“That’s why I’ve brought you here!” Zora said, standing in front of the gang as the representative. “Will you join our guild—The Antagonists?”
“Uh… I’m not sure, that name makes you sound like a bunch of bullies with weapons,” he replied.
“I know right, we sound like total douchebags!” she muttered.
“Maybe, The Protagonists?” the red-haired girl suggested.
“Now we sound like a couple of I-fight-for-my-friends idiots,” said the angry-looking boy.
“Then I propose: The Crimson Demons!” the cloaked girl announced.
“But we aren’t anything like demons,” said the blue-haired girl, tilting her head slightly to the right.
“Then what the hell is our damn name?” Zora grumbled.
“Turtles and Seals?” suggested the blue-haired girl.
“We need to sound angry and not like a kindergarten group!” Zora retorted.
“How about: The Dungeoneers?” suggested the redhead.
“We haven’t even beaten a single dungeon yet!” Zora refuted.
“Do we really have to talk about this every day?” said the serious-looking boy.
“Of course! It’s a matter of pride!” Zora exclaimed.
“Then we should be called, The Crimson Demons!” the raven girl said again, this time with more emphasis than before.
“We already agreed that it doesn’t make sense.”
“But it’s so cool!”
“I’ve got it! How about: The Blinking Spiders,” said the friendly looking brunette.
“We’re spiders now?” Zora raised her brows.
“Wait, spiders can blink?” said the black-haired girl.
“Yeah, I actually saw a couple of blinking spiders yesterday,” Hyde finally joined the conversation.
“Wow, I never knew that,” said the redhead.
“But that doesn’t make sense, do they really have eyelids—”
“You know what—we’re going back to The-really-pissed-off-with- this-world-squad!” exclaimed Zora, putting an end to the debate.
“That’s a mouthful,” Hyde commented.
“Have any better ideas?”
“The Loony Group,” he answered.
“Oh, I see, coming from the boy crying over the death of an NPC.”
“Shut up!”
“Yeah, I know that’s unfair,” she shrugged. “But will you join us? The Loonies?”
“And what does joining you mean exactly?”
“For starters, you won’t be alone and we’re trying to get out of this world—I think you want in on that, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Get out of this world? How?”
“It’s simple really,” began the serious looking boy. “Considering that this place is basically a game, beating it should be the obvious key.”
“Beating it? You mean like winning the game?” asked Hyde.
“Exactly,” Zora said.
“So you guys fight to get out of this world?”
“Yep.”
“What happens if you die?”
“Well, there are all kinds of different theories—some think that when you die you get reincarnated—”
“Does that mean we could come back as an animal?” asked the red-head.
“Theoretically,” answered the serious boy.
“What! Do you really think it’s possible for us to come back like anything aside from human?” said the raven.
“It’s perfectly reasonable,” he replied.
“I think I’d want to come back as a panda,” smiled the redhead.
“And you will come back like one of those blinking spiders,” he said to the black-haired girl, adding to her worry.
“Shut up—I’ll come back like a crimson demon!” she exclaimed.
“Anyway—” Zora began. “Others have said that when you die, you never actually leave the game, you simply start over. Others have said that death is permanent and another person from the real world is brought in to fill your place. These ideas all come from the fact that the population here never really takes a substantial hit or at least we don’t know if it does—that’s why there are a couple of different ideas floating around. But the general one is that no one knows, and that’s a good enough reason to avoid it.”
“Okay, so dying is like actually dying,” Hyde replied.
“Yep.”
“So what you guys are asking is... for me to fight with you to get out of this world?”
“Precisely!” Zora said. “So will you join us, The-I’m-still-not-sure-what-our-name-is-guild?”
“Who are we fighting exactly? The world?” he asked.
“Basically, will you fight with us?” She extended her arm for a handshake.
He looked down at her hand and then up at the room, seeing all of the different faces smiling softly back at him. There was something about them that was comforting, almost familiar. In a world which he knew nothing of, loneliness was his keenest foe.
“Sure, I think I can do that,” he smiled and shook her hand.
“Welcome aboard to this whatever-we’re-called-guild. As you already know, I’m Zora,” she said. “The guy with the questionable smile is Abe.”
“Hey! C’mon why did you have to make me sound so sly?” he complained.
“Because you are…” said the serious-looking boy.
“How mean!”
“Anyway, the guy who looks like a delinquent is Remi,” Zora added.
“Hey,” Remi said, giving a curt nod.
“The redhead with freakishly closed eyes is Mila,” Zora continued.
“Nice to meet you,” Mila smiled.
“The girl, who thinks that she’s cool is Nitro,” Zora said.
“What do you mean thinks, I am cool!” Nitro clarified.
“Lolo,” Remi whispered.
“My name is Nitro!” she exclaimed.
“Finally, the tea girl is Mari,” said Zora as the blue-haired girl appeared with a tray.
“You’re all totally ignoring me, aren’t you?” Nitro muttered.
