Chapter 3

Blue and cold. He couldn’t even feel his fingers. The light in the ceiling shone down on him, and that was the only thing he saw. Breathe. Got to breathe. He tried and failed. Leon tried to grab his throat, but his body wouldn’t move. What was happening?

Then, slowly, it felt like water flowing down his body, onto the floor. A voice said something, but he couldn’t figure out what. Warmth flowed over him and he gasped in a breath.

“I asked, who are you?” a voice said.

”Leon,” he spluttered. ”I’m Leon.”

“What are you doing here?”

Leon swallowed. He’d wanted to meet Yung, but maybe not this way. And what was he doing on the floor? He’d entered the room, and an icy blast had thrown his body onto the ground. He didn’t think he’d broken anything. He sat up through pushing his hands to the floor and winced.

Yung’s long black hair swayed as he lifted a sandal-clad foot and planted it firmly on Leon’s chest. “I asked, what are you doing here?”

“Yung, be careful. You’re too rough on the fellow,” said Mr. Wo.

“I came to talk with you.” Leon wet his lips and stared up at the sneer on the man’s face. “If possible.”

“Or what? You’ll throw me to the reporters?” Yung’s face flushed red, and he pushed his foot down harder.

Leon shook his head and, after another protest from Mr. Wo, Yung lifted his foot. Leon wanted to stand, but his legs were still frozen in ice. “No. I won’t tell them.”

Sure that a lighter could have worked for the fire trick Mr. Gion had shown in the interview, but this… this was real. “I saw you yesterday and almost called the cops, but I was curious. Then I stayed in here for a while—”

Yung bent down and grabbed Leon’s collar. “Did you threaten my dad?”

Leon swallowed.

“Son, that’s enough. He was worried about what you gave me and wanted to make sure I was safe.”

“Hmph.” Yung threw Leon down.

“Ah!” Leon grabbed his shoulder and bit down on his lip, silencing a curse. He couldn’t make more sound. His sister couldn’t come here now.

“What’s the matter with you?” Yung stared down at him.

Leon gritted his teeth. “Nothing.”

“Clearly.” Yung crossed his arms. ”I get to hold a conversation with my father for the first time in eight years, and here you go, destroying the moment. I’d like you to leave.”

The ice melted from Leon’s legs. He rubbed them, but stopped because of the throbbing in his arm.

“You can’t say you’ve seriously gotten hurt.”

Leon sucked in a breath. It didn’t matter what happened, he just needed to know. ”Is it true that you came back from death?”

Yung frowned. “Yes.”

“You got that power from there as well, right?”

“Yes. Now—”

“And that liquid… the one you got for your father… does it cure other things than cancer?”

Yung regarded him with cold eyes and crossed his arms. “Are you contagious?”

Leon stood. “No. None of us are.”

“Not that it matters. You don’t have to beg. I only had one, and that one’s been used.”

“Please—”

Yung held up a hand. “There was only one. I wish I’d gotten my hands on a second one, because I could have used it elsewhere. But the system doesn’t allow a lot of magic stuff outside the world it came from.”

“So how do I get one?”

“You can’t.”

Leon sucked in a breath. “Not even if I die?”

At this, Yung actually looked surprised. “You can’t be serious. You’ve watched the news, right? Well, even if there are only two conditions to be met, who knows if it works like it did for us? Kevin died three years ago, Siobhan four, and I eight. And that’s how long it took to climb the fucking tower. You have more chances to die for real there than you do here. If I wasn’t so damn stubborn to get back to my old man after seeing him like that, I’d given up.”

“But you get a new body there, right?”

“Aren’t you listening? Even if you’d die to try to get the medicine—wait. If you actually died, you wouldn’t need the medicine. Then who is it for? And you said ‘none of us’ back there. What did you mean?”

“That I’ve got enough motivation for eight… seven people. Tell me how to get there. Please.”

Yung flung out an arm. “You die. You say you want to live. You fight to get to the top. You get out,” Yung said. “You’ll discover secrets along the way, and if you get to the end, you get a reward and a choice. That’s how I got it. I beat the game.”

“Get there and get to the top…” Leon breathed out through pursed lips. He hadn’t been a weakling before the slow part of the sickness set in, but now he was brittle. If he actually got another body, he would be able to do it. He had to.

Yung patted his shoulder. “Don’t do something stupid. Thinking and hoping you can do it will only take you so far. Live your life. Life sucks sometimes, but—”

Leon sucked in a breath. “Can you kill me?”

“… What?”

“Mr. Leon, you can’t be serious!” said Mr. Wo. He jumped out of bed. “You’re going to throw your life away? I speak as a parent, no, as a human, when I say that’s the worst you can do to your loved ones. You sat with a stranger to see he was okay; you’re not that kind of person.”

