[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Jared Caliber]
[Level: 2 (Sub-Level)]
He was tired. He was more tired than he had ever felt before. Even when he had been sitting curled up, trapped in a room for hours and days on end, with no food or water, and the promise of death lingering outside.
This was a more bone-deep tiredness. Like a personal failing of his, as he stared at the panel in front of him, blinking out the sharp and undeniable truth.
[End Result: A Moderately Nice Day!]
Moderate. Nice. All good things, but not the thing that he wanted. Not a Perfect Day. And he needed to get that Perfect Day, if he ever wanted to escape from this place. He needed- he needed-
“Chill out, dude. Having a panic attack is not going to help you.” Simon whispered, reaching out a hand to support him. Jared was shaking, just slightly. And he hadn’t noticed. He usually took great care in noticing how he moved and presented himself to the world.
But this was stupid. It was all so stupid. How many days had passed while they tried over and over again to achieve this impossible result? He would’ve said weeks, maybe months, but he had taken care to keep a tally on the bedside table. Not by etching things in, he wasn’t that crazy. (The System might pick that up.) but by keeping a very casual array of objects. Each unique in their own way so that no one could swap one out or remove them without him noticing, and each representing a single day.
So far, it had been a week. This had been the seventh day. Tomorrow, it would be the second week, and they were no closer to finding the secret method within the maddening normalcy that choked the life out of everyone and everything in this blasted cottage.
“This is fine.” Tench announced, even though he didn’t look too pleased at the outcome either. Still, someone would have to be the optimist in this losing situation, so Jared was glad that he was stepping up to do that job.
“We try again tomorrow?” Lucky asked.
“What else can we do?” Asadullah replied, running a hand over his ears. They had quickly begun losing their luster in the few days they had spent in this sublevel. All his fur had. Given all that he talked about idyllic mountain abodes, he would be thriving here, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
“You could try a new approach.” Nancy suggested, though she looked nervous at even voicing the thought. She’d been very helpful these past few days, always willing to give them pointers and stick around for moral support, or even just asking for stories of the worlds they had been to. She was just as enamored by where they had come from as they were, so she was their best bet at getting good advice.
“Sure.” Jared smiled at her invitingly, “What would you think will work?”
Nancy fidgeted, “Well, you’re very focused. Which isn’t a bad thing, but… not exactly something the Level approves of. Maybe if you all try to unwind more? Try and find things you like about here.”
“Sounds like a trap.” Asadullah whispered darkly, “Get seduced by the magic of this place and then we’ll never want to leave.”
“He hasn’t been sleeping well.” Terry whispered, as if anyone needed to tell that with the bags under his eyes, pupils reduced to slits until he looked haunted.
They all dwelled on this idea, before Nancy frowned, “What’s better, being stuck here forever, or having to step out of your paranoia-fueled bubble of fear?”
Asadullah didn’t respond, but the way that his ears flattened and his tail fluffed up spoke enough.
“Maybe it is worth a shot.” Lucky decided, “We must keep our minds open if we wish to progress in this… unfamiliar scenario.” She looked pained to admit it, but at least she was taking the step forward to try out new things.
“I’m down for it.” Jared agreed, turning his head to look around, “Who else is on-board?”
Terry raised his hand, almost reflexively, before cursing and putting it down, “I mean, yeah, I’m down. Asad?” He turned hopefully to the catboy, who shrugged and shrunk into himself just a little more, seemingly in agreement, too. Didn’t even bother putting up much of a fuss.
“Great! Let’s show you the recreational centers!” Nancy announced, marching outside.
“She means the library.” Simon took the moment to explain to them, before following after her, “And maybe the hiking trail up the mountains.”
Asadullah’s nose twitched, “You can go up the mountains?” He asked, and he didn’t sound so antagonistic after all.
“You haven’t tried that yet?” Simon asked incredulously, “Of course you can! Just don’t go over the edge. Anything we’ve thrown against the border is warped to the opposite side of this Game, but you can never be to careful with your life.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Do you want me to show you the library or the hiking trails first?” Nancy asked, “Or can I interest you folks in some good old-fashioned fishing?”
“Library.” Lucky butted in first, and there was a calculating gleam in her eyes that made it obvious that she was cooking up something especially crafty. Good to see that someone here had another plan, even if Jared wanted that person to be him.
“I suppose I can just wander around more than I have before.” Tench considered, “People have been saying some stuff recently about a farm having a new brood of chicks? I’d like to see them.”
“Oh, yeah, that would be Susan’s.” Nancy agreed, “She loves showing off her livestock. Just pop over and ask her to let you take a look. Asad, there are maps for the trail available at town hall. I’ll gather them up and be right with you, okay?”
“No need.” Asadullah shook his head, eyes fixed on the mountains in the distance, “I can find my way around them just fine.”
