"Brat, can you hand me that box over there?"
I let out a small sigh and stood up, picking up a rather large box and walked over to Arius who was collecting food supplies on the outside of the walls. I gave it to him as he muttered a small thanks and continued his work without talking to me again, even ignoring my questions or compliments that I would give to him. Eventually, I gave up and marched towards Diedre and Danno.
I'm sure they would answer my questions. I thought to myself as I approached them.
Diedre looked up to meet my gaze just as she place a brick near the sticks. "Oh, hello, Michaelis."
"I need to ask something." I said without any greeting.
"Sure, but we have to-"
"Diedre, what is going on?" Everything felt confusing and made me bewildered. I didn't know what I was supposed to do and how building this wall can help me answer the questions I have. "Why are we doing this? What's the point if it's only virtual? It wouldn't even affect us in the real life."
I saw her Diedre pursing her lips, gripping tightly onto the sticks she was holding. Her eyes met mine for a brief moment before looking away without any more explanations. Danno continued his own work while glancing at us nervously, seeing that he was trying his best to ignore us talking.
"Look, Michaelis, if we can just finish building this wall, I would tell you everything." She said. "I promise you that."
A scoff made its way out my mouth, hands on my hips while shaking my head. "How can I be so sure that you'd tell me? You already said that to me last night."
"You did oversleep, that's why I couldn't explain it to you." Diedre countered.
Before I could say anything else, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, kid." It was Clay. "Is everything okay here?"
I turned my body to face him, processing at least a few questions for me to ask him about what was going on; the peer pressure settling in due to the limited time. Clay's eyes showed worry as he asked again, this time, much slower and more reassuring than the last.
Making up my mind on what to answer, I gently shook my head and gave out a small smile. "It's nothing. I was just asking how these walls are being built."
"Oh, well if you want, I can show you how to." Clay replied, nodding. "Would you like that?"
"I don't have much of a choice there, do I?"
I followed Clay to where he was working at, which was at the far east side of the village away from the others. He picked up at least nine bricks and three stones, compiling the bricks first and then started to smelt the stones in a furnace. After doing those tasks, he stood up and clasped his hands.
"The physics and science in this game is very odd." Clay started as he waited for the stones to be finished smelting. "Usually, you can only make concrete with cement and water, and not with stones, yet here we are." He pointed at the now finished smelted product. The furnace glowed a bright emerald green light, its small metal gate opening with the smelted stone flowing out as if gravity didn't even exist.
I squinted my eyes and closed them, shaking my head before opening them. "Am I tripping or is the concrete floating?"
"It is. Kind of like a magic during the process." Clay chuckled at my astounded expression. He put his hand out in the air as the light illuminated in between the concrete and his palm, moving it slightly to see that the flowing solid was following his hand. He walked across a few piles of sticks and stood in front of the nine bricks he aligned next to an already finished wall.
Is this really happening? I asked myself as I watched Clay carefully.
"Watch this," Clay slowly placed the concrete over the bricks. The layers of bricks and concrete glowed brightly as more layers have been added tot he original ones. Without warning, a new form of wall was being built and the structure was finished after a few minutes.
"Woah," I managed to let out, seeing the new wall finished and standing tall the same height as the other ones.
"It's fascinating, right?" He commented with a small sigh, looking up at the wall. "How this game can generate fast unlike in the real world."
"Yeah, I didn't know this would be that fast." I agreed. "I thought it would take at least three weeks for these walls to be finished."
"We have to finish it in twenty-four hours before those demons arrive," Clay said as worry washed over his face. "We only have ten hours left and we only covered at least seventy-five percent."
"Yeah. . ."
"Well, you can help me here if you want. I noticed you're still bothered by something."
I shrugged, but went along with Clay. "Sure, I guess I can help you."
"Great, there are materials around the empty spaces, just use them and fill up the remaining holes."
With that, I went off to finish the job by doing what Clay just did. Luckily, I was a fast learner and finished almost six walls in a span of thirty minutes with Clay looking at me, impressed and proud. I only needed to finish five walls and for Arius and Minerva to finish collecting the resources. I glanced on the other side to see Diedre and Danno carrying materials while dragging a few cows and sheep to a barn.
I couldn't help but feel guilty about pressuring her into answering my questions. It was probably something that should not be talked about while working, especially since this was no ordinary game; it was about life and death itself. I should have just kept quiet about it until the day was over where we could head back to our base alive.
I was about to approach her when a bright blue light flashed by me, stopping me from walking as I heard a light vibrating sound from behind.
'What the. . .?'
I turned around from my position, squinting my eyes to see a glowing ball of light just outside the walls where I haven't filled up yet and walked closer to it. My footsteps were inaudible and careful enough, cautiously trying my best to not startle the light I was seeing from the distance. Everything around me went quieter as I inched closer, my hand slowly reaching for it.
Then, I heard a faint voice.
"Michaelis, wake up." The voice whispered, sounding like a small child that was about Danno's age.
"W-who…" I stammered, now standing in front of the illuminating orb. "Who are you?"
"Michaelis, wake up." The voice said again. Without warning, the friendly blue colors of the orb transformed into red fiery embers with a small screech coming out as it violently grew bigger. I covered my eyes with my teeth gritting, trying to block out the violent shrieking and not going deaf.
'What is going on?!' I thought with my heart racing.
The light suddenly stopped screeching as I felt it looking right through me, closer and closer.
"Wake up." With that, it faded into nothingness in an instant.
"Michaelis, watch out!" Minerva's voice shouted from behind. I turned to look at her in a confusing yet startled manner, not knowing what she was talking about.
Footsteps emerged just a few inches away from me, a loud snarl followed by small ticks reverberated along the strides of an unknown force. I saw my comrades huddling up inside the walls with weapons on their hands.
My eyes widened in realization, heart thumping and my mouth agape.
The growling continued, louder and more vicious than before.
I was at the outside of the walls with the moon shining bright above the clouded skies.
My breathing started to rag. When I looked what was in front of me, I was greeted by a monstrous beast with beady eyes and mouth dripping off huge amounts of saliva.