52

The Apex II

You are now whispering to: Ogrot.

: you

: it’s really you?

: the skinny nerd, from the alleyway?

: hey, guess you figured it out after all

: good job, I was starting to think you wouldn’t catch on

: while we’re at it, we might as well get on a first-name basis

: you can call me Devon btw, Rian. :)

: I was a big fan of that Shadow Spirits stream of yours

: until I managed to doxx you

Rian could practically feel the warmth draining from his face.

What the hell? He’s…a hacker?

It was already worse than he’d thought, several times over.

If Ogrot—Devon, if that was his actual name—had intercepted his headset on release day, then he had to know when Rian was going out to get it. He’d known the flight path of the delivery drone to his address.

He’d been in Rian’s stream, just watching and listening to him talk about Mirage. Maybe even for the months leading up. Waiting for the opportunity.

: I bet it’s been one thing after another, hasn’t it? Something about fate just has it out for you, in-game and out.

: I’d had an inkling that it was really you back in Elmguard, but after a year I kinda forgot what you looked like since you dropped off the face of the planet

: plus, like I said, you were wearing sunglasses like you were trying to be in disguise or something

: it didn’t come together for me until yesterday

: I mean, can you imagine my surprise when I see a global alert about someone named Cobalt killing one of the Loyalists

: it was a real lightbulb moment, to say the least

Each realization drove deeper into Rian’s conscience.

There was no way to track down the exact location of other players if they were unassociated with each other. Knowing his in-game name, all Ogrot would’ve been able to see was his level. And given how close Rian had been to level 25 when he’d fought Altrexis, Ogrot must’ve known that he’d be advancing soon to his second job at Nostdal. Finding him had only been a matter of searching the areas near the city.

: I was literally in a coma because of you. For a year.

: yeah I know. My b, I guess

: not my fault you got such a thin skull

: you were running pretty fast though tbh, and I didn’t exactly have any upper body strength at the time, even if I was swinging a pipe around

: can’t really blame me if you got hurt

: well, thanks for admitting to all that in text. I’ll be using it as evidence against you.

: dude, you ever try to record whispers before?

: you can’t. Nobody else can see them. That’s kinda the point.

: even if you were streaming, which I can tell you aren’t. so nice proof you’ve got there

: yeah, but I bet the GMs can see it. We’ll see what they think of it when I report you

: hahahaha

: oh no!! Not the GMs!!1

: like they’re gonna give a shit

: you really think they’ll take the time to understand what we’re talking about here? didn’t happen in game = they don’t care.

: they don’t answer half the tickets that get put in to start with.

: anyway, wanna know a secret?

: consider it my apology for wrecking your day yet again.

: I’m sure it’ll make you feel better, maybe even blow your mind a little

: I’m Raven. :)

Completely blindsided, it took Rian a few moments to process that. Raven? As in…

What? No, that’s—

: bullshit

: how does it feel to’ve taken a match off the #1 player’s perma-Beginner?

: I don’t understand. if you’re really Raven, why are you on a Berserker?

: Raven doesn’t exist anymore.

: that was my wish.

: you deleted it?

: not quite

: you see, I put your headset to good use. When I climbed my way to the top of this world, I learned a decent bit.

: and the thing about being at the top is that it’s always temporary

: you win, things change, and then suddenly you’re not the best anymore

: it always happens. With any game. The rules change. The classes change. Balancing changes. People get better. They find ways to counter you.

: no one’s at the top forever. It’s just a matter of time

: so when I won the first sacred tournament, I decided to immortalize myself as the rank 1 player.

: To do that, I gave up my character and started over.

: Yindra was more than happy to strike that character down. In exchange, she set me up for life.

: wait, you chose to meet with Yindra over the others?

: yeah, it’s not even an option. She’s the only one still alive in the present, dingus

: but it’s a bittersweet feeling, you know? Anonymity is underrated. I actually like it this way.

: Hell, I’ve even been trying to get to the top again, but things are different nowadays. Zerks aren’t as OP as Knights used to be.

: and what if I leak all this info?

