by Dante Doom
“Oh, man, everything changes. I mean, once a real life paycheck starts coming my way, more than just barely enough to pay rent and buy gamer chow, I’m going to live it up. Gonna get a nice house, maybe find a girlfriend, and definitely start that blog I’ve always wanted. But, all of that comes after I get the job. It’s not an easy field, and lots of people burn out on the way there, but if I was going to quit, I would have quit a long time ago.”
Sang paused from walking and looked at him. “You’re meaning to tell me that you are seriously sacrificing everything so that you can achieve your career goals?”
“Um, yeah. Duh,” Van said.
Sang sighed deeply. “I guess we’re the same person.”
“What do you mean?” Van asked.
“I gave up a lot to become a top recruit for the CIA. I made so many sacrifices, and lost so many friends and potential boyfriends because I was so focused on getting to the top. And I’d say the exact same thing to myself each and every time I felt lonely, or depressed or worn out. I’d say, it will be worth it after all of this. Once I get the job, then it will be worth it. Then I can do all of the things I want to do.”
“And was it worth it?” Van asked. She could hear a small amount of hope in his voice.
“I thought it was for a while, Van,” Sang said, dropping her head. “Then… it all changed. In a second. I, uh, I didn’t want to talk about it. But… nah, forget it.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Van said as he kicked a rock. “But whatever it is, it seems to be bugging you. Is it more stuff about aliens? Maybe you’re one, too?”
“Ha, I wish. No…” Sang took a deep breath. “The mission before this, I had a partner. A really funny guy, a lot like you in plenty of ways. He loved games and movies; anything fantasy, he was all over it. I’ve been trying so hard to not think about him, and it’s been successful with all of this noise and fuss.”
“What happened to him?” Van asked softly.
“He… he died. He did something stupid and I… I did something stupid, too. We’re desk jockeys, but he always wanted something more out of life. So he thought it would be a good idea to try some field work without permission. I couldn’t reason with him, so I made the wrong choice. I tried to help him. I thought it would be better for him to just succeed and not get caught than for him to lose his career. I tried looking out for him, but I’m not much of a field agent. He was shot and died in the back of my car as I tried to get him to the hospital.”
“That’s intense,” Van whispered.
“Guess who got blamed for the whole thing?” Sang asked, looking at him. She tried to blink the tears away from her eyes, but it wasn’t working.
“I’m sorry to hear that happened to you,” Van said. She could tell that he wasn’t sure what to say, but then again, she doubted there was anything she could hear that would comfort her.
“So yeah, Van, I got what I wanted for a short time. All of the hard work, the sleepless nights of studying, the years of my teenage life spent learning coding instead of going to parties, all of that was erased with one poor decision. Now? Now I’m here. Running around looking for aliens. Before this, Van? I was fighting terrorists. I don’t even think I have a future with the organization that I fought so hard to join.”
Van stood in silence for a few minutes. Sang didn’t look at him. She felt like she had opened herself up a little too much, and was worried he’d say something harsh. Or worse, give well-meaning but worthless advice.
“Man, I’ve never had to deal with tragedy before,” Van said, “so I don’t think there’s anything I can say to all of this. But as for losing it all, well, look at it this way: you could always be a pro-gamer if the CIA doesn’t work out.”
Sang stared blankly at him for a moment before feeling herself burst out into laughter. It was such a highly inappropriate thing for him to say at the most inappropriate moment that she couldn’t contain herself. She laughed hard at his words and shook her head. “Van, that’s honestly one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. I think I needed that.”
“Glad I could help,” Van replied with a small sigh of relief.
“Don’t put your hopes into some magic future, ” Sang said as she walked up to the edge of the trail that they had been walking down. There was a riverbank to the side that went over a cliff. She looked down the waterfall and saw that the path resumed at the bottom. “It can vanish in a single moment.”
