Radical-9

CHAPTER 17: Your Biggest Fan

February 24^th, 2022

9:15 Am

I wake up slowly. Sleep is a weird thing, you don't know you are asleep until you're no longer awake. Like, once you start seeing gummy bears and raindrops dancing together in a sort of unison you know you're dreaming, but what if one day those things started happening in real life? What if one day you decided to eat some gummy bears and all of a sudden they started talking to you, or in my case, started playing a video game and all of a sudden it all became so very real. Every minute action became as real as they could ever be.

At the same time, if you think really hard on it, is it really all that bad? I mean, we die eventually, all of us. The only thing that is really different is how the world looks. Out there people die of dysentery and pneumonia along with everything else. Here, here we only die if our health reaches zero.

So, you might think that it might be better to stay in here, right? Is that what you're thinking?

No.

This world is a fake created by a man with an ego as large as the Himalayan mountains. He's killed senseless amounts of people so he could rule us like a child over ants. Would you stand by now? I can't.

I'm up before Klein. I have to shake him awake, he acts like a small child being woken up for school.

“N-No, just ten minutes,” he slobbers. “Ten minutes more.”

“You said ten minutes ten minutes ago, Klein. It's past nine, we have to get up,” I say.

He growls a little and turns to the side before turning to the other. “Is there any possible chance we can reschedule to ten?” He asks, opening his eyes.

“Not a chance.”

“Damn,” he says, smiling.

“Do you think Oaken would be around now?” I ask.

“I can message him. Yeah, we should go see him,” He says, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, I know, that's why I asked.”

“Alright, yeah, I'll message him and see. We could do with some new armor and such.”

“I agree. Want me to go see if Jen and Athena are awake?”

“Yeah, I think that'll be a good idea,” he says.

I step out of the room and head towards the stairs, stepping my way up to the third floor. I find their room and knock twice on it, “Are you two awake? Hello?”

The door opens slowly, Athena is behind it.

“Oh thank god it's you, I thought it was that kid again,” she says, visibly relieved.

“That kid?” I ask. Behind her I can see Jen, I wave, she waves back, a smile on her face.

“The little spaz that has a hard-on for you, Ben was his name,” she says.

“What was he doing here?”

“Looking for you, what else? He came around a few times last night knocking on the door. I didn't answer on the first few times.

“What about the last time?” I ask.

“I opened it, but because I thought it was you. He sounded just like you,” she says.

“Really? His voice is super nasally though,” I say.

“I don't know, it sounded just like you, but anyway, I just told him to go away, and when he refused to do so I made sure he did.”

“What'd you do?”

“She punched him in the face,” Jen says from behind.

“Really?” I ask, looking at her.

“Yeah, he wasn't moving, so I made him. I'm telling you, I didn't like him from the start.”

“I guess so,” I begin. “If you're ready to head out of here I am. Klein's messaging his friend Oaken so that we can get some new gear, that okay with you?”

“Yeah, that's fine,” Athena says. “Hey, you okay with that?” She calls back to Jen, who nods her head.

“How'd you two do last night, sleep well?”

“Well, except for her little incident I slept well enough. You've got a neat sister on your hands there,” Athena says, smiling as she grabs at my arm.

“I apologize for that again,” Jen says.

“Don't worry about it,” I say.

“So, is Klein in your room?” Athena asks.

“Yes, let's go.”

We walk down the stairs and Klein's exiting the room just as we approach. He flashes me a thumbs-up and I nod.

“We all ready?”

“Yep, we're going to meet him in the market district, it's at the heart of the town,” Klein explains.

“That's great, you think I could get something to protect myself with?” Jen asks.

“I don't even know how that'll work, you don't even really have an assigned class or stat values,” Klein says.

“I mean, it can't really hurt, right?” Jen asks.

“I guess not, we can pick you out something nice and light.”

“Light?”

“You're pretty tiny,” He says, laughing.

“What'd you say?” She asks, taking a step forward.

