Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (9 page)

They treat me like I’m a legend, or a myth. I’m just a teenager, playing a game.

“A lot of people look up to you, and admire what you stand for,” said Kaoru. “I realize that it probably feels like an unnecessary weight to bear from your perspective, but to the ordinary player, you represent hope.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Luke took a deep swig from his mug. Kaoru watched him for a moment, and then stood up.

“It’s late,” he said. “I should be going.”

Luke glanced up at him in surprise.

For some reason, I had just assumed that he was one of the players that had gone all in.

“The soonest I’ll be able to log back in is early tomorrow afternoon.” He swept his gaze across the group. “Can I have your answers by then?”

Luke nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “We’ll come to a decision.”

“Alright. See you then.”

Kaoru blinked out of existence in an instant, and Luke began to feel the extent of his own fatigue. Tess was sitting next to him and leaned against his shoulder.

“It’s okay if you want to log out, too,” she said. “I’m going to get some sleep of my own.”

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He kissed her on the forehead.

“See you tomorrow, Luke.”

Luke said his farewells to Silverstrike, Katrina, and the others in Dunidan’s Rest, and then pulled out his journal and signed off. Instantly, he was back in his room, back in the empty house, and back in the physical reality.

CHAPTER 9

It was night time in the real world, just like it had been in Yvvaros. Luke stood up from his desk slowly, feeling his joints creak and his muscles ache from being still for so long.

I spend more of my waking hours in-game than I do out of it. My body… what’s the point of even having it?

He was tired, but something kept him from being able to climb into bed immediately. Kaoru’s plan was still fresh in his mind, and part of it was going to force him to pay attention to a problem that he’d been ignoring since he left the hospital over a week ago.

Luke walked out of his room, his legs feeling a bit unsteady, as though he’d just stepped off a long bus ride. He made his way first to the kitchen, making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he wolfed down in seconds. He made another one using the last of his bread and walked to his father’s room.

It looked almost exactly like it had the last time Luke had been there. The blood from his attempt at going all in had been left for him to clean up, a visceral reminder of the events of that day. The wood floor was faintly stained, but much easier to look at than it had been when he’d returned from the hospital.

The only thing missing from the room was the one thing that Luke needed most. He’d been using his dad’s laptop to enter Yvvaros when he’d tried to go all in. It had gone to the hospital with him, and after that, it had just disappeared.

My father must have come back to grab it during the night, while I was in the ICU. He cared more about the laptop than he did about me, or about explaining himself and saying goodbye.

Luke sighed, and took a seat on his dad’s bed. The more involved he became in Yvvaros, the harder it became to deal with the real world. He felt lonely and exposed. The fact that he was in the house that he’d grown up in did nothing to change that.

The top drawer of his father’s dresser had been left open. It was directly next to the bed, and Chris Smith had apparently used it as a bed stand. A couple of coins were scattered across the top, along with some beer caps and assorted garbage.

Luke walked over to it and pulled the drawer open. He hadn’t been expecting to find anything, and it took him a second to identify the object that was sitting on top of the roughly folded clothes inside.

That’s a USB drive…

He picked it up and then walked back to his own room. It had been a little while since he’d used his computer for anything other than Yvvaros. He plugged the storage device in and waited a moment for his laptop to bring up the file explorer.

“…What?”

There was a single zip file on the drive. Luke double clicked on it. A password box popped up, and he frowned.

Why would dad have a password protected archive on a USB drive?

Luke tried every password he could think of, each of them failing to open the zip file. It was frustrating, like being on the verge of discovering a treasure and running into a locked door. After a while, he yawned and realized just how tired he was. He shut his computer, and finally made his way over to his bed to get the sleep that his body sorely needed.

The morning came sooner than he’d been expecting. Luke slowly and groggily pulled himself up, feeling as though it had been days since he’d taken a proper shower.  It was already almost 7:30. If he wanted to make it to school on time, he’d have to leave immediately.

That’s if I want to make it to school on time, or at all.

