Chapter 74: Ride Along

When Lena and I agreed to see if any of the team could loan us a vehicle, we hadn’t considered the possibility that any of them would be able to get free and accompany us.

That was supposed to be the advantage of our unconventional work, right? We might not make much money, or get any benefits, or have any job security. We might have to put in a work day and a half to scrape together a minimum-wage day.

But at least it was easy to quit!

OldCampaigner: Don’t you have a job, too?

CubSoda: Yeah.

CubSoda: Let me tell you about that job.

CubSoda: Third Eye is bigger than every story my newsroom has covered since I started working there combined.

CubSoda: You, all of you, are that story. And you’re here, in this chat, talking to me, letting me film you, giving me interviews. Inviting me in!

CubSoda: You know what would happen if I took everything I’ve recorded so far, all of my notes, the entire story – literally the biggest story in the world – and offered them to my bosses? If I told them, ‘That angel video you got sent and you thought was a prank? I not only know the girl in that video, I know she really does have wings, and I can show you both proof and an interview with her I’ve already filmed?’

Ashbird: They’d take it from you and hand it over to one of the anchors?

CubSoda: I wish!

CubSoda: No, I mean it. This is a big enough deal that I’d happily give up credit if it meant getting people to believe it. That’s not what would happen, though.

CubSoda: First, they’d throw away everything I gave them.

CubSoda: Second, they’d start looking for a way to get me off the staff without looking like they’d fired me because I was dealing with a mental illness.

ShakeProtocol: What are you saying? Because they wouldn’t believe you, you don’t mind quitting on them out of the blue?

CubSoda: It’s not like that.

CubSoda: I’m not even saying it to shit on them. Third Eye sounds completely mental to anyone who hasn’t seen proof of what it can do. And the reality is, nothing I’ve got on video is something that couldn’t be faked by digital effects from a talented amateur.

CubSoda: But we all know it’s real, we all plan on telling the world that, and if we keep racking up more footage, eventually, it’s going to be too much to ignore.

CubSoda: I can go back to the newsroom and do coffee runs from 9 to 5, or I can help Ashbird and OldCampaigner and be the person getting that footage.

CubSoda: It’s not a hard choice.

ShakeProtocol: It’s still a bad idea to quit without giving your notice.

ShakeProtocol: At some point, you’re going to need those same newsrooms that currently wouldn’t give you the time of day. You shouldn’t burn your bridges with them.

CubSoda: I know. I’ll take time off first, then let them know I’m quitting once I’ve already got my vacation squared away. The longer we delay, the better it works for me, but I’m not going to hold you back just so I can jump through a few bureaucratic hoops. And I’m not missing out on the chance to cover this story.

GMiguel88: More than fair.

It probably spoke to my lack of “real world” experience, but all this talk of giving notices sort of went over my head. When I’d worked retail, I’d told my boss I was quitting three weeks in advance, hadn’t I? I thought so, but it felt like a lifetime ago. I had no idea how wide the bridges Zhizhi was burning were, or how much kindling she’d be piling on them with her proposed plan.

In my head, the bigger issue was that she’d be leaving Miguel behind so soon after they’d gotten together. I knew better than to ask either of them about it, though. They’d probably say absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Lena reached over and nudged my arm. “You disappointed?”

“What? No. Zhizhi is good company.” I answered without really thinking about the question. It only struck me as a strange thing to ask after I’d already responded. I touched my lips and found I was frowning. As much to myself as her, I asked, “Why?”

Lena twirled some of her hair around her finger and tugged at it. “Not exactly a romantic getaway if we’ve got a third wheel.”

“Oh.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Are you disappointed?”

“Lil’ bit.” She sank into her chair and pulled her knees up. She propped her chin on them.

I stood up and shifted to rub her shoulders.

“Mmm.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. Just as it seemed like she was about to relax, she suddenly opened them and looked up at me. They twinkled. “But then I remember that if you drove, we wouldn’t get to Florida in time for the tournament even if we left tonight.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“For the hundredth time,” I said, “I was trying to be careful the other night.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “You sure managed.”

“Hmph.” I kissed the top of her head and slid back to my chair.

“Seriously, though,” she said. “It is a good thing, Zhizhi coming. We’ll get more footage, maybe for normal episodes and definitely for the eventual reveal. And though I’m sure you’ll be fine driving, and even I can take a turn on a back road, it’ll be good to have somebody else to spell us at the wheel.”

“I’m glad you’re not upset,” I said. “I’d love for us to go on a proper vacation, but we have to take this a little more seriously.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “We have to take a game more seriously than a vacation.”

“I know, it sounds absurd, but...” I sighed. “But yeah.”

I think she tried to nod, but she only managed to bob her head. “It’s too bad none of the actual players can come with us.”

I plopped down. My chair rolled back until I dug my heels in to hold it in place. “Yeah.”

What would we face on the road? Another PVP player like Mask, if not Mask himself? I felt like we could take him together.

