Instakill!
The troll slumps forward and Tamana kicks his corpse off her buster sword. She keeps the troll’s blood on the blade as she turns to his smaller counterpart. One clean swipe and she finishes off the she-troll too.
-17 HP!
They are each awarded experience points and the guild coffers increase by about a hundred rupees. With a flick of his wrist, Ryuk checks their stats and swipes them away.
Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 2 Ballistics Mage
HP: 87/115
ATK: 40
DEF: 5
MATK: 51
MDF: 18
LUCK: 3
Tamana Nakamura Level 2 White Warrior
HP: 85/138
MANA: 68/79
ATK: 52
DEF: 19
MATK: 12
MDF: 38
LUCK: 3
“That was crazy ... ” Tamana wipes the digital sweat from her forehead. She stabs her bloodied sword into the soil, something she’s grown fond of doing since taking her new avatar. Glittery magic spirals around her hands as she lifts her arms into the air. A halo takes shape over her crown and a cloud forms over the two; iridescent snowflakes gently settle onto their heads and shoulders.
+45 HP!
“What did you do back there?” She asks, after they’ve healed up. “How did you freeze time? That’s, like, a level 30 spell or something!”
Ryuk shows her one of his clear marbles. “It’s these clear marbles. Like I told you, they’re wild cards.”
“You should have used more of those when we were leveling up earlier.” She shoots him one of her knowing smiles that he’s grown fond of over the years.
He shrugs her off. “I wanted to play it safe. I knew the black marbles were explosive, and they seemed the way to go.” He returns the clear marble to the pocket on his belt. “That was definitely cooler than I thought it would be. Next time, I’ll, um, do something a bit more productive when time freezes.”
The question he wants to ask is on the tip of his tongue.
He holds it there, decides to go for it, decides against it. Tamana and Ryuk had been gaming together for years. Ryuk wants something more and sometimes, he thinks that Tamana does too. One of the main reasons he’d agreed to re-roll, to become a resetter and start the game with a new avatar was to show her how committed he was to her.
Now he needed to say something about it. “Ahem … ”
Tamana’s smile fades as the thought of real world responsibilities spreads across her face. “I really need to log out now and take care of some homework. I keep pushing it off.”
Shit. He kicks a piece of rubble away. “Same here, but not homework – family.”
“You’re meeting your brother today?”
“Later today.”
Her eyes fill with concern. “Be careful, Ryuk.”
“You do the same.”
“My homework isn’t that dangerous!” With a laugh, she lifts her hand and the logout button appears, rimmed in glimmering gold. “See you soon.”
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
Ryuk pinches the bridge of his nose for a second, realizes he’s acting oddly, and looks up at her, away, and back again.
“What is it?”
He swallows hard. “Do you want to get dinner with me tomorrow night? I’d really like that.”
She shrugs him off. “Tomorrow night? Yeah, that’ll work. Same place? I love the miso ramen there.” Tamana cocks her head at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Dammit, Ryuk thinks, don’t be awkward!
“I mean, okay, how about I just come out and say it? Would that help?”
“You don’t like ramen?” she laughs. “I knew it! You never finish your bowl.”
“Not that.” Ryuk wipes his hands on his pant legs. “Okay here it is. I wanted to know if you’d like to go to a nicer place, some place more romantic.”
“More romantic?” Tamana turns away from him.
“Yes, like one of those Italian restaurants in Ginza. Or … ” He thinks as his face fills with blood. “Tokyo Sky Tree. Yes! We could have dinner there.”
Tamana gives him a curious look. “Are you asking me out on a date?”
“No!” Ryuk shuffles his feet. “I mean, not exactly, um, yes exactly. Yes. Sure, let’s call it a date. What do you say?”
She gives him a warm smile and nods. “Let’s talk about it later. Bye, Ryuk.” With that, she presses the logout button and her avatar dematerializes.
Chapter 1: Tamana’s great leap of faith
The NV Visor powers off.
As Tamana has done so many times before, she takes a deep breath and returns to her reality, away from the fantasy dreamworld that is Tritania. Even though her dorm is quiet, she can still hear the techno-mechanical bustle of the Tokyo streets below. There’s an indention on her brow, something she occasionally experiences when she wears a visor for too long.
She places the NV Visor on her pillow and takes off her haptic gloves.
Tamana sighs as she looks at a Flight Feet poster tacked to her wall. Set in Tritania, the same world she frequently dives to, the anime series reenacts famous quests and looting adventures. She’s followed the show for years, and two summers ago, she went to the annual Flight Feet convention at Tokyo Big Sight as Empress Thun.
“Just for a few hours,” she reminds herself. The thought of Ryuk asking her on a date returns to her. She smiles and the floor beneath her gently vibrates.
Typical for earthquake-prone Japan, Tamana hardly notices the subtle tremor.
She opens her eyes and her iNet screen appears directly on her retinae. She rereads the last real world message she received from Ryuk. He still doesn’t like the fact that she’d decided to start over in Tritania with brand new avatars, but he went along with it and she appreciates that about him.
She appreciates a lot about him, actually. Ryuk is a great guy, and while she never really explored it, her feelings for him have really grown since they graduated high school. He isn’t like the other gamers she’d met. He’s polite, quiet, considerate. Handsome too.
Tamana is just about to send Ryuk a message telling him she’d love to go on a date when something outside strikes the wall, bulging it inward.
The air conditioner jumps loose and hits the floor, its cord still plugged in.
Panicked, Tamana leaps to her feet and moves for the door; moves as far away as she can get from whatever is bulging the wall.
The wall flexes and ripples; a crack forms and grows from floor to ceiling. Bits and pieces of concrete and plasterboard tumble to the floor in a cloud of dust. As the crack widens, a hideous yellow eye peers in at her; a tremendous carnivore’s claw tears at the hole and widens it.
Tamana shrieks her surprise and terror, bolts from the room and slams the door behind her. She stops, looks back, listens intently for a moment as her breath comes hard and fast.
She rubs her eyes. Whatever she just saw can’t be real.
As if to give lie to that thought, the creature explodes through the wall and collapses into the hallway. It rises to its haunches; snarls, roars, and inflates the sacs around its neck into a monstrous veiny ruff. The monstrosity bellows again, curls its tongue and gnashes the ivory scimitars that are its teeth.
It can’t be real.
No one else sees it or hears it; there’s no noise, no commotion, no panicked exodus.
And then the creature’s stats appear: