“You need to log back in and join your guildmates. I’m sure they want answers.”
“We all want answers but … ” Ryuk shudders. “But I don’t want to log back in. I don’t want to do anything. I just want to sit here, to … ”
Hajime is silent for a moment. In his silence Ryuk’s attention again floats over to the ceiling at the far corner of his room. Eight glowing red eyes flicker open, and from the shadows he sees two long, hairy legs dip out.
Attla Spider Level 8
HP: 187/187
ATK: 40
MATK: 8
DEF: 11
MDF: 26
LUCK: 1
“Hajime!” The spider is suddenly on Ryuk’s bed, charging him.
He kicks out of the covers, gets tangled, and falls to the floor, scraping his elbow. He scoots backwards and cracks the back of his head against Hajime’s knee.
The Attla spider drops to its haunches, as if its preparing to leap at him.
“It’s a hallucination,” Hajime reminds him in a calm voice. “Apparently, they’re back.”
“A hallucination.” Ryuk clenches his fists together and relaxes them. “A hallucination … ”
Hajime crouches behind him. “Face it. See what the hallucination is actually capable of. In this way, you will emphasize the difference between you and it.”
Taking a deep breath in, Ryuk turns his attention back to the spider on his bed. His vision blurs and refocuses on the creature’s two largest eyes.
“What’s it doing?”
“It’s not doing anything. It’s just … watching me.”
“Good, are you still afraid of it?”
He slowly nods. Ryuk never liked insects all that much and to see one on his bed that is the size of a bear cub has his skin crawling.
“Reach out for it. See what happens.”
“You’re joking.” Ryuk looks up at Hajime.
“No, see what happens.” To make a point, he clicks the button on the front of the headlamp and shines it onto the bed.
After settling his wits, Ryuk peels some of the tangled blanket off his body and scoots towards the bed. He doesn’t want to do it, can’t even imagine what will happen if he actually puts his hand close to the venomous Attla spider. As he presses his hand to the spider, the creature pulls back, displaying its grotesque fangs. Green liquid appears at the tip of its fangs, bubbling as it prepares to attack him.
“This is the worst idea ever,” Ryuk whispers as his hand passes right through the spider’s snapping fangs.
“What’s happening?” Hajime asks.
“It’s trying to bite me but … ” He looks down at his hand and sees the spider gnashing at his arm. “It’s not real. I know it isn’t.”
“Is it disappearing?”
He shakes his head. The spider eventually gives up. It crawls up the side of Ryuk’s wall and back to its darkened corner. Once there, its eyes flash red as it completely obscures its body in the shadow of the room.
“Well?” Hajime asks.
“It went back to its corner.”
“So it’s still here? That’s odd.”
He shines his headlamp over there.
“No, it’s gone,” Ryuk reports back.
“We can discuss this in detail later,” Hajime says after a moment of silence. “I’ll need to do some research regarding recurring digital hallucinations. For now, I think you should log back in. I’m sure your guildmates want answers. Also, I think you should eat something.”
“I’m not too interested in lying on my bed at the moment.”
“Then dive from the living room. Everything is clean now and you can lie on the couch. And I want you to eat something,” he says, his eyes clearly reading Ryuk’s vitals. “I made some onigiri for later, but since you are awake now … ”
Hajime approaches the single window in Ryuk’s bedroom and opens the drapes. Outside, Tokyo whisks by in a frenzy of light. Aeros move through the air in their appropriate skylanes and the lights of Shibuya, a beacon in the distance, flash and dance across the slick glass of tall buildings.
“Fine.”
Ryuk pushes himself off the floor. He grabs his NV Visor and his Somnium skipbox, and heads to the living room.
Chapter 2: Choose a Quest
While Ryuk’s hunger may be satiated by the two onigiri he swiftly wolfs down, his confusion at Tamana’s betrayal shows no signs of slowing down. With this on his mind – as if there is anything else he could think about, aside from the digital spider that was just in his room – Ryuk lies down on the couch and sets his NV Visor on his stomach. He still needs to order haptic gloves, and as he places the visor on, he quickly makes a purchase over iNet from Rakuten.
And just like that, a new pair of gloves is on the way.
In the carousel beneath his purchase, he sees a more slim-line version of the visor he is currently wearing. It is also possible to dive using a person’s life chip, the chip in the temple of every Japanese citizen at birth. To dive using one’s life chip, an over-the-ear apparatus is necessary, but most people, oddly enough, continue to use the visor as it is the classic way to dive.
The sine waves start up on the inside of Ryuk’s visor, and he closes his eyes, letting the instant neuro-hypnosis begin. Before Ryuk can say or do anything else, he’s given spawning options and, naturally, he selects the current location of his guildmates.
His stats appear and after a three-second check, he swipes them away.
Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 13 Ballistics Mage
HP: 378/378
ATK: 91
MATK: 120
DEF: 69
MDF: 42
LUCK: 10
FeeTwix Fajer Level 17 Berserker Mystic
HP: 600/600
ATK: 140
MATK: 28
DEF: 81
MDF: 40
LUCK: 13
Hiccup Level 12 Shield Thief
HP: 525/525
ATK: 76
MATK: 13
DEF: 156
MDF: 74
LUCK: 25
Zaena Morozon Level 16 Brawler Assassin
HP: 563/563
ATK: 165
MATK: 8
DEF: 93
MDF: 28
LUCK: 14
We’re all healed up?
FeeTwix notices the confused look on Ryuk’s face and says, “It was Jim the hostelier. He set the room as a healing space as soon as we respawned here. Another perk of staying at this hotel, or hostel, or maybe it’s a hotel. Who cares? It’s a nice place! How are you doing? You holding up all right?” The handsome Swede walks over to Ryuk and places his hand on his shoulder. “Seriously, how are you?”
“Where the fick have you been?” Hiccup pushes FeeTwix aside and rattles his metal finger at Ryuk. “Your fickin’ wet dream Tammy decided to backstab the hell out of us, and there you go, disappearing like a little emo princess poofter snowflake bed-wetting fickboy back to the shithole from whence you came!” The goblin has already started in on a platter of lemon pepper dragon wings, the sauce of which is smeared across his face. “I’m stress-eating, goddammit!”