A player like Omar, who supposedly had five or more of each Reactant? We’d need to get a lot stronger before we reached Florida to have a chance of opposing him directly, although we could hope it wouldn’t come to that.

A creature like we’d seen at the construction site?

Back then, it wouldn’t have mattered if we brought the whole wiki team with us. If Albie hadn’t appeared to bail us out, we’d all have died. Each of us had learned more about our Reactants since then, and some, like Lena, had gained new ones as well.

Even collectively, we couldn’t come close to matching Albie’s power. When she called him into combat, her Daimon, Marroll, had turned from a big dog into an alien worm the size of a whale. Albie herself had melted an entire warehouse to slag with a tornado of flame. I wasn’t sure how much she’d overkilled the creature by, but unless the answer was “a hell of a lot,” we wouldn’t stand a chance of defeating it.

I thought we might be at the point where, as a team, we could fend it off long enough to escape, though.

Trouble was, we wouldn’t be fighting as a team.

Zhizhi could help us improve Lena’s channel. She could help us get the word out about Third Eye. She could certainly help us drive!

But if it came down to a fight, she’d be no help at all. In fact, she turned it into an escort mission. The worst kind of quest in any game.

I’m sure it sounds absurd, but that thought put enough of a smile on my face for Lena to notice.

“What are you grinning about?” she asked.

“I just thought, if a Third Eye escort mission ends up being as good as a Third Eye sewer level, we’re in for a great time.”

She laughed. “Where is the lie, though?”

“Speaking of...” I turned back to the Discord and surveyed where the conversation had gone while Lena and I talked.

Looked like they’d moved on to discussing the practicalities of the trip. The central divide seemed to be between the camp who thought we needed, well, an entire camp’s worth of gear, and the camp, mostly comprised of Zhizhi, who thought she drove a compact car with a compact trunk.

I suspected I’d be rereading this section a few times before we headed out, because I wanted to be as prepared as possible. One thing we absolutely stood to learn from Mask was how to take advantage of mundane equipment to help with Third Eye problems.

I also suspected, between Zhizhi’s car and our budget, that we would depart with a hell of a lot less supplies than Joon Woo and LikeItsNinetyNine seemed to think we needed.

There was at least one more thing we had to square away locally before we set out, though.

Trouble was, I didn’t know if I had a right to post about it.

I switched to my DMs and opened my conversation with Miguel.

OldCampaigner: If we can still reach the arcade in your Realm and get Tickets out of it, it could be a pretty valuable path to power. Not so much for Lena and I, because we really do need to get a move on. But for the players who stay behind in Denver.

GMiguel88: And you think that I should have to give my permission for you to tell others about it?

OldCampaigner: I know I do.

GMiguel88: I don’t want the place, Cameron. If it turns out to be an arcade that everyone can access, however, I might just start warming to it. In fact, I’ll share it myself.

Which was exactly what he did.

GMiguel88: While mundane preparations are all fine and well, I think the most important thing right now is to find out how your Tickets work, and for everyone here to get as many as they can, should that prove to be possible.

NugsFan15: Tickets? You mean you’ve actually found some?

Ashbird: We got them last night. Tickets and a Ticket Daimon!

Ashbird: He’s the best, except for Bernie, who is also the best.

Ashbird: (Marroll is awesome, too, just fyi.)

OldCampaigner: Sorry for not posting about it until now. It’s been a busy day.

NugsFan15: They all seem to be, anymore.

Where, as Lena had said, was the lie?

NugsFan15: Please, though, tell us everything you found!

OldCampaigner: GMiguel, CubSoda, Ashbird, and I went scouting last night. We discovered what seems to be a Realm here in Englewood. A spectacular one.

GMiguel88: It is, at the very least, large.

OldCampaigner: There weren’t a lot of resources, but we did get quite a few Tickets there, plus Ryu – that’s the Daimon that Ashbird mentioned.

OldCampaigner: It’s not that the Tickets were just lying around, though.

OldCampaigner: If we can keep accessing the Realm, we might have a renewable source of them.

NugsFan15: Oh my goodness! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the heads-up. And you’d be willing to show us even though you’re not going to stay in town to get more? Thank you! If it works, we could arrange regular trips to stock up.

ShakeProtocol: If it works, and if the Tickets are worth the trouble.

NugsFan15: Well.

NugsFan15: Yes.

Salamancer: When you say Ticket, it is what I see as Billet in my store interface?

OldCampaigner: I think so.

That was the first time I’d realized the Third Eye app had a proper translation. I wondered if it would be easier or harder to go from the game’s runes to French than it was to English.

Salamancer: I confess, most of what was not for sale in the shop, I wished very much I could buy. Alas, I didn’t have money and they would not take the money I lacked.

Salamancer: But these Tickets, they are a strange inclusion, no? Not so very magical. Not so exciting.

Salamancer: What do they actually do?

OldCampaigner: That...

I glanced at Lena.

We both glanced at our phones.

OldCampaigner: Is a great question.