After a while, there was no sensation. There was no falling, no water, nothing. Merrick tried to move but found that his controls were unresponsive. He pulled his headset off, looked around his apartment in real-life, and then dove back into Dungeons Below. It was still dark.
The VR system was running smoothly, he could still access the System Menu. However the only option he could select was to log out of the game. A notification popped up:
You have lost consciousness. Consciousness returning in 8 hours.
There was a timestamp and a countdown next to the notification. Merrick knew that it meant eight hours of game time, which meant that he had to wait two hours in the real world before he could continue. As he logged out, he remembered the first notification as he entered the dungeon. It only said he would be returned to the Library if he died. It had not said anything about loss of consciousness.
Would he be able to wake up where he passed out? Would it trigger a system that cues him up for even worse circumstances? Would he wake up injured from the fall from that water crystal's platform? Would he lose gear?
Merrick thought of the books he had tucked away on his avatar before leaving the library. Would they survive in the game? Were they vulnerable to water and he would log in to find them ruined? What about his journal?
Break time, Merrick thought as his questions started to spiral. He logged out of his headset, put it away, and started to think about how he would spend the next two hours in the real world. It was late, but not late enough to go to sleep. His pantry was empty of anything but boring protein bars. The corner store was less than a block from his apartment, Merrick figured he could come up with something to do as he walked there to get a proper snack.
The city was boring, dull and as gray as it always was. It was well after sunset and as Merrick walked out of the front of his apartment building and onto the sidewalk, he thought about going back inside. He thought about scrolling the forums, passing his two hour debuff in the game by reading more about the world he was trying to break into.
Mouseion Entertainment had made the perfect game, in his eyes though. Even if he went onto the boards and started to post or interact with other members, it would not further his own progress at all. At best he could share half-baked theories with other game addicts and maybe through that strange conversation, he could craft some plan or theory of his own. Though that would not help him in-game at all. What he needed was to experience more of the game. What he needed to do was finish his dungeon and go see the rest of the world.
As Merrick walked down the block to the corner store, he wondered what the rest of the game was like. Was it an open-world where he could wander from town to town picking up rumors about dungeons? Was it a shared lobby of adventurers with an ADVENTURE button that would load him into the next dungeon? Or was it just that swirling mist in the middle of darkness asking him what kind of dungeon he would like next?
There was only one way to find out. He needed to finish his dungeon and to do that he needed to wait two hours.
Something up ahead snapped him from his thoughts. Then the door to the store opened too quickly. The bell rang, broke off the string, and then clattered onto the ground. Merrick froze before he realized why. His eyes were shifting from the bell that had fallen to the person that had knocked it off.
Standing on the sidewalk between Merrick and the fallen bell was a kid. They were not even as tall as Merrick and they had on this ridiculous ski mask that was both too big and pulled down too far so it half-covered their eyes. Merrick's eyes were focused on their hands. One held a grocery sack, plastic with the corner store's name stamped on the side. The other held a pistol.
If this were a game, Merrick's mind defaulted to the safe place understood. His build against the kid. Merrick was a pawn, an npc, a classless level zero without a weapon or training. The kid had probably done this before, even if it was a mad-slap dash attempt. The mask was too big but the kid's grip on the gun was natural. Merrick froze, he tried to say something to beg the kid to leave him alone, but it just came out as a stutter.
The kid laughed and ran past Merrick as his hands finally raised in surrender. Merrick could have sworn the kid cursed him as they ran by. The door to the corner store clanked close, hitting on the bell that had fallen. This time it rang out and Merrick's mind went to the next worst conclusion. The sound that had snapped him back from his thoughts came from before the door opened.
Merrick's feet moved before his mind realized what was happening. He might see himself as a level zero npc but even a non-player character could raise an alarm. Merrick hurried into the corner store, kicking the bell out of the way, and looked around frantically. It was a weeknight, it was after dark, Nick should have been here.
Merrick ran over to the counter, it was a mess. Chips, candy, and lottery tickets sprawled all over. Behind the counter the cigarette stands were ruined and they had all fallen down on the attendant that had stumbled back into them. Nick.
Every time, late at night, when Merrick needed to take a break from gaming to get a drink or a snack, he came here. Every time, Nick was the attendant. They rarely talked, Merrick only knew his name because of the name tag that he wore. Was he dead? Was there anything Merrick could have done?
The pile of cigarette packs and brochures that had fallen on Nick shifted as the attendant tried to move. Merrick swore and ran around the counter, pulling his phone out and tapping at the emergency button in the bottom left of his touch screen.
The phone was supposed to handle it from there. It was supposed to send out an SOS of some sort. Merrick set it on the counter and focused on Nick. He was breathing, he seemed conscious, but beneath the things that had fallen on him there was a lot of blood.
