting?

        Suddenly scared and freaked out by it all, Sam yelled up towards the sky, “Let me out of here!”  When nothing happened, he raised his voice even louder, and screamed, “I want out of this place!”

        The tree leaves blew softly in the breeze again, and the bird which had chirped as he had been waking up sprung from its nest and soared off high above, but other than that, nothing changed.

        Thinking that there might be a special command he could say, he began saying whatever random thing came to mind to see if it would work to send him back to his real life.  “Exit.  Start.  Control Alt Delete.  Umm…Portal.  Teleport.  Home.  Logout.  Up, up, and away.”

        When none of these did anything, Sam decided to try swiping at the air in various patterns like he had seen characters do in video games whenever they accessed the game’s menu.  He hoped that by doing this here in a field, outside of a town, he would probably be able to save, or logout on his own.  Worst case, he thought he might be able to at least learn something more about his situation.  First he tried left to right, then right to left, in front of his face.  Then he tried waving his hands up and down, tapping his wrist, and even snapping his fingers.  Running out of options, he tried knocking on the tree and still nothing happened.

        After ten minutes of doing everything he could think of, including several things which would look completely idiotic to anyone passing by, Sam decided to return to the spot where he had woken up on the ground, and began searching the area for any sign of an exit.  Starting with the grass, he tried crawling around on the ground in a ten foot circle looking for any discoloration in the grass trying to feel for something out of the ordinary.  It didn’t take long to determine that there was nothing there, but Sam went over the area a second time anyway just to make sure.  Then, standing up, he tried walking around the same area with his hands out in front of him hoping he might find a cold spot, or some sort of dimensional crack which he couldn’t see with his eyes.  Fifteen minutes into looking like a lost circus mime, he gave up, and dropped his hands back to his sides.  Blowing out an exasperated puff of air, Sam tilted his head back and staring up into the sky to see if there was a spot he might have fallen from, but the only thing that yielded was a minute’s worth of seeing spots from sun blindness when he dropped his head back down.

        Cursing, Sam walked back over to the tree and sat down to try and think of a way out.  Racking his brains, he mentally sifted through all of the JRPGs he had played over the years, and even some of the other games, as he searched for an answer.  Considering how many games that was, he ended up sitting there for at least thirty minutes, but in every game he could think of, the only thing his characters had ever done was follow the tutorial, and start their adventures.  Unfortunately, it looked like he had either skipped the tutorial, or there wasn’t one available for him now that he was inside the game.

Breaking into his concentration, his stomach gave a loud gurgling sound, and Sam remembered that before this had begun playing with his new Pita Duel Screen he had intended to make himself a sandwich.  Shaking his head, discouraged by his situation, Sam looked up to the sky with a ‘why me’ pained look on his face.  As it just so happened, that’s when the wind blew, and he spotted a lone red apple hanging off a branch high up in the tree.

Taking a second to consider his options, and game experience, he figured it was worth going after.  No one in any of the games he had ever played before had died from climbing a tree, but he had seen a few where his characters became sluggish or lost hit points due to hunger.

Standing up, he circled the tree once just to make sure that there weren’t any weird birds in it which might swoop down and attack him, and then he began his climb.  As he reached for the first branch, he thought about the last time he had done something like this, and realized that he hadn’t climbed a tree since he was probably ten years old.  To his surprise, however, it came across as much easier than he had thought it would be.  Every branch seemed to be placed specifically where it needed to be for him to easily grab ahold, and he managed to make it up to the height of the apple in no time.  The problem, as he should have guessed, was that the apple itself was quite a ways out on the branch and he had, at this height, only very thin and narrow branches left on which for him to stand.

The idea of abandoning his efforts and looking elsewhere for food crossed his mind, but he figured, since he had already climbed up, it would be a waste to simply climb back down with nothing to show for it.  Taking a step out, he found that the branch beneath his feet seemed fairly secure, and when he took the second step out, he was reassured by its steadiness.  It was on the third step, however, that the branch suddenly gave way, as if it had never been there and he was forced to flail about, snatching at the air in order to keep from falling.

It just so happened, his hands found a branch within reach in the last instant before Sam was to plummet to the ground below, and as would be the case in most of these sorts of events, the branch Sam happened to grab ahold of was the one which bore the single piece of fruit he had come up for.  The choice at this point was clear.  Either Sam could try to shimmy his way out to the apple, risking his neck in the process, or he could try to return to the safety of the ground the way he had come up.  Being from a reality where gravity was all too certain, Sam chose to forget about the apple in favor of turning around and heading for safety.  It was at that point when the gravity of his new world decided to show him it worked out pretty much the same here, too.

