real world, Kai Maddox

  Kai made his slow way back home, still covered in sweat. At first, the breeze felt nice, cooling him down after his workout, but now the autumn chill was starting to creep in.

  When he walked through the front door, he was surprised by how quiet the house was. At this hour, his mom was usually in the kitchen, cooking something for dinner.

  "Mom, I'm back!" he called out.

  A few seconds later, her voice came from his room. "Oh, hey! Sorry, I didn't make anything. Do you want to eat out?"

  Kai paused, considering her offer. He was still buzzing with excitement from the fight earlier, even though he'd lost, and he'd gone out to train afterward. He convinced himself he’d earned it.

  "Yeah, alright," he replied.

  "Okay, ask Tsuno as well. What do you want? The usual?"

  "Hey, I'm not that predictable," Kai complained as he walked to Tsuno's room.

  "So, what do you want?" his mom asked again.

  "I don’t like being predictable. I didn’t say no, though. Let’s go for Chinese," he answered before knocking on Tsuno’s door.

  "Hey, Tsuno, you wanna go out to eat?"

  Five minutes passed without a response. Annoyed, Kai knocked again, this time harder.

  A minute later, the door opened.

  "What is it, Kai?" Tsuno asked, her voice laced with annoyance. "I’m still playing with them like you asked. Now I’ll have to make my way back to the grinding spot. Well, maybe GesStar will go back to pick me up?"

  Ah, that explains why she’s grouchy, Kai thought.

  "We’re going out to eat. You want to join?" Kai asked again, just in case Tsuno hadn’t heard him the first time, ignoring her comment about GasStar.

  Tsuno paused longer than usual before replying, her tone subdued. "Okay. We’re going for Chinese, like usual?"

  Kai let out a short sigh. "Yes," he said, turning to go change clothes.

  But then Tsuno wrinkled her nose suddenly. "You smell. What did you do?"

  "Hey, it’s not that bad! I just went out for a workout. It’s just sweat," Kai replied defensively.

  Apparently, their mom overheard and chimed in from the other room. "Kai, don’t go out like that. Take a shower."

  Kai almost protested but stopped himself after taking a sniff. The smell was more noticeable than he’d thought.

  "Fine, I’ll go take a shower. We’ll leave in half an hour, alright?"

  "Alright," his mom replied. "It’s a little early for dinner anyway."

  Kai glanced at the clock, which showed 6:30 PM—definitely late enough for dinner in his opinion—but he didn’t comment.

  After taking a shower and changing into fresh clothes, Kai joined his family in the car for the short drive to the restaurant. As they rode, he opened his chat with Tam again.

  I need some way to find Phantasm if I want to set up a fight. I could ask Tsuno, but she’s with Kaizo, and I shouldn’t interfere with her playthrough—at least not until she gets her own bearings. I probably should decide what I want to do in the long term anyway. Maybe raid hunting? Hmm... but Emilia has years of experience, and she could count the number of raids she’s participated in on one hand. But she’s an NPC—a very complicated NPC—but it’s all scripted anyway. The devs probably wouldn’t give her blatantly confusing dialogue that could hurt someone’s experience, so she’s probably reliable. Maybe there’s something like more traditional world bosses I could hunt. First things first, though: somehow find Phantasm and set up a duel.

  Kai typed out a message.

  KaijuMonster: "Hey, you know how I could find someone to challenge them to a duel?"

  A few minutes passed. By the time Tam replied, they had already arrived at the restaurant—ironically, just across the road from where Kai had worked out earlier.

  Tam: "There are a few forums for that. I’m not the best person to ask—I’m mostly a monster slayer. Why not ask the guy who uploaded the video?"

  KaijuMonster: "Well, I don’t really know them, but I’ll try. Thanks anyway."

  Kai started searching the video again to find a way to contact the uploader, but he was interrupted.

  “Put the phone away. We’re eating,” his mom requested somewhat forcefully.

  Kai complied, setting his phone aside, and they had an enjoyable dinner. He stuck to his usual order—a large bowl of fried chicken with a side of heavily seasoned fries. His parents often complained about his simple eating habits, though their complaints had lessened since he started cooking for himself.

  Typically, there wasn’t much left for Kai to finish because Tsuno would sneak some from his plate before finishing her own meal. However, today she ate much more slowly than usual. Neither of them commented on it, though Kai was sure their mom noticed. He figured it was best not to bring it up since Tsuno didn’t seem particularly bothered.

  Toward the end of the meal, after they had exhausted their usual topics of conversation, their mom surprised both of them.

  “I saw you fighting that unicorn. It was very impressive. That woman with the giant sword told me all about it,” she said.

  Before Kai could think of a response, Tsuno chimed in. “Yeah, can you take me to fight it sometime?”

  “How do either of you know about it?” Kai asked, startled.

  “I told you,” his mom replied. “Some woman named Emilia walked into the news office while I was looking up places for a trip. People told me that’s where I could find information. She looked a bit beat up but recognized me and asked if we were related.”

  “Mom, you shouldn’t be so open to stuff like that online. You’re lucky she isn’t actually human,” Kai said, shaking his head.

