Chapter 38: Inside

I was getting bored now. Several players had already jumped down and showed no signs of being alive and I had the urge to do the same. But I couldn't jump unless Arson was; he had precise instructions from very strong sources.

Finally, FINALLY! Arson jumped. There was a splash of lava. I looked in the direction of Jorge and Ivy and jumped too. It felt like jumping in the water. Silly me, it was a game after all, how come I didn't see that?

The water vanished and I found myself facing the tunnels. There were ten of them. Above me, there was a layer of water and nothing else. It felt like being under the sea. Except that there was no water around me. The players all came in one by one. I managed to contact Jorge and found him. Ivy was nowhere to be seen or heard. I couldn't contact her either. I had my gun out and already walking through a random tunnel. He followed. Arson had practically disappeared. Probably cheated. We met a dead end. We turned back, started off a new one. Again met a dead end. The third one actually had a...route if you call it that. There was no dead end. But the path was rocky. It was pitch dark inside.

"Why wouldn't you take your torch out?" Jorge asked.

"I have a torch? Why didn't you tell me before?"

He made an impatient noise. I found the torch option in the tools. Fortunately it was that sort of forehead torch used by surgeons and explorers I think? I did not have much knowledge on those. But that didn't matter anyway. The journey was short. We reached the other side of the cave only to find open lands before our eyes. Seriously, this game is so confusing and annoying that I can't help but wonder why the hell did it become such a hit?! I shot a glance and Jorge who didn't seem really puzzled about this.

"So, uh where do we go?" I asked him.

"Of all my experience in gaming, I've never seen this place before. And I'm sure I've been stuck in changed dimension world for at least a hundred times. I theorize that your presence here is bringing these changes. You tell me what do we do." he said.

I had no answer to that. So, I started to walk. He followed wordlessly. I was as confused as he was. I felt panic groping me. I just wanted to go back to my world but to do that I had to win badges. I never thought I would have to fight for my freedom. I felt fake. The whole Gang expected great things of me. But I didn't even have the faintest clue about it. I was just an imposter pretending to be all powerful and all knowing in a world where I barely belonged.

There was a screech of some creature-correction: dragons. And plural. I was gaping at them, the remaining feeling vanishing from my legs. Jorge grabbed me my wrist and we were running back towards the tunnels. Something in me went alive. Jorge was dragging me but I yanked my hand out of his grasp, got my gun out and shot.

That was instinct. I was shooting and amidst that I ordered Jorge to do the same. He refused flat and told me that I had to go come with him to safety. But then, the scoreboard appeared. Mine was the only name on it. It showed that we needed twenty kill for sOmeThiNg.

That was enough to convince Jorge. He started to shoot too and then, we both reached the required limit. Everything vanished again. We were swirling into nothingness-again