"Ahhhh~" Rowan breathed out as he walked with onyx wrapped around his neck. He was walking down the hill from the forest he was imprisoned in for the past month. His whole body felt stiff as he stretched.

'It was so weird how we woke up today.' Onyx thought. 'It felt as though we'd been in a horrible fight.' Both of their memories blurred as they got up from their sleep that morning.

The city was right below where he and Rowan stayed, always looking busy.

"This is called 'the town of upgrades'." Onyx said as he was comfortably lying around Rowan's neck.

"Oh, so people come here to upgrade?"

"That's literally what I just said."

"Explain some more dumbasses."

"It's exactly as it says. I live right on the edge of this district, so when players cross over from other districts, this town is here to help them with upgrading themselves. The biggest corporations and agencies are located in these towns." Onyx and Rowan both started to get closer to the entrance.

"AEEEEEEE HHHH!!!"

Suddenly, a large group of people ran at him, screeching and yells in every direction. Once Rowan was able to get out of the pool of people, he took a deep breath.

'Thought I was going to die!'

He turned around to see what the commotion could be about, only to find this completely ripped man in full body armor that was gleaming in the sun. It was so bright Rowan just stood there completely shocked. The crowd around the man were all snapping pictures and holding up banners.

Rowan caught a glimpse of one that read 'Steph please break my bones'. His jaw dropped as he had never seen something so shameless before. Once he looked to the other side, there was another sign.

'Stephen, please step on me and run me over with a truck'

Onyx used his tail to lift Rowan's jaw and shut his mouth. There were many more but they seemed to be in a language he didn't understand. He looked closer at the man standing in front of him as he towered over all the people who were around. He had long blonde hair and long earrings that were so shiny they couldn't be ignored. Everything about him was just so in your face.

"Who's that guy?" Rowan asked.

"That's Stephen. One of the players on the leaderboard right now. He is of the current top generation." onyx answered him.

'So like this world's boomers?' Rowan thought.

"About the signs.."

"Yea you're going to need to get used to those." onyx said. "Most of this world is only made of three types of people. Reincarnations, travelers, and originals. Most that stay in these types of towns are failed reincarnations or travelers that are fans."

Rowan recalled what Onyx had taught him. Travelers are those who come from other galaxies without the system's help, unlike reincarnations. Originals are those who were made with this planet though they, for some reason, don't have systems.

He and Onyx kept walking through the stands, looking through all the items. Onyx had fallen asleep around Rowan's neck and Rowan just let him. He thought he could handle himself just fine. There was such a variety of people that Rowan was dazzled. Some were talking in gibberish as he walked by. He found himself floating towards a stand with all kinds of jewels he had never seen before.

*SLAP*

Rowan suddenly slapped himself across the face, startling the people at the stand. 'Stop that! I need to find myself some clothes!' He thought and walked deeper into the town. All the stands were so shiny that Rowan couldn't focus at all.

Some were selling casual clothes like shirts and pants that looked very fashionable. Other selling armor and all things shiny. As he was being bombarded by all the lights he looked over to the side and found a stall that was different from the rest.

It wasn't all shiny and glamourous. In fact, it was the complete opposite, giving Rowan some sense of normalcy in the town. He walked over and ducked his head to enter the place. It was crowded with all kinds of junk inside. There was metal at every turn and Rowan almost tripped on one.

*CRASH!*

The person inside must have heard the clattering, for a little girl with fins on the side of her face popped out.

"OH! hi!" The girl exclaimed as she tried to get up from the mess that was surrounding her.

*CLANK*

*PUCK*

*SMASH!*

After a series of loud noises, the girl was standing in front of Rowan. She was pretty small with a dorsal fin reaching out of her back.

"COOL!" Rowan exclaimed with a gleam in his eyes. He reached down to touch her ears and felt around them. The girl's whole demeanor suddenly changed and she went from cute and innocent to cold and disgusted.

"ummmm. The fuck are you doing?" The girl asked as Rowan orbited around her touching her fins. 'can't believe my first customers are weirdoes...' She thought, looking at the black-haired man. 'He looks kinda familiar…'

"wow. I've never seen anything like this before!" Rowan said.

"How? Where are you even from?" The girl asked. She was surprised, as it was not like she was the first of her kind on this planet.

"Somewhere up the hill. This is actually my first time in a town!" Rowan said.

'A newbie reincarnation.' The girl thought.

"hehehehehe!" She cackled with a devious smile.

"You must want some new armor! Ah yes come, come!" The girl said as she led Rowan deeper into the store. She quickly went back to her fake persona.

"My name is Raven! What's yours?" Raven asked as she dragged Rowan by the hand.

"Rowan!" He replied gladly, following behind her.

"Do you know you're my first ever customer? Just for that, I got something very special for you!" Raven spoke as she dug through the piles of clothes and metal. Because she was so small, she disappeared into the pile for some time. Rowan looked around to see so many different armors around the place.

There was one in particular that seemed to catch his eye. It was hung alone to the side as it was smaller than the rest. There were a lot of straps and belts attached to it to the point where the armor wasn't even shown.

"PAH!"

"EEK!"

Raven suddenly popped out of the floor where she disappeared, scaring Rowan as he was too focused on the suite.

"I found you something I think will help a lot." Raven spoke as she held up a hip belt that had pockets all around. Rowan was confused about why he would need that, and as if she was reading his confusion Raven spoke up.

" You're a player, aren't you? This hip belt is going to help you with carrying all your equipment and food. Do you know that many plants can be harvested and heal you throughout the forest? If you purchase these it will be so easy to carry them with you!" Raven said as she put on her best sails man voice. All she said was true, as her motto was 'never lie to my humble customers!'

"Woahhh." Rowan said." Okay, I'll take it!"

"Great, that will be 1250 coins!" Raven lied, already breaking her motto.

"OHHHhhhhh…" Rowan said. 'That must be this world's currency. Onyx and Talis both mentioned it.'

"Could you explain how coins work exactly?" Rowan said, running his hands together and smiling. He felt kinda embarrassed asking for some reason.

"Coins are what players get from their viewers and sponsors. You're from the milky way earth, so 20 coins here is around 1 dollar on your earth." Raven explained. 'I think.'

"What if I don't have any coins?"

"Then I'll just write it on your profile and once you start making money you can pay me back. If you can't in the time period we agree on, youWillBecomeMySlave. Anyways, what's your username?"

"Wait, what did you just say?" Rowan turned to her as she put a piece of paper in front of him.

"I didn't say anything."

"We're not just going to zoom past that…"

While the two were talking they didn't notice that the snake around Rowan had started moving. Onyx was waking up from his little nap.

*YAWN*

"Oh onyx," Rowan said as he turned to him.

'Onyx?' Raven thought. She gasped as she abruptly started to remember why this person looked so familiar. Onyx slowly opened his eyes and they both made eye contact.

"YOU!!!!!!"