Real World – Kai Maddox

  Putting down the helmet once more, Kai took a glance at his phone’s clock—11:30 PM.

  These jumps are starting to mess with my head. I've been rushing around for an hour and a half now. I'm definitely as tired from those conversations as if I had actually talked with people that whole time. It certainly doesn’t feel like only half an hour has passed. Well, I'm not rushing toward anything now. I’ve got a whole month until I go after Kaizo. I should remember that it’s actually a month and not three months… I'd kill myself if I forget again.

  Kai spent a few minutes scrolling through his phone, eventually finding Phantasm’s profile. He debated sending a message but reasoned that he should wait until he was well-rested to avoid saying something stupid by mistake. It didn’t help that seeing Phantasm’s profile picture reminded him of who he was trying to contact in the first place.

  It was an image of an old manga character. From what Kai knew—and from general consensus—it was a great story with themes of redemption and acting kindly in a world that seemed to have forgotten such things. But he was pretty sure Phantasm had simply chosen the image because it looked cool, which, to be fair, it certainly was.

  It was strange that he hadn’t realized before—Emilia might have been a reference by the devs to that manga.

  Kai sat on his bed for a few more minutes before starting a light exercise routine. He had tried to follow through with his new training regimen but had completely forgotten about it for the last two days. The lack of sleep and almost no real movement had probably done more harm to him than whatever he had gained so far from training.

  Still, at least he was able to convince himself to train more easily than he had at the very beginning.

  Another half an hour passed as Kai watched videos until he noticed the late hour and went to sleep.

  He arrived at class first, as usual. In Kai's opinion, tardiness was always a matter of rudeness and mismanagement. His friends would probably arrive in a few minutes, so with nothing better to do, he checked the news, skimming through the headlines.

  It was mostly the usual—celebrity stories, economic opinion pieces, and reports. At first, he thought he had quickly jumped to the science section because he saw a mention of the Institute of Science in one of the headlines. But then he reread it:

  "Computer Lab Explosion at the Institute of Science."

  Normally, Kai would have dismissed it as a sensationalist headline on a slow news day, but it was near the top of the page. Curious, he clicked the link.

  The synopsis at the top provided a brief summary along with an image showing the aftermath of the explosion. It was nothing like he had assumed—the entire lab was hit. The picture must have been taken moments after the event, as smoke was still rising.

  "Details are unknown yet, but the occupants of the lab—who were thankfully unharmed, as the incident occurred while they were absent—have suggested the incident to be a sophisticated cyber-terror attack, citing a few similar incidents in the past year. However, with the subject of their research becoming obsolete due to the advent of Infinite Dendrogram, some postulate that it could be an insurance scam."

  Who in their right mind would try to scam insurance on a computer lab? Kai thought. Probably just some extra drama the news is injecting to make it more newsworthy.

  As Kai continued reading the article, Tam approached him and reached out to tap his forehead, trying to get his attention. Kai took a step back, avoiding the nudge.

  "I saw you coming. Just reading something," he said.

  "What is it? Another fantasy book?" Tam asked sincerely.

  "Actually, no… I forgot to charge my e-book. Did I tell you what I've been up to for the last two days?"

  "No, but I assume it has to do with your fight with that Phantasm kid?"

  "We didn’t talk the whole time I was training. How do you know about my fight?"

  "Same way I knew about the raid. That streamer was in the crowd. Congrats on breaking the 10K wall so fast."

  "Wait, so the whole thing was filmed? Including that ending?"

  "Ah, yeah. Though the audio wasn’t the best, you could make it out on a rewatch."

  "So now everyone who watched that fight thinks I’m a toxic player to avoid?"

  "I don’t know about that. When it came out, opinions were split. Most of the people who watched the video came from the raid video first, so I think it was biased in your favor anyway. And the streamer also uses the channel for blogging, so he gave his own opinion after the whole thing. I still think they were a bit harsh. Phantasm has been a toxic troll even before the raid. I assumed maybe you knew all about it before the fight. But still, they didn’t say anything strictly bad about you," Tam surmised.

  "You should contain your violent outbursts better, maybe," he added with a smirk.

  "You know I’m joking when I say those," Kai replied, shaking his head. "But it’s good to hear I’m not a pariah. I do deserve a lot of it, though. Mind helping me write something to apologize to Phantasm?"

