Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (29 page)

He managed to find the room without much trouble. A white curtain on a metal rail divided it into two halves. One of the beds was empty, and Ben was lying in the other. His eyes were closed and he had an IV plugged into his arm. Luke walked over and took a seat in the chair next to the bed.

“Hey buddy…” He spoke to Ben in a quiet voice, as though he was talking to a sleeping child. “I’m glad that you’re okay…”

Ben let out a moan, and stirred slightly in bed. He opened his eyes a sliver and smiled when he saw Luke.

“Sorry, man,” he whispered. “I… fucked up.”

Luke smiled.

“Yeah, you did,” he said. “But you’re in good hands now. And you’re alive. That’s all that matters.”

Ben coughed and then sniffled through his nose.

“What about the plan? Did anything happen?”

Luke shook his head.

“The plan is going fine,” he said. “The guilds are ready. I’m heading out with Kaoru to the server tonight. Also, get this, Kaoru is actually a girl!”

Ben raised an eyebrow, but didn’t smile. Luke could see fatigue in his eyes, not the kind that affects a person’s physical body, but a tiredness deeper than that.

“Luke…” whispered Ben. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“It’s okay, man,” said Luke. “We all go through times like this. You just have to-”

“It’s not like that.” Ben shook his head and then shut his eyes tight. “You don’t understand.”

Luke didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. Finally, Ben picked his head back up and looked at him again.

“I’m not cut out for the real world, Luke,” he said. “I think a lot of people who get into Yvvaros aren’t.”

“Ben, you were doing just fine until… well, until you got a bit too caught up.”

“I was managing, Luke,” said Ben. “Nothing more. And then Emily… did she die? I don’t even know anymore. Maybe she was really showing me the path forward?”

What am I supposed to say to that? Would it really be so bad if Ben went all in?

Luke reached onto the bed and grabbed onto Ben’s hand. He gave it a tight squeeze and then locked eyes with his best friend. Ben had always had his back, and now it was Luke’s turn to be there for him.

“Promise me that you won’t do anything rash,” said Luke. “I won’t stop you from whatever you decide, but I’m your friend. I’m going to help you get whatever you want, whether it’s to get better in the real world, or…”

Ben shook his head.

“You’re not my friend,” he said. “You’re my brother, Luke.”

Ben closed his eyes slowly. The conversation was over. Luke stood up and left the room.

It was a little after four in the afternoon. Luke knew that he needed to meet up with Kaoru at the motel, but he couldn’t bring himself to head straight there. Instead, he left the hospital and walked down the street, taking a few turns and entering the familiar building that housed Dr. Meyers’s psychiatric office.

He took the elevator up to the level her office was on and stepped out into the lobby. The receptionist’s desk was empty, and he didn’t see anyone around.

I was hoping that she’d still be available. It is pretty late, though.

“Luke?” Dr. Meyers walked out of the therapy room carrying a folder. “I wasn’t expecting you today.”

“Sorry, I just…” Luke sighed. “I have a lot on my mind.”

Dr. Meyers smiled.

“Come on in.” She walked back into the therapy room and gestured for him to follow her.

“Thanks.” Luke took a seat on the leather therapy couch and stared at the carpet.

“What’s on your mind, Luke?”

“I don’t even know where to start,” he said.

“Tell me about your day. We can go from there.”

Luke shrugged.

“My friend… my best friend, he overdosed.” Luke finally looked up and made eye contact. “I couldn’t stop it.”

Dr. Meyers nodded, but said nothing.

“I feel like I’ve been trying so hard, putting so much of myself into what I need to do,” said Luke. “But in the end, it doesn’t even matter. I can spend days, weeks, thinking through what I should be doing, and then try to do it, and still end up failing, or fucking up somehow.”

I can’t even explain to her what’s going on inside my head properly. The irony is too much.

“I know what you mean, Luke,” said Dr. Meyers. “I wish I had the perfect answer for you, but unfortunately this time, I don’t.”

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, lacing her fingers together.

“You aren’t going to tell me anything?” Luke shook his head in confusion. “Isn’t it your job to talk to people, to help them figure this kind of thing out?”

Dr. Meyers laughed.

