It wasn’t the sun shining through the window that woke me, nor any alarm or such. No. What woke me the next morning was my gut. It felt like someone had it in a vise, compressing it while also, somehow, twisting and stretching it. Add to that the pounding of an anvil in my head, and I was fairly sure I was sick. Well, that or someone had built a metal shop inside my body. The only thing missing was the sound of drill bits as they cut through various materials.
I didn’t wait for more than a minute before deciding that no game was worth sitting through this pain. It was a good thing that there were multiple ways to log out of the system, as my arms felt like they were weighed down with lead or something. My throat felt dry and raspy as I croaked out a simple “Log out,” to my AI.
It was a good thing that neither of the systems had to hear my command, just read my intent. The world around me faded between one blink and the next. Plastiglass replaced the wooden ceiling as I opened my eyes to the real world. Sounds of motors and actuators filled the space as the lid lifted.
As it did so, my stomach roiled, demanding that I worship the porcelain gods now or else. Shoving the lid up faster, I rolled out of the pod at the first chance. My naked body smacked against the warm ground. One of my hands gripped my stomach as the other shoved me up as hard as it could. My feet scrambled as they shoved my body across the room and into the bathroom, where I sat in misery. At least here it was only my stomach that hurt.
After a while, perhaps because I had nothing left to expel, my stomach stopped hurting as much. I didn’t want to go far in case my stomach suddenly rebelled again. Seeing as I was covered in sweat and other things, I started the shower and stepped in, relishing the warmth of the hot water.
Relaxing under the pounding streams, I called out to my AI, “Can you bring up some of the forums?”
“Is there anything specific you want to look up?”
Thinking for a second, I finally asked, “Anything rune-related?” My lack of spells had been a major issue in the training, and without more runes, I doubted I would be able to do anything about it.
“Dozens of forums exist to discuss the topic of spells, spell creation, and runes.”
“Did anyone share any runes?”
“There are a number of runes displayed,” the AI’s replied, and its response sent a shiver of excitement racing down my spine. “Though, based on the comments, there are doubts that these runes are real as no one seems to be able to verify them.”
I shut off the shower and wrapped myself in a towel as I quickly made my way to the front room. With a gesture at the window, a set of screens popped up, each displaying a different forum post discussing various groupings of runes. I ignored the words, my mind focused on the runes themselves.
At first, nothing about them had any visible issue or looked in any way problematic. Their lines flowed in a similar fashion to the two I have. In fact, one of them looked nearly identical to my fire rune, but not. Something about it is off. A corner angled just wrong or a line too short. But I can not tell what it is.
Laying a finger onto the glass, I absentmindedly trace out the fire rune I used. My AI, being the useful assistant it is sometimes, managed to transfer the rune into the digital screen as I drew it. Of course, I didn’t realize any of this until the AI overlaid the drawn rune on top of the one provided in the forum.
Sure enough, the rune was slightly off. But was that enough to cause the rune to fail, or was there something else at play? “Can you copy these runes into my notes? I want to try them the next time I am in-game.”
The AI didn’t say anything, leaving me to look over the forums. After a minute, I found myself reading one where a person was asking about recommendations for the spring festival. While I knew about the festival, I hadn’t realized just how big of a deal it was. Every city across the game would be celebrating it at the same time. Even places that were fighting sounded like they were going to be taking a break to celebrate.
The entire thing sounded like Christmas back in World War One, where both sides laid down weapons, exchanged gifts, played games, and sang right there in the no-man's land between both camps. Though, that did beg the question as to who everyone was fighting. Was there a war going on between two nations? Maybe a Demon Lord was invading? Would the invading force cease attacking during that time?
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A bit of searching later gave me my answer. Demons. The players were fighting demons and their beasts. Though, thankfully they were isolated, only spawning deep inside the earth. Making their way to the surface through a crevice that was larger than the Grand Canyon. Not that it looked that way in the images I found. Not with the giant mountains surrounding it.
Curious, I pulled a stool over and started to read about the demons and the fighting. Over the next few hours, I came to realize that I would not be going there any time soon. Not with how strong the players made them sound. A party was required to take down one demon, and from what I could see, they didn’t truly die.
