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Prologue It's the year 2020. A young adult was strolling around the grounds of Jubrenan University. He was about 180 centimetres tall and had short, black hair that was swept forward. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and a matching dark blue coloured trousers. 19-year old Ivan sat on a wooden bench on the grounds and took a pocket book from his pocket. It was entitled, "MapleStory - A full guide to the game" Although his figure was perfect for a basketballer, he was actually rather addicted to a game called MapleStory, one of the best Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, commonly called MMORPG, in the world. As the years passed since the particular incident that had somehow claimed many real lives, it had taken a downfall, but the game managed to climb back up with waves and waves of upgrades, including the recently added Colosseum, a Player versus Player, or rather PvP, area. It was a special map in which players would fight and defeat each other. The security had also been beefed up and the current hacker population was next to none. "Hey! Whatcha doing there all by yourself?" a female voice rang from across the campus's park. Ivan quickly stuffed his book into his pocket and stood up to greet a female with long brown hair that fell to her waist. She was wearing a red-coloured one-piece dress. "Hi, Alexis." Ivan smiled at her. "You really shouldn't zone out like this. Come join the crowd!" she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the campus's main building. "Wha...?" his face turned slightly red and he followed her. Alexis was Ivan's girlfriend, but somehow the two looked alike so much some might think that they were twins. After a bit of a chat with Alexis at the canteen, Ivan quickly ran to his English class as the bell rang. He sat down at his desk just as the teacher walked in. "Class, today we'll be receiving a new transfer student!" the teacher announced. Some of the students went "Oooh" and "Aaah" as the transfer student walked into the class. "Hello everyone, my name is Lacus." the pink-haired girl in front curtsied politely. At a glance, you could tell she was Japanese. Her long hair fell down behind her in a ponytail and she spoke fluent, but slightly accented English. As her introduction went on, Ivan couldnt help but notice Alexis was staring at her. "Ummm, teacher, where should I sit?" she asked the teacher timidly. "Let's see...... Why don't you sit beside Ivan over there?" she pointed at the empty seat beside me. A second later, Ivan found that all the boys in the class were looking at him fiercely. Lacus took her seat and smiled at him. He smiled back and felt a dozen pairs of eyes on him. Lacus asked Ivan quite a few questions during class, and most of the boys started to get rather fierce on him. He was glad when classes ended and he quickly scuttled back to his room in the university's dormitory, getting tripped quite a few times on the way. "I'm glad that's over!" Ivan declared as he switched on his Latrinox 2200, the latest gaming laptop. It featured a widescreen monitor, a extended keyboard with extra hotkeys, a speaker with a subwoofer, a special add-on of his own, a slide-out minimap window along with a touchscreen. It was also rather light. The processor was quite powerful too and the laptop had a built-in wireless connection. Author's Note: This laptop is merely fictional, and does not exist in the real world. Ivan quickly booted the laptop up and pressed his finger on the "MapleStory" icon. Suddenly, the door opened and Alexis walked in. "Huh?" she looked at my laptop. I quickly closed it but it was too late, she had already seen it. "You never told me you play it too!" she blurted out. "No way... You too?" Ivan gasped and flipped his laptop open again. "Ivan-kun, how to do this...?" Lacus walked in the door, carrying an exercise book. She dropped it when she saw Ivan's laptop. Ivan quickly closed it again. "You too? I thought I was the only one!" she gasped. He heaved a sigh of relief, flipped the laptop open and continued playing like normal. "So you're a Hunter?" Lacus looked at Ivan's cartoon-like character on the screen. He nodded and pressed a hotkey. The character representing him in the game launching two arrows into a cartoon-like monster on the same screen. "So, you play too huh?" Alexis smiled at Lacus. "You too?" she stared at Alexis. "Yep, Fighter here." Alexis grinned. Her white teeth showed for a moment. "Oh! I'm a Cleric!" Lacus smiled. "So, you girls wanna show each other your characters?" Ivan pressed a button on his laptop's screen and it reverted back to MapleStory's login screen. "Sure!" both girls said simultaneously and Alexis quickly took the seat he had just vacated. "No peeking!" Chapter 1: Strange Occurrence "Rage level?" Lacus piqued. "13 and counting." Alexis grinned. As her cartoony character on my laptop screen slashed and killed a small cat, the words "LEVEL UP" appeared above her head. "Congrats!" I smiled. "Thanks!" Alexis replied. "Let's see now...... 2 points into Rage and another point into Power Guard......" "Hey, Lacus, what's your full name?" Alexis asked. "Lacus Mikael." Lacus replied. "Why'd they give you that name anyway?" Alexis, curious as she was, asked again. "My parents gave me the name of one of the main characters in an anime they liked while they were little." Lacus shrugged and typed in her login ID along with her password. "They also decided to make my hair exactly like Lacus Clyne's hair." she added. "Gundam