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Katsuki's in the middle of farming herbs for his alchemy profession when he sees it, or rather them. It's unbearable to watch. The zone he's in is a low level starter zone. The enemies cap out at level twenty and pose no real threat to anyone level thirty or higher. Katsuki could stand in the middle of a mob for hours while they wail on him and never take enough damage to die. This guy though, this obvious noob, has made six failed attempts at the zone boss. Katsuki could breathe on the boss and kill it.
He taps the microphone on his VR headset and a series of chat options display on the screen. The other player is still in the middle of resurrecting, so he hits the selection to speak to him privately. The player, R3dRi0t accepts. Katsuki taps to unmute his microphone and says, "The fuck are you doing out there?"
R3dRi0t's body stands up from where it was laying on the ground and there's a frown on his face, dark brows pinched together as he glares at Katsuki. "I'm trying to beat the snake guy for my quest."
Katsuki rolls his eyes. "It's not that hard."
"Says the level-capped player." R3dRi0t rebuttals.
Katsuki rolls his eyes again and taps R3dRi0t's character information. He's a level seventeen death knight wearing… wearing cloth armor? What the fuck? Katsuki's reply comes out automatically and unfiltered. "What the fuck are you wearing? Why the hell do you have cloth armor on? You should be wearing plate."
"It looks cooler." R3dRi0t whines.
"Do you want to fucking die? Jesus Christ!" Katsuki slaps his hand to his forehead in disbelief. Sure the guy's a noob, but to just scrap his assigned class armor for a lower one because it looks cooler? He takes a deep breath in through his nostrils to try and calm his rising blood pressure. This is what he gets for interacting with a noobie. He could just kill the boss for the guy, but then R3dRi0t wouldn't actually learn how to play the game. "Stay right there," says Katsuki. "Don't do anything."
"Where are you going?" asks R3dRi0t.
"Switching characters," says Katsuki.
He logs out and scrolled through his character selection screen. He's got a low level shaman he created but hasn't used, so he chooses that. This way, he can provide heals for the moron because R3dRi0t is bound to die again. Katsuki also goes through his inventory in search of appropriate gear for the guy. Most of the stuff he has stored away for other characters requires at least level forty to equip. He finds a couple pieces of basic plate armor and puts them in his bag, then travels back to the spot where he left R3dRi0t. Surprisingly, the guy hasn't moved.
Katsuki sends him a party invite and there's a confused look on his face until he realizes that the player inviting him is the same one that two minutes prior. "Share your quest with me." Katsuki tells him. If he's going to help the noob out, he will at least gain the quest rewards for doing so. He gets the notification for the party share and the quest is now on his screen to fight the boss. "Hang on," he says as R3dRi0t starts to head back to where the boss is. Katsuki opens a trade window and fills it with all the gear he pulled from his bank, along with a few enchantments for stat buffs.
"Whoa, dude!" R3dRi0t exclaims. "I can't take all this!"
"Yes you can," says Katsuki. "You're never gonna get anywhere with that shitty cloth armor. What you wear right now doesn't even matter. You're gonna be replacing gear constantly until you get to the endgame. You can worry about your appearance later."
R3dRi0t equips the new gear and Katsuki sees the stat buffs take effect when he drinks a couple potions and reads the enchantments. That's much better. Now, he actually stands a chance against the boss. "Just bash the shit out of that thing, and I'll keep you alive." Katsuki tells him. R3dRi0t nods.
Katsuki doesn't have much in the way of spells on this character. It's too low level to be worth anything, but there's enough that he's certain that between the two of them, they can defeat the boss. He stands behind R3dRi0t, out of reach from the boss's AOE, and begins to cast enchantments and healing buffs. He tells R3dRi0t what attacks to use and when to dodge, how to block with his shield, and when to drop his ult for best effect. It's all shit that should have been in the class tutorial, but clearly someone skipped that part. Fucking noobs, he thinks.
They beat the boss and R3dRi0t is hunched over with his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. "I didn't realize this game would be so labor intensive."
"It is a virtual reality game." Katsuki reminds him. "You have to actually move around and do shit rather than just mash buttons."
R3dRi0t straightens up and smiles at Katsuki. "Thanks so much for your help," he says. "Would you maybe wanna keep playing together? I barely know what I'm doing."
Obviously. Katsuki thinks about it for a minute. He's been bored lately and he had planned to spend several hours just monotonously picking herbs. If he chooses the same professions for this character, he can still do that while assisting R3dRi0t with his leveling. "Sure," he says. "But you better fucking listen to me or I'm not going to help you," he adds for effect.
"You got it!" R3dRi0t gives him a thumbs up and a smile. He knocks his fists together in some sort of victorious power move and points towards the nearby city. "Gotta turn the quest in."
Katsuki knows. He can see the arrow on his mini map, but he lets R3dRi0t lead the way. It's not like Katsuki has anything better to do. He also doesn't totally hate the sound of R3dRi0t's voice in his ear.