"Walking was a very wise decision," Mina said, licking her fingers.
"Mm-hmm," Carl agreed, taking another bite of his second pork shank. They'd procured food from a shop window on the street as they'd passed, the smells drawing them both to it without needing to exchange more than a glance. Once Carl had taken his first bite of the savory, dripping pork shank that was glazed with a salty, spicy sauce which was practically addictive, he'd looked to Mina, who met his gaze with exactly the same expression in her eyes.
They'd bought a dozen more of the meaty delicacies for what Mina seemed certain was a reasonable price, with most of them going straight into Carl's inventory under the amazed watch of the shopkeeper, who was clearly delighted that they'd loved her cooking enough to buy so many. Mina had also insisted on purchasing a few baked potatoes for them; he'd been reluctant at first, but they'd been encrusted with a similar seasoning, leaving the skin crunchy, and salty, and irresistible once he'd taken his first bite.
This city is so freaking awesome I can't even. Carl walked on the street side of the sidewalk-ish part of the wide, asphalt-covered road, half enjoying his in-game meal, half keeping track of where they were heading, and half keeping an eye out for anyone who might be looking at Mina in a way that set off his Dad Sense. Street's nice and warm on my feet. And no poop! People here are really taking advantage of all the game stuff too. Making way better use of the space.
They'd passed two gladiators standing on street corners performing various feats of strength while shouting about their match schedule. The first, a petite woman named Eb… Horatia Eboria, had been juggling a trio of heavy-looking anvils while declaring she would be victorious at whenever it was she'd said because Carl had stopped paying attention when he saw… Pla… Hm. Placus Bet…
Placus Bertuccius Oceanimaximus was almost certainly the older man's name, and he'd been holding a fishing rod while casually walking towards them and ignoring the haranguing of Horatia Eboria. A discreet inquiry had revealed that yes, there were places to fish within the city itself: there was the riverway that cut through D-five at the north edge, which occasionally yielded small fish; there was the small pond in D-three that was filled from an underground aquifer and produced strange, mutated fish now because nearby smithies and forges had been dumping waste into it for years; lastly, there was the man-made lake on the northwest edge of D-one, where the river that wound around the north side of the city and the arena had been diverted to fill a lake that was used for recreation by the city's wealthy and, occasionally, when gladiators fought in water battles.
"Keep your eyes out for somewhere that sells some pots or jugs or something," Carl said, having been searching for that very thing ever since they'd begun eating. Getting all kinds of thirsty after all that salt. And that mango juice or whatever the lady gave us as a free bonus was really refreshing. Mina had like, three cups? Roger, I didn't give you enough credit, man. Your attention to detail for stuff that actually matters is top tier. Gotta make a note to write a mail about all this when I get out.
"Ah, that would be quite clever," Mina said, seeming to catch on quickly to his newest idea like she usually did. "Perhaps we can…"
A blue status window appeared.
Zestibulity increases to 1.
Carl grimaced.
"May I have a look?" Mina asked, peering over.
He tried to move it with his hand while they walked, but the window seemed anchored in place just in front of him, so he stopped while she examined it.
"How intriguing," she said after a moment, rubbing her chin. "I don't believe I've ever heard that word before. Zestibulity. No… In truth, I'm not certain it is a genuine word."
"Huh." Carl looked at it a little longer, ignoring the looks they were getting from everyone who clearly knew that they were noobs by how they were checking out the bugged stats that everyone here had been dealing with for however long. "Yeah, maybe not," he said, rubbing his beard. Maybe it's some kinda auto-generated thing that's failing somehow. He dismissed the status window, putting it out of mind. "Well, whatever. C'mon, let's check out the track."
The entrance to the "lower" racing track was just ahead, and the noise of a crowd increased as they approached. A large half-oval was made in a stone wall—which seemed to maybe be the old wall of the city inside the newer, shinier wall that rose up over its top just past it—on either side of which stood a quartet guards in varying kinds of armor who looked more bored than alert. Beyond them was a tunnel that sloped gently upwards with blue sky visible at the end.
I wonder if there's admission or anything. People seem like they're going in and out pretty freely, and the guards aren't doing anything. "You know anything about the tracks?" Carl asked.
"No, not beyond their existence," Mina said. "They've only been added very recently, and it seems they've only become popular enough to be worthy of mention within the past year or so."
"Huh." So it's new. That's cool. Roger must dump new stuff on here periodically for testing and everyone just beats it up for him. And pays for it. Genius. Carl shook his head in wonder at the brilliance of the idea. Fire really does only hire the best people.
