[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Asadullah Khan]
[Level: 2 (Sub-Level)]
[! Log Translated From Urdu !]
The group of people cooking on the campfire screamed in alarm when he popped up, and it was only with finely honed reflexes that he managed to dodge the tray thrown his way.
“Could you not?” He asked, “I’m trying to make a good impression for once.”
“Is that a magic catboy language you’re using?” The youngest of the three asked, looking over her tin plate with some amount of excitement.
“No, it is not. I’ve heard that enough today.” Asadullah wrinkled his nose, “Stop it.”
“Well, how I was I supposed to know that?” The girl asked, pouting.
“Don’t justify it, Katherine. Just apologize.” The boy in a corduroy shirt chided, putting away the frying pan he was holding.
“Right, sorry if I offended you.” Katherine laughed, but still managed to sound sincere.
The last person in their little triad scoffed, “Don’t just start apologizing to him before we know he is! He could be the start of a new sidequest if we play our cards right. Tell us, abomination, are you here to lay out an epic quest for us?”
“See here, you can’t call me an abomination. Not until the fifth date, at least.” Asadullah told them, half laughing, but also moving onto serious business, “And I was hoping that you would have the epic quest, actually. Or at least a goat.”
“Why’re you so fixated on the goat, of all things?” The boy in the corduroy shirt asked, “Don’t you have any where you’re from?”
“Don’t be daft, Simon, how would he know what a goat is if he’s never seen one?” The last person in the overalls asked, “It’s like all your brains vanish the second we’re off the trading field.”
“Maybe they’re mythological creatures? Or endangered species? I don’t know!” Simon defended.
“Will you all stop bickering?” Asadullah begged them tiredly, “Lemme guess, siblings?”
“No!” Katherine burst out, tugging at the person in overalls, “Nancy’s my only sister. Evil Simon is lying to you and you shouldn’t listen to what he says. The game was made up by the Association of Evil Simons as propaganda!” She claimed, wagging a finger in his face.
Asadullah didn’t get too worried about this wild claim however, when he noticed the way the others took this outburst in stride, nodding along. Nancy even added in a playful, “Oh, so now there’s a whole association of Evil Simons? The lore seems to be ever expanding.”
Katherine nodded, her brows scrunched up in seriousness, “There’s a whole multiverse structured around Evil Simons. But that’s only explored in season five. Even though the breadcrumbs are there from the very beginning. It’s a very high concept conspiracy theory.”
Simon pinched the bridge of his nose, “Let the little sister have hobbies.” He repeated to himself under his breath, “It’s just a passing interest. She’ll be over it soon.”
“…Do I want to know the kind of family drama you’re dealing with, or can I skip the exposition?” Asadullah asked, “Because I’d love to get on with my quest. To figure out what this Game is about.”
“Oh, that’s simple.” Simon told him, waving his hands around, “It’s… a Game. You do what you want.”
Asadullah tilted his head, almost relieved when his ears tilted up and down to pull off a questioning look. He hadn’t been having much luck in controlling his body these days, “Well, that doesn’t make any sense.” He told them with faux patience, “It’s a Game. Surely there’s an objective? Some greater plan you’re working toward? Some overarching story?”
Katherine shook her head vigorously, “Well, then that’s not a Game anymore, is it? It’s just work!”
“Technically, we do work. We work as shepherds.” Nancy supplied.
“I’m friends with shepherds. Or at least, I was.” Asadullah told them, trying to find common ground between them. It had worked in the past.
“So you weren’t a shepherd? Just friends with one?” Katherine asked, “What did you do? Were you a fisherman? Everyone’s either a farmer or a shepherd or a fisherman here, and you don’t look like a farmer. Too scary.”
“I’m not scary.” Asadullah replied, frowning a little, “People say I’m cute, actually. See?” He tapped his armband, trying to pull up the power to create fur over his skin, and expanding his hands into the snowshoe paws that had always elicited a laugh from the kids. Except the trick didn’t work. All that came from it was a sharp burning pain that rushed through his arm, traveling up his body, and sending all his nerves alight like a fast-acting infection.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Asadullah let out a sharp yelp, wringing his arm out, trying to dislodge the offending item, even though it had been latched onto his arm for the better part of a decade and there was no way such a simple action would remove it.
“Uh… are you okay?” Nancy asked, backing away, “Did you sprain something? Or is that bracelet on your arm hurting you?”
“These are bangles, actually. Not bracelets.” Asadullah corrected her, still trying to wedge some space between his skin and the metal for even a moment of reprieve.
“They look stuck is what they are.” Simon told him, “I have chain cutters at home if you want? They were from last Monday’s drop prize, and I used it to cut a branch the size of my arm into two.”
It sounded tempting. For a moment, Simon imagined the blade pressing close to his skin and slicing through tempered glass and aged metal in a satisfying crunch. There would be a huge outpouring of blood, no doubt. Blood and magic and the vicious creature being sealed inside the bangles would all be released at the same time. But it was tempting.
