Kai slashed through the last direwolf that had charged a bit too close to him, turning it into myriads of red particles as he remained seated atop his pricey horse, DarkSmile. He had already traveled most of the way to their promised meeting place, and Mimi had also started her journey.
She sent him clip after clip of her village getting obliterated by the same Exodian NPC Kai and Deimos had faced. Kai had told her to go fight him, but Mimi couldn't even get close to the guy. Well, that was somewhat expected—his odd skill had helped him in that fight; otherwise, he too wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that guy.
Mimi had died a few times as well. Well, that needed to happen.. otherwise, understanding combat on a core level would never happen. In the beginning, Kai had also treated it as just a game, giving no thought to techniques, pacing, or strategy. More than just being weak, being too unbalanced in a fight killed more people in Nyxfall. There was stamina and real-time exhaustion in it too—one couldn't just keep running or fighting nonstop.
If he had to describe the theme of this game.. it would be as realistic an experience as possible without making it feel too boring or exactly like reality. The fantasy elements felt much more amazing and rewarding to use because of their solid roots in fight mechanics.
The monsters were few and far between. Most of the time, Kai just rode through the picturesque grassfield and browsed the forums, trying to keep himself up to date. Many posts with his image atop DarkSmile had started circulating. Kai had already made a post explaining what he had done and posted it with his official ID. It was blowing up like the hottest commodity. People were constantly posting images of themselves receiving the same quest with the Earthstrider skill as a reward after talking to the NPCs the same way he did.
At the same time, many players were complaining about the high intelligence of dungeon monsters and were surprised at how different they were from the monsters in the wild. People were still searching for the Illness mission's third objective and cursing when they found nothing even after wasting time on it.
The Exodian Path forum seemed quite active too, though most people who started this path were at the very bottom of the power hierarchy and couldn't even afford a glowing knife yet. There were some story developments as well—lore about the city they had spawned into and the ruler of that city punishing certain individuals. NPCs discussed the politics of the Coalition of Floating Heaven (CFH—all Exodian island lords belonged to this). The current Amaran Seat (the leader of CFH) was about to be reelected in a year's time, and many candidates were making moves to secure votes from the city lords.
The story side of the Stonebinder Path was still developing in comparison. Unlike the Coalition, the Stonebinders had kings, and based on gathered player information, their land had been divided into three major kingdoms for around 400 years. However, the most frequently mentioned location among both Exodians and Stonebinders was a place called Trifold Chain Obliteration Border. It was supposed to be some kind of battlefield.
There was still not a single clue about the whereabouts of the main characters from the previous games. Some players even started hating on the storyline, posting that it was completely unrelated to them and that they had likely died offscreen.
Kai needed to find a good open area free of monsters to tie his horse down. It was time to sleep for real. The constant riding was getting quite tiring anyway. Hopefully, he would find his horse when he returned, and his 30 gold wouldn't just become a meal for some random monster.
The next day,
Kai was checking more posts on the forums, sitting at the back of the class. Mimi was busy talking with her friend, sparing him from her "pro-gamer" stories for a few minutes. Her idea of playing a good game involved becoming the hero of every NPC she met along the way. Kai was shocked to hear how she had done the weirdest missions for measly, dumb rewards. She did get a unique skill that way, though, and when Kai praised her for getting it, she got extra cocky with her "right" way of gaming.
"Hey, Kai!" A voice suddenly called out to him.
Kai looked up from his holo screen and saw a familiar face.
It was a friend.. what was his name again? Uh, Zayden. He extended his hand and placed a copy of a VR game called King Night Slayer 2 on Kai's desk. It was a zombie apocalypse game—quite fun. Kai had made a speedrunning video of that one too. Guess he must have lent it to Zayden for a while.
"What are you watching? New game?" Zayden asked, not waiting for him to reply.
He was a good guy—not a close friend, but they had known each other for a while. They often exchanged games and stuff. Mostly, they just texted.
Kai just nodded and played the video he was watching on the forum, letting Zayden see. It was a video of a bunch of players getting annihilated by the second boss of a 10-player dungeon in Somnium.
"The new Nyxfall? That VR thing people were really hyping up?" Zayden muttered.
Kai just nodded, then switched to his typing software and wrote, 'It's pretty good and the best one to come out in a while. I've even started a club for this game.. though only Mimi and Sora are in it.'
His eyes widened as Zayden glanced at Sora, who sat aloof, reading something on her holo screen.
"Sora joined? Well.. didn't know she played games. Do you mind if I join too? I'll buy the game right after school."
Kai squinted at him and wrote, 'It's a gaming club, not a 'picking-up-a-pretty-student-council-member' club..'
Zayden jumped in front of him, flustered, trying hard to hide his holo screen from others. Kai just chuckled, cleared his screen, then typed, 'If you're seriously joining and want to play together, follow my instructions.'