System Break

The wind howled across the plains as the purple clouds gathered and darkened overhead. The mood in our tight nit group was sombre, we knew what the purple clouds represented, and the wind made me feel like a downpour was about to happen.

It was not be rain, it would be a torrent of monsters. While the skins and cores would be welcome, too many was not a good thing.

I ran behind Ailen and Sakaala. "Push it down your legs." I watched as they tried to push their qi. Their progress was slow, painfully slow.

As they pushed, I commentated, using my qi sight, and letting them know what was happening. "Good Ailen, you're almost to the stream in you groin." 

He sighed in exasperation. We were running and this exertion from the training would be doubly tiring. And when the wind was in our face it made it much worse.

"I cannot do it," Sakaala said. "It's too tiring. Can't we just run?"

"The quickbar is a crutch," I said. 

"I know," she said. "I don't mind."

"Nothing good comes easy," I said, and they laughed.

"Maybe in your life," Ailen said. "We're mega rich remember?"

"And is that easy?"

They did not answer. They just thought about how hard their lives actually were. Money didn't solve all problems its just made new ones. There was the expectations and judgment from family, from society and the lack of real friends. They were both single for a reason.

Ailen kept practising, pushing himself past his limits of endurance. When his core was running low, I stopped him. "Just run now. Recover for a bit."

We collected cores as we travelled. The regular monsters proved no problem. Even without spears I could punch them to death. Adding Gisael and Reyas into the mix made things easy.

The plains were vast but without Redmond we were able to go at Sakaala speed. She was toned, fit and able to run all day without tiring. With the qi abilities she had no chance of matching me and Reyas, but she wasn't that much slower than Ailen and Gisael across the windswept plains.

The clouds continued to darken, and lightning was visible to the far north and east.

Sakaala gave up practising once again. "I'll just trade and use the quickbar. This isn't for me."

"You can do it," Ailen said.

"Why are you here?" I asked. I knew very well why I was and Ailen too.

She thought before answering. "A new adventure and its better than the real world."

"So, it's a holiday for you? Did you follow Ailen?"

"Yes and no. At first it definitely was, and yes, I followed my game addicted brother. But now I'm enjoying myself."

We ran in silence for a while. Her words irked me at first but then I shrugged it off. Who was I to judge her. She could be a tourist if she wanted. She didn't have to strive to be more powerful. She could just enjoy herself, wasn't that what I was doing?

"I want to break free of the system," Ailen said. "The other players will stick to it, but if I can break free of it - I can become much more powerful than them." He laughed. "We can kick their ass Benzhi."

An evil chuckle escaped my lips. "You currently suck balls. You'll need to work harder than you have at anything in your life." I didn't know how hard he'd worked at anything;  It was a gut feel.

Ailen grumbled and he said under his breath, "I'll show you."

It was the sort of reaction I was hoping for - the one the instructors put us through at hell week. The obstacles they put in front of us were the enemy and they would jeer at us from the sidelines, spewing doubt that we could succeed. It was the sort of negging designed to make you crumble or prove the fuckers wrong.

"Then show me you spoiled rich brat."

Sakaala's laugh added fuel to his fire. But I turned on her, "You can't fucking laugh, you gave up at the first tiny peep of a challenge. You're made of marshmallow."

She growled. "Fine!"

Oh shit, that was easy, now they were both pushing themselves. We ran and I let them recover and stew.

When we set up camp we were within striking distance of the forest. We'd reach it the following day.

Gisael fed me as I stoked the fire. She popped nuts and dried fruit into my open mouth and waited for me to chew. "This is enough," she said and put her pouch away. It was like she didn't trust me not to overeat.

Her brow furrowed. "I like these clouds not. We make haste tomorrow or the plains will be full of trolls and other monsters in our path."

I finished with the fire; the flames licked the air nicely. "Hopefully it doesn't dump any on the forest."

She pursed her lips. 

"What happens, happens," I said. "We'll deal with it."

Ailen lay face down on a hellhound fur. His muffled voice reached us. "The land core could be stopping spawns over the forest. It would be the same for the cities."

Gisael stared at me. "This could be true. Can you see with your sight?"

I shook my head. "I only see the land cores; I haven't seen them do anything with qi other than make a portal."

She touched the side of my mask near my eye, so I grabbed and removed it. "May be you can work on qi sight like I leaned qi-blade from qi-arrow."

I nodded. "You could be right. When I first came to this world, I could only see blobs and they were the land cores themselves. They're the brightest of all the qi cores."

"Mother does things with the land core. It is what makes her Mother – before she was like me."

I looked at Gisael. She was a stunning killing machine. She only had compassion for the forest and its people, she was ruthless with everything else.

"Was she like you? She seems more … hmm … compassionate, understanding?"

"She changed. A mother of the forest requires these things."

"Will you be a mother one day?" I asked.

She shook her head. "It is not my path. My path is with you."

"What happens if I die, or get unceremoniously unplugged? What will you do?"

"I will fight for you and if I cannot save you, I will go back to the forest and become a Guardian again."

Reyas pushed me in the back. "Don't say such things."

I sighed. "I'm being real."

Sakaala, like Ailen, was crushed for the day's effort. She rolled over and croaked. "We're working on it. Father is meeting with the directors."

"Really? Who is your father?"

"Huan Xie. Chairman and CEO of Huan Industries."

I was a total noob when it came to business and companies. But even I'd heard of Huan Xie. They weren't lying when they said they were mega rich.

"Shit," I said. "Does that mean I'm joining the bad guys?" Due to the world's skyrocketing unemployment he wasn't very popular.

Sakaala sighed. "Yes. We're the fucking bad guys."

I turned to Reyas. "See. My world's wealthiest lord is trying to rescue me. What could go wrong?"