He opened his eyes in a rustic egg tart shop. It was rather beautiful, with little porcelain tiles on the walls and those little bamboo seats. He rested his arms against the table he was somehow magically sitting at. The table was cold, though, and it froze his elbows. He sat upright instead.
But… ah.
Where was he, exactly?
This shop didn't really feel familiar; he didn't think he'd seen it before. So probably not amnesia? And he was the only one in the shop.
He flexed his hands, fingers curling in before uncurling, deftly stretching like a pianist before a concert. It seemed as though his body was completely normal, without any external tampering like knockout drugs or roofies. Perhaps he had been knocked out by brute force, though it would have taken a lot, but it didn't seem to have any long-lasting effects. Like a concussion.
There were more important things to worry about, though, like those delicious-looking egg tarts on the display. Hong Kong style, maybe? With a hundred different flavors too.
Ooh! Crème brûlée flavored! Maybe getting kidnapped or something wasn't too bad after all, if only he had his wallet.
Wait.
…
Where was his wallet? And his phone?
Well, it did make sense that if there were any kidnappers, they'd take his valuables too.
At least no one was sitting across from him. It was a small table, and it would have been awkward from the close proximity.
POP.
He took it back. Whatever deity was out there must have hated him. A grinning blond kid shot finger guns at him, even though he had somehow just materialized into the seat across the round table.
"Hi!"
Nope. Too much magic bullshit for him. He leaned far, far away from the kid, who had been talking, although he certainly hadn't been listening. The blond was constantly making large, grandiose gestures as he spoke, sweeping hand movements just as energetic as he seemed.
Ming wasn't energetic enough for that. In fact, he could tell his social battery was at an all-time low. Who knew being near loud people could be so draining?
"Call me Huipao? Anyways, I guess we're partners for this scenario. Have you ever cleared it before?"
What? Scenario? Clear? Partners?
At least he knew that the last one was a definite no. Too loud, too smiley. Too… blond.
"Ah. I guess you aren't very talkative, huh? Any name though? Or I can just call you ge!"
He narrowed his eyes at the blond kid.
A name?
Hmm.
"Ming. You may refer to me as… Ming."
The blondie squinted.
"Ming like the classic textbook Ming?"
What was he going on about now? What kind of textbook had a Ming in it—
Oh wait, right. The classic Xiao Ming.
"No." He gruffed out. Annoyingly, his voice was scratchy and far too low. Human vocal cords were so hard to manage. Oh no, did he sound mean? Oh dear. Talking was way too hard. What if he messed up again? Best to keep sentences short.
"Ming as in green tea."
That was it. That was all the kid was getting.
That was enough talking to last two more lifetimes.
Never again.
But the blondie didn't take the hint.
He—no, Ming—could feel his blood pressure rising. The chilling cold of the table seeped into his fingers, and he looked down to realize that he had been clenching it for far too long. His knuckles were white, he noticed.
Oops.
At least there weren't any indents in the table yet.
He let go, slowly, as Huipao kept chattering.
"Anyways, I've cleared this shop twice now, but it's really annoying how the instance changes each time, right? Oh yeah! I've cleared three main instances now, and I'm a Darklance prospective!"
Ming squinted.
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
The blondie acted as if Ming had just insulted his entire bloodline and ancestors, leaning back in his chair and gasping.
"Excuse me?! You don't know the Darklance guild? Wait, are you a newbie? Makes sense I guess, but you're so—"
Tuning the rest out, Ming turned back to look at the shop once more. Where there had once been a fully barren shop, there were now about two to three people per table. He hadn't noticed them come in, though.
Teleportation again?
Some people looked like they knew each other. Others? Random strangers, like him and the blond kid.
Honestly, the kid was getting kind of annoying now, chattering on and on about his amazing guild. What was he, a D&D player?
"Any chance you're from LanXing? Well, I think the classification for it is something like 102? No, wait, ELX-102 Beta? Or was it 103?"
