“Glad I got you then, Alex. Is there anything else?”
“Well, I’m getting to it, Sam.”
Sam chuckled again and fiddled through his various menu options.
“Sorry. Please continue, Alex.”
“There’s an extra menu just for you testers. It’s called Alpha Build.”
Sam was already browsing through it.
“What I need you to report to me is listed under Reports. What’s needed is self-explanatory. After you send me a report and I check the data, I run simulations myself. If I can’t find the bugs on my own with the data you gave me then I’ll have you repeat it in your build of the game. If we successfully repeat it on either my end or your end, we’ll officially list it as a game bug. With this current test, we won’t focus on fixing any of the bugs. We just want to discover them at this point, so find as many as you can.”
Sam smiled broadly. He couldn’t have asked for a better system. He’d now be able to find a bug, report it, and simply move on instead of being stuck trying to help the developers fix it. This job would be fun after all.
“That’s the plan, Alex! Glad we’re on the same page now.”
“We definitely want the same thing, Sam—to make this game the best it can be and to make sure you win this contest. You can count on me. Good luck!”
The option to contact her was under Reports on the Alpha Build menu. The first level menu options were, Inventory—Equipment—Status—Game Options—Alpha Build. Sam selected his inventory to see the other items he came with besides his gear. The menu dropped down in front of him with images of his items on a two-dimensional grid. There was more here than was listed in the character creation. He already had a healing item called a Soul Fire that could be used five times before emptying. The portrait of the somewhat translucent silver container made it look like bottled blue fire. It even danced with life as Sam stared at it. He read its description.
Soul Fire
Heals HP
A mystical silver container able to hold the coveted essence of human determination and will. Has a restorative effect on those heavily afflicted with the Phoenix’s curse. Only those chosen few will find themselves in possession of this item.
Along with that, he had some rings that increased his resistances. One increased his resistance to physical damage and the other increased his resistance to magic. He laughed at the names of each ring.
Beginner’s Gift of Survival
Increases physical defenses.
A starting gift for our first adventurous Full Divers. Don’t say we here at Full Core have never done anything for you ;-).
Beginner’s Gift of Persistence
Increases mystical defenses.
A starting gift for our first adventurous Full Divers. Do your best to get accustomed to the game. Never give up!
“Oh wow! They still made this easy mode for me.”
That didn’t stop him from using the rings. He backed out of the inventory and equipped the rings right away through the equipment menu. His weak defensive stats rose up to levels rivaling the other classes. He wondered if the other classes received the rings as well, but thought there wouldn’t be a point in that.
“Maybe this character stole these items or something,” he tried to reason. He checked the manual to read up on the basics before he did anything else. Even the basics of the manual clocked in at over a hundred pages. The extra motions players could do in VR added a lot more complexity to the game. There were now special techniques that the character could perform if Sam could mimic the right motions. With Sam’s horrid level of bodily coordination, he counted that as a current impossibility and stuck to the most basic style of play.
“I can’t read all this. I’ll just have to learn as I go.”
He hurriedly crammed some info about blocking, parrying, roll dodging, and attacking. He thought he understood the gist of it all, so he closed his menu. He didn’t want anyone beating him to that bonus, so he did what any good adventurer would do and put one foot in front of the other.
The clearing provided a clear trail forward. Sam hoped it was the right direction. There didn’t seem to be much but darkness in the other direction. The dark forest was spread out around him, obscuring all that was within as long as he stood in the moon’s light. He wondered if his eyes would adjust to the dark, like in real life. He needed to be ready for whatever was inside.
He didn’t recognize this part of the game. Well, he did sort of recognize it, but he wasn’t supposed to be here so early in the game. In the original Death Planes game, you started off in a graveyard, so this wasn’t a remake after all. Maybe it was a sequel then.
The clearing’s path led back into the dark forest, but there didn’t seem to be nowhere else to go, so Sam proceeded further in.
“Wait! Is my dagger even equipped?”
He didn’t have anything in his hands and he saw nothing at his sides, not even a scabbard., so he checked his equipment menu and found nothing equipped to either hand slot.
“Trolls!” he yelled in anger.
He was mad that he didn’t notice it earlier when he was putting on the rings. He quickly equipped his Dagger to his right hand and the Deflector shield to his left. A scabbard for the Dagger appeared on his lower back and his Deflector was always strapped to his left wrist as long as it was equipped. There was a slot for another weapon or shield on either hand slot, making for a maximum of two slots to each hand. You couldn’t equip all four weapons or shields at the same time, but could switch between two of them in each hand on the fly. He made sure he had all his armor on as well.
After confirming that all his equipment was in its proper place, he figured he was ready for combat. The only issue he had was that his tiny Deflector and naturally low defenses made blocking ineffective. Even with the extra protection from the ring, he’d be in a bad spot if he couldn’t dodge properly. He also needed to be quick and parry with his Deflector, so he wasn’t totally defenseless.
“Why did I pick this class? I’m going to get killed so hard that my friends are going to throw me a funeral in real life,” he said, only half joking.
