Jack arrived home after chatting with his cousin for a couple of hours. Even though Rob did not once seem bored or annoyed by his presence, Jack didn’t want to overstay his welcome. He already had learned everything he needed to tackle the game.
Jack entered his house and heard a noise in the kitchen. That had to be his mom. His father would still be out for an hour. Their argument yesterday was very recent, and Jack didn’t feel like crossing paths with his old man.
“Hi, Mom!” he greeted as he entered the kitchen.
She approached, letting him kiss her twice, once on each cheek, as it was done in Portuguese culture. “Hi, honey. How are you today?”
“I’m OK, thanks.”
His mother held his chin, turned his head to one side and then the other, looking him in the eye. “Last time we talked, you were a mess, but now you look calm and collected. Has anything good happened?” she asked, hopeful.
Seeing his mother’s eager look, he couldn’t help but feel his heart burn a little. “No, Mom. Nothing’s changed. Lydia and I haven’t talked since yesterday.”
“I see. Anyway, you look better. That’s great!” she said, quickly overcoming her disappointment.
“R-really?”
“Yes. You look like a man on a mission.”
Jack pursed his lip. Did he? He didn’t feel much different. Was it because of New Earth? He was eager to return to his bedroom and play. He had learned a lot from his cousin and was looking forward to putting his lessons into practice. Maybe that's what she meant. “Is that a good thing?”
“Yes, honey. So, would you like some dinner?”
“I’m coming from Roberto’s. His kitchen robot prepared us a meal, and I had dinner there. I hope that’s OK.”
“No problem. In that case, I’ll keep it in a tupperware. You can have tonight’s dinner for lunch tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Mom. I have to go to my room. I have stuff to do.”
“Of course, honey. I’ll talk to you later.”
Jack ran up the stairs, changed clothes, used the bathroom, and brushed his teeth. Entering his room, he shut the door. Mission accomplished. He had been able to avoid running into his dad all day. Jack made himself comfortable and turned off the lights. After eating well at his cousin's he was planning to play until the next morning.
Applying one of the many lessons he had just picked up from his cousin, he activated an option in the game that woke him up if he logged out. This way, he would avoid the earlier episode where he wasted two hours of gameplay because he logged out but hadn’t woken up yet.
Jack turned on the helmet and returned to the world of New Earth. Jack’s figure materialized inside the marketplace. Even as he found his bearings, he could see other players logging out or into the game. It looked like many had the habit of dumping all the stuff collected after a day of gameplay and logging out, just like he had.
Everything he had listed had been sold already. He looked at his 34 silver with a bittersweet smile. Before he checked the conversion rate of in-game currency to real-world credits, he had believed this was such a large amount, but now he knew that this was peanuts. Even so, it was more than enough to pay for the coach ticket.
The stage station was very easy to find. It had large horse-pulled carriages parked in front of it. Jack noted how most players hanging out by the stage station wore something other than the gray drabs and the wooden swords and quarterstaffs the village trainers offered them. They were players that had graduated from being total noobs and were ready to move to a gate town. Even he, he realized, had a bush knife in his hand.
The line of wagons reminded Jack of a taxi stop. The carriage in front of the line wasn’t fancy by any means. It was open, and three players were already sitting on it, waiting for the transport to be filled so they could get going. Jack approached the coach driver. It was a man in his 50s wearing a coconut hat and fingerless gloves.
Inspecting him, Jack found that the NPC’s name was Reggie.
“Excuse me, sir. Where are you headed?”
“Embersgate,” the man answered in a hoarse, uninterested tone.
Jack clicked his tongue. That’s not where his cousin was based. It was too bad. Spawn locations for beginners were random, and he had started the game far from Rob. From what his cousin told him transport between gate towns was much more expensive than this shorter ride. It didn’t matter though. To level up, he needed to run dungeons on his own.
“One ticket, please,” Jack said.
A silver coin appeared from thin air on the driver’s hand. He bit into the coin and failed to bend it with his golden teeth. “Come aboard. We’ll leave once we get two more passengers.”
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Jack went around the back and climbed aboard the carriage. A couple sat together, discussing in hushed tones. From the lovey-dovey way they talked and how the girl giggled at all of the boy’s jokes, they looked boyfriend and girlfriend. Seeing a happy couple soured his mood. He missed Lydia.
The last passenger was a man with dark skin. His hair was neatly organized into braids. Unlike the fidgety couple who threw expectant glances toward the driver, he was just sitting back, relaxed. The only piece of equipment he had other than what they all started with was a small wooden buckler.
“Morning,” Jack greeted politely. The couple ignored him, but the man with the shield greeted back politely.
Jack sat and opened an internet browser while he waited. On his way to Embersgate, he would read more about dungeons.
A few minutes passed, and no other passengers had climbed aboard. The coach driver cried out. “Last call to Embersgate! Last call!”
