Chapter 3: Confrontation 31st December 2003
The characters and plot in this story are copyrighted by the author. However the concept of 'The World' is not. I take no credit for this; the credit belongs to Bandai Entertainment who used the concept in the animation series .Hack//Sign, .Hack//Dusk and .Hack//Liminality. (Pronounced Dot Hack)
For those of you who have never watched any of Dot Hack before I suggest you read the excerpt about it from the official site that I included with chapter 1.
NOTE: I have received many emails from people who have watched the dot hack series telling me that some of the concepts in The World in my story are different from those that are in the actual series or do not adhere to the dot hack timeline. (The story is set before .hack//sign by the way) I have changed these concepts on purpose to make for easier writing or in some cases, to cater for the events that are going to occur later on in the story. Also sorry for the bad formatting with the last chapter, I think I've fixed it though and I'm reposting chapter 2.
I was startled out of my sleep the next morning by my Dad banging loudly on the door and yelling at me to get up. Great, another day of my crappy life had begun; the only difference is today I actually have something to look forward to for a change. I took a shower and when I got out I looked at myself in the mirror, good, all of the bruises that I have from last night's beating could be hidden by my clothes, I can't stand teachers staring at me or asking me questions. I know they're only trying to help but I couldn't take the shame with other people knowing how messed up my life is. They would always look at me with sympathy in their eyes no matter who I become in later life. No, the shame isn't worth it. After I got dressed I grabbed a pop tart as I ran out the door before I could be confronted by Dad and walked to school, as I got out the front gate a loud voice sounded behind me,
"Jim, where the fuck are you? Answer me now boy!"
Shit! It was Dad and he sounded pissed, he must have found another reason to be angry at me. I wrestled with myself briefly, debating whether to go back or not. If I left now he wouldn't be able to stop me, so I decided to go straight to school and cop the assault tonight when he gets home from work. I shuddered as I thought how angry he will be tonight after work, when will it all end?
As I sat alone on the school bus thoughts from the previous day ran through my mind. Could I become friends with Michael and his group? How would this affect my friendship with Dave and his group? The most frightening question was could I keep playing in The World without my Dad getting an idea of what's going on? If he found out, I would receive a massive beating for sure, I have to be careful and only go online when he's not home or I'm sure he wont come up to my room when I'm playing. Oh well, I needed to forget about all of these worries and prepare myself for another school day in hell, I sighed as I walked through the front gate, ready for the accusing stares and the verbal taunts.
I walked through the yard into the first building, God, the ones that noticed me were all staring at me with disgust in their eyes, am I really that disgusting just because I'm different? As I opened the door I passed a group of boys and one of them made a coughing noise which was hiding the word fag under his breath. I looked to the ground as I walked passed them, it was no use, if I stared at them for the remark they would all beat the shit out of me. One thing I learned quickly was that to survive in this harsh world you need to avoid all unnecessary confrontations, even if they spit directly in your face.
My morning classes were all a bore, all boring subjects taught by boring teachers. Thankfully none of my teachers knew what was going on in my personal life but some of them did have their suspicions or had heard rumors about my sexuality that had being going around. None of them mentioned anything but I could tell the ones that knew from the ones that didn't. The ones that knew change their voice and facial expression whenever they talked to me; all of them choose to ignore the verbal assaults on me in the classroom however, and it hurts a lot when an insult is thrown at me and the whole class laughs including the teacher in some cases. However when the insults started today I just daydreamed about Michael and I found they didn't hurt as much, I couldn't wait to see him again, when is this horrid school day going to end? I felt relieved when the bell rang for lunch and I headed straight to the library, it was the one place in the school where I could feel safe because it's under constant supervision. I sighed to myself as I sat down at a desk and pulled out the manual for The World and began reading. I was jolted from the book half an hour later when the bell for the end of lunch rang, oh well, had better get to class, I never realized how complicated The World actually was, I'd have to refer to the manual fairly regularly if I want to become good at the game.
