An Unusual Day

Haruto entered his apartment and casually closed the door behind him. The hot, slightly suffocating air contrasted sharply with the cool evening air, but the young man had grown accustomed to it since moving there.

“Finally, back home,” he murmured with a smile.

His shoulder bag hung from his left hand, filled with a myriad of documents.

Among them were complex assembly diagrams, as well as strength calculations for exotic materials, showcasing the challenging aeronautical projects he was working on.

Haruto took off his jacket and shoes, crossed the small living room, and dropped his load onto the desk.

“A little cleaning up wouldn’t hurt,” he thought, noticing the piles of papers and notebooks cluttering it.

His gaze drifted to a potted plant on the windowsill that was completely dried out. It was a trivial detail, but it reminded Haruto that he was alone in taking care of it.

In fact, it had been a few years since Haruto had left the comfort of his family home to begin university.

That newfound independence had come at a price. Now in his early twenties, Haruto still lived alone in a cramped apartment, and his daily life was sometimes quite mundane.

However, he didn’t regret his choice because, despite everything, he had managed to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

The paper in question was in a frame on the wall. It was silent proof of all his hard work, but also of how far he still had to go as an engineer.

Ending this surge of nostalgia, Haruto turned his attention to another piece of furniture, his bookshelf, which was overflowing with historical and fictional works. These books, along with virtual reality (VR) role-playing games, served as outlets, while some led to discovering outdated manufacturing techniques. “It’s not just the desk that needs attention, but the whole apartment,” he grumbled.

His gaze returned to the desk, specifically, his laptop and VR headset, which were partially hidden under a heap of paper.

The sight of his gaming gear made Haruto smile like an excited kid. Just thinking about it made his heart race, and a spark of determination shone through his tired eyes.

“To hell with the 3D models I need to finish for tomorrow’s production run. Tonight, I plan to explore the Labyrinth of Artox,” he told himself.

Haruto immediately fired up the computer, grabbed his headset, and headed to the bedroom. After donning the headphones and setting his phone on the nightstand, he lay down on his bed to launch the VR system. Tingling with anticipation, he closed his eyes and lost contact with the real world.

❖

A sudden tremor shook the rock walls of the labyrinth. This crude maze of tunnels was the brand-new, high-level dungeon added to the latest update of the famous virtual reality role-playing game called Fantasy Frontiers.

Deep within the labyrinth’s tunnels was a group of two dozen adventurers fighting within a cavern, the members of one of the game’s top guilds.

In the center of this cave, which was littered with boulders and stalagmites, stood a massive metallic snake nearly twenty meters long. It was covered in scales that appeared to be made out of bronze, tarnished by a light verdigris patina. The monster’s head was adorned with two fist-sized sapphires serving as malevolent eyes.

While two warriors drew the snake’s attention, four mages, accompanied by a paladin, prepared their attack spells.

“Cast the fireballs now!” shouted one of the mages.

Four fireballs suddenly appeared in the mages’ hands. They hurled them toward the snake, striking it head-on before exploding. The flames momentarily engulfed the beast before disappearing, leaving not a single visible wound or blemish.

At the opposite end of the cavern, out of the monster’s reach and hiding in the shadow of a ledge, stood Tanis. He was armed with a longbow and cloaked in a long, gray cloak that blended in with the surrounding rock. He quickly glanced at the fighters distracting the serpent and noted the hasty retreat of the spellcasters.

His attention then turned to the other figures involved in the battle, including more mages, healers, and several archers. All were striving to inflict damage on this tenacious foe and to avoid its counterattacks.

“This creature is not only fast but also seems impervious to our magical and physical attacks. And to make matters worse, I don’t see any weak points to take advantage of,” he murmured, perplexed.

After a few minutes of contemplating this predicament, Tanis was joined by the mages and the paladin.

“This thing is a lot tougher than the others,” one fighter said.

“It sure is,” Tanis responded. “At first, I thought of simple solutions, like dropping the cave ceiling on its head, or even making it fall into a pit filled with lava.”

“Except, there isn’t a single trace of lava in this place, and it’s apparently immune to physical attacks,” added one of the mages.

“We could always aim for the inside of its mouth. I doubt that its internal organs are immune,” suggested the paladin.

“How exactly do you plan to do that? Let yourself get swallowed, and then what? Slash it from the inside while mindlessly swinging your sword? And let’s not even get started on your remaining hit points,” retorted the same mage dismissively.

Turning to Tanis, he continued. “Why not coordinate an attack from all our spellcasters? I think a storm of magical fire might melt that damn snake.”

