by Jesse Wilson
NIGHT WORLD
The Starlight Pit
Jesse Wilson
Copyright 2018 by Jesse Wilson
Chapter One
The thunder slammed through the sky outside, rattling the windows. “Well, I’m bored,” Derek said as he looked out the window. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky causing him to flinch.“We could always play with the Arkway,” Jenny replied and looked at the thing. Derek cringed internally.
“You know I hate that thing. Besides, Mom says we can’t use it when it’s storming out,” he fired back right away. She laughed at him. “I know you don’t like VR, you’d better get used to it. I heard that the console games are on their last legs. You have to stop living in the past,” she replied. He hated that, but it was true.
He was almost sure that he was the last one in this town who had a console, and he couldn’t remember the last time a game was coming out he was excited for. “The past is just fine for me,” Derek replied and turned to face his sister.
The truth was, however, even console games still scared him. The idea of facing a monster in virtual reality was just too much. He heard legends of people dying in real life, of fright and other things. That wasn’t going to be him. Even if Jenny used this thing all the time, he didn’t want to deal with it. Fifteen years old and he was content to not try new things.
“You’re just a big wuss, let’s go into a game, you and me. You can use my old Ark and we can play something safe,” she said and crossed her arms. “Maybe something stupid like Job Simulator, or maybe Slime Farmer,” she said and sighed. “And get hit by lightning and get stuck inside. I don’t think so, that’s just stupid,” he replied.
“You still believe that crap, no one ever gets stuck in a game. Every Ark has a battery, so even if the power goes out, you can still log out, no problem,” she said and continued. “Yeah, it even happened to me more than once. Power went out and I didn’t even notice,” she said and Derek sighed. “No thanks, I’m not going into any of those worlds,” Derek replied and his sister smiled.
“Well, I guess if you’re afraid, that’s fine. Just imagine what’s going to happen when I tell everyone that you’re scared of a game,” she said to him.
Derek glared at her. Yeah, he was scared of virtual reality. But if everyone at school found out about it he’d never be able to escape that. “I hate you,” he said and glared. Now he had a choice to make.
Chapter Two
Derek slid off the bed and stood up. “You’d really tell everyone?” he asked, the tone of his voice higher now.
“Yep, in fact I’m going to start texting everyone I know right now,” Jenny said, waved her hand and a blue screen appeared in front of her. She put her hand over the holographic screen and it scanned her hand print. “Welcome, Jenny,” a voice said from nowhere. Derek sprang off the bed and thrust his hand straight through the blue screen, shutting it down.
“Okay, damn. Okay already. I’ll play your stupid game,” he said and she smiled.“My choice, then?” she asked and Derek swallowed. He knew if he said no or anything else she’d follow through with her threat. Nothing had ever stopped her before.
“Fine, your choice,” he replied and became nervous. He wished he would have picked one of the mild games. Now, well now he was sure there was only one choice left to be had. “Great, we are taking a little trip,” she said, got off the bed, walked to the closet, and opened the door.
Seconds later she came out holding an old, grey helmet and tossed it to him. Derek caught it. He wiped the dust off the visor. “Arkway VR,” he read the label on the side that was in bright red letters. “The switch is, --”
Derek cut her off. “I know where the switch is, I’m not stupid,” he said and flipped the switch but nothing happened.
“Oh, must need to be plugged in,” she said and got the cord off the floor, handed it to him in a hurry. Derek took it and plugged it in. The visor lit up with a dull red glow.
“I’ll let you use my secondary character if that’s okay?” she said and smiled.
“Yeah, whatever. It’s fine,” Derek replied and she got on her bed and laid down, putting the helmet on at the same time. Derek thought about backing out of the deal. All he had to do was put the machine down and leave but at the same time everyone would easily find out about his issues. He sat down on the bed, put the helmet on and laid down.
Derek had never used a VR system before and besides the red glow, all he could see was his white ceiling. “So, when is it supposed to do—” he said and everything went black at once.
“Welcome to Arkway Systems. Uplink to Primary Player in Progress, please wait,” a mechanical voice said and it scared him because it wasn’t talking to him. This voice was inside his head. “Loading game,” it said to him and with no warning he was falling. He knew he was lying in bed, safe and sound but he was falling into an infinite black void and it felt as if his insides were going to escape at any moment.
He was about to scream when a hand grabbed his own. “Don’t worry, this is just the loading sequence. It’s calibrating everything for the virtual world. Remember to relax, you’re fine,” Jenny said to him. In this black he could see her, she looked exactly as she did minutes ago, same drab clothes even.
“Okay, just, how long does this go?” Derek asked her. “Ten seconds,” Jenny said and as soon as she said it, everything went black again.
“Welcome to Night World,” a sinister sounding voice said inside his head. Derek opened his eyes. At first everything was curved at the edges as if he was looking into an actual visor, but soon it all came into focus.