He didn’t rush, taking his time in the shower and even shaving the stubble that had been accumulating on his face. There were precious few clean clothes left in his house, he made do with what he could find.

I don’t need to look fashionable anymore.

Luke made his way downstairs. He felt slightly overwhelmed as he walked into the kitchen. It had been days since he’d done the dishes. He still hadn’t bought any food and there was very little left of what had been in the pantry after his father disappeared.

Maybe I’ll just let myself starve, die while playing Yvvaros, and go all in through the laziest method possible.

The thought was unnerving rather than comforting, and it made him think of Ben. He’d been growing worried about his friend, his real life friend, over the past few days. What Tess had told him in-game had only amplified his concerns.

Luke grabbed a couple handfuls of stale cereal to wolf down before leaving his house. He was headed toward Ben’s, which took him in the same direction as his high school. He spotted a couple of students headed down the sidewalk who looked like they had woken up late. Luke did his best to avoid eye contact.

From the outside, Ben’s house didn’t look any different than it had back when Emily still had a physical body, and all of their lives were mostly balanced and normal. The inside was just as messy as it’d been when Luke had seen it the other day. It made Luke a little angry to see just how little had changed.

I don’t think Ben has spent more than a couple of hours outside of Yvvaros since his parent’s left.

Sure enough, Ben was at his computer when Luke made his way up to his room. He had his VR headset on, and his body was still and limp, as though in a deep coma. Luke walked over and pulled it off, only hesitating for a moment before concern for his friend’s health outweighed fear of his reaction.

“What? Jesus fuck!” Ben shivered and then fell forward out of his chair. He let out a deep moan and looked as though he was about to throw up.

“Hey, remember me?” asked Luke. “Your best friend? I’m here in real life.”

“Luke…” Ben took a deep breath and then pushed the air out of his lungs. “That’s not cool, man. You can’t just come over and surprise me like that.”

“It’s not exactly like I can call, or knock on your front door,” said Luke. “And if I’d gotten in touch with you in-game, you would have insisted that we talk there.”

Ben looked thin, frail, and unhealthy. His skin was pale, and he’d lost enough weight to make it look as though he was combatting a serious illness. He glared at Luke before standing up and pulling his desk drawer open. He then pulled out a bottle of liquor and a small wax envelope.

He is suffering. He’s only gotten worse since Emily left…

“So what’s this about?” asked Ben. He opened the bottle and took a large swig from it, and then began doling out a line of powder on his desk.

“It’s about you, grumpy.” Luke frowned. “It’s about your health, mental and physical. I’m worried about you, Ben. Tess, Emily, is worried about you too.”

Ben scoffed, and then snorted the line that he’d carefully set out for himself. Luke wasn’t sure if it was coke, heroin, or something else, and for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

“You mean the NPC version of my sister?”

“Ben, that’s not true and you know it.” Luke glared at him. “If you would talk to her, listen to what she has to say, you’d be able to see it for yourself.”

“All I know is what I see, Luke.” Ben shook his head. “If it really is her, then that’s great. But she still abandoned me. She still left me here, in an empty house. She fucked me over, Ben, just like your dad did to you.”

Luke couldn’t think of anything to say to that.

He’s not entirely wrong.

“We have to keep moving forward, Ben,” he finally managed. “And part of that involves taking our lives and our health seriously. Or…”

Or what? Should I tell him to consider going all in, killing himself in the name of transcendence?

“Luke, you’re like the brother I never had.” Ben turned and locked eyes with him. “But please, mind your own fucking business.”

Luke sighed and then turned and left the room.

He wasn’t sure how to feel on the walk home. Besides promising Tess that he would, he wasn’t quite sure why he’d gone to talk with Ben to begin with. In a sense, they’d already crossed over. Their real world problems didn’t hold as much weight as what they were up against in-game, and there was no way for him to argue that Ben should take his life more seriously without exposing his own hypocrisy.

