The game was quite monotonic when it came to color variation but was quite likeable. It seemed like the games which he used to play when he was very young like Aladdin or Mario. Of course, the whole gameplay and fights were nothing like those games.
It had its own map, its own fights and its own ways of dealing the whole game. It was one hell of a game and Robin was instantly hooked with it. The first thing he needed to do was go after notches and for getting notches he needed to get charms. It was a cycle of sorts.
After getting the first notch he instantly brought it out when it showed on his screen, he couldn't bring it out from the ground itself as it was very hard to differentiate between notch and other things, but when it showed up on screen that he had gained a notch he brought it out.
The notch stayed in his hand and he didn't know how to equip it. The game never had specific mechanics for this. The notch slowly got bigger at his hand after a few seconds and its original size looked little bigger than a finger.
The notch wasn't heavy at all, it looked like it had been carved out a tree bark and it was a small crater on it's middle which had a spiral design on it's depth. Robin was checking out the notch and after a few seconds it disappeared.
Out of nowhere, the notch that was in his hands had just vanished with the blink of an eye.
"JARVIS, what just happened? Gastly did you take it?"
"I don't know sir. The data I have right now is insufficient to determine what has happened to the notch."
"Gastly.. Gastly.."
Gastly denied pulling a prank on Robin.
"Then where did it go?" Robin was flabbergasted by the sudden disappearance as he didn't know where it had gone. After searching around for some time, Robin still didn't have any idea where it had escaped.
"Sir, I think this notch has embedded itself into your body somewhere. The notch considers you as the Knight as I can only guess that somewhere in your body it has attached itself to."
"You think so?" Robin said and then proceeded to check his whole body. There was none such indication or even a weird protrusion in his body. Robin lost hope but then he remembered that charms would fit on the notch.
So wasting no time, he brought out a charm that would fit for a single notch and also would allow him to see the results. Sprintmaster
Sprintmaster : Bears the likeness of a strange bug known only as 'The Sprintmaster'. Increases the running speed of the bearer, allowing them to avoid danger or overtake rivals.
After wasting some Geo, the game currency of Hollow Knight, he went to buy Sprintmaster. As the description suggested, it would allow him to sprint faster. It increases the speed by 20% and it was quite a bit of increase.
After taking the charm he took it in his hand. Like notch, the charm didn't disappear after a few seconds. He waited for a full minute but still no reaction.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Gastly .. Gastly.. "
"Not now, Gastly I need to understand what is going on."
"Gastly .. Gastly.."
"Sir, I think what Master Gastly is trying to say is you should try to equip the charm."
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"You understand what Gastly is saying?"
"I can differentiate the decibel and tone difference and can make vague assumptions of Master Gastly's speech, Sir."
"Cool, but what do you mean by equipping the charm?" Robin was surprised that JARVIS could understand a Pokemon but then again, JARVIS was a top notch AI.
"Sir, why don't you try attaching the charm into a random part of the body and see if there are any changes." JARVIS suggested.
Robin got the cue and he took the charm and tried attaching it on the back of his hand, and it happened. The charm which didn't have any form of glue miraculously attached itself to his hand. And the moment the Sprintmaster got attached he could already feel that if he sprinted now, he would have more speed than normal.
He couldn't describe why he had that feeling but he was sure of it.
"JARVIS, thank you for the suggestion." Robin said as he pulled out the charm. It got off easily from the back of his hand. He tried attaching the charm on other parts of his hand and he was glad that he could do this in random places on his body.
"You are welcome sir."
"Thank you Gastly." Robin said as he petted Gastly. He was lucky to have some wonderful people in his life now. After understanding how the notch and charm works for him, he started his journey with the game. The game was a long one and it would take quite a bit of time to gather all the notches and charms.
He specifically took help from the Internet to find out all the charms and notches required for himself. He didn't need all the charms as that would be useless. More than half of the charms depended on souls which he couldn't get in real life. So it was better to concentrate on charms that would be helpful for him.
Robin went for,
Weaversong : Silken charm containing a song of farewell, left by the Weavers who departed Hallownest for their old home. Summons weaverlings to give the lonely bearer some companionship and protection.
It basically summons medium sized spiders to act as guards.
Dreamshield : Defensive charm once wielded by a tribe that could shape dreams.Conjures a shield that follows the bearer and attempts to protect them. Basically, it protects the bearer from projectiles.
In other words it should help Robin to protect him from bullets. Bullets were the only thing right now that could threaten him. Of course, he was vulnerable to missiles and those kinds of hot weapons but he didn't do anything to warrant such a response.
Only bullets could harm him and Dreamshield would help him in this regard. Of course there were other kinds of shields on games that could be used and he would explore it slowly but right now Dreamshield should work fine.
Hiveblood was another charm that could help him as it heals the bearer over time. For now he had attached Hiveblood and Dreamshield on his body. He didn't need other enhancements from Hollow Knight for now.
Playing this almost took his whole day and it was only in the evening did he let go of the laptop. He had been playing non-stop since morning and it was time to stop, only leaving the chair when he ate his lunch.
"JARVIS, send an email to Accordance Limited that I will resign from the job." Robin said as there was no point now to receive projects and give his boss hopes. It was better to just resign and make no problems when he would go for the interview.
"Done sir."
Robin then proceeded to text his friends and tell them he wouldn't be available for playing this game for quite some time. PUBG mobile could be addictive to many people but surprisingly Robin never had that impulse to play everyday or regularly. It was quite easy for him to leave the game.
Of course his friends weren't exactly happy after seeing Robin would be busy but it was basically a rant between friends. The last few days had been eventful for Robin and he needed a proper timeout.
The rest of the evening he spent leisurely talking to his friends, calling his best friend in Delhi to talk about the latest chapter of One Piece and just searching for novels that might have a good story. Searching a good webnovel was always a hassle for Robin but he still loved to try new works on random machine translated websites.
While he did so he had fun with Gastly by playing with him. Gastly was happy that his trainer finally decided to spend time with itself. After spending the time like Robin used to spend before he went to sleep.
Thursday, 10th November.
Robin woke up as usual and he didn't open the laptop to play immediately. There was almost no game that could help him right now without bringing out drastic changes in his body. He could play Minecraft for sure as JARVIS had pointed out that there were pretty good things in the game.
Even one item that would provide him another life. But today he didn't want to play as his father would be back. His father was working a 6 hours train journey away from home and he just needed to wait till afternoon for him to arrive.
In the morning, Robin was sent by his mother to buy some food for home since his father would arrive and his mother wanted to make something special for the family. Thus, like an obedient boy he went to help his mother.