“Yeah, it’s my job, alright.” She gestured out into the lobby. “Did you notice that Laura, my secretary, wasn’t at her desk when you came in?”

Luke nodded.

“She’s actually a former patient of mine. I’ve known her for more than five years, and she’s worked here for the past two. She was addicted to an online farming game when I first met her, and used it as a crutch to cope with a bad breakup.”

Luke didn’t say anything.

“Laura talked with me several times about this new phenomenon of video game players committing suicide in order to live in virtual worlds.” Dr. Meyers smiled sadly. “I could pick up on why she was asking, what was going on in her mind. I did my best to talk to her like I talked with you, to get her to see that it’s not the perfect solution that it looks like on the surface.”

“What happened?” asked Luke.

“I don’t know…” Dr. Meyers set her hand on her forehead. “She didn’t call out today, and nobody I’ve called has seen or heard from her.”

What did I come here for?

“Why are you telling me this, Dr. Meyers?”

“I just thought it might give you a bit more context to your problem,” she said. “This isn’t a Luke problem, or even a Dr. Meyers problem. This is a worldwide, human problem. And I’m not sure if there will be a solution, in the end.”

“What does my friend having an overdose have to do with somebody going all in?” Luke watched as Dr. Meyers met his eyes again. She didn’t even need to say anything for him to understand her point.

Ben asked me if he should go all in. It would be a solution to his addiction problems, clean and simple.

“South Korea is in a state of emergency,” said Dr. Meyers. “I don’t know if you watch the news or not anymore, but the government there is in a panic over the number of people going all in. They’ve ordered their military to begin seizing VR headsets by force.”

“Do you think that’s the right thing to do?” asked Luke. Dr. Meyers shrugged.

“I don’t know,” she said softly. “I don’t think so. What’s happening right now is bigger than us. You can make a strong philosophical case for or against committing to an entirely digital existence. All of the people who’ve chosen it have given up a part of their essential humanity, but they’ve also freed themselves from their intrinsic human limits.”

“Dr. Meyers…” Luke watched her carefully, thinking about what he was about to say. “Are you thinking about going all in?”

She smiled at him, but it wasn’t a dismissive smile. After a couple seconds, she finally shook her head.

“I have responsibilities to the people in this world, Luke,” she said. “I have to be here for the people who need me. People like you.”

Luke nodded.

That’s what I came here for.

“Thanks, Dr. Meyers,” he said. “I… should get going.”

“Alright. Stay safe, Luke.”

Luke left Dr. Meyers’s office and started walking home. All he had left to do was to grab his laptop and headset and head to Kaoru’s motel room. His pace grew faster, until he was running at full speed. There were not many other people out, and he tried not to think about just why that might be.

CHAPTER 32

“Perfect timing.”

Kaoru stood behind the motel room door and immediately ushered Luke in. He was sweating and breathing heavily.

I used to run all the time. It feels like that was an eternity ago.

“The next bus leaves in twenty minutes,” said Kaoru. “We don’t have any time to waste.”

“I thought we weren’t leaving until later tonight?” asked Luke. Kaoru shook her head.

“We weren’t, but I have everything ready.” She picked up a back pack sitting in the middle of the bed and shouldered it. “There isn’t any point in us wasting time.”

Luke nodded.

“I… checked in on Ben,” he said. “Silverstrike.”

Kaoru didn’t have a visible reaction.

“Will he be able to get in-game for the assault on Kantor?”

“You aren’t going to ask if he’s okay?” Luke frowned at her, but Kaoru didn’t seem to notice.

“He did it to himself, Kato,” said Kaoru. “I think your sympathies are misplaced. You should be empathizing with all the people living in Yvvaros that are going to die if we don’t pull this off.”

Luke didn’t say anything. He couldn’t disagree with what she was saying, but her words still annoyed him.

“We should get moving,” said Kaoru. “Once we’re on the bus, we can enter Yvvaros and see how the preparations are coming.”

Luke nodded and followed behind her as she left the motel room.

This is it. I’ve come too far to let this plan do anything other than succeed.

The two of them walked toward the bus stop in silence. Luke felt as though he was walking to school on an exam day and he hadn’t studied. Kaoru look confident and self-assured and the contrast only made Luke feel more doubtful.

