Previous | Table of Contents | Next
Khrx yawned as an annoying light shone down on his eyes, urging them to open. He blinked a few times until his vision was no longer blurry. For some reason, his body ached and he pressed his hands against the wet grass to sit up. Why was he on grass? A single beam of moonlight shone through a partially open tent flap, landing on his face. Where was he? The last thing he remembered…, he had fallen asleep on that blustering horse. Now he was here. He tried to fly but nothing happened. At least he was still in [Resolution] and didn’t die in his sleep.
Khrx pushed aside the cloth tent flap and stepped outside. Six men were sitting around a campfire, roasting a chunk of meat. The horse that he had ridden here made eye contact with him and let out a cry as it stumbled to its feet, hiding behind the group of men.
“Eh! He’s awake!” one of the men said, noticing Khrx standing by the tent. “You sleep like a dead log, lad. Where’re your parents?”
Khrx scratched his head. What language were they speaking? He didn’t understand them at all. “Do you speak Rokean?”
“Rokean, huh?” the same person said in Rokean. He nodded. “You don’t look like you’re from the east. It’s been years since I’ve learned it as a secondary language. Everyone said Rokean would be the future, and you know what? They were right. All the NPCs bloody speak in Rokean.”
Khrx stared at the man.
“Right. Sorry. You hungry?” the man asked, gesturing towards the empty patch of grass beside him. Another one of the men scooted over to make space as Khrx sat down, staring at the sizzling meat roasting over the bonfire. He swallowed his saliva as one of the men reached forward and rotated a stick, causing the meat to turn over. Ever since he ate that cloud pusher, his appetite had increased by a lot. Even Mooo’s and Moomoo’s corpses weren’t spared.
“So you’re from Rokea, eh? South or North? You can call me Mr. Johnson by the way.” The man gestured towards everyone sitting around the campfire. “We’re from Rancef.”
“South Rokea,” Khrx said. “I’m Khrx’Lrvnjl.”
The men stared at Khrx. “A who and a what now? Whoever named you should be shot,” one of the men said. He shrank back under Khrx’s glare. “Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad name. I’m really not making fun of your name. It’s just that someone deserves a good shooting for making your life harder than it has to be. What happened to the easy to pronounce Rokean names like Min-jun or Ji-ho? Shit, does your name even have any vowels? It’s like your parents sneezed while naming you.”
“Quit teasing the kid, Randy,” Mr. Johnson said. “You’ll make him cry.” He smiled at Khrx. “Why don’t you spell your name out for us, K…. I’m going to call you Kay from now on, alright?”
Khrx snorted and turned his head away from the man who insulted his name. He pledged to stab him in his sleep, but for now, all his attention had to be focused on the roasting chunk of meat in front of him. Why did it smell so good? Was it related to a cloud pusher? He swallowed his saliva again while his stomach gurgled.
“Hey, hey, doesn’t his name sound really familiar? I can’t help but think I’ve heard it somewhere,” one of the men said.
“A name like Kay’s isn’t just one that you forget after hearing it,” Mr. Johnson said. “You’re probably remembering incorrectly.”
“No, I’m sure….” The man furrowed his brow. “The angel! The one that wiped out the Regmans and Sursians. She’s the second place on the leaderboards, remember her? Wasn’t she named Khrx…Lrvnjl?”
The six men turned to stare at Khrx. He licked his lips, unaware of their gazes. The six men exchanged glances with each other. “Nah. Can’t be.”
Mr. Johnson slapped Khrx’s back. “So, Kay. What were you doing sleeping on your horse like that? Do you even know where you are now? Do your parents know?” He glanced at his friends. “Parents should be keeping watch of their children in [Resolution], right?”
Randy rolled his eyes. “Some people have things called jobs, you know? Not everyone’s like us.”
“Hey, Randy, when are you going to pay me rent?” the man sitting on the other side of Khrx said.
Randy coughed and looked the other way. He patted the horse behind him. “Mighty fine horse you got here, Kay. Where’d you get him? Lanmi? That’s the only city-state nearby that I know sells horses.”
Khrx tore his gaze away from the campfire. “I found him on the road.”
The horse’s eyes bulged out of its head. “Found this noble on the road? This noble was kidnapped! Who found who on the road, you peasant? I’ll have you tried in horse court! Just you—hiih!” The horse ducked and cowered behind Randy as Khrx threw a nearby rock at it. “Brute! How can you behave like this in the company of your peers!?”
Khrx tugged on Mr. Johnson’s sleeve and pointed at the meat in the campfire. “If that’s not enough, you can cook the horse too.” He took another glance at the meat. “Yeah, that’s not going to be enough.”
Mr. Johnson laughed. “That’s bigger than your torso and at least seven kilos. I’m afraid we cooked too much!”
Was seven kilos a lot? How heavy was a cow? Khrx shrugged. He could always eat the horse if he was hungry. And he’d do it far away from this group of people so he wouldn’t have to share. What were they doing here anyway? “Don’t most people logout to sleep at night?” That’s what Anaheim did. She said she had to take care of her body despite being near immortal.
“We get paid to play [Resolution]. The more hours we’re logged in, the more we get paid,” one of the men said. “Besides, if I logged out, I’d have to talk to my wife.” The man sighed. “I can’t wait for the day I can afford a nourishment pod. Then I’d never have to log out again. Goddamn soul-sucking banshee.”
“Shouldn’t we be watching our language around the kid?” the man sitting beside Khrx asked. Mr. Johnson, who was on the other side, nodded. The man clicked his tongue before pulling the meat off the campfire, hacking it with his sword and placing it on wooden platters. “Let’s eat and refresh ourselves before we start. I still have to eat in reality before I die of starvation or dehydration. It’s been, what, two days since we’ve logged out?”
“After this meal, come back in an hour,” Mr. Johnson said. “I’ll keep watch. Stay close to your VR drives. If anything happens, I’ll notify y’all immediately. We can’t wipe before even entering the dungeon.”
“Dungeon?” Khrx asked, receiving a plate. Without waiting for an answer, he stuffed one end of the meat into his mouth and chewed. He slurped it up like a long noodle, swallowing it all in a few seconds.
Mr. Johnson stared at Khrx’s empty platter. Maybe he should’ve killed the horse. “Right. We’re here for a dungeon run. It’s right over there.” He pointed at a nearby hole in the ground. “It’s called the Snake’s Lair. Every two days, a gem appears at the end of the dungeon, and we’ve been tasked with retrieving it for Rancef.”
“Hey,” Randy said. “Should we be spreading information like that around?”
“He’s just a kid,” Mr. Johnson said and shrugged. “How about it, Kay? Want to come with us?”
“You can’t just invite a random to our dungeon raid,” Randy said, his eyes widening. “Dude. A kid too. How am I supposed to shout vulgarities when a snake bites my ass if he’s around?”
“Well, we can’t just leave him out here. You know there’s been lots of roadside bandits recently,” Mr. Johnson said.
The man sitting next to Randy poked his arm. “Jim’s a father. There’s no way he’s going to let a random kid be exposed to danger,” he said. “So whether we like it or not, Kay’s coming with us.”
Khrx tilted his head. When did he agree to go? He had a tracking skill to learn!
“There’ll be plenty more of that meat once we clear out the dungeon,” Mr. Johnson said. He chuckled and gestured towards his platter. “This actually belonged to the guard of the dungeon’s entrance.”
Well, it seemed like that tracking skill could wait.