“You uh...Hey Dex, don't you think it's kind of uh, nice outside?”

I laugh, “Don't try to take me with you. You got yourself in this mess.”

We step outside, the sun peaks out over Novus Callus. I get an alert in my messages. I hear the alert come from Athena and Klein as well.

“Huh, what is that?” Jen asks.

“It's a message from the GM,” Athena starts.

“What? From Jack?”

“Don't worry, it's just a general notice. It says he's fixed the problem with the time of day being out of sync with our server.”

“Dearest Players of Elysium™! Thank you for taking your time to voice your complaints at the inaccuracy of the in-game clock, so I have taken it upon myself to fix this glaring issue with Elysium™. As of this point the time inside shall be synchronous with the time in the real world! Thank you all and be sure to voice your concern if any other issues sour your experience with Elysium™! -Jack Adata, GM,” I read aloud.

“What a pompous douche,” Athena says.

“I already hate him for what he did, now I hate him for his overbearing sarcasm,” Jen says.

“Well, overbearing sarcasm if used right can be a tool for good.”

Athena turns my way, “Nobody needs overbearing sarcasm,” she says.

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeey!” I hear in the distance.

I don't need to look up. I don't even need to think, to even begin to think of who is coming our way.

“It's the Black Swordsman! You totally-”

I step out in front of Klein, and walk up towards Ben, I can see the punch Athena gave him didn't leave much of a mark, either that or it couldn't leave a mark in the town.

“Hey, I'm reallllly sorry about sneaking around the inn earlier, but I really needed to see you just one last time,” he says.

“It was uncalled for,” I say.

“Right, right. I'm sorry, I get a little excited...a lot excited. I know, but I just needed to see you. I know you'll be moving onward from this point, right?”

“Well...that's the ultimate plan,” I say.

“I won't be going any farther than here, this is my max as a player, unfortunately,” he says.

“What do you mean?” Klein asks.

“I'm just not cut out for it, you know? I'm no you. I'm going to be returning to Novus Dandé. I'd just die going any farther, and I wanted to see you one final time before I do to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“All of you, really. If you didn't save me back there with the big guy I would've gotten crushed. I went in over my head because I thought I could be like you, the great Black Swordsman.”

“I'm sorry you feel that way,” I say.

“It was at that point that I realized it was a fool's dream to be like you, I can't be anyone but myself. I want to help others the way I can, maybe I can find out how back in Novus Dandé.”

“Well, that's very admirable of you. I...apologize for hitting you earlier,” Athena says.

“It was deserved,” he faces her, and then turns back to me, “Can I get a shake before I go?” He extends his hand. I take it in my hand and grip it tight. There is a small shock, but I keep holding as I nod my head to him.

“Keep being you, and we'll all get out of this alive, okay?”

“Right, thank you so much,” he says, nearly bowing.

He walks off with what I can swear is the largest smile. I take in a deep breath and run my hands over my face and through my hair. “He's weird, but his heart's in the right place. I can't blame him for that,” I say.

“He probably just didn't know how to convey what he means is all. You know, probably a very big introvert being thrown into this situation, it's not like I know anyone else like that,” Jen says.

“I...I'm not an introvert,” I say.

“Depends on the day of the week, huh?”

“I'm nowhere near that bad!”

Klein and Athena begin laughing.

“All right, all right. Let's get a move on, shall we? No need to keep poking fun at my insecurities,” I say, starting to walk down the street.

“Aw, you know I'm just joking. Plus, I've got a right to tease you after your kid comment at my soccer game,” Jen says, joining in.

“You're still on that?”

“You play soccer?” Athena asks.

“It's a good way to keep the body agile,” she says. “It's also just a good way to let off steam.”

“Bah, exercise, can't stand any of it,” Klein says.

“Pound it,” I say, fist bumping him.

“What're we going to do with you boys? You're going to need to be fit to survive what we have coming up next,” Athena says.

“It's all virtual! We don't need to exercise for nothing!” Klein says, flexing his avatar's muscles.