They passed the guards, who barely glanced at them, so caught up were they in either frowning at the ground, frowning at the sky, or frowning at each other, and entered into the sparsely-populated, sloping part of the tunnel. There were two doorways about halfway up the smooth pathway, one on either side, each with a clearly marked sign for a restroom.
Mina veered towards the one that was marked for women. "I'll make use of the water closet before we enter," she called over her shoulder before she disappeared inside.
Carl frowned. Never did get around to talking to Roger about this. He considered the idea. May as well get it over with. It's like some kinda status ailment. Don't wanna have it hit when it'd be embarrassing. He sidled over to the doorway on the opposite side of the tunnel, moving more quickly as he realized that he'd need to be out before Mina in order to ensure she didn't come back out and find him gone.
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Carl sighed when he returned to the tunnel moments before Mina walked out to join him. Game or not, it still feels just as refreshing. I don't know how or why you did it, Roger, but it's really impressive. Even if it's a bit excessive. Maybe more than just a bit, if I'm honest.
A sudden uproar rose up from the end of the tunnel.
"Shall we see what's caused such a commotion?" Mina asked, starting towards the track.
"Pretty loud!" Carl shouted back as the din continued to escalate the closer they got.
They reached the end of the tunnel, and Carl squinted at the sudden brightness as they were once again bathed in the scorching light of day. Ugh, I think I'm even getting kinda sweaty now. Game's back to being garbage. This whole zone's gonna be awful.
The tunnel opened to overlook what was most definitely a traditional race track. Seating surrounded the track, and thousands of people were already present, with most standing on their feet and screaming their heads off about something or other.
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Heat washed over Carl from the direction of the track as he exited the cool interior of the tunnel, furthering his grimace. What the heck…
"—seem like he'll be able to recover!" shouted the voice of an announcer, managing to carry over the extreme volume of the crowd. "No! He does! Commidus pushes off with one hand, rights his car, and now he's once again in contention! D-five may still have the opportunity to claim victory in this race!"
The crowd lost their collective minds at the statement, with several people near the fence at the bottom of the seating area jumping what seemed to be impossibly high in Carl's estimation, cheering as they visibly shook and waved their hands in the air.
He felt a pulling on his hand and followed Mina to a pair of vacant seats nearby at the end of a row one step up the stairs next to the tunnel. Wow, this is crazy. It's like full-on NASCAR inside a game. They reached the seats, having to continue standing in order to see the track since the rest of the crowd was on its feet. Well… Sort of…
Where this in-game racing differed from traditional racing was in the rules. As Carl watched, the lightly armored driver of a sleek, bright blue car stood up in his vehicle along one of the straightaways and thrust a long spear at the car next to him. The strike was repelled by the unarmored driver of the attacked car with a trident. The trident-user hammed it up, cupping a hand over his mouth as though he was yawning and causing the many in the crowd to boo wildly.
All while Carl watched, alternately looking at the track itself and a massive floating screen which hovered above it and showed a closer image of the two racers to the audience.
"Belenus seems bored by the furious attempted revenge of Commidus!" the announcer shouted. "While Commidus seems to have the edge in speed, Belenus has always found victory in the skirmish, preventing any from passing him! It's down to just the two of them now, fellow victory-seekers!"
The man named Commidus dropped back into his car in order to steer around the curve, attempting to ram the gleaming, gold-hued car in the process. Belenus mimicked the action, cutting the curve more sharply and managing to gain a burst of speed that brought him back onto the straightaway faster, all while he laughed on screen.
"There it is, the signature maneuver of Belenus!" the announcer yelled, seeming even more excited. "We've just witnessed what an ex-gladiator with fifty three points in Iminter is capable of!"
What's even going on? Carl tried to get a sense of it from context. There were wrecks of other vehicles scattered about the sides of the track, some with people being attended to by other people in long, red coats. He looked down at Mina next to him, but she was staring up intently at the screen, stroking her chin with a frown.
"They're coming around into the final stretch now," the announcer said, his voice hushed.
"I will attain victory for D-five!" shouted Commidus, his voice somehow blasting through the stadium.
"No, victory is already mine!" Belenus called back. He produced a javelin-looking weapon, rising up a short distance out of his seat to hurl it down at the blue car's front.
The crowd erupted into a frenzy.
Commidus was slightly too slow in his response, and his car's front seemed to suddenly be fixed to the ground by the javelin. It upended, catapulting the driver forward at an even faster pace than it had been traveling.
Belenus swerved slightly but not enough, and his car ran over the body of Commidus as it bounced along the track.