Seed Destiny right?" I piqued. "Yep. I like that anime too." Lacus smiled. "Huh?" the program suddenly closed. "I forgot there was a server check scheduled today." I scratched my head. "Oh well, Alexis-san, Ivan-kun, do you want to go to the swimming pool tomorrow?" Lacus asked us. "Sure, why not? Tomorrow's Saturday anyway!" Alexis replied. My head jerked up. Swimming pool? Oh god...... not water! "I don't know how you girls managed to talk me into this......" I groaned as Alexis and Lacus grabbed my hands and pulled me towards the campus's swimming pool, one of Jubrenan University's many facilities. There were basketball gyms, tennis courts, archery ranges, the works. Somehow I liked being around bows, so I joined the archery club. Probably because I'm a Sagittarian. "Hey wait, you didn't give me time to get my swimming trunks!" "You're going to swim in that?" Alexis eyed me. I was holding out a pair of swimming trunks that were too small for me. "Hey, I only swam once in my entire life, and I almost drowned!" I said gloomily. Lacus raised an eyebrow. "Why don't we teach you?" Alexis offered. "But, I won't fit into these!" I pointed at my swimming trunks. Lacus took one quick look at my waist and ran off. She came back a while later with a pair of swimming trunks that were just my size. I put on my clothes over my new swimming trunks and stepped out of my room. Splashing sounds from the nearby pool beckoned and I ran towards it, followed by Lacus and Alexis. Both girls had already changed and were just wearing their normal clothes over their swimsuits. "If you don't run faster, the pool's gonna get too full for us!" Alexis teased me, easily overtaking me, being a member of the girl's track team. Surprisingly, Lacus also overtook me effortlessly, her pink hair flowing in the wind. "Not you...... too!" I panted. "Ex-girl's basketball team member!" Lacus explained and ran off with Alexis, leaving me behind in a cloud of dust. "Hey there! Even girls run faster than you!" a bunch of boys smoking beside a corner laughed at me. "Shut up!" I shook my fist at them and ran as fast as I could. When I finally reached the pool, Alexis and Lacus were already in the pool. I walked into the changing room, panting and showered after grabbing a locker key and stuffing my clothes into locker number 34. I gave the keys back to the attendant for safekeeping and ran to the pool. "Cowabunga!!!" Alexis yelled, hopping off the diving board. Her body was arced straight downwards and she hit the water with a splash. A shower of recently chlorinated water sprayed me. I spluttered and shrank back from the pool's side. "Sorry!" Alexis surfaced and hurriedly apologized. Lacus was laughing at me. This isn't funny. "1...2...3...4... You can only hold your breath for 4 seconds?" Alexis was obviously exasperated at me. "What? I've never swum before!" I choked on a mouthful of water and quickly spat it out. After a few minutes time practicing, I could hold my breath for maximum 10 seconds. "That should be enough for a few basics." Alexis smiled. She taught me how to tread water, which I learned eagerly. Alexis borrowed a snorkel from an attendant and put it on me. "Okay, now watch how I swim closely." Alexis took off into the water, her body forcing a graceful arc as she dived into the pool. I ducked under the water level, using the snorkel to breath. She resurfaced and began kicking her legs, propelling her forwards. She kept most of her body underwater and held her breath for about 30 seconds in this way. Her brown hair drifted on the surface of the water as she swam past. Eventually, she surfaced and floated on the water on her back, gazing at me. "Now, you do it!" she smiled. At this point, Lacus got out of the water and shouted to us, "I'll get towels!" I thrashed in the water, yelling, "Help!" for a few seconds before I realized the level of the pool water I was on only reached my neck. "Oookay...... watch me do it again." Alexis sighed and started to swim again. Suddenly, I saw a black hole appear in the pool, directly under her. I'm so tired I must be seeing things....... Then, I spotted a black scaly claw reaching out of the hole. Again, most probably a hallucination. Something odd happened. The claw groped around for a few seconds before a claw latched onto the top of her swimsuit! For some odd reason, she hadn't noticed it. Her swimsuit's top started to stretch. The sight of her swimsuit stretching gave me a bit of a mental shock. Hallucinations can't do that, can they!? I quickly ran as fast as I could towards the claw. Running in water is hard and I soon exhausted myself, but I managed to grab the claw and I punched it as hard as I could. The claw shot back into the hole and Alexis's swimsuit snapped back into it's original state while the black hole disappeared into thin air, or rather water. She didn't seem to have noticed anything, strange! She looked at me. "Now, can you do it?" she asked. I decided not to tell her about the freaky claw and I tried to swim. "Weird, I feel a bit top-heavy." Alexis admitted as we got out of the water. I was panting and trickles of water ran down my chest and back. Lacus reappeared with towels and we dried ourselves. "I guess I'll wear the swimsuit back to my room." Alexis put on her clothes and walked off towards the dormitories. Lacus, on the other hand, had put on her clothes when she had left to get the towels. I got dressed quickly and ran back to my room, thinking about Maple. "Master. I have found Alexis and Ivan." |
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