: like I said, nobody’ll believe you

Rian didn’t understand. Ogrot being an alt of the top player seemed like such an irrelevant detail to bring up amid all this. Other than to flaunt it at Rian, of course.

: why are you telling me all this?

: why?

: I guess because it’s a real shame about what happened to you

: maybe part of me does want to cheer you up

: and I guess I’m glad you’re still alive or whatever, but doxxing you and getting that headset was the best thing that ever happened to me. It literally changed my life.

: originally I was just going to sell it, but I had some time to play around with it. Turns out I was good at this game. Really good. Or at least while we were all figuring the game out at launch.

: ended up making more money than I expected with PVP sponsorships, and well, things kinda built from there

: and then I think, had nothing happened, maybe this all could’ve been you instead of me

: haha, man

: doesn’t that just suck?

: how can you be so awful? I genuinely don’t understand why you did this to me

: lemme guess

: you think you’re the only one this happened to, that day. Because you’re special or something

: lmao get over yourself dude

: Mirage was blowing up for years before then. Everybody and their mom were itching to stream it.

: you’re delusional if you think yours was the only package I tried to hit on release day. Do you even know how many streamers there are in the city?

: you just happened to be within a good range

: that’s just how it was. times are rough, buddy. I had to make a living somehow. Was in a bad spot, and now I’m not.

: your overpriced headset happened to be the way forward for me at the time

: kinda like how the locator you were carrying is gonna guarantee me a spot in the next sacred tournament

: fate is real in Mirage. I’m sure of that. But to think it can even echo outside of the game is pretty neat, don’t you think? Even in reality you’re just another scrub that’s destined to get stomped.

: anyways, gg

: I’ve got a goddess to find

: stay mad

Ogrot has blocked you from whispering to him.

Rian sat in silence before closing the window.

Ogrot probably thought he’d just scored massively off him with that locator. But the situation wasn’t truly a dead end. Ogrot undoubtedly had the resources to find a unique Godly Fragment to activate the item. And with Rian’s companionship having devolved to Nemesis, he could track Ogrot wherever he went.

That’s right, asshole, Rian thought, staring at the information window displaying Ogrot’s location. You’re gonna lead me right to Yindra.

Ogrot has unblocked you from whispering to him.

: btw did you get Nemesis status?

: I don’t know, what do you think?

: lmao good luck with that

Ogrot has blocked you from whispering to him.

Rian closed the window a bit more aggressively than he needed to. He stood up and started walking. Of course, he’d caught Kat’s attention.

“Cob? Where are you—” Kat trailed off.

I don’t have time for this anymore.

He needed to punch something. Hard. And repeatedly. Until he leveled high enough to take Ogrot down himself.

There was nothing but time ahead of him. Day. Night. Over and over again. A loop endlessly spiraling forward. A cycle of amassing power.

He had never truly entered the right mindset with this game. Before, he hadn’t been trying.

Now, he would try.

As long as it takes, he thought, heading toward the PVP division of Nostdal.

***

Rian had never been so tilted in his life. Part of him was still in disbelief—that there were people so callous with such disregard for human life that they could do this to him. But another part of him knew: it was human nature.

It was human nature to conquer. To attack, cheat, and steal when the opportunity presented itself. Ogrot, Devon—whoever he was—probably didn’t think of himself as evil. Just an opportunist. Rian had simply been in the way at the time.

All that talk about pacifism, about fixing this world for the inhabitants and the players—none of that was going to happen. Not until he stomped Ogrot into the ground first. It didn’t matter if Ogrot was actually Raven. It didn’t matter if he was level capped and decked out in top-tier equipment. The only solution to this problem was for Rian to fight back, to gain as much power as he could and throw it back at him full force.

When Rian found the PVP area in Nostdal’s outer ring, he stepped inside to find an indoor arena with a recessed floor of stone. Five other players were chatting casually near a registration desk, and the arena itself was empty of combatants. Overhead was a glass dome, signifying the extent of the PVP instance’s range. There was a permanent instantiation item installed, sending the combatants back in time locally, which allowed them to experience combat without interference from the anti-damage mechanic of the city’s nullshard.