  “What do you mean by that? She looked human to me,” his mom replied, her tone defensive.

  Tsuno answered this time. “Kai didn’t mean her race. She’s an NPC—or a Tian, by game terms. She’s not a real person, right?”

  “Yes, Emilia is a Tian. Thanks, Tsuno,” Kai confirmed.

  “Wait, but how can you even tell? She acted perfectly human,” their mom asked again, still puzzled.

  Kai sighed but explained. “Let’s start with the fact that you probably haven’t played a video game in 20 years, if even that, so you wouldn’t know how NPCs talk. But there’s a more concrete way to tell. Players always have a mark on their dominant hand or a gem. If they’re wearing armor, it might hide it, but you can also ask them a question about real life—like the capital of some country. A real player would at least try to guess, but a Tian wouldn’t know.”

  “Well, I still think she was human. I think you’re just being dismissive,” Trisha said.

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  “Hey, I’m not dismissive! Emilia is awesome, and I loved seeing her beat up Phantasm afterward. But still, she isn’t human. She doesn’t exist outside of the game. It’s not like you can talk to her on social media, you know,” Kai replied, shaking his head. “Now, Tsuno, how do you know about the raid? I thought you were playing with someone else the whole time.”

  “Oh, well, you see, Kaizo got a job outside of town, so we had some time to kill on the way. Kurt was watching videos, and I had nothing else to do, so I joined him. That’s when we stumbled upon a video of your raid by chance,” Tsuno explained.

  “I see. I’m surprised you both found it randomly.”

  “That video has like a million views. It’s not that surprising,” Tsuno replied.

  “I just checked—it has 200,000 views right now. Huh. When I say it like that, it’s actually very impressive,” Kai admitted.

  The conversation shifted to a new topic. Tsuno described Kaizo’s group, her tone surprisingly positive. Meanwhile, their mom—who apparently used her real name, Trisha Maddox, for her avatar—told them about the various sights she’d discovered on the city’s giant tree. These discoveries were thanks to Emilia’s directions.

  As the conversation continued, Trisha mentioned a film camera she’d found in her inventory. This sparked an enthusiastic but somewhat chaotic discussion, as Tsuno and Kai tried to explain that the camera was likely her embryo.

  Kai, growing exasperated by her confusion, eventually said, “Just forget about it for now. The next time you play, concentrate on observing the camera. It should display its name, and that will confirm what it is.”

  They bid farewell to the restaurant and prepared to get into the car when Tsuno spoke up.

  “Kai, do you want to walk back home?”

  Kai felt exhausted—the large dinner and his earlier workout had drained him—but he answered yes anyway.

  Their walk was mostly silent, both of them focused on their phones. Kai used the time to resume his efforts to contact the video uploader.

  KaijuMonster: "Hi, we didn’t really interact all that much, but I’m Sheko’s player. It might be a bit rude, but I was wondering if you could help me find some way to get to Phantasm for a duel."

  By the time they arrived home, Tsuno and Trisha both dove back into Dendro, while Kai was left to languish in the real world. At first, he tried playing on his computer, but his thoughts inevitably drifted back to Dendro and his plans.

  First, he would contact Mai to find out what was left of his funds and what treasures he’d received from the raid. He hoped she’d be charitable enough to commission a weapon using the cockatrice eye as material. After that, he’d see who was still close to the capital to assemble another raid attempt.

  From there, another cycle of theory crafting awaited. He was pretty sure he didn’t yet meet the requirements for Great Matador, so he looked for other jobs to potentially integrate into his build.

  The job system in Dendro was somewhat frustrating. Many jobs had their skills locked unless your main job belonged to the same job grouping. For example, even though he still had the Smith job while he was a Knife Thrower, he couldn’t just craft something as he could when his main job was Smith. To craft, he would have to visit a job crystal and switch jobs.

  Kai suspected his Spearman job was holding him back. While its skills weren’t technically locked, they were effectively unusable since they required a spear to activate.

  Recently, a heated forum discussion had been running for over a week about an unarmed build nicknamed “The Pugilist.” While there was a Pugilist job in Dendro, the discussion didn’t focus much on it. Instead, it proposed a build combining various jobs, all linked by having powerful skills that required the user to be unarmed.

  Among the most intriguing jobs suggested was Philosopher. This job featured a skill called High Speed Speculation, which increased the user’s mental combat speed by 200%. However, the idea was quickly dismissed by most participants.

  The upgraded version of the skill, Silent Tactician, had a significant drawback: it required the user to remain completely still to activate. Additionally, it was locked behind the Great Philosopher job, meaning it would consume one of the player’s two limited High Job slots to use.

  Initially, Kai found the concept appealing, but after reading through the forum thread, he was convinced otherwise. While the mental speed boost sounded impressive, Philosopher suffered from low attribute growth across the board, except for SP. Additionally, in Dendro, AGI already increased mental speed during combat. Simply raising AGI provided the same benefit as High Speed Speculation, with the added advantage of increasing physical speed as well.

