“That’s odd,” D1V murmurs, turning to face where the critters are coming from. “Oh. Oh my.”
“What—”
I take a few steps forward and follow her gaze.
A large dinosaur-looking monster is lumbering slowly through a small clearing beyond the trees, and whatever the creatures underfoot are, they’re definitely hurrying our way from that direction. They’re running.
You know, because giant monster.
I take some screenshots, imagining something like this will make for a lot of easy points, and D1V moves ahead, clearly captivated by the creature.
“It’s amazing,” she breathes, and the wonder in her voice genuinely warms my heart. “I know everything in this game is randomly generated, so no one planned that...but isn’t that what makes it beautiful? I’m so glad we’re capturing this. Rebekah is going to freak.”
“Oh yeah, your streaming buddy,” I say, watching the monster. It looks like it’s trying to eat something, and its body twitches a bit. I’m sure Laura would have some things to say about the coding right now, how the randomly generated parts sometimes lead to creatures that have a hard time moving and all. An odd leg here, some poor coding for an arm there. But listening to D1V’s excitement as she talks, I’m glad Laura isn’t here to bring us all down with that crushing reality. Getting lost in the magic is nice.
The creature’s face resembles that of a mythological dragon, like a beast you might see in Game of Thrones, but with a body that’s bulky and somewhat elongated. It’s low to the ground, with a gait like a rhino, or maybe a hippo—thick and stumpy, but long the way a giant lizard might be. Randomly generated, that’s for sure. No way any game designer would ever come up with something as strange as this beast.
“I mean, we’re probably the only two people who are ever going to see this particular creature up close,” D1V continues. “And here on this planet—”
She takes another step forward.
I hear a branch snap.
The monster’s attention immediately fixates on us.
It roars, another randomly generated sound, a bellow that rings out like a mixture of metal being compacted and a dog snarling. It sounds ridiculous coming from the creature, all off pitch, but I don’t have time to judge.
I barely have time to blink before it charges at us.
The little creatures in the underbrush catapult into the sky. They’re odd, overly plump birdlike things with wings the color of the plants surrounding us. No wonder I couldn’t get a good look at them as they fled from the dragon-rhino-snake creature, which I should probably come up with a better name for. They flutter by me, and I pull out my blaster, aiming for the charging beast.
“Don’t bother!” D1V shouts. “Run! We need to run!”
“Come on, we can—”
“The one upgrade I have on my blaster shows me the level of monsters. That thing is a thirty-seven!” Her voice is fading as she speaks, and I turn to spot her dashing away.
“So what?” I ask, taking aim.
“We’re both level two!”
The creature roars again, and I dash after D1V.
If this was any other gaming session, with Laura or Jason or Ryan, I think we would have stood our ground, firing away at the beast until we were all taken out and had to start over again. Laughing as we got our virtual butts kicked. Part of me still wants to wait and see what happens when that thing attacks. Will I get thrown across the forest? Will it eat me? Will it be funny?
I’m torn between running with D1V and blasting away to my imminent doom, but something about staying on with her feels more fun. Besides, if I lose now and get logged out, I’ll probably never be able to find her again. I’m not connected with her on my friends list here in game, and as a celebrity, there’s no way she’s open to friend requests. And even if she is, it’s probably strictly through her clan channels, or her backlog of requests is so big she doesn’t even check them anymore.
I should stay.
Maybe I can help.
She needs to level up in this game, for her streaming and videos and all that. Maybe instead of throwing it all away for a good time, I should try to do something. Be her ally. In a way that Ryan would actually approve of.
“Where are we going?!” I shout into my headset. She’s a little ahead of me, and I need to make sure she hears me.
“Far away from that thing!” she yells back. “Let’s try to make it to the ships. We can—”
Another roar interrupts her, and a beast that looks strikingly like the first lumbers out in front of her, jaws open. The teeth are a weird yellow-orange color, the inside of the mouth blue. It snaps its jaws and snarls, pushing its feet angrily against the ground. D1V stops running and turns in my direction, and I can hear her sigh through the headset. On-screen, she somehow looks crestfallen, even though I know that’s impossible.
I finally catch up to her, glancing back to see the beast that was chasing me slow down. It lets loose a roar and glares at us.
“Do you think they’ll—” I start.
“Can you record?” she asks quickly.
“Well sure, I think I—” I look down at my keyboard for the correct button combinations.
“Do it. Do it quick. This is going to be awesome.” Her tone has shifted, a hint of joy in it now as I tap a few keys. A bit of orange text appears in the bottom corner of my screen, reading Video Capture. “Are you recording yet?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Great. You capture that one, I’ll capture this one. As great as VR is, recording on it just isn’t the same, and I could use whatever you’re able to get,” she says. I watch as her inventory menu pops up in front of her, and she selects an item I don’t quite recognize. A grenade-looking thing materializes in her hand, bright red with bits of yellow striped across it.
I hear her laugh.
“Watch this.”
And with that, she throws the grenade at the beast closest to her, a trail of yellow smoke pluming out in its wake. It hits the monster with a soft pop, and a cloud of the pale gold mist erupts from the red canister. The monster roars and shakes, taking a few steps back, snorting and stomping its feet toward whatever she just tossed over there.
“Move it, Aaron!” D1V yells, darting off to the side. I follow her, just in time to avoid being trampled by the beast that was chasing us. It rushes forward, its large feet crashing against the earth, lumbering toward the other monster, who is still reeling in the pale yellow smoke.
“What is that?!” I shout, trying to make myself heard over the ensuing battle as the two creatures tear into each other.