“There’s no guarantee our opponent would succumb and liquefy before our eyes, assuming it’s actually made out of bronze. In any case, even if the combined power of all your magic could hypothetically reach the melting point, the surrounding air would quickly become unbreathable for all of us and…”

Tanis abruptly cut himself off, realizing the underlying implications of his own words. He immediately devised a plan in his mind.

“You’re a genius,” Tanis exclaimed to the magician.

“Uh, thanks… But didn’t you just say that the fire storm wasn’t guaranteed to kill the monster?”

Walking toward the two warriors battling the beast, Tanis replied, “Not the way you suggested. Instead, gather all our forces at the cave entrance. Have the spellcasters stand on the front line, facing the monster, with the healers right behind them. The melee fighters will cover our rear.”

“And you? What are you going to do?”

Tanis looked at the wizard with a mischievous grin before continuing. “I’m just going to tell our two comrades to take cover. Then, we’ll carry out a twisted version of your idea and triumph in this battle in a totally unique way.”

As the groups forming a circle around the monster began to retreat, Tanis cautiously snuck closer to Valnaya’s position.

Despite their role as decoys, the guild leader and her warrior partner never failed to impress Tanis. Indeed, their agility and defensive skills were nothing short of extraordinary.

The final few meters before reaching his destination were the most perilous, and the ranger had to practically crawl his way there.

The snake’s attacks were dangerous enough, but they were nothing compared to the rocks being hurled at them. When the beast’s tail struck pulverized nearby stalagmites, they exploded like frag grenades.

After taking cover behind a rock formation, Tanis tried to get his ally’s attention:

“Valnaya, can you hear me?”

Keeping her focus on the scaly monster, she replied, “Yes, but what are you doing here?”

“Change of plans. You two need to get out of here and run as fast as you can toward the cave entrance.”

“I’d love to, but who’s going to keep this beast busy while we retreat? I hope it’s not you. One hit and you’re dead meat.”

“Maybe, but I’m the only one fast enough to pull this off. And I need you to relay very specific instructions to our mages.”

“Yeah, I’m in. But if you get yourself killed like last time trying to play the hero, I’ll forbid you from laying a finger on a single piece of treasure for the rest of the game session.”

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Tanis grumbled, “The black dragon incident was partly your fault, just so you know.”

A silence fell between them before Valnaya continued:

“So, what are these instructions?”

“Oh, yes… Four mages will need to set up magical barriers. It is imperative that these be positioned so as to completely seal off access to the cave. As for the other casters, a combination of fireballs and fire blasts should suffice. They must wait until I reach the rest of the guild members before casting their spells.”

A shiver ran down Valnaya’s spine when she realized what exactly was the intended outcome of her subordinate’s plan.

“It’s a bold strategy, I’ll grant you that. But you’ll need a hell of a lot of luck to survive alone against the snake,” she replied.

“As soon as I’ve gotten its attention, you two need to get out of here immediately. I’ll try to hold it off as long as I can, but as soon as you’ve covered half the distance, I’m going to make a run for it.”

Once they all agreed, Tanis got into position, readied his longbow, and nocked an arrow. Aiming it carefully at one of the monster’s eyes, he released it.

It took a fraction of a second for the arrow to strike the snake’s left eyeball, barely scratching the sapphire. However, that was enough to enrage the beast, which, with a sharp movement of its head, lurched to bite Tanis. He dodged the vicious attack at the last second by shifting to the right.

“Now!” he yelled to Valnaya and their teammate.

While the other two players ran at full speed, Tanis dodged the snake’s attacks as best he could, relying on his agility as well as the various rocky obstacles in the cave.

The attacks ranged from violent tail swipes to biting attempts when, suddenly, the monster changed its posture. It reared up like a giant cobra, and its normally blue eyes began to glow with intense light, giving them an almost-white hue.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Tanis muttered.

Taking cover behind a large stalagmite, he glanced at the snake. Simultaneously, the monster opened its jaws in his direction, and his field of vision briefly went white before turning completely dark.

After what felt like an eternity, Tanis opened his eyes and looked toward the cavern’s ceiling. A strong smell of ozone filled his nostrils. When he moved, a sharp pain shot through his entire body. He realized that he was lying on his back, having lost most of his health points.

Quickly regaining his composure, he sat up and looked around for a visual reference point. His gaze fell first on Valnaya, who was halfway to the entrance, and then on what remained of the stalagmite that had served as a cover.

