Hiraeth #1: Rewired
For my whole life, I lived and depended on this game. To be honest about it, I’m not like your normal staff whose name trembles hackers and grievers to their feet. I’m just that staff who plays and does his job, while others have nice lives, have a girlfriend and are respected in the game.
Me on the other hand, I have a crappy apartment in a sketchy neighborhood, I live 75 dollars a week, and my parents nag me to get a “stable.” Ironically, this job is indeed a stable job, but with their constant nagging and threats not to help pay my bills, it was an eye-opener for me to quit this job.
“You’re really sure that you’ll quit?” Sarah said with smoking a virtual cigarette.
We were in a player cafe, that’s really overlooked by most players, the cafe is above an ammunition shop, which ironically has a lot of players, but most of them go to these anime-themed cafes with NPC maids.
This cafe had diner-like aesthetics, and the game replicated it so cleanly and professionally, from floor stains to gums under the tables. It was your ordinary diner together with Sarah and Jon, good friends of mine.
“I’m really sure. My parents want me a stable job, and they want grand-kids, like wtf,” and they laughed.
“If I were your dad, Joel, I’d sure do the same damn thing,” Jon smirked while drinking his virtual coffee.
“But I like being staff. I don’t need the spotlight. I can live with 75 dollars a week. Plus, I don’t have a girlfriend,” I complained.
“But you need to get a life, Joel. Have you ever gotten laid?” The two of them laughed in unison after the playful insult from Sarah.
I had no choice but to laugh, and the day quickly ended, each of us logging out to attend to our real-life needs, but I stayed behind just to give some tickets before I officially leave as a staff in “BoonRP.”
“Well, I guess I’ll walk around the city then.”
“Sure thing, but I hope no one hurts the Great Joel Williams by getting mugged by a low-level thug,” and the both of them died in laughter.
So I decided to walk, trying to enjoy the view before I’m officially quitting this game. Each house and pixel reminds me of memories I enjoyed, all those events, promos and even quests I did before I was staff. All of them were all so important to me, they made me who I am, but sadly I’m leaving this place.
“I guess you were really serious when you said you were going to leave,” A man said from the dark alley. His pants and a bottom part of his shirt were visible because he stayed away from the light.
“Kazzan?” I gasped.
“The one and only,” he came out from the shadows a character. He had a face like a guy who came back from a tour in Afghanistan, those scars in his forehead, the eyebags.
“Kaz, you never change really. Out of the cute faces in the market, you still chose that kind of face.” I gave a short chuckle.
“At least I don’t look like a lady-boy with your outfit,” and he gave me a playful punch and walked.
“Just because I wear the Korean gangsta set doesn’t mean I’m a lady-boy.”
“Well, you look like one.”
“Well, at least I’m staff, and I’m better than you in this game.”
“Tell that to the person that got mugged by a bunch of scrubs,” and he grinned.
Kazzan sat down on a nearby bench, and he tapped on the empty space, giving me a signal to sit there beside me.
“Ya know, it’s gonna be a huge blow for BoonRP for losing a competent staff like you.”
“Me? A competent staff?” I scoffed “Like, I’m not even popular, nor have a girlfriend like most of you guys.”
“To be honest really, it doesn’t make up the fact of your tenure as a staff.” He opens his bar and equips a fresh can of soda. “Want some?”
“Thanks, fam.” I got the free soda and opened it, releasing a pleasing sound of the hiss of the coke. Even though it was an RP game, it was awfully realistic.
“Did Boon have some minor updates? There’s like new sounds in this game.” I gave him a shrug.
He gulps the soda in one go and throws it to the ground, which, seconds after, dissipates into pixels and polygons.
“If the world was like this, we won’t have problems with pollution or garbage.”
“Well, be careful what you wish for,” and I drank the coke in one go.
“So, what happened that you decided to quit? I know you won’t quit this game unless it must be very much important.”
“Well, my parents are forcing me to get a real job, and with that, they cut me off with some of my expenses. You could say I’m in a bad deficit with my budget right now.”
“Sheesh, can’t they cut some slack for you? I mean, you staff members have an okay salary, right?”
I gave him a thumbs down.
“What!?” He gave me a shocking glare. “That’s just insane, but anyways I’m happy you decided to find something that’s better because you deserve better,” and he chuckled.
“So Kaz, how’s your dad and your brothers doing?” I threw the can away.
