The voice belonged to none other than Walt’s boss – Heather. Walt worked for Minan Group which was a software and games development company like Gus Group but did not have the same standards as the latter. He only worked as a tester but Heather who was a top executive at the company always picked on him, taunted him, he seemed to hold a personal grudge against him but Walt had no idea why.
“Good morning sir, I’m just heading into the office to get something I forgot,” Walt lied. The tall, thin, raven-haired man stared him down. They were standing in the lobby of the building and Heather had his secretary with him who watched the scene unsurely through her thick-rimmed glasses.
“Of course, you wouldn’t be caught dead actually doing any work.” Heather said sharply, his eyes narrowed at Walt who shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. It has been almost five years since he last saw the miserable bastard and that time did not make the sting of his words or intensity of his stares any better.
“It’s a weekend sir, there’s no work to be done,” Walt replied but Heather only scoffed and turned his attention back to his secretary. Walt stood there awkwardly, waiting for some sort of dismissal but it never came. After a while, he decided to leave and he was walking away just before his boss called out to him.
“Mr Walt, after you get whatever it is you’re going to get, see me in my office,” Walt turned and saw Heather staring at him, his hands in his pocket.
“Y-yes, sir,” answering the man felt a little weird for him because he had neither seen nor worked for him in years and he suddenly had to bow to his authority again. It irritated him off a little but he could not exactly do anything about it especially since he still worked for him. Walt made his way to the elevator and went up the skyscraper to the 20th floor. He had an office to himself and spent most of his time testing out new games and software. It would have been a great job, his dream job even if his boss wasn’t so frustrating and the games and software were not substandard.
The elevator bell dinged and he stepped out of it in a sort of hurry. Ailsa would have probably gone far with the game and the scene with Heather had delayed him. He wondered what profession she would unlock as he made his way towards his office. The door was optically unlocked so he crouched to eye level with the scanner and the door was unlocked immediately after.
He entered his office, shrugged out of his coat, and threw it on a nearby chair. His office was spacious enough and his work desk had state-of-the-art gaming and software testing equipment. It probably wasn’t wise to play the competition’s game at work, but because Fantasy was designed so that the user’s IP address and location could not be hacked, so it was safe for him to play it.
Walt sat in front of the desk and plugged in the game console. He grabbed the gamepad and pressed play.
“Welcome to Fantasy, land of the three races-” the starting message started to play but Walt skipped it and was immediately transported to the Land of Origin. He gasped at the realness of his surroundings. In his previous life, because his account had been recalled, he could not play again so he had almost forgotten how the game felt.
He could feel everything, touch anything. It all felt very strange but also very familiar. He was standing in front of the entrance to the Land of Origin which looked like a village straight out the medieval ages. The roads were cobbled, the buildings were no taller than two stories and there were hundreds of players bustling around, interacting like actual villagers. This was where novices were brought to when they first start the game and they could only leave after completing novice tasks.
Walt was not a novice; he was a professional swordsman whose chosen race was Terran. Terrans were like humans but with more resistance power and strength. He could enter the village and form a team with novices which would allow them to leave the village without having to complete novice tasks. He could also challenge any novice of his choice to battle. If they accepted and he defeats them, his skill and power would increase and they would have to start from the beginning. However, if they defeat him, they would acquire all his equipment, increase their skill substantially and he would have to start all over again from the novice level.
That was his plan when he asked Ailsa to join the game, he wanted to fight with her and lose the battle so that all his equipment would be transferred to her. Even though he knew his account would fall back to level one, he preferred that option to have the account and his equipment recalled.
As he walked through the village, there were several eyes on him. They all knew he was not a novice and wondered what he wanted, some hoped he wanted to pick a team and others wanted an opportunity to fight him. Ailsa was in an inn trying to get some information when she noticed that people were gathering outside. She stepped out of the inn and saw Walt walking through the village, looking around. She was ecstatic to see him because she had been confused since she got to the Land of Origin.
“Walt!” she called out and he immediately turned to look in her direction, along with the crowd that had been staring at him.
“Ailsa,” he called back and made his way towards her. They crashed into a hug which she quickly pulled away from and shot him an accusatory look.
“What took you so long? I’ve been here for hours,” Ailsa moaned and folded her arms across her chest. Walt regarded her for a moment and realized that her game appearance was different from her real-life appearance. She had pointy ears which showed that she was an elf, her clothes were white and trimmed with fur and they covered only the main important parts of her, there was a lot of skin showing! Walt lost his concentration and just stared at her for a while until she poked him.
“Hey,” she said with a bored face “are you done drooling?” he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.
“Sorry I took so long but time moves faster in Fantasy world than real life, I only took 4 minutes…” he explained lamely. She eyed him suspiciously before pulling him in for another hug.
“This game is really cool but also really stressful,” she announced as they made their way to the Adventurer’s Hall where novice adventurers were assigned tasks and received p*****t. She had told him that when she entered the game, she had been taken to the Fountain of Origin where she was assigned her race and profession. When she got to the Fountain of Origin, she was assigned the race of an elf. While her profession was being determined, she saw the image of the Prophesy Stone next to the fountain and touched it which triggered a hidden profession ‘Sanctuary of Archangel’. She was told by other novices that her profession was sacred and that she could nurse and heal people as well as fight.
“I even got offered to be part of a team while I was waiting for you,” she said. He looked at her in surprise and felt sudden anger that someone wants to take his girlfriend from him.
“Well, what did you do?” he asked cautiously and she shot him a look.
“What do you think I did? Waited another two hours for you,” she said and he laughed nervously again. They reached the hall and Ailsa wanted to go in but Walt pulled her back.
“You know what would be really fun?” he said. She shook her head and he told her to would be fun if they had a battle. She stared at him bewildered, wondering what he was talking about.
A large crowd gathered in the village square where they had come to watch a battle between a seasoned swordsman and a newly acquitted novice with the Sanctuary of Archangel profession. They were all flabbergasted to learn that the novice had accepted the challenge. They were even more confused about the reason why the swordsman wanted to fight her. Some people said they saw them together and they were lovers but the swordsman had betrayed her, so she wanted revenge. Others say that they were siblings but he had killed her so she resurrected and wanted revenge. In the end, no one really knew the reason but they were all eager to watch anyway.
Walt and Alisa stood a few feet apart on a podium in the middle of the square. Walt had drawn his sword which was his choice weapon and had assumed a stance. Ailsa was scared because her weapon was a pair of daggers that she had no experience with. She had refused to fight him at first but eventually gave him when he told her to trust him.
The challenge was single combat, the first person to be kicked out of the podium loses and the winner takes all. It seemed very reckless but Walt was so persuasive and incessant that she didn’t bother questioning it.
A hush fell over the square as Walt started to move, circling Ailsa. She mirrored his movement and tried to steady the heavy pounding in her chest. She had no idea what she was doing, she hoped that her body did. Suddenly, Walt started to charge towards her. She stood there frozen as he raised his sword and was about to strike her. In that moment, the thought that her boyfriend was trying to murder her flashed through her mind and was immediately interrupted by the sound of steel.
She gasped and looked up, her hands had moved and her daggers blocked the attack from his sword. Her body did know what it was doing after all. Smirking, she used her strength and pushed him back. Then they charged towards each other.