“We’re probably gonna have to jump to get down there,” Van mumbled. He looked at Sang. “I am sorry that life isn’t working out the way you planned. But, it’s far from over, right? If we play our cards right, we’ll find some alien stuff! They’ll stop worrying about my criminal record and they’ll probably forget all about your last mission!”
“Here’s hoping,” Sang said. Van didn’t have any deep words of wisdom for her, but it felt good to just express herself. She had been taking out her frustration on him for almost the entire mission, but he had been relatively congenial with her. She knew she had to stop treating him so poorly; it wasn’t fair to him.
“So, we done bonding or what? Aliens aren’t going to find themselves,” Van asked.
“Yeah, we’re good. Let’s get going,” Sang said as she peered over the waterfall.
“Great, let’s jump on three!”
“Can we survive the fall?”
“No fall damage in this game if you land in water!” Van replied. “See you at the bottom!”
Chapter Fifteen
“It’s clearly a trap,” Sang said as Van pointed excitedly to the treasure chest which had simply been sitting in the middle of the road when they approached.
It was a beautifully ornate wooden chest with a golden lock attacked to it, and Van knew in his heart of hearts that he was destined to open that chest and get whatever was inside. “How is it a trap?” Van asked as he checked his character sheet.
There were still no trap dodging powers. He knew that bards would get some higher-level damage dodging at some point, but that definitely wasn’t today. Yet, as he looked at the treasure chest, he knew that he wanted to open it up.
“It’s a trap because it’s a treasure chest just sitting the middle of nowhere, completely unguarded and on a main path,” Sang argued.
“I agree with all of those things... but at the same time, it’s a treasure chest. We, as players and gamers, are morally obligated to try and open up the chest!”
“Morally obligated? To what, get skewered by some horrible trap? No thanks,” Sang replied.
Van shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I need to open that chest. Cover me!”
“Are you serious right now, Van? Are you seriously going to kill yourself over a treasure chest?”
“I won’t die, I’ll be fine!” Van insisted as he crouched down and began to inch towards the chest. The developers had probably left the chest in plain sight as a way to scare people off from getting the treasure. It was an anti-trap, he thought. It wasn’t really a trap at all, but was designed to look obvious enough to be avoided by most everyone. He was smarter than that, however. He would get the treasure and prove Sang wrong in one fell swoop.
Van reached the chest and knelt fully down to look at the lock. Picking locks wasn’t hard when you were a bard, because Van could always play the “Song of Lock Rattling”. He grabbed his bagpipes and began to play a jaunty tune, causing the lock to rattle until he saw the words UNLOCKED appear over the chest. He grinned widely, dropped his bagpipes over his shoulder, and hastily opened the chest. The chest made a creaking sound as it swung open, and a massive blast of a greenish liquid splash all over Van’s face.
“Ahhh!” Van said, leaping back in surprise. The bright words YOU ARE POISONED! appeared over Van’s head.
“See! I told you!” Sang said as she cautiously walked up to him. “Well, your face didn’t melt off, so I think that’s good.”
“My display’s saying I’m poisoned, but I don’t see any damag
e to my Health or my stats,” Van mumbled as he frantically checked his UI. There was nothing presently indicating that he was in any kind of trouble other than the POISONED status.
“Hmm, there’s a note in this otherwise empty chest,” Sang said as she reached in and pulled out a letter. “It says, ‘Congratulations, you are poisoned for your stupidity.’ Ha!” she exclaimed, only pausing to stick her tongue out at Van. “And it says that the poison works on a 12 hour timer. When 12 hours is up, you die.”
“That’s… not great,” Van said.
“Um, yeah, tell me about it,” Sang said as she analyzed the note. There was an outline for some kind of a way to find a cure. “Well, the good news is that this is some kind of a quest. Look! There’s a cure that we have to get to. It’s located inside of the jungle. It’s a kind of root that’s edible. Looks like it’ll cure any kind of poison.”
“So, you’re saying we found some kind of trap with a quest in it?” Van asked as he looked at the poison status. He noticed that, indeed, a timer had appeared... and it was counting down from 12 hours.
