by Dante Doom
“Van!” Sang cried out again as she fumbled to switch the arrows in her inventory. She had to actually change her arrows physically, and she was having a hard time grabbing them out of her bag as the woman kept shooting bolts of magic at her. “A little help!”
“My Climbing skill is so low that I’m still at the bottom of the tower!” Van called back. “I fell like three times!”
“Are you kidding me?” Sang muttered. She glanced at her health bar. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t too good. Spellcaster enemies were harder to face in this game if you weren’t prepared. She aimed her bow with her improved arrows and fired once again at the woman. This time, the words DEFLECTED appeared atop the woman’s head. A thin film of flickering blue energy appeared. The words DEFLECTION SPELL circled her head.
Sang decided that it would be a better idea to pull back and ambush the caster, so she made a dash for the only exit. She rolled through the door and rushed down the stairwell. “Come back here!” cried the sorceress as Sang ran deeper into the tower. She hustled down the steps. It didn’t seem like there was a lot going on in the tower when it came to design. The designers probably hadn’t work too hard on it, she figured, considering that it was just a side quest.
Sang came across two doors, one leading downwards into what seemed to be the basement and another door that was slightly ajar on the right. She peeked through the open door and saw there were several strangely ghoulish creatures walking around, chittering to one another in a hideous imitation of language. Their scent was horrific. Sang quickly shut the door and decided to try the basement. She pulled open the door and rushed through, slamming it behind her and bolting it. Maybe the princess was in here.
Sang’s eyes had trouble adjusting in the pitch-black darkness. She couldn’t see a single thing. She checked her inventory for a torch, but didn’t find anything of value. “Great,” she muttered as she got a message from Van. The Rope Broke! She considered sending back a string of swear words at him, but ignored the message instead. This was still her show, and she’d be able to salvage this somehow. All she needed to do was think on her feet and everything would be okay.
She walked around in the darkness, holding her hands out as she tried to navigate. The ground seemed to be sloping downwards in some kind of spiral, but without her vision, she had no idea of how far she was going, though she seemed to walk for quite some time. A strange noise finally greeted her as she went deeper into the dungeon. Oooaaaooooo went the noise.
Sang stopped and grabbed her longsword. Without her sight, she wouldn’t be able to shoot her arrows, so she figured it would be better to use a bladed weapon. The noise continued for quite some time as she got closer to its source. The strange noise sounded more sorrowful than menacing, Sang noticed as it got louder and louder. Finally, Sang felt the ground beneath her stop sloping to grow flat. She felt something rustle and snap beneath her feet. She reached down and grabbed what felt like straw to her.
“Who’s there?” said a deep, powerful voice. Sang felt the ground beneath her shake as the voice spoke.
She didn’t say anything. She activated her Stealth skill instead and saw that she was at 100% translucency, meaning that she was essentially invisible in the darkness.
A sudden puff of flames burst out of the darkness, catching a few torches on the sides of the wall on fire. The light was blinding for a moment, as Sang had gotten used to darkness. When her eyes adjusted, she could see there was a massive purple dragon resting in the center of the room. Around its arms and legs were large iron chains.
“I see you!” said the Dragon, with a deep and yet feminine voice. “You cannot hide from a Dragon’s eyes!”
“Crap!” Sang said, expecting to be cooked alive at any moment. The Dragon did nothing, however, but stare at her.
“Are you here to kill me finally? Has the evil sorceress finished her research on my scales?” the Dragon asked.
Sang sent a quick message to Van. FOUND A DRAGON. HOW DO I KILL???
A message immediately came back. Don’t kill the dragon! She’s the princess! We’ve got to free her.
Sang squinted as she read the translucent words hovering above her face. She didn’t particularly know how to react to this kind of news. It was strange and somewhat confusing, but then again, what about this world wasn’t confusing? She decided to go with it and see what would happen.
“Umm, I’m here to rescue you!” Sang said.
“Really?” said the Dragon. The words Princess Grimscale Level 25 appeared over her head.
