SHE HAD SPENT PLENTY OF TIME learning her surroundings, maybe even putting her nose in everyone else’s business, but that was the point. Sure, you had a map, waypoints, even NPC’s to consult, but there was nothing more valuable than knowing where you’re going, without pulling that thing out a thousand times. Perhaps that was why she was just now moving into the monsters, or through them.
She caught a straggler, following what she could only assume was another actual player in front of her, this far out. Wordlessly, and silent, playing true to her class, it was taken out with nothing more than a grunt, and the sound of katana flicking sticky blue black blood off of it. All in all, the entire interaction was just like something out of the movies, which was why there was a chuckle bubbling past her lips. “It’s always the late to the party aggro that has the audacity to try and hijack your HP. You good?” She asked, stepping around the stranger to get a better look, like she needed to see for herself.
@thenexusnpc
She’d found herself in an almost addictive rinse and repeat cycle of these two or three low-level areas. It was easy XP, and the monsters didn’t take a whole load of ammo to kill, so by her math (which admittedly wasn’t the best) it was more of an economically sustainable way of leveling up, as opposed to running through this shit straight to the bosses which 9 out of 10 players seemed to be opting for. She didn’t mind the grind either; stopped her mind from thinking about anything except the next wave. She thought the forth (fifth? Sixth? She’d lost count...) wave was over, but the lack of respawns told her there was some little bastard somewhe-- Oh.
Harrie covered up the fact that it made her jump a little by turning to face the other player just slightly, and then looking down at the spider-dog mutation THING. “Thanks,” she breathed out, her chest rising and falling heavily as her stamina replenished itself. “A group just went through-- if you’re running through to the boss. Probably have to wait twenty minutes for them to finish and it to spawn back in.” Harrie tended to keep to herself, but offering a little forward information as a thanks for sparing her a few HP points seemed like an eye for an eye. Plus, it was refreshing to see another player that wasn’t some newly turned arrogant 21 year-old.
Every party, every squad, every team always had that asshole. You know the one, the one that allowed you all to dance dangerously close to burning the whole damn thing down, and for what? Dramatics and recklessness, that’s what.
It wasn’t as if you could say she wasn’t efficient though, which was the reason she was emerging from the flames that surrounded the area with an almost questionable grin, hands lifted up like they were waving the proverbial white flag. “Listen, it got the job done, and to be fair, it’s a great night for fireworks.” Her expression widened, twisted into a tease almost. “Oh come on, don’t give me that look.”
@thenexusnpc
She had learnt enough about this game by now that she knew teaming up with this player was going to be a bad idea. As it turns out, it’s just as easy to spot the psychos in the virtual world as it is in the real world. The ones that care for nothing but ‘having a good time’ as they’d say. Every bone (pixel?) in her body told her not to do this and, what do you know, she had been right. But, she found herself pairing up with just about anyone who wanted to go into the combat zones these days. She needed to climb the levels, figure out the fucking progressions, get the best loot so that she can get to this CRE4TOR.
“Great job, pyro. Now we have no explosive power for the boss wave in three minutes,” she retorted before raising her rifle and shooting one shot that skimmed past the other player, almost through her hair, and hit the last spawn that was running out of the flames after her. “You’re welcome.” Harrie bluntly stated before turning to go and check through the dropped loot piles to see if there was anything that could help them.