“Oh my god,” Derek said as he looked around. The sky was black with a pale red moon hanging in the sky. It was far too big and looked like the color of dried blood. The stars in the sky were distant and cold. Pinpricks of light in a sky too dark. The ground he was standing on was dusty, golden and brown. He turned to look and beside him no longer stood his sister.
She had transformed into a pale skinned goddess standing at seven feet tall, decked out with sparkling black armor and a long sword at her side. She wore a long red cloak. “I am Sandrine, level one hundred and thirty Vampire Queen of the Clan Loric. You are Devon. Level two vampire nobody, welcome to my world, scrub,” she said and turned and looked at him.
It was about now he truly realized how pathetic he was compared to her. He looked down and saw the same pale skin, but he was wearing a brown, tattered shirt and jeans that looked like they had been stitched together in a hurry. “This is the beginning level, the proving ground all new players have to get through and lucky for you I never passed this level with your character. So, if you want to get into the game, you need to win a fight,” she said and smiled.
“Jenny, what are you talking about win a fight? I don’t have anything to fight with. I don’t think this is for me,” he said and looked around. “First, you don’t call me that. Sandrine is what you need to call me here. Breaking character is not punishable but it’s an easy way to piss everyone off. Second, do what I do,” she said.
She lifted her right hand, spread out her fingers and pressed into the air. Derek did the same thing and a white square appeared in front of both of them. “This is your menu, don’t forget to access it because this is how you log out, too. Everything is self-explanatory here. Go to your weapons,” she said.
He found the weapons slot and pressed it. Another box opened up and it only had one thing listed on there: Iron sword. “To equip stuff it’s really easy, all you have to do is press it,” she said to him. Derek pressed the button and just like she said. A short sword materialized in his hand. He grabbed it and it was heavy, this surprised him.
“Okay, I got it,”
he said and she didn’t smile.
“Armor is the same way, click the inventory button and press what you want. For now, I’d suggest to stick with the optimal configuration. The program will pick what’s best. Eventually though, you’ll get a feel for the type of character you want to play and pick your own stuff as you get more,” she said to him.
“I don’t care, I’m only here for an hour and after that I don’t need to know any of this. So, let’s go do whatever it is we need to do so I can get out of here,” Derek said and pressed the armor button on his menu. Instantly his body was covered in grey metal; despite looking rigid, he found it moved quite easily as he did.
“Come now, we will talk to Erik the Coward,” Sandrine said to him and walked forward. Derek had no idea what was going on.
Chapter Three
Sandrine led the way, a few minutes later the two of them came upon a frail, long brown haired figure dressed in simple grey rags. He wasn’t moving and Derek was confused. “This is everyone’s first NPC, everyone will find him in this void. He gives the first quest we all must complete,” Sandrine said to him. Derek was annoyed but knew what he had to do. Even consoles had non player characters in them. He took a breath and walked toward the frail being.
“Hello, um. Erik, I would like my quest please,” he said, not sure how to proceed. The figure didn’t respond or move at all.
“Punch this worm and make him give you your quest. He’s programmed this way,” Sandrine said and Derek didn’t feel comfortable punching anyone, real or not. “I don’t know, I really don’t think I should do this, it doesn’t feel right,” Derek replied.
“Hey, you said you would play and we still have quite a bit of time left. You know what happens if you refuse,” she said and it sounded like she was smiling, however the avatar showed no emotions.
Derek clenched his left armored fist. “None of this is real,” he said to himself quietly and punched the figure square in the face. If it wasn’t real, it sure felt real. Erik collapsed to the ground and pulled himself away from Derek in a hurry. “What, what is it you want?” the character asked with a trembling voice.
“I want my quest, give it to me,” Derek said and he tried to use the most intimidating voice he had.
“You have to go to the Starlight Pit. You have to kill the golem, you have to collect its heart stone,” Erik said but did not stand up. “I would do it, but I cannot, I am not much for fighting,” he said but refused to stand up. Suddenly a blue portal opened up beside the two of them.
“Good job newbie, you got your first quest. Even if it makes no sense to anyone who does it,” she said and walked through the portal. Derek followed her close behind, the door of light closed behind them.
Chapter Four
The Starlight Pit looked exactly like the place they had just left, but one major difference. There were other players here. Hundreds of them wandering around and some looked as if they had been here quite a while. “I haven’t been here at least in oh, three years,” Sandrine said and looked around. Almost immediately the other players began to notice her and approach.
“What’s with these guys?” Derek asked.
“They have likely never seen a high level player in the pit besides the Delwrath clan players,” she said and looked around at the gathering crowd. Her eyes burned purple and she stepped forward. “Be gone, rookies, your eyes aren’t fit enough to gaze upon a queen,” she said and her hand rested on her blade. Quickly the players scattered.
“Nice,” Derek said, impressed at the authority his sister had.
