Avilien

A bright new world

Sunrays pierced the alley behind the bustling storefronts. Green plastic bins lined the backs of the shop walls, away from the cobbled footpath in the middle. Overflowing with rubbish, trash bags lay scattered around. No one paid attention to the network of alleys behind the busy shopping district, except for adventuring kids. To some it was like a wonderland, a playground with all manner of metal obstacles and frames to climb, jump, and destroy.

A purple cat with strange pink markings, four tails, and four legs raced through the alleyway in a desperate bid to evade his would-be assailants. He dodged and weaved behind dumpsters. He jumped over misplaced trash bags and tried his best to stick to the shadows cast by the buildings.

"Get him, Jayce. He's worth fifty points! That's a whole level up," shouted a small red-haired child as he rushed through the alley with his two friends.

Three young lads dressed in shorts and t-shirts, each one wearing orange-tinted glasses that allowed wearers to see augmented reality, chased after the cat. They hunted it ruthlessly. It didn't appear in any game records and showed a question mark above its head right next to the total amount of experience points—or XP—it was worth. Jayce, a boy with blond spikey hair and a menacing stern face, had spotted it first as he whacked trash bags with a stick to split them open and cover the alley in litter.

Minding its own business, the purple cat had been resting up high on a metal stairwell. Fast asleep and unaware of the children below, it fell right in front of their eyes as it jolted awake to the sudden banging of the bags. Avilien was the game the kids played; a game the entire world played, or had started playing in the past several years. The game was a global success and although many people took credit for creating the strange phenomenon, all of them proved to be false. No one knew who created the game or where it came from, and whoever did create it refused to take credit.

Avilien became the biggest contributor to sales of augmented GT shades. There was no need to download the game that allowed a person to see strange creatures and tiny monsters from a different world, because as soon as you placed the GTs on your face, there it was. Monsters of all shapes and sizes could appear at random and people could battle them to raise their own in-game stats.

"Nothing so far has ever been worth over one point of XP, so why is that thing worth fifty?" Drew argued as he huffed and puffed. He wasn't suited to running as he was a big lad, only thirteen years old and overweight with dark brown hair.

"The Avilien bestiary shows no information on it. It just keeps going on about its XP and that is all. No weaknesses or attacks. We can all get to level two if we take it out," said Bart, his red hair brighter than the sun's rays.

"Don't interfere. I'm going to get it and take all the XP for myself. I'll get to level three, maybe four, and then I'll be the first person ever to go beyond level zero." Jayce held his stick up in the air, leapt over a trash bag, and took a swipe at the crying cat that happened to be the size of a large dog.

Jayce stumbled as his attack missed; he almost fell to the ground but recovered in time. The cat glanced back at him with a terrified stare, its ears pinned back. At that moment, Jayce smirked and threw the stick at the now slow-moving creature. It connected with the cat's left leg and made it shriek in pain. None of the kids could hear it make a sound through all their hooting and bravado. Jayce cursed his luck that his attack didn't take out the virtual animal. He had managed to injure it, though, as it limped around a corner towards the main street past stacked-up boxes and trash containers.

"You almost had it!" shouted Drew as he caught up with Bart and Jayce, all three of them exhausted.

"It has five health points left. It's as good as mine. Make sure none of you stay in range of XP," Jayce gave off a warning to his two friends. He would not have them hog his reward.