Lost in the Game

by Christopher Keene

I walked up to him, jumped up onto the boulder to sit next to him, and brought up two more images. One was the picture with a birds-eye view of the islands, and the other of the second code we had found. Brock read the second message and smirked.

  “This place is real. Well, he’s not wrong about that.”

  My brow furrowed and I brought the picture of the islands to the forefront. “So, you know where this is? Is it a place in the real world?”

  Brock shook his head and pointed. “That isn’t anywhere.” He made his own copy of the picture, brought it up, and spun it both vertically and horizontally so the islands were flipped around. “But that is the Malay Archipelago. And this”—he pointed to the island we were on and lifted an eyebrow at me—“well . . . All you have to do is flip the name around to find out where that is.”

  Romit Island . . . Timor Island.

  “Malcolm’s original laboratory was on an island at East Timor . . . That’s where these clues are leading us.”

  Brock stretched his arms, leaned back on the boulder, and closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the sun. “Well, looks like we know where we’re going next.”

  I eyed him curiously. “You’re gonna come with me?”

  “A chance to see the beginning of the best VR system ever created? The possibility of finding and perhaps liberating my old friends? What do you think?” He opened one skeptical eye, as though offended I would even ask. “Of course I’m coming with you, Noah. Heck, we should bring David along, too. He needs a bit of a vacation after he’s spent the summer working his butt off.”

  I almost laughed, thinking of the trip I had planned to take with Chloe. “A vacation, huh? Alright, let’s get the team back together.”

  Brock raised a fist. “Catastrophe is going to East Timor.”

  I scoffed at this. “You know, we’re not called Catastrophe anymore.”

  “Well, it’s about time you changed the name. What’s it called now?”

  I grinned. “Cipher.”

  Brock sat up and shook his head. “What are you, fourteen?” He got up off the boulder and began walking downhill. “Seriously though, Cipher?”

  I followed him into the trees.

  “Well, what would you have called it?”

  Brock shrugged. “I mean, if my name was Noah, it’s kind of obvious what I would call it: Noah’s Ark.”

  I laughed. “That’s even worse! How egotistical do you think I am?”

  “Oh no, no, no, don’t even get me started on that subject,” Brock joked as we made our way down to the beach.

  Chapter 11: The Fight

  As Brock and I parted ways on the coast, his last words before he warped away put me on edge. They were simply: “Good luck against Siena.”

  I had been having such a good time joking around with him that I had almost completely forgotten that I was supposed to fight Siena in the Coliseum after lunch. Not wanting to take more DSD, I skipped lunch in the food court so I could stay in the game. Eventually, Chloe showed up in my contacts and we met up in New Calandor. I used a teleportation orb to get there as fast as possible, knowing I would have to relay my and Brock’s plans to her.

  As soon the flash of light took me from the blue skies of Yarburn to the overcast tone of the Victorian era setting, I went about looking for her. Although we had agreed to meet at the fountain in the town square, I instead found her in one of the item stores surrounding it. I was lucky I saw her through the windows as she was trying out new garments.

  A doorbell rang as I entered. Chloe was trying on a long dress that showed off her avatar’s figure, as though she were about to go to an opera and not a fight between two friends. The one she was holding up was a dark purple, and as she equipped it and spun to see it from the back in the mirror, she noticed me staring.

  “Noah!” she cried in embarrassment.

  I grinned and she glowered at me for surprising her.

  “I thought we were going to meet at the fountain,” I said, an eyebrow raised.

  She turned away, but I still saw her frown into the mirror. “I wanted to surprise you. Oh well. So . . . today’s the big day, huh?”

  “As good a day as any to have my butt kicked.”

  She smiled then, as though the idea was amusing to her. “It’s nice of you to do that for a friend.”

  “Yeah . . . Well, considering how she threatened to out my identity, she hasn’t been acting like the greatest friend lately. Brock, on the other hand . . . He may have just solved the mystery of where the Screamers are being kept.”