The last two classes felt three times as long as usual because I was actually looking forward to going home today. When the final bell rang I rushed out into the yard and walked through the front gate to begin my journey home. I made it about ten steps when I heard an all too familiar voice behind me,
"Why are you in such a hurry fag?"
I looked around and saw the owner of the voice; it was Angelo Garcia, a guy who was in my grade. He had jet black hair, cold dark brown eyes, tanned skin and weighed about twice as much as me and was higher than me by at least a foot. He was a big football star at the school and everybody sucked up to him so he wouldn't hit them. I actually used to be friends with him and we were actually pretty close, however when he heard about the incident with Kevin he stopped being a friend and began to work on being my number one tormentor at school. I soon became his favorite punching bag; I don't know what hurt more, Dad's punches or his. I quickly glanced at my watch, it was only 3:05 but I couldn't afford to miss the bus that takes me home because Dad rings the house at 3:30 to make sure I'm home and not out having fun like a normal kid and if I'm not there when he rings, well I didn't want to even imagine what would happen after last time.
"Hey, I'm fucking talking to you fudge packer!" Angelo yelled as he moved forward and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. As always a small crowd gathered to watch and laugh at my daily suffering. No one ever helped me of course, that would be against the rules of the schoolyard.
"Angelo, please just leave me alone, I've never done anything to you" I pleaded, holding back the tears caused by my fear and humiliation to the best of my ability.
"Fuck you! You disgust me; I can't believe you used to be my friend Jim." Bang! He delivered a hard punch to my gut which nearly made me puke on the spot and then let go of me so I fell to the ground. He kicked me in the ribs as I lay on the ground and then turned to leave for his bus. I slowly picked myself back up and got onto my school bus ignoring all the laughter and giggles around me. Why was it that I'm never allowed to be happy? I look around and see all the other kids having a good time, it makes me dizzy trying to understand why I must suffer in agony everyday when there are so many around me that are perfectly happy all the time, it was all because of a factor that I had no control over. I never asked to be gay, but because I am everybody else treats me as if I'm some sort of criminal I was broken out of my thoughts when I arrived at my stop and got off the bus, I copped the usual amount of taunts as I ran down the aisle and then I began to quickly run home to make it in time for Dads call.
As I opened the door the phone began to ring, I sprinted over to it and picked it up.
"Hello?" I said.
"Good, you're home", my Dad's voice replied from the other end. "Okay, you stay there until I'm home from work or else you'll be sorry boy, you remember the last time you disobeyed me?"
"Yes Dad, I'll stay home, I promise", I shuddered as I put the phone down remembering that horrible day when I snuck out to go to the mall, it was on that day that I found out that Dad had asked the neighbors to look out for me and to tell him if I ever left the house after school. I wasn't even sure if they still did look for me but the beating I received that night always made me stay home.
I walked slowly to my room, tears forming in my eyes while I thought about how unfair life was when I suddenly remembered that I'm supposed to meet Peter by the portal at 4pm. I looked at my watch and it was ten to four, I decided to log in so I could look around for a while before I met him. As I logged in I thought about my impressions of Peter that I got yesterday. He wasn't like all of the others in the group, while they were all boisterous and rude he seemed quite shy and polite. I realized that he had left just before Michael and his group passed by us, did he see them coming and wanted to avoid a confrontation? Whatever the reason was, I don't think it was a coincidence. My thoughts left me as the room went black and I began my descent to The World.
I let out a sigh of relief as I found myself standing in the middle of town again, at last, no more insults or beatings, at least for the next two or so hours anyway. I decided to take a good look around town before going to meet Peter in ten minutes. I crossed the bridge where I had met Dave and the others yesterday and began to walk down towards an area that looked like the town market. The market looked medieval in appearance and now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen a modern building in this town yet, the whole town had a medieval theme to it, even the roads were cobbled. As I walked I noticed people haggling and buying items all around me, I was still trying to get used to being surrounded by people carrying weapons but I knew they wouldn't attack me because its illegal and that eased my nerves a little bit.