  "I don’t think trying to ambush him on Dendro is a good way to apologize."

  "No, I got his chat profile from someone. Actually, that’s probably the weirdest encounter I had after the fight ended the way it did. I tried to find someone who knew Phantasm, and I thought the group of people all dressed in black and wearing edgy coats like him would know how to contact him. But apparently, they’re a bunch of 'lone wolves.' They wanted to invite me to their group, which—honestly—I can’t imagine why they thought I’d agree to after what I said to Phantasm."

  Tam interrupted him. "Have you looked at your avatar in a mirror?"

  "What, I can’t thin myself out? I know I have a problem. Actually, I’ve started working on it."

  "Okay, well, congratulations. But I really didn’t mean that. I meant your coat. It’s a duster. You look like a final boss henchman—and not the cool, honorable-defeat kind."

  "Oh. Oh no… I really do look like that," Kai groaned. "And it wasn’t even worth it. The coat is stiff and hard to move in. And it’s heavy, even though I have decent STR for my level."

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  "I checked your build, and it’s below average for a frontliner. But that’s fine. The coat, though? Yeah, that’s not great if that’s not the look you were going for," Tam said with a grin.

  "Wait, what were we talking about?" he asked quickly.

  "The group of edgy kids I thought knew Phantasm. Anyway, after I told them that they shouldn't throw Phantasm out just because he lost, and that what I said to Phantasm could, in part, apply to them too, they attacked me. They’re really bad at the game."

  "Maybe your standards are screwed from fighting in the arena for a whole week, but you know you're actually insane in a fight, right? Where the hell is that even coming from? You got bullied in high school—you probably could've fought back."

  "One, I’d been training in capoeira for years before quitting when I got to high school. Two, do you remember who was actually in our grade? We had seven kids who almost broke the pull-up and running records, and two of them actually did break those records. Three, I don’t know… even as I am now, I can throw kicks with alright form and do flying cartwheels. In Dendro, my body feels so light, and I don’t really need to worry about getting hurt, so it’s just much easier like that."

  "Eh, I guess that's fair. Wait—you can really do a flying cartwheel?"

  "Yes. I can show you in a sec. Now let me just finish. Anyway, I got them to back off and was blindly looking for a clue when a group of players ran into me. They were Phantasm’s old team. They seriously hate him. Hopefully, they just never run into each other again. But their leader did have Phantasm’s profile. It’s actually kind of funny—it’s the same name. I guess I should’ve known."

  "Yeah, well, maybe what you said was correct… just in the wrong circumstances. Wait—where are you going?"

  "To show you I can do a cartwheel," Kai answered, as if it were obvious.

  Kai put aside his backpack and glasses before jumping—his left leg kicking up high as his right leg pushed him off the ground. His past practice helped his form, but it had been years since he could do the move correctly. Instead of stretching his feet outward in opposite directions from his head, they were tucked close, and his chest was raised away from the floor so he could land on his feet more easily.

  Still, the move was impressive to Tam and the others who had just walked in through the gate toward the academy building. Some of them asked how he'd done it, and he explained once again that he had practiced for several years before stopping a few years ago but still remembered the techniques.

  The day passed unremarkably. They received the dates for their upcoming tests, confirming to Kai that he wouldn’t have nearly as much free time as he had last week. With a test every week for the next month, some subjects required no studying at all, while one completely stumped him. Worse, he didn’t even have anyone to ask for help—everyone else was just as confused as he was.

  As usual at the start of the week, Kai stopped by the cinema and the connected mall to grab something to eat. He noticed a new stand near the cinema entrance. Previously, there had been a VR experience pod there, but it had been replaced by a pair of chairs equipped with Infinite Dendrogram helmets, each connected to a small TV screen.

  Good riddance. Those pods were more nausea-inducing than a carousel. This is kind of cool, though. I guess it’s set up to be a live feed of whoever plays. Maybe I’ll check it out another time.

  As he walked through the mall, he also noticed ads for a movie that had been fully shot in Infinite Dendrogram.

  That sounds stressful. The game’s only been out for 11 months—even if they started shooting on release, that’s less than three years of development, not even counting whatever they had to set up in the game to make it possible. It’s probably crap, then. Feels like the whole world is caught up in Infinite Dendrogram though… Actually, I really hope that movie fails, or the industry might start using the game as a cost-saving measure to underpay employees.

