VOLUME 1

- CHAPTER 5 - PART 2 -

WHITE LABYRINTH

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Sorvak:­ ­ “I-… I- think they are gone,” – the boy says panting, looking at all sides with his golden eyes.

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “You sure?”

Sorvak:­ ­ “Yeah, there’s nothing near us anymore.”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “I used more than half of my energy just to run.” – The bulky man sits on the floor with a thud. – “If my character at least doesn’t level up after this dungeon I’ll be pissed off.”

Sorvak:­ ­ “The only mobs we killed were at the entrance, so I doubt that’s going to be the case.”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Tsk.”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Don’t be a downer, maybe it gives a good item in the end.”

I poke Elay’s back.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “So, hey. You can drop me now.”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “… Oh, right.”

She lifts my hips, throws me forward, and I fly until my back hits the ground with brute force.

[16##/3710]

[1445/3710]

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Ouch! You don’t need to be so damn rude!”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Ah- sorry, I clicked the wrong button.”

I stand up, patting the dust off my cloak.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Haha… funny.”

She suddenly walks closer, stopping a couple of steps in front of me, and stares up with her brave green eyes. I look at her with a frown, finally being able to see what she was wearing: it’s a pink adventurer's open dress coat with slightly whiter leather pads protecting her shoulders, elbows, and knees; a few belts surround her inner white shirt with a few small squared pouches on the side; and she’s apparently unarmed.

As suddenly as she came, she turns and walks back to her group.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Okay…”

Sorvak:­ ­ “Then what do we do now?”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “I thought he would say something about getting out of here, but if he doesn’t know, then…”

At the corner of my vision, I see that my health bar is roughly at a third.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Inventory.

I poke the air and the window appears, its visuals being identical to SFO’s: a greyish transparent panel with some details at the corners.

I open the Consumables tab and double-tap one item, but my finger passes through the untouchable screen. I wasn’t sure if that would do the trick but the square slot shines white. Whatever, instead of using it, an entire loaf of bread comes sliding out to my hands.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “What the--” – The bread almost falls from my fingers.

Sorvak:­ ­ ­“Uh- We probably need to walk a little more, now that we have him the true path might unlock.”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Tsk… ‘might’, if he wasn’t an NPC I would have killed him already, what a waste of time.”

I take a furious bite off the rubbery bread.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “I did save your butt not a minute ago, you know.”

[15##/3710]

[16##/3710]

[1731/3710]

Interestingly enough, the bread tastes quite good, like it just came out of the oven, but it’s still too dry.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Who fucking cares? These NPCs….”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Mark, control your anger, it’s not his fault.”

I gulp the bread with difficulty and I leave it half done back to my Inventory, pushing it against the transparent popup to its inexistence, then the bread’s icon reappears in the item list, being partially consumed. I poke for a red potion, it slides into my hands, but unlike before, I take it without any surprises.

I take off its stopper and the smell of sugary blood invades my lungs. I close my nostrils with my fingers and reluctantly drink it.

Sorvak:­ ­ “Well, it’s an improvement, we didn’t see anything else in the entire dungeon, doing this must be useful, somehow.”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Whatever. Let’s just keep moving, if nothing happens in five minutes I’m quitting the game. Fuck this dungeon.”

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Hm--! What?” – I almost choke with the health potion. – “You guys can quit the game? I tried before and it didn’t work.”

The Ogre’s grip flashes back to my mind, and my screams to disconnect. I’m pretty sure that if I could disconnect, something would have happened there, even if it was an error of some sort. That’s when I remember the Orb’s list of rules, and I change tabs on the Inventory.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “It is in the rules, isn’t it?”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “What the fuck is he talking about?”

The other two remain silent.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “It’s the tenth rule, [The player can’t leave such character until this ability is used again], see? You can’t leave.” – I frown reading the rule a second time. – “Whatever ‘until this ability is used again’ means. Oh, and besides, only the Character and Inventory menus can be accessed, the main one, -what was the name of it again?- the one for you to quit it or change the settings, you can’t open it.”