In the end, they took off with only four passengers. The developers had either programmed these coaches to take off once they reached a certain number or, if there weren’t enough passengers, to depart anyway after waiting a few minutes. That was a good thing, too. Jack didn’t have to waste time waiting for the carriage to fill up. This way, he would have more space and travel more comfortably.
“Hyah! Hyah!” Reggie shouted as he shook the reins, urging the two horses to take off. The carriage left in the direction of the outer wall. Jack looked back toward the shrinking beginner town. He remembered there was a map option in the menu. Opening it, he found the name of this small place: Bright Hill. That would be important for when he wanted to find transportation back.
Jack’s eyelids grew heavy as the wooden wheels turned and the horses' hooves hit the ground at a rhythmic step. He had always had difficulty falling asleep aboard a moving vehicle, so the unnatural sleepiness rang an alarm in his mind. Had he been poisoned? What was going on? He tried to keep his eyes open, but the overpowering lullaby was stronger than him. Before he could figure out what was going on, he fell asleep.
Just as quickly as he had fallen asleep, he woke up again. He looked around and found his fellow passengers also waking up, but his attention was soon drawn toward the gigantic construct before them. The wall that had looked like a looming, giant, distant thing now filled the horizon. It was huge, as tall as a skyscraper.
Millions of bricks and tons of cement created an insurmountable barrier. On the battlement were imposing watchtowers and little twinkles of sunlight reflected off metal worn by patrolling soldiers. Even though the wall had looked pristine in the distance, it was covered in cracks, just like Ezekiel had advertised.
There was a gate that was pitifully small compared with the wall but had a large bright sign of a flame marking this as Embersgate. At the foot of the wall, there was a city. Its sheer size overwhelmed Jack. The whole city occupied his surroundings. Wherever he looked, more of the city hugged the contour of the wall.
Although some of the architecture was similar to Bright Hill, with its dark stone walls and red roofs, the buildings here were significantly bigger, at least two stories high. There was also one more predominant color added to the mix: ivory. It wasn’t just from the humongous white-washed wall that towered over the city but from the many bones used in construction.
All doors and windows had skeletal frames, and even some of the light posts were made from tall, thick bones. Even more impressive were some of the bones used as columns to support the oppressive weight of large buildings or the long bones used as beams to sustain heavy roofs. Just what kind of creatures could have such massive bones? If only one of their bones was as big as a house, what would the whole beast look like?
The lamps were kept on despite being daytime. Even though the sun lit the top of the wall, the city was under its long shadow. The gaslight reflecting off the ivory structures gave the city a mysterious look.
Jack’s senses were on overdrive. Players walked back and forth. There were hundreds of them. Seeing their intricate, beautifully ornamented gear, he couldn't help but feel jealous and conscious of how much of a noob he was.
Most walked on foot, but there were also those who rode horses. His eyes landed on a player who rode an ostrich-like bird Jack had never seen, an animal of a bygone era. It was so tall and imposing that it made nearby horses look like ponies. Its powerful hind legs sported long, dangerous-looking claws. At the top of its skull, it had a bony ridge. It wasn’t just him who was mesmerized by the animal. It had to be a very high-end ride from the astounded looks of other passersby.
The couple traveling along yelped. “We’ve arrived already?”
The man with a buckler, seeing their discomfort, nodded knowingly. “First time traveling, hey?”
“Y-yes. What happened?”
Jack shut his open jaw and tried to wipe the noob look off his face. He kept an ear out for whatever the knowing traveler said.
“You always fall asleep no matter what. It’s how devs make traveling faster in the game. Look at the clock. Only 10 minutes have passed.”
Jack checked the time. It was true. They hadn’t slept long. He wasn't sure how to feel about it. It felt wrong for the developers to make him sleep and miss the whole trip forcibly. At the same time, judging by how big the wall was, he had been hours away from it. If it hadn't been for this little trick, balancing each beginner town's distance from the nearest gate town would have been much harder. He decided he was happy with the development and that he'd rather black out for ten minutes than endure hours of dull traveling.
Eventually, the coach arrived at a wide square with many similar carriages parked. A sign hanging from a bone gas lamp post read Bright Hill.
“If you ever want to return, just make sure you find this sign, and one of my colleagues or I will take you back. We run this route several times a day,” the driver explained.
The couple hopped off the carriage first, and just as the dark-skinned man was leaving, Jack decided to try his luck. There didn’t seem to be much difference in the quality of their equipment, but this player had experience traveling and walked as if he knew where he was going.
“Excuse me, sir. You with the buckler!”
The man turned around, acknowledging Jack. From how he kept one foot pointed toward where he was originally heading, it looked like Jack would have the man's attention for a very short time. “I'm looking for the dungeon tutorial. Do you know where it is?”
“Yeah, sure. Just go to the pyramid.”
“The pyramid?”
“Yeah. It's big. You can't miss it. Look over there.”
Jack followed the man’s gesture. Against the white wall, over the rooftops, there was the tip of a pyramid.