“Just stick to the plan, and this will all work out in the end,” said Kaoru. “I know it seems like a longshot, but everything is in place. We just need to keep moving forward.”

“I can do that.” Luke smiled at her, but her eyes were set on the sidewalk ahead of them.

Passengers were already boarding the bus when they arrived. It was large, with tinted windows and roomy seats. Kaoru bought two tickets for them, and then they headed down the aisle and sat down in the seat at the very back.

“Alright. It’s a four hour trip from here.” Kaoru opened up her bag and pulled out her laptop and VR headset, Luke did the same. “There’s no point in trying to attack until we’ve liberated the server, but we can at least organize the troops in Dunidan’s Rest.”

Luke nodded, and a suddenly a thought popped into his head.

“What happens after?” he asked. “Once we’ve transferred the world state, and defeated the Arbiters? What happens then?”

Kaoru smiled at him. A faraway look twinkled in her eyes.

“Whatever we want,” she said softly. “As soon as we get admin access, we’ll be the gods of Yvvaros.”

Luke blinked. He hadn’t anticipated that answer.

I can barely handle the responsibility I already have. Could I really trust myself with that kind of power? Moreover, could I trust Kaoru with it?

“Come on, Luke,” said Kaoru. “We shouldn’t waste time.”

She pulled on her headset, and her body leaned back limply in the seat. Luke opened his laptop, clicked his way through the Yvvaros login and joined her.

Luke was back in Dunidan’s Rest, in the same spot he’d been in when he logged out. It was early evening, and something was clearly wrong.

The compound was full of players from other guilds, some of them he recognized, and others were new faces. All of them looked worried.

What the hell is going on?

Luke scanned the crowd and spotted Tess working in her garden. She was hastily picking fruit and vegetables, stuffing them into bags as though attempting to salvage every last edible item. Luke hurried over to her, ignoring the hopeful, attentive looks on the faces of the players watching him.

“Tess!” He slowed to a stop at the edge of the farm. “What’s happening?”

“Luke, thank god!” Tess rushed over to him and pulled him into a tight hug. “They’re outside, Luke!”

“What?”

“The Arbiters…” Tess pulled back and stared into his eyes. “We’ve been under siege for the past few hours.”

Luke took a deep breath and then exhaled.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll take a look and figure out what to do.”

Kaoru, in her new female avatar, was hurrying toward him from across the compound. Luke met her eyes as she approached.

We have to summon Makorin. It’s the only way.

The two of them didn’t say anything to each other until they’d reached the top of the wall surrounding Dunidan’s Rest. Luke kept his head low, peeking out from the cover of the wall. He could see hundreds of Arbiters standing in formation about 400 hundred yards away. He hadn’t realized there were that many Arbiters.

“This is their power play,” said Kaoru. “They must have seen us organizing our army and decided to take action.”

“We still have our trump card,” said Luke. “If we summon Makorin, we can transport everyone out of Dunidan’s Rest without needing to break through their line.”

Kaoru nodded slowly.

“It’s the only chance we have, at this point.” She thought for a moment, and then frowned. “We can’t do it yet, though.”

“Why not?”

“Once it appears in the sky, the Arbiters will know exactly what we’re intending,” she said. “If we can move against Kantor with all of them out here in the desert, it will be a piece of cake for us to mop up even an army of this size afterwards. They’ll be separated from their supplies and reinforcements, and we won’t have to worry about them trying anything while we’re figuring out how to utilize the server controls.”

“Then we’ll just have to endure the siege for now.” Luke looked around the area within the walls of Dunidan’s Rest. It had become his home. With the general store, the inn, and the guild halls, it was a little town of its own, more familiar to him now than his own neighborhood in the real world.

Light flashed in the corner of Luke’s vision, and he and Kaoru were knocked off the wall by a well-aimed spell. It didn’t do much damage to his health bar, but the intended point was immediately clear to Luke.

The Arbiters are going to hold their line. Our only hope is to use our defenses without fighting them directly.

“Damn it.” Kaoru spat sand out of her mouth as she stood to her feet. “I’m used to having my other avatar’s defensive buffs up.”