“Looks like it. At least I didn’t get any on me,” Sang said. “And a quest means there’s going to be experience points, and maybe even some more items. I say it’s worth doing. We’re not too far from Verrata, but getting more levels is never a bad idea, right? Especially when we still aren’t at the recommended level for the city itself.”
“And, of course, it would be good if I didn’t die and lose all of my gear and stats,” Van replied.
“Eh, you did this to yourself,” Sang said as she examined the scroll for a few more moments.
“I’ll admit to my mistakes. When I’ve made one. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m the hero because I found us another quest,” Van replied. He brought up the map and took a look at where they needed to head toward. It wasn’t too far from where they were located, but there was a problem. The entire area was a wild zone, meaning that other players would be able to attack them. “Well, isn’t that great?” Van muttered. “We’re gonna have to trail-blaze through a whole wild zone to get to the cure.”
“We should be fine as long as we use stealth and avoid the main roads,” Sang said as she put her new arrows on her bow. The arrowheads would occasionally light on fire, which was a neat effect. “Besides... if we run into trouble, I’ve been wanting to try this new weapon out.”
Van nodded and grabbed his flute, which would also come in handy against antagonistic players. They spent a few moments charting out their plan for moving. The root was located at the base of a massive tree known as the Bladed Noose Tree. It was only two miles away, but the denseness of the trees and foliage meant that travelling on foot would be a real challenge. Still, they didn’t have any choice. Due to his incredibly minor screw-up, they would have to journey into the mangroves and into a small marsh-like area.
Sang waved Van on and the two began to walk down through the thick jungle. They were off the trail, but not too far from it. Van didn’t have the Stealth skills that Sang did, though, so he just kind of hoped no one would notice him. But as they travelled on in silence, he heard a strange roaring sound up ahead, followed by some shouting.
“Come on, men! Fight them! Fight them!” cried a loud voice. There was another roar and then the sound of steel and thunder clashing together.
“Should we check it out?” Sang asked.
“I don’t know—this is still the wild zone, so we could get ganked if they don’t like us, but if they’re in trouble, helping them might spur them to return the favor,” Van said. “I made the last poor decision... your turn to pick.”
Sang shrugged. “Let’s scope it out. If they’re in trouble, we can bail them out, and otherwise we keep moving.”
Van nodded at the plan and quietly followed after Sang. They approached the noisy battle with caution; Van was careful not to make a sound as he slowly peeked his head out from behind the branches of an overgrown shrub. He could see that there was a ruckus going on in the road. A massive lion creature with the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion was hissing and roaring at two people. One other player was lying on the ground, already dead. The words Manticore Level 10 hovered above the creature’s head.
The Manticore was moving quickly, leaping, pouncing, and slashing at the other two players’ heads with its massive stinger. One player was wobbling and looked weak, and he was some kind of a barbarian character wielding a massive club. The words Kraggoth Level 8 were hovering above him, as was the label HP:10. The other character, a tall man in plate mail, was taken a beating from the Manticore, too. His name was Vengar and his Health was dropping faster than Van could keep track.
“Well?” Van asked, glancing back at Sang.
“Distract it while I line up a surprise attack!” Sang said as she prepared her bow.
Van immediately leapt into action. He burst out onto the scene with his trusty flute. “Behold! Foul beast! A flute most fine!” he called out as he held the magical flute up to his mouth. He began to play it, eliciting a very shrill piping noise that caused everyone in the area to put their hands to their ears. The beast snarled and lost all interest in the other two characters, instead beginning to advance towards Van, snarling and shrieking. Van glanced at his display, seeing that it said INPUT FLUTE COMBO. Crap! He’d completely forgotten that magical instruments needed to be played in a certain way in order for them to work. The combo was in the item description, but he’d completely forgotten to check for it. He backed up as he frantically looked at the item description of his flute.
Flute of Enchanting
Effects: Charms up to 8 people or creatures, causing them to become docile and uninterested in you unless attacked. Lowers guard and increases surprise attack damage by 100%.
