Yvvaros: The Digital Frontier (16 page)

It’s… real.

Luke blinked several times and took a deep breath, feeling the air actually rush into his lungs. The room smelt of fresh wood and dry sand and his body felt hot, as though he was at the beach on a summer afternoon. He stared down at his hand and flexed his fingers, feeling a chill run down his spine as he watched the wrinkles on his palm shift from the movement.

He was no longer in Ben’s room. He was in the guild hall, the same guild hall that he had worked to build up the day before, and there was nothing surreal or unconvincing about it.

“Ben? I mean, Silverstrike…?”

After a moment, Luke saw his friend’s avatar walk over to him from across the room. With the old headset, he’d noticed Ben’s mannerisms and body language bleeding through into his in-game character, but never to this extent. After a mild episode of cognitive dissonance that was only reconciled by pure strength of will, Luke nodded to his friend, accepting him as him.

“Come on,” said Silverstrike. “Let’s go outside.”

Luke felt unbelievably unnerved as he walked out of the guild hall and into the area surrounding their little oasis. His stomach felt on edge, but in the exact opposite of the usual way, as if it was threatening to take in what he was seeing rather than pushing it out.

The heat was dry and a bit oppressive. The sand sunk and shifted underneath his feet, and tiny ants scurried about a couple of feet away, more visible and convincing than they’d ever been before. Luke could hear the wind in the distance, and see the air wavering on the horizon to the south where the desert grew even hotter.

“This is… unbelievable.” Luke shook his head and looked over at Silverstrike, who was grinning from ear to ear. “This is real. This is no different from walking around in the real world.”

A mild feeling of claustrophobia began to build inside Luke’s chest, intensifying as a single thought began to echo inside his head.

What if I can’t log out? What if I can’t go back?

It felt like he was in a dream that he couldn’t wake up from, and even though it wasn’t necessarily a bad one, the lack of control added a sense of vulnerability to every second. Luke took another deep breath and looked back at Silverstrike, who didn’t seem to be sharing his concerns.

“This is perfect!” he cried. “Kato, let’s go check out the rest of the zone! Let’s go for a swim in the oasis.”

Kato… That’s who I am in this world.

Luke turned and made eye contact with Ben, Silverstrike. There was something shared with his friend’s eyes, a sense of understanding, mixed with acceptance. Silverstrike nodded to him, and then ran over to the oasis and climbed in.

Luke walked over to where he was and just stared. Silverstrike’s clothes were wet, and even though the water was not that deep, he let out a deep, satisfied laugh.

“Come on, get in!” Silverstrike smiled at Luke. “Trust me, you won’t regret it. We’re in the desert, and the water is perfect.”

We’re in the desert… We are, aren’t we?

Luke stepped forward into the clear pool, feeling the fresh water soak into his shoes. It was unreal but real. It was exciting and scary at the same time, Luke’s awe and unease began to fight for control as he moved to where Silverstrike was and slowly lowered himself into a seat beside him.

“This is too weird,” he said. “How much of this is… believable?”

“It all is,” said Silverstrike. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Silverstrike gestured to the sand and desert all around them and then slapped his palm flat against the water.

“This is a world just like ours, Kato. The only difference is the perspective we enter it with.”

Luke shrugged.

“It’s convincing, sure, but…” He looked into the water again. “It’s still just a game in the end.”

“Maybe.” Silverstrike leaned his arm back against the sand and watched intently as tiny grains of it stuck to the wet drops dripping from his skin. “This water we’re in right now… we need it, even in the game.”

Luke nodded, and he continued.

“I’m not sure if you noticed, but the small animals of the desert, the mice, the rodents, the hoppers, they need water, too. I’ve seen them come by the oasis before.”

That makes sense. They must also have stats, stamina bars to keep up.

“What’s your point?” asked Luke.

“I think we should be open to giving away the water in our zone.” Silverstrike paused, and for a moment Luke thought he was joking.