Some players compared killing a demon to killing a player. They would die only to burst into light and disappear. Sometimes leaving one or two items behind as they did so. Some people dismissed the possibility of the demons being able to respawn but there was quite a bit of evidence presented to support the argument. Videos of demons being killed only to show up in another battle weeks later.
My stomach made a bit of noise, this time not hurting from a bug or something, but from hunger. Mind wandering over all that I had read, I got up and grabbed some food. “You have a message from Xander,” my AI called out, interrupting my thoughts.
“What is it?” I was curious what he wanted. Didn’t I talk to him earlier this week? Wait, how long have I been playing the game?
“‘From Xander. Where are you? I thought you were going to message me so we could join up?’ Would you like to respond?”
Swallowing a bite of my food, I answered, “Sure. I am still in the starter town.”
“Sent,” It said. I returned to my food, expecting the answer to take a little while. To my surprise, the AI spoke up a minute later. “Voice call from Xander. Would you like to answer it?”
“Why not?” it would be nice to talk to a real person outside the game, especially one that I knew.
“Oi,” was the first thing he said. “What do you mean you are still in the starter town?”
“I mean I am still in Proxima.” I rolled my eyes. “I am still learning how to use my weapon and magic. Well, that and I am still weak as hell. I can't even handle a swarm of bunnies. Bunnies!”
He laughed a bit after I said bunnies. “Only you would have issues leveling up. Did you at least get any decent classes to help you?”
“No!” As soon as I said it, I realized I had answered him too fast and too forcefully.
“From the sounds of it, you did, but you don’t want any of them. I wonder just what classes you were offered. Why not send me a list so I can take a look?”
“Nope! Not going to happen!” my finger was shaking to emphasize the fact that I would not be doing such a thing. Not that he could see me doing so. “How about you?”
“Don’t think I want to tell you. Not unless you tell me what I want to know.”
That sneaky bastard. I didn’t want to show him, but I was curious just what he had managed to get. “Nah. Now, tell me, what level are you and where are you?”
“I am in the player town in the border region.”
The way he said that made me think back to the forum posts about the fighting going on. “You mean the place where they are fighting demons?”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t that too high of a level for you?”
“Not really.”
“But…”
“You are just slow at leveling.”
I thought about that for a second and realized that he was right. Since I had started the game, I had been focused on raising my stats and training my skills over everything else. I had only gone out on missions three times, and in one of them, I hadn't even killed anything by myself. “You might be right about that.”
“You think? What level are you anyway?”
“Um…I think I am level twelve or thirteen.”
“You are level thirteen,” my AI helpfully chimed in.
He scoffed. “And you have been playing for a week and a half in-game? What have you been doing?”
“As I said, training. What level are you?” I shot back.
“Forty-seven. I also have a decent class and have made more money than I put into the game.” I slumped in my chair, the weight of realization pressing down on me. I was falling behind. “Look, how about I come and pick you up? I am sure that you will catch up in no time once you get here.”
“I have to go,” I said, my earlier excitement over the runes and everything else just evaporating. With a flat voice, I said, “AI, end the call.” Silence descended upon the room. My thoughts went over everything I had done in the game and compared it to what I would have done in other games. Games that were on the screen and not so realistic feeling.
My actions during this game troubled me. Not because they were odd in general, but because they did not follow my typical path. In every other game, I would be power-leveling my character, collecting the best gear I could get, and upgrading it as fast as possible, letting the skill levels and points work out on their own.
Yet in this game, I had chosen to work on skills and stats over everything else. While I could explain that away by saying I was working on a foundation, I couldn’t say the same about my choice of armor. I had chosen to wear weaker armor time and time again because I didn’t want to be caught in a dress. I mean, what did it matter? It was a fucking game. Who cared what I wore?
So I would have to deal with a creeper or two and ignore looks shot my way. It wouldn’t be the first time nor the last. And, no matter how real it felt, the me in there was a bunch of ones and zeros. Okay, not really ones and zeros. I was fairly sure that a quantum computer or two was hooked up to the game. But still, the me inside the game was nothing but fiction. So maybe it was time I started to act like it. I would wear the dress and kick anyone's ass that dared to try something.
Even though I thought all that, I knew I wouldn’t be taking the succubus class. I just couldn’t bring myself to go that far for a game. After all, I didn’t want to know how it felt to lose what little manhood I had for a game. At least not unless I had a way back.