Somber Expectations

[kyonides]

Chapter Two

Exploration

The Game Session

As you would expect from any videogame, especially any role playing game, I managed to enter an invisible chamber. Inside it surely seemed to be empty, dirty. That made me wish I had not come too late for I was craving for finding a treasure that justified the whole darn search. Right before I would give up my foot unwillingly hit a wooden box. Yes, it was the treasure chest I was talking about and I had finally found it!

Now my fellow players would not dare to laugh at my efforts or so I thought back then. I kept kicking it hard just in case it would open automatically. No changes in its appearance made me grow desperate and I felt the sudden need to cut through its ancient wood with my trustworthy sword. What happened next was mind blowing, I had awaken the horrendous monster! Or was it a robot? Err, anyway let us say it was a hybrid of sorts for the time being. I had triggered the monster in the box trap but I did not care at all! It was damn exciting and my heart definitely wanted to scream and run away.

Mentally I was working hard to be prepare to face this new enemy. It was not at my level so I could not call it my archenemy but I was determined to not let any other player take the credit for defeating it. Mike would probably die right on the spot if he knew that I did not call for backups. Suckers do not deserve a single chance to show their magnificence and heroism! That was mine because it was written on stone since the dawn of time.

Something made me think Mike was getting close to the hidden room so I felt a strong urge to finish this mob at once. One or two perfect hits should suffice, right?

“Well the hell did you go?” my friend asked out of the blue. Then I finally understood how peer pressure really works in a videogame environment.

First strike, a total mess was guaranteed! Instead of hitting its head, I only provoked it to spawn spikes that hurt a lot even if they do not touch you. Could they have been electrified or what!? Maybe, just maybe my initial risk assessment was terribly wrong after all. I feared I would lose all my precious experience points I had earned so far. Taking one or two hits could make them vanish in thin air at any time. Does fear even exist in a virtual world?

Here comes a high jump, followed by the second strike. Crap! It was totally blocked by my darn foe. What is worse, it made me fly at high speed before I finally hit the hard wall. A loser, that was the nickname I should have picked at the beginning. Only an unlucky guy like me would ever think there was a way to slice that terrible monster like butter.

It might be interesting to notice that I should have lost my ears back then or Mike simply disappeared all of sudden. Anger and frustration were overtaking my consciousness when I hit a block on the wall quite hard. “Darn idiot!” was the thought crossing my mind at that moment. After a few seconds I heard a crumbling noise. So did that mean I had triggered another trap!?

Nope, it was no trap, I confirmed that once the newly found wall fell down on top of the mob. It turned out the very same monster helped me find the means of its own destruction by mere chance. Still, there was enough space to crawl under it and so I did. Then I looked for any prize I might have earned with sweat, and probably even blood that I got to have shed during our lengthy combat. At least I had no doubt my bones were aching badly. Did painkillers exist there?

Virtual Outcome

The mob’s weight did not make it any easier to grab the stupid wooden box that served as its hiding place. Besides my broken bones were not cooperating. No, they were not. Anyway, let us talk about the prize. Inside I found a strange silver coin with unreadable characters and some modern envelope. Of course, guys, I had to open it to read the letter. The contents were disappointing or even a blatant joke in my humble opinion. Nonetheless, the term weight returned a second time it seemed.

Ignoring how I noticed the slight difference I had to examine it thoroughly. Usually players would not care about that. Why would I then? That did not stop me but pushed me to cut it again and again. Dropping a small piece of thin cardboard was a quite unexpected result. Why could they not leave some extra coin or a special ingredient of sorts?

“Keep exploring the map!” was the message I found printed on the virtual note. It might have been originally attached to a large piece of cardboard that was missing for some unknown reason. Yeah, I knew the mob was not at my level, did I not tell you this before?