I look at them, noticing they are all staring at me with seriousness.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­“What? You guys didn’t know? You seriously came in and thought: ‘Cool, let’s play the game that just a minute ago was on my PC, but now I can use my body that feels real pain to do dungeons’?”

They don’t respond.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Like seriously. Or maybe you guys… do you know how to disconnect?”

But they only keep staring at me.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “It’s just me, or the NPC is responding us?” – he says in a rough voice.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “… This again? I said it already, I’m not an NPC. What’s up with you guys? I’m real,” – I point at my chest. – “I was a player and I picked this item--, what was it?” – I scroll up. – “Orb of Samsara, then I got transferred inside the game. Didn’t that happen to you guys?”

The corridor falls silent for a moment.

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “This is creepy, guys.”

Sorvak:­ ­ “T-That’s… That’s amazing.” – He straightens his glasses.

Mark stomps the floor to stand, his heavy steps shaking the ground just like the Ogres that were chasing us a while ago.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “What the fuck,” – he says in a deep stern voice. – “SFO is making NPCs hear our microphones? That shouldn’t be a thing.”

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Wait-- what do you mean by that?” – I step back.

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “We aren’t talking in-game, though. How the--” – She stops herself.

Two of them become static and Mark strides forth, only halting when he’s right in front of me and I feel the cold wall at my back, my legs lose their strength and I fall on my butt to the floor.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “He says he is a player. Ogres are following him. And this crazy shit labyrinth…” – He looks down at me with anger. – “Steven, could this guy be the final boss?”

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “What?- Where that came from?”

Sorvak:­ ­ “Uhm…”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “It makes sense right? You said something about this being a trial that people would need to kill each other, maybe this is what it means.”

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “It doesn’t! Listen to yourself!--”

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “But-- what if he’s telling the truth?”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “A player transferred inside the game?” – he says ironically.

Elay:­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “It’s-”

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “-Are you serious? You are reacting to too much anime lately, that’s why you’re not thinking straight.”

Steven grips his staff tighter, looking down at his feet quietly.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Is he really an NPC? I don’t know what the devs are doing by making the game detect our microphones without our permission, maybe it’s the new update or something. But I tell you, I won’t be losing my character because you guys trusted a damn monster shifter.”

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “I-I’m not a monster shifter! That doesn’t even exist in the game, what are you saying? You guys aren’t in the game like me? You are, aren’t you? You guys are pranking me, right?”

Elay stares at me with fearful eyes, clasping her trembling hands against her chest.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “This… This is a prank, right? You guys are like me… transferred inside the game. You are players, not NPCs like that guy that gave me the orb, you guys--… you guys actually talk as if you were playing a game….”

I look up, to Mark grabbing the single-headed battle-axe from his back, grasping it tightly with both his giant hands as red flames burst out at the weapon’s back, mirroring the blade as a second elemental head.

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “There’s only one way of knowing it…” – He lifts the axe towards the ceiling. – “An NPC doesn’t receive damage from players. If he’s not a monster, he won’t have a scratch on him. You two ready yourselves.”

Mark waits two more seconds, hesitating to see if anyone would have any better ideas, but there’s only silence.

That’s when his muscles grow in anger and, with its blade aimed downwards, the axe cuts the air with violence.

His strike hits the stone with brute force, sinking his blade into the broken floor.

­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ “Wait,” – I say behind him, blue particles sparkling around me and where I was but an instant ago. – “We can talk about this.”

The entire place begins to tremble. Mark heavily lifts his axe off the ground, turning to face me and opening his mouth to yell:

Mark:­ ­ ­ ­ “Elay! Steven! Wake the fuck up. This is the final boss, I can feel it. If we take him down, the dungeon is over.”

I look around, seeing the source of all the trembling.

The corridors are widening up, they also realize that, all of us glance around at the walls being pushed back to become something like a wide squared room, the corridor paths close into walls, and, when the rumbling ends, the golden baseboards turn red.

The four of us stand silently in this big squared arena, them nearest to the walls in a triangle around me, and me right at the center of it all. But most importantly, there isn’t a single exit to run away to.

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