Welcome To Santa Rio

The noisome tolling of the ship’s bell broke Ember from his slumber. For Marcus of course, he hadn’t actually fallen asleep at all when he laid upon the bed to progress the story, only stood there in his room for a few seconds as the game processed the change in location. Pre-animated, Ember glanced around the room, coming back to his simulated senses before turning himself on his bed and rising to his feet. After that, Marcus was in control once more as a knock came to his door.

“Excuse me sir! It’s Elena again. I apologize if I’ve disturbed you, but I’m just here to inform you that we’ve arrived at our destination. Oh! And I have a few things here for you. They're gifts from the crew for your assistance in defending the ship.” She said, sounding quite earnest.

Marcus didn’t mess around with her this time, perhaps the suggestion of reward, took precedence over testing the patience of the NPC. He hurried over to the door and opened it just as he had when she first entered the game. Beyond the door that plain clothed lizard stood In one hand, she held a small leather belt covered in pouches and straps, and in the other, a leather pouch tied with a brown string.

“Good morning sir! These here are for you.” She said before presenting the items. “This is a utility belt. It should prove invaluable on your travels. You can fasten some useful tools like potions, throwing knives and other things onto it for quick access. I can imagine it’d certainly be faster than digging into your pack in the middle of a fight for them. Secondly, the crew and I have collected a pouch of gold from grateful crew members and passengers who were very eager to see your heroism rewarded. Those monsters may not have seemed like much to you, but they could have proven a real threat to our passengers had they not been slain. Please, take them as thanks.”

Marcus looked between the two items being presented. He briefly considered leaving them hanging for a minute or so to see how they might react, but decided against it. The AI in this game might actually manage to make him feel bad if he pushed them. Besides, the urge to grab items was too much for Marcus to resist and he gladly retrieved the gifts. The belt was fairly straightforward as he brought it to his waist where it immediately fastened to him. The bag meanwhile chimed out with a pleasant jingling as he brought it over his shoulder and placed it into his bag. At the sound of coins piling atop one another, he found he had earned a solid two hundred gold, bringing his total up to five hundred.

“Umm, thank you.” Marcus replied, still feeling awkward having a legitimate conversation with an AI character.

“Of course. It was the least we could do after all. Anyway, it was great having you along and we hope to see you travel with us again one day. For now though, good luck on your journey through the new world. Be safe out there!” Elena said, offering Marcus a wholehearted bow.

Marcus watched the girl as she turned and went about her business, visiting additional guest cabins to ensure everyone was aware that they had finally made landfall. For Marcus however, this meant that his goal was finally achieved. The tutorial was finally over and he could finally ditch these guys and meet up with his friends. The game had finally opened up to him. Excitedly, he scurried out of his room and scampered up to the top deck.

Once more, the simulated sun shone down upon him as he emerged from the lower deck. What met his eyes this time however was no longer the endless expanse of blue ocean he had been sailing through previously, but the quaint buildings, lush vegetation, and protective palisades of a rustic township. Though not the most grandiose of starter towns, the frontier vibe it radiated amidst a vast woodland backdrop practically screamed adventure and discovery. In Marcus’s case however, it mostly meant alot of monsters to smack around.

Hurriedly, Marcus scampered towards the edge of the ship, reaching the long gangplank connecting the upper deck to the dock below. The docks were wooden but sturdy looking things, laden with supplies being offloaded to the colonists as well as goods harvested and produced locally for their voyage back to the mainland. The best part about it all though was of course the plethora of blue names hovering over people of all shapes and sizes moving around unnaturally. They jumped about, spammed emotes, and sprinted as if their lives depended on it. With the hushed voices of a mercifully strict proximity chat, these were without a doubt, other players. Finally, some actual living entities for Marcus to interact with!

He and his impy avatar scampered down the gangplank and onto the docks. As he reached the bottom however a portly human with a receding hairline and a green name above their head stepped forward and approached him. He was surprisingly well dressed despite the small town he was presumably a part of. He met Marcus with a gracious smile and a friendly bow.

“Ah, greetings dear boy! My name is Amadeus. I have been tasked by Mayor Kinsley to greet and welcome all new travelers and colonists to the town. By the looks of you, you must be of the former. This is good news if so, as our growing little frontier town is in dire need of adventurers. Tell me, what is your name Mr. Imp?” The jovial man greeted.

“Yer butt.” Marcus replied with a smirk, amusing himself at the very least.

“Ah, Mr. Ember von Scorch. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The man replied with a chuckle.

Marcus was dumbfounded for a moment, unsure if he should be upset that the NPC didn’t pay attention to what he said, or the fact that he actually vocalized the dumb name he had given himself.

“U-umm, yea. Sooo, what’s up, why are you talking to me?” Marcus scoffed.

Impressed once more by the AI in this game, Marcus noticed the man attempting to hide the surprise on his face and the stutter he began his next sentence with. clearly taken aback by the rudeness he was being shown. “W-well, y-yes, quite so, I suppose you would be curious. Well, on top of my duties as a greeter, I have also been tasked with imploring the new adventurers to please pay a visit to the mayor’s office. He has a task most urgent that he is in need of a skilled sword arm for.”

“Pff, well, as you can prolly see, I’m using a maul, not a sword.” Marcus replied with a smirk, pointing a thumb up at the handle of the maul on his back.

