“So . . . should we do this?” Mei picked up her
VR headset.
Rip nodded enthusiastically. “Absolutely!”
He pulled his own device over his eyes. Mei
pulled her headset on as well, and everything
plunged into darkness.
“Wait—” Mei said, suddenly. “We still don’t
know why we were sent this! We lost,
remember?”
But the game had already started.
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Loading . . .
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Wow! This feels so real!
You LOOK so real. How is
the game doing this?
Mei, this is AWESOME!
I can see my hands and
body and everything! And
there’s no controllers!
It’s only a loading
screen—but it's amazing!
True virtual reality!
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press start
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I’m feeling cold.
I’m actually
FEELING cold!
Whooooooooooahhhhh!
Here we go!
Without warning, the floor
disappeared beneath
them and they started
falling.
The falling sensation
was incredible. Below, a
colorful dot slowly came
into view. The sky around
them changed from white
to faint blue.
They were really
picking up speed now.
Both of their mouths
were catching the wind,
making their faces puff
out and fill up with air,
showing their teeth. It
was a pretty funny look.
Rip stuck out his tongue
at Mei.
“Rip, can you hear me?”
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she shouted, trying to speak over the wind
howling in their ears.
“Yes! This is amazing!” he said, as he did a
somersault. Mei was steadying herself, arms
outstretched like she’d seen skydivers do on
TV. “LOOK!” Rip yelled, pointing far off into the
distance. The ground was much closer now
and toward the horizon they could see what
appeared to be an erupting volcano.
Below them, a massive island full of green
forests started to appear, surrounded by
water. It was an ocean, and they were
heading right for it.
It dawned on Rip and Mei that they did not
appear to have a way to slow down. Rip
began flapping his arms, still smiling. Mei was
trying to see if there was some sort of menu
she could activate
by tapping her head,
trying to find buttons on the
VR headset. It was so strange, it
didn’t even feel like she was wearing it
anymore.
“I can’t find an inventory menu or
anything!” she yelled.
“I don’t think there is one!” Rip yelled back.
“There’s not even a health bar or any
objective markers. I love it! So immersive!”
Rip was curious about what would happen
when they hit the ground at this speed.
Would they explode into bits? Would they
bounce back up?
The ocean was right below
them now; they’d hit it within
minutes. Maybe they’d
just sink down into
some incredible
underwater zone!
Underwater levels were
usually terrible and not fun at all.
But if it felt this real, who cares!
Then Rip noticed something on Mei’s
back. “You have a backpack!”
Mei reached behind and felt the backpack
and found a long cord. “You do too!” she
yelled at Rip.
Before she could say anything else, Rip
pulled the cord on his own backpack and
disappeared from her sight, flying high into
the air above her. She pulled her cord too,
and a parachute flew out of the pack, pulling
sharply at her shoulders as it caught the air.
They glided down gently, searching for a
safe place to land. In the distance they saw
a beach, and they both angled toward it.
“Watch out! Crabs!!” Rip called out as they
adjusted their trajectory.
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CRABS! There were ALWAYS crabs in video
games, and they were always really tough,
with high armor ratings. Mei wasn’t sure, but
from this distance, it looked like the crabs
were all wearing little hats.
Mei shouted back, “Let’s not make them
angry; we don’t have any weapons!”
Suddenly, without any warning, their
parachutes detached, sending Rip and Mei
plummeting toward the beach. They both
screamed, and the crabs instantly turned
toward them, raising their pincers high in the
air and snapping them together. It looked like
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they were dancing. Rip figured they had about
thirty seconds before they hit the beach.
“What do we do?” Mei yelled. “I can’t slow
down or change direction. We’re going to hit
them! AND the beach! We’ll be swarmed!
What should we do?”
“We go FASTER!” Rip yelled back. He angled
his body in a straight line and aimed for the
middle of a large clump of the crabs. Mei
smiled and did the same.
Sand, crabs, and little hats flew up into the
air. Rip and Mei slowly stood up, a bit shaken,
but also quite satisfied with their entrance.
Strangely though, that landing kind of hurt!
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Rip grabbed a handful of sand and held it
up to the sun. The sky was blue now, the
ocean was moving, the beach was long, and
the sounds of seagulls filled the air.