  She spun around, dress twirling and eyes wide. “Are you serious?”

  I raised my palms. “It’s possible. Remember how the last clue said ‘This place is real?’”

  She nodded eagerly, mouth agape.

  “Brock told me that Yarburn Archipelago is just an inverted map of the Malay Archipelago IRL and Romit Island is just East Timor, the same place where Malcolm’s original laboratory was placed.”

  She glanced away, as though trying to find answers somewhere in the store. “We—we have to go there! We have to find out if that’s where Lucas and the other Screamers are.”

  I swore I saw the ideas bouncing around in her head from where I was standing. “That was our thought, too.” I shook my head and grinned. “Brock’s keen to come with us and he wants to bring David as well.”

  Her eyes shot back to me, and she frowned. “Why David?”

  I shrugged again. “We were the original three musketeers. Maybe he doesn’t trust us not to turn on him again. Who knows?”

  “Well, if Brock’s bringing David, I’m bringing Keri.” She crossed her arms in her new dress. “You two can’t be the only ones who get to bring a friend with you.”

  “Sure, assuming you don’t mind paying for her flights. Remember that not everyone gets paid as well as we do.”

  She spun back to the mirror, looking at herself in her new dress with a determined grin. “Alright then. The five of us are going to East Timor. Admittedly, I wanted to go somewhere cooler during the summer for our vacation, but what better reason do we have to travel than rescuing my brother?”

  “We can always go to Scandinavia another time. Nothing’s stopping us.”

  She turned back, paid the price for the dress in a menu I couldn’t see by touching the air, and pecked me on the cheek. “Totally.”

  I followed her into the town square and pulled out my Teleportation Orb.

  “It’s about twelve-thirty now. I wouldn’t put it past Siena outing me just for being a little late.”

  Chloe nodded. “I know what you mean. Keri told me even she got an invitation to watch the fight between you two.”

  “Yeah, it’s like she won’t be happy until everyone knows she’s better than me.” Jaw clenching, I turned toward Chloe and shook the Transfer Orb. “With what we know now, there are much more important things than stroking Siena’s ego by letting her win a match I didn’t want to begin with. She’s just wasting time we could be spending looking for Lucas!”

  Chloe raised her hands in surrender before putting one on the orb. “Geez, Noah. Siena really has gotten on your bad side lately, hasn’t she?”

  I made an angry grunt. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  I selected the Coliseum and the two of us appeared in the town surrounding the massive arena. I returned to the Trans-House and changed into the default wizard’s skin again. Then I strode right to the Coliseum. As soon as I arrived at the entrance, I pulled up my contacts and messaged Siena: “Alright, I’m here. How do we do this?”

  Siena_the_Blade: “Go to reception and wait for me to show up. It’s not rocket science. I’ll be there in a few minutes. Gotta tell everyone it’s starting first.”

  “I told you not to tell anyone it was me!”

  Siena_the_Blade: “Don’t piss your pants, Noah. The only people I told were our friends, and I asked them not to tell anyone else. I didn’t break my promise, but every
one we care about needs to know who’s really the best.”

  Ever since I had given her commands during our mission to find Malcolm’s Debug Room, Siena had been trying to prove herself as the true leader of our little group. What she didn’t seem to grasp was that a leader didn’t care about who was the strongest, but instead who was trying to help their team toward a common goal, as I was with Chloe and Brock.

  Ever since then, it seemed that we’d had a schism among our friends and slowly but surely her arrogance was driving them all to my side of the argument. Yet she was so blinded by her own arrogance that all she cared about was making sure everyone knew she was the top dog.

  Maybe I should win just to show her that there’s more to life than being the strongest. After all, it would be quicker just to—

  I was taken out of my reverie as Chloe tried to take my hand, which I hadn’t even realized I had balled into a fist. I unclenched it to take hers and she led me to the reception desk.

  “I’ll be watching,” she said with a wave. “So at least lose with a bit of style.”

