FILE:001
.:monsters and mayhem:.

The bell rang and the response given by the students was far more cheery than usually. Maybe it was because everyone was in a good mood; maybe because it was a Friday and they wouldn't have to go to school (or do school work) for the weekend; or maybe it was just because for the next two weeks, the entire school would be off on spring break. It was probably the last one.

Negi Springfield was packing away his things when one of his roommates, Asuna Kagurazaka, came up to him. "Hey, Negi."

He looked up from his planner and smiled politely. "Yes, Asuna-San?"

"Yeah, it's spring break already, and me and Konoka already made plans for tonight, so we prob'ly won't get back to the room 'till late, 'kay?"

"That's fine," He replied, and she left the classroom with his brown-haired roommate. Sighing, he finished packing and, as always, left the classroom last, walking towards the dorm alone and letting his thoughts wander freely.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

The door closed silently as the lights were turned on and the ten-year-old teacher entered his dorm room alone as he usually would on Fridays. Asuna and Konoka would be out doing whatever they would and would come back late at night, worn-out, or sometimes even in the morning and muddled.

So, being the great chef he was, Negi boiled some water and made instant ramen (with chicken flavoring!)

"Chamo-Kun's gone too," He said, plopping himself down on his loft with a bowl of manufactured noodles and a laptop booting up. He sighed again and ate. Today feels weird, Negi thought to himself. It feels like I've forgotten something I was supposed to do, like—

And his phone went off.

Nearly dropping the bowl, the child teacher pulled out his phone from his pocket and flipped it open. 'REMEINDER', it read along the bottom-half of the screen. And in his little memo, it read; 'Open box.' That's it. Just two words; 'open' and 'box' that read, nondescriptly, 'open box' and was clearly describing about the opening of a three-dimensional object in a box-like shape.

"OH!"

Negi stuffed the last bit of the noodles in his mouth and set his bowl down on the table, rushing over to a sheet covering one half of the bottom of the his desk, whipping it off. And there was said three-dimensional object in a box-like shape, with a note that read 'NO TOuCHY!'

"Wonder what's actually in it..." And grabbing the letter opener off from the kitchen counter, he swiped the re-taped tape and flipped the flaps open to reveal the faint-green Styrofoam peanuts covering its contents. Though they seemed to overfill the cardboard, none spilled 'till Negi began grabbing peanuts and tossing them around the loft.

There was another box about half the size of the previous box which was opened lightning-fast. Some faint-blue peanuts this time but not as much as in the other box. And there were some things that would confuse anyone (slightly) if they didn't know what they were.

On top was a futuristic-type of goggles with a mini-microphone like the ones used for computers. Coverings covered the ears when worn, and a black strap with 'MM' went around your noggin, with a small-ish box in the middle of the strap.

Under that was a pair of black, finger-less gloves that had the same 'MM' stitched on the back of 'em. On one glove was a tube the sized of the fat markers from a copyrighted brand, with a joystick-looking thing protruding from the top; a few buttons were on the side of the tube. The second glove was the same as the first although there wasn't a joystick on its tube.

And under the gloves was something that resembled a GPS system. There was a slit at the top and a few buttons on the margin of the bottom of the face—a screen covered the rest of the front. There was a strap that was larger from the first that was connected to the back. There were two blank cards the size of credit cards with some odd lines going across the long-side.

Last, on the very, very bottom of the box was a booklet. That's it—a black booklet with a familiar logo on the cover.

"..."

Goggles, gloves, GPS-thingy, cards, and a booklet, all in the box protected by Styrofoam peanuts.

"Okay then." Negi said slightly puzzled. This wasn't what the child teacher was expecting at all, though maybe it was a bit overwhelming to a kid.

He grabbed the booklet and flipped open to the first page, which cleared up one question revolving around his head; what's 'MM'?

'Monsters and Mayhem,' read the first page.

Monsters and Mayhem—makes sense.

And he read on, his eyes widening so large it looked like they were going to pop out of his sockets. Luckily they didn't, but you could never be too careful.

'Oooh's and 'Ahhh's and 'Cool!'s and 'Awesome!' Everything seemed to awe the child, for Monsters and Mayhem was the newest and a very technological game, whereas the player can finally get into and interact with other players via (difficult) wireless connections.

Of course, it's all virtual, but still—

"Oooooh..."

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

The screen goes black the minute Negi pressed the button, and then the game loads to reveal the title page. It had the same logo as the glove and the console, and there were three menus to choose; 'PLAY' was the first but was darker than the others, 'NEW CHARACTER' was lighter and 'OPTIONS' was light, too.

He clicked on the 'NEW CHARACTER' menu to come to a new page. This one said NEW CHARACTER at the top and in the center was a box that read 'character name' and a keyboard with letters.

My character's name? Negi thought, staring at the blinking line and the letters. I never thought about what I'd name myself... Using the in-game keyboard, the child teacher picked out the first 'name' that came to his head. 'Airai'. That's me, I suppose and then clicked enter. A new page popped up which had two boxes, one read male and the other female. Instinctively, he clicked male and a new page came with a couple more boxes. These ones read 'human' 'elf' 'half-elf' 'dwarf' and 'halfling'. He clicked on 'human', and the next page asked which class 'Airai' would be. There were many choices to choose from, some of which read; swordsman, archer, mage, cleric, and thief.

I could go with mage or swordsman, but it would be cool to be something else. Gah, this is annoying! Negi made his decision after thinking warrior or mage?! so many times. The next page that came up took a while to load, but when it did, the newly-named 'Airai' was surprised.

This was more or less a quiz.

There were about fifteen or twenty questions, maybe—he lost count after awhile—and these questions were mostly personality rather than 'are you...?' or 'what kind of...?' They seemed so ordinary, like 'Out of the following foods, which would you prefer right now?' and 'What three words best describe you?'

Finally, the screen changed back to the title page and 'PLAY' was lit while 'NEW CHARACTER' wasn't. When you click on it, three submenus pop up, the first of which was, when clicked, a list of the dungeons and campaigns you could choose from, in order from easiest to hardest. There were only about thirteen at this time, and according to the list, there were two for 'noobs' like Airai. The one that sparked his interest was one name 'The Underland'—the second read something unintelligible to the ten-year-old.

So, he clicked on 'The Underland', and the game began.

.:.author's.:.note.:.

Chapter one finally completed after so long. If this game was real, I would be playing it already.

Anyways, I might need some ideas/inspirations for characters (OCs and character's characters) as well as for dungeons and campaigns and shtuff.

Sorry I haven't reviewed any stories for a while, but life can be busy when it wants to. And, um...Oh, I'll be away the week of April 7th during my spring break, so I won't be able to write then. I'll try to update this fanfic before I leave, but you know I never do, so it might be a while 'till chapter 2 comes out. (sorry (sweat))