5. Beautiful Day

Tuesday, October 2 2007

-Morning

Geography has never been my favourite subject, but somehow I can follow the lesson much better than last week.

I wish subjects like this put more emphasis on outdoor activities, rather than telling us to memorise textbook terms.

…

During break, I saw Sana sleeping on her desk. I was about to ask her to eat together…

I approach her desk.

Eric: ‘Hey, Sana. It’s break time.’

She didn’t get up…

I tap on her shoulder multiple times.

Then she finally wakes up… But she then looked at me with a pouting face.

Eric: ‘Er, sorry. I was about to ask you out-’’

Sana: ‘Mmmmph! Why are you logging me out?? I was having fun there!’

Eric: ‘Come again?’

Sana: ‘Did you forget already? We can enter dream world when sleeping!’

Eric: ‘...But can we just do it at night? We’ll get scolded by teacher-’

Sana: ‘Idiot!’

She then runs off to the door before bumping at Fredrick!

Fredrick: ‘Ouh! S-Sana??

Sana: ‘Hey, you need to tell this idiot here how shallow he is!

Well, this is awkward… Sana and Fredrick looked at me with disgust.

…

Fred: ‘Just a nap will get you there??’

Sana: ‘Yes! Anyway, I was testing stuff, and found out that karuta card make me cast skills faster!’

Eric: ‘Yeah, right… Where did you test ‘that’?

Sana: ‘Hm? I walked through the woods, and beat few gobos…’

Eric: ‘Okay, which ‘woods’? How can we find you? We know that we always be at the same place as where we woke up previously.’

Sana went silent…

Fred: ‘If we enter at different times, we would get separated, right? Aren't there enemies outside?’

Sana pouts a little before looking down.

Sana: ‘...Sorry.’

Eric: ‘It’s okay. I think to avoid confusion, we should meet at the same place. What do you guys think?’

Both of them nodded in agreement.

-Afternoon

I decided to go to the library. There are many things I don’t recognize at dreamworld, such as the town architecture and geography landmarks. Studying them might be useful…

Coincidentally, at the receptionist, I met Elisabeth, the school model. She’s the only student in this school that is allowed to have long blonde colored hair and excessive makeup.

Eric: ‘Elisabeth?’

Elisabeth: ‘Ah! Eric~ It’s been a while~ What brings you here?’

Her beauty and her alluring gal-like voice enthralls many boys here… I have to resist it.

Eric: ‘I’m looking for history books. So, what does a model do here? No jobs today?’

Elisabeth: ‘Yeah… It’s been two weeks since the last scene, so the teacher told me to stay here. Haaah… This place’s so boring~’ She then fiddled with her cellphone.

She ain’t wrong though. This library is empty, save for just a few 3rd class students, who study here to prepare for entrance exams and obviously not for gossiping.

…

After grabbing the books I wanted, I went to Elisabeth. She looked at me weirdly.

Elisabeth: ‘Are you for real? I mean look at this… There’s no stamp here. These kinds of books would make a perfect meal for bookworms.’

Eric: ‘...What a disgusting way of wording it. I thought models should be an example of good girlfriend material.’

Elisabeth: ‘That’s where everyone’s wrong! I became a model so I can cosplay lots of costumes!’

Cosplay?

Now that I think about it, I’ve seen places where they have a bunch of interesting clothes.

Perhaps I should tell her ‘that’.

-Evening

Dad’s not here today.

That means he’s going to miss today’s pop quiz!

The TV shows game host…

(‘Question! A person awakened by a phone call late night may have trouble remembering the conversation tomorrow. How can you explain this phenomenon? Is it,’)

(‘A. The person has disorientation related to waking up, or’)

(‘B.The person has trouble remembering things. You go answer!’)

Lil Sis: ‘Hmmm… What do you think, big bro?’

Eric: ‘I think it’s… B?’

Ding Dong!

(‘The answer’s A! We call this phenomenon sleep inertia. It may cause short term memory loss! So next time, tell your employers don’t disturb your wet dream!’)

Ugh! Off the mark!

Lil Sis: ‘What’s a wet dream, mom?’

My mom quickly looked away… Well, she’s too young to get this kind of ‘education’.

…

The books I’ve borrowed contain illustrations and explanations of medieval cities.

Comparing them to Dreamfield towns, it seems Howald has similar resemblance with Italian Florence city, which has history dated back to Ancient Roman eras, while Bronson’s Fort is likely similar to Wales castle. The golden wisps reside in Pisa Tower…

Getting to know where games get their inspiration from is fun!

I studied until ten o’clock, washed my teeth, then went to sleep.

…

Sweet dreams, Eric.

***

Welcome to the Dreamfield.

This announcement already sounds familiar to me.

Sana and Fred are already here.

We decided to go back to Bronson’s Fort.

***

Fred: ‘ *sigh* Do you think there’s better ways to spend money here?’

We are sitting at the outdoor cafe near the market where people sell various things. However, the options are rather… Limited. Whenever we tried to buy a fruit, they shoo at us. When we ask why, they call us nonsense or idiots.

Sana: ‘These NPCs and these useless wares are just game decorations to make things lively.’