  I nodded and watched her disappear up the stairs that led to the stands. I let the woman in a toga sign me in again. This time the voice cut out when it was about to announce my username. Data had corrected that for me and also replaced my blank name with the code: 80680085. Finished in the lobby, I walked to the entrance to the pits. Instead of standing in a queue, I stood alone, thinking about what I should do. I was soon joined by the grinning redheaded Warrior avatar of Siena_the_Blade.

  “Nervous?” she teased.

  The cords on the back of my neck tightened. “Not really.”

  She looked at the closed gates. “Yeah, I guess there’s no reason when the outcome’s pretty obvious.”

  I looked down. “You know, Chloe and I have been working really hard to find Lucas. Even Brock is helping and Keri might even—”

  “Who’s Lucas?” Siena interrupted, looking like she had missed something.

  “Chloe’s brother.”

  “Chloe has a brother?!”

  “Seriously?” I went to say, but then a loud boom cut me off.

  I looked up, feeling speechless as the door to the pit swung open.

  I’m sure we told her all about this not so long ago. Has she really forgotten what we all have been fighting for?

  Siena had already walked forward, dust rising under her boots as she entered the sunlit arena. I followed her and was struck dumb at the sheer size of the crowd that filled the stands. Unlike my several Battle Royal fights, the place was packed with avatars, all out to see Siena_the_Blade fight some up-and-coming Spellcaster.

  As we came out into the center of the pit, the fat announcer in his toga addressed the crowd. “Welcome to the championship match!” he called. “For today’s fight we have the defending champion, Siena_the_Blade, and the rising star, 80680085, going head-to-head to see who will take the position of PvP champion. Here are the rules. First, no level three spells. In fact, you’ll find you won’t be able to access them at all. The same goes for rule number two: no Kamikaze Orbs. Finally, no guns. An easy one to follow, considering guns haven’t been invented yet.”

  I recalled what Shardik had told me about the code language and rules breaking the immersion of the setting. It hadn’t bugged me before. Maybe it was the mood I was in, maybe it was that I didn’t get any lunch and my lack of energy was making me moody, but right now it really stuck out. Just another little jab of irritation about this whole situation.

  “To your marks!” the announcer called.

  “Good luck, tough guy,” Siena said.

  “Yeah,” I sneered. “You too.”

  Unlike the dozen lights that had been around the circular walls during the Battle Royal, only two blue lights shone out from either side of the pit. I walked to the light opposite Siena, waiting for the signal to start.

  “Begin!” the announcer called.

  The lights turned red and Siena took off, equipping her Ruby Edge.

  She knew that to keep my identity a secret, I couldn’t use my Sapphire Edge against her. Yet instead of dispatching me with her Reaper’s Scythe, she decided to rub it in my face. Baring my teeth, I cast Speed Amp on myself. The yellow sparkle rained down on me and the stat boost kicked in just in time to evade her first attack.

  “Think that’s going to help you?” she asked.

  She ran forward, slipping into a flurry of blows. Although Speed Amp allowed me to move quicker than normal for a Spellcaster, by tweaking the speed and stamina stats, Warrior could be the fastest Niche in the game, and Siena had done just that.

  But there were ways that I could slow her down. As she followed me along the walls, I cast Gravity Warp. Unlike the Gravity Pull spell, it had a wider range, and thanks to Siena following me, she was close enough that it should have hit her.

  However, as she saw my arm movements and the spell’s animation appeared overhead, she leaped onto the wall’s banister and then flipped backward over the warping animation, landing on one knee with a short skid against the dust.

  How did she—? I didn’t even know you could jump that spell!

  She whistled at me and rose to her feet. “Close one.”

  I pointed my Cursed Druid Staff at her, my anger boiling over. “What’s taking you so long? I’m not even . . .” I stopped and shook my head as I realized what I was about to say. “You haven’t landed a single blow yet!”

