GAME OVER

 

>RESTART?

 

I thought dying would be enough to exit the game, giving me a chance to talk to Somi again and getting more pointers, but I was wrong. The only option I was given in the pitch black Game Over screen was to restart, which didn't make sense. If there was no other option, then why bother asking me what I wanted?

I used this moment of nothingness to take a breather.

The arrow Dahyun had shot into my brains wasn't there anymore, but what remained was some kind of phantom pain. I tried to touch my forehead with my real life hand, hoping to give myself some kind of comfort after the headshot, but I was wearing the headset, so I wasn't able to do that without adjusting it. Then I realized... I couldn't feel anything at all. The fingers I moved around during the attempt to touch my forehead felt nothing, and I wasn't sure if I had even moved my arm at all.

If this is what had happened to Mina, that was horrifying. If I completely lost my ability to sense real-world things like this, it could mean this game was somehow rotting my brain, damaging my nerve endings and touch receptors. I wasn't completely sure that was the case, but nonetheless I ended my little break and got back to working on finding my best friend.

I swallowed away any lingering fear and with a deep sigh, I checked to see if I could still use my hand IRL to press buttons. I selected the restart option.

>You will be dropped off at a random location. Continue anyway?

I rolled my eyes. I literally could not do anything else except continue. Seeing that my hands did indeed work despite not being able to feel them follow my command, I chose my only option and the game dropped me in the middle of a damp forest.

It was a dark night, the wind blowing hard and shaking the leaves off trees. There seemed to be a storm brewing, and I couldn't just tell because of the wind, but because thunder rumbled above me, threatening to rain at any moment.

I didn't know where I was, but that time, with my previous knowledge of how the game worked, I began looking for a place to hide out in. Since it was a forest, maybe there was a tree somewhere that was hollow on the inside. That would be a good place to temporarily set up camp and shelter myself from the storm that was surely about to arrive. I was already shivering thanks to the inadequate clothes I was given by default, so there was no way I was going to risk braving the storm.

I followed a slight path for a few seconds until, to my right, I heard three distinct voices. All of them were loud and angry-sounding, like they were in the middle of an argument.

I stepped closer to hear them and see who they were. I needed to know if those players were as hostile as Dahyun and Tzuyu were.

I still remembered what Somi had told me about finding a guild. Maybe she had been completely right. The part of this world that I had already seen was huge, and I was sure that that wasn't even a fraction of the entire map. I needed to get Mina soon, before her brain melted, and maybe help would be useful.

I was going to follow Somi’s advice, I really was, but once I got really close, I stepped on some leaves that were crunchier than the others.

The voices stopped immediately, remaining completely silent for a couple seconds. I panicked, not moving at all.

I decided that I could survive on my own for a bit longer. Last time I tried to make allies, I got an arrow to the knee.

I gotta level up anyways, or else no one will ever let me join them, I reasoned within myself as I darted between trees, turning around every other second to make sure I had avoided being caught. “Gotta find a shelter, then a weapon. Until then, I’ll lay now.”

After five minutes or so of nonstop sprinting, I was sure I had lost the group. Not far from where I stopped to catch my breath, I spotted a large clearing in the middle of the forest. I don't know a whole lot about measurements, but it looked to be about the size of an American football field. At the edge of said clearing, near where I was, there was an old shed that looked sturdy enough to keep me safe for the night.

The wind picked up a bit, blowing my hair into my face and sending goosebumps down my arms. Despite the worry about losing touch with reality, I was still pleasantly surprised that I could feel things inside there, like the wind tugging on my hair and the grass tickling my legs.

Sure, the parts where you can feel an arrow go through your shoulder and feel a giant three-headed beast slam its entire body into you isn't cool, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl, so I allowed myself to be impressed by some of the other, more welcome sensations.

I gathered some crunchy leaves in hopes that I could use them as a blanket and keep warm if it did indeed rain, planning to take them with me inside the shed I had found. As I was returning to the shed with an armful, the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms straightened, giving me a really, really bad feeling. I looked up to the sky and saw a cloud, much darker than the rest, right above me. It looked menacing enough to make me decide that I could gather up the leaves later when the skies were calmer. I dropped what I had in my arms and speed walked to the shed.

I felt a shiver run down my body when I was a few yards away from my shelter. I looked up again and saw the menacing cloud flash brightly. I had no time to think before lightning struck, heading directly towards me.

I knew it was too late to do anything, so I resigned myself to the lightning. In the microsecond I had before it struck me, I prayed that 1 billion volts of electricity weren't as painful as they sounded.

I was thrown back suddenly, not by lightning, but by a figure ing itself violently into me. I landed hard on my back, my head slamming onto the ground and making me pass out for a couple seconds. When I managed to regain consciousness, I was hit with a sudden wall of pain.

I barely noticed, but my mysterious savior (attacker?) was eating dirt a couple feet away from me, stunned by the lightning that narrowly missed us.

I grabbed my head and howled out, feeling like I had just cracked my skull open. I touched the extremely tender part of my head and when I checked for blood, there was indeed a lot of blood coming out of me. I just gripped my head harder, hoping to die a quick death soon and stop this torture.

There was a slight shuffle next to me, so I turned to look at the person that had both just saved my life and made it worse.

It was Mina.

“Mina!” I screamed, immediately regretting it after my head felt like it was going to implode.

“Your head...” She whispered, realizing that my head was bleeding. She reached into a small bag that rested on her hip and produced a small vial of green liquid. It looked a lot like the health potions I had found before.

“Drink this before you pass out.” She handed me the vial and I complied, chugging it like my life depended on it, which I guess wasn't very far from the truth. I caught a glimpse of the description the game gave the liquid inside:

Best when used as a last resort during a battle, this vial completely heals the user and refills their magic. (Recover full HP and MP.)

The second after I drank it felt more like an eternity as I felt no difference in my state. The following second, however, was different. The potion made my insides tingle as if there was an entire colony of ants residing somewhere between my muscles and my skin. After that, my head felt like it was being stitched closed, which was a more welcome sensation than the soul crushing and migraine-like pain I had felt before.

I opened my eyes once the potion finished doing it's job and noticed that it was raining. It looked like I had out for a while. Mina was drenched and staring at me intently.

“Mina? Is that really you?” I got on my knees and crawled to her, afraid it wasn't actually Mina. I gently grabbed her face and looked into her eyes.

“...I saw you. I didn't believe it. My mind couldn't process it; you don't like video games, so I thought