210 Vol. 4 pt. 13 Patch 3.0: A Change of Pace (1/2)
The little expeditionary group returns to The Shoebill and continues their discussion of building the city.
”I've only talked to that shortie a few times,” Rao says, ”but we should be able to come up with a good plan for gathering resources and figuring out everything that we need.”
”Sounds good to me. Have any idea how long it might take to get a small town going on?” Fenrir asks.
”Building is easier here even if it's supposed to be realistic, so a few buildings, a small dock, a farm, and all that shouldn't take more than a couple of months if we're all working on it. One month if we work hard every day.”
”Think we'll just spend the first week or so gathering materials and then do all the building once we've stocked up on wood and stone and all that?”
”That's what I'm thinking, bro.”
”I've got to admit, I'm kind of excited even though most people would probably think this is boring. Physical labor and building something with my own hands sounds way better than just choosing a plot of land, opening up some building plans, and clicking 'build.'”
”Man, just you wait. It's so satisfying to live in something you've built yourself. Now just imagine having a whole city that you helped build!”
”Nerds,” Oleander says. ”I guess it kind of sounds fun. But… I have to admit that I really wasn't expecting this to be how we spent our time in this game. You know, most people play games to kill stuff and grind levels and be awesome. We're just… going around fishing and building stuff. It's like culture shock compared to how we used to play games.”
”I get that,” Fenrir says. ”Sometimes I still get the random urge to go and burn down the village of some noobs trying to enjoy the game, but—”
”But that'd make you an unforgivable dick,” Rao says, eyes narrowing in on Fenrir.
”Yeah. That.”
”You really don't like griefers, do you?” Oleander asks Rao.
”They're the worst,” Rao answers. ”I've loved buildings things in games ever since I was a kid, and playing with others is more fun than playing by yourself. But, every single time, some dick would come along and either burn everything down, blow everything up, camp me and kill me over and over until I'd ragequit, or some other bullshit. It just sucks. It takes all the fun out of the game for people like me.”
Fenrir and Oleander look away as Rao talks.
Everything that Rao described sounds exactly like what Fenrir and Oleander once loved to do, and they would be lying if they said they didn't find things like that amusing. Furthermore, Rao's reaction to the topic is the exact kind of salt that they loved to get from people they ruined the fun of.
”Why can't either of you look me in the eyes?” Rao asks them.
Fenrir and Oleander gulp.
”You guys are horrible. You're lucky that you don't do that anymore. Right?” Rao asks.
”W-well… we told you about how we stole this boat, right?” Oleander asks.
Rao nods.
”I… we kind of burned down their village while we were at it. But! They were dicks! They tried making Cass Cass fuck them and then kept on killing her until she ran out of respawns!”
”Okay. It's alright if you're doing that to dicks, but you haven't done it to any normal people, right?” Rao asks.
”Don't think so,” Fenrir says. ”We killed, stole from, and burned down those garlic guys. Then… we got into some fights while in Port Tugator, but we only killed in self-defense, and the only guys we tried targeting were more assholes.”
”I mean, we were originally planning on using the city's cannons to blow up Ull's ship and start a miniature war in the city,” Oleander says.
”Bro,” Rao says.
”Li-listen… we ended up not doing that,” Fenrir says.
”Bro.”
”I promise!”
”Bro.”
”Wh-what?”
”You've got a spider on you.”
”What? Seriously?” Fenrir asks, straightening up and freezing.
Rao points at Fenrir shoulder. When Fenrir looks at his shoulder, he sees a large, yellow spider sitting on it.
”Please help,” Fenrir says.
”It's just a spider,” Rao says. ”What if it turns into a cute girl? That should be possible if a rock can turn into a dog.”
”I like spider girls, but actual spiders are different!” Fenrir's voice cracks mid-sentence when the spider moves. ”How – how did it even get on me?”
Oleander, Rao, and Corwin shrug – none of them caring too much about Fenrir's predicament.
Then Shogun walks up in front of Fenrir and looks at him, then looks at the spider.
Fenrir doesn't know what to expect from Shogun.
Shogun looks at the spider, gets a bit closer, raises one of his paws, and smacks it at the spider.