Luke slowed as he neared his house. Part of him knew he should go to the grocery store, but the other part of him wanted to get back into Yvvaros.

He walked up the steps and headed in through the front door.

A couple of minutes later, he was at his desk, clicking through the game’s login screen on his laptop. He hit enter, and then pulled on his headset.

Luke was back in Dunidan’s Rest. It was around the same time that it had been in the real world, maybe a little bit earlier. As always, the skies over the desert were blue and cloudless. The air was still, and the desert dryness gave the environment a stale feeling.

The settlement was practically empty. Only the blacksmith and the merchant who ran the general store were in the courtyard. Instead of heading toward the guild hall, Luke walked over to the gate and pushed his way out of it.

Tess wasn’t far outside of the compound, sparring with a group of Sand Scamps. Luke tensed up when he saw her and started to run to her aid, but slowed when it became apparent that she wasn’t in any danger. He watched her for a minute, appreciating how easy it was for her to defeat the creatures.

She was dodging their attacks and barely striking back, taking her time as she landed counters with her staff. She glanced up and saw Luke, and then suddenly began chanting. A split second later, a bright white light blasted out of her staff and zeroed out all of the creature’s health bars.

“Hey Luke.” Tess waved to him cheerfully as she approached. “I wasn’t expecting you until later today.”

“Yeah, I didn’t end up going to…” Luke paused. “I mean, I managed to get in-game early.”

She doesn’t need to know that I’m skipping school to be here.

“Cool.” Tess held her staff horizontally against the small of her back.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you out here,” said Luke.

“Where else would I be?” Tess skipped the last few steps over to him and pinched his cheek. “I live in Yvvaros now, in case you forgot.”

“No, I just mean…” Luke frowned. “Arbiters patrol the Sarchia Desert regularly now.”

“They’re like clockwork,” said Tess. “The next patrol won’t be by for another hour or so. Besides, it’s boring being stuck in Dunidan’s Rest all day. I’m trying to grind up to level 24.”

Level… 24

“How the hell did you get so far ahead of me?” Luke brought his palm to his face immediately after the words had left his mouth. “Oh right, you’ve had more time to level than I have.”

“More than a bit.” Tess leaned in and kissed him. “Don’t overthink it too much. I was older than you back in the real world. It’s only fair for me to be a bit stronger than you in-game.”

“Just because you’re a higher level than me does not mean that you’re stronger.”

Tess just smiled at him.

“Anyway, I need to help Anna out at the smithy in a couple of minutes.” She started walking back toward the  gate. “The other nice thing about being all in is that it gives me time to train my crafting skills.”

“That does sound nice.”

But what about all of the downsides? What about the Arbiters?

Luke watched Tess head off. He waved to her as she made her way back into Dunidan’s Rest. Luke turned his thoughts to plans of his own. It had been a while since he’d had a chance to go exploring, and he already had an idea about where to head.

If we’re going to be taking on the Arbiters, it wouldn’t hurt to upgrade our defenses. For that, we’re going to need, wood, stone, steel, and especially clay.

Clay was the most labor intensive resource to gather in bulk, and so Luke decided to go after it first. The only place on the main continent of Yvvaros that had it in good supply was Farswick’s Folly, the mudflats on the southern end of the Sarchia Desert.

After munching some bread and beef jerky to max out his stamina meter, Luke started off in that direction. The sand was coarse, and dunes filled the landscape as he passed from zone to zone.

Most of these zones used to be held by the Revolutionary Rebels.

Luke thought back to his encounter with the aggressive guild. They had been completely focused on getting ahead in the game, bullying smaller guilds including The Consulate. It was a strategy that made more sense back when Yvvaros had been just a game, and not the UN occupied digital province that it had turned into after the Battle of Kantor.

The last Luke had heard, another guild had moved in on the Revolutionary Rebel’s turf and seized most of their zones. Luke didn’t have to worry as he made his way further into the dry, barren desert. Fighting the sinking sand took about as much energy as fighting an enemy guild would have.