As I turned a corner which led to another street with market stalls and shops I noticed someone out of the corner of my eye who was staring at me very intently. He was leaning against a stall and didn't drop his gaze even when I looked right back at him. He looked to be about fourteen with dirty blond hair and green eyes which shone at me as they stayed fixed in my direction. He was carrying a massive halberd which looked like it could slice a car in two without much trouble. I decided to ignore him and keep walking, but when I began to walk away I noticed that he began to follow behind me. Ooookayy... this was starting to really freak me out I thought as I quickened my pace through the market. He sped up as well, never looking anywhere else but at me. Shit, does he know who I really am? Maybe he's another homophobe who's out to hurt me as well. These thoughts triggered my whole body into panic mode and I began to run and quickly swerved down a side alley, I turned and faced my staff at the entrance to the alley, ready to defend myself. I waited there breathing heavily and terrified for two minutes until I relaxed, thinking it was all paranoia. Suddenly a voice whispered in my ear,
"Looking for me?"
I nearly jumped right out of my skin as I turned and saw the kid with the halberd; he had somehow gotten behind me.
"How did you do that?" I asked.
He smiled and replied "My secrets will not be unlocked so easily."
That's it! This kid is seriously freaking me out, I'm outta here, I turned to leave but before I could completely turn around he jumped towards me, spun me back around and locked his lips to mine. I was too startled to do anything but stumble backward awkwardly with him still attached to me. I managed to pry him off me eventually,
"What the hell was that all about?" I yelled at him.
"Oh come on, don't tell me you didn't enjoy that", he replied with a smile.
Well, actually now that I think about it, he is a good kisser, not to mention he's also as cute as hell but he seriously freaks me out. "You shouldn't have jumped me like that, this is sexual harassment, and I'm not even gay", I said, remembering to add the last part as a precaution just in case this kid told anybody about the kiss.
He laughed and said "Oh yes you are my friend, when I saw you my gaydar picked you up right away."
Shit! This kid knows, am I that obvious? "B.. B.. But how?" I stuttered.
"Don't worry cutie, I won't tell anybody, as long as you give me your member address", he added with a smile.
Damn, I didn't want to give this weirdo my member address. From what I read in the manual, if someone has your member address they can keep in contact with you by email. I don't want this kid emailing me all the time; it would just be downright annoying. But he did know my secret, but telling it would expose him too so I decided to say no.
"No way man, I'm not giving it to you", I said.
His smile flickered for a moment but broke out into a wide grin as he pointed his halberd towards me and said "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, you have no choice in the matter, give it to me now before I cut you in two."
"You'll be arrested", I replied with a squeak.
"Do you see any Scarlet Knights down this alleyway?" he replied, his grin widening.
Defeated, I gave up and gave him my address. "Thanks dude, I'll talk to you later", he said as he turned and ran out of the alleyway.
I sat in that alley for a few minutes stunned at what had just happened until I realized I had to meet Peter, I began to quickly run to the place he had pointed out yesterday when I heard a tone sound in my head. I remember the manual saying that this meant I had received a new email. "Open" I muttered, and a small screen appeared in front of me displaying the email on it, it was from that psycho that was in the alley.
Hey cutie, Sorry about the drastic measures to get your member address but you were so stubborn. Oh, and don't worry about me knowing your little secret, I have a very good gaydar, normal people wouldn't have a clue and I wont tell anyone. See you 'Articus', ha-ha that name is so gay! (Just kidding) Romero
P.S. Sorry about the excessive use of tongue :p
"Close", I muttered, the small screen disappeared. Well, at least my secret was safe with this weirdo, I was in two minds whether this was a good thing or not and at least he apologized for the threat and the tongue, he nearly stuck it down my throat! He must have gotten my name by using my member address, Romero, even his name sounded freaky, oh well, better keep moving. I continued to run towards the direction of the portal, when I arrived at square I looked around and saw Peter standing next to the portal.
"Well well well, it's about time you showed up, the others have already gone ahead", he said with a smile as I walked up to him.