“…If you say so.” Nancy replied but didn’t look convinced. Still, she courteously allowed Asadullah to make reckless decisions that might cost him his life, and instead focused on Jared and Terry, “What about you two? Anything you wanna try out?”
“There’s a pub, right?” Jared checked, “Small town, not much going down, there has to be a pub.”
“You’re not close to the drinking age.” Simon shook his head, before looking closer, “Wait, how old are you?”
“I don’t keep track of my birthday. But I’m around… seventeen.”
“Sure. But you definitely look younger.” Nancy told him, “So don’t expect to get served anything.”
“Since I’m not going there to get drunk, there isn’t going to be a problem.” Jared decided. He was going there to get rich. Because where there was drinking, there was gambling. And gossip flowing like a river. All set up to make an environment that Jared could thrive in. Because this was what he was good at! This was what his skills had been honed for! Not for making deals with warring militias and desperate survivors hoarding everything they could get their hands on. Not for putting a broken world back together.
In the beginning, it was all taught to him for the express purpose of sneaking into bars and pubs and other places where the energy was like a live wire and the alcohol was flowing free, and get confessions out of people, condemnations, information that would ruin their lives. Or empty their pockets until they felt like they had to pull out money from the local mob to continue playing.
The local mob that he worked for, obviously.
He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t fun work. At least compared to what he had to deal with nowadays. The old days at least had a lot less riding on his back. Maybe if he went back to that mindset, he could let loose a little?
“Great. Don’t do something that’ll ruin our reputations forever because we still have to live here.” Nancy told him sternly, “What about, Terry?”
“I’ll go with Lucky to the library.” The boy signed. Jared raised an eyebrow at that. What had stressed him out enough to reduce him into a mute state? Or did he simply not feel like talking?
“He says that he shall accompany me.” Lucky told their companions, after they silently stood there for a few minutes.
“Good, so we all have our missions together!” Nancy clapped her hands together.
“Not missions.” Simon reminded her gently, “Think of them as… general adventures of the day. Y’know, to stop it from getting so serious.”
“To stop it from getting so serious.” Tench parroted, looking vaguely sick, “Of course. Because we need to take that into consideration now.” He shook off this burgeoning existential crisis with finesse, however, and went right back into being the optimist, “Yup, yup, makes sense! Have fun, everybody.”
Terry shuddered as Tench turned his back on them, a movement that Jared most certainly didn’t miss. So the only person with substantial life experience here was losing his marbles. Brilliant.
“Pull yourself together, Tench.” Jared whispered, patting him on the arm as he passed by, perfectly capable of finding the pub. The man’s face twisted, but Jared couldn’t tell the emotion that laid beneath that expression.
That was fine. Because Jared trusted Tench to stick by him, even when he was being a shit. It was a matter of necessity, after all.
His instincts were right. The pub was at the edge of the commercial area, which was in itself a handful of shops, each trading basic essentials such as fruits, meat, and tools. It looked more like a hut than the other shops, but he didn’t let that stop him, walking into the place as if he owned it.
2 PM, and already there were more than a sizeable amount of people here, considering the pathetically small size of the village. A few people turned their gaze towards the open door and the rattle of the bead curtains that announced his entrance, and he greeted them with a slight wave of his hand.
“Evening, gentlemen. Did I catch you at a bad time?” He asked, and the smarmy tone of voice didn’t do him any favors, judging by how a couple people shifted uncomfortably.
“Relax.” He dropped into a more relaxed tone, “I was doing a bit. Y’know where I can play a round of cards? The Mitt kids pointed me in this direction, but I don’t really see any-”
“Oh, he’s the kid from the new group that just moved in.” The guy closest to the door straightened up, and the atmosphere immediately lightened up, “Yeah, okay. The regular players are on that table there.” He gestured towards the table on the back corner, which was the biggest in the establishment, but there were notably no cards being played.
“Manny’s our regular dealer.” One of them morosely explained, “And he’s down sick.”
“I’ll deal. Do you guys play poker, or do you want to get more creative?” Jared was quick to volunteer, reaching into his pockets and pulling out his own deck of cards.
“We had cards, you know?” Another of the players suggested, pulling out their own deck.
“Of course.” Jared agreed, splaying his own out anyways, “Now, you guys can get sick in this delightful paradise? Doesn’t fit the theme.”
“Ugh, tell me about it!” One of the players groused, “It’s nothing life-threatening ever, but why keep sickness at all? All it does is take away from all the healthy productivity this place wants us to do.”
“In that case, they should get rid of the alcohol, too.” One of the guys joked, halfway into a glass of some amber-colored liquid. Jared wasn’t sure which crops they were using to make the alcohol, so he could only guess as to what kind of drink it was.
Raucous laughter echoed across the hall. Jared deftly started handing out cards.
He was right, it was a nice change of pace to be back in a domain that he understood. Now here’s to hoping the others had found something just as soothing in their own quests.
[Player Log End!]