“Anyway, all and all, the net gain was pretty good today,” Zora said, smiling.
“Yeah, quite a solid execution of Night Owl today,” Remi nodded.
“You guys are ignoring me, aren’t you?” Hyde complained, but nobody responded. “Hey, how come we needed so much money?” he asked.
“I’ve got a little something planned,” Zora smiled.
“Oh, now you’re listening to me!” Hyde grumbled.
“Sorry, did you say something before?” Mila said, tilting her head to one side.
“Forget it… anyway, you’re not going to tell me what I was stealing for?” He narrowed his eyes.
“In time, Hyde, in time,” Zora smiled, but as his unimpressed face didn’t let up, she added. “Give me until tomorrow, will you?”
He sighed and let his shoulders sink. “Fine, until tomorrow.”
“Anyway, go get some sleep,” she said, dismissing the participants of Night Owl.
The main office was quickly emptied and all, but Hyde teleported closer to their rooms while he, trying to avoid motion sickness, decided to walk. It was then that for the first time he noticed the guildhall’s interior. The inside was nice, homey, big, but not too big. The halls were brightly lit with lamps and shone with a tarnish gold colour, accompanied by light walls and darker carpets.
Is it really okay for me to steal from NPCs? He thought, looking down at the intricate thread work in the carpets. Stealing is never okay, but if it’s from programs… then what? He stumbled onto questions that didn’t have clear answers, but rather lay in a pool of ambiguousness and contradiction. Whatever… I need to get my memories back first. Dying without knowing who I am would suck.
While he walked through the corridors, a faint tune played in his ears. It was quiet almost like a whisper of instruments. So subtle and easy to make out. But it wasn’t the same as the different sounds that had played when he almost got caught or while he was stealing or when he almost died. There was something about it that was more organic. With each step it grew louder and louder. The sound was still coming from inside his ears, but it was as though it alluded to something he was getting closer to.
A door stood just a crack open, letting through a thin bright pillar. It stood open asking him to investigate. And so he did as his curiosity commanded. As he walked up to the door a voice become clear. Mari’s. She was saying something. She wasn’t talking… but singing?
I’m finally used to this crazy new reality.
In a way, it’s kinda peaceful, booming and alive.
With a scream and a tear—it’s like a joy ride.
But I know there’s something I should realise.
Hyde stopped in front of the small opening peering into the room. It was quickly obvious that he couldn’t see anyone. But the voice was there. He pushed the door open further, but for some reason, he hesitated.
Maybe it was the fact that he was entering territory he wasn’t sure he was allowed to. Or it could have been the fact that he was certain that he was about to enter a girl’s room.
Either way, he mustered up the courage and pushed the door open.
I’m surrounded by this life-death philosophy
I’m here, but sometimes I wonder if this is really me.
Am I real? Am I not? I really can’t see the meaning
At times it’s like my heart is just waning
The jovial song quickly amplified and went on full throttle. Mari’s voice became crystal clear. The subtle instruments were now a lively band of a smooth guitar, a supporting bass and subtle drums.
Hyde peeked in and was quickly welcomed by the sight of Mari sitting on a bed, swaying from left to right, gently kicking the air as she sung.
For some reason, Mari turned to him. He hadn’t made a sound, but it was as if she already knew that he was there. His heart stopped when he met her eyes. So sweet and gentle. But for some reason her bustling song didn’t end. Instead it continued into the next chapter with a warm smile.
Out there in the night
All kinds people in the streets
All careful and carefree
And joyous in their serenity
Yet it all keeps going round
From dying in the battlefield
To laughing in the playing scene
Mari looked away and Hyde followed her eyes, until he stopped at a familiar face. Nitro. She sat enjoying Mari’s tune with a stylus pen in hand as she drew something on her tablet. Her hand moved so smoothly and easily with the beat of the song while she swayed with the rhythm.
Before long, with all kinds of feelings welling up inside her, she jumped to her feet and began dancing. Now it had certainly become a party, with a lovely singer and an amazing band.
The festivities of music made everything seem so much brighter, like millions of spotlights shining in every direction.
Something about the entire situation was amusing. It wasn’t that Nitro was a bad dancer or anything like that, she moved her arms and hips with the beat of the song, but for some reason she just seemed remarkably adorable and the name Lolo just made so much sense now.
However, little did she know that her dance routine was in front of an audience.
Salty tears and sour steps, bitter sweets and heroes
It’s all too ludicrous—maybe we’re just meant to be ones and zeroes
Might as well just stop, dance and scream Leroy
And this will be the night, we throw our hands up and enjoy
The party continued with Mari’s song in their ears, until, Nitro looked up at a face she wasn’t expecting. Her body stopped, her eyes widened, her jaw dropped. She turned bright cherry red with inflamed ears, but what followed was what really made Hyde react beyond fronting an awkward smile.
He turned tail and bursted into a sprint, shutting the door behind him and fleeing as far as he could from the door.
