OFF//WORLD: It's Easy to Save the Universe When You're in a Pocket Dimension

Chapter 2 - You Died.

The bold text would have seemed friendly as it hung in the void... if it had been anything more than wholly uninformative. Jain attempted to swipe it away, which is how she discovered she had no hands. Or body. Just a brain in a jar, adrift in the emptiness of eternity.

At least she was not naked.

"Okay... I died," she said to the darkness. "Now what? No congratulations this time?"

In response, the text faded from crimson to a deep gray that dissipated into nothingness and was replaced.

RESPAWN?

She tapped the button marked YES, or tried to. Without arms, she was not sure how she was supposed to... Oh.

"Yes," she replied.

Night begat day and Jain found herself tumbling through an impossibly blue, cloudless sky. Below, ringed in lavender twilight, the forest spread itself languidly like moss on a rock. Or a man riding the Superloop. And hovering within the trees at various intervals were little glowing dots.

Most of the dots were a gentle green. Some were blue; others purple or red. Each had a name and a number. NW-1, SE-1, a bunch like that. NW-5, that was a red one. SE-2 was blue. Locations and level requirements, probably.

This would have been interesting had she not been tumbling through that impossibly blue and cloudless sky. Wind whipped her hair violently as she fell, and she began to scream.

Then she saw it. A question mark. Barely visible at the edge of the horizon, glinting with a golden hue. Her voice caught against a longing that stirred like a scar breaking open in her chest... right before she smashed face first into the ground.

Aside from creating an impressive dust cloud, however, the impact hardly affected her. That was interesting, too.

She still wore the clothes Wrecka had given her. Sord's fuzzy slippers had gone missing, but as the dust cleared she saw them not far away. Quickly, she scrambled to her feet to retriev them. They did not provide much protection against the pebbles in the dirt, but they had been a gift.

Finally, she looked around. Same forest, different spawn point. She had landed on a stone slab of some kind, carved with runes like the ones Kindred had drawn on her leg. Probably not a coincidence. Jain would have liked to ask about it, but she had no way of knowing how far away her new acquaintances might be.

There was probably a way to befriend the players you met, but to find out she would need to open her player menu again... No, one terrifying descent was enough for her first day. Maybe tomorrow. Her first ten minutes with OFF//WORLD had been intriguing... but until she learned how to clear that stupid bug she was going to have nothing a bad time. Somebody online had probably posted about it by now. She could log out and check.

And she almost did, catching herself at the exact final instant before opening the menu again.

Oh shit, she thought.

Perhaps if she said "No" when the respawn question popped up again? The forest swayed silently around her as she pondered. It was worth a try, right? OFF//WORLD was just a game, after all. With a sigh, she opened the menu and the forest blorpped out of existence.

As before, the words "You Died." floated before her like eternal judgment.

"Yes, I know," she said.

RESPAWN?

"No," said Jain warily.

YOUR CURRENT PROGRESS WILL BE LOST AND YOUR CHARACTER DATA DESTROYED. THIS PROCESS IS IRREVERSIBLE. PROCEED?