“Game designers do not ever dare to insult players for free! Include better prizes next time, damn it!” I tweeted soon after I had packed the piece of cardboard carefully. Knowing that medium’s current practices, I was right to suspect they would soon add some stupid fact check warning including its lame link. Hey! They could also barefacedly block my post for possibly being a mean of spreading hate among the gaming community.

Now speaking about my virtual wall, I would foresee that Zuckerberg’s minions would not take long before they simply delete it. Wait a second! Apparently they did it already. Darn social media! They have added the “ist” suffix to their social business focus.

Perceptions

“Hey, Kyonides! Where the hell have you been this time?” Mike furiously inquired of me. That took me by surprise for I did not want him to learn I have earned a strange coin.

“Whatcha talking about? I’ve been here the whole time, you bag full of fleas!” I replied back thinking it was a funny punch for a nosy player.

“Shuddup! I’ve got no fleas, you idiot! Plus, you kept disappearing every so often since we started this game session” he reacted letting me know things were not as normal as I first thought.

“I did not disappear, you blind werewolf! I was just here facing that tricky mob you can see over there!” I told him hoping he would then calm down and disregard his concerns for good.

“Now I know you gotta be tripping already! You know very well that monsters vanish after being defeated by players like us!” he explained it all to me. He did it in a way that made me doubt he could be speaking the truth.

“Don’t be an idiot!” I yelled at him before adding “The mob’s still laying on the floor under that heavy wall! Can’t you see it? It’s still over there as I had told you just a few moments ago.”

“And I’m telling you that’s definitely NOT the case here!” he exclaimed to make his point excessively clear, worrying me sick about why we did not share the same perception of our virtual reality.

“So does that mean we’ve found a hidden bug in this game?” I suddenly asked him just because.

“Dunno ‘bout that, Kyonides!” he answered being unable to find a better explanation.

“OK, but you’re able to see there’s a wall that’s still partially open, right?” I quickly queried in order to find out what else was different in both worlds.

“Huh? Those shrooms gotta be hitting your head quite hard indeed!” he claimed laughing at me. I could only stare at him, especially for not finding the root cause of his strange disbelief.

Returning to My Own Reality?

The scene got dissolved as if they had applied some strong acid to it, and I did not believe Mike when he suspected I could be on drugs. Man, that acid got to be quite strong for I never noticed it was not your usual computer game. Heck! It was a whole virtual reality room! I had been playing the most modern version of the same videogame we both had purchased in the twenty first century!

“How the hell did you get here?” a somber voice questioned me, giving me the creeps.

“I wish I knew that answer for sure!” was the only thing I could tell him back then. Not even now I can explain it, I never left my room. Nope, I am not saying I might be some sort of Western hikikomori.

“Security? This is the VR sector, please send some guards here at once!” another guy ordered without giving me a second chance to get out of it gracefully.

“Don’t worry about it! We’ll just kick the nonsense out of your stupid head, that’s all!” the creepy voice announced, even if I wished he had never done that.

“Haven’t you ever heard that popular catch phrase?” I then made an attempt to earn some badly needed time to escape.

“Keep your #$ mouth shut, you imbecile!” the security guard commanded out of frustration.

“Oh no! It actually says ‘Keep exploring the map!’” I informed him as if that could ever matter under such dire circumstances. Desperation got to make us depend even on silly stuff if we are under extreme pressure, I guess.

The gloomy voice ordered the guard “Stop! Please discharge him. It just happens that I wasn’t aware of the permission he had submitted quite early in the morning.”

Believe me, that was all I ever needed to get out of those videogame development facilities. Nobody cared about any queries anymore, I was free to go anywhere I wished just because I could do so. I do not recall reading any voucher or email or private message telling me I had to depend on any password to get access to that mysterious place… Only available in the thirty first century or later!

I was beamed out of the building. The process was so fast I did not see anything that happened inbetween. An empty plaza. Where the hell did the thugs go? Do drones take coffee breaks as well?

To Be Continued...

Ask my inspiration not to take a long break this time!