Chapter 4

"Is there a problem?" Helmet mumbles.

—Jay tenses up and realizes why all of these players were freaking out. Helmet was in the main lobby, trying to leave the stadium. They must've seen him coming and blocked the exit so they could talk to him or get a picture. The crowd seems to exemplify Jay's concern as he contemplates it.

"Can I get a picture?"

"Add me to your friend list!"

Jay continues studying the situation when Helmet repeats his question.

"Hey pal, is all of this you're doing?"

"W-what? N-no! I was just t-trying to leave as well and I got trapped in the crowd! I pushed my way out and then ran into you!" Jay says.

Suddenly, two familiar faces burst out of the crowd into the pocket Jay and Helmet were in. Ivy and Axel are instantly tense as well when they enter Helmet's presence.

"Jay!"

"There you are!!"

Helmet looks over to Axel and Ivy, and points at them with his right index finger, raised high. The glare in his helmet shifted to the top as he lowered his head.

"So this is *ALL* of your faults?"

Axel and Ivy shoot back in surprise and shock. They had no idea what he was talking about.

"N-no! They're just my friends! We were just leaving as well!" Jay explains, trying to calm Helmet down.

Helmet looks over from Jay and acknowledges Axel and Ivy. The two nod their heads in agreement with what Jay had just said. Helmet—who had just undone one of his handguns safety's—clicked it back into safety. Jay and his friends sigh.

"That so? Figures... you guys look pretty new to the game anyways." Helmet says, almost trying to get a reaction out of them.

For a second there was a long undelayed pause. All three friends look at each other.

'WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!'

'WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!'

'WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!'

Axel steps towards Helmet with a fire in his eyes.

"Hey, big shot! Lemme show you how 'new' I am! *ASPECT ON*!"

As Axel says this his, gauntlets start to glow. The fire in his eyes begins to spread towards his hands. A large flame explodes out of each of his palms, shooting upwards and resting upon entering the scene. The flames were a mix of red and orange, which seemed to match his hair in some ways. Axel looks towards Helmet, and without skipping a beat, clenches his right fist and thrusts it towards the figure. As the punch is thrown, the fire around his gauntlet is sent forwards, in the shape of a fist.

"*Fire Fist!*" Axel announces.

As the projectile shoots to Helmet, he doesn't instantly move away. He looked at it like he knew where and when the attack was going to be thrown.

'This is even faster than that Dillan kid's move… interesting…' Helmet thinks.

Before Helmet was given a moment to move out of the way, an amalgamation of tree branches and fauna blocked the path in front of him. For the first time today, Helmet is surprised, but at the same time seems to know this would happen. Jay looks on as this happens, being right behind Helmet.

"*Bark Block!* Ivy announces.

The branches block the fire attack, sending ash and charred wood in several directions in an explosive impact. Axel looks stunned and looks to his left at Ivy.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Ivy yells.

"What am I doing?! You just blocked the killer shot!!" Axel says.

The branches in front of the two groups of players converge back to their origin on Ivy's shoulders and arms. They seemed to wrap around her body like they were symbiotic.

'So, a Fire Aspect user and a Life Aspect user...this is showing promise...'

Helmet thinks as he watches Ivy turn and whip the wooden tendrils around Axel, seemingly to immobilize him.

"Don't piss him off!" She says.

"Don't piss me off!!" Axel yells.

Jay starts to get embarrassed at this point. Most of the players blocking the doorway seemed to ignore all of the fuss, although some came to watch them squabble. He looks down in frustration since he doesn't know what to do.

Then he hears something unexpected.

"Hey, you guys seem strong, actually. mind taking care of this, so I don't have to?"

Jay looks up as he hears Helmet motion him and his friends. Helmet's hand was pointed towards the exit and its barricade of fans. Axel and Ivy stop arguing and look at Helmet's gesture.

"Then we'll be even." Helmet says, looking at Jay.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to clear up this huge mob of players—no—a huge gathering of your fans so that you can leave without interacting with them?" Jay reiterates.

"Yes." Helmet says.

'So we're your bodyguards? really?' Jay thinks.

"Do you care if we use force?! I mean, they *are* your fans!!" Axel asks.

"Whatever works, I guess." Helmet says.

'Is this a test of patience?! Cause I'm losing mine!!' Axel thinks.

"Can I get a picture with you in return?" Ivy asks, with stars in her eyes.

"Absolutely not." Helmet says.