“Mei, look at this sand! It’s all cube-shaped!”
he exclaimed. In fact, everything
was cube-shaped. The sun, the
waves, even the crabs, who were
all now scampering away, dazed
and upset. The whole world had a
very square-like quality to it.
“Retro!” he said.
Mei turned in circles, taking it all in. It
wasn’t an ugly-looking game. The square-
shaped, blocky look to everything was a
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pretty common art style nowadays. But this
VR technology was just so impressive. She
walked backward and forward, trying to
gauge if there was any lag or distortion. There
was none. Nope! These controls were perfect.
“This really is amazing VR tech!” she said.
“I don’t even feel sick!” Rip replied. Usually
virtual reality games made him feel queasy
within a few minutes. But this was different.
He took a deep breath. “Hey! I can smell . . . I
can actually smell the sea!”
Mei took a deep breath too. She smiled. “So
can I! How does it do that?” She sniffed
again, detecting a faint hint of seaweed.
They stood on the blocky beach, astounded
at what they were experiencing. Rip and Mei
had played a lot of video games. But they had
Until now.
“So, what now?” Mei asked. Rip opened his
mouth, about to speak, then closed it and
pointed behind Mei. A robed figure hobbled
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along the beach toward them, waving a large
wooden staff. They walked to meet him.
He wasn’t blocky like the rest of the world.
His character model was more realistic.
There was still a slight pixelation to him,
though. Not a huge amount, but he had just
enough jagged and sharp edges for the two
to notice. And, he was old. Really old. His hair
was white as snow, and he had a tattered,
messy beard. The staff he was carrying with
him was a long, twisted tree branch, and at
the very top they could see thin veins of red.
It was an impressive staff, and Rip
guessed it had fire properties of
some sort, based on the look
alone.
“Greetings!” the robed man
said as he stomped his staff
into the sand. “Welcome, to
DIG WORLD! I am
George the Wizard, and I
will be your guide.”
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“George?” Mei said, looking at Rip. “That’s
not a very wizardy name.”
“Totally. I’m going to call you . . . Georgelboth
of Crabberbay!” Rip said. “That’s much more
wizardy!”
Mei walked around George the Wizard.
“How do we interact with him? I can’t see
any icons or dialogue choices or anything,”
she said. “Is it bugged?”
Rip reached out and touched the wizard’s
staff.
It felt solid!
“I don’t know how they’ve done all this with
just a VR headset. It must be doing something
to our brain waves!” he said as he looked
carefully at the old man’s face. George was
staring right at him. Rip put his hand around
the staff. The old man didn’t move.
“Don’t do it, Rip!” Mei warned.
Rip looked at her, winked, and pulled at
the staff.
There was a flash of light, a crack in the
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air, and Rip flew
backward, leaving a trail
in the sand as his body
slid away from George
and Mei. George stood in
an attack stance for a
moment, and then
relaxed again, thumping his staff back into
the sand.
“OW!” Rip said, as he got up and dusted
square-shaped sand off his body. “That hurt.”
Mei looked at Rip strangely for a moment.
“You’re right! The beach landing hurt too.
Things hurt! Things actually hurt in this game!”
Rip giggled. “Virtual reality is awesome!”
Mei shook her head. They both stared at
George.
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Mei cocked her head and said, “How do we
talk to you?”
“With your voice, of course!” George replied.
“Whoa!” Rip exclaimed. “Voice recognition!
Wow, this game has everything!”
“What do we have to do?” Mei asked George.
George paced back and forth, gesturing
theatrically. “There are many things you can
do in
DIG WORLD.
But, I’m not allowed
to spoil it for you; there are rules even I
have to obey. Part of the game is discovering
what it is you need to do!” George’s eye
twitched a little as he said this. He was
certainly a kooky character. He continued on.
“I can tell you this—
DIG
WORLD
is a
very difficult game. You must survive for
three days. You’ll need to keep track of your
vitals to stay alive. Here!”
George pointed his staff at Mei and Rip
and yelled, “BACKSLASH SPAWN WRISTBAND
ASSET FOUR!”
