Rapid Fate Online Chapter 4: Let’s Begin

The shop assistant didn’t even bat an eye as he answered your question.

“It’s $800.” [cannot be bothered to figure it out in yen please forgive my ONE lazy write up lol] 

You nearly choked on air.

“Umm so what does that cover?” 

“The nervegear headset and the game chip.” The assistant replied, like he had said this same thing a million times. 

“Ah, ok…is that all I need for the game?” You asked. 

“Yep.” He replied in a bored tone. 

“Ok…umm thanks.” You responded as you turned numbly and walked out. 

“Where the hell am I going to get $800 from?!” 

You got home that afternoon and looked at how much you had saved in your account. 

“$250.”

“Aww maaann.” You sighed. 

“Maybe I can ask to do extra work around the house or ask for an advance on my weekly allowance?”

The next month saw you working your ass off doing random jobs so you could earn that extra $550 to buy RFO secretly. You didn’t want ANYONE to know you had become interested in the game.

It was right on closing time late on a Thursday night that you appeared silently in front of the game store. 

You had on your favourite hoodie which was big enough to disguise you as you pushed the door open and shamefully made your way to the checkout desk with your head lowered. 

“C-can I please buy Rapid Fate Online?” You asked nervously without raising your head. 

The guy behind the counter just nodded silently and picked a package off the shelf behind him before turning back to you and scanning it. 

“That’s $800.” He said flatly.

You nodded and pulled your key card out [or wallet, with cash, whatever you want] and tapped your card on the credit card reader. [or handed the money over.]

The assistant printed the receipt out and put the game with receipt in the game shop bag and handed it across to you.

You mumbled a thank you and turned, making a mad dash for the door. You were so pumped on adrenaline that you ran all the way home, ashamed and elated at having finally bought the game!

The minute you got home you ran to your room. Closing the door quickly you jumped up on the bed and opened the box, yanking out the manuel and giving it a quick read. 

After figuring the basics out you quickly plugged the head gear into the closest power point and lay down on the bed, getting comfortable before pressing the power button on the side of the head set. 

You heard a loud buzzing noise and suddenly you were enveloped in white light. 

[WELCOME TO RAPID FATE ONLINE] 

Flashed up before your eyes and you jumped slightly. 

“Welcome! And congratulations on your purchase!” A friendly voice said. “Let’s get started! We need to create your character.” 

Two options then flashed up before you.

[CHARACTER] 

Or

[MIRROR] 

You hesitated. “What’s mirror?”  

There was a little information icon in the corner of your vision so you reached out and pressed it. 

Information on what both these options meant,  flashed up before you and you read that mirror would allow you to recreate your exact looks as your character in this game which you dismissed immediately. 

“Can you imagine if I just randomly walked around in this game looking like my ACTUAL self?! What if my B/F saw me?!” 

You quickly clicked ‘character’ 

You got to choose EVERYTHING relating to your features, from picking your eye colour right through to the shape of your nose. 

When you were satisfied with the look of your character you had to pick an online name, or username. 

You thought for a bit. [this is where you can choose whatever name you like] 

“O/N.” You thought, “that’s perfect.”

Selecting the keyboard from the menu bar you typed in your username. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _| 

[ENTER] 

[CONGRATULATIONS!] 

The message said. 

[USERNAME ACCEPTED!] 

Enter game?

[YES]                     [NO] 

You selected [YES] and the voice spoke again. 

“Welcome to Dawn City! The only City on level 1, from here your journey begins, you may choose whatever class you like, just ask the guides for assistance. These are the people with the purple cursor above their heads. Good luck and have fun!” 

And with that you were immediately transported to the center of the city you had visited once before from your B/F’s account. 

You became immediately excited to be back here because you’d had been thinking about this game for a good month now and had worked hard to get it. This was going to be fun!

You wandered around a bit just observing what players did and you remembered Yui saying she was a merchant. 

“Maybe merchant is a good place to start?” 

You wandered into a quaint looking shop and the man behind the counter had a purple cursor above his head. 

“Oh!! Awesome! Someone who can help me.” 

You walked up to him eagerly. 

“Hi! I just started today, I want to become a merchant.” You said brightly. 

“Wonderful! That’s fantastic!” The guy replied happily. “First of all you will need a basket.” He said, turning around and pulling a wicker basket out from a bottom shelf. “Take this basket and fill it with foods to sell. There are plenty of wild vegetables and fruits in the fields and forests around Dawn City so look there first. Each food item is given a mahi value. – Mahi, is the currency used in Rapid Fate Online.” He added with a smile. “You can then sell these to get mahi to then buy essential items.” 

“Oh I see!” You replied cheerfully. “Thank you, I’ll start right away!”

“Just beware of the monsters.” The help guide said as he waved you off.

“Great, monsters. Well Yui said they’re weak and I can easily outrun them so no problem.” 

You smiled happily as you headed down the cobblestone road to the gate that led to the fields. 

“Time to make a fortune!” 

You skipped around the fields a bit, bending down and tapping different flowers to see if they showed an item bar but none of them did so you headed towards some bushes. 

The first bush you came across had red berries on it and you tapped on one. An item bar showed up immediately, saying that these berries were good for eating and were called Goji berries. They were worth 1 Mahi. 

“Hmmmm well if I pick enough berries and sell them all I could be rich in no time!!” 

You happily started stripping the bushes of these berries, each shrub was laden with the fruits and you couldn’t understand why no one else was out here picking these?

<<< Rapid Fate Online Chapter 3: A Taste Of RFO

Rapid Fate Online Chapter 5: Berry Frustrating >>>