27

A Night to Oneself

As evening approached, Rian and Kat took a break and rested in the grass, letting the PVP instance dissolve. Though neither of them was winded due to the stamina system, it was nice to have a moment to reflect on their matches. Kat’s PVP ranking was still in Silver, and Rian’s had shot up from Iron to Bronze without him noticing until now. The achievement notifications had silently passed him by during their matches.

Rian hadn’t gained another level since their last break, as Kat had mostly spent the hours drilling him on how to use Parry, but he was decently some ways into level 15, and there were plenty of points to spend. Rian divvied up his AP into DEX, Strength, and a little bit of INT.

All at once, the difference of 10 points was enough for him to feel the change on a scale he wasn’t expecting. His muscles bulged slightly, and a borderline euphoria swept through his body. Everything became slightly sharper too, thanks to the rise in the Intelligence stat.

In the distance, Visha was curled up in the fading sun. Corvis, on his side with one elbow propped upon the ground, was napping as well.

As they looked out over the forests, Kat and Rian moved into half-sync to restore their in-game timer. For Rian, nothing had changed in his mom’s living room, but he found that the holographic image of it didn’t extend as far when someone else was in half-sync nearby. The image of the living room ended at a boundary—where Kat’s room began, though it was invisible to him.

“I’m gonna idle for a second,” she said, “hold on.”

The image of her froze in place and began to flicker. Rian waited, but nothing was happening. “What’s she doing?” he whispered to himself.

“If I had to guess,” Corvis said from afar, taking Rian by surprise, “she’s addressing the needs of her off-worlder self.”

Rian looked over his shoulder at him, then kept it to a strained whisper, in case Kat was listening: “How the hell can you hear me from here?”

“I can hear just about everything whether I like it or not,” Corvis said, still resting in the grass and with eyes closed.

Visha perked up as if she’d heard something, then resumed her nap.

When Kat came back—her image suddenly flickering from one position to another—it was as if she’d teleported from sitting to standing. She sat down again beside him.

“Well, I think you really do have talent, Cob,” she said. “You said you were a speedrunner, right?”

Rian glanced off, trying to let go of his line of thought. “I’ve spent quite a bit of my life playing Shadow Spirits. For better or worse.”

“Nice community around that game, I’m guessing. Shadow Spirits.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Real supportive. Kind of ironic, for how brutal the game is.”

Kat found a small rock on the ground beside her, then flung it—but unlike at the lake, where she’d skipped it across the waters, she sent it flying. A distance counter appeared in the air and ticked up. Another mini-game.

“I was big into Comrade Clash before this,” Kat said. “Made a nice bit of money in tournaments for it. But I never cared much for the community.”

Rian nearly said it without thinking—my mom was really into that game. He twitched, almost slapping a hand over his mouth.

That had been close. Information like that could lead someone back to him. His mom was practically famous to people who played Comrade Clash, and he recalled that there were plenty of news articles surrounding his incident from over a year ago, linking him to her. And for anyone in-game to find out what happened to him meant the sooner people realized he was stuck. It was probably inevitable at this point, but he knew he’d rather delay it as long as possible. He was in no position to deal with it.

Kat flung another stone, but it only went half as far. “It was nice to have that sense of belonging, but…fighting games don’t always bring out the nicest people. And at the end of the day, it’s still you against everyone else, and everyone else against you.” She tested the weight of a stone by tossing it and catching it. “So along comes Mirage,” she said, “and I thought, hell, maybe I could make my own community. And I could focus on collaboration instead of competition for once.”

The encounter between her and LastWhisper at Thile Harbor replayed itself in Rian’s mind. “It…seems like the competition’s still following you, from what I’ve seen.”

“Yeah, here I am, going after the same things like I haven’t learned my lesson.” She breathed out a humorless laugh. “LastWhisper doesn’t know when to let up, either. You only saw a glimpse of it.”

“I’m guessing it’s some kind of personal grudge?”

“You could say that.”

So something had happened between them after all. The subject was more sensitive than he’d thought, judging by her curtness. As if to end the conversation, Kat took out her virtual keyboard—a phone layout—and started typing with her thumbs. The scrolling text on his guild tab caught Rian’s eye.

: can’t believe u stole my partner Cob

: inconceivable

: oh uh

: oops. I guess it’s been all day hasn’t it LOL

: sorry bb, we’ll party tomorrow I promise

: uwu

Rian had to stifle a laugh. He felt kind of bad for stealing Kat like this, but it had been up to her to come spar with him.

