The words kind of stung. Van wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he’d been wounded by them. “Look, you might think that you’re so important with your mission and that I’m a nobody, but it’s not okay to treat people like cattle. Just because we aren’t going to see each other ever again after this frustrating little chapter of our lives doesn’t mean you have the right to act like I’m not a person.”
Sang shrugged. “Whatever you want. I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in it. I’m not much of a people person to begin with.”
“Really? Because you could have fooled me,” Van sniped as he stood from the table. “Let’s just get in the stupid pods and forget I said anything. I mean, you’re going to forget about me the moment we’re done with this anyway.”
He stormed out of the room, feeling a strong sense of anger and sorrow within him. It shouldn’t have been affecting him so much, but he’d been spending nearly 20 hours a day with her for the last four days, so how could she care so little about him? He was trying his best to help her and get her to accomplish great things with her mission, and he was trying to have conversations with her, but… but she just didn’t seem to care about his life. Perhaps it was the contrast that bothered him so much. She was this smart, accomplished hacker for the CIA whose life was probably incredible. She probably had a nice house, maybe a husband or boyfriend who adored her, and a car instead of a bicycle with a flat tire. And who was he? He was just some gamer who spent far too much time playing something insignificant.
He usually took pride in his gamer ethos, and in the fact that he spent far too much time gaming. It was an identity, a part of himself, but in the last few days—as he had been surrounded by people with real careers, who were making a real impact on the world—it had all made him feel so insignificant. He’d been so happy working toward getting Draco’s attention to become a professional gamer, and now… now he felt almost embarrassed by his ambition. The way everyone around him looked at him with a level of either disgust or disinterest was really starting to hit home, ruining his self image.
Now he was realizing that, more or less, he was just a dumb kid in front of everyone else. Thinking about it from this perspective, though, and how condescending the men and women around him had been acting, something of his earlier determination to show them what he could do began to come back, if slowly. As he walked toward the pods, the emotions almost seemed to boil over within him until he swore that he’d show them all just how serious he was. He’d get Sang to where she needed to be, and then as soon as he was allowed to leave, he’d be gone. No more trying to be friendly, no more being nice. If she wasn’t going to care about him, then he certainly wasn’t going to care about her. He was just going to do his job and then, hopefully, go home.
Van trudged through the cold swamp water. The smell was putrid and stale, the flies flew overhead, and he slapped at the mosquitos in frustration. He had been walking in pure silence alongside Sang, hoping that she would be frustrated with his silent treatment, but much to his chagrin, she didn’t seem to have noticed or care at all. Occasionally, they’d stop to check the map or discuss something, but the conversation was always terse and short. There were no jokes, and nor were there any disagreements between them.
They were heading to the village of Hearthborne, which was at the base of the Mountains of Mortal Peril. There were still some requirements to be met in order for them to access the area still, though—mainly, an NPC companion had to be unlocked. The lead to the NPC would be at the town.
“How far out are we?” Sang asked curtly.
“Aren’t you the map person?” Van asked.
“I mean, how far are we from the questline? You said there was a minimum level requirement.”
“Well, we’re four and we need to be five,” Van replied, glancing at his character sheet. There wasn’t too much more experience needed to level up, but they had already camped in the region, meaning that they couldn’t get more experience for that unless they were in a new area or had been in a fight. Since the Harshlands Swamp weren’t a particularly populated region, this meant they’d have to either find a quest in a tavern or look for a random event.
“According to O’Hara, there’s a Swamp Giant nearby, and he carries enough experience to level us up,” Sang said as she pointed off the trail.
“We’re gonna get lost. Part of this game involves navigation, so if we get off the trail, we might end up in here for actual game days. Let’s not risk it,” Van said, feeling a little agitated that Sang was getting a guide pumped right into her ears by the CIA agents. Outside game guides were a little unethical, and Draco had worked very hard to ensure that most of the information in those guides was made up mostly of lies. A game built around exploration and interaction was meant to convey a sense of wonder, so by using an online guide, you were basically defeating the entire point of the game.
“I don’t care, Van. A Giant should be easy to kill, so we go,” Sang said as she abruptly turned to walk off into the deeper waters. Van felt his agitation increase, but he had no choice—he had to follow, so he gritted his teeth and splashed deeper into the swamp waters behind her.
They walked in silence for quite some time, until they came across a little hut in a clearing. It was beautifully crafted and ornately designed, but far too small for a giant to inhabit. There was smoke rising out of the chimney of the hut.
“This is the Giant’s dwelling,” Sang said as she equipped her bow.
Van glanced at the building and then back at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
“That’s what the guide said,” she replied.
“Those guides are nothing more than crappy attempts to make money by making stuff up. Draco uses all sorts of tactics to take the real guides down, and lets the fake guides stay online so people learn not to trust them.”
“Well, then, how do you explain this hut?” Sang asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s not a Giant’s hut due to the fact that a Giant clearly couldn’t fit inside of it!” Van replied. How was she this dense?
“Intelligence indicates—”
“Use your intelligence! How could a Giant fit inside of this stupid hut?”
As they bickered, Van noticed that his screen was blinking red, meaning that an enemy was nearby. “Ah, crap!” he shouted as he pulled out his darts. A tall, spindly woman emerged from the hut, dressed in silver and purple robes. Her face was completely gone, as if someone had erased all of the facial features from her head. ????? appeared over her head.
“What is she?” Sang asked as she aimed her bow at the woman.
“Oh, man, I think that’s a Soul Fiend!” Van said. “I’ve only heard rumors about them from other players—they’re these extremely powerful sorceress characters who are hard to find.”
“They must be worth a lot of experience then,” Sang replied as she loosed an arrow at the creature. The word missed flew over the Soul Fiend’s head as it opened up its hand and released a torrent of silvery energy at Sang.
“Look out!” Van shouted as the silver burst crashed right into Sang. She immediately began to hover in the air.
5 damage! 5 damage! 5 damage! appeared rapidly over Sang’s head.
“It’s crushing me! I can feel it crushing my body!” Sang shouted, struggling in vain to get free of the ethereal force. “Kill it, Van! Kill it!”
“Uhhhhh, you can’t kill these things! You’ve got to, uh, do something… crap, what was it?” Van stammered as he shuffled off to the right. The creature only seemed interested in targeting Sang right now, giving him a moment to think.