“Here you go,” Mari said, handing everyone a steamy cup of tea.
“Oh, thank you,” Hyde said, accepting his.
“Any questions?” Zora asked.
“Yeah, why does she have blue hair?”
“You’re going to have to heighten your sense of adaptability. We’re in a game, so try to accept things as they are.”
“It’s pretty, right?” said Mila.
“I guess,” Hyde replied.
“Anyway, you’re Hyde right?” Zora said.
“I’m not really sure to be honest,” he smiled lightly.
“Don’t worry about it,” Remi began. “We all have the same situation, but I hear the amnesia lets up after some time.”
“Yeah, you’ll pick up bits and pieces along the way,” Mila explained.
“Zora, we should make him an official member of the guild,” said Abe.
“Right, one sec,” Zora drew her tablet and in the very next moment, Hyde’s tablet vibrated.
“What’s that?” he held it up and on his screen was a request to join The-we-need-to-find-a-name-fast-guild.
“Accept this and you become an official member.” she explained.
“Oh, okay,” he said and choose the option to accept on the screen. As a result his tablet glowed blue. “What’s happening?” he cried, terrified by the lightworks.
“Don’t worry, you’re just becoming one of us,” she smiled.
The light show soon ended and he was asked to turn his table over. When he did, he saw that the back cover had changed. From a plain one to one with a symbol etched into it. An image of a roaring gorilla head.
“Why is it a gorilla?” he looked up.
“Because we’re mad, pissed off and furious,” Zora smirked. “When we find the people who built this world and put us in here, we’ll give them a piece of our mind!”
Nods and smiles came one after another from every face as
they held up their tablets showing off the exact same emblem etched into their back covers.
CHAPTER 4
“How big is this world?” Hyde asked, standing by the window, glancing up at the sailing clouds in the vacant room.
“Oh, it’s huge, we haven’t even explored a tenth of this world,” Zora said, standing next to him. “And there’s so much to see. All sorts of terrain, desert, snow, rainforest, all kinds of things are out there.”
“How do you know?”
“Think about it like this, any place you can see in this world, you can go to and find something even beyond that.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty breathtaking when you realise that it must have been people who built this world,” she began. “They must have an eternity’s worth of time to make something like this.”
“Everything is so intricate and tangible, I barely even notice how programmed it all is.”
“Yeah, you can forget when you don’t think about it, but honestly it’s difficult to find fault with this place. But the creators, they will feel my wrath!”
“You’re really dead set on taking the fight to them, huh?”
“Of course,” she said. “We’re here against our will, and worst of all this world is just filled with death and suffering, but somehow it feels comfortable and I’m not sure why.”
“How long have you all been here?”
“I don’t know, days, weeks, months, years, it could be anything,” she shrugged. “Oh and for the record, we don’t age.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and the same goes for the NPCs.”
“Mmm.”
“Anything else?”
“I don’t know, I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“Well, that’s it for our little study session then,” she said, signalling for him to walk with her. “Now let’s move on to other important business.”
“Important business?” He followed her out into the corridor, back to the room with the other members of the guild.
“It’s time for some training,” Zora announced.
“Training?” Hyde narrowed his eyes.
“Yeah, did you really think we’d let you join us, just like that?”
“One can always hope,” he shrugged.
“You’re part of this guild now, so we’ve got to make sure you can hold your own.”
“Hold my own?”
“Yep,” Zora nodded. “Listen up, we’re holding a training session for Hyde.”
“Really?” Abe said with a sheepish smile on his face. “I can’t wait.”
“Why is he smiling like that?” Hyde said, worried.
“Don’t worry about it, you’ll just be dying once or twice,” Remi explained.
“Dying?” Hyde exclaimed.
“It’ll be fine, it’s only scary the first couple of times.” Mila added.
“What do you mean the first—” Hyde began.
“C’mon, don’t psych him out like that,” said Zora
“Place your bets folks, how do you think he’ll die first,” Abe announced, starting a little gambling bout. “Incineration? Decapitation? Disembowelment? You name it!”
“He’s kidding, right?” Hyde looked around, hoping that someone would reassure him.
“My bets on INCINERATION,” Nitro said, grinning.
“They’re not serious, right?” Hyde whimpered. “Right?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be okay,” Mari whispered, soothing him, though something was hiding behind her inept reassurances. It was something so subtle, that he was somehow drawn to the strangeness. Before he could comment on it, Zora said, “Hyde, teleport to this icon on your guild map.”
“Huh?” He tilted his head to the right.
“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, helping him navigate through his tablet.
“Okay—wait did you say teleport?”
“Accept things as they are!”
“Fine, can I teleport everywhere?”
“You have to have been there at least once to enable teleportation to those waypoints,” she explained. “But in the guild it’s all automatic.”
“Ah, I see, okay, I’ll see you there,” he said and began teleporting with a simple touch to the screen. His body was quickly covered in blue light, the same way it had been when he entered the guildhall for the first time. After a short moment, he reappeared in an arena.