Outside of spectating, the arena was always empty from the perspective of the people outside it. To begin a fight, all a player had to do was step into the ring. Entering the instance, it automatically matched up players with opponents across different Overworld layers, allowing for a global pool of combatants.

Since the only way of PVPing inside a major town or city like this was through instantiation, dying here wasn’t considered a “true” death. With that weight off his mind, Rian could devote everything to the fight itself.

He lost himself in battle. Over and over, match after match, standing across from him on the opposite side of the ring was a random player. Swordsmen, archers, grapplers, mages, knights. Some in outlandish clothing and cosmetics, others in rudimentary gear or overpowered equipment. It didn’t matter. The balancing effect kept the playing field even.

At the beginning of each match, they all gave him the same look of determination that would soon fall to misery and frustration when their faces met his fists.

All the while, Rian let no emotion show from himself. What he was feeling wasn’t tilt, he realized. Tilt was when players made suboptimal choices due to their anger. This was something else. The anger he felt now was clarifying. It was focusing him, removing everything else from his mind but the singular goal ahead. No thoughts, no emotions. No regard for the other player. Just one task.

Fight. Dominate. Win.

Attack, parry, counterattack. Be cognizant of the other player’s range at all times, before they even made their move. Predict and quash their attempts at cornering him.

The goal in every match wasn’t merely to win. It was to crush the opponent decisively, to make them feel the helplessness of fighting an unwinnable fight, to turn a two-player bout into a one-player game without regard for the other person. Every moment spent in PVP was an opportunity to find a perfect combination of moves to make his opponent know that their choices in combat had never mattered—as if their existence itself, here on the battlefield, was meaningless.

With Earthen Resonance, he was faster than almost anyone he fought against. His subclass was built for speed, to overwhelm his opponents at close range. When they tried to deny him the space to do so, he simply baited them into counter-attacking, setting up an easy Parry and letting him destroy their defenses entirely. When he came across someone who could outplay him, there was no anger in his defeat. There was no emotion at all. Just get back up and fight again. And again.

And again.

Everything began to click.

He swept an Archer off his feet and sent him flying with a full-metered Charge Punch to the chest. He tanked an Ice Mage’s frost spell with the protection of Spirit Fists. He dodged a Gunslinger’s bullets and dashed in while she struggled to reload. Whenever he breached his opponent’s keep-away defenses, he always saw the fear in their eyes as he closed in. Maybe before, he would’ve cared or hesitated. Not anymore. There was no stopping now. All he wanted was to hear the satisfying crunch of his fist against their bodies—to feel that visceral, euphoric feedback traveling up his arm, telling him that he’d won the fight within the fight.

He was performing better than he ever had, against the game or even Kat. Everything was flowing together perfectly.

The only problem was that, after a few hours, his anger had worn off.

He was still furious, but it was as if his body had become tired of the feeling. The focused precision in his play had begun to waver.

He knew he was burning out. An emotion like that—consuming all others like wildfire—couldn’t maintain itself indefinitely. Barring stamina depletion, his body could fight forever in Mirage; he could stay awake and grind forever, but his mind was still limited.

So pathetically human and limited.

As he pushed himself harder and continued to fight, he began to notice guild chat as it scrolled up in the corner of his vision. Kat was giving a spiel about what they all needed to do right now: amass as many teams as they could to gank Ogrot. A few of them were surprised that Rian had been carrying such a rare, discontinued item all this time, but they all agreed to return it to him if they were to kill Ogrot.

The plan was simple. Once the party entered the same Rift as Ogrot, they’d essentially speedrun their way up to the same World that he was in, and then invade his session by using a Mirage skill. That was assuming they could out-pace him, but they sounded confident. There was no telling how much resistance they’d face—if Ogrot would truly work alone or solo—but they had no other choice than to send in everyone with everything they could.

Having cooled off a little, Rian felt his confidence returning. Everything was starting to come together. The path forward had finally revealed itself, and now it was just a matter of time. Regardless of what happened next, he knew the guild had his back. Ogrot’s defeat was all but assured.

That’s right, asshole, Rian thought, decking another defenseless Archer to the floor. You’re going to lose, no matter what.