“Why in the world would we start doing that?” asked Luke. “Isn’t this what we just began a fight over?”

“We’ll do it because it’s a savvy political move,” said Silverstrike. “And we’ll do it because it’s the right thing to do. But we won’t give it away to just anyone.”

A small, scruffy looking mouse was approaching the opposite edge of the oasis from where the two of them were lounging. Luke watched as it slowly made its way over to the side of the water and began to drink.

“We should give water to solo players,” said Silverstrike. “And we should give water to guilds that are small, like ours.”

“It would certainly be a straightforward way to buy some loyalty,” said Luke. “I’m not opposed to that aspect of it.”

This is Ben, but he’s changed so much. He’s still Ben, but in-game, he is someone more than that. He’s Silverstrike.

“I’ve begun vetting some people for the guild.” Silverstrike looked abashed, as though he was concerned that Luke might get angry with him. “Don’t worry, the ones I’m considering will be an asset.”

I trust Ben, Silverstrike… Don’t I?

“Okay,” said Luke.

They would need more people to protect the guild hall. That was just a fact, and Luke didn’t dispute it. What clawed at the back of his mind was a growing sense of instability, pushing in between him and the new world just as he began to accept it.

We’re less than a week into this game, and we’re already fighting against other players. And the stakes feel as though they’ve been artificially raised to a level that’s beyond what Yvvaros should be capable of.

Something appeared in the corner of Luke’s vision and he instinctively flinched back. It was a tiny red envelope, the indicator that he’d received a new message. Luke climbed out of the oasis and began to dig through his bag. The contents were still somehow totally dry even though they had just followed him into a pool of simulated water. The message was from Tess.

Kato

Meet me in Stark Town. I found something you might be interested in.

Tess

Luke smiled. Silverstrike had walked back into the guild hall and was sitting at a table that Luke hadn’t seen before, scribbling away on a piece of parchment.

“Tess has got something for us,” said Luke. “You want to go check it out?”

Silverstrike shook his head.

“I’m setting up a preliminary guild meeting for later today,” he said. “There is another guild in the area, not the Rebels, but a friendly guild. They want to talk terms for the water.”

Luke nodded.

“You’re really taking to this diplomacy thing, aren’t you?”

Silverstrike didn’t look up from the parchment, but Luke saw the slightest hint of a smirk on his face.

“What can I say? There’s a lot of it to be done if we want to hold this zone.”

Luke left the guild hall and walked out into the dry, hot desert air. He could even feel his body sweating though it was hard for him to understand just why that had been included in the simulation.

I’m hungry, too. Or at least I feel like I am…

His stamina bar was down to a third of his maximum length. Luke walked over to the oasis, cupped his hands together, and scooped some water up to his mouth. It was cool and refreshing,  like the purest water he’d ever had in the outside world.

His stamina increased and he filled it even further by eating some bread from his bag, thick crusted and deliciously soft on the inside.

Alright, time to meet up with Tess.

Traveling in the game worked differently with the new headset on. Luke felt as though he had to pace himself as he moved across the desert, his feet sinking into the stamina sapping sand with every step.

Other players occasionally passed by and Luke would watch them, judging whether they were friendly or not by assessing them through their eye contact. It was much more revealing than it had been.

Stark Town was buzzing with activity, and the noise of a thousand different conversations created a vocal background hum. Luke felt like he was experiencing the city, actually experiencing it, for the first time. The sun was almost directly overhead, and it had the effect of creating a perfectly circular shadow from where Kantor blocked out the light above them.

“Kato!” Tess was standing next to a small merchant stall, holding what looked like a map. She waved to him and Luke hurried over.

“Hey,” he said. “What’s going on?”

Tess handed the map to him and smiled. Northern Stark Town was at the bottom of it, and the focus was on the area far to the north. It had been painted with watercolors. Luke could see how the light green of the Inner Plains slowly gave way to the white and blue of the northern mountainous regions and the tundra valley beyond them.

