Sang just frowned in response, thinking about the fact that that whole endeavor might not have mattered. While it was true that she had important things to do, the A+ student within her was yearning to retry the same stupid quest. “Fine, give me a minute.”
She brought up the in-game chat messenger and sent a message to O’Hara. Need instructions. On Mainland.
A message immediately returned to her, reading: Earvine Mountain, Thunderstone Peak, Redscar Valley. High influx of bugs to investigate.
Sang nodded as she read the report. Hopefully, these bugs would be able to lead her to Draco’s hidden servers.
“We need to find bugs,” Sang said as she drew her bow and flexed it a little bit.
“Where?” Van asked with a heavy sigh.
“Earvine Mountain, Thunderstone Peak, Redscar Valley... all of them,” she replied, pulling up the map and marking them on her coordinates system. Her higher skill in maps at least gave her the ability to create waypoints that would lead her right to the areas of interest.
“Those places are high level, girl,” Van said as he shook his head. “We’re gonna get the crap kicked out of us if we go to any of those places right now.”
“So, let’s get some levels then. Improve and go for it. That’s part of your job, to tell me the fastest way to level up.”
“Right, right. Well, this game is a little different from other games,” Van said.
“What, it creates more delusion that you’re actually doing something with your life?” Sang asked.
“You know what? That’s it!” Van said, sharply turning to face her. She could see genuine anger on his face now. “It’s not fair for you to keep ragging on me like that! Okay, I get it. I’m not someone who’s particularly well put together. I understand that you’re better than me because you’re some kind of highly driven wunderkind who’s able to hack stuff and because you’ve got some cushy job at the CIA, but guess what? Not everyone had the same opportunities that you did. I mean, what did I have? Scholarships? Higher education? None of it. I had a dysfunctional high school that didn’t do jack for me.”
She went to respond, but he cut her off before she could.
“No! You don’t get to talk yet! Look, I am here and I’m trying to help you. I’ve been patient enough to listen to you talk crap about me and other gamers over and over again, despite the fact that whatever stupid CIA secret stuff you’re up to is getting done in a video game. I’m tired of you talking about me like that.”
Sang frowned. “Are you done?”
Van stared at her for a moment, but then he shrugged. What more was there to say? “Yeah, I’m done.”
“Good... so look. I’m not saying I’m better than you. I’m mocking you because you’ve chosen to waste your life. I’m not saying that you are a waste of life; I’m saying that you are wasting it. Your literal body is rotting in some kind of tube or crappy little box of an apartment while you play around and simulate accomplishments. I get it, life is tough. But I’m not judging you for who you are—I’m judging you for what you’re doing.”
“You don’t get it, lady; this is who I am. I’m a gamer, through and through.”
“You play video games. You are a human being with the same dignity and needs that I have,” Sang said as she shook her head. “I just wish you could recognize it.” Much as she hated to admit, there was a softness in her words. As much as she didn’t like gaming or gamers, the more she got to know this man, the more she pitied him. Van wasn’t a bad person at all, but he certainly had given up on his entire sense of self in exchange for some digital simulation. It was sad, and maybe she shouldn’t have been so rough on him, but her instinct was to jar him out of the lifestyle he’d dug himself into.
“I’m a gamer. Okay? End of story.”
“Fine, well… for what it’s worth, I’m sorry that I caused contention. I don’t understand any of this gaming stuff, but I stand by what I say and believe.Can we move past this?”
“That’s a weird way to say you’re sorry,” Van said, “but I’m gonna assume it’s a CIA thing, apologizing without taking responsibility. So, sure I’ll forgive you without saying that I do.”
“Fair enough,” Sang said. She could tell that he seemed a little surprised at the fact that she’d apologized at all, and had to wonder if maybe she did have any chance of positively influencing him. She smirked a little at the idea of him being inspired by her fierce determination and no-nonsense attitude. Maybe he’d even realize that he wanted to be like her and quit his gaming habits in order to find a real job. Wouldn’t that be grand?
“Great, glad we cleared that all up,” Van replied, “so let’s talk about leveling up. In a lot of other games, you level up by killing just pretty much everything. You take a job that gives you an endless supply of bears and then you kill all of them. For hours. Maybe even days. I know there are some games where people can’t bring themselves to stop killing bears because of all the experience they’re going to get from it.”
“So, what, we need to kill every bear we see?” Sang asked.
“No, this game is different. We get massive experience points when we complete quests, do group activities, and accomplish actual goals. It’s a pretty detailed system, so we get a lot of power just by working hard. No repetition. That’s why I like this game so much, because it’s not a grind. We can work together to get some real stuff accomplished.”
Sang flinched at the words “real stuff.” There was nothing real about what they were doing, except maybe for the CIA investigation, but even that seemed to have complications. Still, she held her tongue. The last thing she wanted to do was have another fight with him.
“So where do we find quests like what we need?” Sang asked.
“Taverns!” Van answered as he pointed to a small building that wasn’t too far off from the beachhead. “The central hubs of quests, other players, and best of all, booze!”
Sang slowly forced a grin. It was uncomfortable in this situation, and she felt her like she was almost wrestling with herself and her instincts, trying to smile at the asinine suggestion that they go to a bar to find adventures.
“I think you’re glitching pretty bad,” Van said as he pointed at her. “Face emotes are getting all weird.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem,” she muttered. “That’s the problem.”
“Well, let’s get going,” Van said. “Adventure awaits!”
As they departed for the tavern, several red dots appeared on Sang’s map. “Wait! I think there are bad guys around here,” she warned. She glanced around, but saw nothing.
“Activate your Sense skill,” Van said.
“Oh, right,” Sang said as she pressed the red Sense skill button that had been flashing. Her eyes immediately narrowed and she could see several red outlines in the bushes that were ahead. The beach had a small incline leading up to a grassy area where there were plenty of obstructed areas for people to use for hiding, and she could see at least four figures up on the plateau of the map.
“There’s some bad guys!” she hissed as she loaded her bow with an arrow.
“Bad guys? Oh no!” Van said, rolling his eyes. She saw him fumbling at his back as if he was grasping for something. He stiffened as he reached into his pocket and drew out some darts.
“Let’s attack!” Sang said as she aimed her bow and used the Indirect Shot skill. It allowed for her to shoot at a target who was behind cover by aiming high into the sky, and letting angle and gravity do the work. She let loose an arrow and felt satisfaction as the screen read Hit! 50 damage! That seemed like a high enough level of damage for whoever was hiding behind there.