Seamus logged into TransformaZone for the first time. He usually didn't play any games like it, but he thought that he'd try out this adventure game because his friends had recommended it and it was free and, well, why not?
Seamus set up customising his character to look pretty much exactly like him—bright red hair, green eyes, skinny, relatively short, about 15 years old. He gave his character a couple abilities to help him through the servers—super-speed, extra strength, poison resistance, and a special ability that sounded like nothing he had ever heard of—"Defensive Mimicry of the Past". He also gave himself two swords, and made the clothes a tunic dappled with yellow and green camouflage, and pants of the same but darker design. A backpack of the same design came with it. Seamus also gave his character the ability to switch to a nighttime version of the camouflage when night fell.
Seamus clicked on "Fantasy" and "Start" and waited as the game loaded.
The loading bar filled up and completed. Suddenly the world spun. Seamus yelled out and squeezed his eyes shut. After a few seconds he felt the world slow and stop spinning. He slowly opened his eyes, then gasped.
Seamus was standing in a grassy field surrounded by rocks and trees. He was wearing the day camouflage he had designed for his character. He was wearing a belt with two sheaths on it, containing the swords that he'd given his character.
There was a lake on one side of the field. Seamus ran over to it. He was going much faster than he normally could run, and somehow he knew that he could run much faster, but only for a little while, and if he did so he would lose energy and food quickly. He stopped at the lake and looked at his reflection. His face was normal. His arms were way more muscular than normal. He lifted up his tunic and saw that had a perfect six-pack. In real life he barely had any muscle or fat—he was just skinny. He was still thin now, just much more muscular.
Somehow, Seamus could tell that he had enough food and water to last him until the next night. He looked in his bag and saw that he had several bottles of water and pieces of fruit, yet the bag was completely weightless. He put the bag back on and started walking around to see what he could do.
Seamus found a path through the woods and followed it. The sun was high in the sky, but not too hot, and the pine trees around kept him shaded and cool. Some snowcapped peaks rose in the distance. The air had some sort of glow to it.
Every now and then Seamus would spot a fruit tree and grab some fruit from it. He would occasionally go to a stream and pick up a water bottle there. He could sense that he had several days' worth of food and water.
After a little while, a creature leapt out of the trees and into Seamus' path. It appeared to be a giant wolf-man creature, with shaggy fur all over its body, a bushy tail, large wolf-like feet and human-like hands with huge claws, human-shaped but yellow eyes, a wolf's snout and ears, large teeth, and walking on its back legs.
The creature roared at Seamus and charged. Seamus yelped and dodged past it at high speed. He skidded to a halt and looked around. The path had changed into a clearing, surrounded by forest and with no way out. The trees were huge, the size of skyscrapers. The mountains were no longer visible. It was suddenly night and not day, and there was a full moon high above. Seamus was now wearing the night camouflage, and was emitting a soft glow. The creature also emitted a similar glow, but while Seamus's glow was a shade of red, the creature's glow was black. It seemed to be oozing darkness.
The creature spun around and charged at Seamus again. Seamus unsheathed his swords and dodged to the right of the creature, swinging his left sword at it and feeling it slice through.
The creature shimmered and disappeared with an angry hiss and a small cloud of darkness. The clearing was gone, and Seamus was back on the path. It was day again, not night, and the forest was normal again. The mountains were clear in the distance. "That was…interesting," Seamus muttered.
Seamus was wearing his day camouflage again. He put his two swords away and reached down to the ground where the creature had been. Some items had been dropped. The items were some meat, some bottles of blood that Seamus guessed were for making potions, and eight potions: two that read "Instant Health", two that read "FinnORLY Change", and four that read "Body Reset". He stored all of the items in his pack and continued along the path.