“This is the Blue Void,” said Luke. “Is that where we’re headed?”

He looked up at her and almost did a double take. The new headset had changed more than just how he saw the in-game world and felt the environment. Tess brushed a couple of strands of hair out of her face and smiled at him, not just with her beautiful lips, but with her eyes, too.

“I have to finish finding the crafting ingredients I need for the guild’s new carpet,” she said. “But I thought you might be interested in giving it a go.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Luke. “But what is it, exactly?

Tess stepped in closer to him. Luke could smell her scent, for the first time ever, and it was enough to make his heart start beating madly in his chest.

Calm down, it’s just Tess…

“There is a World Event taking place in the Blue Void. If you head through the mountain pass in between the Teeth of the North, you should be able to find it pretty easily..”

“What’s the event, though?” Luke scratched his head. “A snowman building contest? A sledding race?”

Tess laughed. The sound was sweet on Luke’s ears, like the ringing of a soft bell.

“They’re calling it, ‘The Winter Beast.' Some type of monster that has been making its way out of the blizzard zones in the far north toward the south. If you help fight it, you get a share of the bounty money for it, even if you don’t strike the killing blow.”

Luke smiled.

“That’s perfect. I’ll… get started right away.”

Contrary to his words, Luke stood right where he was for a moment longer. He couldn’t turn away, and it almost felt as though Tess’s gorgeous eyes were pulling him in. The area around them was crowded and full of noise, but the silence between them was powerful enough to drown all of it out.

Tess slowly leaned forward and into a kiss. Luke felt an explosion go off inside his chest. He let his hands rest on her hips, and he could feel the warmth of her body through her robe. She was soft and perfect.

“Tess…” He couldn’t keep from grinning as they parted.

“I need to shop!” Tess hopped backward and blew him a kiss. “I’ll see you later, Kato!”

This is amazing…

The journey north took longer than Luke had been expecting. He bought some extra food on the way out of Stark Town, and then slowly began traveling across the Inner Plains to the north. There were some other players headed in the same direction, toward the same goal, and it gave him a sense of being a part an expedition.

Some of the zones that were right outside of the Inner Plains had been claimed, with guild halls similar to the one in Dunidan’s Rest.

Luke fought off a couple of Yvva Wolves as he went. These were the same creatures that had given him and Silverstrike so much trouble at the start of the game. Now the fights were one sided he didn’t even need to use any of his combat abilities.

A thin rugged forest marked the boundary between the end of the Inner Plains and the start of the Blue Void. The ground was coated with a thin carpet of pine needles. As Luke made his way deeper into the woods, the canopy overhead blocked out most of the sun’s light. Unlike the Msitu Wilds, the forest in the north felt much emptier, quiet and barren.

The trek through the forest was filled with interludes of silence broken up by encounters with aggressive creatures and occasionally friendly encounters with other players. After about an hour, Luke spilled out to the other side. The trees didn’t slowly taper off, but rather, came to a stop altogether, as though there was a line past which they could not grow.

The mountains that loomed on the horizon like strange, snow dusted pyramids were the Teeth of the North. It was suddenly cold, colder than what Luke had been expecting, and the ground underneath him was frozen and dusted with fine powdered snow.

This is the Blue Void. It’s remote, even by the standards of Yvvaros.

Luke could see another player who had thought the trip through further than he had. He was wearing snowshoes and making good time toward a small gap in between the nearest two mountains.

Luke followed the player, taking high steps through the snow as it began to grow deeper and more troublesome to move through. After a minute or two, he was hopping forward instead of walking, mimicking the gait of a snow rabbit as he did his best to keep from disturbing the snow with his movements.

As he passed into the mountains, snow began to fall from the sky. Luke would have found it fun and exciting if it wasn’t for how cold he was. Instead of marveling at the work the developers, his father included, put into creating the unique snowflakes, he cursed and rubbed his hands together for warmth.

