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Once upon a time, far in the distant depths of a virtual dungeon of death, secluded somewhere within its suffocating stone walls, in a room, one alike any other was where our story starts.
Two guys had a dream, a plan. One that would avert the inevitability that was dying prematurely. They wanted to form a team of complete and total strangers.
A team capable of squaring off against the ultimate danger that resided alongside them. One that would rid them of this long, long night of terrors and dread.
To accomplish such a feat, one of the guys, Jin, took hold of the other guy’s finger, which belonged to yours truly, and spent a rather uncomfortable five minutes plowing through my menu at a rapid pace, dragging it around and flicking through dozens of open windows of many shape and size that for the life of me I could not decipher.
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An assembly of programming jargon that was only comprehensible by a select few that have worked with it everyday… people like Jin.
Comprehend it he did. The tight grip of anticipation, the hasty strides he’s making my arm do across the endless stream of choices… I’ve never seen such total concentration on a man.
“Level with me, are you getting warmer or you still frozen?” I asked when the intense silence became too overbearing.
“Sora, I’m done when I’m done,” He snapped impatiently. “Can’t bring you up to Admin Level 2 with just a snap of my fingers.”
“But can it be done?”
“Well… theoretically speaking, no. But never say never, I’m putting that theory to the test now,” He brought up even more windows, filling the entirety of my HUD with the digital equivalent of Egyptian hieroglyphs. “Level 1 capabilities are limited but not entirely incapable. If I know what I’m doing, and if I’m doing it right, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Admin privileges, huh?” I contemplated the thought and felt my lips stretch to a slight smile. “Now that sounds like very enticing fun indeed.”
Jin stretched my arm up high to a window above, straining it rather hard.
“Not a toy,” he said.
“Speaking of toys - my hand, damn it, ease off. Secondly, I wouldn’t worry too much. The wrong hands aren’t my own, you just relax, alright?”
“Oh, I wonder about that.”
An endless back and forth of trial and error configuration. My legs were getting stiff just standing there like a statue as he did what he will with my lifeless arm still tightly in his grasp.
Five minutes, nope. Ten minutes, nothing new. Thirteen minutes in, he broke the quiet.
“Doesn’t seem like him to forget,” He said, then realizing that ambiguity would only bring him nowhere, further elaborated, “Sukuinote, I mean. Don’t really see him as the type to overlook this kind of thing.”
The blurry daze of rectangular holograms gradually came into focus again as I returned from a dazed stupor resulting from sheer boredom. Jin’s made some great strides… instead of like fifteen different screens open simultaneously, there were at least thirty now, albeit at first glance, could be a lot more veiling behind all the clutter.
I rubbed both my eyes with a free hand, “You’re thinking…?”
“Can’t have very well been an accident now, can it? No, Admin access was no accident. He wanted you to have it.”
“So not only did he string me along on a suicide run, but he did so while also granting me half the steering wheel to the entire game?”
“Half of a quarter to be more precise.”
On the surface, my ill-stricken plight seemed rather bare-bones. Delving a bit deeper, however, everything just seemed to be filled with countless contradictions.
A perplexing game of puzzles that puzzled me, “He stacked the odds so high against me only to give me something to topple it all down. I don’t even know what he’s thinking anymore.”
“More than likely he wanted you to figure it out on your own,” Jin replied, his eyes veering towards every angle possible, “But then… here I am, so that happened, and I don’t really think I was a factor in his equation.”
I scoffed, “You don’t? What makes you so sure that my meeting you here was simply a matter of coincidence? How do you know Sukuinote didn’t just provide me another helping hand in the form of you?”
“You want to stand here all night debating on what’s pure chance and what isn’t?”
“All I’m saying is…” I trailed away, my mouth still left wide open, finding a newly arisen sight had taken significant space in the corner of my HUD, “You did something.”
“What?”
A monochromatic grey, a translucent square residing in the lower left, engraved within it was the foundation of every possible route to anywhere in the dungeon. Icons and symbols hovered over points of interest, while others had arrows signifying potential ways to either ascend or descend across the different planes contained within the level.
Anywhere and everywhere, charted and organized, compact tightly in a small view before my eyes.
“You just gave me a map of the entire dungeon tower.”
Jin shared in my amazement, slackening his hold on my arm, and nodding profoundly, “So that’s what that does… it’s no Admin Level 2, but it’s something, I guess.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
My eyes began feasting upon the glorious sight. Something about it just oozes with a peculiar sense of satisfaction… as if what was once impossibility wasn’t exactly as it seemed, an inkling of resistance, cheating the system that had us chained unwillingly.
Yet it lasted only for a moment so brief. Not a second later, in a violent screech that I had grown weary off throughout the night, the frenzied steps of feet began rushing from behind us.
My eyes met Jin’s with a wary glance, “I don’t think Sukuinote liked that very much, Jin.”
“No, he didn’t,” He said, nudging me slightly before we tumbled into a sprint forward.
It was a simple matter of evasion, or so we thought, striding forth to the only possible direction before a thunderous stampede, an echoing cry that signaled many from far ahead of us, halted at once anymore movement from the both of us.
“Surrounded,” Jin said quietly, brandishing out his ax in a readied grip.
My teeth in a tight grit, I looked to the darkness both left and right of us, “Seems to fucking happen a lot, I just realized,” I gulped down a growing panic. “Plan?”
“Could just force our way through on either side. The problem is we don’t know how many there are, run at a side too many and we’ll be overwhelmed.”
He looked at me, “Yours?”
Knowing the absolute futility of it, still, I drew out my feeble wooden companion, holding it out in front of me, “Well, playing fetch is still always an option.”
