2. Nice Day

Saturday, September 29 2007

-Morning

As usual, in the morning, I had to endure the worst subject ever, which is Math. Calculus at the beginning of the semester is just too much.

Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about the girl I met in my dream.

Coincidentally, my classroom also has someone who has the name Sana. She sits at the corner of the class. She’s the quiet type, and I usually see her eat alone during break.

Her long black hair is smooth and beautiful though.

Comparing her to the one in my dream… That can’t be her, I mean the other Sana has short purple hair, talks and she’s brave enough to fight that gross fatty.

…

In the cafetaria, I decided to try the soy sauce fried noodles. The taste was so-so. As usual, I sat together with Fredrick.

Fredrick: ‘Hmm… The chicken seasonings are kinda bland today…’

Eric: ‘Is that so? Glad I tried something new.’

Fredrick: ‘You didn’t eat as fast as yesterday… That means…’

Eric: ‘I’m not in a hurry today, man.’

Done eating, I bid goodbye to Fredrick and went to our own classroom. As usual, Sena is still sitting at her desk eating alone.

-Afternoon

Only one English homework. That ain’t too hard.

I decided to go to the board game room. It is part of my extracurricular activity.

Board games are fun to play as a party in my opinion. Too bad there’s only 3 members in this club. Most board games are designed for 4 players, so we often invite 1st year students to play here.

…Well, whatever. 3 can play that game. Claudia and Jason are here. They look flabbergasted when I show them the invitation letter.

Jason: ‘Damn, this isn’t a dream, isn’t it? We the 3rd year students didn’t even get invited even once!’

Eric: ‘Haha! That means I’m better than you, then.’

Jason: ‘Ugh! You… I challenge you to SCRABBLE!!’

While Jason prepares the board, Claudia seems really focused on the letter.

Claudia: ‘Is this true, that you only have two weeks?’

Eric: ‘Yeah. The jury came here personally.’

Claudia: ‘...Is that so?’

Claudia’s face doesn’t look too happy about this. What’s with her attitude anyway?

Claudia then returns the letter, and fiddles with her flipphone. She’s not interested in playing SCRABBLE at the moment.

We played for two rounds. It was a tie.

-Evening

Dad: ‘Congrats, son! You should’ve called me yesterday.’

Eric: ‘Thanks, dad. I thought you were busy yesterday.’

Dad: ‘Not too busy. It’s the usual drill routine, y’know.’

We sat down in the dining room. The family, with food on the table, and a TV with a news channel. It was a surprise evening. Dad doesn't usually come home this early. Firefighters are riddled with long working hours.

We talked about my repaired watch, tomorrow's schedules, and board game strategies, which we intend to play after dinner.

Then, the TV shows a prime news segment…

(Today’s news! The unconscious man has been admitted to a nearby hospital…)

(‘There’s no visible wound, but… We would like some time to examine the cause…’)

(The local police haven’t figured out the man’s identity… Argument between police and hotel staff continues.)

Lil Sis: ‘Why is that man still unconscious?’

Mom: ‘He might’ve drunk too much… *sigh* Man these days…’

Dad: ‘Wha- I’m not that kind of person!’

Mom really likes to tease Dad. It brings a smile to her face.

After eating, we picked up a board game and played together. This time, we played a militaristic strategy board game. It was really fun!

…

We played until late at night. I’m pretty happy with today.

I took a bath, washed my teeth, then went to sleep.

It was a usual day after all.

…

I wonder if that strange dream will come again.

Sweet dreams, Eric.

***

Welcome to the Dreamfield.

Apparently, I returned back to the same dream yesterday. Right now I'm outside of the church, standing, alive and well. The wound on my leg doesn’t seem to be there…

I check my menu to find my ‘Soul Bolt’ stock to be full.

When I walked inside the church, I saw the priest from yesterday, standing unharmed. The building also doesn't look damaged at all.

Thank god everyone’s safe.

Now… What should I do? I could explore this cool town. It’s big and is unique, but I thought that without money, I wouldn’t be able to fully experience it. Just like a theme park, it’s hard to enjoy it without buying snacks or merchandise.

Thinking about it, I obviously need money and points. I can earn money by doing tasks and defeating monsters. I could return to Greener Fields, but…

I decided to ask around.

…

According to the people here, completing tasks awards a good amount of money, that is if successful. Tasks can be found at the notice board just a few blocks from the academy.

When I ask them about how to use points, none of them seem unable to answer…

I went to the notice board, and saw packs of people reading stuff there. It’s like an exam score announcement.

