Kyle found it interesting how different the journey to Lumen’s mine was from the initial journey to Crystopia. They had been in the game for a little over a week, but already the flora and fauna along the riverside felt familiar and less alien. It made the forest feel less dangerous. Of course, that also may have had something to do with their recently crafted leather armor.

It was also much noisier than their last trek through the forest. Dvorak filled the air with useless prattle any time nobody else was talking. Kyle told him that was a bad idea because it could give away their position. Dvorak switched to prattling in a whisper, which was marginally less annoying.

Lumen took the opportunity to hunt, or perhaps more accurately, to show off. When Dvorak pointed out a blue squirrel-like kreyfa climbing a tree, Lumen pulled his bow out of his inventory at lightning speed and fired. The kreyfa, hearing the twang of the bow, tried to dodge but somehow managed to run into the arrow. The arrow pinned the kreyfa to the tree, where it twitched momentarily before stilling.

“See, lots of people think that being an E-sports athlete is all about reflexes or precision,” Lumen said, walking over to collect his kill. “But it’s not just that. A real pro also has a deep knowledge of systems. And they pick stuff up quickly. Like this kreyfa? They startle. When scared, they start running forward, and then change direction to turn away from the source of the sound.” As he spoke, he tugged on the arrow to loose the Kreyfa from the tree. “So you don’t aim at them, you just aim slightly in front of them, because you know where they’re going to dodge to.” Grinning, he looked towards Mia, who was pointedly ignoring him.

Mason, on the other hand, nodded appreciatively. “See, that’s the difference between an E-sports player and a guy who plays games a lot. You’re used to analysing things in a way we aren’t. How long did it take you to figure that out?”

“About an evening’s hunting. You get used to unearthing and exploiting AI patterns when you eat and breathe high-level play.”

“You getting this, Mia?” asked Mason.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m so glad I know how to protect myself from innocuous forest critters now.”

“What, think you can do better?” Lumen said, smirking. “Want to have a competition? Want to bet on who can tag the most kreyfas on the way to the mines?”

“No. That’s pointless. No-one gives a crap how good you are at killing squirrels. You might as well take the title. All hail Lumen the Squirrel-Killer.”

Lumen looked disappointed.

It only took about two hours for them to get near the mine. Kyle, who had his help menu open nearly the whole time, saw a flash in the corner of his eye as the “adventure site” help topics rearranged themselves. “Hold up guys,” he said, halting abruptly. “We’re close.”

“How close?” Mia asked.

“No idea,” Kyle said. Mia smirked.

Lumen pointed off the left side of the trail. “It’s probably set into that cliff there,” he said, pointing to a natural rocky hillside. “It probably has an entrance and stairs leading down or whatever. It’d be weird if it was just a hole in the ground.”

They paced up and down the length of the cliff face for nearly an hour, but could find no entrances. Annoyed, Kyle sat down on a stump. Lumen crafted a waterskin from the Kreyfa hide he got earlier and ran down to the river to get some water for the group. Dvorak busied himself collecting more plants, quietly talking to himself the whole time.

“Got any ideas?” Mason asked.

“None,” Kyle said. “I wish I knew how close we were. You’d think it’d be more obvious if it were an important part of this game’s tech progression.”

“Yeah,” Mason said thoughtfully. “What good is help text popping up in your menus if you don’t even know how you triggered it?”

“Yep. We’re probably missing something. It’s not like they’re trying to hide it.”

Suddenly, Mia pulled her axe and goblin sword from her inventory and stood. “Guys, I just realized. We’re not alone.”

Kyle tensed and opened his menu. “Why? What’s up?”

“Look at what you’re sitting on.”

Kyle stood up and looked. “A tree stump…?”

“A cut tree stump,” Mia corrected. “Someone’s been here.”

Kyle looked around. He could see five or six other such stumps in the area. “Yeah, this is too many stumps to be some random guy collecting wood on his way from one place to another. Somebody’s building something.”

“I don’t see anything, though,” said Mason.

“I’ll climb a tree and check the area!” Dvorak said enthusiastically. He bounded to the nearest tree and tried to climb it, but he had a hard time getting his newly reverse-jointed legs to co-operate. “Actually, maybe I won’t do that,” he conceded.

Kyle looked around the area, seeking any signs of construction.

