Think with a cool head and a calm heart, Zuko! There's Lucien, exhausted from using his strength to save your life, now helpless. You mustn't allow anything bad to happen to him, even if it costs you. Don't act rashly; it'll only make the situation worse. You don't know anything about the identity of the horse rider or his intentions in all this.
Worse things could happen in any form!
Glukh. Zuko responded, lowering Lucien's weak body from his embrace, "My friend has fainted again. I think it's due to dehydration. Where did you give your horse water?" he asked.
Pok pok pok. The man tapped the bulging water skin pouch hanging from the four-legged animal's back. "Just take it from here. I'm sure it's more than enough for our journey back."
Hearing the answer, Zuko immediately muttered sarcastically to himself, 'He said our way home? Where should we go home? And again, who does he mean by 'we'? Is it us and him? Does he think I trust him? But if I'm correct in thinking that this is a real-world battle royale situation inspired by the game Viatrix Upheaval, I don't think escaping from this place will be that easy. For now, I have to play along. Once it's safe, I'll take Lucien and flee as quickly as possible, Zuko thought confidently.
He then expanded his smile and asked, "Thank you very much... Uh, how should I address you?" he inquired, with an innocent tone and feigned expression.
The man approached and extended his hand with a friendly face, "Jessamy, my name's Jessamy."
Hearing the answer only made Zuko's forehead furrow again. What? Jessamy? Is there really a character with that name in the Viatrix Upheaval game? I've been playing it for years every day, and it seems I've never encountered an NPC with that name as a companion for any mission. This person must be lying, right?
Although questions continued to grow in the silence of the teenager's mind, he felt he had to keep moving forward, even if it meant taking risky steps to uncover the truth.
*
A few moments later, after passing through a rather thrilling journey where they narrowly avoided encounters with troops from kingdoms at war, Zuko began to see Jessamy's sincerity in his efforts to protect and save them.
Even if he didn't fully know the man's identity yet, at least for now, Zuko felt he could trust him. Especially since Lucien was still unconscious after... well, he didn't know what. Whatever extraordinary feat Lucien had accomplished to enable their escape from the troops of the scholarly warriors of the Mac An Cameron kingdom and the terrifying titan troops of the Mac An Savery Kingdom that might be trailing behind them.
Well, let's just assume that for now. Overthinking would only make his headache more.
Druuk duuk duuk.
"Alright, we've arrived," Jessamy said as he dismounted from his horse. He let Zuko stay on the back of the black-maned creature to tend to Lucien, whose condition had not yet improved.
Zuko immediately scanned the location that Jessamy had referred to as their destination or "place to back" or whatever it was. But what he saw puzzled him. What was this? A super squalid and chaotic village, where buildings overlapped each other, starkly contrasting his expectations of the Viatrix Upheaval world filled with wonders, fantasy beauty, amazement, and of course, magic.
Comparatively, if this was his standard, his real-world orphanage, nearly ruined as it was, seemed like a far better place to live. He muttered to himself in annoyance, wondering why his experience of being transported into the game world wasn't what he had hoped for all this time.
That is if he had indeed transmigrated into his favorite game world.
"What's with that disdainful look, young man?" Jessamy asked, smiling faintly.
"Why are there people like them in the world of Raace?" Zuko asked, staring at the NPC characters who resembled poor medieval folk, dressed in simple earth-colored clothes with thin leather boots.
He struggled to recall and rationalize. Yet, no matter how hard he tried to remember, memories of all this in the Viatrix Upheaval game simply didn't exist.
In short, this place was nothing like the Viatrix Upheaval Zuko knew. But at the same time, he was convinced that this was the world within the game. There were too many contradictions and paradoxes, making his already small brain ache even more.
Was his assumption wrong? Was he in a different place altogether?
"Ah, I feel like I'm going crazy," he muttered with half-consciousness, overwhelmed by confusion. The teenager's two eyes remained suspiciously fixed. He even speculated that he and his friend had become victims of human trafficking.
"Oh, I don't know what creatures like you witness from up there about our world. But this is the reality here. Not only are there three major kingdoms waging war in the world of Raace, but there are also humans living in slum areas, aphotic regions, and so on," Jessamy explained, slowly guiding his horse so that the passengers he was carrying could witness the reality that was not captured on screen frames.
There's a structural decay behind the grandeur of the three-kingdom war in the world of Raace, resulting in endless chaos and suffering in this world for decades or even centuries. No one knows exactly when all these dreadful wars began.
"For years since the three-kingdom war began, we, the people who do not belong to the three main kingdoms, have suffered generation after generation for years. All the resources in this world have been exploited to the point of exhaustion using the labor of those who are not their citizens and transported to the three major kingdoms to facilitate the ongoing battles."
"I didn't know there was such a backstory in the game I played," Zuko murmured. He didn't expect his voice to be heard by Jessamy.
The man continued, "This is the reality."
"That is impossible," Zuko thought, his disbelief growing even stronger. If he remembered correctly, "aphotic" meant an area untouched by sunlight or one with little light. A word that perfectly described the place they were currently in. He glanced again at his friend, who had not yet recovered from his injuries and exhaustion.
Thinking again, why was there suddenly such a sad backstory behind a game about normal kingdom wars that he and millions of other humans on planet Earth had been playing for so long?
"The land, the fields, the farms, and the ponds that the villagers have been working on for their own needs and territories have been colonized. Helpless landowners have been enslaved to perform all the menial work," Jessamy continued, smiling faintly. He wanted to show how ironic reality could be, no matter where you were.
"Then, where are we heading after this? What do you intend to do to us?" Zuko asked, still not softening his tone with the man. He didn't want Jessamy to think he had let his guard down, or that he was easily defeated. Lucien had sacrificed himself to save him. He couldn't allow his friend to suffer any worse than this!
"I swear we'll both return safely to our original world. No, Lucien, no, I won't let anything worse happen to you," the teenager resolved in his heart. But once again, the heart could only wish, and reality didn't always align with expectations.
"Your voice is still very weak, young man," Jessamy replied, accompanied by a gentle glance.
Zuko fell silent. He didn't want his weakness to become more apparent, allowing Jessamy to feel he had a chance to defeat him. Though, that was the truth.
Jessamy continued teasingly, "Please save your burst of energy, as if you're eager to decapitate me. We're heading to the darkest and most hidden corner of this village."
It turned out Zuko was too tired as well. He had tried to ignore the pain from his injuries when he fell from the running horse. But the pain was no joke. If he could, he would faint too.
"But no, Lucien. I will always protect you."
*
Shortly after, the three of them with the horse arrived at the edge of the village, surrounded by dense trees and plants. If the village they had just passed seemed squalid, dark, and uncared for due to the overcrowded houses, this area was equally dark, but more so because of the dense foliage.
Unconsciously, Zuko remarked, "I think this is the most beautiful part of the rundown village we just passed through."
Jessamy smiled as he led the black-maned horse named Jessy into a simple wooden stable. He filled the animal's feeding trough with wild grass he had prepared. In his heart, he responded to the words of the stranger he had just met, "I feel you'll change your mind soon, young man."