Hopping Celestial fox, chapters 1-3

Synopsis (WIP):

There are portals to another world all over the city.

And only I can see and open them.

That’s what I discovered when I got sick and tired of being shocked by these only-visible-to-me floating purple things and tried to rip it apart… Only to literally rip a portal into a familiar place from a VR game.

What is going on? Was it actually a real world all along? Were the devs aware of it? Could I… smuggle potions and magical items to Earth with this?

1 - Exception

“Are you sure you’re fine, honey?” Mom asked.

“I’m fine… Just a little lightheaded. Don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t help it. It’s been happening more and more often. What if you get seriously hurt one of these days?”

“I just need to rest for a bit. I’ll be fine.” I waved my hand.

I could see Mom’s eyebrows half-frown in the rearview mirror. She was definitely still concerned.

“I’m going to talk to the teachers. Maybe we can get you relieved of PE. I’m sure they will understand.”

I only grunted in acceptance. I didn’t like having an exception being made for me, but at this point, skipping PE would just be a relief. If it helped me avoid the…

“Honey, I’m still worried, though. Not just you collapsing, but if the hallucinations are coming back…”

“No, no, I’m fine! My vision just got a bit blurry.”

As I said that, I looked out of the car’s side window just in time to see the familiar visage of an ominous purple crack in space floating in mid-air just outside of the grocery store we were passing.

Mom sighed. “If you say so.”

I didn’t like lying to Mom, but I couldn’t help it anymore. Nobody ever believed me anyway and I didn’t want to go back to people thinking I had schizophrenia.

“Should I stay home with you?”

“Mom, don’t… I don’t want you to get into trouble at work. I’m just gonna lie down for a bit, you don’t need to worry.”

Mom could only sigh.

My gut clenched. I hated always being a burden.

Once we arrived home, Mom gave me a kiss on the cheek, told me not to strain myself too much, and then drove off back to work.

I watched her car disappear around the corner and sighed.

I entered our apartment building, drove the elevator to the fourth floor, and as soon as I was home, I headed straight to my room.

When I entered, I glanced at the stupid purple crack floating in the middle of my room. I’d somewhat gotten used to it over the years, but that didn’t mean I didn’t hate it.

Nothing I could do about it though.

I gave the purple crack the middle finger, changed into more comfortable clothes, and as promised, hopped into my bed. It didn’t take too long until I got bored and grabbed my phone to fiddle with it.

Seemed like Frank and Casey were worried too… Ugh, I’d forgotten to check my messages after I collapsed.

“I’m… fine… Just… a bit… light… headed…” I spoke the message I was typing out loud.

I sighed. Being relieved of the PE might actually be the best solution, though. Better than worrying everyone every time that stupid thing in the gym hall zapped me.

As if to argue with my thoughts, the purple annoyance in my room crackled and shifted, catching my attention.

“Shut up! It’s all your fault! What the hell are you, anyway?!” I shouted at the inanimate thing.

The thing crackled again in response.

I growled at it.

I’d been seeing these things ever since I was aware of myself. At first, they had been tiny and harmless. The past me had even found them pretty.

But as time had gone on, they’d grown larger and had been nothing but trouble for me. Touching them or sometimes even getting close to them shocked me. Not that big of a deal normally, but when exhausted from PE, getting shocked like that tended to knock the lights out of me.

Shaking away these thoughts, I took up my phone and began browsing. Apparently, Rogue Life Online had gotten a pretty big update yesterday. A new area with a new quest and finally a fix to the annoying collision bug.

“Hmm…” Looking at the full changelog made me want to play again.

Assuring myself I had rested long enough, I got up and turned on my computer. While it booted, I browsed the forums on my phone to see what other people thought of the new content.

Then, a crackle.

“Whoa?!”

I jumped, dropping my phone. It hit the floor with a crack.

“No no no!”

Luckily, my phone only had a cracked screen and seemed to still be working.

I sighed in relief… Before glaring at the purple crack that had nearly cost me my phone.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

Why was I the only one who could see those things? Why was I the only one who could be affected by them? They always just ruined everything. And kept dragging Mom into it too. She was stressed enough. She didn’t need this!

