Deep Inferno, September 28, 2012
“LOOK OUT!!!” came the shout from Vestalia. Velocity looked at Ifrit, who jumped into the air and sprayed huge fireballs into the surrounding area. He looked at his monitor, the monster was performing a skill called Hellfire. Velocity fell and his Mace and Shield slipped out of his hands. The attack was unblockable and had penetrated his defenses. There was a sound of pain in the virtual world.
His HP was 300, a quarter of its full state. He tried to get up, and his weapon and shield automatically returned to his hands. The area around him had been burnt with the attack and the view on his monitor was obscured. Only Salvadore's figure could be seen as he was hit by the fireball, obviously reducing his HP drastically. Without thinking, he switched to Recovery Mode and cast Heal magic several times towards Salvadore.
“Your MP!!!” Salvadore exclaimed. That was the signal that Velocity's MP was running low. If he ran out of MP, he would not be able to perform Heal anymore.
“Don't worry about me!!!” Velocity shouted. “Ifrit's HP is close to dying, you can defeat it!!!”
He had to continue to withstand Ifrit's attacks for several minutes with alternating Defense and Recovery Modes. No attacks threatened his HP anymore, but with his MP dwindling it was only a matter of time before he ran out of HP himself. One thing he underestimated was that he didn't buy many healing items like Potions, he seemed to have used them all in the middle of the fight earlier as a complement to the Healing magic while switching Modes.
His HP was almost gone, as Velocity's body pose on his monitor began to collapse despite still blocking Ifrit's attack with both hands in Defense Mode. He could hear the screams of Salvadore, who was still repeating his Ice Statue and Water Ball magic. But he was at least relieved that Ifrit's HP was as thin as his own. He would see which one would fall first.
Ifrit's massive body groaned in pain and collapsed forward onto Velocity's body. He suddenly couldn't move his body with his cursor or keypad. His own body was covered with Ifrit's now, with Reward and EP reports on his monitor. His level had risen quite a lot to level 17.
“Hmm, is something wrong? I can't move!” he said to himself. None of his words were spoken into the game. He kept moving the mouse and the four-way button trying to get his character to move, but nothing happened.
“Velocity!!!” came a shout from the distance. The figures of Vestalia and the others appeared on his monitor from the west running towards him. On the east side, Salvadore walked leisurely after him. Vestalia called out again, “Are you okay?”
“Ow!!!” part of Velocity's body appeared from behind Ifrit's body. His body was wedged in there and still immobilized. “I think I'm still alive-”
“Geez, what have I seen?” said Pendragon as he came into view. “You're pushing yourself too much, you know!”
“But we won, duh-duh-duh!” exclaimed Velocity, still pinned down. “Do you believe with your own eyes now?”
“Hmph. I'm not going to deny it now,” said Pendragon, who still wouldn't budge. “But I have to give you a bit lesson so that you feel deterred by your reckless actions. I will not release your body from Ifrit for a while...”
“Haaa...What a drag!!!” grumbled Velocity. “Is this your reward for me being a hero?”
Pendragon did not reply and turned away. Who knows what he would have done after walking away from him. Vestalia was still at his side, with Accelacus and Salvadore behind her.
“That was cool!” Accelacus said to him. Velocity just heard his voice, younger than Salvadore's but seemingly the same age as the students above his age. Maybe he was the same age as his old friends from Espion, he thought.
“Good job, Velocity!” exclaimed Salvadore. “But it looks like the old green dragon isn't happy.”
“Oh, he's the one who yells Velocity's name the most, you know!” chimed in Vestalia, joining the conversation. “I was worried about the fight, too. But I wasn't as hysterical as Pendragon was.”
“Hahaha, he doesn't want to admit it to my face, does he?” said Velocity. “But, what the heck, I can't really move! How many times have I moved the Mouse or Keyboard…”
There was a brief conversation between the four of them with self-introductions and an exchange of contacts for the friend list. Velocity didn't have much time to ask more about Salvadore and Accelacus right now.