"Sorry I'm late Peter, I had uh... other business to attend to", I replied, not wanting to tell anybody what had happened in the alley. "So, how do we use the portal?" I asked.
"Well, it's actually called a chaos gate; our group likes to call it a portal because we're lazy. You just have to stand near it and say the place where you want to go and then you will be transported there. I'll go first, just follow my lead." He turned to face the portal and then yelled "Mushroom Field", he then disappeared as his character was transported.
I walked up to the chaos gate and yelled out the same thing. I nearly fell over as my body was lurched forward, when I looked up I found myself standing in a completely different landscape. Another chaos gate was next to me along with Peter who was smiling at me as I gawked at my new surroundings. Well, this field certainly lived up to its name, there were mushrooms everywhere, the smallest ones were about as tall as me, the biggest ones were easily five stories tall, I was amazed at the amount of detail that had been programmed into this game.
"Yeah, I love this place, it looks so awesome", Peter said as he looked over the field as well. "It also has easy monsters to fight which is ideal for a beginner like you. Well, let's get moving and go find some monsters", he said as he began to walk forward into the field.
I followed him as we walked though the mushrooms, I wondered if there were any monsters hiding behind the mushrooms, in fact I had no idea about monsters in The World at all. I was beginning to read up on them in school when the bell rang. I asked Peter if we should check behind the mushrooms just in case we were missing monsters and they might ambush us later.
"No, there's no need to worry about checking or being ambushed by monsters in The World. You see monsters don't just walk around like characters; they have to be teleported in so that we can fight them. Don't worry, it will be easier for you to see me fight a monster than for me to try and explain, ah, here's a monster up ahead, I'll take him so you can watch and learn, I'll let you take the next one."
We approached a clearing and the only thing I could see was an object that looked like a miniature chaos gate floating in the air. As we approached it, it began to glow brightly,
"The monster is about to be teleported in, stand back, just in case it targets you first."
The little gate stopped glowing and a strange creature leapt out of it, when it hit the ground it turned to face Peter. It looked like a small boar except it was green and its tusks had little spikes protruding off them that looked they could rip us apart with little effort. It growled and bared its razor sharp teeth; I began to back away, the sight of the monster scaring me to death. Peter didn't move however and I was surprised to see him smiling at the monster as he raised his staff, preparing to fight. The boar roared and leapt forward at Peter, tusks first, Peter pointed his staff at the boar,
"Ice Blast" he yelled. A jet of blue shot out the end of his staff and hit the boar, freezing it completely. It fell to the ground, unable to move; Peter turned to me and began to explain. "Ice blast is the basic spell for an ice sorcerer; it not only deals damage to an opponent, but also freezes it for thirty seconds, allowing the caster to finish it off any way they wish. However, the freezing only works on low level opponents though, when it is cast on a high level opponent it only slows their movement."
He looked back at the frozen boar and smiled, "I've decided to let you finish him off, just use an ice blast, that should kill it because it is weakened from mine. Hurry though, it's gonna unfreeze soon."
I stepped forward and pointed my staff at the boar, mirroring Peter's movements that I had witnessed just before. "Ice Blast" I yelled, just as I yelled it the boar unfroze and leapt at me, a jet of blue, smaller than the jet that Peter had cast shot out of my staff and hit the boar, blasting it into shards of ice.
"Yeah! You got him, good work man, now, where is the item?" As he spoke a small chest appeared where the monster used to be, Peter walked up and opened it, it contained a small bottle full of blue liquid which I recognized as a mana potion. Peter gave it to me saying "You have it; I'd use it if I were you because you're at very low level and as a result, that ice blast would have used up most of your mana. Just point the top of it at you and say 'use potion'." I did as he instructed and a blue glow surrounded me for a moment as the potion replenished my mana.
"How do I get more spells?" I asked after watching the ice shards of the monster melt into the ground.