At that point, my anger exceeded my caution and I walked up to the stupid purple crack. As always, no matter what angle I looked at it from, it looked identical. As if it was a 2D picture always facing me.

I punched it.

“Agh?!”

My fist phased through, but not without getting shocked. Even if I’d expected it, it only pissed me off more. I tried grabbing the thing even though I knew it was impossible. Even though it hurt my fingers.

“Wait, huh?”

I grabbed it. Somehow.

“What the hell?”

I’d always stayed away from them since they kept zapping me, but I could just grab them all this time? No, hadn’t my fist just phased through?! How did this make any sense at all?!

“Nugh!”

Even though I’d grabbed it, I couldn’t move it in any way. But now that I knew I could, I tried several different approaches. Pushing, pulling, crushing it. Nothing worked until I grabbed it with both hands, my fingers digging in the middle. I wanted to rip the stupid thing apart, the pain of being shocked be damned.

“Ngwhaaaa!”

And I did. The space tore open and I fell on my butt because of the unexpected movement.

“Ow, what in the…”

When I looked up, I froze.

There were… trees. A picture of trees? All surrounded by a purple frame. No… there were trees inside the purple thing I’d just torn open?

I carefully got up and approached the phenomenon floating in the middle of my room. When I got closer, it got even weirder. Not a picture, rather, it was almost like a window to another place. A familiar place.

I lifted my hand and tried touching the space inside the purple frame. My hand went through.

…

I took a deep breath–

“Okay…”

– and poked my head through it.

On the other side lay a sprawling orangish-yellow forest. When I looked down, the purple frame was still there, even on the other side.

I gulped… and then proceeded to pull my entire body through the portal.

I stood in the Golden Woods, completely mesmerized.

“No… way… This is… from the game…”

I recognized this place. It was a mid-level area inside Rogue Life Online. Except… it was real. Not in the game. Unlike the imperfect VR, I could feel the breeze, I could smell the nature, I could feel the grass beneath my feet.

Suddenly, I felt dread. I whirled around and found the portal still present. I didn’t hesitate and immediately jumped through it head first and found myself back in my room.

“Alright… Okay…” I said to myself while standing up.

So, I wasn’t stuck in a game world or anything like that. I just–

I turned around.

– had a portal into the game world inside my room, apparently.

2 - Import

Alright, calm down. I should calmly analyze the situation.

So… There had been a portal to a game world in my room this whole time. How was that even possible? Rogue Life Online had first launched only five years ago, but this portal had been here for way longer.

No, no, more importantly, what was I supposed to do with this?

Other people couldn’t see the purple cracks, but could they see this? Was there a way to close it again? Should I go ahead and explore? What if the portal closed behind me and disappeared? Would I be stuck in a game forever then?

…

I turned to my computer, which had booted up a long time ago while I had dealt with the portal. I needed to at least confirm something.

I sat down at the computer with the portal ominously humming behind me, launched RLO non-VR version, and logged in. I ignored all the greetings from my clan members and immediately grabbed a teleport flower to the Golden Woods.

Then, I realized I didn’t know where exactly the portal was supposed to be. I got up, carefully approached the portal again, and scanned the surrounding area on the other side.

“Alright, that tree over there… and then there’s a group of flowers here… Oh, I know where this is.” I memorized a couple of landmarks and went back to the computer.

A few minutes of navigating my character later, I found the spot. Unfortunately, the portal was in an untraversable area just off the main road. Still, I moved my character into the general area and then went to the portal again to see.

“No fucking way…” I whispered to myself as soon as my eyes caught the sight of the fox-eared girl character standing in the distance. My game avatar.

Caution be damned, I squeezed through the portal into RLO again. I traversed the supposedly untraversable woods and walked onto the path where my character stood.

Blue fox ears and hair, a battle dress, and a katana on her back. Yeah, I’d made a fox girl character. Because both foxes and girls were cute. Even though I was neither.

“Uh, hi,” I awkwardly greeted her.

She stood in place with the default facial expression plastered on her face, staring off into the void.

“A-are you actually alive…?”

No response. I began to feel a bit dumb. But at the same time… seeing her like this felt surreal. I felt like I was dreaming.