He silently laughed at his own absurdity, mostly to calm his nerves. Then he proceeded forward and heard some footsteps other than his own. He stopped and hid behind a tree to see if he could find where the sound was coming from. His eyes were successfully adjusting to the dark, just not all the way yet. But the footsteps were growing louder.
I hope they didn’t see me.
They had probably seen him while he was in the moonlit clearing, whoever or whatever it was. He frantically searched around for whoever was coming and found the silhouette behind him over his right hand shoulder. The thing seemed to be walking deeper into the forest and paying him no attention.
He was stuck at a crossroads wondering what to do next. The smart thing to do would be to keep going and avoid whatever that thing was, but that was also cowardly. He hadn’t even seen what it looked like. He had to at least do that before he chickened out.
He crept through the trees without making a sound. He had to look down at his feet to make sure he had them. The silent movement must’ve been a Cutthroat class perk or maybe an ability that came from the equipment. He wasn’t sure since he hadn’t read any of the descriptions yet.
He used the silence to his advantage, closely stalking the strange creature milling about through the forest. A sliver of moonlight peeked through a tiny opening in the canopy and the thing walked right under it for a split second. Sam saw thin and dark brown wooden flesh and elongated branchlike limbs. He only saw it from the back, where it was mostly covered in dark purple leaves. It was taller than most men, easily towering over Sam.
Well I’ve seen it now, time to move on?
The answer was no. Now that he saw it, he had to kill it. That was the law in these types of games. There was a chance that this thing could later sneak up on him while he was fighting some other creature, or it could even have some useful item
that he needed. It would definitely have souls to drop, this game’s version of experience points. He equipped his Dagger by grabbing it from its scabbard and stalked forward. The plant creature had stopped near a tree and seemed to be doing nothing. Sam, aka Sarem the Sanguine, inched forward a little bit, then a little more. The tree he waited behind now was right next to the creature.
He held his breath and peeked around at it. Even in the dark, he could see that its back was to him. His sight was pretty good, now that he was accustomed to the dark. He inched forward just a little more, then felt a shiver followed by a cold sweat. He stopped in his tracks immediately knowing something was wrong. The plant creature raised its purple leafy head to the sky and shrieked. It was a dreadful sound and Sam felt another wave of cold come over his body. The dreadful noise sounded like a whistle, a cry, and a scream at the same time, together carrying a foreboding melody. Sam had never heard anything like it. He slowly and quietly crouched and watched the surrounding forest for any signs of movement.
Is this thing calling someone? Does it know I’m here? Is ... is it singing?
He was ready to run at a moment’s notice, but the leafy thing was still staring up at the sky and there was no movement in the forest around them. Perhaps he’d found his first glitch. He didn’t dare stop and report it now. He wanted to see what the creature would do next. It hadn’t transformed or anything and its behavior seemed to remain the same. It didn’t even seem to know he was there. Once it started moving, he moved with it. It seemed to be moving back to where he’d first heard its footsteps. Compared to Sam, the thing was a heavy stepper. It loudly crunched all manner of foliage under foot as it passed its original location.
When it stopped again, Sam made sure to get even closer. This time he was quick to look around for other approaching movements. He only made his move when he was certain he saw no other movement in the forest and his moves were quick, clean, and quiet. With three silent steps he was at the monster’s back and with one swift motion he plunged his Dagger deep into it. He felt the thing shiver and saw it wilt as the cold Dagger pierced through wood and found its target. The thing had some kind of soft organs inside of it; Sam could feel whatever he had struck squirming around his blade. He instinctively kicked the creature off of his dagger and pulled the blade away as it fell to the ground. He had successfully gotten a special backstab on the creature, meaning he had effectively done at least triple his normal damage to it. His Dagger and gloves were now covered in the beast’s dark blue blood.
After attacking it, he was able to see its health bar. He watched as it quickly diminished—only it stopped diminishing a little more than halfway and the creature started moving on the ground.
Sam whispered his panic under his breath: “Are you fucking kidding me?”
The critical blow had allegedly done three to four times normal damage and it still only took down slightly more than half the creature’s HP. Sam’s class was ridiculously weak. Or maybe this enemy was just too strong.
“I can’t believe this. Come on, get up! Let’s go!”
Sam tried to position himself at the creature’s back as it was rising, but the thing quickly turned to face him as if it knew his thoughts. He quickly struck it two times with a slash and a stab at its arms and chest doing damage that was barely noticeable. The critical damage for the backstab must’ve been much higher than he’d anticipated, like twice as high. Now, his attacks didn’t seem to be doing even a single percent damage to it. The thing lashed out at him with its pointed claws and he barely dodged it with an instinctive side roll. It was as if the game had assisted him with the maneuver. His movement was much smoother than anything he could muster in real life and he noticed that he cleared a long distance. He was quickly on his feet and nearing the creature’s back again.
