Travelling without the Chaos Gate was a lot simpler and swifter. Sometimes it led to boring places.
And sometimes it led to treasure troves like this.

The skies were blooming with colourful sparks of fire. The music was mysterious yet fun. The people of the village were strange, and the food was good. A long-necked woman (a very long-necked woman) offered him a stick with three grilled off-white balls. Ones-and-zeroes told him that it was reminiscent of pancakes and marshmallows, a perfect fusion. The charred bits, he thought, were his favourite bits.

He tried his hand at fishing with the paper scoops (it was rigged; the fish he caught had wings for fins and flew back into the water).
Then he tried a game of ring toss, which earned him a stuffed panda plush.
Then another food stall with stove-top fried noodles.
Then he noticed an NPC child crying about a lost balloon. He had black and blue eyes, and something told 11H that that was important to him for some reason… So, he offered his stuffed panda to the NPC child. “Here you go.” The tears stopped and the stuffed toy was held onto tightly. The mother-son pair were then off, following their usual pre-designated path.

Though speaking of pre-designated, there were some entities that didn’t follow a strict path. “All right, I’m logging off!” one said. Red eyes followed the direction of the audio until he found a pair of female Player Characters. One had pointed ears. The other was short and round with raccoon ear and tail.
“I think I’ll log out at the Lucky Cat, though, for the sake of RP! I’m kind of curious to see if any special animations or cutscenes come with logging in and out at an inn room here.” Said the other.
It was a strange conversation. What did they mean by “logging off” and “logging in?”

As one pointed in the direction of the impressive building, red eyes followed suit.



He was not aware of this BBS post. He just happened to find himself at the right or wrong location at the right or wrong time.

11H was now at the inn with many coming and going. He paused in the alleged “meeting” spot and looked around with a box of noodles in hand, and a slurp of some in mouth. Now that 11H was here at the plaza where the Lucky Cat was, he was half of mind to check out the establishment fronts – assuming they weren’t just binary again.