“I'm going to have to log out soon,” Velocity said. “I haven't installed the game on my computer yet, I just bought the game and then I'm looking for internet cafe to create my account and character. My playing time will be up soon.”
“Hmm, that makes sense. It's five o'clock into evening in the real world,” Salvadore said. He noticed the darkening sky in the virtual world. “I have to clean up and go home, too.”
“Are you an office worker?” asked Velocity. “But never mind, I'll ask that another time... So when do I get released from this big monster?”
“If you log in to the game tomorrow, I think the monster will disappear,” said Salvadore. “But I don't understand much about the game system when our characters are offline or not in the game.”
“Haaaaahhhh. Oh well, my playtime is really running out now!!!” Velocity said with an exhale. “See you later, guys!!!”
“Ehh, Velocity?” Vestalia called out to him. “I can play with you again sometime, right?”
“Ha?” Velocity responded in confusion. “Uh whatever, if you still want to play with me then we'll talk when I log back in tomorrow, okay?”
“Well, I can't log in for the next few days. Lots of schedules this weekend,” Accelacus said. “It looks like fun with you guys.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“All you have to do is open a conversation, Accel,” Salvadore said. “Mobius can send long-distance private conversations or messages like a cell phone. So, we can still see each other later.”
“Well, Salvadore will be able to explain what you might be asking,” Velocity said as she gestured to Vestalia and Accelacus. “I really need to log out. Bye!”
A boy pressed the ESC key and selected the game's exit menu. He removed the headphone and checked the two items on his desk, the 4 disc of Seption Online game installation DVDs and his wallet. He put all the DVDs into his school bag, but his wallet fell out with the contents of several bills and his identity card in the name of Aria Ramadhan. He picked up and tidied up the contents of his wallet then turned off the computer he had used at the internet cafe because his playing time was up.
Aria came out of his computer cubicle, hearing the many voices from other cubicles talking to whoever they were interacting within the virtual world, whether it was a Seption game, another game, or another application. The world of telephone and the internet has become increasingly sophisticated with Smartphone and Voice Call technology. He imagined that in a few years, it would be more likely that communication would be done over long distances.
Aria paid the internet cafe fee and walked out of the internet cafe called Utopia, thinking about his next plan. He hadn't bought the novel yet and he had intended to go to the internet cafe because it was close to Gramedia Bookstore on Purnawarman Street at Bandung. He also looked at the clock on his cell phone, which showed five o'clock into evening. He had not yet performed the Asr prayer because he went straight to the Vega Toys Shop and then to the Internet Cafe. Today, the students of Islamic High School Al-Hasanah Bandung went home earlier than usual because the midterm exams and thus the extracurricular activities were canceled, so there was only Friday prayer before leaving the school. Unlike public high schools, Al-Hasanah uses a full-day school system with extracurricular activities on Friday and a day off on Saturday.
Aria searched for a musalla inside the Bandung Electronic Center Mall or BEC for short to perform the Asr prayer, followed by buying a novel and deciding to spend the remaining free time at a nearby food kiosk until it was time for the Maghrib prayer. At five o'clock forty-five minutes, he ordered french fries at the food kiosk in front of Gramedia and began to take a quick look at the novel and game he had bought.
Aria opened the plastic seal of the novel he had bought titled Great Demon Baphomet by Masaru Shiba. He had been looking forward to this novel written from Japan since he read the story from the internet in English and now the story had been translated into Indonesian. He flipped through the contents which were pure text with no illustrations other than the cover and from the last page the story was still to be continued. Of course, he just realized that the cover was Salvadore, the horned black goat humanoid character who resembled the player who had helped him defeat Ifrit. The owner of the character named Salvadore must have done his character design based on the main character of this novel.
Aria turned to the DVD of the Seption game. The green dragon on the game's cover matched Pendragon he had encountered in the virtual world, including the visible scar on the center chest. He also saw him on the app icon and the login menu screen. He didn't recognize the other characters but he was likely to meet them all in the virtual world later. He was curious about the story quests or other activities that would await him in the game.
