VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

"No way. Is that... Grass? It can’t be, right?" One of the soldiers muttered, as the group moved through the forest. It had been all about tight formations and moving as a group, making as little noise as possible, for the last five minutes until finally one of the soldiers couldn’t help himself.

At the first sign of the green blades sprouting from the dirt, he immediately broke formation and darted over to it, attracting the attention of everyone else that was walking with them.

No one could even scold him for it, as he knelt down and tenderly touched the dozen or so blades of grass that sprouted up in a singular tuft, amongst the miles of barren forest. They too would have had the same reaction, had they spotted it first, although many were already scoffing in doubt as they shook their heads.

"No way, It can’t be. You seen this place? It’s dead. Nothing could live around here. Rain would have killed it years ago." One of them insisted, whilst another sighed in annoyance.

"He’s right. Come on Hazard, Let’s move it. It’s probably just a tuft of AstroTurf that fell from a carrier or something."

"No, it’s real!" The soldier named Hazard insisted, as he gently and tenderly stroked the grass like it was a puppy, "It’s actually real... I can feel it. You guys gotta feel this man, it’s unreal. I never though that- No way... A Mushroom?!"

Hazard gasped like a child on Christmas, scampering on all fours towards a tiny, dirty brown mushroom that was just barely peeking out of the ground.

However, when he reached out to grab it, a cane slammed down between the two of them and just barely avoided skewering his hand to the ground.

"Don’t touch that." Valerie said lowly, her eyes narrowed into a withering glare at this foolish man.

He looked up at her sheepishly, a hint of fear in his eyes, before he regained his composure when he heard his comrades snickering at him.

Sitting up onto his knees, he glared back at her whilst puffing out his chest slightly.

"Why shouldn’t I? I mean the guys said it themselves, if we left it here it would probably die. This is just a miracle that was waiting for our help."

"It’s just grass." Valerie muttered monotonously, already exhausted with this man’s energy.

"Just grass?! Just grass she says! Ha! Well little Miss ’Just Grass’, Do you know how much that would sell for? Just that tiny little mushroom alone could easily get us like 2 grand if we can get it fresh and replantable.

Now that might not sound like much to a rich princess like you, but for us common folk that many Ollies can really help out. Even if its for something as stupid as ’just grass’."

Hazard practically spat it at her, his nose scrunching with barely hidden disgust.

Valerie narrowed her eyes, scowling deeper and had a look like she was ready to punch her cane through his head, before she simply sighed and let her scowl fade away.

She lifted her cane, turned on her heels and continued on their path.

"Just don’t touch it, for your own sake. The one we are going to meet won’t take kindly to it."

Honestly, as much as his attitude pissed Valerie off - especially as someone who was technically his employer for this mission - she could hardly blame him. It was hard to find the space for anger when she knew exactly where that attitude was coming from.

He was right, that much money could be life changing for some people, or at least relieve the stress of debts or bills for others. There was a time in her life that she would have been the one crawling across the floor for that much money, and yet now she could piss that away on a ’tip’ for a friend and barely feel a thing about it.

Perhaps the differences in her race was not the only thing that was changing her as time went on. Plus, it really put into perspective just how much money Figg wasted on plants that he inevitably killed with his black thumb.

Besides, this very much could be this man’s first and only time seeing something green and natural. Whilst it had become her every day, especially surrounded by the plants that Figg now couldn’t kill if he tried - and god knows that boy certainly tried, even if he didn’t realise it - there was many places in the world that would never see anything natural ever.

Places like the Ravages.

Slums was the kind term for the Ravages. Slums that were built upon the lands that had been ravaged by the previous Corpo-Wars, and might one day become the battleground for the next one even if the people still lived there.

It was where the poor, the undesirable and the unfortunate went. Where crime ruled and disease ran rampant, thanks to all of the chemical residue that was left over from the wars.

In fact, if it had not been for Jason, there was a strong possibility that Valerie herself would have been dumped in the Ravages when her disease started to show and would have never had a chance to escape.

So really, she couldn’t find it in her cold, dead heart to feel angry at that idiotic man, even if he was a complete ass. Because that very much could have been her in another life.

In fact, it was highly possible it was. After all, the details of her life in Ren’s original timeline were still a mystery to her. Although that was entirely by choice.

If this was Hazard’s, or any of the other soldiers, first time seeing the products of nature, it was not the last. Unfortunately, many of those products were not as pretty.

The deeper into the forest they travelled, the more they discovered. More grass blanketed the ground until it was impossible to see the dirt beneath it from the sheer volume of greenery. More mushrooms sprouted here and there, even bigger than the one that had Hazard so excited and some of them even gathering in clusters.

Even flowers were blooming, spreading their petals in gorgeous displays of otherworldly beauty, and amongst all of the flowers and mushrooms and sat upon the glistening grass, was a rotting corpse.

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