“No. I can’t.” He replied eventually, “I’m never going to be free of this. No one’s supposed to take it off.”
“Even if its broken?” Katherine asked, peering at the edge of the bangle set, “Because it looks broken. And what if the broken metal digs into your arm and infects you and you must get it amputated?”
“Kathy, stop, that isn’t nice.” Nancy gagged, “Tell ya what, mister, you wanna come home with us? There’s goats if you’re that desperate to see one. Or you can stop by town hall to get your new housing assignments. I saw the loading house on the edge of town. Guess it must be yours.”
A plan of action, however blurry as it may be. He could follow it. That was the easy bit. Asadullah nodded excitedly, “A loading house? I think it might be for the rest of my Party, too. Not just me.”
“You have a whole Party?” Simon asked, “How many people?”
“Eight. Except Lucky has her own Console, so I suppose… seven?” Asadullah replied. Simon raised his eyebrows, and Nancy looked impressed too. The only one to not have a reaction was Katherine, who looked between them without understanding.
“What’s the big deal, you guys?” She asked, huffing, “I don’t get it. It’s just a Party.”
“Most Consoles don’t allow for Parties bigger than three. And even that will put a severe lag on its processing abilities. Seven will have any of our models breaking constantly.” Simon explained to her before turning to Asadullah, “What kind of add-ons are you using? Anything to buff up the processor?”
“I don’t know.” Asadullah shrugged, “There isn’t anyone on my Party to explain computers to me at this scale. I didn’t even know that Consoles could crash. What does it mean to crash? It isn’t even moving.”
“Not that kind of crash.” Nancy told him kindly, “It’s when the internal processor gives up. And with Consoles, you never want that to happen. One crash is liable to flinging you around erratically, losing all your Inventory, and you may even lose all your points and Exp if the Save Files are lost in the crash.”
“That’s- shit.” He gulped. He knew that the Console was necessary to access the game but he hadn’t realized how easy it would be to lose everything with one stupid drop of the laptop. This would definitely give him a complex about keeping the Console safe, wasn’t it?
“So, you should come wait for the rest of your Party at our house.” Katherine added excitedly, “We have fresh honey! And goats, if you’ve forgotten.”
“Well, I don’t care about honey, but if you say there are goats.” Asadullah humored her.
Katherine giggled bashfully, and they began the journey down from the grassy slopes and towards the clusters of houses set down below. It was easy to pick out which house was actually meant to be theirs, because it had a fence wound around the back wall of a powdery pink cottage.
There were five goats in there, all snowy white with brown patches, wandering about and chewing on what grass remained in the pen, which was fighting hard to continue growing. A losing battle, as broad teeth champed down on even the most hidden spots. Simon broke apart from the group to hurry to a shed a little way away. With practiced ease, he grabbed a pitchfork and swung the door open, digging out a pile of hay to dump into the goats’ trough, who descended upon the stuff with glee.
“The damn things are always hungry.” He panted as he wandered back, putting away the pitchfork delicately, and locking the hay shed again, “We let them graze all day, and yet they still act as though we’re starving them. Ungrateful beasts.”
Asadullah shrugged, reaching his hand – the one without the bangles, the other one still felt tender – out to run it over the plush fur of the nearest goat. It bucked under his touch, its head butting his hand away impatiently as it continued fighting for a stalk of hay with another goat. He withdrew his hand wisely, but continued watching them with awe, “I think they’re really cool.” He told them, “Don’t you love it, too?”
Nancy shrugged, not looking like she connected with his statement, but trying nonetheless to act like she did, “It’s not so bad. Very same-y. But that’s the charm of this Game, I suppose.”
Katherine marched away from them, clearly tired of the conversation as she charged into the cottage, throwing the door open hard enough for it to slam into the wall, “Mom, dad! You gotta see this guy we met! He’s got a cattail!” She called into the empty foyer.
There was a moment of silence, before movement sounded from somewhere deeper inside the cottage. Asadullah stepped over the bounds of the house, finally soaking in the cool shade of the cottage. The atmosphere inside the building was completely different from outside. In fact, he cocked his head to the side, and confirmed that the music that had been incessantly playing in the background had changed, swapped out for something calmer and almost lullaby-like.
He leaned back to stick his head out of the door. The music was back to the cheerful, jaunty tune that had hounded him for so long. Pulled his head back in. Lullaby was back. How strange.
“Don’t suppose you’ve ever entered a building in Delica before?” Nancy laughed, “It’s really obvious when you look so shocked at the music change. It gets normal after some time.”
“What’s it for, exactly?” Asadullah asked.
“Ambiance.” She explained, “Really sets the emotion and gets us in the mood. You can turn it off when you get the Atmosphere Control powerup. I’ll show you- hey, Mom!” She cut herself off as a new person entered the room. Tall, stately, with white hair and spectacles. She looked… uneasily like Michael. It was almost uncanny as she looked at him sternly.
[Player Log End!]