Upon his arrival, before being able to even look up at the hall, he bent down, collapsing to his knees with one hand over his mouth and the other on his stomach. The same gut-twisting sensation came back with a vengeance.
“Still not feeling it?” Zora said, appearing next to him.
“No…” he shook his head, still panting.
“Give it a moment, it’ll wear off.”
I hope so. He rose to his feet, dedicating considerable effort to stabilise his legs.
One after another the party members appeared in the arena.
“You’ll get used to it,” Remi said, noticing Hyde’s struggled breaths.
“Yeah, Nitro threw up on everyone when she first teleported,” Abe explained.
“What! I didn’t… it happened once, shut up!” Nitro muttered.
“It’s okay,” Mila whispered, petting Nitro.
“They’re such meanies!” Nitro murmured.
“Anyway! Enough with the soap opera!” Zora said. “Let’s begin.”
“Right,” they responded and everyone but Zora and Hyde left the arena, sitting down at the stands.
“We’re going to teach you the combat system in this game,” Zora explained. “First, as you probably already know, the game functions on a class system, right?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“You’re a Dragoon, right?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
“Me too,” Zora smiled. “Remi’s a Shadow, Nitro, a Sage, Mila, an Architect, and Mari and Abe are Sentinels.”
“Oh okay,” he said, looking at the people in question, mentally assigning the right class name to the right person.
“There are a few other things we should talk about, but first, I just want you to get a feel for the combat, you know.”
“But what about the classes?”
“That comes later,” she nodded clearly knowing something he didn’t. “Anyway, what’s your chosen weapon?”
“Uh… I started out with a longsword.”
“Do you have one?”
“No it broke a while back…”
“It’ll do that, everything in this world has a durability rating, meaning nothing is permanent, unless you repair it, of course,” she said. “Regardless, I’ve got a spare one,” she spawned a blade from her tablet and tossed it to him.
“Thanks,” he said, looking down.
“Draw your sword,” she said, equipping herself with a polearm. It had a metal body with an axe blade topped with a spike at the end of the long shaft, which was pointed directly at Hyde.
“Okay—” He did as he was told, without thinking. “Wait, are we fighting each other?”
“Yeah.”
“What—I can’t fight you, what if I hurt you?”
“Don’t worry, we can’t die while we’re in the guild.”
“We can’t die?” he exclaimed “What do you mean we can’t die? I thought you told me death is permanent, which is it?”
“While inside of your own guild, you can’t die, it’s like a training ground type of deal. C’mon, I’ll show you,” she took a couple of steps towards him with her weapon prepared to eviscerate.
“What!” he said, realising that he was the guinea pig.
Before he could respond to the threat and put up a solid guard it was already too late. Zora had already launched an attack. The polearm was on a one-way ticket to his neck. It connected sooner than he expected and before he knew it, it had completed its flight path, through it.
His eyes blurred, and his head tilted. His distorted vision captured the trans
action of money between Abe and Mari.
In the very next moment, his body collapsed along with his head, that fell next to it, cleanly severed from his neck.
“Are you trying to kill me?” he exclaimed, jerking into an upright position. The next thing he knew was that he was sitting up in a hospital bed in an infirmary. He wasn’t dead. Far from it actually.
The very thought of having intimately experienced decapitation, yet remaining alive was so strange and contradictory. He grabbed his head and felt his neck, confirming that the two were connected.
“Good morning,” Mari said, sitting next to the bed.
“I died…” he whispered, turning to her.
She nodded.
“Zora killed me.”
She nodded again.
“She killed me!” he exclaimed as the thought sunk in.
“She did.”
“She cut my head off!”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I didn’t have a head!”
“I think it makes more sense to say that you didn’t have a body,” she said, cocking her head to the right.
“Why would she do that?”
“There’s no teacher like experience.”
“Are you kidding!” he exclaimed. “She cut my head off!”
“And still here you are. All’s well that ends well, right?”
“I guess—wait. How did my head get reattached to my body?”
“You respawned.”
“And that means?”
“You disappeared and reappeared with your head on.”
“Oh… somehow that makes sense… and you’re the one who won the bet, right?” he said, shifting his attention away from the strange phenomenon.
“No…” she quickly averted her eyes from his.
“I can’t believe this.”
“Hey, you’re up,” Zora said, walking in.
“You cut my head off!”
“So how do you feel?”
“For a person, who just lost his head moments ago, I’m great, just fine!” he muttered.
“Wonderful, want to get back to training?”
“Are you kidding—I just got my head cut off!”
“Yeah, yeah, drama queen, we’re burning daylight.”
“Screw you!”
“It’s not my fault you left your neck wide open.”
“Okay, okay, c’mon, let’s go!” he said, jumping out of the bed.
“That’s the spirit!” she said, leading him out of the room.
Dullahans and Tablets Page 4