He and Kitana stepped out of the room into a narrow concrete hallway maybe 20 ft long. There were two completely empty storage rooms on either side of the hallway. At the end was a set of concrete stairs leading upwards. At the top of the stairs they saw DaLong, next to the door to the bunker, trying to get it open. Alan hurried up the stairs to help him. DaLong looked over at him, but didn’t say anything.
With one huge heave, the rusty hinges finally budged, and the concrete swung backwards, revealing a foggy sky. They emerged onto the top of a grassy cliff, next to a road, surrounded by what looked like mostly woods to Alan. It was hard to tell though, as the fog blocked most of his vision.
Occasionally, Alan could see the red roof tiles of various buildings around him, and they were next to some sort of body of water to the west, but other than that he wasn’t able to make out much other than trees and vegetation.
“Are you going to stand here, or are you going to scout?” DaLong asked after a few seconds waiting.
“Just trying to try to see some landmarks. Let’s follow this road, see where it leads,” Alan said to Kitana, pointing in the direction away from the water. She nodded, and began jogging before Alan could say anything more.
***
As soon as the road stopped descending, it started ascending. There were hills everywhere, and they were killing Alan's legs. According to an old rusty street sign, they were on a Lincoln Blvd. Alan struggled to keep up with Kitana’s pace, but didn’t want to say anything or demonstrate his weakness. Also, his attributes would increase if he worked hard, right?
A few minutes later, Alan glanced at his minimap. He stopped, almost face palming.
“Wait, Kitana, Eve’s already figured out where we are.” Alan had made sure Eve had downloaded a worldwide map before beginning the Game, along with all sorts of other information he’d found on the internet.
According to Eve’s map, they were now in the Presidio of San Francisco, which according to Wikipedia was a park that was formerly a military base. If they followed the road they were on now, they’d reach the Richmond District of San Francisco. The body of water Alan had seen a glimpse of earlier was the Pacific Ocean.
Let me know if you make a discovery like that, okay? Alan sent.
A discovery like what?
Like where we teleported to.
Affirmative.
“Ask Thiago what to do next, you can message him,” Kitana said, moving her hands about in front of her, exploring the map Eve provided.
“All right.”
Message Thiago, Alan told Eve.
Text or voice?
Um, voice.
Connecting…
A phone began ringing in Alan’s ear. A second later, he heard Thiago, speaking into his ear.
“Yes, Alan?”
“Um, Eve figured out we’re in San Francisco. You can take a look at your minimap. It should have updated.”
“Oh.” A few seconds passed, as Thiago checked out the map. “Very good. Have you found anything that might be helpful?”
“Uh, no not really, just a bunch of hills and trees,” Alan replied.
“All right, the next thing you should do is look for supplies. If this map is right then we’re properly in the Game now. I think San Francisco is under US military control, but I’m not sure, so try to avoid any other people you find. Remember that this place is a digital copy of the real Earth when the aliens first came here six months ago, so things may have changed quite a bit. Time in-game is four times as fast so two years have passed here. ”
“Got it, bye.”
End connection, Alan sent.
Connection ended.
Hey, Eve, where’s the nearest police station?
The nearest police station is approximately 2 miles away.
All right, set it as our destination.
Destination set.
The familiar blue line appeared before Alan. He turned to Kitana.
“All right, let’s try to go to the police station, hopefully we’ll find supplies there. It’s about 2 miles away, but we still have over an hour left to get there and back.”
Kitana shrugged. “Sure.”
A blue line appeared on the road in front of Alan, showing him the way to the police station, or at least where there was in the real world. On the jog over he tried making small talk with Kitana.
“So, um, have you played many video games?”
“No.”
“Oh, um, what’s your favorite anime or manga?”
“I haven’t had the time for either.”
“Huh, that’s cool.”
Kitana didn’t respond.
“Well, if you haven’t really played any games before, all these ability points and skills might be a bit confusing," Alan said. "I’ve found it best to try to stick with one sort of character and focus on doing that as best you can. Also, there are a few pretty useful skills that you can buy that will allow you to improve faster. I don’t know if you noticed them, but Skilled and Gifted seem pretty over powered.”
"Yes, those skills have been quite useful in accruing extra ability points," Kitana said. "I began with them.”
“Oh, you did? Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what other abilities did you start with?”
Kitana made a gesture, opening a menu, looking at it while she ran.
“Sword mastery, a various number of sword-moves the Game seems to have converted from the style I’ve learned, various breathing techniques, meditation, sprint, sneak, enhanced endurance, there are quite a few here.”
Alan opened and looked at his character menu. The only skills were the ones he bought, Skilled and the basic sneak ability.
You should align yourself and become “friends” with this Kitana. Discover her goals and aid her or blackmail her, Eve suddenly sent.
Um, right… I’ll do that, but probably not for the same reasons you want me to, and I’m definitely not going to try to blackmail her.
Fine. Based upon the games I’ve played, girls are likely to like you if you are strong, cute, handsome, charming, funny or a lovable buffoon. Based upon my observations, you would be best suited for the role of lovable buffoon. First—
Wait, no, stop. Too far. Please don’t give me relationship advice.
Is that a command?
It is. Stop.
Fine.
Blushing slightly, Alan continued jogging along the road. What were they talking about again? Oh, right, skills.
“Huh, that’s pretty amazing," he said. "I actually only have a few skills. Um, by the way, what level are you?”
“53.”
Oh, well that explains a lot… Alan thought. I guess abilities in the real world transfer over to the Game, which sort of makes sense if it’s supposed to represent fighting in your actual body, just virtually. Another reason all the people at the airbase were super buff and looked militaristic.
Still, to be told that I don’t have any skills worth mentioning is sort of depressing. I may have spent most of my days sitting inside reading stuff or watching things or playing games, but I also studied pretty hard. Okay, well, I studied hard when it mattered and I wanted to, so like, a few times. Whatever, I have Eve to do that...
Alan ignored the fact that a lot of his inability came from laziness. He’d do the hard work. At some point.
Alan began to tire, but Kitana kept up the quick pace. Urging his body onward despite the pain, Alan resolved to take this time to push himself harder than he ever had before. It was a game after all.