“ that’s all part of it, sure. ” he leaned closer into the backrest, letting his stomach rest fully as support while grabbing his beer for another swig. “ there’s floors we have to clear - together or solo, that’s not made certain yet. ” he could only be honest to this newbie, jax remembered when he was a kid going through the games and having older users helping him and showing kindness versus ridiculing him for being trash. “ depending on your class, you have different strengths to do damage without getting hit. i’m nemesis. ” he spoke in a teaching way as his eyes began to glow a violet hue and the chair behind him was picked up and spun in the air before landing back on its four feet. “ we use bionic energy, think of us like gravity mages. ” with another facial gesture, jax pointed to her get-up. “ just a hunch mostly but you’re also still using the beginner armor. there’s been a few upgrades you can get by now. ”
“Right... Sure,” Harrie glanced up as the bartender appraoched the table again and put down her ‘drink’. Cautiously, she moved her hand over to it, and cupped her hand around the glass, half expecting it to just go straight through but it didn’t. It was weird, it wasn’t there but it was. It felt like she was holding a drink. Perhaps he was right with everything being a mental game in this place-- just pretend its real life... What could go wrong? She took a deep breath and then drank, listening to him talk and then looking at his information that confirmed he was indeed a nemesis. “I saw those, like-- a combo of Dr. Strange and the Maximoffs...” Zachary had made her watch all those superhero movies over the years. “I’m, er, wraith?” She put her glass down. “I played Call of Duty once with my son, this class seemed to just be like-- one of those characters, guns and-- close combat.”. There was another reason she picked Wraith, but it wasn’t something she necessary wanted to go public with. Not yet. “Oh,” she looked down at her armor, “how do I-- change?”
Jax pointed to his mind. “ It’s all in here. ” To answer her question about eating, sleeping or relaxing. “ I mean, you can probably get by without eating since it’s not actually doing shit to your physical body but the system in place will probably have you starving or sleep deprived if you don’t do it. ” At least, that’s what it seemed to be to him. “ You’ve fought things, right? Gone out and used your skills? ” He asked curiously but hoping she wasn’t so ignorant she didn’t realize where she was. Jax felt the urge to remind her that this was a death game now, but didn’t have the heart or courage to be so vocal about such a fresh reality. “ You don’t really seem like a huge gamer to me, just sayin’ ”
Harrie appreciated the genuine help this boy was giving her. He could have used her to take advantage of, or just as a bit of comic relief from the impending doom that she thought all players must be feeling. It kind of helped, in a selfish way, that everyone else in here was no doubt going through some shit. She wondered whether anyone had followed loved ones in here like she had. Part of her hoped she wasn’t alone in it, the other, larger, part hoped that she was the only one because no-one should have to go through what she is going through. “And then you’ll lose health and stamina and stuff, right? Not be able to-- kill things as easy?” She recalled a little of the tutorial information. She followed his lead, using a few of the coins she had to pay for a drink. At his next questions, Harrie glanced at her level on the omndisplay and then shook her head. “I know we have to to level up, and I’m pretty sure I spawned in right next to the entrance to that place I just-- need some time to get used to all this.”. She let out a bit more of a chuckle and shrugged a little. “What gave me away?” She asked rhetorically. “No, I, er-- I followed someone in here.” A bit of a white lie, but she didn’t want to say the truth, not to him and certainly not to herself.
Without skipping a beat, Jax rose his hand for a beer as he tossed a few coins over to the server as he took a sip of his beverage and placed it down on the table. This felt like it was going to be one of those types of conversations, but he was feeling more pity for the user than arrogant. Jax nodded at her answer. “ Yeah, you can tell when you talk to them. ” He opened up his omnwindow to show to her that once you inspected your target, a bit more information showed. “They don’t have a class like we do, which means they’re NPCs. Although some NPCs do have classes, you’ll get the hang of it eventually. ” Another sip, he tried to tell what her weapon of choice was but he couldn’t figure out through the dimly hit bar hall. Jax couldn’t help but offer her a wide smirk at his humorous joke, filled with the truth that she looked like she had been gut punched. “ Imagine if I didn’t say something. You’d be all alone trying to muster up the courage to talk to NPCs all night. ”
Her head tilted a little as she watched the virtual coins fling through from him to the bartender, whom she assumed now was an NPC. She didn’t mean to stare as he took a sip, but she just had so many questions. “You can taste that?” She asked, looking to the beverage and then back to him. “Do you-- need to, like, drink and eat in here?” God, she really should have re-played that tutorial thing. Harrie nodded a little as he pulled up the omnwindow; she’d deal with understanding NPC classes later, it didn’t seem like a pressing issue right now. “Right, gotcha,” she took a deep breath before letting out a pitiful excuse of a chuckle at his comment. “I don’t know about mustering up courage, but I probably would have spent the night sat here doing nothing,” she admitted. “Do we, like-- sleep? In game?”
