Hollow Twilight - A LitRPG Novel

Chapter 30

The unchanging nature of Hollow Twilight was becoming a meditation for Reid. Each time he logged in the city was unaffected. It always looked like something had torn through it, both a consequence of permanent neglect and nobody living here, but also shaped by some larger forces. Buildings that degraded didn't just fall onto their sides. Some of them did if things eroded in exactly the right way but the myriad skyscrapers leaning into their neighbours were just too plentiful to be statistical anomalies.

Reid blew air down over his fingers, feeling it rush over his skin and slightly tingle. One of his nails had gotten caught on something and the skin around the edges had torn. It was annoying, catching on his sleeves and jabbing into other fingers. He had tried to bite off the remaining skin that was hanging on but his teeth couldn't get a good angle. So he would live with it until he remembered to grab some scissors at home and end it.

But he hadn't remembered. He had gone straight online. Well, contacted Tim first to see if he would come along but basically gone straight online. And now he was living with that decision.

He checked his phone again for any updates on Tim's location. Logging in was so strange in a positional sense. He was fairly certain if he went in while near someone else they would also appear in the same spot as him. And if someone lived nearby he would encounter them soon. So he had to assume that the game moved him to some corresponding location whenever he entered. It meant he wasn't going to run into someone from China or something.

It just also meant sometimes he would sit and wait while people came to find him.

The sun flickered along the horizon but refused to set. Reid watched it from his perch atop a small apartment complex. Six stories up he had a good view over the smaller single houses around him, though some bits of the sun were obstructed by further towers in the distance.

He observed the Hollows going by, purposeless in their shuffling. They were comical at this point compared to the power of even a weak Pariah and Reid could kill them at an easy distance without trying. It was all meaningless though. There were no experience points earned through combat so it was better to just leave them alone.

The design of the game was a bit baffling. It was disappointing that there wasn't any enemy variance, just Hollows and Pariahs. So far each Pariah seemed like a unique individual and came with a fascinating, humanoid design. Since Reid was still convinced someone had made this place or done something to set it up in this game-like manner, he was also curious why they hadn't created more monsters. Wasted all their energy on bosses so they just left the rest as Hollows?

"Great view of the city man." Tim plopped down beside Reid, startling him a bit. Tim had gotten significantly better with his scythe over time and was basically swinging between buildings at this point so it would've been easy for him to climb up to this spot.

"It's weird how it never changes though," Reid replied, picking at the skin on his finger. He didn't want to look at his other hand with its ugly bruise up the side. He had hit the wall of his locker harder than he realized.

"If this is some sort of videogame they don't change much dude. They're kind of well known for that."

"I know it's just..." Reid shook his head. "You're right, I'm overthinking it."

Tim patted Reid on the back. "You saw someone die. That causes a lot of thinking."

"I'm surprised you're not as rattled by all this," Reid answered.

Tim shrugged and gazed out over the rooftops. "People die. It fucking sucks but they die. I've seen it before, I mean shit, my best friend died when I was seventeen so it happens."