It had been shattered, and tiny glass shards were splayed on the ground. The attack had generated extreme heat, enough to melt the ground and the surrounding dust.

“Lucky I was partially protected, or that attack would’ve turned me into a roasted chicken,” Tanis muttered to himself.

The beast didn’t waste a second when it realized its prey was still moving. Lunging forward, it covered the distance between them at breakneck speed.

“Well… No way am I tempting fate twice. Time to say goodbye,” he added before taking off.

Tanis was running at full speed, but the snake continued his pursuit, unleashing a flurry of attacks that quickly saturated the area with stone debris flying in all directions.

When he had covered two-thirds of the distance, he heard the monster emit a loud hiss behind him. Tanis turned around for a split second and saw the snake strike a cobra pose once more, its eyes glowing.

“Not this time, you bastard!”

Just as the monster bared its gullet, the ranger leaped to its left. A moment later, a bright white light illuminated the cavern, followed by a purple flash that struck violently where he had just been standing. The blast sent a burst of debris and molten sand particles flying.

A fist-sized rock fragment struck Tanis in the lower back, causing a searing pain and cutting off his breath.

He didn’t bother to regain his composure and forced himself, despite the pain, to continue his frantic dash.

His health bar had reached a critical level and flickered in his peripheral vision. With no more room for errors, Tanis knew that the next few seconds would seal the outcome of the battle.

The moment he crossed the cave’s threshold, Valnaya stepped in with her shield to block the space he had just passed through and ordered the rest of the adventurers to carry out the rest of the plan.

“Everyone, get ready. Block that entrance and make sure that creature doesn’t get through!”

A few seconds passed before the magical barriers appeared and confined the metal snake to its cavern. It slammed into the magical wall with such intensity that the rock walls and the surrounding tunnels shook violently.

After swallowing nervously, the female warrior turned to the mages before continuing:

“Perfect. Let’s move on to phase two, but make sure to keep the firestorm going as long as possible, even if it means draining the magical reserves of all our spellcasters.”

Inside the cave, their opponent was about to cast another lightning bolt, but the wizard was quicker.

“Fire! Now,” he ordered.

A brief silence fell after the order to attack. It was followed by a tremor in the cave caused by the vacuum created when the surrounding air was sucked in by the storm of flames that had just appeared. The flames engulfed the snake at the same time.

The adventurers’ magical effort soon transformed into a massive, fiery vortex. It easily reached the cave’s ceiling, which was several dozen meters high.

The light it produced and the reflections on the monster’s metallic scales gave the creature an almost demonic appearance. Its lightning bolt, capable of vitrifying the point of impact, had no effect.

Surprised, the snake immediately switched tactics and tried in vain to strike the magical barriers with all its might using its tail, hissing in anger.

Valnaya turned around to make sure the ranger was unharmed, helping him to his feet by offering one of her shoulders for support.

“Once again, Tanis, you came within a hair’s breadth of losing your life. We’ve been playing together since Fantasy Frontiers launched, but I’m still always surprised by your less-than-orthodox tactics.”

Tanis didn’t even bother to respond to the guild leader. Instead, he flashed a small, satisfied smile as he feasted his eyes on the hellish show unfolding inside the cave.

“You might still be moving, but it shouldn’t be long now,” he muttered in the reptile’s direction.

For several long minutes, the cave and the surrounding tunnels were rocked violently by the snake as it tried desperately to escape its prison.

Finally, a strange silence settled in, broken only by the labored breathing of the mages who had exhausted all their magical energy.

The constant impacts against the magical walls had ceased, and a thin layer of dust now covered all the players in the corridor.

When the spells blocking the entrance vanished, a powerful suction from within the cavern knocked most of the players off balance, sending them tumbling forward.

While the guild members were struggling to recover from the battle, Tanis was already back on his feet. Apprehensively, he staggered toward the interior of the cavern, closely followed by one of the mages.

On the partially glassed floor, in the center of the room, lay the lifeless metal snake.

The sapphire eyes had lost their color and luster and were now a very pale blue, almost white. The beast’s body, normally bronze-colored with a metallic sheen, was now blackened by the flames.

The overheated metal emitted a distinctive odor that filled the room. This was combined with a very strong smell of sulfur, caused by the stone walls that had been scorched by the fire.

“What a stench! The air is practically unbreathable,” exclaimed the mage, pinching his nose.

He turned to Tanis with a questioning look before continuing:

“Are you sure it’s really dead?”

Tanis cautiously approached the corpse. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and touched one of the monster’s eyes with the tip. When there was no reaction, he sheathed his arrow and pressed firmly on the eye with his left boot. A sharp pain shot through his leg.

