Chapter 6: The Way Out

"I'm just saying," Othello begins "Who in their right mind makes a fantasy game without any magic!?" Othello is sprawled out on the couch, as if he had been shot and thrown onto it. "I mean, isn't the whole point to be, like, an escape from reality? If you wanted to larp about stabbing people, you could just learn fencing or something."

"Come on Thel, you know the game offers more than that." I reply over my shoulder, not even looking at him; My attention instead is focused on recalibrating my NerveGear for the 20th time just to make sure my first full dive into the finished game goes smoothly.

"Says the guy who got to BETA TEST the thing! Maybe if you'd tell me about some of the 'more than that' that the game offers, I'd be less pushy about it."

I scoff "I think you mis-said the word annoying there, Thel. Besides, you'd just find something else to go on about."

"Well… ya got me there, Hex." There's a silence for a moment. Not an awkward one, but one where in a stereotypical conversation, I should be inclined to fill it with some noise or new topic of discussion. Instead, having nothing to say, I continue checking and triple checking the NG setup. Othello, however, decides he isn't done talking. "Say, you ever gonna be done with that thing?"

"Just gimme 5 more minutes."

"Man, I gave you '5 more minutes' 2 hours ago." his voice sounds genuinely annoyed for the first time since he came over today. I take a step away from the gear and turn to face him.

"Hey man, if you wanna experience a first person VR game at 10 fps that's your prerogative. I for one prefer things to be a little closer to ACTUAL reality."

"Uh-huh. Sometimes, I think your definition of 'actual reality' IS virtual reality, man. Now we gonna play this thing or not?" He smirks at me, sitting up in anticipation. I roll my eyes and turn back to the NG and run a final check.

"All systems nominal… Both gears should run as well as a drop-out engineering student can make them run." I toss him one of the headsets, which he almost immediately thrusts onto his head with the giddy excitement of a 6 year old on Christmas Day.

"Let's freaking GOOOO man! S! A! O! S! A! O!" he chants as if cheering on his favorite sports team. I roll my eyes, something I find myself doing around him often, and adorn my NG as I sit on my bed.

"Ok ok, calm down man. We're just popping in to see what the game is like now that it's fully out."

"Screw that man! Imma beat all hundred levels!" he laughs a contagious laugh that I catch almost instantly.

"Yeah, we'll see about that."

We take a deep breath and lock eyes one last time. I want to say something, maybe he does too, but we don't. Instead, we lie down and shout the phrase that would change the course of our lives forever.

"Link START!"

I don't remember when or why we started calling each other by our gamer tags irl, but we had. For better or worse, I guess it makes me feel like I never really left one world and entered another. Virtual or not, I was always Hexagon and that made what ended up happening that day a lot easier to deal with, in a way.

I continue my way through the cave, recounting the other events that had led me to this moment. Buying the tavern, meeting Diavel, hanging around the Moonlit Black Cats. With every step, the light from the stars fades and is replaced by the light from my torch. I glance down at the poncho, the man who'd given it to me flashing through my head. Something about a glitched section of wall deep within this cave that players could no-clip through. And on the other side, an admin terminal.

Coward. The word reared its ugly head as it had all those months ago. Always looking for the easy way out. Never willing to get up and FIGHT for something. TO DIE for something!

Was this the ghost of Diavel haunting me? Torturing me for leaving him to die that day? Perhaps the voices of all the dead players, slain in battles against floor bosses in an attempt to save us from this death game, only for people like me to go and live out our "perfect" little fantasy lives, safe from harm's way in NO KILL ZONES. No. No, this was my voice. Me reminding myself of what I've known from the beginning, but have been too weak to ever change. Even now, I choose to stay on this path of cowardice instead of turning around and joining with Knight of the Blood and actually fighting for a change.

I find tears overflowing from my eyes, snot dripping from my nose. I hobble further into the cave until I come to a startling realization. I am alone.

Not just the only player, the only entity in this cave. I whip around, terrified that a volley of mobs have managed to corner me, only to find more inky blackness covering the rock faces beyond the feeble reach of my torch. As my hand reaches out in front of me to pull down the game menu, I notice my hp gauge tick down [-3 points].

As the simulated pain reaches my brain, the [PARALYSIS] status icon appears and I feel my entire body tense up, and fall to the ground. This is it. I begin to panic. This is how I die.