The world quickly turned to black, the pain fading just as fast. The relief of having his mortality spared at the last moment was something else. He really thought he was going to die.
He tried to take in a deep breath to give his relief its companionable sigh, but failed to suck in even a wisp of air.
‘That's fine’, he thought. ‘I can just start panicking again’.
He couldn't look around, and couldn't feel his body at all, but he knew he was desperate for breath. The blackness surrounding him didn't seem to look like anything at all. He wasn't even sure if he still had eyes. He felt as if he was just a mind, floating in emptiness. Except, something else was there. It was biting at the back of his thoughts, begging to be noticed.
He focused on the sensation, and found a countdown floating in his vision. That's if you could call seeing without eyes ‘vision’.
RESPAWN: 00.00.05 / 00.00.10
It was ticking towards zero, thank fuck.
He mentally declared that he would definitely be sending a report to the developers about this ‘no breathing in respawn’ business. It would be torture with a longer countdown.
Once it hit zero, he felt the same warm tingle as earlier, and his view faded in.
He wasn't in the same place, he could tell that immediately. He seemed to be in a pub or an inn, judging by the tables and chairs scattered around, the smell of spilled beer, and the duo of people in front of him with wide smiles and raised glasses.
They were cheering and looking right at him. He took a quick glance behind him, but there was only a wall. He gave his small audience an awkward wave, and they both cackled.
“To The Henry!” The largest of them shouted in a thick Scottish accent. “The first of the twelfth to discover ‘The Empty’!” He held up a second glass and thrust it in Henry's direction. The man was as caked in muscle as a prized bull. Henry was concerned for the welfare of the chair that struggled to hold the man up.
“Have we met?” Henry asked, his voice betraying his befuddlement.
“We have now,” the skinny one chuckled, standing from his chair to step towards him.
He was taller than Henry expected, and he had that delicate and pretty look of a rich kid. His messy blonde hair and perfect green eyes just drove the metaphorical knife Henry was creating for no reason deeper into his ego.
“We're players from the tenth,” he said, guiding the confused Henry to the free chair at their table. “We had a wager about how long it would take for one of you to die. You just cost me 5 slip,” the skinny man laughed, sitting back down at his own spot.
The two of them looked at him expectantly, as if they'd already agreed it was his turn to talk next. He opened his mouth to speak, but failed to land on something.
After such a harrowing experience, it was difficult for him to think straight enough to decide on what to question. He was supposed to be one of the first into the game, but it seemed as if these guys had been here long enough to settle in. They were both wearing what looked like light armouring made from some kind of leather, and had weapons at their hips. He knew he was slow to start with most things, but Henry was damn sure these other players wouldn't have had enough time to get a leg up on him. Even if they were also product testers.
The largest of the duo noticed Henry's hesitation, and a look of realisation struck his bearded face.
“Ohh,” he said softly “it was a rough one eh?” He asked, his accent helping take the sting out of his blunt question. The Scotts didn't mean to sound rude all the time, they just didn't have the time to beat around the bush, not when there was drinking and fighting to do.
“My first death was a hard one too,” he continued, clapping his meaty hand on Henry's shoulder. “I got the honour of being eaten from the inside out by a wasp the size of my nephew peter, and that little shite got in the paper for the size of his big head.” He paused for a moment, clearly considering something. “I suppose that was my second death if you think about it,” he corrected casually. “Either way, the whole experience was tainted worse by the sound of my so-called ‘best friend’ having an invisible little cry in front of me,” he finished by waving his hand at the tall blonde next to him.
“That's not fair,” the blonde scoffed. “We definitely weren't friends at that time, I used to have a bit more sense.” He shrugged, and looked at Henry. “I got crushed by some rocks a few days later anyway. I got an achievement at least, for dying the same way twice in a row,” he shared a sympathetic look with his friend in the last statement.
Henry held up his hands to stop the conversation, and looked at them both curiously. “How are you both here?” He asked. “I didn't think I'd see other players so soon. And how did you know I'd be here?”
They looked at each other again, seeming to share some unspoken words. The blonde looked back to Henry and studied him for a moment. Henry felt a wash of pressure pass through him as the man's eyes flashed a soft blue. He raised his eyebrows and met Henry's eyes.
“You've got a lot of essence for someone that just got here,” he stated flatly. The ghost of a smirk crept its way onto his lips as he looked the confused Henry up and down another time. “How was it you got to the Hollows exactly?”
