Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
The tavern is packed when I arrive, and not just with NPCs. There are many players here, looking as confused as I’ve been feeling over the last couple of days. They must be new like me because a lot of the people in the line winding around the tavern’s fence are looking at Alexander with doe eyes.
The cacophony of their conversations causes my heart to race and my breath to hitch.
I squeeze my eyes closed and hold my hand over my tightening chest. Then I feel the stroke of a finger on my ear, and like someone flipped a switch, the world goes quiet.
I open my eyes to see Guy mere inches away from me.
“Thanks again,” I whisper.
“No problem,” he says. “Let me know if you want me to turn it off so you can talk to people outside of our party.”
I sweep my gaze over all the other players crowding the area. How many of these people will die? I decide I don’t want to find out. There are more than enough people I’m becoming attached to over here. I don’t want to compound my odds of future grieving.
Except I definitely will grieve when Mom dies.
Guy and I take a seat with the rest of our group. I’d expected them to hound me with questions about my experience in the temple, but they’re all staring at the milling newbies.
I try to sound lighthearted when I say, “Busy day,” and nod in Alexander’s direction.
“Yeah…” Cait responds.
I notice that she’s staring at the crowd with a concerned expression. In fact, everyone at the table looks like they’re trying to solve a difficult puzzle.
“Is that weird or something?” I ask.
“These days it is,” Cait answers. “It’s like this in the zone we left last week, but it hasn’t been crowded in the starting zone since, well, since I arrived.”
“You said the game just came out, right?” Tara asks me. When I nod, she continues, “That must be why. Fresh meat. Beta had started when we all wound up here. Not that any of this makes sense…”
No one shushes Tara this time. Apparently, everyone’s philosophical now.
I’ve had all these questions burning my tongue since I found out where I am, but I’ve been more focused on logistics than anything.
After talking with Aphrodite, though, I’m thinking more like Tara.
Why and how are we here? What makes us different from any of the other gazillion players?
I decide now’s the best time to push the subject, even if I’m still recuperating from walking through the mass of strangers.
“I snooped the beta forums when they became public,” I say.
“I never noticed anything weird. There were so many players. Even days before I got the game, there were hundreds and hundreds of them chatting. There are probably close to a million players or more now that it’s out.
So, it’s not like everyone winds up here. Why us?”
Everyone tears their attention away from the newcomers to gaze at me with weary eyes. This is a question they don’t have an answer for, probably one that runs circles around their brains every hour of every day.
“We don’t know everything, Lauren,” Guy says. “If we did, we wouldn’t be back at square one trying to see if we missed anything.”
“I know, but—”
“Look at us,” Guy continues. “We have so little in common. I’m not even an experienced gamer. My roommate was the beta player. He just let me fiddle around with it one time. Then one day, I fell asleep drunk in the bathroom and woke up here.”
“I didn’t even like the game,” Joshua chimes in. “It was so glitchy, but I wanted to make sure I could give the designers lots of notes.”
“We’re all different,” Tara says with a nod, “but you all know my theory.”
Joshua groans. “But you’re wrong.”
“What theory?” I ask.
Tara looks at me with a shrewd glint in her eyes. “I think we’re here because we didn’t want to be there, in the real world.”
“Well, I certainly didn’t want to be here,” Joshua says. “I already said I didn’t like this game.”
Tara raises an eyebrow at Joshua. “Yeah? So you’re saying you’d rather be sitting at your desk selling insurance than ogling NPCs?”
This silences Joshua. He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms, before turning his gaze back to the crowd.
“Still, that doesn’t fully explain it,” Guy says. “A lot of people don’t want to live in the real world, especially gamers. Why us? What makes us so special?”
Cait sighs. “Doesn’t matter. We’re here. Might as well make the best of it and work on getting our offerings.”
That reminds me of what I planned on talking to them about when I left the temple. “Aphrodite said something about giving me a reward in return. I always thought it would be us getting to go home, but she told me…”
I trail off, realizing I’m about to tell them more than I’m comfortable divulging. Do I want them knowing I’m some unlucky in love loser?
“That she’d help you find true love or something?” Sylvia guesses.
“How—?”
“Because she’s the Goddess of Love,” Sylvia answers before I can finish my question. “Artemis offered me my own forest kingdom.”
“Hermes said he’d make me the richest person in this world,” Tara says.
Cait rolls her eyes and huffs out a laugh. “Thousands of soldiers under my command. Ares certainly knows what women want.”
Joshua side eyes the group long enough to say, “Pan said I could make any woman want to sleep with me.”
“Dionysus offered me a party that never ends,” Guy says, wrapping it up.
“We can have whatever we want,” Sylvia explains, “but that’s what they say we really want. They certainly don’t think we want to go home.”
Cait crosses her arms. “They’d rather give us anything but that, even though that’s what we all want.” She hitches a thumb in Guy’s direction. “Except him.”
I squint at Guy. “Why don’t you want to go home?”
“What’s waiting for me there?” he asks. “Exams? Bills? Here I can wield magic and see fantastic things.”
“And die,” Cait interjects.
Guy lowers his gaze to the table. “You can die over there, too.”
The crowd of new players seems to form little groups as they stagger out of the tavern, probably to battle the harpy and get a locket.
“I better go turn this in,” I say, rising from my chair. I turn to look at Guy. “I’ll have your money soon.”
