Tide Turner
Xi and Mitsuru sat by the air. They were in China still, but the air was sentimental for them. They were wearing summer clothes. Across the distance, they did not know it, but Japan and even Korea were waging a war for the cyber space world they inhabited in Eve, and in their VR kits. Japan and Korea loved Eve as well, and America, the Philippines, and more. The Spanish representation was very low, much so indeed that maybe it counted 0, unbeknownst to the players that played the game. They were space herders. They had already won. Gold, and doubloons, and trinkets came from them, not Egypt, where a few played from. These were the only three.
Amit Nefgavari, an 18 year old Arabic-speaking linguistics major. He had completed his 18-year stint as an ecological digger. He was now playing Eve from his home in Saintsburg, Egypta. They were there and talked to other Chinese players about how they once flew from the Earth and moved to the stars. The new name, Egypta, meant that they were no longer alone. In 2081, they would be at PAX Eternal 2081 too. And as well that meant they were gunning for the top #1 spot in Eve, the online game that touted that it was eternal, data downloading be damned. They could play it all they wanted. It was a futuristic game. And the 65,000,000 yuan prize was dominating their online play. New ads and even an enticement system was granted. The player base was revolting, however, and did not want to go there eternally as their puppets put into place new games for them to play. Nothing was changed. It had not come out of beta yet. It was still version 1.0. This meant it was released full and free to play. It had buy-in and pay-to-win features, but these were not usable as often as just playing the game was. Sure, you could resurrect faster, and even die in style, or wake up and chase a cat around, but the system was not able to hold your hand for you. It was like a new breath of fresh air every time you played. Xi and Mitsuru were playing in her old Japanese-style room once again, a breath of fresh air if you played it that way in the game, as she was using a move that sucked a soul out of a person and gave it to her ally as health, healing points in the game represented as green numbers that had a modifying factor, like a plus sign, where a negative factor was a minus sign and the data represented in red. The green and red numbers were combined with white and black and even some minus signs representing the downsides to eating souls as the juice boxes made their way into the mouths of the players who cast these rigorous spells online.
Xi and Mitsuru teamed up, never. They were always alone. Mitsuru would not be able to get to the first rank if she did not battle Xi. She had over 1.4 million souls to count her own. Xi had over 2 million souls. Battling this way meant she could not win over him. This was not deterring her. As friends, they did not kill each other. So seeing two clan members eat up all the chow mein was certainly a sight to see. These two clan members, the players Otter_44351147 and Auria, whose players offline were the young highschooler's Xi Huan and Mitsuru Abhagasta, were both playing the game to win the ¥65,000,000 grand prize next year at PAX Eternal 2081. This would be the first 'con they had ever been to, an event known as a convention to some, but the players online, who had correct Xi, told him it was a 'con. That means it is a special place to go. He had to get there. And Mitsuru and their clan mates all wanted this big prize. They would fight for it, defeating others, killing soldiers in the most unlikely of places, like outer space, where the highest-level players gathered for what the community titled a death match. There was a fight going on right now. This zone had the most players gathered in it. Xi and Mitsuru and others could see the player counts for a given zone by typing /player-count in the games chat channel. It told them the players online. They went where there were the most people. As the best players around, they knew where to find the most meat for their stockpiles. They needed to have the highest kill counts. And that meant they also needed to dine harder than ever. They used potions, and healing spells, and even meat shielding to stop opponents from reaching the amounts needed to go to the 'con.
Xi and Mitsuru and their players Otter_44351147 and Auria were on standby. They were in a safe zone. This tiny little Chinese habitat like a small town was useful. They were not alone. Others spoke to them and they tried to trade items for Chinese wisdom. They used the special stones you got for buying in-game and used real world money to transact equations in cyberspace. They played from the pier as well, and under the stars, they took off their headsets and went home. They were careful not to jump into the water as that might damage their equipment. They were not water proof. Perhaps not fire proof as well. This stinging feeling meant they were acting out of the ordinary. At school, Xi and Mitsuru did their best, but that was a feeling they wanted to go away.
Xi spoke to Mitsuru at school in the hallway.
He asked her if she would go out with him.
She would not give him the answer he wanted, so he was standing in a boyish way. She was trying to be discourteous and offload his remarks to someone else.