At roughly the midpoint between where Sam was holding on and the trunk of the tree the branch suddenly snapped, and Sam dropped to the ground like a stone, hitting several of the other tree branches along the way.  The pain he felt each time he hit something on his way down was just as real as any pain he would have felt at home, and he knew, even before they had a chance to show themselves, that if he lifted his shirt up fifteen minutes from now he would most likely find a series of dark bruises running along his hip, back, and across his left side.

He took a moment to remain lying on the ground and assess his situation before he groaned, and sat up.  As he did so, it crossed his mind that he must have lost quite a few of his hit points in that fall, and the scary part was, he had no idea how many were left, not to mention what would happen if they ran out.  The only thing he did know, was that in almost every game he had ever played, when a character was injured, and you didn’t have any healing spells or special healing herbs, the one thing you could do was eat and rest, and Sam, now had an apple lying next to him.

Picking up what looked to be a Red Delicious, Sam inspected it, and found that opposed to the ones he would have gotten in the grocery stores back home, this one not only didn’t have a sticky tag on it saying where it came from, but it also didn’t appear to have that disgusting film of cloudy looking pesticide on it.  For that matter, the apple itself looked to be picture perfect, even after the fall.

Shrugging, Sam took a bite of the apple, and felt the fruit’s juices run down his chin.  Wiping them away with his sleeve, he took two more bites and found that despite its original size being rather large, he had already finished it, and all that remained was the apple core.  Snorting at the oddness of this, Sam moved to throw the apple core away, and realized that his side and back no longer hurt as much as they had a moment ago.  Surprised by this, he lifted his shirt and saw that as he swallowed the last bite the scratches which were on his skin from hitting one of the numerous branches on the way down were slowly disappearing.

Speaking to himself, Sam said, “Well, that pretty much proves it.  Either I’m in a game, or I have completely lost my mind.”

Getting to his feet, Sam took a minute to stretch and see if anything else remained sore or bruised, but as he now expected, the apple must have replenished all of his hit points because he didn’t have a mark on him.  This both excited him and worried him, because from his experience, he figured having just started a game, he must be a weak level one character, and this was only confirmed by the fact that a measly apple had just healed him completely.

Shaking his head, Sam looked up towards the tower in the distance, remembered the town that surrounded it in the opening video, and said, “Well, crap.  I guess that means if I want any answers, or if I expect to find a way out, I’m going to have to follow typical game logic and start there first.”  Then, trying to calculate the distance between him and the distant tower, he added, “Which means, I’m going to have to get across this field first.”

Figuring that most JRPG games had what was called a World Map, for the characters to cross, he knew that there was probably going to be at least one random encounter along the way, if not more.  Random encounters at this stage were typically things like giant rats or small wolves, and they were always roughly equal to the characters level, but with fewer hit points.  The idea behind them was that they were usually just excuses for the game to give a character a few experience points while also teaching the player how to fight.  The problem was, with Sam being inside the game and not relaxing on his couch able to read the screen, he had no idea how to fight, and doubted that there would be a tutorial for him.  On top of that, as he had already noticed, he didn’t have any weapons, and really knew next to nothing about fighting.  As for magic, if he had access to any he had no idea how to use it, and so he had no real way to defend himself.  About the only thing he did have was the apple core, and he doubted that a hungry wolf would find that very appealing or dangerous.

Glancing past the apple core in his hand to the ground, Sam realized that he did have one other thing available to him, the branch the apple was hanging from.  Picking it up, he found that the branch was about the thickness of a broom handle, but when he tested it, it didn’t bend or break.  Critically looking over the stick, Sam saw finely etched letters and numbers in the bark, and while he had to concentrate to read them, he found that he could do it.

Apple branch, 1-2 handed slashing weapon lv 1, adds +3 to attack.

Remembering how the branches in the tree seemed fine until it suddenly snapped, he nodded and said to himself, “Okay, so the question is, is this one of those games where things have a durability rating which determines how long things last when used.  I don’t know if that’s going to apply to everything.  In some games they have it, in others they don’t, and in the one’s that do consider the durability of objects they usually only do it to weapons, armor, and oddly placed barrels with loot inside them.  Either way, one of these should work fine until it breaks, or I find something better.”

