Emmy slid the metallic door of the VR-machine open, pushing herself out, she walked over to the side panel and grabbed a wet wipe she had stored in her purse. Swabbing the pool of sweat collecting above her forehead, she walked down the dark hallway, seating the many rows of VR pods. Gently pushing on the swinging door, she stepped out onto the musky dining room floor bustling with the chattering noises of the many gamers. Striding over to the usual corner booth, she sat down on the cracked leather sofa lining a quarter cut metallic table.
“Took you long enough,” Break jest.
“I had to compose myself after that fiasco.” Looking across the table, she notices Trent holding up the sticky plastic menu. “It’s almost midnight, you're going to get food poisoning.
“I only had breakfast, and it’s to go, I kinda don't want to cook tonight.”
“I want to see the loot,” Break mentioned.
Trent placed his hand over the cold table, an array of green line flew across, quickly scanning his fingers, followed by a login prompt. Opening his inventory screen, Trent highlighted the large bag that dropped from the hobgoblin and sent a trade request over to Emmy. Emmy copied Trent’s motion, logged into the AR table, and opened the flashing trade request in the corner.
“I’m going to go order while you split the loot, either of you wants anything to drink?”
“Beer,” Break yelled.
“Water is fine,” added.
Emmy double tapped on the small bags, a list of item scrolled down the table as she began to mark the price of each item. “Nothing out of the ordinary,” she stated. Pressing the larger bag, it opened, calling up its own table of items, “Looks like we got lucky.”
Scooching his face towards Emmy, Break looked down at the blue highlighted text Emmy had her hand over. “Nice, the falchion could fetch a good price.”
“Quick question Emmy.”
“Hmm.”
“How come we don’t have a healer?”
“We had a healer,” Emmy remarked without turning her head from the list.
“You mean Alexandria?”
Emmy looked up, her eye becoming a cold glare piercing into Break’s face, with a blink, she looked back down.
“What? I never met her, but Trent said she was pretty, and not too bad of a healer.”
Emmy slammed her hands roughly on the table, “She was useless, she healed maybe once out of three battle, and every time we divided the loot, she would always demand, at a minimum, an eighty percent cut. It took me five ‘missed’ arrows to her back, to get that bi- healer to leave, so if you could not talk about her in front of me, that would be great.
Break put his hands up in a defensive position, “Duly noted, still why not we get a different healer?”
“Statistically, what are the rates of natural healers in the game?”
Break sat back, held out his fingers, and mumbled a few numbers under his breath, “Roughly one in five-thousand.”
“Alright, well how many people in a party.”
“Six,” Break easily answered.
“How many parties does that make fighting over one healer?”
“Uhh… eight hundred and thirty-three point three three, repeating of course.”
“Even though healer takes a majority of the loot, eighty percent is still an extortionate amount. Think about a fresh player making an account in this cafe right now, the chances of them being a healer is already low, the chances of them taking an offer from us are even more dismal. There are lots of other parties here, some already doing dungeon, they can offer way more than what a few goblins drop.”
“Fair,” Break nodded.
“Anything good?” Trent asked, handing Break a beer while placing a large plate of pancakes on the table.
“Pancakes?” Emmy sighed.
“I’m hungry, but I did get something to go,” raising a bag filled with styrofoam to-go boxes. SItting down next to Break, Trent handed Emmy her bottle of lukewarm water and made a small hole in the middle of the pancakes.
“Why are you making a hole?” Break asked.
“So I can do this,” drizzling a thick strawberry jam down the middle of the pancake, “I eat it from the inside out, makes it easier to contain the syrup and you get the perfect amount of syrup everytime.” Taking a bite from the pancake, Trent looked over at the item sheet, “So, anything good?”
“About 600 credits per person, we got lucky with the fanchion drop from the hobgoblin.”
Trent took another bite, his face in ecstasy from the spice of hunger. “Either of you wants a bite, it’s pretty damn good,” Trent said, holding out the fork.
Break reached over to take the fork but was swiftly bypass by Emmy’s lightning reflexes. She skewered a small piece sitting in the middle of the plate, only taking the top portion from the four stacked pancakes.
“Oh, you don’t need to eat off my piece,” Trent gesture.
