Enjoy Ch. 4! And reviews are my life so please R/R :)
Clara followed close behind the Doctor as he walked over to the village's church where Dragon reborn9 sat contentedly with another sword in his lap. The only difference was that he, like some of the surrounding landscape, looked real. Clara was about to ask the Doctor but before she could speak he said, "It's just part of the reality that's coming through, you'll see more of it along the way." Clara nodded and noticed now that the block shapes for the gamers were gone, she could really get an image of Dragon's character. His hair was a complete and raggedy mess with a dirty red bandana around his head, and his shirt with pants looked like they'd certainly seen better days. Okay, quite a different contrast from yesterday…She thought, thinking how much 'cleaner' he was the day before. Though the only thing that stood out to her now, were his striking crimson eyes.
"Hey hey! Rise and shine, glad you made it through the night." Dragon said as he wore a wild grin, getting up to meet the two bedraggled travelers. It seemed slightly out of place to see natural movements in a real form than one that used to be strictly cubic.
The Doctor clapped his hand on the gamer's back in a friendly greeting, "Glad too. Listen, could you do us a small favor?" The Doctor smiled back and stuck the sword in the ground next to him to lean on.
"Sure…what is it?" Dragon reborn backed away slightly and looked suspicious as he crossed his arms and shifted his weight side to side. As if they were going to ask him for valuables or huge tasks to do.
"We'd like for you to give us an all-rounder tutorial of the game. Show us the right and wrong things to do, how to get supplies…the works."
The player's face lit up in relief as his smile came back and said, "Oh yeah, sure! I don't really have anything else to do. Listen, I've got uh…about thirty minutes until I have to get offline so I guess I'll make this fast. Come on." He tilted his head to the side, motioning to one of the forests that were close to the village.
They walked along the plains in silence as they made their way to the trees ahead. Once they reached the edge, Dragon reborn started speaking, "Okay, first thing that you've got to do when you spawn is get wood. Without it means no shelter, food, or protection. So go ahead and start punching a few trees."
"Uh, well, that didn't quite work out for us last time…" The Doctor piped up as he made his way over to a tree.
"What do you mean, 'didn't work out'? Something wrong with your computer mouse?" Dragon interrupted.
"Yes, exactly! There's something wrong with the mouse…" Clara said, not willing to hurt her hand like the Doctor did the previous day.
Dragon reborn9 glanced curiously from the Doctor to Clara and resigned as he threw up his hands and said, "Well, get it fixed or something. Here," he tossed an ax to both of them, "start chopping, I'll need those back when you're done." With that, He walked off to some other part of the forest, leaving a perplexed Clara and a nearly giddy Doctor behind.
"What's that look for?" Clara looked over to the Doctor to see him wearing a childish grin on his face.
"Sorry, just…playing a video game in real life. You've got to admit, it's pretty cool!" With that, he tossed his ax in the air and caught it just in time to use the momentum, swinging it at the tree. As the ax came in contact with the wood, a cubic section of it shrunk up and hovered on the spot just like before.
Clara laughed in amusement, "You're crazy!"
"Exactly!" He said as he began to chop more, "Life would be very boring if there weren't crazy people!" Clara chuckled and began to chop. It was all very easy at first, chop once or twice and you get a tiny block, but then as the time stretched on, her arms began to tire. Sweat dripped down Clara's forehead as she looked up at the sky to see that it was only mid-day. She took a deep breath and rested against the trunk of one of the trees she was working on, saying idly, "I think having to actually do manual labor in a video game kind of defeats the whole purpose of it right…?"
"Not really…" The Doctor panted as he relaxed against his tree, "Haven't you ever heard of Kinnect?"
"At least in Kinnect you don't have to chop trees and fend for yourself in the wilderness in your own living room." Clara chided as she rested her aching arms on the soft grass, thinking that if not for the danger, she would have loved the change to the landscape.
A curious thought came to her as she glanced around the nearly cleared area, "What happened to all of the small blocks of wood we cut down?"
"I was hoping you'd ask that." The Doctor popped up from his place and sat down next to Clara saying, "I was figuring out the answer while you were resting last night." He snapped his fingers and one of the wooden blocks came to rest in his hand.
"How did you do that?" Clara grabbed the cube and inspected it as if it had an activation button on it or something but no, just an ordinary block.
"Remember the block that I got from hitting the tree earlier yesterday? I put it in my pocket only to find it gone later. After trying to remember where I possibly could have put it, the thought of that particular item I wanted was stuck in my head. So after some more intense thinking it just popped up out of nowhere. I think in this game the players store their materials in an invisible inventory, like an organized backpack."