Then, considering how quickly the branches broke while he was in the tree, Sam made sure to walk over and grab a second branch, the one he had been standing on, before he headed away from the tree in the direction of the giant white tower in the distance.

Chapter 4

        About a mile across the grassy field, Sam came across a small dirt path which, despite its unnecessary turns and curves, seemed to be going towards the tower and its surrounding town.  He considered staying his previous course, and just continuing to walk straight on across the open field, but ultimately decided to follow the path instead, hoping that in doing so he would have fewer random encounters.

        Along the way he kept his eyes peeled for any signs of a surprise attack, and was rewarded for his efforts by finding a collection of wild mushrooms.  There were no descriptions on the mushrooms as far as he could see, but he realized this might be one of those games where a character didn’t know what it was he had until it was appraised by someone in town, or he had eaten it.  Then again, the stick had a label, so maybe only weapons had them and consumables didn’t.  Taking a second to look around and ensure that nothing was going to spring out at him, Sam picked as many of the mushrooms as he could, and filled his pockets with them.  He thought about eating one, just to see what it tasted like, but figured that the apple he had earlier had already restored his hit points, and doing so now would just be wasting the food which he might need later to save his life.

        Turning back onto the path, Sam immediately spotted a three foot long black snake lying on the path in front of him.  Startled, he didn’t bother to consider the fact that it might have just been sunning itself like most other reptiles do on sunny days, instead he immediately attacked it without mercy.

        Lifting one of the sticks he had been carrying high above his head, he charged forward yelling, “Die Slytherin!” and brought the stick down on the snake’s back.  In response, the snake squirmed and writhed backwards trying to avoid any further assaults, but Sam continued to press on, swinging the stick like a caveman, clubbing the snake repeatedly.

        The encounter only lasted a minute before the snake no longer moved, but Sam was left standing alone in the middle of the path by the end of it, panting for breath as he leaned against his makeshift weapon.  After another thirty seconds, when he finally had regained some control of his breathing, he gasped out, “America,” before he stepped over and kicked the snake’s body aside.

        Contrary to the way most fights in JRPGs worked, the snake hadn’t dropped any useful items or gold when it died, and Sam felt slightly disappointed by this.  While he didn’t expect it to drop a broadsword or a bow and arrow, he had thought a dagger or something like a healing herb would have been nice.  It was this hope that something would appear, as much as his own curiosity, which kept him waiting around for the next five minutes to see what happened.  While he waited, he tried looking the snake’s body over, concentrating on it as he had the stick, and he found written in the scales: lv 1 Garden snake.  By the end of the five minutes, however, the snake’s body had neither dissolved nor disappeared, and he saw no signs of it reanimating or respawning.

        Figuring that nothing was going to happen, Sam lifted his stick and began to walk on, continuing the way he had been going.  After twenty feet or so, he took one last glance back, and stopped when he noticed that the snake was no longer there.  He wasn’t too surprised by this, seeing that most games got rid of the creatures players killed in a game just for the simple fact that it would require too much of the system to keep track of all of the bodies, which would quickly lead to the fields and dungeons becoming overcrowded with the littered remains of the fallen.  In this case, whatever had happened to it, either took longer than the five minutes he had been waiting, or it was one of those things which only happen after the character moved on.  Either way, it was further confirmation that using game logic instead of common sense might suit him best here.

        Despite not having a watch on, Sam reasoned that the path to town lasted at least another hour, which was somewhere between three and four miles walking, and along the way he came across a half dozen more snakes, each almost in an identical position as the first, sunning itself on the path.  For the first three of these encounters he attacked them much like he had before, acting like a crazy man swinging at the snake as hard and fast as he could.  It was on the fourth that he decided he might be able to save himself some effort and approach it more strategically.

        Holding the stick out in front of him, he approached the snake slowly and carefully until he was finally within just a few feet of it.  Once in position, he waited half a second to take a breath, and then lunged forward to step on the snake, placing his foot just behind its head where it wouldn’t be able to turn around and bite him.  With the snake securely held down, he used his stick to stab at it until it was eventually beheaded.  Again, nothing appeared from any of these encounters, but he did find that his technique was nearly perfected by the time he came within sight of the town entrance.