Emmy bit off the slice of pancake, closing her mouth over the fork, she slid it out, keeping the syrup from falling on her blue blouse.
“Bit too much syrup for me, but overall not too bad,” handing the fork back to Trent.
Break moved his hand towards the fork but felt the pain of Emmy’s cold arrow stare once again. He places his hand back down looking at the plate of pancakes. “Uhh, so when do we go sell the stuff?”
“I know a vendor, his shop is open twenty four-seven, we can sell it tonight if you guys have the time.”
“I might call it a night, can you give my share to break.”
“What, why?” Break expressed, taking a sip from his beer.
“Well, not only did you save me twice, but you lost your shield, I know the shie-”
“Luna,” Break interjected.
“I know Luna was not cheap, so I want to at least make it fair to you.”
“Dude, think nothing of it, I still have an extra shield we looted a week back from the goblin camp, that should hold me for a week or two.”
“You mean the thin piece of cardboard, I don’t see it lasting longer than one attack.”
“How do you plan to pay rent?” Break questioned.
“I’m paid up for the month, so don't worry about me.”
Break stood up from the table, stretched his feet, and sat back down grabbing the large plate of pancakes sitting in front of Trent. Grabbing the pitcher of dark brown maple syrup, he drowns the pancakes in a lake of sugar. Taking a big bite, Break smirked at Trent, “Now we're even.”
“But-”
Break slapped Trent back, most likely leaving a Break sized outline, “Where partners, whatever I do in combat is my own decision, so no more talk about giving me your share.”
“Guys, I don't want to break this bonding moment, but Break, I need you to look up an item on the broker list.”
“Sure, what item do you want me to look up,” Break said, logging into the table’s UI”
“The item has a weird name, K-32.” Double tapping the text, Emmy brought up the 3D render of the item for the party to see. “Looks like a white gem,” she said.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What rarity is it?” Break asked.
“That’s the odd thing, I’m not sure.”
“Uhh, ok what color is the text?”
“Red.”
“Ha, very funny, Trent what color is the text.”
Trent wretched his head over the table, looking down at the pointed item, he scratched his head. “It's red.”
“There is no red item in the game, you guys must be sleep deprived, look we got gray, white, blue, yellow, gold, and brown how does red fit anywhere in that color spectrum?”
Emmy dragged her screen over to Break, minimizing his search database, “It’s red.” she sputtered, daggering her fingers over the texted line.
Emmy slapped her hand down on the table, causing the system to log her out, “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Trent asked.
“My broker, he closes in less than twenty minutes, if anyone has info, it's him.”
“I thought it was open twenty-four-seven,” Break remarked.
“Not this one,” Emmy replied.
Trent walked over to the front desk, dodging the rows of gamers streaming into the cafe, “Booth eight.”
A man behind a wired plexiglass desk pushed a few buttons on the metal countertop, “Three people, eight hours, your total will be 39 credits.” A small metallic slab lit up on the front side of Trent, ushering him to place his hands over the scanner.
“Hey Trent,” Break yelled, slipping past him, and placing his palm over the scanner. “Dude, it’s my turn to pay, remember?.”
“Well, I still kinda feel bad about the shield,” Trent muttered.
“Guys, save this for later, like I said, twenty minutes.”
The three walked down the damp road, illuminated by the scattering of neon light hovering above each shop front. Emmy walked past two brick building, one advertising potions, and the other advertising mercenaries for hire. Shuffling to the back of the lot, she saw an orange glow of a pale lantern light coming from a rickety wooden stall.
“That’s new,” Break said, looking over at Emmy.
Pacing up to the small cart, Emmy pulled the red flowing banner hanging across the cart, waving her hands, she motion for Trent and Break to take a seat on the pull out wooden picnic table. Break sat down facing outwards, not being able to jam his bison like legs into the attached table. Trent looked at the menu, all the items were written in Japanese with small English description lining the bottom.
“How are you still hungry?” Break inquired.
“I only had one bite of my pancake.”
“Oh, yeah,” Break smirked, wiping the syrup from the corner of his mouth.
An old man turns around facing the three patrons, “Emmy, It's been a while, what can I get you?”