Waiting for those regular bosses that give higher xp to respawn was a bitch. And with all the minor monsters around them also dead, Envy was just waiting for the right moment to ask the other to pair up with her. Not like she wanted to. But if she was honest…? Farming in a party was so much faster and easier. She also needed some time to gather up her people skills that seemed to have been left in real life somewhere ever since the game started. She took one, long breath, lungs filled with air, then she exhaled, just as slowly. And just then, she turned to the other player, tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “Be in my party.” Not exactly the sweetest way to invite someone. But it did trigger a small message to appear between the two players with two signs that read ‘ACCEPT’ and ‘DECLINE’.
It had been a couple days now since she first spawned into this virtual hellhole. Talking to a few players here and there in the inns and bars and public spaces had given her enough information to start properly interacting with this ‘game’. Listening to what the ‘NPCs’, as she now knew they were called, gave her the basic backstory and plot lines she needed to know to piece together the fact that she had to level up in these monster areas (or whatever they were called). This was her first time inside of one and she was naively unprepared for how fucking brutal and graphic it was going to be. There was one other player in here tonight, which Harrie though strange; surely everyone wanted to level up as fast as possible? Was she missing something? Did they all clear this already? How far behind was she? The sound chimed through her ears, indicating another wave of minor monsters had been successfully cleared. She pulled her up kill count; 56. That wasn’t too bad, right? She was taken out of her thoughts when the girl approached, asking to join up. She’d heard about this-- forming parties during combat; this was what Zachary wanted to do, right? Form his own virtual special forces unit... “Oh--” She glanced at the message that hovered between them, eyes flicking between the two options. “I don’t... I don’t think you’d want to party with me,” she spoke as she glanced around the room and noticed there were FAR more than 56 corpses. “I’m new to-- well, everything...” She really should stop admitting that, shouldn’t she?
Jax had been focused on information gathering, he wanted to be the kingpin of the black market and raise his infamy to levels unheard of. If he needed to put the pedal to the metal, this would be it - an opportunity to outpace the CRE4TOR. He had a few hacker friends, they were in game but he didn’t know their IDs. It all got too real before he could log out and organize it all and so all the young man wanted was a drink and to chat up the local NPCs. The bar seemed like the best place to do that and so he ordered a drink and made his way around the bar - the bartender, a few old guys and a sad looking widow all patroned the bar. First up was the old guys who couldn’t even speak through their drunken stupors. “ What a waste of time. ” Mumbling to himself as he made his way to the lady, grabbing the seat to hear that she thought he wanted to take it away. “ Oh no i- ” her words were curt, announcing she was solo was weird… “ Oh shit, you’re not an NPC. You’re a user. ” Jax couldn’t help but laugh as he spun the chair backwards and sat with the rest against his chest. “ No offense lady, I know we’re in a death game but, you’re looking real rough. ” Honesty was the best policy, right?
Harrie glanced up at the boy, her eyes scanning him up and down, heart dropping at any resemblance he had to Zachary. There wasn’t a lot there, but right now she was seeing him in just about everything and everyone. NPC. That was something she’s heard before-- shit, what did it mean again? How did she access that instruction book thing again? God, she was really out of her depths. This was a mistake... But, it couldn’t be-- she needed to learn. Learning how to survive and beat this god forsaken game was the only way to get answers; to find this CRE4TOR. “NPC...” She sat up a little when the boy sat down, fighting her instinct to send him on his way. Perhaps he could help a little. “That’s, um, non,” a beat passed as she thought, “a non playing character, right?” She swallows, glancing around the inn before bringing her attention back to him, leaning in a little. “Everyone in here is-- NPC? Except us?” She had so many questions, even if he could just answer two or three... His next comment brought a scoff from the depth of her throat. “Good to know people in here are just as polite and welcoming as the real world, huh?”.