"You have to grow levels first, if we repeat what we did before with another monster you should grow a level. You raise levels faster because you are a beginner, if you grow a level you should get access to the spell 'Arctic Wall', it's a defensive type spell that can give you time to replenish in a battle or run away. Let's go look for another monster."
Wow! Peter certainly knew his stuff, it was weird seeing him transform from the shy person that I met yesterday into the confident sorcerer that now stood in front of me, teaching me how to fight. We walked for a few more minutes until we encountered another monster, we defeated it the same way as the previous one, Peter freezing it and me finishing it off. As soon as the monster was defeated I began to glow gold,
"Congratulations dude, you've just grown your first level," Peter said, a hint of pride in his voice. "You've learned the spell I was telling you about before and your health and mana pools have increased. Also the spells that you already know have increased in power, ice blast will cost less mana to cast but will deal more damage."
"Cool", was the only thing I could say as I stopped glowing. I looked at Peter, who was smiling at me; he looked back at the disappearing remains of the monster,
"Aww man, what a rip, no item, oh well, come on dude, let's go meet Dave and the others, I think they're hanging out at the Wasteland."
"What's that area like?" I asked.
"Like the name suggests, a wasteland but it has many cool dungeons that can be explored and it's a favorite area of Dave's, he's always hanging out there."
We walked back to the chaos gate slowly, as I looked to my left through a gap in the mushrooms I could see this area stretch off into the distance, I wondered how big this area was, it seemed to go on forever I asked Peter if he knew and he replied,
"I honestly don't know, I've never been online long enough to get the time to explore around that much. I haven't met anybody who knows either, I think that The World is too big for anybody to explore."
"Wow, so nobody knows, that's weird", I said, thinking how weird and different this world was compared to the real one.
"Oh yeah, before I forget, would you mind giving me your member address? Just so we can always keep in contact via email", he asked, blushing and reverting back to his shy personality for some reason.
"Sure", I replied, and I read it out to him as he saved it in his address book. He looked up at me and smiled once I he'd finished,
"Thanks man, there's no need for me to give you mine because once I email you my address is automatically saved in your address book."
We reached the chaos gate just as he finished talking; he walked up to it and yelled "Wasteland", I followed him up to the chaos gate and yelled out the same thing.
We ended up in a barren looking valley, standing next to the chaos gate. As I looked around I noticed a temple built on the side of the valley, it looked dark and gloomy and generally uninviting, just like this whole area.
"What's that temple?" I asked.
"A dungeon, there's a few of them in this area. Dungeons are good places to go if you want to fight powerful monsters and get rare items. However they are also highly dangerous, not only because the monsters are so powerful but also because they are filled with so many traps. There are dungeons in every area of The World except towns, if I were you I'd tackle the dungeons in the easy areas like Mushroom Field first otherwise you won't get very far. Now let's go and find the others."
We began to make our way down the valley towards the dungeon, there were a few other players walking around as well and it looked like they were all heading into the temple. We walked past the temple and continued down the valley, we reached the end of the valley and a flight of stairs that led up to the top, out of the valley.
"Up here", he said as he began to climb the stairs.
Once we reached to top we walked back along the top of the valley, I saw a group of people standing on a platform overlooking the entire valley,
"There they are", Peter said and we began to walk over to them.
As I got closer I saw the four boys from the group yesterday, but there was another boy with them, it looked like he was backing away from them while the other boys all moved towards him.
"Uh oh, this looks like trouble, I wonder who that poor kid they're bullying is?" Peter asked.
I saw Dave take a swing at the unknown kid with his sword; the kid fell to the ground and began to flash red. As we approached Dave noticed us he was standing over the kid who was down on all fours weeping, Dave had that evil grin on his face again,
"Hey guys, you're just in time I'm about to finish off this little fag", he said as he kicked the kid while he was on the ground. The poor kid let out a cry of pain and looked up at Dave,
"Please, I don't want any trouble; I just want to be left in peace."
My jaw dropped when I realized who it was, it was him, it was Michael.
-{BM}-
End of Chapter 3, Chapter 4 coming very soon! Thanks for all the great comments so far everyone!