Chapter 7: Dining Experience

One of these days, we needed to grab a meal with Erin when we didn’t have something terrible hanging over our heads. The food being served up around us smelled great: rich, savory, and only about as spicy as Lena and I liked.

I hoped I’d at least be able to enjoy it.

I took a deep breath and let the aroma of other people’s meals help me plaster a smile on as the hostess led us to a laminated table. Lena did the same.

We sat, and the hostess set menus in front of us. “I’ll come around and get your orders in a minute,” she said.

Erin said, “Thanks.”

When the hostess left, Erin looked at us. Her practiced smile faded.

I supposed Lena and I didn’t hide our worries as well as we liked to think.

Before Erin could ask what was on our minds, I said, “How’s Donica?”

“Ah,” Erin said. “She’s home, recuperating. Frustrated, of course. But if there’s one thing working with athletes teaches you, it’s that you have to commit to your recovery.”

“She got plenty of medical leave?” Lena asked.

Donica worked for Erin’s father. From what the former had told me, she got assigned to potential clients who didn’t seem to have a future at the highest levels of their sports. She hadn’t seemed real happy about it, but it was a hell of a lot steadier work than either Lena or I had ever got. More lucrative, too.

“Oh, she got back to work before she left the hospital,” Erin said. “Reviewing film and scouting reports, for now, but I’ve no doubt she’ll be on crutches at games next week.”

I studied my menu.

Donica hadn’t missed a full day of work from the very physical impact of a tendril to her unprotected ankle? Lena and I had missed days of querying for jobs while we were just dealing with the emotional impact.

Lena took something different from the news than I had. “In that case, she could totally pitch in on our Earth video.”

I touched her wrist. “Lena, don’t.”

She shrugged my hand off. “This shit is important, Cam! We’re building up to the big reveal, aren’t we? That makes it a public service.”

Erin shifted in her chair. “I... don’t think that will happen. Donica helping you, I mean.”

“She’s off Third Eye?” Lena asked. “Or just off playing with us? I guess I get it. Well. I don’t get it, but I get how it’s way worse for her than I can understand.”

Apart from our brief visit to Donica’s hotel room, the most we’d heard from her was a terse “Recovering well.” on the the wiki team’s Discord.

“I don’t mean she wouldn’t want to help,” Erin said. “Although, right now, she probably wouldn’t.”

Lena cocked her head.

I thought I understood, though. “She fell into the bottom 1%?”

Lena’s gaze snapped to me. “No way! With everything we found at the construction site?”

“Way,” Erin whispered.

Lena shook her head. “No chance that’s fair.”

“I agree,” Erin said, “but not for the reason you’re thinking.”

“What do you mean?” Lena asked.

“Donica’s XP,” Erin said. “We didn’t realize it at the time because, well, obviously, we had bigger concerns. And she hadn’t been keeping careful track of it like some of us.”

I had no doubt Erin had a spreadsheet somewhere that recorded her every daily XP total, along with her Material finds.

Actually, thinking about it, that sounded like a good idea. Something to work on in the evening, maybe, if none of the gigs I’d applied for turned into anything.

“How much did she lose?” I asked.

“As far as we could tell,” Erin said, “fifty percent.”

I swallowed.

If you stacked up a list of all the horrible things the creature in the construction site could do to us, ripping away half of our XP sounded pretty minor. It wasn’t even close to the worst thing it had done to Donica. Not least because – outside of keeping us from being dropped from the beta – XP didn’t seem to do anything.

I had to admit, though, it sucked to think that even if we survived by the skin of our teeth, even if we never took any actual damage, just lost our last HP, it could strip us of access to Third Eye.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Do you think the creature took her XP?” Lena asked.

“What else?” I asked. “It’s what hurt her.”

“Forgive me if this is wrong, but,” Erin said, “I think what Lena means is, was it the creature... or the devs?”

Lena nodded. “Donica leads us somewhere we’re not supposed to go. She gets a Reactant she’s convinced she’s not supposed to have. Then the next day she’s out of the game? Pretty convenient.”

“You don’t really believe Albie would do that,” I said.

“Hell no!” Lena’s back tensed. I don’t know if she noticed other diners eyeing us, but she lowered her voice. “Let’s just say I don’t have the same confidence in her mysterious big bro. Him sending Albie out to fight monsters doesn’t make him look like the best dude.”

Slowly, I nodded.

“That,” Erin said, “was another reason I didn’t want to have this conversation over Discord.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “If we think the devs are that personally involved, and that vindictive, then what are we even doing? Any plans we make are pointless when they can strip away our access whenever they want.”

“I know,” Erin whispered.

“Hey,” Lena said. “Chin up.”

Erin did as she was told, although I suspected it was more because Lena had startled her. She blinked at us.