  Siena bared her teeth and charged toward me again. “Then stand still!”

  Stand still? She doesn’t even want to fight me, not really. She just wants to win. That’s it. I’m done playing around with her!

  She was right on top of me, Ruby Edge raised, ready to deliver one of her signature leaping strikes, when I extended my staff arm. Whether it was because of my anger or because it was the first spell that came to mind after just learning it, the green light of the Toxin spell shot from the end my staff into her. Siena paused at the end of my staff and looked down to see her Hit Points slowly starting to drain away.

  She glared up at me. “Toxin? I wouldn’t have taken you as someone who would use such a cheap spell.”

  Don’t say you used it by mistake. Own it, Noah.

  I bared my teeth. “You’ve been acting liking like a fair-weather friend lately, Siena. Only caring about your bloated ego when we’re going through actual problems.”

  “IRL problems?” She blew a raspberry between her lips. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  That’s all I had to hear to justify me using my Future Projection ability on her. “As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t beat me in the time it takes your health to go down, you don’t deserve to win.”

  “A challenge then?” She grinned. “I love a challenge!”

  Before she had finished her sentence, she ran forward—or more accurately, her blue projection did. Her real body followed suit, swinging her blade as though her first strategy was to simply hack me up with her Color Blade. If she hit me, it would only take her three or four hits to wipe out the rest of my Hit Points. Yet, with the advantage Windsor had given me, it was a big if. Being able to see her attacks beforehand made me almost undefeatable in a one-on-one match.

  As her Ruby Edge slashed at me, I could easily discern its direction prior to her movements, her intentions clearly telegraphed despite the pace she was going. I tilted backward as the blue line flew through my nose and her Color Blade followed directly behind. I ducked as she spun into another blow and her projection then pivoted for a low kick. Jumping, I launched a Cyclone spell below me to allow me to fly over her head.

  Instead of waiting for me to get to the ground, she leaped into a backward somersault and bounded toward where I was falling. I cast a Wind Blast, narrowly avoiding her projection, and then landed on the pit just in time to see several arcs of blue light flying toward me. They were supposed to be red Shockwave arcs, but the projections were always blue. I avoided each one as Siena charged a
t me again, swinging her blade.

  She bared her teeth as I avoided yet another frontal assault. “When did you get so slippery, huh?”

  I looked at her Hit Points and saw they were at the halfway mark. “Must have been the same time you decided winning was more important than your friends.”

  She pounced at me. “Oh, that’s hilarious coming from someone like you!” She stabbed at me, I sidestepped, she slashed out, and I ducked. “Someone who turned his back and killed me before I could recover!”

  “You told me to!” I shouted back.

  My mirrored collar showed the wall behind me getting closer with each of her attacks. She’s talking to take me off guard and trying to back me into a corner.

  “I wasn’t going to let you kill me on your terms!” Her projection moved from side to side, as though uncertain which way I would run and deciding to react to whichever direction I fled. “You were going to pull some sneaky trick and be so proud of yourself for winning. I couldn’t give you the satisfaction!”

  “But you did lose when Dice stole your Ruby Edge!” I countered.

  The wall was getting closer still. I had to find a way to move past her sword into the open again. Her blade rushed at me, not the hazy blue projection, but the actual thing. I raised my staff to block the blow. I must have missed the projection when I checked the location of the wall.

  She stalked toward me as I retreated, the blue projection telegraphing her expression, her walk, even how she was fighting. From it, I could see her normally fun demeanor had become more aggressive.

  “And I got it back on my terms!” she screamed, the power of her blows shattering my Druid Staff and sending me sprawling across the pit into the wall. “Even if I lose, I control the outcome—me!”

  I stood up and studied her health bar again. It was reaching the red, and in less than a minute it would hit zero.

  “If losing on your own terms is all that matters to you, then how do you think it feels to be blackmailed into a fight you weren’t even interested in in the first place?” I growled and stood. “If you really want to win, I’m going to make you work for it!”