        Opposed to most starter villages one tends to find in JRPG games, this was not just a collection of six or seven buildings solely dedicated to helping the protagonist along with his quest.  Instead, Sam found himself looking at the gates to a huge city populated with hundreds of one and two story buildings, some made of wood while others were made of stone, with each looking individually different from the next as far as he could tell.  The white tower, which he had been using as his point of reference, stood somewhere near the middle of the city, and as far as he could tell it stood well over fifty stories tall.  Hoping he might be able to find himself an exit point, or a kindly wizard who might be able to teleport him back to real life, Sam picked up the pace and headed for the open gate.

        As he approached, he spotted a teenage boy who looked to be about fifteen, who was watching him from just beyond the gate’s entrance.  The kid didn’t seem to be doing anything, just standing there watching him, which seemed both creepy and weird.

        Hoping to at least get some information, Sam tried to concentrate on the kid to see if he find any text hidden on his clothes or face which would indicate his level, class, or stats, but found nothing.  Finally, he decided to approach the kid and casually asked, “Excuse me, could you tell me where I might find…”

“Welcome to Marvinville!” yelled the teenager, interrupting Sam before he could finish the question.

Nodding, Sam accepted this abrupt greeting, and said, “Yes, thank you.  Um, could you tell me where I could find an inn with a room?”

Rather than answer him, the kid kept his eyes fixed on Sam’s feet, and repeated, “Welcome to Marvinville!” just as loudly as he had the first time.

Having gone through similar scenarios before in other games, Sam shook his head in disgust.  Then speaking to himself, Sam commented, “Great, this is going to be one of those games where the programmers were too lazy to give the NPCs anything more than their one line to say.  That probably means I’m going to have to run around this whole stupid town in order to find out what I need know.”

“Welcome to Marvinville!” yelled the kid again, and Sam figured he was simply responding to his comment with his one prescribed line until a female voice behind spoke up.

“Hi, you must be new here.”

Spinning around, Sam met a young woman with brunette hair who looked to be about his age dressed in dirty brown pants and a blouse which let more skin show than it actually covered.  Doing his best to not let his eyes linger, Sam reflexively said, “Uh, hi,” without considering the fact that like the boy she would probably just repeat the same line again.

Surprising him, she said, “Welcome to Anozira.  I see you’ve met Marvin.”

Looking back to the kid, and then to her, Sam asked, “I thought he said this was…”

“Marvinville, yeah, he says that to everyone.  A few years back when he was an apprentice to the blacksmith, he got kicked in the head while re-shoeing a horse.  He’s never really been himself since.  If you step over this way a bit, he’ll stop yelling it at you.”

“Oh, gotcha,” said Sam as he quickly stepped off to the side to talk to the woman.  Taking a second to look at her clothes in search of finding a level indicator, class, or other information he found, like young Marvin, she seemed to have none.  Accepting that this game only had game stats for inanimate objects, he finally said, “So, this is Anozira, then?”

“Yes, are you here to find someone, looking for a change in scenery, or are you looking to become one of the Tower Tempters?”

“Tower Tempters?” asked Sam.

“Yeah, it’s what we locals affectionately call the knights and mages who show up trying to conquer the Tower.”

“Honestly, it wasn’t my plan.  I’m really just looking for a way home.”

“Interesting.  Well, you can probably talk to Cole over at the docks, and tell him Anna sent you.”

Knowing that characters with first names were generally more important than those who only went by their job title like ‘Shop Owner’ or ‘Merchant’, Sam made the conscious effort to remember the woman’s name as he introduced himself.  “Oh, so you’re Anna, then.  My name is Sam.”

“Good to meet you Sam.  Well, as I was saying, Cole might be able to put you on one of his boats next time they ship out.”

Sucking in air through his teeth, Sam regretfully said, “Yeah, I just don’t know if a boat is going to be able to get me to where I’m going.”

“Sounds mysterious,” said Anna.  “Where exactly are you from?”

Holding onto just the smallest amount of hope that the woman might have heard of it, which meant that she might know a way for him to return, Sam timidly answered, “It’s a small town near Detroit.”

“Day-troy -it,” repeated Anna slowly, as if she were trying to sound out the unfamiliar name, before she inadvertently crushed what little hope Sam had.  “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of it.”

Dejected, Sam off-handedly suggested the name of the state, Michigan, followed by the name of the country, the United States, and upon receiving negative responses to both, he exasperatedly suggested, “Well how about Earth?  Have you ever heard of someone saying they were from Earth?”

Placing a contemplative finger to her lips, Anna thought about it for a second before she answered, “Yes.  I think there was a guy, I want to say his name was Jimmy, or something.  He was a strange little guy, rather puny for my tastes, but yeah, I think he mentioned being from a place called Urth.”