As the sun began to set, it bled violet across the sky. Shadows of trees crept toward them along the grass. Corvis was standing and stretching, and Visha came trotting up to Kat and Rian.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Kat said, checking another window then closing it. She stood up, yawned. “Are you good to go again, tomorrow?”

Still feeling elated, Rian stood up with her. “Yeah!”

And then he remembered. He was going to be here. Today. Tomorrow. The day after. Whether he wanted to or not. And he didn’t feel tired at all—not like he should’ve been. But maybe that was from how exciting these last hours had been, spending them with her.

“Cool!” Kat said. “We’re really on our way, then, I guess.” She held out her fist to him, and they fist-bumped. “Gee-gees. Night, Cob!”

“Gee-gees,” he said, smiling faintly.

She stepped back and disappeared in a swirl of blue particles as she logged out, and the dozen wards she’d placed around the area vanished along with her.

***

Rian looked out over Elmguard, the vast quiet of the forest surrounding him, where even the bustle of other players had begun to die down. He kept waiting for it to happen: for his body to tell him that it was tired, that he should lie down and close his eyes and let his mind drift into nothingness for a bit so he could wake up tomorrow. But it wasn’t happening.

Nothing was there. No urge, no exhaustion or fatigue.

He sat down in the grass, an empty feeling crashing up against him in slow, steady waves.

This is about to be the longest night of my life, he thought, isn’t it?

He felt the breeze coursing past him, chilly but not outright cold as if it could only approach the feeling infinitesimally, never quite reaching what it was meant to be. The grasses flowed in the wind, and the stars were beginning to come out. The moon stared down at him like a blind, white eye. The world, ever turning beneath him.

He stood up.

“Oh, screw this!” he shouted. “I think it’s time for an all-nighter! A real gaming marathon, just like the old days!” He smashed his fist into his palm, then glanced aside at Corvis, who was lying on the ground and gazing up at the sky with his hands folded across his chest.

“Break out the energy drinks, buddy,” Rian said “We’re doing this!”

Corvis sat up, raised an eyebrow at him. “I hope you don’t intend to spar with me.”

“Wh—” Rian’s shoulders slumped. “No, I meant…I was trying to psyche myself up, but…” Giving up, he shook his head. “Never mind.” He tightened his cloth hand-wrap even though he was pretty sure it couldn’t fall off his hands unless he unequipped it.

Dusting off his clothes, Rian headed toward the forests.

It was time to get his grind on.

***

Rian kept up a jog, letting the moonlight guide him once his eyes adjusted to the darkness. There were dozens more fellings now than during the day, and they varied in level and size. Some were mere stumps, but others were entire trunks, and the forest floor was steady with their movement. In the dim light, it looked as if the trees themselves were roaming about, or that the entire forest was shifting.

Rian really, really didn’t like that feeling—like the trees were going to close in and crush him if he stood still.

He dashed into the nearest creature, a level 13 felling that had blue mushrooms growing out of it, and shattered its bark with his fist.

You have dealt 143 damage! (Felling’s HP: 50/193)

It recoiled, then began to crawl toward him with its slithering tendrils. Timing its approach, he drew back and kicked. The trunk caved in, and again a wisp of smoke gathered from its remains and turned into a few gold coins, leaving behind a single scrap of leather which Rian looted.

You have dealt 131 damage! (Felling’s HP: 0/193)

You have gained experience! (+38)

You have received 20 gold!

You have obtained 1 Leather Scrap!

It was the first time he’d tried kicking instead of punching, and he was surprised to see that it dealt almost as much damage as a punch that was boosted by his dash. There was more power in kicks, but it was trickier. It took a moment to balance and regain his footing after the hit, for one. And though he could imagine incorporating a kick into Dash’s weird halting mechanic as he came up to a target, he wasn’t sure he wanted to try it yet.

He moved on to the next felling, watched his EXP bar tick up with each successive kill. Only once or twice he encountered one that outright attacked him first, and the rest seemed content to roam the forest and mind their business. Getting surrounded by them was a problem in case more than one became hostile, but Rian paid careful attention to his positioning, always keeping an escape route open.

After an hour, the expectant sound of chimes played through the forest.

LEVEL UP! (Lv. 15→16)

You have gained 10 Max HP! (547→557)

You have gained 10 Max MP! (340→350)

Available attribute points +2

Pausing only to place more points into Strength, he kept onward.

It was mostly automatic at this point. The higher-level fellings weren’t terribly dangerous, though one time a tendril caught him off guard and tripped him up before it lashed out like a whip, striking him. This was, of course, shortly followed by him getting revenge, obliterating the stump with his fist.