“Yes!” Sang said as she walked over to the Dragon and looked at the chains. There was a picture floating above it. It was shaped like a Rubik’s Cube. She reached out and pressed it, causing a large menu to appear in front of her it. The menu created an image of the inside of a lock. She could see a pin inserted into the lock and there were four tumblers lined up. The words PICK LOCK appeared in front of her next. She shrugged and began to try to use the mini-game to the best of her ability. The tumblers in front of her twisted and moved as she fiddled with the locks. She didn’t particularly know how to pick a lock, as that sort of thing would only have been covered in the clandestine affairs department, and she was was in the cyberterrorism department, meaning they wouldn’t bother teaching her things like this.
DENIED the lock pick puzzle read as it reset itself back to the way it had been. Sang grimaced at it. She tried again for a few minutes, but it didn’t work. As she gritted her teeth, working on getting the tumbler pins to line up perfectly so that she could push the pick through, she realized that there was a button on the right-hand side that read: FORCE LOCK 57%. Breaking through the lock seemed better than her wasting the rest of her life trying to get this thing open, she reasoned, so she pressed the button. There was a sharp cracking sound that greeted her, followed by the word SUCCESS drifting over her head. She yelled out with elation as the chains around the Dragon’s arms fell off.
“You have freed me!” said the Dragon as she used her newly freed claws to rip the main chain from around her neck. “These powerful bonds will hold me no more!”
“Yes!” Sang said, feeling pretty excited about the fact that she had just completely liberated the Dragon from its prison without the need of Van’s help. Maybe she wasn’t so bad at this after all.
“Come and let us leave this place!” said the Dragon as she lowered her head. “Climb atop me and we shall fly far from here!”
Sang quickly scrambled atop the purple Dragon and held on to its neck tightly. She had never flown on a Dragon before and she felt a thrill of excitement run through her as she took a deep breath. The Dragon raised her massive claws and shattered a hole in the wall, revealing the beautiful rays of sunlight coming from the outside world. The Dragon quickly bounded out of the tower. Sang could see Van was still staring at a piece of broken rope in his hands. “Van!” Sang shouted. “Hop on!”
“Whoa! You found the princess!” Van replied as he rushed up to the Dragon. The Dragon waited for a moment as Van scrambled atop of her and grabbed onto one of the bony protrusions sticking out if her wings.
“Yeah!” Sang called out, reveling in her victory. She was still shocked that she had managed to navigate successfully through the entire quest. While it had been somewhat difficult, she had been able to improvise enough to the point where she now felt proud of her accomplishment.
“Where are we going?” Van asked as the Dragon took off, flying high into the sky. They both gasped at the view. The higher they went, the more beauty that they could see. The valley, the jungle, the nearby mountains... all of it looked so much more beautiful from a higher perspective.
“It’s gorgeous!” Sang said as she held on tightly. She didn’t have any points in the Ride skill, though, so it was harder to hold onto a Dragon in flight... especially without any kind of harnesses or saddles. “I can agree there,” Van said, “but where exactly are we going?”
“No idea!” Sang said. “But judging from where we’re headed,
we’re going to be getting a lot closer to the kingdom! Look!” She pointed to a massive tower that was slowly coming into view.
“Yeah, that’s Verrata Castle over there,” Van said as he struggled with holding onto the back of the Dragon. “Definitely getting closer.”
“This beats taking a Griffon, doesn’t it?” Sang asked as she spotted a massive clearing not too far off. The Dragon began to descend gently down towards the clearing. The grass was bright green and there was a small pond next to it.
“I think we’re at the Dragon’s home!” Van said as their ride landed on the ground gracefully.
“Thank you, noble heroes, for rescuing me from the evil sorceress, Glemilda!” said the Dragon as Van and Sang hopped off of her back. “As a way to show my gratitude, I wish to bring you to my little hideaway. You will find within this pond whatever it is that you need for your journey! But I warn you... be cautious, for you can only draw from it once per person!”
“Score!” Van said as he hurried over to the small pond and shoved his hands right in. A second later, he pulled out a flute. “Perfect! It’s a Flute of Enchanting! Whenever I play it, I can cause up to eight people or creatures to stop whatever they’re doing and watch me!”