“It sucks that this is the best case scenario,” Lena said, “but at least it’s also the more likely one. Whatever XP even is, except for a measure of whether we get to stay in the beta or not, it’s probably something the creature can leech away, right? We don’t need to invent a conspiracy when there’s a perfectly good monster to blame.”

Erin’s lips quirked into a smile. “I’m sure you’re right.”

“I’m not.” I put my hand over Lena’s before she could object. “What I am sure of, is that we might as well make plans based on the idea that she is. Control what you can, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Erin said.

We fell silent. Neither of the women looked like they bought the optimistic – such as it was – explanation. Neither of them looked like they were doing a good job of controlling what they could.

God knew I wasn’t.

But as soon as we shut up for a few seconds, the hostess reappeared, and I realized she’d probably been hovering around waiting for us to finish our conversation.

We put our orders in and I tried not to think about the prices on the menu. Failed. Twenty five bucks we didn’t have for Lena’s short rib. My grilled chicken came in under twenty, just. We both passed on drinks, apart from water. Erin might be good for it, but that didn’t mean we felt good about accepting her charity.

“Regarding your video,” Erin said while we waited for the food. “No luck finding Earth, then?”

“Either Chatfield was a bust,” I said, “or we missed what we were supposed to be looking for.”

Erin rapped her knuckles on the edge of the table. “It did look like national and state parks might have a higher than average rate of Earth, but I guess not this one. I hope I didn’t get your hopes up.”

“It’s fine,” Lena said. “We got lots of Wood, and to see some cool birds.”

Erin perked up. Her motions had a birdlike quality of their own. “Ooh, what species?”

Lena started recounting the list. Either she’d seen a lot more than me, or at some point, she got too into storytelling and started to add on ones she merely wished she’d spotted.

At least it seemed to cheer them both up.

Me too, as I leaned back and watched Lena’s easy smile.

The good mood lasted while we waited for our food to arrive. The aroma wafting off it certainly didn’t dampen our spirits. Neither did the meal itself.

Lena finished hers first and slumped against my shoulder while Erin and I polished off the rest.

As the latter dabbed at her mouth, she asked, “Do you have a Plan B for the video, since Donica can’t help?”

Lena didn’t sit up, but she stirred against me. “Yeah, but you’re not gonna like it.”

“I’ll help if I have to,” Erin whispered.

“You don’t,” I said. “I know you’re uncomfortable being on camera.”

“If it’s all shot through Third Eye’s camera filter, it shouldn’t be...” She shook her head. “It should be okay.”

“You joining us would be super cool,” Lena said, “but it’s still Plan C.”

Erin’s head tilted. “What’s B?”

Lena chuckled nervously. Her arms encircled mine and squeezed. “Me and Matt have a duel on camera. Assuming he’s not too much of a wuss to answer my challenge.”

“Ah.” Erin set her napkin down. She picked up her fork and poked at her empty salad bowl.

“Told ya you wouldn’t like it,” Lena said.

“It’s...” Erin sighed. “It’s a good idea.”

Lena sat up. “Really?”

“I still don’t like it, you’re right about that,” Erin said. “I’d much rather Third Eye be about creating things, solving mysteries, building, playing. Not fighting.”

“But it’s not,” I said. “Not just.”

“We can’t really pretend anymore, can we?” she asked. “After what we saw?”

We didn’t know if Third Eye had created the creature, or summoned it, or just exposed us to it. Hell. Maybe it just gave us a way to fight back.

Regardless, I think we all believed it wouldn’t be the last time we had to.

“It’s still about all those things, Erin,” I said. “But it does look like we’re going to have to fight for them.”

“One generally has to,” Erin said. “In my head, Third Eye was going to be different. Better. That was silly, though. Just because it’s better for me, doesn’t mean it’s better for everyone else.”

“If we do a duel for our video,” I said, “we’re going to have to shift our recommendations. We don’t have to flip the script on invasions, but we’re going to look pretty silly if we don’t at least come down on the side of organized PVP. I think it’s what I think we need to do, but are you cool with it?”

“No.” She laughed. “I do agree with you, though. It seems like that’s the way the wind is blowing, anyway. People want PVP, and they want to watch it.”

“You mean OdysseyZZ’s tournament,” Lena said.

“So you saw those links Zhizhi shared?” Erin took her phone out and flicked across the surface of it. “Again, obviously, not what I was looking for out of the game. It does seem like just about the safest way for people to practice their skills, though.”

I nodded. “I would love to know how this guy is storing and transferring Reactants. Maybe it’s something with Crystal?”

“I’d love to know that too,” Erin said. “Specifically, I’d like to see it added to the wiki. I suppose we’ll just have to hope the winner decides to share it with the rest of us.”

Lena gave a thumbs up. “Of course!”

Erin and I both looked at her.

It was me she looked back at, though.

I got a great view of the slight twitch in her eye when she saw me staring at her, and of the moment she decided to construct a grin anyway.

“You guys don’t really think,” she said, “I’d keep something like that to myself?”