Game of Light

Chapter 10 - Dark

Authors note: You guys better love me for this!

Chapter 10

Gon eyed the game he had bought with suspicous eyes. And this was really what Lila was playing?, he asked himself doubtfully.  Well, I’ll give it a try.

He made himself comfortable on his bed, pressed the little power button on the side of the metallic teal visor and set the two suction cups on his temples, just like the manual advised.

At first all that awaited him was the darkness of the insides of his eyes. Then he felt a cold sensation on his temples as a picture appeared on the inside of his retina. This blurry picture was of himself in a mirror. At first it was only an image, but as it got clearer, Gon felt prickling in his hands, arms, feet, and legs. Everything started to vibrate until it seemed like he was inside the picture in his head. He lifted his arm and in the mirror he saw it lift. He looked at his hands and rubbed them together. He could feel the pressure of his hands rubbing and the warmth that he was producing by doing so. This is amazing, he thought, overwhelmed by the expierience.  What else can I do?

He balled his hand into a fist, punched in a random direction and reduced the mirror in front of him to shards. That’s not good, Gon thought guiltily, not registering the blood on his fingers and the pain of small glass splitters in his hand. How can I fix this?

He was about to start picking up the glass when it turned into fluid silver and slid its way back into its frame. But it didn’t reflect his image anymore. It showed the picture of a woman in her mid-thirties.

“You’re the first player who broke the mirror without being upset about his character,” she observed in an amused tone. “So since it wasn’t that, why did you do it?”

Gon clenched his jaw and smiled.

“An accident,” he answered levelly, hiding his shame.

“I guess I’ll have to believe that.” She looked at him strangely and disappeared from the mirror.

“What now?” Gon asked himself out loud. It seemed he had sort of blown it.

“Character 21.000.021” an automated voice called out from nowhere. “Selection process begin.”

The mirror’s frame sprung to life. Little multicolored tabs appeared along it. Gon reached out and pressed the one called “Basic”. In the face area of his reflection a rectangular box appeared. The word “Name” was pulsing steadily and Gon supposed he would have to say it out loud. He thought for a while and came up with one he liked. Lila was called Light, so why not make himself her counterpart?, he thought, grinning.

“Dark.” He said. And as the word came out of his lips it was inscribed next to the pulsing “Name” and the box dissapeared.

The next thing that appeared was a scroll bar next to his reflection dubbed “Age.” He scrolled down until he found something that he liked and then watched as his 18-year-old body turned into one of 23. Not much changed. The only things he noticed were the crinkles in his eyes and the fact that he looked smarter.

After that the selection process went by in a blur. Race: Tempest. Hair color: Black. Eye color: Dark Green. By the end of it Gon looked like a completely different person. He still could recognize himself if he looked hard enough, but he doubted that anybody else would be able to.

“Selection process done.” The voice from above said. “Begin.”

And in the blink of an eye, Dark appeared in a open square full of people.

“Look at that!”he overheard a slim man with a shrill voice exclaim. “Light’s done it again.” He pointed at a old-fashioned scroll hanging on a cluttered billboard in the center of the square.

Light?, Dark repeated in his mind shocked, What’s she done? He shoved himself through the crowd to get a closer look at the scroll.

“The List” was intricately drawn above a list of names. His eyes immediately searched for Light’s name on the list, and sure enough, she appeared at spot 27. He quizzically stared at it for a moment and then tugged on the sleeve of the person next to him, who happened to be a quite heavy and foreboding looking woman, and asked her what the “List” was.

She first glared in his direction, but when she looked over him, she changed the glare to an innocent smile.

“Are you new here?” she asked in a strangly normal-sounding voice. “Do you need someone to show you around?”

Dark politely rejected the offer and repeated the question he wanted answered:

“What’s the list?”

A little disappointed, but not losing her smile, she explained that the List was a ranking system for the top 100 players in Other. Though Dark understood, he was still confused.

“And who is this player ‘Light’ who everybody’s talking about?” he asked, though he already knew far more about the player Light then he imagined most of the players here did.

The woman scowled and answered in a bitter tone:

“A new player who has been steadily dominating the List. I think-” but before she could start insulting the player, Dark was already gone, lost in his own thoughts.

Lila was a famous player in Other, he thought flabbergasted, How did she manage that?