Combo: E F E G A.
Van watched as the small finger chart appeared in front of him, reminding him of where to put his fingers in order to play the combo. The beast snarled and slashed at Van with its massive tail, but Van was able to effectively dodge out of the way, narrowly avoiding the blow. Van began to play the song then, but this time it worked. It didn’t sound half bad either. The melody almost immediately caused the beast to stop and cock its head, staring at Van with a curious look on its face. The spell would only last as long as Van kept playing, however, so he continued to pipe into his flute while making sure to get out of range of the Manticore’s slashing attack.
“Now!” Sang shouted as she unleashed a torrent of flaming arrows at the creature. The Manticore’s health went from 500 to 150 in a matter of seconds. The beast snapped out of its trance and attacked the first thing in front of it, which happened to be Van. It roared and slashed at Van, striking him in the chest hard and dealing 50 points of damage to him.
“Ah!” Van cried as he dropped his flute and rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding another attack. Before the monster could savagely murder Van, however, the barbarian and his ally moved to flank the Manticore, stabbing and smashing it. The creature had soon fallen to the ground dead.
“Hurrah!” everyone cheered as Van watched his experience bar climb up by 3,000 points. That was a lot of XP!
“Whew, that was a close one!” said Kraggoth. “We were so close to losing that fight! Thanks for the assist!”
“Hey, no problem,” Van said as he cautiously looked the other two over. They were beaten up enough to the point where, if they attacked, it wouldn’t be much of a fight anyway. Sang would easily be able to kill them. “So, hey, while we’re here, we want to—” Van’s words were interrupted as two fiery arrows nailed the barbarian in the chest, killing him instantly.
“What the hell?” the other one shouted as he went to grab his longsword. He wasn’t fast enough, however, and two more arrows lodged themselves firmly into the knight’s armor, dropping him to the ground. Van looked around in shock at how fast everything had moved. He saw his experience bar go up another 2,000 points.
“Perfect!” Sang said as she emerged from the trees.
�
��Perfect? What are you, nuts? You just killed those two guys!” Van shouted.
Sang shrugged. “Oh well. We’re in the wild zone, so it’s not like there’s going to be some kind of penalty. We need the items and the experience points.” She bent down and began to loot the freshly dead bodies.
“That’s not cool, Sang! You can’t just go around killing innocent players! They were thankful for our help!”
“And if we were playing this video game because we wanted to have a good time and play fair, I would certainly not have killed them. But the fact is that we’re both on a mission, on a literal job with a ticking clock and a need for the best items and gear, so I see no reason why we shouldn’t pick off some injured players. It’s not like they’re losing anything other than time. And by that logic, we just gained some time. And items. Hey, look—a Potion of Safe Fall!”
Van couldn’t believe his ears. He watched as Sang cheerfully looted the dead. “That is completely unethical, Sang! You can’t just go around killing players just because it’s useful.”
“Yes, I can.”
“And what if those players decide to follow us and kill us? What then?”
“Doubtful, since this place is dense and the loss of all their gear should slow them down. Come on... it’s not like I kill everyone in my way, but I saw an opportunity and took it. Weak players, nice items. It’s for the CIA, Van. For America.”
“I’m not player-killing for America, okay?” Van nearly shouted. “It’s bad behavior, and only what Trolls do.”
“Well, I don’t know what a Troll is exactly, but I think I like the sound of it,” Sang said as she stood up. “Let’s get moving.”
“You’re unbelievable,” Van mumbled as he followed after his companion. And yet, while it had been a markedly insane thing to shoot those players, he did understand the logic of it. They needed the gear, and while it wasn’t the best thing in the world, it made some level of sense. At least it hadn’t just been mean-spirited. Although... saving people and then immediately killing them was a really bad way to get a reputation. Not like it mattered, though, since a reputation required you to be playing this game long enough to warrant other players’ interest. They wouldn’t be here that long.