Fred: ‘They can’t even let me buy their sword! Isn’t it unusual for video games?’

Sana: ‘That means such things aren’t necessary for players…’

To sum it up, the only things we can purchase in the market are costumes, and potions.

We’re starting to wonder what’s the real use of money if we can’t use it. Sure we have to pay tax, but that’s nothing to worry about, as we have more than enough.

Sana: ‘The economy in this world is weird…’

Eric: ‘Do MMORPG games are like this?’

Sana: ‘Not exactly. Those games usually employ a player based economy where we can trade things to influence the game’s market. Essentially, players can adjust how cheap or expensive an item is, based on supply and demand.’

Fred: ‘Aah, you mean it’s like the TV stock market? Buy low, sell high?’

Sana: ‘Yeah!’

Fred: ‘Uwah… That sounds complicated!’

Sana’s scratching her head, before mutters something.

Sana: ‘Do you remember what the guards said yesterday?’

Eric: ‘Work hard and the wisp will open the door?’

Sana: ‘Yes, that’s the clue. They must’ve known something hidden. We just need to ‘prove’ our work!’

This might be a good chance to test it…

Eric: ‘I have something to request…’

***

We returned to the last visited boreal forest. Our task is to escort a bunch of golden wisps to Howald. They gathered behind us like fireflies… In the daylight.

Sana’s face pouted ever since we took this task. She argued that we could do multiple tasks closer to Bronson’s Fort rather than this.

Sorry, master Sana. There are things I must confirm.

Fred: ‘Do you think this task is kinda… Silly?’

Eric: ‘You mean why do we escort something they can’t see?’

Sana: ‘That’s because these wisps are treated as immortal beings. Nothing will harm them.’

Fred: ‘Then what’s the point of escorting them? They could’ve just gone by themselves.’

Sana: ‘I think we’re the one being escorted…’

Soon enough, multiple Gobos came out of these forest bushes. There are probably 8 of them. One of them steps forward.

Gobo Thug: ‘You’re from the other day, huh? It’s time for revenge!!’

That Gobo gestured their hand above their head, then another group of gobos came out of bushes… With bows! Now it’s 5 to 1!

Sana: ‘Archers! Run! Get behind cover!’

We quickly ran away to the big boulder not far from the road.

The archers shot barrages of arrows towards us, while the thugs rush to our position. Crouched, we await her instruction.

Sana: ‘We need to lash out or else they’ll surround us. Let’s try the new tactic, okay?’

We nodded.

Sana: ‘Go!’

As the thugs are about to encircle us, Fred immediately dashes towards the thugs. The surprised enemies decided to attack him. Then,

Fred: ‘Stance!’

When he did that, his body became blurry. The thugs attacked him from three directions, but he easily blocked them all!

Fred: ‘Woah! My body moved on its own!’

However, a flurry of arrows about to hit Fred!

Eric: ‘Shield!’

I pointed my finger at Fred, creating a bubble that magically snaps incoming arrows towards Fred.

With this setup, Fred draws attention to all enemies, while I repeatedly shield him. The combination of these skills made Fred impenetrable! This is what Sana calls a ‘tank’, a player role that functions to bait enemy attacks. I am the ‘support’, a role to aid the ‘tank’.

What does Sana do then?

Sana: ‘Bupa!’

Her body’s engulfed with flames. Then, she jumped sideways with her two fingers gestured like a pistol, cooly dodging stray arrows.

Sana: ‘Elbo! Elbo! Elbo! Elbo!...’ She spelled her skill rapidly!

Multiple lightning fast attacks shocks all the thugs!

She however, fell to the ground.

Sana: ‘Fred! Get them! Eric, keep supporting Fred!’ She shouts as she’s trying to get up.

Fred quickly rushes towards the archers, while I keep casting shield. The archers, lacking weapons to fight at close range, resort with their flimsy bows as melee weapon. They are no match against Fred’s swordsmanship, while being exposed against Sana’s bolt barrage. Within less than a minute, Fred and Sana defeat the entire group of archers!

With no enemies remaining, we regrouped at the road with a happy face.

Eric: ‘Your skill’s awesome! You’re like Samurai Y!

Fred: ‘Thanks dude! I can’t believe I didn’t take a single damage!’

We then tapped Sana’s shoulders. Our ‘damage dealer’ deserves the most praise.

Sana’s face grinning in embarrassment.

Sana: ‘Ehehe… I didn’t do much…’

Eric: ‘What are you talking about? That jump shot was so cool, it’s like a slow-mo movie scene!’

Sana: ‘I just copied a video game move, that’s all...’

In my opinion, that’s not what makes Sana’s best. Her careful planning is what wins us against the odds.

Within just a short time, she learned our skills and built tactics around them. She presumably does that while we are discussing things on the road.

She instinctively knows where to take the direction of the fight. If we didn’t take cover, I can only imagine we’re going to get surrounded badly.

The karuta card she got allows her to shorten skill spelling, making her able to cast skills twice as fast, and attack with great accuracy.

It’s insane that a girl of my age has this much warfare skills.

***

Arriving at Howald, the wisps flew away, while one of them ‘spawns’ a… Megaphone?

