Rising Shards

I wasn’t sure why Kalei put me in a blindfold as she led me across the school. I kept stopping because I thought I was about to fall off a ledge or something.

“It smells like we’re in the library,” I said. “People aren’t staring at me, are they?”

“No, don’t worry,” Kalei said. “And we’re not in the library.”

“It really smells like we’re in the library. Are you sure we’re not near the library at least?”

“No,” Kalei said. I heard her power blocker wristband make a beep, which clicked a door open.

“Alright, now just step in here…” Kalei said.

“That sounds like a study room beep,” I said. “And this smells like a study room.”

Kalei had me sit down on a chair.

“Yes, we’re in a study room at the library, but that’s not the surprise,” Kalei said. 

"Was that you were lying that whole time about where we were going the surprise?"

"No," Kalei said. “Now…open your blindfold!”

I took off the blindfold, blinking from the bright light of the study room. On the desk in front of me was Kalei’s video game system, propped up on its back stand.

“It’s…your eGame? Do you want to get rid of it already after the midnight launch?” I asked.

“Zeta, this is the eGame 2,” Kalei said. “I’m graciously loaning you it, as I have all my info transferred over to the EG3.”

“Wow, thanks!” I said, picking the little handheld system up. “Does this thing play Raina Starlight’s Farm Adventure?”

“No,” Kalei said. “Probably not, I don’t know. There are other games than Raina Starlight’s Farm Adventure! And that’s why I’ve brought you here.”

“Is this some kind of catch?” I said.

“Not really, I’ll still let you borrow the system as long as you want!” Kalei said.

“…but?”

“…buuuut I really need your help,” Kalei said. “In Tyrant Rangers M.”

“OK, which one is M?” I asked. “Is that Zup? Does Zup be in that one?”

“Just let me explain!” Kalei said. “Tyrant Rangers M is the MMORPG of the series, typically they’re single player but M is a spinoff that has a strong and vibrant community-“

“Lots of letters…and things I don’t get…” I said. “Can’t you just ask someone who actually plays games to do this? I bet Lillia would.”

“The fine details aren’t important right now,” Kalei said. “Basically, you play with a lot of people through the internet. And I can’t ask my friends that play because we’re all looking for the same thing here. I play with Syval and Lillia and sometimes Roux when she isn’t just actively trying to screw us over.”

“I think I’m following,” I said. “So how does any of this tie into me being in this study room with your system?”

“There is a rare gold armor set drop today in a promotional tie in with the Hado convention, but they’ve balanced the game in a stupid way so new players have an easier time grinding for it, so all of us that have been playing it forever aren’t gonna get it!”

“…uh…so you want me to…grind…to get gold armor?” I said. “Is this gonna be inappropriate?”

“The game is rated for all players, Zeta, it’ll be fine.”

Kalei loaded up Tyrant Rangers M on the system and logged into an account she made for me. She had a little notepad that had the amount of things I needed to collect in the game to get the gold armor sets for herself, Lillia, and Syval, assuring me there was enough with her calculations for me to get the special gold armor set myself.

“So you brought me out here to this study room to just…do this?”

“Yes, because here there won’t be any distractions,” Kalei said. “You know how our friends are, Laenie comes storming in with like a bee in her room or something that she needs us to whatever. Oh, and this room has a really stable internet connection too so that’s another reason.”

“So I basically should not leave this room while I’m doing this?”

“Preferably yes, but you’re not like imprisoned, go to the bathroom if you gotta,” Kalei said.

“And I can just borrow this as long as I want afterwards if I do this?”

“Zeta,” Kalei said, looking serious. “If you do this for me, I may even consider potentially possibly letting you buy that eGame 2 from me.”

“OK,” I said. It seemed like a good way to not think about anything serious for a bit. “Yeah, I can do this.”

“Great!” Kalei said. “Oh, and here’s a headset, if anyone gets online you can talk with them, and I’ll log in later to check how you’re doing.”

Kalei took off, and I realized she didn’t tell me how to actually play the game. I was already logged into the account, which had a big button up that said “NEW QUEST” so I pressed that.

That took me to a long video about the history of the Tyrant Rangers world that was moderately interesting. It was no Raina Starlight worldbuilding, but it was serviceable. Then I had to make how my character looked. I thought about just making me, but by the time I had finished it turned out like a slightly doofy looking Raina Starlight if she was rendered in a video game and was also a wizard.

This game seemed easier to control than the fighting game Roux made me and Oka play.

I could type whatever I wanted for my character’s interests and aspirations, so without thinking I just wrote “Oka” a bunch of times for all of them.