Since she wasn’t responding, the awkward me decided to poke her face with a finger. It felt like real human skin. I kept poking her cheek, bewildered. I also tried grabbing her shoulders, her ears, shaking her… but nothing produced any reaction. She was like… a doll, or a robot without any instructions.

“Alright…”

Although I was still confused, my caution caught up to me again, and I decided to leave before the portal vanished for some random reason. I ran off into the forest again and found the portal still there. I went through into my room, but my knee clipped the portal’s rim.

“Ack!”

It shocked me again. Stupid thing…

Once I made it back into my room, I headed for my computer and sat down with a sigh.

Just as another test, I hovered my mouse on the log out button and then turned to look through the portal at my character. I clicked and she vanished.

“What the hell…”

Everything about this was surreal. Moreover, this was just one of many purple cracks I’d seen. Would all of them lead to somewhere in RLO?

…

Could people come from the game into my room? Could monsters barge through while I was sleeping?

With that scary thought in mind, I approached the portal once again, this time with the intention to close it. Could it be done? Should it?

A minute of glaring at the portal later, I steeled myself and grabbed the portal’s borders. It shocked me again, but I persevered and did my best to force it shut.

It crackled and fizzled, resisting my hands, but eventually gave in and the portal snapped shut back into its familiar purple-crack-in-space form.

I fell down with a tired sigh. But as soon as my fingers touched the floor, I recoiled.

“Ow!”

My fingers were smoking.

“Oh shit!”

I had done my best to ignore the pain, but this wasn’t funny anymore.

I quickly ran to the bathroom, opened the cabinet, and took out some bandages. Even as I treated my poor fingers, I thought about the absurdity of what I had just experienced.

Was the game not actually a game? Could it be a real alternate world we humans had invaded with our player avatars?

Absurd. Ridiculous.

I should investigate the developers of the game in more detail. There had to be more to this. They had to know RLO was a real world, right? Why were they hiding it? Why make a game out of another world?!

As I finished wrapping my fingers up, I looked at them and realized…

“Ah, crap… How am I gonna explain this to Mom?”

I deflated on the ground with a sigh.

If only there was an easy way to magically heal them like in a… a…

…

… a game.

I picked myself up, walked back into my room, and stared at the portal.

On one hand, it felt really dumb and stupid. I would be damaging my fingers even more for a chance to heal them. It wasn’t even guaranteed healing potions from a game would work on me.

But on the other hand… If it worked… If it freaking worked…

“Oh, what the hell.”

Once again, I gripped the portal with my fingers, ignoring the rising pain, and tore open a hole in space like it was paper. The same scene of golden yellow trees awaited me.

Well, at least it seemed like the portal didn’t randomly change destinations.

“Alright.”

Meaning I could open and close the portals at a whim at the cost of injuring my fingers.

“Now…”

I turned around, stepped over to my computer, carefully put my hurt hands on the keyboard and mouse, logged into RLO again without even sitting down. Searched my inventory for a healing potion and dropped it on the ground. All while checking the portal and seeing my character perform all these actions.

Once done, I logged out, and stepped through the portal, nervous but also kinda excited. I ran to the road, found the dropped potion, picked it up, carefully uncorked it, and poured half of it over my left hand’s fingers.

“Huaaa?!”

It was the strangest sensation. Both scorching hot and ice cold. I felt my entire body shiver even as I hyperventilated.

But a few seconds later, when the sensation passed, I realized… My fingers didn’t hurt anymore.

“Oh my god…”

I put down the potion, undid the bandages on my left hand, and stared at the completely healthy fingers.

My mind raced with the possibilities. But once again, I didn’t want to risk getting stuck in this world should the portal randomly disappear.

I grabbed the potion and the bandages and made my way over to the portal again.

Still there. Good.

I crawled through it back into my room, the potion and the bandages in hand.

I had just smuggled a magical healing potion from a video game into the real world.

…

That was when I realized I had a huge grin on my face.

3 - Ping

“Aaaagh…”

The VR of today wasn’t perfect. It could only stimulate your vision and hearing, as well as read your movements to replicate them in-game. But anything more, like the sense of smell, touch, or… the weird pain of using a healing potion on your injured fingers, none of that was in the game.

“Ahh…”

The weird sensation finally ended and I was left with both of my hands healthy.