“Not the time for jokes,” He said sternly, “Make one now or we’ll go with mine.”
I nearly erupted at him for putting me on the spot. Why are you looking for me to come up with something? It was blatantly obvious I didn’t have a clue.
“We’ll go with yours, then! I don’t -”
An oddity stopped me short and left me in bewildering silence. I blinked once, firmly, thinking an overactive imagination was getting the better of me but when that did not lead it to erasure, I was forced to consider another possibility.
“Jin, you cut some areas out of the dungeon, didn’t you?”
Jin, who at this point in time, had his attention undivided to the looming threats, spun towards me, evidently agitated beyond belief as he responded, “What?!”
Knowing time was a precious commodity, I cut straight to the point, and pointed straight to the blank solid, chiseled stone wall to the side of us, “Map says we’re at the furthest edge of the dungeon, can’t get any further than here. Obviously, that’s a fucking lie, because it’s also saying there’s still a huge area behind that wall over there that’s inaccessible.”
“Cut content,” Jin yelled, growing more frantic, “So what?”
“You’re a developer, you know the kinks,” I ran to the wall and slammed my hand against it, “Glitch us through!”
His eyes grew in a way that showed he understood, his mouth hung loose signifying how outlandish he thought my plan was, but the danger fast approaching and my patience already exceeded cut across him.
“Look, the girl I talked about, Arishia, she did the same thing once. I don’t know how she did it, but I’m willing to bet you do. That’s my idea, we run with it, or we go with yours.”
Uncertainty, doubt, they were all on full display, an exhibit of indecision clear as day. Death wailed at us once more from both sides and that more than anything locked his resolve tight.
“You better hope to God he hasn’t patched this yet,” He said, stomping forward with his ax held high above his head.
“What are you…?”
Jin let it plummet, effort exerted in a loud yell, as spark erupted upon contact with the hard surface. He retracted it, heaved once, and hurled again, the jagged edge towards the wall.
The clangor resonated far and wide, drowning out almost the ever-vocal shrieks that were descending upon us.
“Hit a surface hard enough, your weapon gets stuck,” Jin grunted through the heavy swings of his ax, “Get it stuck, it starts clipping inwards and its physics begins to break. You keep hold and continue pushing it in and eventually, it’ll drag you along with it.”
As he swung, I couldn’t help but feel a semblance of familiarity. Jin’s explanation and the way it was executed bore a striking resemblance to someone else’s.
Someone I knew who did the exact same thing, the difference being, he sunk his weapon to the floor as opposed to the wall, and that he did it by pure accident, whereas Jin struck with deliberate intent.
Now I couldn’t help wonder hypothetically, what would have happened if I had been so kind as to retrieve Tayuma’s sword for him that day. I would have probably sunk to the ground like quicksand and fallen through the world and into an inescapable void.
Mmm, not exactly a happy thought. Good thing I chose the selfish route that day.
Jin hissed, baring wide his clenched teeth, “It’s not sticking!”
“No, keep trying!” I urged him on, spurring to replicate his actions, winding my weapon with both hands, “I know for a damn fact this will work. I saw it.”
I swung, hitting the surface with a hefty thwack and felt the initial impact surged through my arms inducing a throbbing pain.
Again, even harder, more forceful, tight in my grip, swelled the ache in increments.
Jin looked to the side, breath heavy, “They’re here.”
I followed his gaze, ten to the left, armed to the teeth, the closest only mere meters away from contact.
My sword struck the stone once more, “Jin, swing!”
“Sora, it’s too late!” He fired back, treading backward, “The other way, run, there’s probably - “
A synergized growl expelled out the lips of nearly a dozen emerging rapidly from the right, faces warped into sickening displays of insanity as they barraged towards us with ear-splitting shrieks.
I pummeled my blade with all I had, “SWING!”
Then an explosion. A rumble. A tremor. I felt vibrations escalating in sheer intensity. The blade shook uncontrollably in my hand and immediately I knew. Instantly, I drove it deeper with all my might and felt it and most of myself sink into the wall without warning.
Forward was a sight of utter darkness, as it was, phasing into a solid object. Halfway through, I turned backward, precious seconds until the horde descended upon Jin, fleeting moments only, to reach out and grab hold of his hand before I was truly, fully consumed.
I felt the clasp of his hand on my own and gripped it tightly as the darkness devoured my sight and yanked it towards me, shouting out loud yet unable to produce any sound within the confines of solidity.
It was a sensation without any feeling, lasting briefly despite it feeling like an eternity. I popped out the other side overwhelmed by a view of a familiar pure white.
I toppled to the surfaceless ground gasping desperately for air, squinting my eyes to the blinding scene.
The unmistakable white of an out-of-bounds area. Just like the developer room.
The absence of color seemed to stretch to infinity, instead of the compact box from before, a void without end greeted us, save for the wall we sprung out from that also stretched endlessly.
Behind me, Jin’s hand remained unclasped to mine, a tight grip that seemed to carry the same intensity from before.
“Jin…” I said, feeling the relief washed down on me, “You can let go now. We did it.”
But he didn’t let go.
I glanced at his direction, “Jin, I said you can -”
Deep heavy breaths trying to compose himself. Wide-open eyes disbelieving of our accomplishment. Things I expected to see but did not.
Jin wasn’t there. The only thing that fronted me then was the chiseled wall inches away.
Confusion, only for a second before my eyes glimpsed upon the horror.
I felt the air escape me. My senses leave me.
Felt as if reality itself came crashing down all around me.
My hand, I raised in front of me. The sensation of his touch still a continuous presence. Jin’s severed hand laid lifeless atop of my own, his hold on me still tight, the weight of his fingers still interlocked with my wrist.
Never once letting go.