“It’s my for family,” Leon said. “I thought you could understand what that means.”

“I was already dead, dumbo. I’m happy I could help my father—”

“And I my mother.”

“Your mother wouldn’t wish this!” Mr. Wo exclaimed. “She’d want you to live. That’s her role as a parent. I wished every day that we could switch pl—”

Yung stepped forward. “As I said, there’s no guarantee. Just give up. Live your life.”

“I have between three and seven years to live a somewhat normal life, but they are years where every push or shove can literally break me. My mother’s in the last stage, my uncle died yesterday. My sister, my aunts, my cousins… we all carry it. I have no other place to be, so I’d rather just try to make their lives worth living.”

Both Yung and Mr. Wo stared at him.

Leon closed his eyes and sighed. “My mother will sleep for two more years. That’s the time I have to complete the game. And now that you’ve affirmed it, I’m going through with it. But I’d appreciate your help.”

“You’re not lying, are you?” Yung said in a low voice. He stepped forward and ripped Leon’s shirt straight down, making him shout out in pain. An enormous bruise covered the shoulder, and angry red lines shot out from where it hit the floor.

Yung looked at Mr. Wo. “Father, what do you believe?”

“Nurse Jane. She’s your sister, correct? And Jerry, in room one, was your uncle.”

Leon pulled the broken piece of the shirt from Yung’s slack grip. The movement sent lightnings of pain through his upper body. “Yes.”

“You are sure you want this?”

“Death comes to us all, but I’d like to delay it for my family. I’m willing to give my life for that. If it’s true.”

“Two years isn’t a lot of time,” Yung said, stroking his chin. “If you’re so hell-bent on trying, I’ll give you some advice. But don’t ask me to kill you. I have—” He looked at his father. “I also want something, if you ever return.”

“Anything.”

“When the time comes, you’ll remember you owe me a favor. Whatever and whenever I ask it of you, you’ll fulfill it, and give it your all.”

Leon frowned. But the scrawny-looking one on TV, Mr. Gion, had come out after three years. He needed to do it in two. No matter the price, any and all information would be worth it. And if it wasn’t true, he didn’t have much to lose. Besides, if it was a lie, Yung wouldn’t have mentioned that he wanted something when Leon returned. “Deal. As long as it isn’t the medicine.”

”Of course.”

They shook on it, then Yung turned to his father.

“I’m sorry, Dad. It seems we won’t talk much tonight.”

“We’ll see each other soon.” Tears sprang up in the father’s eyes, and he turned away to wipe them off. “Young man, my Yung never lied about such serious things, no matter how unbelievable. I wish you the best of luck if you go through with this. And I wish you fortune.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Yung straightened his Hawaii-shirt. “Now, let’s go somewhere we can talk.”

******

When Leon came home, he stumbled into bed. To think that it was real. He couldn’t deny it, after seeing all the things Yung had done; the potion, the ice, and they’d gone through an actual wall three times—two times to get in and out of an empty locked room, a third to leave the building. It was lucky Yung could help him get out of the hospice because he wouldn’t have had the energy or the guts to face Jane. What he was going to do to her… she’d hate him. No doubt. Leon sat on the bed and leaned his face into his palms. Was he actually going to do this? Yung was right—there was every chance that he’d just die, but what did he have to live for? If there was the tiniest chance he could bring his family a cure, he’d do it. No questions asked. And since there was no way in this life, maybe what came after could help. He had to believe in that.

He laid down in bed, staring up at the ceiling. According to Yung, the limbo-like place was called Gaitol. No one knew where it came from, or why it is there, but the creator was obviously obsessed with games. Once a ’player’ was revived from their real-life death, they’d gain a status window, quests; everything. They’d be assigned a class; warrior, tank, ranger, mage, or cleric. Both Yung and Mr. Gion had been mages; the superior class.

But everything in the game is randomly assigned, and you can’t switch. He’d have a 20% chance of getting that and grow strong. Even within the classes, there were different branches, like ice or fire, that were ranked from E to A, also randomly assigned, and that was the starting point. But even the basics were good to know while going in. That, together with the tidbits of knowledge of certain floors, would make it easier to go through.

There is supposedly people who have given up on trying, and live their lives along with the NPCs in villages and the big city where Yung and his friends had climbed the tower, Pura. Maybe living as an equal to an NPC wouldn’t be a bad choice for people who don’t want to die or preferred it over the real world. But there had also been people who found joy in killing others and stayed for that reason. There was no extra life after you died in the game. Once dead, again, it was game over. By the time they had finished talking, it was almost five in the morning, and both needed to leave. Yung wished Leon good luck and waved him off.

Leon lifted his phone but put it down on the mattress again. It would be better to have it on paper so it wouldn’t get lost. His apology, his will, his goodbye.