An Artificial World

[Taika]

Should read the OP while listening to this.

At a turtle's pace I finally found myself in the pixelated forest outside the stone walls of the trumpet blaring San d'Oria. a quiet clarinet song ruffled through the trees, and that's when I saw something that left me in disbelief. A Rabbit?! Why is it running around? You mean to tell me the screen doesn't turn into a swirling vortex and transport me into battle mode? meh... At this point I couldn't even cast a spell, didn't know how. DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING. I felt lost, but I also felt the pinch of a little spark in me that told me if I wanted to play this game, I was going to have to try to figure it all out on my own. I was plane crash victim in the Alaskan wilderness with bunch of onions. I didn't think I would stand a chance. "So.. Now what?"

An unmentionable amount of time would pass, creating a montage of my prevalence, a small victory over defeat, the rise of a n00b. In my time I conquered the bees and worms of Gustaberg, learned to fear the goblins, and worked up the strength to tackle the menacing Quadav. I traversed my way through the swirling sands of the Valkurm dunes numerous times, learning along the way that I truly wasn't on my own, and that a group of other committed adventurers would be my only hope for progression. Now I stood as what seemed as an established Tarutaru Whitemage with that glorious badge of a sub-job, how simple those times were. The story doesn't end there though, I kept having to ask myself and others, "So... Now what?".

Looking back now at that very first time I swatted my staff at that poor, little, defenseless rabbit, I never thought I would find myself this engrossed in something as silly as a video game, but I did. I tackled the city missions, toppled the Shadow Lord, witnessed friends acquire Relic weapons, like unearthing ten pounds of actual gold, sat hours on end in hope of killing the Fafnirs, Nidhoggs and behemoths, my stomach sinking with excitement of capturing that always elusive Ridill and E.Body. I stormed Sea and Sky, dethroned their most complicated trials, with my eyes closed, not even needing a map and even went into the deepest depths to pull enormous dragons out the sky. Everything that game had to offer I dragged myself through. But that was almost 4 years ago when my time finally came to end. "So... Now what?"

You brought tears of nostalgy into my eyes, thank you!