The music didn’t stop and when the door opened with a furious Sage walking into the corridor chanting a spell, it only grew louder. In that moment, the only thing that could be heard was Mari’s tune. Hyde’s apologies and Nitro’s chanting were all drowned out.
But the result of his retreat and her attack were quickly decided the moment she unloaded the Flame Burst. It engulfed the entire corridor in its throttling heat. In a flash it was set ablaze and in the next, ashes and burn marks were left behind.
Right then and there… Hyde died.
Ugh… God. I can’t believe I died for that. He thought opening his eyes to the infirmary lights. I’m back here again…
But something was a bit different. The song hadn’t ended or rather it was just about to. But the sound wasn’t coming from inside his ears anymore. He turned to the right and sitting like she always did, Mari was singing.
“You’re up,” she smiled.
“I was burned to crisp, wasn’t I?” he asked, sitting up.
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded.
“She didn’t have to burn me alive, it’s not like I was laughing…” he muttered.
“I guess.”
“Anyway, I’m sorry for just eavesdropping like that.”
“It’s okay, I like singing and it’s nice when I can share it with people.”
“That’s good, I take it Nitro likes dancing,” he grinned.
“Mm-hmm,” she returned the smile.
“I wonder—” he looked down on his hands. “I wonder… what I like.”
CHAPTER 7
“Where are we going?” Hyde asked, following Zora through the hallway that once had burnt walls and his ashes staining the floor.
“I thought we could have another learning experience,” she smiled.
“Okay?”
“You’re not familiar with the equipment system, are you?”
“No.”
“Ever wondered why you kept dying so easily during our training exercises, while you couldn’t kill anyone as easily?”
“Are you going to say ‘it’s because I suck?’ because that’s no
t cool.”
“That too, but no no, there’s a different reason.”
“Which is?”
“Your equipment… that’s what sucks. You might as well be going into a battlefield naked with a stick in your current get-up.”
“That’s just harsh…”
“Luckily we’ll get that fixed, but that comes later. What’s important now is that you know that this game does not function on a levelling system like other games or at least not an overt one.”
“Levelling system?” he asked blankly.
“You know, like when you level up and there’s this stupid sound that plays?”
He looked at her with an obvious question mark on his face.
“You don’t know what grinding is either, do you?”
He shook his head.
“I envy you,” she sighed. “That might be the worst thing I know. But anyway, this combat system functions on two underlying aspects that help a player get better.”
“Okay, what are they?”
“One’s skill and the other is the equipment system,” she explained. “The equipment system functions like an ingame pay-to-win kind of deal.”
“Oh, so depending on what gear you have depends on how well you can fight.”
“Exactly, the more money you have the more well off you are.”
“Wow, that sounds strangely familiar.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me if you’d heard that before, but money isn’t everything in this game.”
“How so?”
“Having money is one thing, but what really matters is skill. How good you are as a fighter. Any player could wear any armor, but not every player can prove themselves to be the best.”
“Ahh okay, that makes sense.”
“That’s just one of the ways that the game is balanced, but more importantly, because of the way ‘levelling’ works, there’s very little reason to fight everything that moves, which means we’re fortunate enough to be able to pick our battles.
“But anyway, c’mon, we’re going to the shopping district,” she said.
“Buying equipment?” he asked excitedly.
“You could say that,” she shrugged.
They teleported out of the guildhall to save time, but that quickly changed when Hyde fell to his knees, fighting back the urge to throw up again.
“You really aren’t good with teleporting,” Zora smirked.
“I don’t think I ever will be…” he grumbled. “Anyway, where are we going?”
“To the trading post.”
“Which is what exactly?”
“It’s a market system in this game where players can auction of their old gear or drop items.”
“I thought people would just buy from the merchants around here.”
“Yeah, that gets old rather quickly if you’re looking for high-end stuff.”
“Oh.”
They made their way past the horde of people and arrived at the trading post. When he entered with Zora, the atmosphere seemed different, but he didn’t really bother with it at the time.
“What exactly are we doing?” Hyde asked.
“Standing in a queue…” Zora replied.
“Yeah, but why?”
“I had something very special delivered.”
“Special? Like what?”
“You’ll see, it’s what we needed all that money for,” she smiled.
“Oh really, Remi told me that the guild was running low on funds after getting me climbing gear.”
“Yeah that’s true, we needed some extra money to survive this month.”
“For food?”
“For rent.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course the guildhall isn’t cheap.”
“I can’t believe you’re renting that place.”
“Well, for the time being, maybe at some point we can get one built.”
“Really? You can build guildhalls?”
“Yeah, it’s not cheap though… believe me.”
Their turn finally arrived and Zora picked up whatever it was that she had bought. Somehow, it was familiar to Hyde when she showed him how to access the trading post. It was reminiscent of another online system he used to know, where one could get anything, from clothes to all kinds of goods. In the end he never put two and two together though.