A flash of light erupted from the staff and
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a wristband appeared on both Rip’s and Mei’s
arms.
“I have replenished your health. That fall
almost ended your journey before it began!
You each now have three hearts. Manage
your health carefully. This world . . . it’s not
kind to new travelers . . .” George
seemed uneasy all of a sudden.
Rip looked up at the square-
shaped sun, moving slowly across
the sky. He turned back to George.
“Um . . . hi, George! Quick question. What
happens when the sun goes down?” he asked.
George’s eyes darkened. He looked a little
scared. “Why . . . the monsters come, of
course.”
And with that, he straightened up again,
shook some sand off his robe, and walked
away from the beach into the surrounding
forest.
Mei and Rip turned to each other. It was
time to get to work.
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mine or
die
T
he game world was more vast and
wondrous than anything they had ever
seen before. As they walked, Mei still
couldn’t believe how real everything felt.
She could feel the wind on her skin. Hear it
howling in her ears. The ground was firm
beneath her feet.
Mei noticed a small flower with cubed
yellow petals, and plucked it from the earth.
Tiny cubes of dirt fell from its stem as she
lifted it up to her nose and
took a big whiff.
“Oh . . . ugh! POOH!” Mei
exclaimed, dropping the flower
instantly. “Flowers here smell
like
farts for some reason!”
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Rip snickered. “Fart flowers!”
Mei rubbed her nose, trying to forget the
smell. “Seriously, that was like rotten eggs or
something.”
Nevertheless, it was amazing that you
could smell inside the game. She raised her
hands up in front of her. Yes, they were still
her own hands. She seemed to look the same,
only . . . digital.
Rip scanned the horizon. “I don’t see any
monsters yet. What kind of game do you
think this is?”
Mei felt a shiver of fear ripple through her
at the thought of actual monsters in this
world—likely to be as real as everything else
appeared. She put the thought behind her,
scooped up the stinky flower, and tucked it
into her backpack. Rip looked at her with his
eyebrows raised.
“Who knows; it could be useful,” she
said, looking around. “I don’t see any
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obvious objectives. It must be a survival
game.”
“Of course!” Rip snapped his fingers. “We’ll
need to build a shelter or something. Craft
some tools—maybe harvest some materials . . .”
“Yes! We’ll need wood to build a house.
So . . . something to cut down trees. An axe?”
Mei offered.
Rip nodded,
excited to have a purpose. “I’m
on it!” He jogged off toward the forest.
Mei looked around for a good place to build
their safe house. The field she was standing
in was definitely too open. They would need
to find higher ground. Something protected
by a good crop of trees, and with a high
vantage point so they could see enemies
coming. Mei smiled—already she felt her
gamer experience coming in handy in this
new digital environment. Game logic just
came naturally to her.
The wind rustled through her dark hair.
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Mei closed her eyes for a moment and
breathed deeply. High in the sky, an orange
cube-sun hung over the ocean, warming her
face. Mei’s eyes snapped open. The sun! If she
and Rip didn’t build their shelter by
sundown—they could be swamped by
monsters with nowhere to hide. A wave of
panic crept over her, cold and terrifying.
Everything in this game felt way more
realistic than any other game she’d played
before—and so did the threat of danger. She
was suddenly very, very afraid.
Mei began to sprint in the direction Rip
had gone.
Rip was admiring his handiwork—a
pixelated axe crafted from a small
stone he’d found and the branch of a
cube-tree. To his amazement, by simply
pressing one against the other, the two
materials had fused together easily to
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form the axe, shifting and morphing into the
correct shape.
“Mei, check it out!” Rip said, waving the axe
proudly as she approached. “An axe!”
“That’s great!” Mei said, stopping to catch
her breath. “I also found some fire stone.
We’re gonna need to build a fire.”
Rip scoffed. “It’s not even that cold!”
“No, not for warmth. For light. For when
the darkness comes.”
Rip’s expression suddenly turned very
serious, realizing what she meant. “And the
monsters.”
“Exactly. I wonder what they’re like in this
game.”
Rip shuddered and turned to face the
nearest tree. He began hacking at the trunk.
Pixel Raiders #1: Dig World Page 4