  Some suggested Philosopher could work in a spellcaster build, but the lack of stat growth and the need to forgo using staves, wands, or even a shield were significant drawbacks.

  Still, Kai thought it might be a temporary solution—a stopgap until he unlocked Great Matador.

  Kai spent an hour and a half immersed in theorycrafting before noticing that the video uploader had replied to him ten minutes ago.

  "Oops, better reply to him before he disappears for another hour," Kai muttered, quickly opening the message.

  Gungnir:"Hello, while I’m happy to help you as a fellow player, if you really are Sheko, I can’t promote or assist in what appears to be an unsolicited griefing attempt. Honestly, I’ve been flooded with almost as many hate comments about Phantasm as any other type of comment (hate unites, I guess).

  If you are Sheko, I’ll just say that the survivors of the raid have been discussing having a party once everyone has respawned. Your friend Mai survived and can fill you in.

  Sincerely,

  Gungnir"

  Damn, well, I guess I prefer talking to someone with reasonable considerations over someone who’d jump at the idea of hunting Phantasm. This is a bit troublesome for me, but still, it’s a better outcome than being totally ignored—even if this reply reeks of soft influencer talk.

  KaijuMonster: "I’m sorry if my previous reply came off as hostile; it wasn’t directed at you but another player nonetheless. Regardless, I’d like to clarify that my desire to fight Phantasm is for a friendly duel in an arena—not an ambush in the middle of the street. However, I respect your choice to stay away from this subject.

  On another note, I hope you can help me with something else. It’s a bit awkward, but I’ve only known Mai for a short time, and we haven’t exchanged contact details (which has already caused some issues, I’ll admit). If you could let her know how to contact me, I’d appreciate it.

  She should be in a rented alchemist lab—specifically, Lab #5, in a facility named 'Seelie Court’s Labs Facility #2.' If she isn’t there, she’s probably at the news office. Ask for Nue, she is probably with her"

  Gungnir: "Fine, I guess this is at least indirect proof that you’re linked to Mai. Nue’s name isn’t very well-known, as she wasn’t in any top 10 contribution category. If Mai really is in the lab like you suggest, it means you’re either definitely Sheko or someone stalking Mai.

  In the latter case, I’ll inform her—and if I find out you’re stalking, I won’t hesitate to beat you up."

  KaijuMonster: "threatening but respectable, thank you Mr. Gungnir"

  Kai went back to reading on the forums. He wanted to link his phone to the helmet already, but his mom was using it at the moment. Another 20 minutes passed before a new message appeared in his inbox.

  Luna-tic: "Well, took you long enough to call back. I thought you might be sulking or something. /hj"

  KaijuMonster: "I'm fine. How are you? What did I do to deserve the snark?"

  Luna-tic: "First, you agreed for me to join the raid—which, to be clear, I am happy worked out in the end—but it still wasn’t nice. Then, I thought someone from the raid had come to talk with me specifically, but it was you again. It doesn’t feel great being known as just someone else’s teammate."

  KaijuMonster: "Okay, I see. I’m sorry—I didn’t know it really bothered you that much. I think I’ll hold off on my plans for now. Where are we supposed to meet tomorrow, though? Also, it was only like four hours ago—why are you saying it took me that long?"

  Luna-tic: "It’s been almost a whole day here. I’m starting to actually feel tired. It’s kind of weird. Never mind that—I’ll hear you out. What do you need?"

  KaijuMonster: "Is the phone connection thing part of the manual or something? How does everyone else know about it?"

  Luna-tic: "I can’t tell if you’re a massive troll or not 50% of the time. Yes, it was in the manual that came with the helmet."

  KaijuMonster: "Oops. Well, I guess I should’ve just read it. Anyway, I want you to check what I got from the raid and tell me what’s in my treasure chest. Hopefully, there’s some useful material to commission new equipment from a smith. I was absolutely underequipped. If I want to get a revenge match on Phantasm for trying to steal my chest, I’ll need better gear."

  There was a short pause before Mai answered back.

  Luna-tic: "Sorry for the pause there. This actually means quite a bit to me—that you trust me to open your chest. Anyway, helping you kill Phantasm again? Yeah, I’ll help. It was very satisfying killing him the first time. Finn actually gave us his loot chest and some of the stuff he dropped when he died. He was very unlucky—he apparently dropped the Medium he used for his summons."

  KaijuMonster: "Thanks. And I guess I should say, maybe people didn’t realize how much you and Finn helped the raid, but know that you were indispensable. Equally so."

  Luna-tic: "Thanks. I’ll see about your loot, though I think you’d better wait for it. Finn said he plans to reserve a restaurant called The Silly Daredevil —some sort of bakery, coffee, and Italian mix-up. That was the best description I got. Anyway, we’ll open the chests there. You got a special reward for surviving so long while avoiding the boss, so it’ll be fun."

  KaijuMonster: "Alright, see you there then."

  Kai logged off. He thought Mai seemed much less friendly before, but now that he’d had a chance to cool off after rushing for two days in a row, he realized he might’ve put the wrong foot forward with her.

  See ya, guys... Good luck, Phantasm. You’re gonna need it.