***

"Enough for today,’’ said Blake as he threw the headset on the table and started to stretch.

He took a chug from the bottle that was near him and rose from his chair with an exhausted expression.

(There are way too many mechanics for this… But how do all of them exist in the first place? Is leading a faction actually part of the game? Or is it self adapting?)

He folded a few papers which were in the printer and put them in his pocket, then dragged his body out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen. His dad was already there, clearing the table. Blake stopped for a moment and squinted at the window, noticing just now that the sun was setting.

“Ah, dammit. I skipped lunch,” he sighed, continuing to go towards Caleb. The latter noticed Blake and lightly smiled.

“Oh, finished finally?” asked Caleb. “I figured you found something important and had to get it done.”

As he was talking his smile grew tense.

“So, was I right?” continued Caleb with a slightly worried tone.

“Yeah, you were…” answered Blake whose expression became annoyed. “You’d think that either nothing would happen or I’d get killed right away by the enemies if the change left any trace. However, what expected me was a bunch of faction leader mechanics.”

Caleb’s brows rose from surprise.

“What do you mean by faction leader mechanics? Are they something that’s advertised in the game?” he asked with confusion and worry surfacing on his face. “Did you use any of them? We don’t know if those can be tracked.”

Blake just waved Caleb’s questions off.

“I don’t know. That’s something I’ll have to look up,” he said, trying to calm his father down. “I didn’t actually use any of them but I read as much as I could without doing anything about the various options and descriptions.”

He just headed towards the fridge when Caleb suddenly went past him and took something out.

“Nearly forgot, I saved this for you,” said Caleb as he handed Blake a plate with a steak and mashed potatoes. “I just put it in a minute ago so it isn’t really cold. I can heat it up if you want.”

“No, it’s okay,” said Blake as he took the plate and sat down at the table.”So about the mechanics… They are basically tools which could be handy to me as a faction leader. There are quite a few of them and they range from finding a place for settlement and deciding which buildings to build to deciding on the type of faction which gives group abilities, buffs and similar stuff.”

Caleb sat down opposite to Blake and thought a few moments.

“They certainly do sound interesting…” he said with a wary voice, “ but we can’t be sure if they are tracked.”

“And what can we be sure about?” responded Blake between bites, “ we have no idea how the system functions nor how closely it is monitored. Rose was probably found out because of the residue ritual effects which were quite strong according to Teruna. Actually, according to her we should now be out of the system altogether.”

Caleb leaned back in his chair and bit his lip as he was thinking.

“Isn’t she just wrong then?” asked Caleb. “It is still a game world for you and you can use those mechanics. Above all the system registered your change of status and knowingly gave you the faction leader options. Isn’t that just plain game progression?”

“The same thought was bothering me too as I was reading through the material, but I don’t think it necessarily needs to be the case.” said Blake and took a chug of water.” We can’t discount Teruna’s senses totally. At the very least she managed to tell that I was a new player or as she said “reaction neutral”. There’s also the thing about the Alliance not managing to pinpoint the Gar’rac’s location through all these years. And they were affected by the system for sure, that’s what caused their weakness in the first place.”

“True, true…”Caleb nodded as he listened intently.”Maybe the nature of their connection was different. You did gain access to their world only through their product though. Your body is still here, just your avatar or projection is there.”

“Correct. Actually I had a bit of a talk with Teruna shortly after I went in the game during a pause,” said Blake as he was nearly done with his meal. “She thinks it might be possible for me to physically transfer there or at least make an avatar that is really mine and not made by the system.”

Caleb was taken aback by the statement and struggled for a moment to find the right words.

“So basically teleporting between worlds?” said Caleb with an incredulous tone. “You would get killed immediately!”

A bitter smile appeared on Blake’s face as he was chewing the last bit of food.

“Yes, that’s why I hope that the other thing about making an avatar is possible. I do value my life quite a lot.” said Blake as he rose from the chair with the plate in his hand. “If I can make my own avatar then I could maybe access the game tools without being a cog in the machine myself. At the very least I could be sure that I have nothing to do with the magical part of the avatar projector, I’d only use the energy needed for the formula.”

His father remained in his seat while Blake was cleaning up the table and contemplated about the options with hands folded behind his head.

“If you can do that then the faction leader mechanics are worth the risk… When you take into account the efficiency and the risk that is connected with building a base yourself or even recruiting locals for it then the mechanics are superior.” said Caleb while massaging his temples.”Were there some other interesting mechanics?”

Blake’s eyes widened as he was reminded and he turned towards his father.

“Actually yes,” he said as he reached to his pocket. “There was a future goal window which had a lot of information that could be useful. There were minor goals which can help strengthen the faction in various ways but there was also a selection of major goals I could choose from. I printed the whole wind…”

The doorbell interrupted just as he put the papers on the table. Both Blake and Caleb immediately went silent and tensed up.