Yup, the healing potion I’d brought over to the real world… or rather, over to Earth, worked, no problem.

Still, just the fact that I could smuggle game items in here… Could I possibly make millions selling healing potions? No, that would definitely put a target on my back. Ugh…

But it would be such a waste to keep it all to myself…

Maybe I could anonymously donate a potion to some research facility? Would humanity make a breakthrough in medicine? Would it even be taken seriously? It would probably just be disposed of as some dangerous chemicals…

I sighed.

Let’s shelve that thought for now.

There were so many things in the game world that didn’t exist on Earth. Like magic. Unlike other games, RLO didn’t use mana for its magic system. Instead, there were runes and enchantments that enabled people to use magic. The teleport flower, for example, had a specific enchantment that teleported you to the Golden Woods.

Would the flower work even here? Could I teleport from anywhere on Earth to the game world with it?

So many questions.

I glanced at the portal again, laughing to myself.

Just a few minutes ago, I wanted to rip and tear these purple cracks apart. I wanted them to disappear and leave me alone. And now? I was enjoying having it around. Sure, getting shocked still sucked, but the possibilities this thing held were insane.

With my hands healed and plenty of time left till Mom returned to work, I logged into RLO again, teleported to my bank, picked out several potions and magical items, and then used the flower again to get back to the Woods.

I rushed back to the same spot.

…

But this time, there were people. Players. They were staring off into the forest. Right in the direction of…

I whirled around to look through the portal. My eyes locked with one of the guys ducking at the clearing, seemingly trying to get a better look at me.

I threw the chair aside as I stood up, rushed to the portal, grabbed it, and forced it shut again, ignoring the pain.

“Oh god…”

They clearly saw me. They saw the portal… my room.

…

That was… bad? Was it? They probably couldn’t see my face or my room all that well. Maybe they would think I was some kind of rare portal-creating NPC?

Maybe…

Either way. They had definitely been watching me. That confirmed that other people could, in fact, see the portals. Or at least, the player avatars could. Hmm, could they see the purple rim as well? I could check with my own avatar.

I grabbed my poor chair I’d knocked over and put it back into place before sitting on it. When I looked at my screen, I was already surrounded.

“Hey did you see that?!” the knight with a scar on his face asked.

“Some crack in space? And then that dude closed it?” his companion in robes continued.

…

The players. Right. My avatar was right next to them. And they were talking to me in-game.

“She AFK,” the last person, a tall man with deer antlers, said.

Oh. Yes. Definitely. I was AFK. Dealing with portal nonsense.

“Hi…? What’s up?” I typed.

“Did you see that crack in space there?!” the scarred guy pointed in a direction.

I turned my camera to look, but I couldn’t see the purple rim at all. I probably had to use my own real eyes to see it then…?

“What? I don’t see anything. What crack?” I tried acting dumb.

“I think it’s a teaser for a boss or an event! Some interdimensional magician! Hell, it might even be an ARG,” the robed person speculated.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Well, whatever! I’m gonna check the forums. I bet there will already be something about it. See ya then cutie,” the scarred one said and they all swiftly left.

…

Jeez. Cutie? You shouldn’t say that to me just because I had a girl avatar.

Sighing in exasperation, I waited for them to be out of sight before continuing my smuggling mission. I triple-checked if there were any nearby players and dropped everything I’d brought.

Then, I turned around, approached the closed portal, steeled myself again, and grabbed it before ripping it open.

Still the same place in the forest. Good.

I dashed through the portal and made my way to all the goodies. My avatar still stood there whilst staring into space.

First order of business, I opened one of the potions and washed my hands with it to heal my fingers. One moment of weird pain later, I was good to go again.

I grabbed everything else into my arms and rushed back through the portal. I put everything on my bed before turning back to the portal and forcing it closed for the time being. I didn’t want any more people to notice this.

My fingers hurt, but it was nothing a bit of healing potion couldn’t solve.

Everything still felt surreal, but I couldn’t remember the last time I was having this much fun. To think the most hated objects in my life would bring me this much joy…

With my fingers healthy again, I looked over all the loot I smuggled.

Now then… There were still a good few hours before Mom came back. I was going to enjoy my home alone time as much as I could. This is going to be awesome.

I couldn’t stop the grin on my face anymore.