Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 9

Reid gripped the straps on his backpack, his thumbs rubbing along the tiny lines that made up the fabric. The feeling was almost foreign, different. It wasn't quite like how things felt in Hollow Twilight. The air was different stagnant, mysterious, alien. Everything there was new and unique.

Everything here was still the same.

It didn't even matter anymore that it wasn't a video game. It was, it seemed to have functions strapped to it like a game, but apparently it was some other dimension. A restless night had left Reid pondering how close he might've come to actual death, what a different dimension might even mean. Why did his phone work there? Why did it have levels and an app that reflected his growth? Why did you have some sort of Twilight?

So many questions had bounced around his head for so long before he had settled in on where he was now:

It didn't matter.

It wasn't important. It wasn't as important as this new world, this space he really could explore. This was where he needed to be now, where he had to go. It was new, it was going to be his discovery. He would climb to the top of that place, find the tallest mountain, kill the biggest enemy, find every hidden treasure. Every secret would be open to him.

His home would be forgotten. His dad and his stupid way of talking would be a distant memory. Bridges would be built into the new dimension, flags planted, endless places to visit. The most exciting part of his day wouldn't be when a bird flew into the window. It would be slaying a hundred shadow monsters, diving to the bottom of some lake, toppling a skyscraper into the ground. It would be anything.

Reid sniffled a bit. The cold was drawing out a tiny amount of mucus from his nose, lining the edges as they turned red. And he smiled, the passion in his brain bleeding out into his expression. Even though he was stuck waiting for the light to change. In the cold.

"Good morning!"

Reid kept his head from snapping to the side, but he felt his eyes bulge in surprise. He somewhat recognized the voice, but it wasn't quite familiar enough that he could place exactly who it was. He wanted not to look though, because it was feminine and it wasn't Maple, as far as he could tell. And that sent a ripple up his spine. He was an inch straighter, staring straight ahead. He was cool, for the moment, and he couldn't blow it.

"Hey," he replied. His head was spinning. Hey? Was that the best he could do? There had to be more lines to it than that, some sort of secret code of interesting things to say that made you appear more attractive. How did the other guys do it then?

Reid's eyes flicked to their corners as he tried his best to figure out who this was without adjusting or giving away his theoretical air of disinterest and laid back-ness. Soft, blonde hair. Slightly shorter than him. He knew who fit this description.

"Reily, right?" Reid continued. He now turned his head, slowly, hoping this would come off perfectly nonchalant. He was confident he failed.

But Reily beamed right back at him, blue eyes boring holes into his skull with their curious gaze. "Yes, right! I needed the homework help before."

"So I guess you take this way to school?" This time it felt slightly easier. He had a subject he could attach himself to: the commute. And he would stick to that until he got to school and got through this situation.

"I started a couple days ago, it seems faster."

"Yeah, it's pretty quick." The light changed. And that was the death of the conversation right there. All of Reid's prior material had just disappeared in a puff of smoke. What was he supposed to do now? The walk was fast, it was a good path. That's why he took it. Couldn't he have said something else, anything else? Things had to keep moving. "Where did you go before?"