I just need to get to this Winter Beast, help take it down, and then get back.

Luke’s stamina bar drained more quickly in the tundra, and he found himself grateful for the extra food he’d brought with him. He munched on some dried beef as he went, ignoring the missing sliver from his health bar that the cold had also drained.

Ben had explained to him that it was part of how the game was designed. Typically, the further you traveled from Stark Town and Kantor, the more difficult it became to survive. The enemies in the outer zones were higher level, and the weather conditions were much less forgiving.

But the outer zones offered valuable incentives to make up for it. The resources were plentiful, and any players or guilds that managed to claim one for themselves would instantly become trade powerhouses. As far as Luke knew, there weren’t any guilds that had managed to push out more than five or six zones beyond Stark Town’s borders, at least not yet.

The mountain pass sloped downwards and Luke was able to travel forward at a quicker pace. He found himself wishing that he could build a makeshift sled to take straight to the bottom, like a happy child on a snow day.

The winds were whipping walls of white at the lower part of the pass, but Luke could still make out the clearing below.

The Blue Void… The name fits the scene perfectly.

Nobody had made it all the way across yet. In fact, from the rumors that Luke had heard, many players suspected that it might be used by the developers as space for further world building or events.

He could just make out a semi-circle of players at the bottom of the pass. Luke began running toward them. As he drew closer, he was able to see what was happening through the veil of falling snow.

The Winter Beast…

The creature that he was staring at was huge, at least thirty feet tall. It was covered with white fur with an oddly reflective property, almost neon. Its eyes were a mixture of jet black and purple. Spikes adorned the top of its head, like a crown made of halberds.

WINTER BEAST: One of the legendary monsters of Yvvaros. If left undefeated, it will eventually traverse the mountain pass through the Teeth of the North and begin a rampage that ends in Stark Town. Similar to many creatures in the Blue Void, it has a strange interdependent relationship with the Ancestor Glacier.

It was swatting aside players left and right. Its massive size made them look like stick figures in comparison. Luke willed himself to move forward. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and made the scene feel like it was playing out in slow motion. Doubt pushed against his every step, licking away at his courage as he continued his approach. The beast was massive.

Calm down. It’s just the new headset.

It was more than that, and Luke understood it on a base and instinctual level. He could feel what happened in the game now. He could smell something humid and metallic on the air as he walked by the bodies of defeated players, all of them past the point of saving.

The group attacking the beast was organized around it into different rings of proximity. Closest to it, the fighters, warriors, and knights danced at avoiding blows, occasionally launching into counter attacks that got them killed about as often as they made contact.

The next ring was composed of the ranged offensive players. Mages and archers were hailing down a torrent of projectiles and magic. The Winter Beast paid about as much mind to them as it did to the falling snow.

In the middle were the healers, which the monster seemed to take a particular pleasure in dispatching. They were running from fallen body to fallen body, casting revival spells, buffs, restoration magic, and anything else they could manage.

Luke sprinted forward, crouching and drawing his sword as he passed over downed players. The beast was turned slightly away from him but he saw it shift its attention as he approached.

“Move!” A knight wearing heavy armor and wielding a two-handed sword yelled at Luke as he passed by.

Luke ducked and rolled, his instincts kicking in as the Winter Beast slapped its grotesque, ten fingered paw down at him. He gripped his sword tightly in his hand and launched forward into the air, flying toward the creature’s arm and managing to cut it in retaliation.

“Go for the legs!” Another fighter on his left rolled in front of him. Luke nodded and charged in, taking advantage of the beast changing targets.

This is life or death. I’ll feel it, at least some of it, if it gets a hold of me.

He managed to get close enough with Pierce Attack 2 to strike a meaningful blow to its knees. Immediately he realized why he’d seen the other players only warily moving into that same range.

With surprising speed, the Winter Beast spun and focused back in on him. It wrapped its hands around Luke’s chest before he could react and lifted him into the air.

