Pandora's Box

Chapter 10: August

1 hour until The Sealing

***

August opened his eyes to find himself staring up at a bright blue sky. Sunlight streamed through scattered clouds, causing him to avert his eyes from staring too directly. He clenched his hands at his sides, feeling the cool blades of grass underneath him. It was incredible.

August had long-since become accustomed to the capabilities of the Virtuo, but he had never experienced a game that felt as real as this. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. He could smell salt water with each passing gust of wind. It was as if August was really there, despite the knowledge in the back of his mind that he was more or less asleep in his bed at home.

Slowly getting to his feet, August began to take in his surroundings. He had spawned in a giant open field, and he couldn't see anyone just yet. To his right was a shore, with an ocean that seemed to stretch for miles. In the horizon, he could see what he he assumed was Mount Orthys, piercing the sky.

As he regained his bearings, August held his hand out in front of him and swiped up with two fingers. Just as he thought, this brought up the HUD, which showed an assortment of different options and customizations. He briefly tapped through them, familiarizing himself with the mechanics of the game. Eventually, he came across a social feature that allowed him to add friends.

Upon tapping the social tab, August saw that he already had pending friend requests from Clara, Thomas, Jasper, and Cassius. Accepting all of them, it wasn't long before a message popped up on August's screen.

Clara_Cat: Hey Auggie! Glad you figured out the friend system. Click on my name and teleport to my location. I'm in town with some of the others.

August clicked on Clara's name and saw the teleport option that she mentioned. Right as he was about to click it, August heard a shout.

"Uhhh, is anyone there? Zee? Mari?" the voice called. August closed the menu and and began walking in the direction of the shouting. Eventually, August spotted Alexandra and Jessica.

"Oh, thank gods," Alexandra said with an exasperated sigh. "Jess and I thought we were gonna be lost forever out here."

"Thankfully, our knight in shining armor arrived to save us," Jessica said with a sweet inflection.

August felt himself blush a little at the comment, and he sincerely hoped that his character model hadn't picked up on that. "Don't worry, you wouldn't have been lost forever. The worst thing that could happen is you would just need to log out of the game and text one of us"

"Well that was one of the issues. We couldn't find a button to log out," Alexandra retorted.

Curious, August reopened his HUD and began to look for a button to log out. Sure enough, there was no log out button to be seen.

"Huh, that's odd," August frowned. "We can ask the others if they know how to log out once we see them though. They're waiting in town for us."

August then proceeded to send a friend request to the two of them, explaining how to accept the request and then teleport to the town. After going over the instructions multiple times, the trio teleported into the town.

Upon hitting teleport, the world around August faded to white. After a moment, the world then began to fade back in. This time, however, August was surround by stone buildings of various shapes and sizes. Greek architecture decorated the plaza around him, and he couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of it all. Statues, fountains, and murals of gods and goddesses were littered about in every direction. It was as if August had really teleported to Ancient Greece.