'That was cold!' Ivy thinks.

Jay looks over to the crowd of players jamming the door, waiting to talk to Helmet. It was weird that they weren't just rushing him right now or anything because Axel and Ivy simply walked over to him as well. The space gap between Helmet and his fans was probably created in fear since he just showcased how strong he was to the entire server. A single shot from his handgun finished off his opponent.

"This is payback for your friend creasing my jacket, so why would I take a picture with you?" Helmet says.

Jay looked at Helmet's jacket but couldn't see a crease of a fold in it anywhere. Was this just a trick to make them clear the way for him? But then why wasn't he mad at them all when Axel attacked him? So many questions ran through Jay's head.

"We just gotta clear the way, huh? Well then..." Jay says to Helmet, grabbing Axel and Ivy in a huddle. Helmet doesn't listen in but sees the three friends talk to each other, formulating a strategy. After a couple of seconds, they break formation.

Following Jay's lead, Axel and Ivy approach the entryway. Axel starts to clank his gauntlets together, conjuring up his flames once again. Ivy draws her bow and reaches into her quiver on the ready. Jay grabs the hilt of his sword over his right shoulder, unsheathing it by a couple of inches.

"You guys ready?" Jay asks.

"Yes!!"

"Of course!"

As it looks like something is about to go down, all three players drop their act and point towards the outside of The Decimation.

"*LOOK, AN ADMIN!!!*" All of them shout.

'W-WHAT??' Helmet thinks, completely in shock and disbelief.

Jay starts to run through the confused crowd of players, still pointing out of the arena. Even though no one saw anything, they seemed to believe the charade. Axel and Ivy ran out as well, pointing at the sky in random directions.

What once was a crowd of players looking for an autograph from Helmet, quickly turned into a crowd of players following Jay and his friends towards a supposed Administrator. Players poured out of the arena, all running past Helmet and towards Jay, Axel, and Ivy's outburst.

A single drop of sweat formed around the edge of Helmet's covered chin, and as it fell off, he watched the large mob start following Jay. He chuckled a little, then laughed.

'Well, I was expecting to chastise them once they fought with my fans...but this was unexpected.' Helmet thinks.

He looks at Jay from a distance, running with his finger still pointed at the air. Thinking back to the altercation with Axel and Ivy, Jay seemed to know exactly where the attacks were going to end up as well. That would explain why he didn't flinch when the fire attack collided with the bark.

'I wonder...does he know «IT» as well?' Helmet thinks.

Eventually, the crowd realized Jay and his friends were putting on a show, but Helmet had already blended in with the public and escaped by then. Once they knew this, They kept chasing Jay and his friends. It took a little bit of finesse, but they managed to outrun the mob. Not at the expense of stamina, of course, as all three were panting in a back alley of the «Modern District» of Spahn.

Spahn is split into two different districts: The «Modern District» and the «Old District».

The Modern district is akin to a real-world city, with even more advances in technology and looks. It's one of the only places where advertising can be found, just like in any real-world city, with electronic billboards littering the surrounding skyline's buildings.

Although there is fast travel in The Nexus—instant teleportation to an area of the game that a player has been to—It is a commodity that players have to buy at high levels of currency. A metro system has been established for every part of the game to combat this, with Spahn's station in the Modern District.

The «Old District» is full of medieval-esque architecture one would find in a generic fantasy game or RPG on older systems. This is where role-players and RPG lovers alike can live out their wildest fantasies, with traditional pubs replacing the Modern District's nightclubs and other such changes.

Jay slows his breathing after straining his body to move as fast as it can. He looks to Axel and Ivy, who are also collecting themselves.

"W-what just happened? Did-" Jay stutters,

"That actually-" Ivy stutters,

"Work?!" Axel finishes.

After giving each other confused expressions, Jay and his friends start to laugh. Their dumb plan seemed to fool the masses! Somehow, they managed to fulfill Helmet's inquiry, and Jay hoped they had properly"repaid" him.

As Jay laughed with Axel and Ivy, a notification appeared in the bottom left corner of his vision, signaling that he got a message from someone.

'Who could be texting me?'

Without making it a big deal to Axle and Ivy, Jay opens up the game menu on his left arm and scrolls down to the >Messages< button. Once he opens up his inbox, Jay's given another feeling of intensity, just like the one he had when he realized he bumped into Helmet.

The message was only a couple of words long:

>MEET ME AT SPRING PLAZA TOMORROW AT 9:30 AM EST.