“What did you get?” he asked her.
“Check your mail,” she replied.
“My mail?” he tilted his head.
“Check your tablet.”
“Oh.” He checked his tablet and sure enough there was a tab with a small one next to the icon that looked like an envelope. He pressed on the one and only piece of mail he had ever received. Underneath the subject title ‘this is why you became a thief’, he saw a series of different icons and a few options below that.
“Press here first,” Zora said, pointing at the ‘take all’ button. Once he did, the icons in the mail disappeared.
“Where it go?”
“Your inventory.”
He navigated to that screen and just as she had said, they were there.
“What are these things?” he asked.
“Try them on.”
Those words clued him into the fact that it was equipment for him. Without saying a word, he did as she had said.
Soon, his clothes changed to reflect the gear that the mannequin model on the screen showed.
“Wow,” he said as he looked down at his new armor. It was made up of interwoven metal plates over chainmail, topped by a visored helmet, and completed by segmentation along the torso, arms and legs. “Are you sure I can have all of this?”
“Yeah, it’s no problem. If you didn’t have it, it would be problem.”
“That makes sense. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, you’re the one who stole for it,” she smirked.
“Don’t remind me…”
“Now that you have a good set of armor,” Zora said, leading him through the guildhall to the arena. “It’s time for another training session.”
“What? Really? Another one versus one?”
“Not quite.”
“This is about Boons and Conditions.”
“Boons and Conditions?”
“Yeah, you’ll see.”
They arrived at the arena, walking up the platform, where the other members of the guild stood waiting.
Hyde and Zora were greeted with smiles, smirks and pleasantries.
“Finally at the most exciting part,” Abe said.
“Most exciting part—of what?” Hyde asked.
“The combat system,” Remi noted.
“I think so too,” Mila smiled.
“Anyway, Hyde, Boons are basically buffs.” Zora explained.
“Buffs?” he raised his eyebrows.
“Really, you don’t know that either?”
“I’m sorry…”
“What? Were you living under a rock?”
“Hey, I’m not even sure who I am!”
“Right, my bad. Anyway, buffs are positive effects that can be granted in a number of different ways,” she explained.
“What kind of positive effects?” he asked.
“Well let’s see, anything from movement speed to enhanced strength.”
“Really? There is something like that?”
“Yep, here I’ll show you.” she said. “First let’s start with Valor.”
She lifted up her tablet and said, “Most of the time, you’ll gain Boons from skills.”
Hyde nodded.
But what happened next really sent him for a loop. For some reason his body felt a special kind of tension inside. Like some kind of power was coursing through him.
“This is Valor,” Zora said.
“What? That’s what this feeling is?” he said, widening his eyes.
His muscles tensed, but not the kind after a hard workout, rather the kind where they were ready to go into overdrive. He looked down at his hands and noticed that… they were
glowing.
“Hey, why I am glowing?” Hyde looked up and quickly saw that they were all glowing.
“We’re all under the effects of Valor,” Remi explained.
“Wow, what does it do exactly?”
“That’s the fun stuff.” Zora smiled. “Try punching Abe.”
“What?” he replied.
“Why me?” Abe muttered.
“Just do it!” Zora commanded.
“Fine.”
Hyde walked up to him and after a bit of hesitation, he gave Abe a punch, after getting the ‘okay’ obviously. Hyde jabbed and Abe was sent flying. Wow. Hyde thought looking down at the hand he’d used to launch his friend.
“Now try it, without Valor.” Zora instructed.
And he did. His muscles seemed limp and his punch the same, but what really struck him, was the fact that his punch barely made Abe move.
“That was a bit unfair, but you get what Valor does now, right?” Abe said.
“Yeah,” Hyde nodded, looking down at his hands.
“You should also know that each Boon will be visible on your body and on your HUD, underneath your Stamina bar,” Remi noted.
“Oh really?” Hyde looked up to the right of his peripheral vision and right there it was. The small icon signifying the Valor effect, it blinked rapidly and after about five seconds it expired, disappearing along with the glow on his arms.
“So that’s Valor?” he said.
“Yep, in simple terms it makes you stronger,” Zora explained. “Now, Conditions are the primary counterpart to Boons, which means that one makes you strong, the other makes you weak.”
“This is always fun,” Nitro grinned.
“I know, right?” Abe stood next to her.
The pair of them resembled gawking gargoyles.
“Why are they looking at me like that?”
“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay,” Mari whispered.
“Just relax,” Zora said as she put down her tablet, manifesting her polearm. “Don’t be alarmed, take it like a man.”
“Take what?” Hyde said, and just then, the pommel came flying into his chest.
The impact wasn’t as painful as he expected, but the aftershock was resounding. He staggered back and in that moment, he felt the opposite feeling of Valor. His arms weighed tonnes and his legs the same. His chest dropped and his shoulders slumped
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