Here, there’s numerous posters that seem handwritten. Some are big, some are small. The big ones have an image of a monster with a large WANTED sign. One of them has an image of a two headed eldritch. It says:

A great demon has arrived! Defeat this together! Reward: 50k Money. Spoils are yours! Due tomorrow.

This is not what I expected when somebody asks for help. The tone seems to advertise rather than asking. The one who made this must’ve been a weirdo!

The money’s insane though! I should grab it-

Suddenly, another hand grabbed my hand! I looked to my right… It’s

Eric: ‘Sana?!’

Sana: ‘Don’t grab that poster! You’ll be penalized if you can’t finish it. It’s for guilds!’

Eric: ‘I’m sorry… Um, what are you doing here?’

Sana: ‘Same as you… You should grab easier tasks. Do you want me to help you?’

Sana looks a little different from yesterday. She now wears a brown jacket. I can still see her tank top though.

Eric: ‘Please do!’

She then explains to me that tasks are divided with their difficulty, with the easiest one yield low amount of money, but great for the inexperienced. Meanwhile, the most difficult tasks yield the best money, but only the best can do this. She also mentions the reward split…

Eric: ‘How come you know about this stuff just by reading the tasks?’

Sana: ‘Don’t you know it? This is the MMORPG world.’

Eric: ‘Sorry, what? EmEmOh-’

Sana: ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game… Never heard one?’

Eric: ‘No… I only know board and card games… Can you explain?’

Sana: ‘MMORPG is a video game genre that combines the aspect of role playing and social interaction between many players. The players roleplays as a character in game then work together or fight against other players in real time. There’s good examples for this, such as Loki Online, Glyphscape, and World of Urncraft. They are very popular~’

Somehow when she talks about MMORPG she gets really happy and excited, which is unlike the real Sana I know.

I don’t get what she says, but she talks about ‘games’... Maybe we can get along!

Eric: ‘Is it true that this is a video game world? It looks too real for me though.’

Sana: ‘Try asking the name of that man with a turban beside you.’

I turned around and asked that man.

Eric: ‘Excuse me. May I know your name?’

Man with turban: ‘What are you talking about?’

Eric: ‘Uh… Can I know your name?’

Man with turban: ‘Why are you speaking nonsense?’

His response is really strange. I simply ask a simple question that he could’ve just said no. Is he reluctant to give his name or…

Sana: ‘That is a NPC.’

Eric: ‘Enpee- wha?’

Sana: ‘ *sigh* Non Playable Character… They are programmed to answer specific questions only, so obviously they can’t answer things they aren’t supposed to know or do something they aren’t supposed to do. NPC is the primary element of video games.’

Eric: ‘Wow… So you know a lot of these… Video games stuff, huh?’

Sana: ‘You’re just illiterate about technology.’

Eric: ‘That’s rude! It’s true that I don’t have a personal computer as other classmates do, and I don’t have JoySet, but I have TV, you know! I can watch the latest news!’

Sana: ‘I-lli-te-rate~ fufu~’

Deep inside, Sana is such a teaser… Ugh. She laughs at my poor understanding of techs. It can’t be helped. Computers are reliable, but very expensive here. Usually when I visit Daniel’s house he won’t let me borrow more than 10 minutes…

Sana: ‘Anyway, you need money, right? Let’s do this task together!’

Sana then grabs a small poster. It’s a task about crop harvesting, and ideally done by two players.

That’s right, Sana refers to me and her as a player, because the characteristics of a player are they wear something that’s unusual to this town, in this case, we both wore a tanktop. The other characteristics are they do something an NPC wouldn’t do. I’m not sure about the latter, but perhaps I can learn about this as I explore the town.

For now, money first.

***

Much further from the Greener Fields lies a windmill surrounded with patches of mature wheats. There’s an empty tilled field at this windmill corner. This is where we are supposed to work…

Eric: ‘Is this it? Where’s the crop?’

Sana: ‘They will spawn when you accept the task. Open your menu please.’

Eric: ‘...Spawn? Like a fish spawn?’

Sana: ‘Just do what I say! Look at the ‘Accept’ button on that task, then blink your eyes.’

When I do that, a ding dong sound appears, followed by the sudden appearance of carrot crops, grape vines, turnip crops, and a bunch of corn plants!

Eric: "Is this what you call ‘spawn’?? This is so magical!’

Sana: ‘Yes, but we need to be quick. We need to gather enough of these crops, and then bring them to the bin over that windmill.’

Sana’s right, the task menu turns into a timer that ticks down. It seems we have 30 minutes to deliver 70kg crops.

First, I pull the roots of the carrot… Huh?

Eric: ‘Sana… This carrot is really heavy!’

Sana doesn’t seem to listen. She’s looking away…

Eric: ‘Hey, Sana. This is unusual-’

Sana: ‘Go carry the crops! I’ll protect you!’