“Three tonkotsu, on me guys.” placing her hands over the wooden frame metal tablet. “I would also like to get an appraisal.”
“Tier?” the old man said in a rehearsed tone.
“Red,” Emmy stated, not showing a bit of hesitation.
“Send me the item’s stat,” The old man said with a raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the counter, and placed three bowls of steaming hot ramen. Emmy placed her hand on the counter again, this time prompting a login screen. She opened the list of items stored in her inventory and scrolls down the red texted orb, she copied the orbs various stats, sending them over to the man with a swipe of her fingers.
“You guys enjoy, it will be a moment.“ The old man walked to the back of the cart, a small LCD flickering in the background. Trent looked up, noticing the old man had been watching the semifinals of Airium’s annual PVP ranking. The two opponents currently on the screen were eyeing each other, neither of them wanting to make the first move. The knight was clad in a dark blue armor trimmed with the symbol of a golden dragon, the wizard, on the other hand, looking a bit more tamed, wearing a pale white robe, tied down in the middle by a thick leather belt holding pouches on either side. The wizard raised his staff, a dark purple glow emanating from the branch shot up into the arena’s dome. A shower of dark haze covered the field as the knight began to rapidly lose HP.
“Trent,” Emmy whispered.
“Huh.”
“It’s going to get cold”
Trent eyed the bowl of ramen Emmy had placed in front of him, he took in a deep breath, inhaling the rich flavor of the broth. Looking over at Break, he saw the big man slurping down the bowl like a fifty cent ramen packet. Grabbing a pair of chopsticks, Trent took a bite of the egg noodles, “Oh my gosh, this is blowing my mind” Trent exclaimed, taking another large bite of the noodles.
Break saw Emmy’s gaze periodically shoot over the table towards Trent, her blush covered by the bowl of steaming hot both. The day Break joined the party, he had easily deduced Emmy had a thing for Trent, she kept it modest most of the time, but he noticed small quirks that made her unstable if Trent talked about other girls. Break always enjoyed the interaction between the two, he always made it a priority to tease Emmy at every opportunity, and this time was no exception. Drinking the leftover broth, Break placed the bowl down, he stood up and rubbed his stomach, “Man that was great, next time, if your planning another date, let me know, I don't want to be the third wheel.”
Emmy face froze, her ears glowing red before looking up towards Trent. His attention was fully immersed into the PVP battle to notice anything Break had uttered. Emmy stood up, walked over to Trent, “You done?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Trent replied. She grabbed his bowl, pouring the small amount of broth left into hers and stacked it under. Walking over to Break, she grabbed his bowl holding it in the other hand, and walked over to the counter, but not before kicking Break so hard in the shin an audible thumb could be heard echoing across the lot.
“Fuck” Break yelled, whipping his hands across the shin of his leg.
“What happened,” Trent said in a concerned voice.
“Nothing, I hit my leg getting up,” Break squealed, still grasping at the sore.
The old man walked back towards the counter grabbing all three bowl and placing them in the sink, he gestured to the three. “I want to make an offer on this item, before I tell you what it is, you don’t need to take the offer right now, but I want you to think on it when I tell you.”
“Sure,” Trent replied.
“Six hundred thousand.”
Break coughed, “Six hundred thousand, what the hell did we find?”
“You guys found a beta key, only about a thousand of these are release every major expansion, and keep in mind, last major expansion was four years ago.” This item will let you teleport one full party, up to six people, into the new area. I won’t charge you for the information since it widely known by the top tier clans, but I want all three of you to keep my offer in mind.”
At that last statement, the man began to pack the cart, pushing the picnic table back into the attached wooden frame and clicked the cart to a yellow Vespa scooter. “See you later Charlies,” the man let out, driving his scooter out of the lot.
“So we're selling this thing right?” Break asked, right as the old man hooked onto the intersection.
“I’m not sure,” Trent said, “Six hundred thousand is an outrageous amount of money, but something tells me we could make more if we took the risk.”
“A bird in the bush, and what not,” Break replied.
“Emmy, your thoughts?”
“I think we should get a good night's rest before discussing this any further.”
“That’s the best idea I've heard all night,” Trent yawned, stretching his hands above his head.