“Ouch! I haven’t healed myself and regained my health points yet… Still, it seems to be dead for all I can tell.”

Several other guild members approached the corpse and their companions at the scene. The paladin spoke up and asked the question that was on everyone’s mind:

“Can someone explain to me how we defeated this thing when our previous attacks had no effect?”

“Oxygen deprivation,” replied Tanis.

“So, the purpose of the flames was never to burn the snake, but rather to consume the oxygen in the air and suffocate it?” added a mage, looking puzzled.

“Okay, but I still have one question,” said the paladin. “Why didn’t we simply bury the monster by collapsing the cave ceiling?”

“The result probably wouldn’t have been any different, but it’s always better to have access to the beast’s loot than just a pile of rocks,” the ranger replied with a wink.

Echoing Tanis’s comment about the treasures, Valnaya quickly suggested what to do next, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Well… How about we divide up the loot now? It’s getting late, and some of us will be total zombies at work tomorrow.”

The remark was met with laughter from several of the players. Afterward, the beast’s belongings were distributed among those present, taking their character classes into account, of course.

The whole process dragged on for nearly half an hour, including the celebrations marking the guild’s triumphant victory over their foe. One by one, each adventurer logged out of Fantasy Frontiers, leaving Tanis alone. He sighed before finally logging out himself.

Haruto, the player behind the character Tanis, returned to reality and blinked as he saw the familiar interior of his VR headset. Despite the mental exhaustion caused by this long session, he managed to sit up on the bed and took a few moments to remove his gaming gear.

He then grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand, running his other hand through his tousled hair.

“Damn it! It’s almost midnight, and I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow,” he grumbled.

Cursing his lack of self-discipline, Haruto walked over to his desk and grabbed his shoulder bag. He stuffed a few documents into it for the meeting with the production team.

He made sure to include his latest acquisition in his bag: an encyclopedia about life in the Middle Ages. With his preparations complete and his mind slightly at ease, Haruto hurried to bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

As the morning sun’s rays streamed through the curtains, the shrill sound of an alarm echoed through the apartment.

“Gggrrr, wh… what? Is… is it already time?”

Still half asleep and grumpy from a short night’s sleep, Haruto dragged his feet to the bathroom.

He took a quick, cold shower that brought his senses back to life. He was then able to carry on with the rest of his morning routine without a hitch.

After dressing in tan pants and a black, long-sleeved shirt, Haruto didn’t bother combing his dark brown hair and headed straight for the kitchen instead.

In lieu of a proper meal, he grabbed something simple to eat during his commute to work.

He put on his shoes and slipped on his jacket. Ready to go, he slung his bag over his shoulder before setting off on foot.

Of average height and without any distinctive features, Haruto walked nearly one kilometer from his apartment building to the train station every day, where he took a train to his company’s office downtown.

Haruto reached the station a few minutes ahead of the train’s scheduled arrival time. Satisfied, he stepped inside the premises.

“Argghh…! What the hell is going on?” he hissed, as a sharp pain shot through his head, like a needle piercing his skull. It lasted only a fraction of a second, but its intensity was enough to make him stagger for a moment.

After regaining his composure, Haruto continued on his way toward the boarding platform. He wondered if this brief migraine might be a possible consequence of his accumulated lack of sleep over the past few weeks. As soon as he boarded the train, however, he put these thoughts aside and looked for an empty seat.

“And as usual, there aren’t any seats available,” he grumbled. Resigned to remain standing, Haruto let out a long sigh and glanced outside. The sun was slowly rising behind the train station and other city buildings. Among the sea of people waiting for the next departure, one person in particular caught his eye.

It was a young woman with long hair that reached down to her waist. Her hair was an otherworldly platinum-white with subtle blue highlights. Her unusual clothing looked as if it had come straight out of a fantasy world.

“She looks like… Val… Valnaya! But why is she wearing a dress, and how did she end up here?”

When Haruto’s gray eyes met the woman’s azure gaze, he was overwhelmed by another migraine. It was even more severe than the last one, and the pain showed no signs of easing up. It was so intense that his knees buckled.

Holding his head in his hands, Haruto scanned the other passengers on the train with a panicked look, searching for help. Just as some of them approached him, a shrill sound assaulted his ears.

“Shit! What’s happening to me?” he thought.

But no words came out of his mouth, and the overhead lights seemed to intensify until they became blinding.

After a while, his field of vision turned completely white, and Haruto sank into darkness.