“Your learning has yet to begin. Listen. The Starlight Pit has an immortality field. You can’t die here, but you can be killed as many times. Every player has to win a fight, but it doesn’t matter which golem you kill. It’s been said that fifty percent of all players who play this game never get farther than right here. It’s not for the timid or the weak,” she said and continued. “Some players returned here and set up Pike’s town, it’s not far. They trade weapons and supplies with the outside game and other realms. It’s a nice little economy they have,” she said.
Derek was about to talk when she started up again. “Let’s go find you a golem to kill,” she said and walked forward. He followed and did his best not to make eye contact with other players who stared at him. He did notice that not all of them were obvious vampires. Many of them were something else. Some had wings, some were furry and others were worse. He was grateful that he was only spending an hour in this hell and he was sure by now it was almost up.
The two walked away from the crowd. Nothing seemed to change, but the farther they moved the less players he saw. “Where are we going? I thought we were going to play a game or something. This is boring,” Derek complained, at least there wasn’t any pain with all this walking in a full suit of body armor.
“Look there,” Sandrine said and pointed. There in the distance was a bone white man shaped beast. Derek looked and immediately realized that this golem was absolutely massive. “Scan it,” Sandrine said to him.
“How?” Derek asked.
“See that blue dot, you should see it. If you encounter a thing you haven’t seen before, in game items, weapons, monsters and anything else it has a blue dot. If you press the dot you’ll scan the thing and learn more about it,” she said. “Once you scan it, you will never get the blue dot for the thing again. Now scan it,” she said.
Derek pressed the blue dot only he could see in front of him. Just as he did the white golem in the distance was scanned at once and a white square with black letters appeared in front of him.
Level five bone golem, eight hundred hit points. Weaknesses: Fire. Immune to Poison, Electric and Illusions.
It was a short read out, then he wondered how many health points he had. He never looked at his own stats. “Is eight hundred a lot?” Derek asked.
“Nah, not really. You have about a thousand. But hit points in Night World really don’t have much meaning. It’s virtual reality. If you hit something in a critical spot, you’ll do major damage. Cripple enemies and so on. Not too many people pay attention to hit points. But you should pay attention for now. If you die, you get sent back to the last town you were in. That can be a real pain. If you die here you’ll be sent to Pick’s town,” Sandrine answered him.
“Good to know. Our hour is almost up I assume, so let’s just get this over with already,” Derek replied, took a deep breath and started to walk towards the bone golem.
Chapter Five
Derek walked towards the undead beast and the closer he got, the larger it became. It stood at least ten feet high and he was beginning to reconsider this plan of action. But, on the other hand, all he had to do was fight it a couple of times and log out. That was all he needed to do. It was just a game after all, this one was a little scarier.
“Hey, bone face. I need to kill you, re kill you, something. Get over here,” Derek said to it, but the golem just kept on lumbering by. It was clear that a skeletal thing like this wouldn’t hear him, it had no senses. But that presented a problem. How did you actually fight in this world? He opened his menu and looked around.
You are in the presence of a potential enemy, would you like to enter combat mode? He read and pressed the yellow yes button under it. Confirmed. Would you like to set this to go into combat mode in the presence of enemies? He read to himself and he clicked the yellow yes button again. “Whatever, sure,” he said as he did so.
The menu disappeared and the second it did, the behavior of the golem changed. Now it noticed him. “Okay this sucks, I changed my mind,” he said and backed away. A large black, shiny axe appeared in its left hand out of the pixelated air. It swung and the blade came down at his head. Derek quickly backed off as the axe head dug into the ground. It was slow but powerful.
Derek understood how to win, at least he thought he did. He’d played games like this before. The pattern was clear, you attacked it after it attacked. Dodge, it was a game of patience. The axe rose again an
d Derek waited for the attack when out of nowhere the golem disappeared. “What is going on?” he asked and spun around. “No, no, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go, no one said anything about teleportation,” he said to himself and spun around. Nothing there.
Usually, this tactic had some kind of pattern and they almost always attacked from behind. He wasn’t exactly a beginner to games, just ones like this. Sure enough he heard a buzzing behind him and he turned around. The golem appeared out of nowhere and spun the axe around in a wide circle. Derek fell to the ground and watched as the blade passed over him and sunk into the ground again. Now was his chance. He rolled and picked himself up off the ground.
He ran forward and gripped his blade tight. He slammed it into the right bone arm of the creature and felt the impact. A tiny red number appeared over the monster’s head. It said ten. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. Ten? This is impossible,” Derek said to himself and backed off. He remembered his sister’s advice so he took a deep breath and came up with a new plan.
He was sure he was going to lose when suddenly a red dot appeared in his vision. “What’s that?” he said as it distracted him. It was just long enough of a distraction to watch the thick black axe blade tear through his middle and his vision went solid white.
Chapter Six
Derek woke up lying in a bed. His sister was standing over him. “You died,” she said to him and he sat up. “Red dot, what does that mean?” he asked in a hurry and she didn’t answer for a few seconds.
“It just means the battery kicked in. The power to your unit went out, that’s all,” she said and the panic began to rise in his mind. “Can we still log out, are we okay?” he asked and she shook her head.