Sana’s facing a chopped wooden log… Who seems to walk with their branches. They move like they are being played as a puppet. It seems this task also has an additional challenge, that is the attack of Woodus!

She then draws her knife, put that near her face, then swings that knife to point that lone Woodu before shouting

Sana: ‘Fire Bolt!!’

A burst of flame ‘spawns’ from her knife, launching itself towards the Woodu, causing that monster to burn bright!

Sana: ‘Why are you standing still?? Go!’

I grabbed a few carrots then carried them to the bin. These carrots are definitely unusual. Each of them weighs like a loaded up grocery bag! Not just that, all of the crops are unusually heavy, despite its normal size.

I glanced at Sana amongst the charcoal logs. She seems to enjoy this a lot.

Meanwhile, I’m playing the modified bowling egg hunt…

…

8 minutes left, 7kg to go.

Sana: ‘Eric. Let’s switch. I’m running out of skill stock.’

I nodded and take position in defense. It seems that without skill stock, a player will be unable to fight.

My turn to have fun.

Eric: ‘Soul Bolt!’

My magic pierced that wooden log, but the Woodu doesn’t seem bothered with it.

Is my skill ineffective?

Eric: ‘Soul Bolt! …Soul Bolt! …Soul Bolt!’

Three simultaneous magic attack hits that Woodu right in the middle of their body… But it has no effect! Uh oh, what do I do…

Sana: ‘Hey! I just found out earlier… They will be defeated, if you break their movement!’

Break their movement… That’s right. These Woodu moves with their two branches. If I break them, then…

This time, I pointed my finger at that branch.

Eric: ‘Soul Bolt!’

The white bolt destroys that branch into pieces! Now, to ensure Woodu’s demise, I point my finger at the remaining branch.

Eric: ‘Soul Bolt!’

Crash!

Without any branches, the Woodu is left motionless, like a log.

Sana: ‘Great Job! We’ll finish this task soon!’

On the menu, I earned 4 money.

Hmm… It’s less than yesterday’s, even though in my opinion this monster is more difficult than Bushu.

A few minutes later, a ding dong sound appears, and I am awarded with 400 money! Now I have 630 money… Something doesn’t add up.

Eric: ‘Uh, yesterday I had 170 money. I have defeated a Woodu and completed a task, so I should have 574 money.’

Sana: ‘Don’t you remember it? When we are in a party, our money earnings will be split up!’

Eric: ‘...Party? Like a… political party?’

Sana: ‘No, you silly! Bwahahaha! Haa… Party is a group of players working together in video games… Political party… Pfft!’

Yeah, yeah, right. I’m being teased for being technologically illiterate again. Sigh... She can’t stop giggling.

But at least today I learned new words. These might be useful for SCRABBLE…

To sum it up, we defeated 15 enemies. A Woodu yields 8 money, that’s 120 divided by 2, so each of us earn 60.

Moments later, my money dropped to 530 and I have 180 points. 120 tax money due tomorrow…

We then decided to go back to the town because we’re spent.

Even though this is a video game dream, I still can get tired. This is too realistic…

***

We then stopped by a cloth store.

Sana: ‘Did you know what the RPG stands for?’

Eric: ‘You explained it before. We roleplay as someone in games. I played those things too before at board games… I just never heard of MMO stuff.’

Sana: ‘Here, we can buy clothes to fashion ourselves. Not only that, these clothes provide us with benefits!’

When she posed in the mirror, that’s where it struck me. I looked at myself… I have short blonde hair, and blue pupils! My hair seems unkempt, unlike the real me who has a curtain black haircut…

Now that I think about it, roleplaying means to become someone else, which is in most cases, abandoning my real self. My dad used to be like that when we played Cave Without Wyverns, where he acted as the devil lord, laughing like a maniac, and taunting us the good heroes. My dad absolutely is not going to do that in real life. Which means…

Eric: ‘You know, I have a classmate named Sana. She’s a quiet person… Unlike you.’

Sana: ‘Uh huh… Hmm, I think I heard your name somewhere in my school.’

Don’t tell me…

Eric: ‘Wait. Are you a student of Fuko’s Public High School?’

Sana: ‘Yeah… Huh, wait… How did you know about that?’

We both looked at each other flabbergasted. My assumption was correct!

Eric: ‘You… You are the real-’

Just before I could say the last word, a beeping sound interrupted the reveal!

Suddenly, the world around me blurs away quickly before showing me my bedroom.

It’s 6 o’clock…

Eric: ‘...Sana.’

This… This might not be a dream after all.

I must confirm this.

I decided to prepare for school… I felt anxious.