Henry squinted at him, not sure whether or not to trust the skinny man. He figured no harm could come from telling them about how he found the game though, so he carefully shared his story. He was careful to leave out his opinions on the respawn screen, just in case these guys were developers or something. He wanted to bring the issue up, but only after he poked around for a while longer.
The men listened along intently, clearly paying close attention to the details of his story. It struck him as odd that the only time their stoic faces broke during the telling, was when he mentioned he won early access to the game and the big man winced. He finished by admitting to them that he was excited for the opportunity to get ahead of other players, but had to accept he'd clearly missed something.
The two of them stayed silent for a few moments. The air was tense and awkward, and the men guiltily struggled to meet his eyes.
“Okay,” Henry said, breaking the silence. “Does someone want to tell me what you're not telling me?”
“You've been sold a crock of shite,” the big man said sorely. “Most of us know the truth of it when we get here, because of how we get here.” He looked sadly at Henry.
“You were led here all blind like. That is a rough one,” he finished, shaking his head.
“What do you mean?” Henry asked, blinking dumbly.
“You’re not playing a game,” the blonde said flatly. “I mean, it's like a game I suppose, but there's no logging out from this one.”
Henry looked them both over, waiting for one of them to crack and start laughing, but their serious composure didn't falter.
“Is this some kind of hazing ritual or something?” He asked eventually, not believing a word they had to say.
“You’re not one of the first players either,” the big one chimed in again. “You’re one of the many in the twelfth generation of players to get here. Check your HUD if you don't believe us. You won't find any way to log out there.”
Henry rolled his eyes. He was so sure they were fooling around, that he didn't feel even the slightest bit of worry that they might be right. He wanted to prove them wrong still, so he figured a quick glance at the log out button on his HUD would do the trick. He hadn't really attempted to go looking for his HUD or menus. Those kinds of things usually showed up on the screen overlay, but this game didn't have such a thing. It was full first person with no interpretation to his vision. He found when he thought about his settings menu though, something finally appeared in his vision.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
SETTINGS:
HUD Opacity: 70%
HUD Overlay: OFF
HUD Notification: SILENT
HUD Colour: GREY
He pushed the menu aside, closing to ignore the odd lack of options for the time being, and he continued to search for a logout function. He got the impression his HUD was working in the background while he searched. On some level he could feel when his menus moved or changed in any way, even if he couldn't see them at the time.
His search showed nothing, and his suspicion rose slightly. Still not panicking, he turned his attention back to the two men in front of him.
“Okay, very funny,” he said, smiling at the jokers. “So where is the logout button actually?”
They both just continued to stare at him. Eventually, the big man just shook his head.
“No word of a lie I'm afraid,” he said sadly. “Smarter men than us have looked over every inch of that little HUD power we all have, and they haven't found anything either.” He leant in closer to Henry and looked him seriously in the eyes. “If they were really that much smarter they'd give up on finding a way out. This is the real world now, the sooner you can accept it the sooner you can move forward. No sense in letting yourself get stuck trying to solve a puzzle you can't even care about.”
He finished his statement with a gulp of his beer and slumped back into his chair.
“You’re kidding, right?” Henry asked, growing a little more paranoid.
“Serious as the plague, I'm afraid,” the blonde interjected. “Here's the kicker though. Even knowing your old life is gone, and that you'll never see your family again, do you even give a shite?” He said sourly.
Henry thought about it. He loved his family, and had a great relationship with his parents and siblings. They still saw each other regularly, even if they all had busy lives. For whatever reason though, he didn't really care if he never saw them again. He didn't even care if he never saw his dog Sam again either, and they'd been inseparable for the last 12 years. He thought about it as hard as he could, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.
“That's weird,” he mumbled softly to nobody in particular.
“It's damn frustrating if you think about it too long,” the big man grumbled. “I still feel more love for my wife than I could ever tell her, but I can't for the life of me bring myself to miss her, and it makes me want to fight the gods for doing it.”
He finished again by chugging his drink, this time clearing it off completely.
“A problem for later though,” the blonde said, patting his friend on the back. “The good side of that little curse is that you can put it all in the back of your mind and focus on not getting eaten… again.”
Henry considered his words. It was interesting, but his opinions and excitement for the game hadn't changed at all, even with such a revelation. He couldn't deny that he was a little annoyed that he'd been tricked into coming to a new world, but they were right about him not caring about it. He still wanted to see this new and exciting world, regardless of whether or not it was a video game. A part of him wanted to be horrified by the injustice of his kidnapping, and the muffling of his emotions. He wanted to question it all and know why he was in that position at all. The beauty of not caring about it however, was that it just didn't really matter. It did all raise another question though.
