Lost in Simulation

The guild chat is already abuzz with confusion, and it quickly confirms that other players are experiencing strangeness. Also at this point the players in the dungeon begin to notice something even more strange. The door they entered the boss chamber through no longer leads back into the dungeon. Instead it leads into some kind of strange white hallway.

Eagle frowns. "I think the old saying is 'don't go into the light' ... but, it looks like we don't have much choice."

"We can go into the dark instead, if you prefer," motioning to the pit in the corner of the room

"Well yeah, but the pit was already there. This, obviously, wasn't," Alina says, starting for the hallway. "As such, I'm curious what's in it," She adds, gesturing with her sword in the general direction of the hall as she talks.

Cole sighs. "Alright, so we're doing this. Great."

Through the door is indeed a strange, long, white hallway. It has a very phosphorescent glow, and as though al the surfaces are covered halogen lights. The hallway does not end in another door so much as it seems to twist and spiral in an odd way with gravity following the spiral. Finally the twisted white landscape opens up in a strange landscape of floating platforms that stream characters in green on black like something out of the matrix. Surrounding these platforms is a strange assortment of web screens forming a disjoint skybox. Several robotic looking entities fly between these pages. On the platforms are several other odd tunnels, many of which also have individuals walking forward. One group is decked out in old military gear and armed to the teeth with guns and grenades. Another group looks like a cyberpunk fashion show. Yet another appears to be a bunch of humanoid animals of varying sizes.

One path looks much more impressive than the others, but lacks any such grouping of people exiting it. The path is a triangular tunnel cut through a large red rectangle. Several floating neon signs around this tunnel indicate that this is the way to go should you want to escape. A voice echoes out across this strange space. "Hello, prisoners. This is your new warden speaking. I'm quite pleased with the turnout today. A good game needs plenty of players and you've more than delivered. But, you know, I think this is more fun if only the strongest move on. So this will be... a tournament arc! Yes, mwahahahaha! Fight each other for my amusement. The winners get to escape. The losers, well, I'm afraid death short circuits the VR devices thanks to a little software modification on my end. Have fun!"

"Sure it does, and that's all it takes because the hardware design totally allows this, for some reason a safety inspection board never caught, of course," Traxex mutters, before adding louder, "So, assuming we believe you, what exactly do we have the 'pleasure' of entertaining? Ex-employee with a grudge making a point about security measures? Basement dwelling troglodyte who got a little too bullied? Some stupid compsci student's overdone prank?"

"Who I am doesn't matter. All the matters is that you're all about to enter THE ARENA!" the voice says, and suddenly a large arena, appearing like a futuristic version of the Roman coliseum, rises from the center of the area. All paths begin to converge towards different entrances. "I recommend heading to your desginated rooms quickly. I'm going to turn off the outer paths in 10 minutes. Falling into that void of webspace below you counts as death. I added a killbox."

" So I'm guessing if we refuse to fight, or sass you too much, or do anything else you don't like, you'll just kill us anyway?" asks Eagle. "Somehow, you seem like that kinda guy."

"So on a scale of Hunger Games to Mortal Kombat, what kinda tournament we talkin' here?" Alina adds, just kinda ignoring the absurdity of the whole situation.

"Single elim?" Cole asks. "That's an amateur hour bracket."

"We gotta fight to the death?" Eagle frowns and looks around at their soon-to-be opponents. "Guessing these people ain't NPCs..." He shakes his head and mumbles to himself as he begins walking toward the entrance.

"Plenty of ways to win a fight without killing someone; question is how many of them are thinking the same thing, and how many are going to panic and stop caring?" The ranger heads towards the arena as well

"Honestly Trax I think you were right earlier," Cole comments. "The line about the helmets is straight out of that trashy anime. I don't believe this is lethal for real for one second."

The group enters through their doorway and finds themselves in a room resembling some sort of waiting room. Several chairs sit around the room with tables and magazines. An outdated looking speaker system plays an old muzak tune. A large set of doors is the only other exit, and the entrance closes as soon as the group is fully in the room. An electronic sign above the other exit reads "Next Match: LARPcore vs The Furries."

Looking around, Eagle grumbles "Well, I hate everything about this room." Then he sighs. "Anyway, let me just apologize in advance, because my damage output isn't gonna be as good as it could be - I'm gonna be going for nonlethal takedowns."

Cole lets out an irritated groan. "I hate PvP," he mutters.

A female robotic voice echoes through the chamber. "Your match is ready. Please progress to the arena, or face annihilation."

The double doors swing open to reveal a large arena area. Five individuals that look like various anthropomorphic animals are in a similar room on the other side, tentatively stepping forward.

Cole strides forward, putting on a cheerful smile. "Hail and well met, friends," he booms in his best RP-hero voice. "Terrible situation we've been placed in, isn't it?"

"That's putting it mildly," the blue bird girl on the other team replies. "We aren't event from a combat game of any kind. We're usually just hanging out. You're going to slaughter us."

The rabbit coughs a bit. "That's not necessarily true, we do have some combat capability. I was looking through the mechanics of this arena in the lobby, and we have stat sheets. I think if we just try to fight, something powerful might happen."

"Yeah, but it feels rather...wrong to fight people with no experience in combat. Then again, I don't want to fight those modern looking soldiers either" Leona comments

Eagle looks at the other furries. He recognizes a few of them ... he doesn't know them directly, but he's seen their characters before.

"Well, the guy said we had to fight, but I don't think he said it had to be to the death," he points out.