“Don’t they do that anyway when they hear you attempting to kill them by playing those wretched bagpipes?” Sang asked as she approached the pond. The words Pond of Desire hovered above it. There wasn’t any kind of interface, so she shrugged and reached her hand in. The pond water was cold and caused her to shiver a little as she reached her hands into the water. She fumbled around, hoping to grab something. As her fingers moved around in the water, she suddenly felt something materialize in her hand. She pulled her arm out of the water and saw that she was holding a bundle of arrows in her hands.
Arrows of Flaming Return Acquired.
Damage: 150 +10 fire damage per second.
Ammunition: Unlimited, as Arrows fly back to your quiver after being fired.
Sang glanced at the stats with an impressed look on her face. This was pretty much exactly what she needed—better arrows, and no more having to worry about keeping track of how many she had. Of all the things she disliked about the game, inventory management was probably one of the biggest parts of it. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a head for numbers, but she just found it to be incredibly boring, having to sort through all of her gear, find out what items she needed, etc. She wanted to play a ranger, not an accountant.
“Get anything good?” Van asked once he’d let out a few sharp, shrill pipes from his flute.
“Arrows!” Sang said. “The good kind, too!”
“Perfect!” Van said with a grin. He turned around and looked at the Dragon. “Oh, wise Dragon princess, we ask of you, what is the easiest way to reach the kingdom of Verrata from here?
The Dragon snorted for a moment to consider the question. “The easiest way to reach your destination is to take the Cobblestone Road through the jungle. Just don’t walk off the path and you will be able to reach your destination safely.
“Great!” Van said as he turned to face Sang. “You ready to get moving?”
“Let me level up first,” Sang said as she glanced at her experience bar. It had certainly moved up high enough to bring her to the next level, and she was excited about the opportunity.
Sang grinned, looking at her new character options. She was really starting to get better at this whole gaming experience. She glanced up to catch Van staring at her with a big smile on his face. “What’s so funny?” she asked as she grabbed her gear and began to walk to the woods where the Cobblestone Road was located.
“Nothing... I just noticed you seem to be enjoying this game a bit more than you were a while back,” Van said with a grin.
“Yeah, well, I think I’m starting to come around. That adventure was fun, and the best part was that we actually survived it. I have to admit, there is some serious satisfaction when it comes to successfully navigating through a mission.”
“That’s the spirit!” Van emphatically agreed. “We’re going to make a gamer out of you yet!”
“Oh no,” Sang laughed, “I’m never touching another one of these things after this job is over. I’m even going to delete my Sudoku apps off of my phone after this.”
“I don’t get it,” Van said as they walked alongside each other into the jungle. There was a different kind of heat inside of this place. It was humid and muggy, reminding Sang of her childhood visits to her grandparents in Vietnam. The temperature was almost the same. “You’re here in one of the most powerful simulations ever created, probably the greatest game ever made, and you’re going on a big adventure... winning fights, battling villains, getting experience... and yet, after all of this, you still don’t like video games. What gives? Why all the hate?”
Sang grimaced as they walked. “I knew a girl once. In high school. She was a bright kid, probably one of the brightest. She was a good friend of mine and we’d talked about going into the military together. She didn’t want to be CIA, but she wanted to be a detective or an investigator of some kind. Brilliant girl... had the best grades, focused to the highest degree. She could literally do anything that she wanted. Then, her parents were getting a little worried about her, and said she was too high strung, so they bought her a special laptop with a game on it. It was one of those online ones, sort of like this, but a lot less… visceral. Anyway, long story short, my dear friend ended up just kind of cancelling on her life. She stopped excelling, stopped pushing. She just gave up her dreams and started playing her game all the time. Last time I checked, she was just working some kind of regular 9 to 5 job. No FBI, no military.”
“So?” Van asked as he looked at Sang with a puzzled expression. “What does that matter? Sounds like she’s enjoyed herself.”
“She threw all of that potential away on something so trivial and meaningless.”