Can’t complain, so Fred grabbed that.

In any case, I rushed towards the cloth shop. Sana and Fred followed me, but they looked weirded by my behavior.

Fred: ‘Dude, what’s wrong with you? You don’t like your ‘priest’ look?’

Eric: ‘Idiot, that’s not it. I’m looking for-’

Then, I saw a girl with a tanktop, grabbing a cloth on each of her hands, while facing a mirror.

This must be her! I approached her quickly.

Eric: ‘Hey! Nice to meet you!

That girl turned around to me. Golden eyes, large coiled green hair, and her natural beauty…

Girl with green hair: ‘Hm? Can I help you?’

And her enthralling voice! It’s so similar!

Eric: ‘I’m Eric. Do you like the costumes here?’

Girl with green hair: ‘Yeah! The color’s bit plain, the materials a bit strange, but the design’s interesting! My friend said that this dream allows me to cosplay beautiful clothes, so I chose Howald! I didn’t believe what he said, but now, it’s totally true! There’s magic and all, and oh, I have green hair~’

Eric: ‘Then… Can I ask your name?’

Girl with green hair: ‘I’m Elize. Nice to meet you… Why are your face’s like that?’

She shook my hand and asked why I looked flabbergasted? Isn’t that clear?

Eric: ‘You are Elisabeth! Elisabeth, the main actor of ‘Love by You’!!’

Elize: ‘How did you know… Eh? Eeeeehhhh?!’

***

I have learned something important today.

If I tell my dream to someone, that person will be transported to Dreamfield the next time they sleep, regardless if they believe it or not.

Figuring out my friends' personality also allows me to predict where they might be. In this case, Elisabeth, who actually wants to cosplay, so I told her what she needed to do.

And the most important thing is voice. We all have different looks, but voices never lie!

Here, Elize chose Cleric as her job, a magic user specialized in support.

Meanwhile, Fred’s eyes gauged at Elize’s beauty with her new white gown. Honestly, who wouldn’t.

Fred: ‘Even in a dream world, a model’s beauty carries over, and you chose a perfect costume! Oh, how marvelous!’

Eric: ‘Can’t agree more! She’s like a proper lady!’

Fred: ‘I know! We’ll call you Lady Elize!!’

Elize: ‘Lady Elize? Ho ho ho~ I like that name. Very well!’

We both kneeled. Hail Lady Elize!

Sana: ‘You guys are disgusting, you know.’

Elize: ‘Oh ho ho~ Don’t worry about that, Sana. This is basically my normal life!’

Sana: ‘By the way… How much money you have now?’

Elize: ‘About 180… Why?’

Sana: ‘Wait. You guys, stop kneeling! We need to discuss something!’

We stood up. Sana’s face looks rather serious.

Sana: ‘Today’s base tax is 180. We know that everyday the tax in the dream world increases as day passes.’

Fred: ‘Yeah, so what about it?’

Sana: ‘If this keeps continuing, I’m afraid that Elize might not pay tax in time, if we ever fail a task… Given that we cannot give money to others.’

Elize: ‘Is that… A bad thing?’

Sana: ‘I don’t know for sure, but it’s better if we ‘don’t break rules’.’

Sana’s right. Elize’s new here, and since the money rewards are split in party, we have to engage with more difficult tasks to earn enough. This isn’t too problematic for the three of us, but for the new players this is a big deal.

Sana: ‘I’ve been researching a while, and I have a solution. Follow me.’

***

At the Howald’s academy, we are lining up at the receptionist's desk.

Receptionist: ‘We offer service to create a guild! Simply write member names here, and write your guild name.’

Elize: ‘What’s a guild?’

Sana: ‘Don’t you know it? It’s an organization where players can complete tasks together.’

Fred: ‘Yeah… What’s the difference between party?’

Sana: ‘It’s explained here… Guild allows members to pool their money and pay their taxes together with additional interest… Page 2 says guild can also attempt guild tasks to strengthen our power…’

Eric: ‘That means Lady Elize doesn’t have to worry about money!’

Sana: ‘Correct. We just need to choose our name.’

We discussed potential names. Sana suggests taking animal names, Fred suggests cool names, and Elize suggests… Cosmetic brands.

For me, there’s one thing that struck my mind.

It’s when I made a promise with Sana. I promised to her that I would bring her dream Sana to real life, essentially breaking the ice.

No… More like breaking the dream.

Eric: ‘Dreambreaker…’ I murmur.

They looked at each other before nodding in agreement. Then they gave me the fist bump.

With that, we’re known as Dreambreakers.

A few minutes later, the pooled money paid today's tax.

***

We spent the next two hours talking about where to meet, what to do tomorrow, and talk a little about daily lives

Eric: ‘How did you earn money, Lady Elize? Considering you can’t fight…’

Elize: ‘Fight? No, no. I simply spell ‘Regen’ to sick people, that’s all… Although, just before the last patient, I heard a loud noise outside.’

I can’t think the gal Elize being a nurse in real life…

My watch beeps. I bid goodbye to my friend.

The world around me blurs away quickly before showing me my bedroom.

It’s 6 o’clock…

I decided to prepare for school.