The man stammered once again, anxiously fidgeting with the black trim of his coat. “W-well of course dear Imp, t-tis but a figure of speech. I-if you are indeed able to handle yourself in a fight, the mayor could greatly use your aid is all I’m saying.”

With that, a light chime followed by a hud notification popped up, informing Marcus that he had just received a new Main Quest. Popping open his codex, it was revealed that his next objective was to visit Mayor Kinsley at City Hall.

“Errm, n-now, if there is anything else you need to know, feel free to ask. If not, please, continue on your way and enjoy the humble hospitality that Santa Rio has to offer.” the man said, clearly trying to hide the distaste he had developed for the obnoxious little Imp his job had just forced his courtesy towards.

Without so much as a goodbye, Marcus simply turned and walked away from the man. If there was anything important he needed to know, either the game would eventually tell him or his friends would. Speaking of, as far as he was concerned, his true ‘Main Quest’ now was to meet up with them. Clearing the docks, Marcus began to tread upon a long, stony path. Despite the rustic nature of the town, they were clearly already in the midst of trying to spruce it up. Not only by paving the paths with cobblestone but installing decorative white wooden fences that flanked this path. Those fences seemed intended to guide the players upward towards the town. Following the path up with his eyes, Marcus took note of a tall marble statue situated half way up, and made his way towards it. The figure appeared to be a human, likely a character Sam might recognize, but Marcus was entirely clueless. Still, this seemed like an easily identifiable spot for him to wait for the others, so he did just that. Reaching that landmark, he reached up to his face and removed his headset.

“Waiting at the statue by the docks for yas. Where you at?” Marcus asked, sending a message to the group chat on his phone.

He waited a few moments, glancing at the screen of his computer which still displayed what his character was seeing in game, which was now the cobblestone beneath his feet and a purple flower peeking in from beside the statue.

“Still in the tutorial. You’re done already?” Sam asked.

“Yea, I wanted to get into the actual game so we could play together. What else was there even to do in the tutorial?” Marcus asked.

“Yea, just about to head to the upper deck myself. Did you even do the side quest there?” Will messaged as he also took a look at the chat.

“What!? The hell you mean there was a side quest? I found a treasure chest in the cargo area but that was about it.” Marcus explained.

“Yea. I mean, it wasn’t anything special. A guy lost the ring he was going to use to propose to a girl he was into but lost it. It was also in the cargo hold by the way. Gained a level and some money out of it. Did you even talk to any of the NPCs down there?” Will chided.

Marcus sat there for a moment, expression completely blank as he stared at that message before finally replying. “No, I didn’t! I thought they were all just gonna say generic crap like ‘welcome’ and stuff!”

“I mean, Yea, they did a little, but all of them at least had some input on Nihilon and whatnot if you talked to them. I kinda spent the first few minutes just trying to unlock more articles in the codex. I didn’t know you were wanting to rush it, I was taking my time.” Sam clarified.

Marcus was slow to reply once more, face meeting his palm as everything set in. “Naw, it’s all good. I don’t wanna rush you guys or anything. Take your time with it, I’ll just wait for yas. I’m a red imp with a big hammer. Look for Ember von Scorch.”

Returning his headset to his face with a sigh, Marcus returned to the fantasy world where Ember awaited him. True to his word, he sat down on the carpet of his room and waited for his friends to get there. In the meantime, he figured why not kill some time with some character watching.

Since it was release day, the number of players around town was staggering since it was likely that most of them hadn’t advanced especially far from the starting town. Now that he was seeing it all at once, there really were a ton of races in this game. Indeed, there had to have been well over a hundred of them if you considered subraces separately. Now that he was actually taking the time to appreciate it, he couldn’t imagine what this had to have been like to develop. Not only did each race have multiple subraces, but each subrace had different abilities and completely different models. Despite that, most races as a whole were still readily discernible between each other. Juggernauts were like humans but big and bulky, halflings just looked like tiny versions of humans but with a stouter frames, though not nearly as stout as the dwarves who’s beards and mineral features immediately identified what they were, and gnomes were easily discernible from halflings thanks to their exaggerated features such as large ears or noses. It was a lot to take in, but served to bring Marcus a yet greater appreciation for the work the devs put into this game. On races alone, it was almost unbelievable.

This wasn’t all Marcus observed as he waited however. The game clearly featured a proximity voice chat which most of the time came across so faint as to not be distracting unless you were right up beside them, however, by focusing his gaze on any particular player allowed their voice to be projected more boldly and was easy to discern amidst the rest of the white noise. Curiously, everyone’s voice didn’t sound quite right as if it were being altered. This was made more notable among the more creature oriented races. It was fortunate though, since if the chat were indeed that prominent for everyone, it would likely drown out the jaunty tunes of the town itself. It was a rather optimistic track, bold and ambitious. The kind of thing you could picture in a town where everyone was out to make a solid buck.

With little else to do, Marcus spent his time eavesdropping on the conversations of everyone unfortunate enough to catch his gaze. There wasn’t much of note being said however aside from how much people were adoring the game or answering questions on how various mechanics worked. The text chat wasn’t particularly helpful either as it was scrolling by far too quickly for anything but the shortest messages to be made sense of. Still, Marcus couldn’t help but notice a name popping up over and over in the text chat as well as people’s discussions. Something about SpaceSamurai.TV and a character by the name of Moze Lionheardt. A streamer maybe? Nobody Marcus was familiar with, that was for sure.