Elated, Sam inquired, “Really?  Where can I find him?”

With a matter of fact tone in her voice, she answered, “He died in the Tower.”

“What?”

“Sorry, he got rather inebriated one night at the bar, and claimed that he was a great warrior from a distant land.  When we all laughed, he went on to vow before everyone there that he was going to conquer the Tower and earn his way home.  None of us knew he meant to do it that night, or else we would have tried to stop him.  After he finished his speech, however, he immediately ran out the door and didn’t give any of us a chance to talk any sense into him.  I swear we all thought he might be planning an early raid on the Tower in the morning.  We only found out later that he went there directly.”  Looking down towards the ground, she added, “It wasn’t until the next day when his body was found by a group of Tower Tempters that we ascertained how intoxicated he really was.  From what they could tell us, it looked like he had entered the Tower with only the dagger he had on him in the bar, and didn’t make it very far.”

Distraught, Sam cursed, “$%*#!” and was shocked when it came out sounding like gibberish.  Repeating himself, he tried to say the word again, but the same garbled nonsense came out.  Curious, he tried a few other words, “@&%, *$&^, @%^&%(#*,” but each of them sounded like nothing recognizable to him.

Anna, on the other hand seemed to understand his meaning perfectly, and responded, “I’m so sorry.  He must have been a close friend of yours.”

Confused by her statement, Sam looked up at her stupidly and asked, “Who?”

“Jimmy,” answered Anna as she gently placed a consoling hand on Sam’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry I didn’t realize that you two knew each other or else I would tried to soften the news of his passing.”

Understanding finally dawning on him, Sam covered for his foul language by saying, “Oh yeah, Jimmy.  Poor guy always had the worst luck.”  Then remembering what she had said, Sam asked, “When he was in the bar that night, I just want to make sure, did he say that he would be able to get back home to Earth only if he conquered the Tower, or was that just something he wanted to do before returning home?”

Thinking back to that night, Anna said, “Well, it’s kind of hard to remember exactly, but I believe he said he would return home upon completing the Tower.”

Nodding, Sam understood as the protagonist of this story that completing the Tower would be the only logical way to beat the game, and that this Jimmy guy must have been trapped here like him, possibly by the very same device if the one he had received had been refurbished.  That meant that now, instead of simply finding a save point or a kindly wizard with teleportation skills, he would most likely have to reach the top of the monolithic building in order to find his way home.

Craning his head back to try and see where the top of the Tower was, he asked, “Completing the Tower was his way home, huh?  How far did he make it?”

Sheepishly, Anna admitted, “I believe the party that went in said they found him in one of the first few rooms closest to the entrance.”

“Wow, so I guess he wasn’t very good at all, then?

Sighing, Anna said, “Well, considering what he went in with, making it that far isn’t really that bad.”

“Really?” asked Sam confused.

“Yes, from what I’ve heard, it’s actually quite difficult to make your way around in there.  Apparently there are traps as well as creatures which hinder one’s progress.”

“Traps and creatures,” repeated Sam, and then already doubtful about the answer he suspected she would give, he asked, “So, how many people have completed the Tower?”

“Completed?  None.”

“None,” repeated Sam again.  “Sounds like it must be pretty tough.”

Nodding, as if everyone knew this information, she confirmed, “Yes, it is quite difficult from what I hear.  I’m afraid no one has ever gotten past the first floor.”

Eyes wide, “Seriously?  No one’s ever gotten past the first floor?  Then how am I supposed to get home?”

Answering him seriously, Anna offered, “I am not sure.  I suppose you could walk back the way you came.”

“Yeah,” began Sam, drawing out the word.  “I was just there.  That path looks pretty closed to me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.  Well, as I suggested, perhaps Cole might be able to get you where you’re going.”

Considering what he knew about JRPGs, Sam understood that game logic dictated that this was the point when characters needed to gather as much information as possible, and take on whatever minor side quests might be available from the town’s folks which he could use to gain experience and better prepare himself before attempting take on the Tower.  Nodding to himself, even without realizing that he was doing it, Sam accepted that conquering the Tower was his only way forward, and that he would probably have to use every trick he could think of, both from gaming as well as the real world, in order to survive.

When he did finally look up from his thoughts, he asked Anna, “I don’t suppose you have a few minutes in which you could show me around Anozira?”