Kevin and Wren

You and your best friend in the whole world, Wren, look flabbergasted at your respective user interfaces as they repeatedly flash the msg: 'Player cannot log off until lvl 70.'

The two of you have been playing for the last 5 hours, becoming acquainted with your new avatars and the surprisingly flexible combat system as you hunted boars together in a large field. You were both going to take a break to eat since you have worked up quite a hunger by spamming dodge away from these large, hairy pigs. You and Wren look over and grin at each other, simultaneously recognizing your situation as Totally Badass!

"Hey Kev, we should probably lug some of this boar meat back to town if we want to eat, huh?" Wren says, taking out a hunting knife and moving to drain one of these pigs.

The game you chose to play together, World of Roev, is primarily focused on the hunting of large monsters. However it balances this gameplay on the sturdy framework of a fantasy mmorpg with combat and skill levels, party mechanics, and even pvp areas. One of the most high-tech games on the market, it requires a special headset called the Band that stimulates the brain directly as you lie down, perfectly replicating every sense.

You wonder if the map is extremely big or if there just aren't many players on the server yet since you haven't seen many people while the two of you trained up to lvl 4. Wren chose the marksman class and currently has a longbow around his chest while you decided to live out your roguish fantasies with dual daggers in the scoundrel class. Although lacking a frontline, the two of you are able to dish out considerable damage while keeping yourselves far away from the monster's tusks with your various mobility skills.

The World of Roev sports many fantasy races all working and living together in relative harmony to survive in a harsh land full of dangerous monsters. However, despite the menagerie of orcs, elves, dwarves, and more, the only playable race that you and Wren had your eyes set on were the beastmen.

Wren chose to be some sort of lithe panther man while you settled on a wolf-lion hybrid. It is the king of the junjle after all. You had also read somewhere in the weeks leading up to the release of the game, that making your avatar smaller would increase stealth and reduce the size of your hitbox. Frankly, there didn't seem to be any reason to make a large character, so it was totally a pro gamer move to be playing diminutive furry femboys right now.

***

The two of you sit at a table in the starter town's tavern, finally enjoying a delicious meal. The carving of the boars did not go well but you managed to sell enough rough pieces of hide and cuts of meat to afford a 5 silver meal each and have almost 50 silver left over. As you and your bro scarf down saucy slices of meat and fried grains, feeling completely invigorated in the process, you start to chat about your next moves.

"I'm down to head right back out to the boar field." You say, "I think we should do a little grinding on our survival skill so we don't ruin anything more valuable than pig skins." The sun is going down outside the windows and you both look out at the deep cerulean sky.

"I think I'll be able to see in the dark. Y'know, being a cat and all." Wren looks to the side and blushes a little. It's really cute. "But I'm not sure how easy it will be to aim my shots in greyscale. We should definitely take it slow and stay by the village."

"Sounds like a plan."