“How old was she? 15? 16?” Van asked. “What kind of kid needs all of the pressure of being some kind of top performing wunderkind anyway? Sounds like she cracked from the pressure and found a good escape.”
Sang shook her head, remembering how her friend had slowly withdrawn from all of her social circles. “It wasn’t like that, Van. She had promise. She had potential.”
“And what? Just because she chose to do something else with her life means that she wasted her promise and potential?” Van asked. “It seems awfully unfair for you to make her life decisions for her. I mean, if she wants to screw around online, and make friends and work a regular desk job, who are you to tell her she shouldn’t?”
Sang felt a flash of anger surge up inside of herself. “Because she had so much to give! She changed, Van! And what she became, I didn’t particularly like.”
“So, it was about you, then? Not her?”
“No,” Sang said with a growl. “I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant was that she became something that, deep down, I knew she would hate. The bright, star student would never have wanted to become a slacker and a loser.”
“Ha! There it is!” Van said, stopping and pointing his finger at her. “You think that people who play video games and enjoy their hobbies are losers!”
“So? You knew that already,” Sang said as she tried to ignore the smirk on Van’s face.
“No, you don’t get it!” Van said. “You’ve created some kind of standard in your head. That standard tells you that there’s some kind of moral superiority in being a high energy, high achieving individual. So, if anyone else around you deviates from that standard, you to classify them as a loser. Let me ask you something—what do you think about people who are always watching television shows?”
Sang frowned. “They’re wasting time.”
“Right! What about people who like to party? Go out clubbing?” Van asked.
“Equally a waste of time, only with the bonus of also wasting far more money than they should be.”
“Don’t you see a pattern here, Sang? You’re not just labelling game
rs as losers; you’re labelling anyone who doesn’t think the same way as you do! Not everyone wants to be some kind of highly driven, slightly robotic career person.”
“I know that…” Sang said, feeling a little unsure.
“No, you don’t! You, in fact, seem to think that unless everyone else is just like you, they aren’t good enough. So, serious question here, who do you respect in your life right now?” Van asked.
“I…” Sang paused and considered the question. She couldn’t think of anyone who she looked at with any level of respect, honestly. Sure, there was professional consideration for her superiors, but most of them weren’t as driven as her.
“You don’t really respect anyone, do you?” Van asked.
“That’s not true. Um… why am I on trial here anyway?” Sang demanded, crossing her arms. “I shouldn’t have to listen to you lecture me about this. I mean, who are you anyway? Some unemployed guy who just sits around all day and plays…” she paused mid-sentence.
“So my opinion is less valid because of what I do? My ideas, my hopes and dreams, my insight, my humanity is all contingent on whether or not you approve of my life choices?” Van asked. “Seems awfully elitist to me.”
“Whatever. Why are we even talking about this?” Sang asked, feeling a deep sense of embarrassment rise up within her. She had been completely exposed in a matter of seconds, and it left her feeling strangely vulnerable.
“I dunno. Just thought it would be nice to get to know you more,” Van said as he began walking again. “I didn’t mean to demolish you.”
“You didn’t demolish me, you ass!” Sang said. “You just pointed out a minor issue you see in how I think, that’s all. What about you, huh? Tell me, oh wise Van, why is it that a perfectly normal guy like yourself likes to spend all of his time running around and playing make believe when there’s a real world to be experienced? Hmmm?”
Van laughed a little. “Well, if you absolutely must know, I play these games because they’ve almost always been better than the real life thing. My home wasn’t particularly healthy, with a dad who was pretty verbally abusive and a mom who was manipulatory. Siblings battling for attention, lots of noise. Never any peace, no stillness. But at the end of the day, our little family would all act like there was nothing wrong. Dad watched TV for a solid six hours a night; Mom had her stupid romance novels. My sister was a sports nut and my little brother got really into alcohol. Everyone in the family was hiding, so I picked gaming as my escape. After a while, I realized how much better it was than real life and that I could make some kind of living out of it, so I decided to leave home at 16, move in with a few friends, and we all tried to go pro. That was almost eight years ago... I was pretty damn close to becoming a pro, too, until you guys showed up.”
