Game of Light

Chapter 1 - The List

Chapter 1

Light jumped back as the Gorgaron, a fifty feet tall cross between tyrannosaurus rex, saber tooth tiger and iron wall, slashed its deadly sharp and venomous talons inches from her face. It obviously had not appreciated the joke she just played on it. Before it could slash again, and fatally hurt her, Light pulled her most loyal, and at the moment only companion from its sheath: A sword with a deadly sharp blade and an ever glaring red eye embedded on its side dubbed Hookeye by a player who she might have not beaten, and who might not have bribed the game designers to create for him an undefeatable sword. As it turned out, it could be defeated, but that hadn't stopped the player, unfittingly (and in her opinion stupidly) named Awesomeness, to climb level after level, leaving a massacre in his wake.

The Gorgaron was starting to get angry at the Sprite dancing around his feet, and decided to unleash its greatest weapon: its twenty foot long tail, equipped with spikes said to be able to kill you in an instant. But unbeknownst to it, Light had been waiting for its fury to get the better of it. As the Gorgaron lifted its deadly hero killer off the ground, Light dashed forward. She knew that everything had a weak spot somewhere and with the gorgaron using all its concentration to lifting its extremely heavy and in her point of view very useless tail; it would be easy to take it down. Her feet left the ground and she jumped and neatly landed on the tip of the monsters very sensitive nose. The gorgaron dropped its tail, thereby embedding its long spikes into the soft dirt of the dark rain forest they found themselves in. It started to swing up its talons, but Light was faster. With a murmured apology to her sword, she thrust it through the beast’s eye into the soft brain within. The Gorgaron exploded and disappeared into nothingness.

“New Ability: ‘Exploding Sword’,“ a computerized voice above her commented. “Level: 90.”

Ah, Light thought nonchalantly, so I finally arrived at 90. Now things were going to start getting harder and harder, Light thought to herself with a sigh, I guess all I can do is take things as they come. Light quickly checked her stats and on finding that she was low on energy (Who would have known?), she headed towards the city ‘Main’ which was nearest to her, with the plan to grab some food, before going on the next monster killing venture.

Light was a fair-skinned girl and looked about 20 years old in Other. She was slight, as all belonging to the Sprite race were, and had long jet black hair, whipped up into a high ponytail at the back of her head. She hadn’t started out as strong as she was now. No, the basic characteristics of Sprites were agility and endurance. Strength was not among them. So to work up that nonexistent skill she had to fight more battles than most of her race ever would. But that hadn’t bothered her, she would rather fight to get stronger than let strength be bestowed on her.

As she arrived in the glass-domed city and sauntered towards its center, she heard and saw a great commotion. Mildly curious, but not really wanting to mix herself in, she grabbed a seat at an outdoor café at the outskirts of the throng. To figure out what was going on, she listened to the snippets of conversation floating around in the air:

“Dagger knocked off the List?” a rosy cheeked, pink haired diva from the Human race asked, appalled. “But he’s so good!” Her orange lips pulled themselves into a small pout.

“You’re right,” agreed her companion, a large and rather ugly male from the Beast race. “This new player can’t be half as good as him! The game must have made a mistake!”

A new person on the List?, Light asked herself, I wonder who made it? The “List” was a list of the top 100 players in Other. It was based on the levels the players passed, the fights they won, and how many monsters they had obliterated. If you got on to the List you were good. In fact, you were a member of a very exclusive elite, since plenty of the 20 million players in Other were “good.” In some cases you were even idolized and worshipped. Light knew that “Dagger” was one of these cases. With blue eyes and golden blond hair, he looked the part of a hero. And after winning against the feared Elf King in front of a huge audience, posters of him had been hung all over Other, and he was treated like a god.   Of course, very few people knew that the Elf King was in fact gay and very vulnerable when faced with beautiful men, as Light had witnessed various times when in need for a laugh.

Curious about the daring individual who she would have to congratulate for finally kicking that attention-seeking Dagger from the List, Light beckoned the waiter over. After ordering half of the contents on the menu and thereby evoking a doubtful expression on the waiter’s face, she asked him what all the commotion was about. Since he was as gossip-obsessed as all of the waiters in Main, he told her a great deal more about the topic then she would have liked to have heard:

“Oh, it’s so interesting!” the waiter gushed, settling himself into the seat across from her. “It seems that an unknown player, who has just reached the level 90, has taken the 100 spot on the list away from the loved and idolized Dagger. But what’s even more exciting, is that this player only started playing the game one month ago!” His voice now was so ecstatic that it would squeak occasionally. Light was far from happy about this news. She started repeating “shit!” over and over again in her head. The waiter kept on speaking, not seeing her obvious problem with the topic.

“Also,” he gossiped enthusiastically, “No one knows if the perpetrator is male or female, because of the name the player chose. I mean, do you think the name Light is more suited to males or females?” He asked the question into the air, and Light had to refrain herself from crying out: “Why did this have to happen! I wanted to keep my profile low!” Instead she politely asked the waiter to give her order to the chef. With a certain unwillingness, he stood up and did as she bade him.

The virtual reality game sensation “Other” was the most popular game in the world. Just by hooking yourself up to a sleeping visor you could visit a world in which you could see, hear, smell, taste and even feel. You could choose your race, occupation and age, and then you were off to fighting players and monsters. Light had started playing just over a month ago, when she had been bored out of her mind and searching for something to do. Since then, unlike most of the female players who just wanted to be loved by great heroes, she had been vigorously killing as many monsters and defeating as many players as she could. Not because she wanted to be famous, but because the idea of fighting in an unknown world thrilled her.

Other was made up of the main continent “Thalia“ known more commonly to the players as “Face” since it looked very much like one in profile; of the smaller continent “Reef”, geographically south of Face; the island “Trade” in the west, famous for its many traders and wonderful equipment; and the two smaller islands: “Encircled” in the east, better known as “Swallowed” since Face seemed to swallow it up and “Food”, east of “Reef”, where delicacies of around the world could be served to you. (Light liked to call it “Paradise.”) The rest of the water around it was “Unknown” probably meaning that the game designers hadn’t had time to expand on it yet.

When Light’s meal came, in a flurry of colors and swearing from the waiters, it took up all her attention. And was it delicious! Creamy sauces, tender meat, fresh fruit, thick yogurt, she could have gone on and on, but as she remembered licking the last crumbs of the feast off of her fingers, she was in a hurry to leave the city, where everyone was murmuring her name. Light hailed the waiter over to pay, but before he arrived, a man in his late thirties wearing a pair of overly large sunglasses sat down next to her as if they were good friends.

“I’m guessing that you’re the new List member Light.” He whispered in her direction, making sure that only she could hear him. Upon her nonexistent answer, which he interpreted to be a “Yes”, he leaned closer towards her.

“I’m on the list too,” his voice was barely audible now, “meet me at the East side entrance in five.” Then he stood up and was lost in the mass.