Chapter 8 The Chase

I gave chase. The bastard was fast, and he seemed to know the terrain in a way that I didn’t. Whereas the jungle underbrush seemed to work against me, my legs snagging against vines and the rugged flora, this avatar seemed to sail through it, apparently unimpeded.

I was faster, though. The newfound dexterity caused my legs to pump like steam engines. He may have had me outmatched for terrain knowledge, but in terms of raw physical ability, I had him.

We raced through the jungle, and I admired his attempts to juke me. He would disappear behind trees, feigning going one way but instead moving the other. He was small, wiry, and his primitive armour meant he blended in well with the environment. More than once I had been forced to use my keen eye, slowing down the world around me, to find him.

He was nimble as well, climbing trees, scrambling from branch to branch like a monkey, but I was able to follow. I saw his breathing laboured; the sweat threaded on his brow. He was getting tired. So why did he seem so confident? The few moments he turned around there wasn’t a shred of fear in those eyes. Either he didn’t quite understand the situation, or I didn’t.

Regardless I was getting my shit back.

Deeper and deeper into the heart of the jungle we went, until, bizarrely, he stopped. It made no tactical sense as to why. There was no cover here, no terrain to kite me through. Just him, in the open ground. I didn’t hesitate, loosing an arrow, aiming for his leg. I wouldn’t kill him, but I wasn’t spending the rest of the day running after this guy through the sweltering jungle. Chase quests had never been my thing.

The arrow flew true, and at this distance given my newfound ability, I couldn’t miss. I didn’t miss, and yet once the arrow came within a few inches of his leg, it was as though it were pushing through treacle, slowing until finally it stopped, clattering harmlessly to the ground.

‘Ah, too bad,’ said the avatar. ‘Why don’t you try again?’

Enraged, I complied with his suggestion, loosing three more arrows, aiming for his head and two to his chest. Once again all three slowed against an invisible barrier, the last one actually plucked out of the air by the avatar. He grinned.

‘So what?’ I said. I stowed my bow. Whatever was going on, clearly martial prowess wouldn’t be the deciding factor here. ‘Force field? Magic?’

The avatar rolled his eyes, taking a seat on the jungle floor. ‘You guys are thick as planks, aren’t you? How many times do I have to tell you, this isn’t real. It’s a game. Now learn to play it, you cretin.’

I paused. A game. I walked cautiously towards him, but he made no effort to remove himself. He sat leisurely, as if he had not a care in the world.

‘Just give me my stuff back,’ I said, ‘and I’ll leave you alone. I don’t want any hassle.’

He peered down at the arrows before him. ‘I beg to differ.’

Closer and closer I got until I could’ve reached out to touch him. Or punch him, and yet still he remained.

I couldn’t hurt him, and likewise he had made no visible effort to hurt me. I stared at him and realised…something was different. Then, finally, it clicked.

‘This is a non-PvP zone, isn’t it?’ I put my hand up, trying to find the seams of the zone, to feel some kind of physical barrier that separated the zones, but found nothing. The avatar looked genuinely impressed.

‘Not as dumb as the others, I see. You earn a name then. I’m Miggy.’

‘Reaver,’ I said, ‘now are you going to give me my stuff back?’

‘Nope,’ said Miggy, stretching his hands behind his head. ‘Now go farm more like a good avatar.’

‘This is what you do? Steal from others, why not just go get materials yourselves?’

‘Yeah, not really the doing type. More the let others do things and benefit.’

‘Why not join that nearby camp? I’m sure they’d take you.’

‘Those guys are dead, you must’ve realised that too if you’d spent any time there at all.’

So Miggy understood the trial, or at least enough of the mechanics to apparently survive alone out here.

‘Now run along,’ he said, in a lazy voice, though for some reason I saw now that his hands were trembling slightly. ‘Don’t have all day to initiate a noob like you.’

I didn’t move. ‘Why is there a PvP safe zone in the middle of the jungle?’

‘It’s a game! There’s PvP and PvE zones everywhere! Now would you kindly fuck off?’

I wasn’t a game designer, but I’d played enough multiplayer games to know that you didn’t just put a single pocket of no PvP in the middle of a PvP zone. I peered at him again, as something growled low behind me, his eyes flickering past me to it.

‘So this is a non-player versus player zone,’ I said, ‘but I’m guessing mobs are fair game, right? Nothing is going to protect you against them other than yourself.’

He hesitated. ‘Shit! Alright, fine, so there are pockets of zones like this one. They appear then disappear, but I use them to stay alive.’

‘Why? What’s causing that?’

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

‘Come on dude, I don’t know! Look,’ he said, retrieving the fur bundles he’d taken from me and proffering them, ‘just take it, okay? We need to move.’

Another growl. Familiar one at that. I fought the urge to smile. ‘How did you know the zone was here?’

He stared at me, incredulous. ‘Look, guy, you do know what that sound is, right? What’s coming to tear us apart limb by limb?’

‘Oh, I know,’ I said, almost lazily, ‘and that thing isn’t what you should be worried about.’ I looked around, at the invisible seams of the safe zone. ‘Boxed yourself in, haven’t you? You move out, I kill you. You stay, that thing kills you.’ The panic blooming across his eyes was answer enough. ‘Okay, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll protect you, stop that thing from decorating the jungle floor with your guts, and in return you tell me how you know where these zones will appear.’

I could see Miggy’s mind whirring, calculating. ‘And before you even think of fleeing, trust me, you won’t outrun me, and you definitely won’t outrun that.’