“Well, they’re still taking care of the farm. It must be weird for them to have a son choosing to opt for college than stay on the farm.”
“Isn’t that cool though? You get to use your guns without anyone messing around.”
Kaz grins, but his face turns into sadness; it gave out of vibe of nostalgia.
“You know, I really miss them and especially the tra-“
My vision went black for a few seconds, after rubbing my eyes like a kid with itchy eyes. I came to see a meeting room. It was a modern style meeting room: there was a huge window behind me, and in front of me was a window looking to the cubicles of the office. I was sitting in a meeting room.
I looked around, and I saw most of the staff members, including Sarah. She was sitting in the first chair left side of the table.
‘What’s going on? We got summoned,’ she sent a PM.
‘I don’t know? But we have to wait.’ Sarah looked at me and rolled her eyes and talked to a staff beside her, probably asking what the issue was.
Summon is basically an Admin command which teleports Staff or a group of players to a certain place, whether or not they’re in a battle since teleportation are disallowed during combat. When staffs are summoned, it’s basically that there might be something wrong since staffs rarely get summoned.
“Hello, staffs.” From behind Sarah, a man wearing a white long-sleeved polo with a black tie and black pants suddenly appeared.
“What’s the matter with the summon, Kervin?” A staff beside me said in a worrisome tone.
There was a little chatter around the meeting room till Kervin raised his hand up and smiled.
“The Gamemaster has updated the game, and he has sent his greetings to you all.” He gave off a weird smile, a smile that was awfully forced.
“I think the long respawn time was a bad move, Sir Kervin,” a staff said.
“Also the new sounds sound realistic, but at least they have to fix some things especially fall damage and slow healing,” another complained.
“Now, now, now. Would you all calm yourselves down?” Everyone went quiet.
“Good,” he continued, “Now, the Gamemaster felt like the game was too cartoony, too easy. So he decided to ramp up the difficulty making it more realistic, per se.”
“I think the Gamemaster made a slight error, deleting the Log Out Tab,” and with that everyone went to look at their settings, and the meeting room went in an uproar after that.
“No, the Gamemaster did so.” And he did that weird smile again.
“Are you nuts? How about our lives outside the game, I still have a job!” A staff exclaimed.
“Ahh shit, my pizza delivery might have arrived.”
Many complaints were given: some were panicking, but Sarah kept her cool. She gave me a shocking stare, a stare like you’ve discovered something messed up.
“Okay then, who here believes that this is all unfair?” He grabbed a tablet.
In the table of 30 staffs, 22 people raised their hands. Kervin gave a smile and proceeded to press some buttons on the tablet.
A staff who raised her hand started to vomit. Suddenly, everyone who raised their hands started to do the same. Their eyes were bleeding, and some of them were shouting in pain. Indeed, we feel pain in the game thanks to the breakthrough technology of VRAura I, but the pain these people feel are real. They were tearing up. Some of them were really shouting. Getting hit by a bullet here is just like getting hit by a pellet gun, but these people acted like they were really doused in acid.
Sarah couldn’t handle it. She started to cry covered her ears and started to shout “Stop, please, Sir Kervin.” But Kervin just stood motionlessly, and after an excruciating five minutes which felt like hours, one of them burst into polygons and pixels like when killed during a battle.
“Well, I guess there’s just four of you, am I right?” Kervin gave a smile.
“But sir, there’s seven of us. Me and my sea-” BAM! A gunshot was heard. The guy groaned and blew up into polygons.
It was Kervin. He was carrying a Five-Seven, and he started to point at the next guy.
“Kervin!? What the fuck?” Without hesitation, Kervin finished his whole magazine unto that guy. Even though the guy burst, Kervin didn’t stop till there were clicks in his gun.
“Wow, one more.” He took a look around the room. We were all scared and confused. What the fuck is happening right now? Why is Kervin doing this?
Kervin looked at Sarah, who was still covering her ears, and she was shivering. He gave her a quick rub on the back and a pat on the head, trying to comfort her.
“Now, now, Sarah, it’s okay. It’ll be all over soon,” and he pointed the gun at Sarah.
Don’t tell me Sarah’s going to be the next victim, but as I want to stop him I froze, my feet and my arms weren’t moving. I looked at my Health bar on the top right side of my screen. I was paralyzed.
“Shhhhhh, it’ll be all over soon.”
BAM!