“You aren’t expecting someone, right?” asked Caleb with a cautious tone.

Blake nodded in response and Caleb got to the window and leaned out slightly to see who was at the door.

“It’s just Emily and her sister,” said Caleb as he let out a sigh of relief. “Go open the door and see why they are here. If they ask for Rose, she got nauseous from the heat.

A slightly panicked expression spread on Blake’s face but he nodded and went to the door. He took a deep breath before proceeding and mustered a slight smile.

“Who is it?”he asked at the door.

“Emily and Tori!”

Blake opened the door and gave them a friendly greeting.

“Hi, what can I do for you?” he said with a smile.

The two were standing in front of him. Tori was the slightly taller one with long curly blond hair and a curious expression while the other was Emily with her brown ponytail. Both were dressed like they were either headed to or from the city.

“Um, is Rose here?” said Emily with a slightly worried tone. “We had some plans for today and she didn’t show up. She’s also unavailable over phone so we wanted to check on her.”

Blake found the concern sweet and his smile turned into a genuine one.

“The heat got to her and she was in bed the whole day.” he reassured. “Don’t worry, rest is just what she needs.”

The two girls looked startled, not expecting the answer.

“That’s horrible! What happened? She got a fever or?” said Tori with genuine worry now showing on her face.

“It’s probably a combination. The exhaustion from school and then the sudden heat wave. She fainted from the burden, but rest will cure all of that,” said Blake with a reassuring smile.

The girls breathed a sigh of relief and visibly eased up after the previous small shock.

“That’s good I guess. Tell her to give us a call when she gets better,” said Emily with a slightly awkward tone. “This situation feels so strange. Rose always seems… unstoppable.”

Blake looked at the girl for a second not knowing what to answer and then burst out in laughter. Tori and Emily were a bit surprised but soon joined in.

“As strong as a bear and just as scary, sounds like her.” said Blake as he was rustling Emily’s hair with a playful grin.

Emily lightly slapped his hand and an irritated look appeared on her face.

“You know I hate when you do this!” she protested. “Now I understand why Rose is always looking for an opportunity to get you back.”

Blake enjoyed himself thoroughly as Emily got riled up.

He shrugged carelessly with a wolfish grin.

“It’s a game we both enjoy so why not? She did get me back yesterday when I tried Alteration. Though I might still be in the lead after the prom thing.” said Blake and winked at Tori at the last part who started giggling.

Emily looked much less amused but Blake noticed that she was also struggling to keep an angry face.

“Of course you are still in the lead, that was horrible!” nagged Emily. “Why would you do that?”

Blake’s smiled turned dark for a moment.

“Oh, believe me, she deserved that one…” said Blake and his smile suddenly lit up again. “It’s not my fault that you had a band that was easy to bribe, also they did technically take song requests.”

Emily wanted to protest again but Tori motioned her while laughing to stop.

“Well, there was no real harm done,” said Tori with an amused expression, then turning to Blake. “You mentioned Alteration, right? You should join us the next time we go exploring, I’m sure it’ll be fun!”

“Sure, if you don’t mind a newbie I’d be happy to,” said Blake and his eyes suddenly widened. “Ah, do you want to come in? I can get you some cold lemonade if you want.”

Emily shook her head in response.

“Thanks but no, we just came to check on Rose. Do tell her to give us a call when she can,” said Emily. “And Tori is right, you should join in on the next exploration, if you can behave, that is.”

Blake’s half-smile didn’t waver in the least.

“Goes without saying,” he said and added with a friendly tone, “Looking forward to it.”

Emily puffed with a wry smile and shook her head.

“Yeah, yeah, likewise. See you later then,” she said.

“See you.” said Tori and with that both girls left.

Blake replied goodbye and then just stood a few moments with an absent minded smile in the hallway.

(A normal conversation… After everything that happened and all the changes… It feels a bit surreal.)

He walked back to the kitchen with a complex expression and poured himself a drink. Caleb was still sitting at the table and going through the papers Blake left him with.

“The girls were just here to check on Rose,” said Blake.”Did you read through the papers? Quite a lot, isn’t it?”

Caleb lifted his gaze from the papers and nodded.

“Sure is,” he grunted.” And it seems quite useful, but I can’t really be objective without the backstory or at least a map…”

“Yeah, I figured. I’ll get on it after a pause,” said Blake. “The map is easy, I just need to print out a world map and a few more localised ones. The backstory could be more tricky as everything Gar’rac related was probably hidden from the game. Rose will be a great help when she feels better.”

He left with that the kitchen with his drink and walked to the living room where he fell onto the couch and took a deep breath.

(Well, there goes my normal life.)

******

I'll start using dialogue tagging from now on. Sooner or later I'll get to the older chapters and add it there too but that will be later rather than sooner.