He waves his hand dismissively. “Keep it. I’ve got so much gold that I can’t possibly spend it all.”
I don’t like feeling indebted to someone, but I don’t want to seem ungrateful. “You’re too nice.”
Guy chuckles. “No, I’m not. Consider this payment for being our healer. Trust me. We’ll be keeping you busy once you get enough spell slots filled.”
I eavesdrop on the conversation between Alexander and the last newbie to receive the locket quest. The NPC repeats the same words to this new person as those he’d said to me yesterday. The player is looking at him with such a love-struck expression.
Is that how I looked when I received the quest? How pathetic.
Tara claims that it’s possible the NPCs feel emotions but can’t express them. I have a hard time believing that when he gives every player the same sorrowful words and mournful expression.
Back home, I played through enough of the relationship quests with him to know he’s about to look at me with appreciation. I wonder how many other players get that same treatment. I’d prefer him to not feel anything than for him to regard everyone the same as he does me.
I realize that I’ve been hungering for something for years now.
I want to be special to someone. It wouldn’t even need to be for a lover.
I’m so mediocre in every facet of my life—my art, my tech skills, even my gaming and hobbies.
Maybe this is why it took me so long to choose a major and why I’ve never stuck to one job for more than a few months.
Is it possible to fit in everywhere and nowhere at the same time? I’m the “good enough for now” until the “just right” comes along. The high school sweetheart you settle for until you can put a ring on a thin brunette’s finger.
Oh God, am I making this about Doug again?
Aphrodite must’ve really gotten under my skin. There are way bigger things to worry about than my lousy ex.
Alexander’s looking straight ahead when I approach him. His face is neutral, as if he hadn’t just been pouring his heart out about his dead girlfriend. When I say “hello,” it captures his attention, and he looks at me with relief.
“You’re back! Did you have any luck?” he asks.
I pull the locket out of my purse and hand it over. “And the last harpy is dead, too.” I wish I hadn’t said that because I can’t shake the image of Mom’s face on the harpy’s dead body now.
“Thank you, adventurer! You are a true hero!” He looks off into the middle distance. “One that I can never be.”
I roll my eyes. Did this really make me swoon when I was playing the game?
Give me the money already.
“Here,” he says, retrieving something from the pouch on his belt. “It isn’t much, but it’s all I have.”
He holds out the twelve copper pieces, and they disappear in a blink. I hear a ka-ching, and a number twelve next to a brown circle appears at the top of my UI.
“Thanks,” I say. “Well…see ya.” I know he’ll give me another quest if I ask for it, but that one will only open up the relationship quest chain. There won’t be any money in it, and the XP is minimal.
Wait. How does XP work here? I need to talk to the group about leveling up.
I turn and walk back to my group, but I only make it a couple of steps before I hear him call out, “Wait, adventurer!”
I glance back to see Alexander staring at me with a desperate expression.
This is new.
Out of curiosity more than anything, I walk back to him with my arms crossed and my head cocked. “What’s up?”
“May I travel with you?”
I groan. Of course. I guess I don’t even need to ask here to initiate this quest.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Alexander,” I tell him. “You have a lot of fans who’ll be back later with lockets.”
“Please?”
Despite knowing he’s a string of code, something in me stirs when he looks down at me with his puppy dog eyes.
Get a grip, Lauren. You and your group don’t need an NPC standing by the fire repeating the same lines over and over.
Alexander’s manly eyebrows tent together in the most pitiful way. His soft lips are slightly parted. He combs back the lock of hair curled over his forehead, but it falls back into place.
Ugh. Fine.
“Let me talk with my party,” I tell him. “This isn’t up to me alone.”
“I’ll be here, waiting,” he responds.
I nod, forgetting that NPCs don’t pick up on visual communication. When I return to my group, I see that they’re all getting ready to leave. Jesus, how am I going to broach this subject?
“So, uh…” I freeze. Am I seriously about to ask them if we can keep an NPC like a pet?
Tara puts her hand on my shoulder. “He doesn’t eat any of the food. He helps with a couple of battles. Then he leaves when you tell him you’re not interested in a romantic relationship.”
They knew exactly what I was going to say. That’s how predictable all of this is.
“Is it worth it?” I ask.
Cait shrugs. “I mean, at our level we don’t really need him for the battles, but maybe having him around could remind us of something we missed from our first go around here.”
I’m embarrassed at how easy it was to get permission to bring the NPC I crushed on into the fold.
“How does this work?” I ask. “I mean, he can’t very well leave the tavern when there are other players.”
“Oh, this one won’t,” Sylvia answers. “Another version of him will pop up at our camp when we get there.”
“You mean…there are other Alexanders walking around?”
“Oh, totally,” Cait says with a nod. “They’re everywhere, like little, sexy, brooding ants. God knows where they all hide when players are done with them.”
Done with them. Another reminder that Alexander isn’t real.
Maybe having him in the camp is a big mistake.
This world is already surreal enough. Do I really need a constant reminder that sentient beings are the minority here?
Still, if there’s a chance he might help us figure out what offerings we need to make, I’ll deal with it.
“Okay, I’ll go talk to him,” I say.
“Ask him for the next quest, while you’re at it,” Sylvia says. “We gotta get you trained up before we do the Nessa quest. That’s a pretty tough escort mission for being so low-level.”
Guy nods. “Way too OP for that area.”
Great. The harpy was scary enough. Good to know things can only get more traumatic from here.