The rolling motion had made him feel a little dizzy, but he ignored that and tried to get in close. The creature extended its brown leafy arms out at its sides and they grew large wooden spikes that hardened to a darker brown. The creature then spun its upper body around in a deadly contortionist’s twister. Sam was too close and reactively raised his Deflector in a parrying motion. The panicked parry was way too early and Sam was left wide open to the creature’s attack. The backhand blow was solid and sent Sam sprawling down onto his back.
The pain felt too real. Sam could actually taste the blood in his mouth. It made him wonder what was happening to his real body as he played the game. It made him want to quit. But there was an urge deep in the primal part of his brain that didn’t want to die, no matter if he was in real reality or virtual reality. It made him rise to his feet for his own survival.
The blow had taken a little over a third of his total health and the creature was approaching to attack again. Now on his feet, Sam knew what his next move would have to be. With his current class, he could only play in a reactionary way. He’d have to capitalize on an enemy’s mistakes and punish them for it. Now that this thing was guarding its back so well from his attacks, he only saw one good option, but he had to wait for a good chance to use it.
Sam stood at a disadvantageous middle range from the creature that he now decided to call Hardass. He stood straight ahead of it, prepared to dodge at a moment’s notice. Hardass whipped its stretchy leaf-like arms and razor sharp claws at Sam. Sam dodged to the left, out of the creature’s way. The move was guaranteed to put him at the creature’s back again—but the creature’s response felt off.
“Oh crap! Screw you, Hardass!”
That whipping motion had been a feint. Before Sam had even made it to his feet, Hardass was priming for another attack. It stretched its thorny limbs all the way over to him. One of the claws took on a spear-like shape and pierced his chest, while the other struck him in the face, cutting into much of his flesh and drawing blood. It hurt like hell and even when it recalled its limbs, Sam’s body was left with a feverish feeling. He had lost half of his health this time and now it was steadily decreasing even more. There was a constant buzzing sound in his ear, like some small object was dunked into acid nearby. That’s when he noticed that his own health bar display in the upper left hand corner had the words POISONED over it in huge red letters. His health bar itself was deep purple now.
“Great. I’m going to die in the first few minutes of this game.”
And the worst part of it was that he knew it would hurt, more than any pain he’d felt before.
5 Yesterday
The previous day, 6:23pm.
As Sam was pulling the large cola out of the grocery bag, the cell phone that was also in his hand buzzed and somehow his useless hands dropped both the cola and the phone.
“I don’t even know how the hell I did that,” he said after a long sigh.
Sam cursed his horrid coordination, bad reflexes, horrible luck, and whoever was calling him at the moment. The cola was shaken, but he planned on putting it in the fridge anyway and his phone was still in good shape despite the horrible fall it took. This day just wasn’t going well for him, but it was just a microcosm of his life as a whole.
Where was his life headed? Suddenly, he didn’t know. He was feeling fine until his immature girlfriend had decided to break up with him for the umpteenth time. That wasn’t the bad part. He was fine with removing her from his life. All she ever brought him was confusion and some ridiculously high standards that even she didn’t understand. He was at the point now where even getting laid wasn’t worth dealing with her BS. He would’ve ended it soon himself if she hadn’t.
The bad part about the whole breakup was her deciding to do it over the phone while he was out grocery shopping even when he told her he’d talk about it later once he got home. She wouldn’t stop talking to let him get a word in. All he could do was listen to her yap about how much of a little boy he was and how he needed to grow up and outgrow videogames.
Not like it was his job to play the damn games. Not like he was using the cash from the jobs to further his art and design career. Not like he was maki
ng important contacts in the games industry with each and every job that he worked. No, he was simply wasting his time being a kid and not pursuing a real career, whatever that meant.
To a small degree, she was right, because he sat on the phone and listened to her crap, like a good little boy, for over an hour whilst angrily plodding through the store with his tiny basket. The five items he’d gathered by the end of the call did not warrant the hour-long stay roaming the aisles.
By the time he got home to his apartment, he was already exhausted. Today was supposed to be a good day. He wanted a good start and a good mood going into tomorrow’s gig since he counted on it being a fun one, but of course she had to ruin it.
He stared at his phone on the kitchen floor and waited for it to stop ringing before he picked it up. He had no desire to talk to Michelle again, now or ever, so he put the phone on the table with the projector facing downwards. He first put up the cola and the rest of his groceries then put the bags in the recycler under the counter. He finally picked up his phone after and checked to see who called, in case it wasn’t Michelle. It was actually his sister, Rui, who’d called, and was now calling right back. He answered on the first ring.
“Hello.”
“You’re too good to answer my first call now?” His sister sounded like a pixie. The phone couldn’t contain her crazy energy. Her voice came through so loud he had to move the phone away from his ear a little.
“Come on, Ru, I don’t need your shit right now too.”
He decided to put the phone on the table to project her image.
“Project, Ru!” he said strongly. He then sat down and watched the phone project his darling little sister as an aqua blue 3D image. She was lying down somewhere, probably her bed or the living room sofa, with an annoyed look on her face.