“Anything, you don't have to exercise for anything,” Athena says.

“What?”

“Double negative.”

“I still don't-”

“By saying you don't have to exercise for nothing means the opposite of what you wanted too,” I say.

“Dex, you're joining in on this?”

“I'm going to actually agree with Klein on this one,” Jen says. “Because you correct me all of the time.”

“What's so bad about that? It's basic human English,” I say.

“Because you know what I mean. That's why.”

“Okay, okay. We don't need to start a war here, look, the market district is right over here,” Klein says, looking at a sign to his right.

The stone-tiled street bends into an open outlet, an avenue that splits off to the left and right before ending at a large plaza. The left path leads to a staircase that dips down into another plaza that is so indented in it almost looks like a crater. Unlike the left, the right actually raises up by some sort of stone slab that is like an elevator. I watch people stand on top as a force field surrounds it and it begins to rise. I then look up to see another section of land up above, floating in the sky.

“Woaaaaah,” I say.

“I guess it might be separated based on class,” Klein says.

“Yeah?” Athena asks.

“The lower down there to the left might be the lower class, both literally and figuratively, most of the people are down there.”

We make it to the fork and I cross to the gate overlooking the descent down, people pass me by and I try not to be in the way. Down in the plaza I can see a large number of people crowded around merchants and the sounds of loud voices travels all the way up here. The merchants are all set up in makeshift tents and storefronts. I turn to look back at the players on the middle tier, they at least have small buildings set up, nothing too fancy, but definitely better off than those below.

“I'm going to assume that we're in the middle class now, and the upper class is up there in the sky?”

“It seems so,” he says. “Oaken's up on the highest part, that's where his shop is,” he points towards the upper class area.

“All right, let's get moving then,” I say, walking across the lot.

“It's so nice out here, really warm,” Jen says.

“It is really nice,” Klein begins. “I feel like I'm always surrounded by the cold, whether it is here or when I visit New York.”

“New York? Is it as bad as Denver out there?”

“Not at all, the whole state is practically untouched, save for Buffalo. I hear there was a riot there a few months ago that got kind of bad, but even then it isn't even a fraction of what Denver is.”

I climb up to the stairs, imagining New York in my mind's eye. I see cities and rural towns alike, almost like Aurora pasted over and over again. I wonder how they're handling the collapse. Must be doing somewhat okay if everything isn't broken over there, maybe we could get back to that point?

“It seems we need to pay money to enter the upper class market,” Klein says, inspecting the stone slab, right beside it is a sign stuck right into the ground.

“Will you have enough?” Jen asks.

“Yeah, it's 2,000 gold each.”

“How do you have so much gold?” Athena asks.

“Beta's a goldmine apparently. I didn't think things would be this low priced, like, I was earning hundreds of gold from single monsters back then. Jack's seemed to fix that as there are less monsters about, and they seem to give way less,” he says.

“Is that really all that fair?” Jen asks.

“Hardly, I guess it is one parallel to real life. Those without connections or the power to save end up at the bottom,” he says.

I step onto the slab. Jen and Athena step on after me, and after Klein pays the prompt that opens he steps on as well. There is a second of pause before a force field appears around the slab to prevent any of us from falling off. The slab begins rising like an elevator, and I can see the edge of the upper class market peeking up. Over the top of the edge I can see grander buildings than in either the lower and middle class market districts. They reach higher up and look almost modern.

Almost.

They're still stacked with brick layered amongst each other. I walk off of the slab as it arrives fully and notice that the ground is of a noticeably smoother material than the tiled roads. You wouldn't think that one material might not be easier to stand on, but something about it just feels therapeutic just being up here. I see players walking out of buildings in cliques, they're wearing all sorts of different outifts, armor, leather you name it they have it. The buildings actually look amazing as they stack next to each other, like pillars amongst the players.

“How's it feel to be in the upper class, huh?” Klein asks, walking off of the lift.

“I like it.”