  As Kai ate his lunch, he stared at the empty chat with Phantasm, trying to decide what to say.

  There’s nothing really linking me to my in-game identity, so maybe I should just try talking to him without saying I’m Sheko right away.

  KaijuMonster: "Hi, I watched your fight in the arena yesterday and wanted to offer my condolences for how it ended up. You were actually fighting pretty well, even in the second round—just not as much."

  Kai continued eating, unbothered, until he noticed Phantasm was typing.

  Phantasm: "Yeah, well, I don’t need your worries. I will show that idiot. The arena was totally unfair for me. If he knew any better, he would’ve just shut up and given me my stuff."

  KaijuMonster: "I was just checking in on you. So, are you fine?"

  Phantasm: "I’ll be fine when I crush him. Does that answer your question? How did you even find me?"

  KaijuMonster: "I asked one of your friends after the duel because I was worried. It looked like you weren’t fine back then."

  Phantasm: "Whoever told you I’m his friend lied to you. My actual friends don’t share real-life contact information. What we do offline is our business only."

  I don’t know if it’s better that he considers them his friends or worse, since they were pretty ready to throw him away after his televised tantrum.

  KaijuMonster: "Yeah, ‘friends’ was totally the wrong word. They were actually pretty insensitive. I guess you parted ways on bad terms?"

  Phantasm: "You could say that. They used me to finish quests for them while I did all the heavy lifting. Then, they made up a bunch of stuff to be angry about, insulted me, and tried to kill me. I easily kicked their asses since they were hopeless without me, but they still try to ambush me from time to time."

  Both sides are bad, and I can’t even guess how much of what he’s saying is a complete lie. What does he actually tell himself happened in the raid? I guess I should segue back to the topic of myself anyway.

  KaijuMonster:"Well, I’ll remember that if I see them again. Is Sheko linked to that group or something? How did you end up fighting him?"

  Phantasm: "The usual grinding spots dried up for a few days about a week ago, so I went to grind in the crystal caves. I beat a monstrous dracolich in one of the caves, and it revealed a crystal door. I figured that since there are six sub-caves like the one I was in, if each boss was beaten, the door would open.

  I tried opening it on my own—got like five or six of them down—but then the timer reset. So, I talked with a few other players to beat the last two bosses I needed. They forced me to team up with, like, twenty other players, but those were their terms, so I agreed. Sheko and his team of NPCs joined us for that.

  Honestly, that should’ve made me suspicious already. NPCs are weak, so only someone trying to look like they had a team would get NPCs like that. Anyway, I ended up waiting for the other players to beat the bosses, even though I could’ve done it just as fast alone, and I wanted to fight the boss already.

  Long story short, he died in the fight along with most of the other weaklings. I tried to collect the loot, but he must have set his NPCs to target me or something, because they immediately jumped on me. I was already tired from beating the boss, so my MP was low, and they stun-locked me to death. Then, they stole my stuff and forced me to duel them to get it back. I think that was his whole goal from the start—what with his hired NPCs and sending them after me."

  Wow, those are a lot of delusions. He’s about as fast as me, but the caves aren’t completely trivial to traverse. I could probably run through all of them in ten minutes, but not while avoiding monsters and beating the bosses. And considering his combat prowess, neither could he.

  Also, does he think Mai is an NPC? She has a giant Raggedy following her around and wears a white dress everywhere. Before I got the ridiculous coat, I could understand someone mistaking me for an NPC if they missed Odysseus on my hand, but Mai? Really? And he completely ignored the fact that he was taking my loot. Then, he thinks I set up a trap just to force him into a fight?

  Calm down. Don’t let this just become an argument.

  KaijuMonster: "That’s rough, but are you sure that’s really what he planned? Seems to me like he mostly got pissed because you made the raid harder by triggering it early. I don’t know… he actually seemed pretty worried after the fight. He left a loot chest behind before logging off, and some other player went down to take it. Maybe it’s the loot he was supposed to give you back?"

  Phantasm: "How did they look? Either way, I don’t know… but at least if that smurf isn’t holding onto the chest now, I can probably find that player and take it. Just tell me what they looked like."

  KaijuMonster: "They wore a white dress and had a large doll walking beside her. She left after that, but I think I heard her say she’d put the chest in the Silly Daredevil’s vault."

  Phantasm immediately disconnected from the chat after that.