Chapter 5: Different

After 30 minutes, she was finally done with her choices. She was now having a bundle of pink hair and her eyes were a darker shade of amethyst. Along her left collarbone, she had a permenant tattoo of a crown and hearts trailing after it. Additionally, she decided, her name would be Bi, short and simple if anyone actually decided to message her.

And she doubted that if she chose any other name, she would actually remember that it was her name and would proceed to totally ignore the person by mistake.

She spawned in the main square of a huge city. She glanced around and saw a few others, probably begginers as well, looking around with a blur expression on their faces. Bi An decided to explore the area first. As she walked around, she found herself circling the main square because she was too afraid to get lost.

"Well first, I guess it would be good to check out the quests that NPCs give out to beginners," Bi An mumbled to herself.

Just before she was teleported to this beautiful city, she was told that the commands would appear simply when she said it out loud.

"Quests." Sure enough, a blinking notification appeared in front of her with an exclamation mark and she tapped it with her fingers. The notification box opened and her first quest was there.

Quest 1. Visit the weapon store.

Due to it being beginner level, there were arrows provided in midair and one could follow them instead of using the town map. After a good 500m, she came across a huge building and when she entered, she spotted 7 or so players on the first level, trying out different types of weapons. This must be the main weaponry of the city. And I actually got 5000 gold for completing my quest.

An NPC came forward to greet her, probably going to say whatever they were programmed to say to every new beginner in town.

"Greetings, Bi. In Second Realm, players such as yourself will have one magical power and you may also choose a weapon to attack monsters and defend yourself. Magical powers can only be chosen once but weapons can be changed over and over again. Do note that your weapon skills will have different masteries and using one or two as a main choice would be easier than being versatile in four to five weapons as weapons get harder to master with every level up of your overall weapon mastery."

Bi An nodded and thanked the NPC even though she didn't needed to. It just proved how realistic the game was (and the fact that she was absent-minded).

Looking around the first floor was boring. They were mostly filled with large weapons such as hammers and lances and heavy swords. In most other games, Bi An liked the thief and magician class so why not?

She advanced to the second floor of the store. Upon her arrival, she spotted 2 other players, other than that, it was pretty much isolated and gave her the peace of time to look around. Bi An looked around until she saw what she wanted.

Daggers.

However, the two guys who were arguing were literally blocking the entire glass case.

"Hyung! Lend me some money!" The white-haired boy cried. "I would but buy the cheapest one. I need to get equipment too you know? Anyways, it’s your own fault for dying your hair with all sorts of colours with permanent dye. That's even more expensive than the usual ones!" The shorter one chided.

Bi An was amused by the situation and when she did observe carefully, she could see different colours on each lock of his hair. Well it does look nice but how is he going to buy any equipment then? She snorted softly to herself. Upon hearing laughter, both of them swerved back to see a pink-haired girl whose hair cascaded down to her chest and big amethyst eyes that were as shiny as said jewels.

And they both knew it was her real appearance so they did what normal people did upon seeing something pretty, they stared and blushed.

Upon seeing who they were, especially the white-haired one, Bi An did a double take before abruptly turning around and pretending to go to the long-sword section. She waited until they started talking again and heaved a sigh of relief. I know I said I hoped to meet someone here to counter my meek self in reality but Oh Sehun? You have got to be kidding; he's so much different in real life too! Talk about being sassy, he’s almost on the same level of ‘different’ as me!

She triple-dotted before looking at the swords, more known as katanas and thought about how she may need one of a more offensive weapon type. Anyways, they were much lighter than normal swords even though a little more difficult to wield. Upon seeing a silver one coated with intricate flower patterns, she bought it at 2500gold and once they were gone, she went to visit the dagger section to buy a steel black one at 1000gold, which was the best dagger they had in the store.

She exited the store and a new quest popped out.

Visit the armor store.

Again, arrows pop out to guide Bi An but the store was only next door so it was easy to find. Oh boy, was it fate or just plain bad luck. Instead of one classmate, the whole gang was here, and holy kimchi, they were being a public nuisance. "Tch. Joonmyeon-"

"Don't use my real name!"

"Is such a cheapskate, he only bought a 300 gold dagger for me!"

"Well, giving you 300 gold is the work of an angel. Knowing you, you wouldn't even return the money." A familiar red-headed boy sniggered.

Only one person looked back when the bells in the entrance rung. Bi An saw a glimpse of recognition in his eyes and she immediately turned back in shock. It can't be... He shouldn't be able to recognise me. I appear totally different for god's sake. Hello!? That’s what the pink hair is for, isn't it?! It was an understatement to say Kyungsoo was only curious. He thought he saw his new friend and classmate, Bi An, standing at the entrance right there. 

She said she doesn't play games. But it really looked like her.

"Yah, I'm going out to check something!" He said hurriedly and before Bi An could run to someplace to hide explore, he grabbed her hand. She looked back in surprise and Kyungsoo confirmed that it was indeed her.

"Hey."

MarioNe's note:
hello guys. hehehehehe. i think i should make a colour chart for their appearances but im lazy. gdi.