She was wondering whether the overwhelming darkness that seemed to be consuming her was grief, loneliness, fear, or regret. Two days ago she was putting her son six feet under, yesterday she was listening to every Officer she managed to get two seconds with tell her how she wasn’t the only one, how busy they were now, how she just had to WAIT. Now, she was stuck inside the game that killed him. She didn’t even know how to play video games, and the tutorial was-- well, she guessed it gave her some idea of what was going on. Enough, at least, to get her into this inn place. She didn’t know how to really go about getting a drink, or if she even needed to drink. Did things... Taste? In here? Bewildered and overwhelmed, she sat at an empty table and she sat there for a long, long time until someone came across. She assumed they probably just wanted the spare stool; the place had got busy since she’d first sat down. “You can take it,” she jumped the gun, following assumption. “I’m solo.”. Shit, was it wise to annouce that out loud? Could people rob her? Kill her? Fuck-- what was she doing?
LOADING... LOADING... LOADING... OTHRY4DES JOINED THE GAME!
OTHRY4DES just spawned! the 20 LVL WRAITH is PLAYING SOLO for now & there was a rumor they WERE NOT a beta tester. behind avatar is HARRIE MORETON, a FORTY year old from CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. they give me SPLATTERS OF BLOOD ON A WHITE LEATHER JACKET, VODKA STRAIGHT WITH ONE CUBE OF ICE, THE SILENT STARE THAT SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS, DARK EYES THAT HAVE SEEN TOO MUCH vibes and i swear, you can hear SEVEN DEVILS by FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE as they walk by. ― tara, 27, gmt, she/her
Hey! I’m super excited to be here and can’t wait to start writing with you all!
REAL WORLD:
Name: Harrie (Harriet) Moreton
Age: 40
Home: Chicago, IL
Gender: Female
Pronouns: She/Her
Orientation: Lesbian
Occupation: Private Investigator
Why would a 40 year-old woman pick up a VR head-set and load into the Nexus? ANSWERS.
Zachary Moreton turned 18 last week, the only thing he wanted? A VR headset, and this brand new game: The Nexus.
He was ready for the release, anything there was to know about the game, he knew before the device was even his. It was more or less the only thing Zach had been speaking about since the game was annouced. Nexus this, Nexus that. Back then, Harrie was getting sick of all the talk about this new world, as he would always describe it. Now? Now she wished she could hear him rant and rave.
She sat and watched him set up his account; P3RC1V1L, a name adapted from one of his favourite films. He’d picked a Ghost, saying that he was going to found the world’s first virtual reality special forces unit.
Then he logged on. She knew deep down nothing good would ever come of this whole virtual reality business. The internet was dangerous enough; she’d know, in her line of work. But, he was so passionate about it... She should have followed her instinct.
Harrie knew something was wrong when Zach’s laughing stopped, and his smile turned. What is it? She’d ask. What’s wrong? Zach, what’s happening? She wished she’d reminded him that she loved him then, because when he stumbled back, shaking his head, trying to tug the headset off... Panic. Struggle. Fear. Those were the last emotions she watched her son go through before he...
A couple days past. A mother buried her son. Then, when the real world law enforcement didn’t seem to care about what happened because they were dealing with all the other reports of the same thing; the same thing they had NO idea how to understand, Harrie started her own investigations. Trouble was... There was only so much you could find out about the inside from the outside.
One more day and a bottle of vodka later, she sat in her son’s bedroom, the headset in her hands... Until she couldn’t help herself; she needed answers...
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