“I suppose,” Sang said, “but why’s there such an emphasis on teamwork? Why bother rewarding such detailed camping for a video game? Wouldn’t encouraging combat and violence be more their speed?”
Van shifted a little and grinned. “Well, there has been this rumor floating around for the longest time… um, more like a theory really... but the idea is that maybe this game was actually designed by a survivalist group who’s dedicated to preparing mankind for the apocalypse. Think about it. When everything goes down, when the world is blown up due to nuclear annihilation, who will have the skills to survive? Everything here is so detailed that it makes you realize you‘re fully equipped to go camping even in real life. I know everything there is to know about organizing, building, camping, and survival, all thanks to this game. So, it makes you wonder, what if this whole thing was made by some kind of conspiracy theorist group?”
Sang nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose it makes some level of sense. But I’d be reticent to assume that this group would make a game solely as a means to educate the population in survivalism... if anything, it would seem that this game is preventing people from surviving due to the fact that it’s keeping them used to living their entire lives indoors. I mean, the fact is that this would better be some kind of a way to keep people occupied while the actual apocalypse happened.”
“Maybe. I dunno... Draco is an odd company, that’s for sure. They’ve made a few games here and there, but no one saw this one coming. I mean, the day it released was the day it was announced. No press conferences, no game trailers up until the release. They just said, ‘hey, it’s here.’ And then word of mouth kinda blew it up into the biggest game of all time,” Van replied.
“I see,” Sang said, glancing upwards to the sky. Van glanced up, too, and watched as the brilliant hue of red and orange slowly turned darker as the sun settled.
“Well, let’s rack up those points!” Van said as he activated the fire interface. A screen popped up in front of the both of them.
Van looked on in excitement as he saw 1,300 experience points fill up his bar right before his eyes. He wasn’t too far off from leveling up now!
“Wow!” Sang said, “We got that many experience points just for all of that?”
“See? When we work together, we can get way more points than when we’re alone,” Van replied, “so let that be a lesson. And this was just a small camp in a safe area. There are other zones where you can have a lot more exciting adventures and camping is more risky than this. That translates to more experience points. Plus, the more players we add, the more tasks we’ll need to do.”
“Well, it’s just you and me for this mission,” Sang said as she yawned.
“Right, right,” Van said as he looked at the display in front of his face: SLEEP TIME IS APPROACHING..
“Well, looks like we’ll be able to sleep in our beds this time, meaning that we’ll have access to those experience points bonuses for being well rested,” Van said as he climbed into his cot. It was real enough that he felt the creaking of the wood he’d used to craft the bed.
“I look forward to jumping in again soon,” Sang said as the night began to overtake them. “We’ll be at a higher level in no time.”
“Yeah,” Van said as he felt his character fall asleep, “a higher level in no time.”
Chapter Eight
Van sat in his windowless room and ate his allegedly nutritious breakfast. His dreams were far more vivid than they’d used to be. The doctor had told him that it was perfectly normal and that, after a few days, they would go away... but Van wasn’t sure he disliked the intensity of his dreams.
As he sat and ate the egg whites that had been so graciously provided, his door slid open, revealing Sang. He was surprised to see her at this hour—she usually never spoke to him outside of the pod unless it was to tell him to leave her alone. He was trying to create some kind of a friendship with the woman, but she didn’t seem to have any interest in getting to know him... and least, not outside of what his expertise in the game had been.
“Good morning,” he said cheerfully as she sat in the chair opposite of his. The white room had very little going on for it—just a bed, two chairs, and a table—but it was enough for two to have a conversation, and they didn’t need anything more, considering how much time spent in the game. The exercise machine had been removed due to the fact that Van had refused to use it. Instead, they just had O’Hara drag him out of bed at 5 in the morning and force him to run outdoors—sometimes at Taserpoint.
“We’ve finally got a break,” she said as she pulled up a small map on her tablet computer.
“How so?” Van asked. He still had zero clues about what anyone was doing in this whole mission, but as far as he could tell, the mission was literally just helping her power level. They had gone up a few levels in the last few days and she was certainly getting better at the game. The only problem was that she wouldn’t tell him what the whole point of all of this was.
“There’s an area that I need to investigate and it’s close to where we are,” she said, pointing to the map of the game. Van could see she had highlighted the Mountains of Mortal Peril.
“Those mountains aren’t normally accessible without a questline,” Van replied as he bit into his eggs.
“Well, how can we make them accessible?” Sang demanded.
“You know, why do we have to talk about the game outside of it? I mean, here we are, talking for the first time outside of these pods, and you just want to ramble about the game. It’s not particularly fair, is it? Why can’t we talk about anything else? I’m honestly getting sick of all of this.”
“Sick of all of this? I thought you loved this game.”
“Yeah, but I also liked sleeping for 13 hours after playing the game way too late. I loved being able to switch to another crappier game on my phone for a little bit, taking a break. I liked being able to get up and walk outside without a red-haired nutjob chasing me with a Taser,” Van replied.
Sang crossed her arms. “This isn’t the attitude I want to hear.”
“Well, tough, because it’s the attitude that I have!” Van practically shouted. “You might be fine with all of this intense CIA crap, but I’m getting really sick of it. I don’t think I can take it anymore, to tell you the truth.”
“Calm down, Van,” she said as she shook her head.
“Why is it that you have to be all business? Why can’t we have one conversation where you don’t order me around or make disparaging remarks? I mean, you’re the one who hates video games, right? Let’s just talk for once about something that isn’t this stupid game or mission!” Van exclaimed. He was a little more rattled than he’d realized, but as he expressed his frustration, he suddenly understood why the mission had been souring on him. While he was helping Sang out, they certainly weren’t friends, and it sucked to play video games without people who were your friends. She hadn’t even tried to make an effort to befriend him, and it was starting to wear on him. The more he thought about it, he really wasn’t sure how much more he could take.
“I don’t know what you want from me; I’m just doing my job,” she quietly replied, putting her tablet back into her satchel.
“I just want you to actually maybe not be like a complete robot whose sole mission is to do a job and also insult me on occasion. I don’t know a single thing about you!”
“I don’t know anything about you, either,” Sang said. “And I’m sorry, but this kind of work isn’t really about bonding or becoming friends—it’s about getting something done. We’ll never see each other after this, so why invest the time in getting to know each other?”