>HELMET.

ˆˆsent just now

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

After all that had happened in-game, Jay and his friends decided to log off of The Nexus for today. Everyone opens up their respective game menus and taps the >Log Off< option.

Once selecting the button floating in the game menu, Jay feels his body start to feel extremely light. It was an indicator that the log-off sequence was beginning. As he was suspecting it to pop up, a text box appeared fixed in his vision.

>LOGOFF SEQUENCE START<

His avatar starts to disintegrate into millions of triangular particles while at the same time feeling like was being bent back and forth violently. Jay closes his eyes and waits for a little bit.

After some time, another text box appears

>Logoff Successful!<

Opening his eyes slowly, Jayson reawakens in Isabelle's room. The smell of Mexican seasoning and melted cheese is still in the air, but it's stale. Jayson sits up from lying down on the floor and checks the time using the interface in his vision from the NIE.

'9:44...' He thinks as he spots the time.

As he's checking the time, he notices Isabelle and Josh sit up as well. They both looked pretty tired, even though they had been "asleep" for some time.

He decides not to tell them about the message from Helmet. It seemed to present some sort of urgency for Jay alone, and it's probably going to be some sort of fight or something since he creased Helmet's Jacket.

"Well, Jay- oh! Jayson! Today was an exciting day." Isabelle says.

"Yea, sorry for all the trouble I've caused you guys! It's Sunday, so the hospital is a given, but that whole exchange with Helmet was avoidable..." Jayson says.

"What'd you do that got him so tilted?" Josh asks.

Jayson explains to them about being trapped in the crowd, and when he pushed through them to try and leave, he somehow came into an open area with Helmet, surrounded in all directions by blood-thirsty fans. Isabelle testifies how busy it was at The Decimation today before gathering everyone's LucidCast and heading over to the XMAS box in the corner of the room.

"So, Isabelle, are we staying the night? Or did your parents want us out of the house by a certain time?" Jayson asks.

"Oh! You guys can crash here! I know you probably don't have a ride, and *yawn* I'm pretty tired myself..." Isabelle replies.

"Sick, 'cause I wasn't trying to call my parents at this hour!" Josh says, chuckling afterward.

After Isabelle passed out all of the extra blankets and pillows in her house's storage closet, Jayson and Josh got in a comfortable spot on the floor and rested their heads once again. Isabelle happily sprawled out on her bed.

Technically, they all could be in The Nexus still. One of the most popular features of LucidCast is how it puts players to sleep in the real world when they play the game. Hardcore gamers usually only play the game at night when they're supposed to be asleep, giving their bodies the right amount of sleep without overdoing themselves. It also ensures that they won't be interrupted during play, letting an extra amount of immersion sink in.

As Jayson looks up at the ceiling, attempting to fall asleep naturally, he remembers his visit to the hospital today. His mom, although alive, still hasn't had a sign of life in over a month. Trying not to overthink the details, Jayson feels his eyes start to slowly close by themselves as the fatigue built up after today starts to weigh on him.

Starting to drift off into sleep, Jayson opens his eyes to find the ceiling...

Wasn't there anymore.

Dark clouds loomed above, and rain started to pelt his face and hair, yet he didn't feel wet at all. In a panic, Jayson stood up and surveyed his surroundings. He was standing in the middle of an asphalt road, with trees laid down the sides of the runway.

'Not this again!'

As his mind began to race and the world around him clouded his thoughts, as well as the sky, the look on Jayson's face when he saw the flames was horrifying. The visions and vivid dreams Jayson has been getting have all correlated to his accident, but they kept getting too real.

"H-hey..." A voice groans behind him.

In fear, Jayson jumps back from the voice. Sweat was falling off of his face, camouflaging itself with the brutal wind and rain. The figure who moaned the words was standing close by, with its long black hair covering its face and body. Jayson's teeth are grinding against each other as he tries to muster the courage to speak.

"W-who are you?!" He screams.

The person starting to walk around Jayson, silently… laughing?

"Looks like you've seen a ghost!"

The figure, now standing in front of the giant inferno down the street, stops in their path. They extend a hand to Jayson, pointing to him.

Jayson is confused and looks down at his clothes. To his shock, he was wearing his Avatar's get-up, with the blue hoodie instead of the red one he just had on. His entire fit swapped with his virtual one!

"L-lend your mother a hand, won't you?" The figure said, parting their hair to the side.