Maghrib time had arrived, signaled by the call to prayer that was heard from various sound sources. Aria put the novel and the game into her bag, finished her fries and drank the water in the bottle she had brought, then hurried back to the musalla at BEC and intended to return to the boarding house.
***
Something extraordinary happened after Velocity left the virtual world. Vestalia, Salvadore, and Accelacus just gawked at Velocity's shrunken body like a baby dragon and fell into a deep sleep. His clothes also disappeared. His body automatically came out of Ifrit's clasp.
“What the heck? Velocity shrunk down like that?” asked Accelacus in confusion.
“Is this... the appearance of a character who is not playing or offline?” continued Salvadore.
“So cute... I want to carry him!!!” exclaimed Vestalia admiring Velocity.
“Ahemmm,” Pendragon coughed, returning just as Velocity logged off. “We should head to Dragavar city soon. You can safely log out there. This kid is really giving me a hard time.”
Pendragon lightly lifted and carried Velocity's shrunken body.
“What happens if we log out in the battle zone?” Salvadore asked. “Then, our bodies don't shrink when we go into Auto-Pilot, right?”
“What's Auto-Pilot?” asked Accelacus in a whisper.
“Savior's automated process of constantly fighting monsters called as grinding, which can be done either online or offline. It's one way to use EP and the Offline feature is limited to Saviors using Premium, players who pay in-game for special features,” replied Salvadore in a whisper as well.
Pendragon answered Salvadore's question in detail. “Auto-Pilot will still activate Saviors who are grinding. Beyond that, not to the point of mortal danger, but Survivors like me will get a warning from Mobius if the Savior is in an undesirable condition. But for myself, only Velocity can be tracked.”
“Only Velocity?” repeated Vestalia curiously.
“I am his guardian. There is a contractual bond between Survivor and Savior,” Pendragon replied. “You should be meeting your guardians after the first field study. I only have Velocity so far.”
“Uh, I've already met my guardian anyway,” Salvadore interjected. “So, my guardian will be sort of my assistant, taking care of the mission administration, and everything?”
“Aide, bodyguard, partner, assistant, whatever term you feel is appropriate,” Pendragon said. “We as the Survivors are to run the system that is already in place with Mobius as the intermediary.”
“System? Intermediary?” asked Salvadore in confusion.
“There are things you cannot be informed of,” Pendragon continued sternly. “Well, it's getting dark. For now, just follow my instructions from Mobius. You'll learn about Respawn later.”
The three of them followed Pendragon's instructions by touching the strange aura that emerged from Pendragon's Mobius. Magically they teleported to the city of Dragavar. Vestalia noticed several high-rise buildings around where they were standing now. Before she could ask, Pendragon (with Velocity in his arms) had disappeared.
“Err... I don't understand what exactly happened,” Accelacus said limply leaning against a nearby wall.
“I also need to digest the information. Well, since it's getting late I'd like to log out as well,” said Salvadore. “Tell me what happens to my body after logging out if we meet again one day.”
Vestalia and Accelacus looked at Salvadore's body, which had also shrunk and turned into a small black goat walking sleepily towards a road they did not recognize. His clothes and weapons also disappeared.
The two just looked at each other. “What the heck! Why is it so creepy!!!” Accelacus exclaimed hysterically. “I can't imagine sleepwalk in the middle of nowhere in broad daylight.”
“There must be a purpose to walking like that, right?” said Vestalia, trying to calm down.
“Whatever, so to avoid creepiness, let's log out together!!!” exclaimed Accelacus.
The girl pressed the ESC key and found the exit button of the game. For a moment she looked at Accelacus who started to shrink too into a baby red dragon and she decided to exit the game immediately.
That strange incident would of course not be forgotten. Vestalia stood up and looked at her digital clock which was already showing five over fifteen minutes. It was just the right time to exit the game after she heard a familiar voice in her ear.
“Aulia, Mom is home. Hurry up take a shower and let's buy dinner outside,” the voice called out to her.
“Yes, I'm going to take a shower!” replied Aulia loudly to be heard by her mother.