Loopshard

The sound of wheels rolling over stone echoed through the air and Adam opened his eyes to see that he was travelling across a bridge, with intermittent bumps in his journey jolting him awake.

Mist hugged the edges of his vision and obscured the surroundings, but eventually the sound changed from stone to gravel.

He blinked and felt a change in temperature, with shade cooling him down and the silhouettes of trees rolling by on either side of him. The light of the sun above played across the canopies, and there was a sense that he was travelling at dawn, since the sky was tinted pink and orange where Adam could see it through the leaves.

Another blink brought him out of the morning fog to just beyond a small stone bridge. Adam climbed down from the back of the carriage, his movements not his own, and five other players dismounted as well, before they all watched the carriage travel back across the bridge and disappear up and over a grass-covered hill.

They were surrounded by hills that rolled like towering waves in an ocean, the green grass flowing back and forth with the wind. The sky above was dotted with small clouds and the sun shone down on them from above. It looked almost idyllic.

The cutscene was quick to let go of them, and everyone backed away from each other, except a familiar-looking Korean woman and a tall bulky Asian man. The light of Adam’s lighthouse buff flashed across them briefly.

His blood sense picked up all of their emotions. It was a chaotic mess of tension, fear, worry, simmering hostility, anticipation, and excitement. The Asian man was mostly just filled with calm and determination.

“Oh, hello again,” said the Korean woman as she spotted Adam. It was Seo-Yoon, the woman who had showed him how to use the Cloudmaker.

“Funny meeting you here,” Adam replied, feeling some of his own nervous anticipation die down.