Ooh, interesting. Different planets. Perhaps everyone here, all of the other players, all came from different worlds. How exciting!
Ming prepared to stand up and rest against the back of his seat. Actually, the seat was really nice. Very aesthetic. Would buy. Maybe he'd ask the owners where they got their chairs.
His home was pretty bleak as of now.
His butt kissed the cushion to go, but the blondie immediately grabbed his arm, a panicked yet confused look in his eye.
"Dude, are you stupid?"
Ming raised an eyebrow back.
"I want to go order some egg tarts."
Oops. Ming hoped the blondie hadn't noticed the stutter. Social embarrassment could drag him as far down as it wanted, but as long as the other party didn't notice, he was fine.
The blondie looked even more confused now.
"Are you stupid? Did you not read the forum guidelines? Wait, have you not even figured out how to open the forum?"
What forum? What guidelines? Did Ming look like he had his phone?
"What forum?"
The blood drained from Huipao's face.
"Oh no, you are a complete newbie. But they held a quick briefing at the start? When we all entered the instance? Did your system glitch?"
Woah. Exposition, much?
"I… do not know. I woke up here."
The kid at least seemed honest; it would be good to play along. He seemed well-meaning too.
Well, it looked as if blondie.exe had stopped working. It would almost have been a funny sight, if Ming's legs hadn't hurt from the half squat, midway off the chair.
Whatever.
He sat back down.
But immediately, a waitress was behind him.
He didn't like her smell.
She was pretty, though, bright and bubbly. Dark hair in a bob, and an even darker set of eyes. No light in them at all. How unnervingly beautiful. She leaned at a perfect angle, clearly a customer service veteran. Delicate little hands clasped together, and a pearly smile flashed straight at them. If only that smile reached her eyes, though.
"Good evening, dear guests! Would you like to order anything?"
Ming looked at the blondie. The blondie looked back at him.
…
So much for being a three-time instance clearer.
But the kid looked slightly nervous, even if he still had the stupid grin.
That must have meant there was something wrong with the waitress. Well, he could kind of tell, but it was always good to have confirmation.
The kid was too frozen to speak, so instead Ming lied straight out of his ass. Back ramrod straight, summoning all the effort in the world to say a single sentence. It was a very difficult sentence. A very long sentence.
"Apologies, ma'am. My brother and I were about to order, but our mother said that she'd be here soon and wants us to wait before ordering."
The look in the waitress's eye dimmed, and she seemed rather disappointed. Her smile never slipped, though, and she responded in a grating customer service voice.
"No worries, guest! I will come to take your order when your mother arrives! We need to get the kitchens going anyways, new ingredients will be arriving soon as well!"
She skipped away into the blue doors connecting to the kitchen.
Huh, they kind of looked like the ones in Ratatouille, but a pretty blue instead of red. Maybe there was a magic rat in there too. Ming wouldn't have been surprised.
Huipao's stuttering broke Ming out of his musing.
"Woah. Are, um, are you sure that you're a newbie?"
No answer.
"Tough crowd. How weren't you scared though, didn't you feel the pressure?"
What pressure? Was this kid stupid? It was a waitress. Poor thing, maybe he had social anxiety.
"Don't look at me like that, the NPC was probably a ghost!"
Never mind, not a poor thing. Just a rude brat.
The waving from the kid was even more frantic now.
"Look, the others agree with me! She didn't even have a shadow! Her apron had bloodstains!"
Looking around, Ming spotted a couple of people looking at them, nodding.
Idiots.
Huipao looked to the sky, exasperated.
"Okay, I'm calling it quits with you. Confident enough to be a veteran, but you can't even notice that she's a ghost?"
It wasn't as if not having a shadow meant being a ghost. Bloodstains though… maybe she was just a girl with a certain side hobby? Nothing to discriminate against.
Obviously, someone working in a food shop would have food stains on their apron.
A large crack rang throughout the shop.