As she tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable and unable to figure out why she felt so worried about Van, the wording of his statement came back into her mind.
“I’ve played this game for a long, long time,” he had said with a big grin. It was a grin that had indicated he was proud of the fact that he had spent most of his life in the game. “It’s the only home I have ever known, and frankly, I’m more comfortable in there than I am out here.” Those words echoed in Sang’s mind. She felt a nervous energy overcome her.
Van did know what the implication of this massive operation was, didn’t he? How could he not have realized? No… that would be impossible, right? Sang thought long and hard on the topic. Did Van realize that the game would be shut down for good when Draco was defeated? Was he ready to give up the only place he had ever called his home?
No one had directly mentioned shutting down the game; instead, they had just been talking about defeating Draco. Would Van have so cheerfully accepted the mission if he had thought out the implications and realized that the game was definitively going to be destroyed?
Sang reached for her phone and took a deep breath. It was a conversation she knew she had to have now instead of later. If Van didn’t understand the full implications of the job he’d taken on, then they would be in some serious trouble when the truth hit him. So, she dialed his number and waited patiently. The phone rang a few times before he picked up.
“Hello?” Van answered.
“Van, it’s me,” Sang said.
“Oh,” came the reply. “I didn’t know you got a new phone.”
“Yeah, I make a point of changing my phone every few weeks,” Sang replied. “Listen, are you busy?”
“I was about to go to sleep for the next five to seven days, but I have a few minutes of time before that,” Van said with a laugh.
“Great, great,” Sang said. “Listen, I’m gonna have to be really upfront and honest with you. I’m worried that you said yes to this new job without really understanding what the endgame looks like.”
“I’m pretty sure the endgame involves destroying Draco and saving humanity. Then, probably getting some kind of sweet paycheck for it. I mean, I’m assuming there’s gonna be a big bonus in store for saving the world, right?”
“Well, that’s the thing, Van. You do realize also, uh… that if... if we destroy Draco, there won’t be a Dragon Kings of the New World to play anymore, right?”
“What are you talking about? Just because we’re destroying Draco doesn’t mean the game is gonna stop. We’re probably going to have to figure out how to switch the servers over to a regular kind of game system, but I’m sure there’s plenty of programmers out there who know what they’re doing,” Van replied.
Sang gritted her teeth. “Van… we have orders to ensure that this game is no longer operational once this mission is over. Even if the game can survive without Draco’s presence, we’re going to have to dismantle the entire thing.”
“What?” Van asked. “That makes no sense! Why in the hell would they order something so ridiculous?”
“Is it ridiculous?” Sang asked. “Van, is it ridiculous to ensure that a game that’s so powerful that it can kill people is removed from the market? Is it ridiculous to make sure that there’s nothing left of Draco? The only way to kill their connection to Earth is to do everything in our power to purge this game from our world.”
“But… but, that’s…” Van’s words trailed off. The other line became incredibly silent for a few minutes.
“You alright?” Sang asked, finally breaking the silence.
“Sang, that can’t be right. Sang, this… we can’t destroy this game. I put my entire life into this game. Everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve has been related to Dragon Kings of the New World. There’s got to be some other way, right? Maybe we can convince the government to use it to train people for the military. I know they wanted to use it for that, right?”
“Look, Van, orders are orders here. The higher-ups made their decision a while back. I never told you because things were getting too heated and you didn’t need the additional pressure. But now, before we dive into another serious mission, I need you to be emotionally prepared ahead of time.”
“Emotionally prepared? Sang, how do you emotionally prepare for the destruction of your home? Of your entire world? This isn’t like some stupid hobby of mine is over, or my favorite restaurant has closed down—this is far worse!” Van ranted. She could hear that he was quickly becoming unhinged. “This is the only place that I have ever known true freedom! Inside this game, you can do anything, become anything. You have a world of possibilities! How can you ask me to do this?”
“I don’t know, Van,” Sang replied. “I really don’t know what to tell you. I think the brass was very careful to skirt around this issue, so I think I’m breaking some rules by telling you this, but you deserve to know.”
“What would you do if everything that you knew and loved would be destroyed by your actions?” Van demanded.
“I would carry on with my duty anyway,” Sang replied. “Because my job isn’t about me. It’s about something far greater. I know the idea of living without this game scares you—”
“Living without this game isn’t living at all!” Van interrupted. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to march back in there and willingly end the life of the thing I love the most.”
“You sound incredibly angry right now, and I get it,” Sang said. “I really do...”
“No, you don’t! You have a life outside of this game. You have a real job with real people to report to. You have an apartment that’s not the size of a cereal box. I’ve got nothing outside of this game!” Van shouted.
Sang took a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I had to be the one to tell you. But you’re going to need to sort this out before we go in there. We can’t have you compromised.”
“I… why didn’t I notice this before?” Van asked quietly. “There’s no way I’m this dense.”
“Sometimes people don’t see things because they don’t want to see them,” Sang said. “That’s why Draco’s so good at getting people to excuse their atrocities.”
“What do I do?” Van whispered. “I can’t let them destroy the world, and I don’t want the government to destroy my world. What do I do?”
Sang sighed. “You’ve got to choose, Van. You’ve just got to choose.”
There was nothing but silence on the other end as Van hung up. Sang felt a shiver run down her spine. What would he choose?
Epilogue
The thunder cracked in the sky above Kylian. He glanced up to see that the storm clouds had aggressively moved over the camp. They had been waiting for Van for nearly two days. Players waited in shifts, but over time, it was becoming clear that Van and Sang were gone. Were they dead? There was no other explanation—they would have contacted him by now if they weren’t.
After the fight against Lemuel, Kylian had been forcibly kicked out of the game. When he’d logged back in, the entire forest zone had been gone. There was no explanation, and no patch notes—it had just vanished, probably for good.
“Still nothing?” Bidane asked as she walked up to Kylian.
“Nope. Not a thing,” Kylian replied. The camp’s remaining players were in the process of packing up. The Iron Dragons had lost a great number of players during this little adventure and, without Van to convince them to stay, they were losing more people with each day. The core team was still around, however. Kylian, Bidane, Capello, and Sahara had all pledged to stick together until they could find out what had happened to Van.