Going through the motions, he realized it was getting late. The time on his HUD read “1:00 am.” At first he wondered how the game’s day-cycle could be consistent between players, but when he asked the System, he learned it was simply because the game put him into a layer of the Overworld with people in similar time zones as him. Miracia hadn’t suddenly gone empty, at least. There were still a few late-night players in the forest as he passed them by and in the guild, but it was significantly fewer than the day group.

In a grove he found a random nullshard fragment sticking out of the ground, a faint circle of light encompassing the area. He sat beside the glowing crystal to gather his thoughts and spend his attribute points.

Entering half-sync to restore the game timer, he still didn’t feel tired at all. Not physically, of course, but not mentally either. He’d pulled all-nighters playing MMOs before, but it had never been anything like this.

What he was experiencing now was everything a hardcore gamer could dream of: no need for sleep, food, or water. Just allowing himself to disappear into the game, letting it fill him with a sense of purpose. Except the disappearing part had happened, well, literally: he was technically part of the game, this other world, now. And with hardly anyone else around except Corvis to distract him, the reality of his situation managed to rear itself.

It wasn’t as harrowing as he’d expected, at least for now. He was still himself, after all. And only a few things had truly changed about him, his body. The lack of hunger and need for sleep didn’t mean that he wasn’t human or anything anymore. It was ridiculous to think that way. These things didn’t define who he was. They were just biological needs.

He had to take a moment to laugh at himself, that he’d really needed this line of thinking to calm down and reassure himself that he was still a person.

Still, it helped to consider the upsides. His financial situation was basically irrelevant. When the house’s utilities finally shut down, it didn’t matter that his headset would lose power or its connection. He was separate from it now. And, of course, as much as he didn’t want to think about it, someone in his family would eventually discover his body.

He watched the wind sway the canopies of the trees, felt the weight of silence that was once burrowing into his soul, now peaceful and inviting.

Was this truly what the afterlife was like? Had Reflect Systems created a sort of paradise that people could escape into, beyond death?

He’d never felt more assured that his mom was still alive—or at least still around. If this had happened to him, it could’ve happened to her.

And if this world was truly real but with an MMO system attached to it, then it didn’t matter if Mirage ended or got shut down. He was here. Cutting off the connection between Earth and Miriad shouldn’t affect him.

That was unless the GMs were powerful enough to end reality itself.

Unnerved, Rian got up to continue leveling in full-sync again. After he’d been traveling in one direction for nearly a minute, he came to a stop, sensing that something had changed in his surroundings. There were fewer fellings among the trees.

Perched on a branch ahead, waiting silently, was the tall oval-shaped form of a bird. An owl.

Quadriform (Level 19)

HP: 400/400

Difficulty: C+ (Uncommon)

“A creature of the Elmguard forests that appears at night. Docile, but highly territorial and aggressive when provoked. Its talons are capable of rending armor.”

It was the highest-level creature he’d seen so far, and it was three levels above him. Like an oversized owl, its body was stationary as it slowly turned its head to face him.

It opened its eyes. Gold coins, gleaming, hypnotic—the images of them hovered outward from its face, four eyes in a square around its beak. Appearing to perceive him, it blinked, closing each of its eyes one after the other in a circle. When they all reopened at once, the golden eyes shifted into a different position—a diamond. A low cry resounded from the creature like a screeching violin.

Rian backed away. ‘Kay. Not fighting that yet. No thanks.

It spread its wings, leaped off the branch, and came hurtling toward him.

Nope. Nope nope nope!

Barely thinking about it, Rian kicked off backward and dashed—just in time for the quadriform creature to land where he’d been and grasp the ground in its talons. It screamed at him.

He stumbled, attempting to stay upright as he landed out of the reverse dash, then turned and cast Earthen Harmonics. His heart skipped as he saw that he barely had enough MP to cast it. He’d been using the extra movement speed from the buff to grind mobs faster, reducing the travel time between creatures, but he didn’t have a way to restore his MP yet.

He sprinted as hard as he could. Stamina rapidly depleting, the glowing green bar on his HUD lowered as his sense of fatigue rose in tandem.

He spotted the nullshard fragment he’d been resting at a moment ago. Corvis was sitting there as if waiting for him.

“Ah,” Corvis said. “You’re back.”

Hearing the monstrous owl screech behind him again, Rian dashed for the nullshard and leaped through the air, his stomach lurching.

He landed on his side hard enough to deal some damage.

“I see you’ve brought a friend,” Corvis said.

Righting himself, Rian looked over, and the giant owl was standing at the edge of the nullshard field, staring at him with its revolving eyes. It tore out a heap of dirt with a claw, then tossed grass into the circle as if to spite him. It spread its wings and took off, soaring into the dark.