“Okay… what now then?”
The big one smiled wide at that.
“That's the good part,” he said gleefully. “Now you can do anything you damn well please. So long as you don't mind a bit of time spent in The Empty.”
That made Henry shiver. He'd only spent a few seconds in the respawn screen, and he found it horrible.
“I don't even know how to play this game…” he said meekly. “I skipped all the info at the start.”
The blonde blanched. “Might not have been your finest moment,” he admitted.
“My name is Andy, and this is Hamish,” he said, gesturing at the big guy. “We've been here since the tenth generation. Might be able to show you a trick or two that we've picked up along the way. It's best if you get out of your mind that the world is a game though, that's not going to make your life any easier, trust us on that.”
Henry nodded at them both. “I'd appreciate that,” he admitted. “I'm Henry, but I guess you already knew that somehow.”
“Don't be freaked out about that,” Hamish chuckled. “You get a passive skill at level 3 that lets you see other player's names and levels. I've forgotten what it's like to not see the floating text.”
“You could probably get to level 3 now with that much essence,” Andy added. “I don't know what you did in your first 10 minutes to earn something like that, but I'm damn impressed if I'm being honest with you.”
Henry blinked at him with an empty expression. There must be a lot of experience in getting chased by the city guard. He hadn't had much of a chance to look over his stats since he'd started the game, and he groaned internally at his stupidity.
He knew from the little amount he'd read in the info pamphlet he got with the game, that every player would start with a unique power and skill. If he'd been smart enough to check that when he first made his character, he might have had a way to get away from the guard without dying, maybe even fight him.
With a thought, he bought up his character sheet.
The Henry:
Race: Demisis
Age: 32
Level: 1
Tier: 1
Essence: 10,657 [E]
Health: 100%
Stamina: 100%
DiHexan: 80 [DiH]
Strength: 55
Dexterity: 48
Perception: 59
Endurance: 55
Creativity: 60
Core Powers:
* True Temple
Powers:
* N/A
Skills:
* Retreat to Temple
There was an image of his face along with the rest of the information, and he looked exactly the same as he did back on earth. The only difference was that he seemed to have nicer skin and thicker hair, so it wasn't entirely disappointing.
He had no idea what the power or skill could be, so he focused on them for more information.
True Temple:
* Core Power
* Complete control and manipulation of the personal Temple Realm
Retreat to Temple:
* Core Skill
* Cost: 15 DiH
* Allows user to enter and exit the personal Temple Realm
* User can transport matter for the additional cost of 1 DiH per 1 Kg of material
Both of them sounded appealing to him, but he failed to see how they could be useful in combat. Depending on how it worked, he might have been able to use it to escape the guard at least.
“Did you get something good?” Hamish asked with excitement, breaking Henry free from his browsing. “I recognise that look. You were reading over your stats.”
Henry shrugged.
“I was, but I have no idea what I'm looking at.” The excited Scotts had been kind so far. He didn't see the harm in being honest with them.
“I got a power called True Temple, and a skill called Retreat to Temple. Do you think they'll be any good?”
“I knew it!” Andy barked with wide eyes and a joyful smile. He looked around the room quickly to make sure nobody else was listening, then leant in close to speak quietly.
“It's no wonder you have so much essence, not when you're walking around here with a True Core Power.”
Hamish caught up to his friend, and his jaw dropped. “We can't talk about this here,” he said, looking over his shoulder.
“No place safer than the Tavern,” Andy argued.
“True, but we should at least get a room or something,” Hamish insisted.
“Is something wrong?” Henry interrupted, reminding them he was there.
Andy shook his head, still smiling. “There's nothing wrong at all, but if we're going to talk about your power, we're going to need a little more privacy.”
He raised his hand to call over a serving girl. She came right away thanks to the lack of patrons in the place. He said something to her in a language that Henry didn't recognise, and she and Hamish both laughed. With a pretty smile, she handed him a key, then tapped her finger on the big man's empty glass. The glass filled itself with the bitter amber liquid it was missing. With that she said something else and then walked off to the bar.
“I feel like I'm missing something here,” Henry said, looking at the smiling faces of his new acquaintances.
“You've missed a lot more than just something,” Andy laughed. “Come with us, we've got a training room all to ourselves.”
Without a chance for protest, Hamish grabbed Henry's wrist and led him down a hall and through a large set of double doors.