Fuck!

The other players nearby immediately went into an all-out offensive for his sake. Luke could see that it was too little, too late. The Winter Beast’s health bar was still above halfway.

“Graaaaaaaahhhh!” The creature let out a roar directly into Luke’s face, close enough for him to smell its putrid and humid breath.

CONJURE SWORD 2

Both of the magical blades sprang forward as Luke threw his hand out in the direction of the monster’s face. With impeccable aim, they struck both of the creature’s unnerving jet black eyes.

Luke didn’t realize just how high up he was until the beast let go. He flailed uselessly in the air, falling for what felt like an eternity before hitting the ground. He cracked his head against the hard ice and felt sharp pain shoot through his skull as his health bar slipped down to a third of its maximum length.

The Winter Beast stumbled back and all of the players rushed in. There were at least a hundred, maybe even more, and Luke picked himself up in time to charge in a second after. The creature pulled the conjured swords out of its eyes with surprising dexterity and then swung its arm into the approaching fighters.

The screams were jarring. Players flew through the air all around him. At least two of them were literally pulled into pieces.

“We… we have to retreat!” A couple of archers ran by him, headed away from the fray. Luke tightened his grip on his sword.

Too many players will die if we run…

An idea popped into his head, and he had just enough time to start putting it into action as the monster’s ice cracking footsteps began to draw near.

ELEMENTAL INFUSION: FIRE

Luke’s sword started to glow bright orange and a spiral of flames surrounded it. The heat from it was enough to make his hand sweat and his palm sting, but he kept it clutched tightly.

I’m only going to get one chance. Let’s hope this new skill works.

A couple of the remaining warriors were preparing to make a charge. Luke waited until they were midway toward the creature, timing his offensive so that he could strike right when it was the most distracted.

It knocked away the players quicker than he’d been expecting. Most of the ranged offensive units had fallen back, and the healers were all either dead or too distraught to be of any use. The beast turned and locked eyes with Luke, with Kato, as he sprinted out the final few steps in his approach.

This is it… If I get hit again, I’m out.

The beast swung. Luke dodged, and then counterattacked. The flame from his blade spread slightly to the creature’s fur and it flinched, stumbling back.

PIERCE ATTACK 2

Luke flew forward and struck again knocking the beast back even more. He glanced quickly behind him and saw that once again the healers were reviving people.

There is hope!

He continued forward and didn’t realize until it was too late that he’d taken a step too far. The Winter Beast was fast, and before Luke knew what was happening, its fist was coming down on him. It collided with his head and he crumpled to the ground.

Unfortunately, he still had health left, and the creature knew that, too. Luke was lifted into the air again, this time without any magicka left to fund his combat skills. He screamed as the beast gripped one of his wrists between two of its grotesque fingers and began to pull.

“Ahhhhhh!”

The arm separated at the elbow, and Luke felt pain beyond anything he had ever experienced before. He stopped screaming, his lungs suddenly empty and inanimate.

The creature squeezed him tighter and tighter, and then it reached its free hand back over and began to squeeze Luke’s head. The pain was unreal, and suddenly his eyes moved in separate paths across his face as the inevitable happened.

The black interlude between when he died and when he respawned was only a fraction of a second. This was what happened when a player was killed in a way that would rule out resurrection. Experiencing it instead of just hearing about it was enough to make Luke feel sick to his stomach.

Oh god, I just…

Luke sat down on the white marble stone of the Temple of Rygon and forced himself to breath deep. It was unbelievable, even though he perfectly understood the mechanics of it. The fear and pain he’d felt had been overwhelming.

I’m never going to forget that, even if I try to. My head… what did that thing do to my head?

He felt uncomfortable and violated, as if something essential had been stolen from him. The thought of heading back through the mountain pass, even just heading into the Blue Void, caused his conscious mind to scream in terror.

Dying isn’t then end in Yvvaros… but it’s still dying.