He then noticed one section of the cliff face that seemed strange and out of place. It seemed like it had a slightly different color than the rest of the stone, and also seemed rougher. In fact, it also seemed unusually flat.

On a hunch, he Examined it. Sure enough, that section of cliff-face had an HP bar and an owner. Sort of. The owner was listed as “Unmet player”.

“Guys!” Kyle called. “Guys, I found the mine. Somebody hid the entrance with a stone wall!”

Mia followed Kyle’s gaze, and Examined it for herself. “That little punk. That’s clever. When we leave, we ought to do the same thing.”

Kyle disagreed, but it wasn’t worth arguing about at the moment. “So how do we get in?”

“Hit it a lot?” suggested Mia. She pulled out her axe and approached the wall. She swung the axe into the stone in an overhead chop, where it bounced off in a shower of sparks. She took dozen swings or so, but the wall’s HP only barely decreased.

“Stupid OP wall,” Mia said. “This could take hours!”

“Nice to know the city wall will be nice and solid when we’re done,” Kyle said.

Mason looked thoughtfully towards the woods. “Think we could use a log as a battering ram?”

“Probably not,” said Mia. “Unless there’s a crafting option to actually make it into a battering ram.”

“I’m not so sure,” said Kyle. “Lots of games have physics systems, right? This game’s got to have some way to translate momentum into damage. I mean, what if a boulder fell on you? You’d have to take some damage, right?”

Mia shrugged. “Worth a shot, I guess.”

Mason nodded and began chopping a tree. The transition from a “tree” to a “log” stripped the trunk of its branches, which was convenient. They maneuvered it into position. Without any handholds, the amount of force they could put behind it was limited; Dvorak could hardly even reach. Still, they rammed it into the wall as best they could. The wall’s HP didn’t drop appreciably.

“So much for that idea,” Mason said, breathing heavily.

“Not so fast,” Mia said. “Let’s try letting go right before the log hits.”

“Say what?” Kyle said, trying to follow her logic.

“You were right, Kyle, lots of games have physics systems that let objects damage other objects when they hit each other.” Mia pounded her fist into her palm for emphasis. “But ramming this log into the wall is just an attack, right? Like a sword, but bigger? This can’t count as a player attack if we want the physics system to apply. It’d have to just be two things crashing into each other. So we’ve gotta let go of the log.”

“Question?” Dvorak said, raising his hand. “Wouldn’t that simply count as a ranged attack?”

“If you were making it with a ranged weapon, maybe,” Mason said thoughtfully. “But they can’t make stats for everything you might want to throw at somebody, right? At some point they’d have to punt to the physics system and let it handle things. It’s a dumb idea, but it’s an idea at least.”

Kyle shrugged. “Might as well try.”

They hefted the log again, pulled back to about ten feet from the wall, and then ran at full force towards the wall.

“DROP!” Mia shouted.

Kyle let go of the log and watched as it flew the last few feet into the wall. With a reverberating thud, the log bounced off and fell to the ground.

Kyle quickly Examined the wall. It’s HP had dropped perceptibly.

Mason shook his head. “Okay, I’m annoyed. On one hand, they go out of their way to try and make things real. And on the other hand, letting go of a log right before it hits a wall makes it deal twenty times as much damage. Seriously?”

Mia shrugged. “I mean, it makes sense, right? Hitting walls with a normal weapon doesn’t work. Hitting it with a siege weapon does. Soo… we’re like a human-powered ballista!”

Mason’s hand went for his forehead. “I think that makes no sense at all outside of a game. So are they even going for realism? Why leave this exploit?”

“I cannot comment on how virtuaverse technology works,” Kyle said, smirking. “Only that it is an immersive reality simulation in which…”

“Oh God, did the NPC keep saying that to you, too?” Mia said, laughing and rolling her eyes.

At that moment, Lumen came into the clearing, running and puffing. “Are you okay? I heard crashes. What’s going on up here?”

“We’re throwing trees at walls. Want to help?” Mason asked. “I hear you’ve got great aim.”

As they continued throwing the log at the wall, it started to show dents and cracks. Sometimes, the log would shatter into splinters after a throw, and they’d have to get a new one to replace it. Eventually, the wall developed a small hole. A few throws later, the wall crumbled completely, coming apart into rubble.

Kyle approached the newly uncovered entrance and looked down into the mine. It sloped gently downwards, extending only a few dozen feet into the cliff face before darkness overtook it.