Jayson froze, realizing who this mysterious person was and wasn't. Strange red lines formed all around them, with the rest of their body being completely black. Their face, however...

It was his mother's.

"Lend your mom a hand..."

"...murderer..."

Jayson woke up in a cold sweat, hyperventilating in fear from what he had just experienced. His eyes widened as far as they could as his pupils still shook back and forth in shock. This night terror was unlike anything he had experienced before, not even the episode he had in the hospital. He covered his face as a headache started brewing, and Jayson tried to stop his body from twitching.

'What the hell was that? *WHO* was that?'

Jayson asked himself as he collected himself and attempted to calm down. The rain, the trees, the fire, the road, the wind, and even the lightning high in the sky. Everything was the same, except for the strange figure who looked like his mom.

Jayson knew it was a dream, and most of it wasn't real, to an extent, but that was the closest he's felt to breaking down under pressure.

»Display Time.«

Jayson's NIE quickly responded to his command and put up the time of day into his vision.

'9:12...' Jayson relayed in his head.

He was meeting with Helmet soon! Jayson looked around to find Isabelle and Josh still asleep, and he felt glad he hadn't woken them up with his panting from earlier. Still shaken up but with determination, Jayson rummages through the XMAS box to retrieve his NIE. After plugging it into the ethernet port in the wall, he quickly started the login sequence.

Helmet's message, "MEET ME AT SPRING PLAZA TOMORROW AT 9:30 AM EST," was vague in and of itself, but Jayson tried to come to terms with what Helmet wanted to do. Jayson was entirely out of the loop.

>LOGIN SEQUENCE START<

Once logging into The Nexus, Jay runs out of the alleyway where he had previously logged off and headed straight towards Spring Plaza.

There are three ways a player in the Nexus can log out. One is to use the game menu and select the >Log Out< option. Another is to sleep in a bed, usually located in inns, hotels, are property players can privately purchase. Sleeping in beds is the best way for players to avoid getting motion sickness when entering or leaving The Nexus.

The third option is more for emergencies. In the game menu, there is a >Help< submenu. If a player—for whatever reason—doesn't have an option to log out in the game menu or can't use beds, they can contact an administrator or a moderator directly to fix the issue. Admins and mods have the feature to force quit players out of the game, so they can use this power to help players stuck in the game.

The phenomenon where a player is stuck in the virtual world, without a way out on their own, is called «Drowning». According to admins and developers, it's never actually happened to anyone but is a real threat since bugs can occur with the log-in process.

Jay continues to run to Spring Plaza, one of the many parks situated around the Modern District of Spahn, still questioning what Helmet wants from him. As he's running, he spots the entrance to the park, along with Helmet, and...

'Axel and Ivy?!'

As Jay approaches his friends and Helmet, he instantly realizes that Axel and Ivy were not the happiest campers, with both getting in each other's face, teeth-gritting and all.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Ivy yells.

"Why didn't you?!" Axel berates.

Jay could tell Helmet was trying his best to keep composure, with players around giving the four of them weird stares.

'You two need a lot of work...' Helmet thinks.

"Hey, guys!" Jay yells.

Axel and Ivy both turn in his direction, still mad at each other. Jay notices that they both had their game menus open, and sequentially both had their messages pulled up.

"So you got a message too, huh?!" Axel asks.

Jay, now right next to his friends, takes a look at their messages.

'*What*?'

Helmet… had texted all of them in-game to come here at the same time! But none of them told each other! Jay quickly realized what Axel and Ivy were so mad at each other for, but he still found it entertaining.

Ivy looks at Jay and Axel.

"I just wanted a picture with his *cute* new visor!" She says, completely fangirling.

"I thought it was a special mission, so I knew you would geek out like this!!" Axel says back to Ivy, "But honestly, I had no reason for not telling you, Jay."

"That's alright. I didn't mention it to you guys because I thought he was going to challenge me to a fight to be even." Jay says.

Helmet steps forward.

"Well, something like that, yes." Helmet says.

The three friends turn away from each other and look at Helmet. His leather jacket folding in the wind, and his visor smooth but still tinted enough that they couldn't see his face. He wants them to fight him, or something like that? Helmet takes his right hand out of his right side pocket and holds up three cards, each with the Slayer's Crest on them—The logo for The Slayer's Pack, which is the Guild that Helmet is a captain in.

"I was actually impressed by you three yesterday and was wondering..."

"If you would be interested in trying out for The Slayer's Pack."