"So, if the storage is invisible how can I put things away?" She tossed the cube back and stood up.
"It's automatic when you need to put it away. When your done using it you just have to think hard enough," He tossed the cube in the air and they watched as it disappeared, "and it's back in your head."
"So is that where you put your sword?" Clara had wondered where he'd put it since they came to the forest.
"Yes, and I think we've got enough wood now, come on let's go find our gamer." He picked up his ax and motioned for Clara to follow as they went through the forest. Clara looked from tree to tree, hoping to find their friend who would help them through the rest of the game, but she couldn't see even the slightest trace of him. "How are we supposed to find Dragon reborn if he could be literally anywhere on the map?"
"I don't know yet. I'm sure they must have some kind of coordinate system in this program but I haven't figured out how to use it yet."
"Then why are we walking around?"
"Killing two birds with one stone. Walking around helps me think and if we end up finding Dragon reborn9 then that'll fix our other issue."
"You know, he did say this was a public server. There's bound to be a text box or something where the players can chat if they don't have a computer camera…" Clara thought aloud, "Instead of thinking in terms of coordinates why can't we start thinking of ways to talk?"
The Doctor stopped suddenly and grinned at Clara, "Oh you clever girl!" He bopped her on the nose playfully and began to pace, muttering under his breath quietly until he abruptly stopped with his head down.
After a few silent seconds had passed, Clara was beginning to worry seeing this peculiar behavior from her friend, "You okay?"
The Doctor raised his head, the question seeming to bring him back to reality, well, 'reality'. "Hm? Oh right yes, it's the thought that counts remember? If I can think hard enough and imagine that I'm now speaking directly into the public server's chat then-" He was interrupted as he unexpectedly backtracked into a tree, as if some invisible wall slammed into him.
"Are you okay?" Clara rushed over to help, but the Doctor put a hand out saying, "Yep, got it. Sorry, bit of a surprise there. He responded and said he's back at the village."
"How do you know?" Clara stood perplexed as the Doctor regained his composure and began walking back the way they came.
"It's a direct link of conversation. I send a private message to him, and he'll send a private message back. No one else should listen in on our conversations."
"Why?"
"We still don't know who's after us. Whoever it is could be listening in and possibly find us before we're ready to face them."
"Wouldn't the perception filter-like thingy keep us hidden though?"
"Not unless if we make ourselves known. Like you being attacked by the spider, nobody could miss that. We draw too much attention to ourselves and then everyone will know we're in the server."
"Then how are we talking to Dragon reborn so much without other people noticing?"
"He's probably using a computer mic or Skype, just be glad that he is." The Doctor finished as they entered the village. The houses now looked like real proper establishments instead of the normal and organized blocks as usual. This didn't really surprise the two as Dragon reborn9 came rushing around the corner of one of the abandoned buildings and stopped just before he was about to crash into them.
"So! You've collected your wood?" He smiled and put his hands on his hips, panting.
"Yep!" They both said in unison and handed the axes back.
"Thanks, glad you remembered the axes! Okay, now that you've got your wood, I'll teach you a bit about crafting. It might take a while to learn, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon enough." Clara sighed in exhaustion, leaning against the house while the Doctor clapped and rubbed his hands together anxiously and in full anticipation of the task ahead.
Clara's mind spun with all sorts of 'crafting recipes' when they were finished. At first the whole task of learning them all intimidated her, but now that she was finished, she felt confident in the skill. They had gone in a matter of minutes from making sticks and torches to Redstone mechanisms. Most of the supplies came from Dragon reborn of course.
"Tomorrow we'll go mining, and then you can stop leeching off of my supplies." He joked.
After the lesson the sun was setting and it was time to go inside. On the way to their village house, Clara stopped Dragon9 reborn and asked, "Hey, last night I couldn't sleep at all. Can you not rest at night in this game?"
He laughed a bit as if she just told a funny joke, saying, "Oh no no no, you can rest in this game but for one, you need a bed. And two, it's a public server; no one's going to get in bed because the whole community would have to sleep at the same time." He tilted his head to the side, contemplating his thoughts aloud, "And kind of think of it, I'm glad we can't sleep on this server. Imagine, you're sound asleep in your bed and then someone walks in to steal your stuff or kill you."
"What a pleasant thought," She rolled her eyes, "but thanks for the memo." She smiled at him and walked ahead where the Doctor was waiting by the door of their temporary house.
"Same place as usual?" The Doctor called over to the player.
"Yep, I'll be in the church." With that, Dragon reborn9 bid them a goodnight and went inside the building without another word.