VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

Chapter 311: The New Headquarters

After a quick fuel stop, which left Valerie once again grumbling about the prices, it was just a quick three hour jaunt over the ocean until they reached their destination.

Their new base was based on a piece of land known as ’The Isle of Rebellion’, which was part of the ’Freedom Islands’ archipelago.

The archipelago was a result of the third American civil war, which surrounded the separation of certain states from the mainland. Literally.

Although they could not physically remove the states from the mainland, it was around the time that colonising technology was blooming, so they simply built a collection of artificial islands.

They were devoid of greenery, with high walls to stop ocean waves as well as protect themselves from each other as they often battled between each other, which was why there was no greenery here. But all of that was in the distant past.

Now, they were a tourist destination, with some of the smaller islands acting as privately owned plots of land. Such as the isle that Valerie and crew had now bought. It even had a disused gaming complex from the previous owners that bought it for the same reason she did.

It was centralised, with no favouritism to any country, it obeyed their own laws which allowed them certain leeway. Most importantly, it was private and spacious, roughly around 3.5 Hectares in size (6.5 Football fields, as Vestra would tell them.) which gave them more than enough of an area to practice any dangerous spells. Especially if they aimed at the ocean.

However, Trivian was already bouncing in his chair with delight at the sight of all of that space, so Valerie had a feeling she was going to become very acquainted with that ocean view before long.

The Brick descended from the skies, landing next to the 1000 square metre, two story ’house’ that resembled a warehouse more than anything, as the party finally disembarked their mighty stead.

The first thing that they were met with was the colossal sign hanging above the door. The name of their new guild, installed by the company as part of the price.

’Fate Breakers’ was written in bold, shimmering black lettering that had been broken up and placed in such a way that it looked like the entire word was shattering outwards.

"Fate Breakers?" Trivian asked with a tilt of the head

"Yeah, I just thought that... Well, I didn’t have time to think about it all that much. But I just thought, since we are all here, defying and breaking fate, and that we are banding together to stop an even bigger fate than what Revenant had seen for us... It made sense." Valerie explained with an embarrassed blush, casting a strange glance towards Jason.

She hadn’t forgotten what Revenant had mentioned about his time in the future, and what fate had befallen her brother. That was one fate she was definitely going to break.

Jason caught her strange look for a moment, before giving her a consoling and reassuring smile as he patted her on the shoulder.

"i like it. Very fitting. We are going to break all of our fates, and write some new ones for ourselves. I for one plan to write one that is pretty saucy, so I don’t have time to waste on dying." He said with a laugh, before getting punched in the arm by Lucy from behind, who was blushing deeply at his ’saucy’ comments.

As the two of them stepped aside to have a little conversation about what to share with others, which was quickly turning heated in multiple ways, Trivian glanced at Valerie with a strange look in his eyes.

"You’re different from what I imagined, you know."

"Hmm?" Valerie hummed, regaining her posture as she turned to him, "Well yeah, I use a cane. I thought we already got over that."

"No, Not that. I mean... You’re like a totally different person like this. The person I’m used to would be the one doing the punching. Usually around now you’re shouting and kicking ass, rather than being vulnerable.

Somehow like this you just don’t seem like the type of girl who would strip down and jump into lava, that’s all." He said with a straight shrug, before his eyes widened in horror.

"Not that I want you to strip down or anything! I just... I mean..." He quickly rambled, losing himself in the swamp of his own messy words, before he was dragged out by Valerie’s laughter.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. But isn’t everyone different than how they are online? It’s easy to do all that stuff when you know it’s not real. Even when it is real, like Dawd, there are still less stakes. If I died in the lava I would have respawned.

Sure I would have lost... a lot of levels, and been a burden on the group, and I would hate myself for that. But at the end of the day, I would still be alive. But here, You can’t say the same. If you die in real life, you just die in real life. No inceptioning needed.

In there I can be confident and full of life. In there I am Belladonna, the Baroness of Blood. All powerful and free of any burdens. Here... I am just Val. Burdened by disease and with the possibility of death around every corner."

Trivian tilted his head, frowning slightly as he considered it. It was true that he used gaming as an escape, as did many. But his escape had just been from his terrible luck with plants, which had no other possible way of fixing it.

He played druids so he could be surrounded by plants. That was as far as he had ever taken it.

He had never really thought about others using it to do more than that. How many people were out there playing games just to feel... normal?

"You want to know the funny thing?" Valerie said with a smile, pulling him out of his thoughts,

"I’ve been doing all of this for so long, I’m not even sure who the real me is anymore. This one, or that one." She chuckled half heartedly, before sighing deeply.

"Anyways, get yourself settled in Figg. I’m sure you could do something to the dirt to make it actually support plants. Maybe they would like to be free from their pots, as a reward for surviving for so long.

I’m sure everyone would love this place looking green." She said with a smile, before leaving Trivian to his own devices as she wandered off towards the facility to go pick herself out a bedroom. She just hoped that she didn’t accidentally find the room that the engaged couple had chosen to break in, after they mysteriously disappeared mid-argument.