The screen followed Belenus as he stood up in his car while he passed across the finish line, accompanied by a mass of boos and cheers from what seemed to be every single person in the stadium besides Carl and Mina.
"Victory to Belenus!" the announcer cried energetically. "This is what a contender from the upper track is like, victory-seekers! He's chosen to demonstrate his prowess today, answering the challenge of Commidus, and it seems that he does indeed have reason to be talking so much shit!" There was a short pause. "Before we hear his victory speech, let's see how Commidus fares…"
The screen shifted, showing a battered, bloody Commidus laying on the track, surrounded by people in red coats. One of them looked up into the camera, wherever it was, and raised a palm into the air.
"Ooh, what a result! It seems Commidus from D-five won't be seeking his final victory quite yet! We'll look forward to more of his racing prowess in the future once he heals up!"
Carl's eyes were still fixed on the bloody man on the track, whose arm was twisted at an awkward angle with bone showing through, seeming to be in agony as he threw his head back and opened his mouth, his voice not being broadcast. Whoa, that looks like it hurts. Guess he doesn't have the content filter enabled if he's feeling it since that's one of the things it blocks.
His thoughts changed direction towards someone he knew didn't have the filtering enabled for whatever reason and didn't seem to want to enable it, and he looked down at Mina with growing alarm as his protective instincts flared. And she wants to… He began shaking his head. "Nope. No way, Mina."
The girl looked up at him with confusion evident on her face.
Carl pointed down at the track while he talked. "Are you crazy? Look what happened to that guy!" He raised his eyebrows and activated Dad Mode. "If this is how racing is here, you're not racing."
Mina stared at him, seeming at a loss for words.
Way too scary for her, especially with what she's been going through lately. Just ignoring the sensory feedback, seeing bones sticking through your skin like that? I should ask her why she doesn't just turn the content filtering back… Well, I guess I can kinda see why you wouldn't want it with how aggressive it is. Maybe. "Imagine if that happened to you," he said, trying to convey his point more effectively. "If you got hurt like that? Or if you died? Wouldn't that be scary?"
The blood drained from Mina's face as she apparently got his meaning.
Teenagers. They always think they're invincible. Maybe the game realism is good in that sense. Don't want kids running off fighting dragons or whatever unprepared just because they know they can't get hurt. That's a life lesson right there. Always get your raid buffs and elixirs going before you fight dragons. Or whatever the equivalent of all that is nowadays.
"Belenus, any words for your admirers?" the announcer asked, drawing a small part of Carl's attention, which was now almost entirely focused, unfortunately, on being the bad cop, which was usually Annie's job since he didn't like telling the girls no, but he was certainly capable of doing so in important situations like this one.
Mina seemed incredibly disappointed at the realization she was having.
Not a great feeling. Carl felt a pain in his chest as the girl's expression crumpled and her lips began to quiver, her head dipping.
"I thank Sateus, as we all must," Belenus was saying, "and, of course, my wife, Emma, Char though she may be…"
Mina's head jerked up, and she stared with shock at the screen, where a blonde woman wearing a gown the same gold color as Belenus's car and with her hair piled up on her head walked up to give the on-screen man a kiss on his cheek.
Carl look at the screen, then back to Mina, whose fists were now clenched in front of her her chest. Wow, that's some uncanny resemblance.
Mina turned to look at him, her jaw set and her eyes burning. "Carl," she said in a serious tone, "I will compete in the races here. I will become the queen of racing. If you'll not assist me in the defeat of my sister…" She looked back towards the screen, where Emma, who was apparently her sister, was waving to the crowd. "Please don't try to stop me," she said, her gaze shifting back to him. "This is something I must do."
That's her sister? Carl stared. They really do look alike, I guess, though this Emma girl dresses a lot more gaudily like people back in the other city. Mina's definitely got the better sense of taste.
Then he remembered what Mina had said about her sisters, and he instantly felt his anger returning, growing to a colossal, fiery rage. His jaw locked up, and he glared, not at the screen but at the distant, gold-wearing figure.
Already, she had been grouped into the same category as the abuser, though this sister of Mina's was different.
She was an enabler, just like the rest of her family.
A family that had abandoned a clever, sweet girl like Mina.
"Let's go," Carl managed to say, waving for her to follow him as he stomped back towards the tunnel.
Mina walked more quickly, catching up to him and giving him a quizzical look from the side.
"It's gonna take a lot of work to make your car safe enough to drive out there," Carl growled, struggling to push down his fury, which was helped in no way by the footprints his bare feet were leaving beneath him, almost certainly from the same fucking surface-integrity bug that seemed to be everywhere in these damn starting areas.