With a weak hand, Nick brushed some of the cigarette cartons off his chest and coughed in a way that sounded broken. "Good thing you hit that SOS, Mr. Mocha Monster. I probably need an ambu-"
Whatever had kept him going failed, Nick passed out. Merrick did his best to put pressure on the wound after he made sure it was the only one. Time was a blur. Ten minutes could have passed or it could have been an hour. Nick did not wake up and say anything witty, Merrick was eventually shuffled to the side by a medic.
Then he was questioned by an officer. Then he was questioned by the medic to make sure it was not anything more serious than shock that had hit him. Then he was alone, apparently they must have thought that Merrick was associated with the store because the officer left him a card to call if there was any more information or if he got access to the surveillance.
There was a customer that came in after they took Nick away in a stretcher. Merrick did his best to explain that they probably were closed now. The customer scoffed and just took whatever they wanted. A pack of cigarettes off the counter right next to where Nick had fallen.
The owner arrived after the customer turned thief left. "Merrick, is that you? The officer that called me said my other attendant was still at the store, but I had no idea they meant you. Didn't you tell them that you don't work here?"
"I tried." was all that Merrick could muster.
Mr. Adams, the owner, patted Merrick on the shoulder, "Well I just got off with the hospital, it looks like Nick is going to be okay. He'll be sore for a while but the shot was nothing serious. They said he actually passed out due to a mix of the blood loss, exhaustion, and malnutrition. I told him he needed to slow down. Between working here at night and school all day, this is probably just the thing."
"He was going to school?" Merrick asked.
"You don't know? I thought you were friends. Doesn't he have a nickname for you? Coffee King. Java Junkie, or something?"
"Mocha Monster…" Merrick gestured toward the cooler near the counter where his drink of choice was fully stocked.
"Ah." Mr. Adams nodded. "Are you going to be alright? They said you seemed pretty shaken up by the whole thing."
"The whole thing?" Merrick frowned, "Nick was shot. Here. I could have been shot too, died even. The kid… on the street… after he shot Nick, I just let him go."
The owner laughed, "Just let him go? Merrick, please don't blame yourself there is nothing you could have done. He had a gun and even if he is just a kid… this is a terrible neighborhood, that kid probably has a longer record than some of my cousins and they are actual criminals. You should move, I know you've been here a while, ever since you were going to school yourself, but the neighborhood changed while you were shut away in your studies and your games."
Merrick nodded, "I'll look into it."
"Seriously. I wish it was not bad but it is. Thank you for showing up and doing what you did. Nick probably would not have made it if you didn't make that call. I bet three or four regulars would have come in and just taken what they wanted, leaving him there before someone even checked on him. You should look at some of those collective buildings they've got in Old Town. I know you're not an artist but most of them aren't either. Seriously."
"Thank you, Mr. Adams… Let me know if anything with Nick changes. I'll… I'll look into moving."
Had his neighborhood really gotten that bad? When Merrick moved into the apartment it was mostly empty and there were grand plans of renovating. The whole block was supposed to get an uplift from some kind of civil stimulus bill.
As he left the corner store, with a drink in hand that Mr. Adams gave him on the way out, Merrick tried to think back on if that stimulus had ever happened. He was pretty sure it had but he could not remember any updates or upgrades being performed on the block.
Even his apartment building was still mostly empty. Of the forty units, he knew of only ten that were occupied and that was only because his landlord had paid him as a contractor to fix the building's internet links. He wasn't even in IT, it was just a few cables that the landlord did not want to pay a real technician to fix.
More odd thoughts flowed through his mind as Merrick made it to his apartment. Two of his neighbors had tried to sell him drugs before, at his doorstep, like it was some kind of church recruitment. He had written it off as strange. The officer at the corner store was the first one he'd seen anywhere outside of the Metro Station as well.
He cracked open the Mocha Monster as he sat down at his computer. Merrick had entered the apartment and completely bypassed the VR Play Area. It did not even cross his mind that the two hour window was probably over now. Instead all he could think about was the neighborhood.
It was not like he loved it. He had no ties to the neighborhood outside of the corner store. Mr. Adams only knew him because one time, after trying to stock up on drinks and snacks, his card was declined. They tried to run it again, Merrick was going to put some stuff back or run back to the apartment to grab cash. Mr. Adams stopped him. Instead, he handed Merrick a business card with the total on it and said to cover it next time.
There was only one thing Merrick could look into on the computer. He had no chance of moving. Between his student loans and inability to use his degree until someone retired from the university and he could throw his name in the hat there, Merrick barely had enough money to afford his current apartment.
Merrick started looking into crime in his neighborhood.