Page 23 of Our Final Game

“Morning,” Tyson croaks. I bite my lip at the sound, his voice is even deeper when he’s still half asleep.

“Morning,” I mumble and turn over before slipping out of the bed. I pad over to the window and look down into the town square. The townspeople are already awake and setting up their stalls. It’s even busier during the day.

“We got a quest in the middle of the night. Can you see it?” Tyson says, making me turn to him. A quest?

I check my log, and he’s right. This wasn’t here last night, though, and I don’t remember accepting a quest before falling asleep on the game before getting trapped here.

“Where did it come from?”

“Who knows? At this point, none of this makes sense,” Tyson says, stretching his arms above his head.

“Yeah, I swore we’d wake up in our rooms,” I whisper.

“Me too,” he says.

And that might be the first time we’ve ever agreed on anything.

“Apparently, there’s a NPC in town that we have to find, and he’ll tell us more about the quest. Only thing is, I’ve never even seen or heard of this character before.”

“I mean, anything is possible, right? We’re trapped in a game,” I murmur.

“Yeah. Let’s head out then and see what he says,” Tyson replies, getting up from the bed and throwing his cloak back over his shoulders.

“You think this quest is the way out?” I chew on my bottom lip and look over at him.

“I hope so,” he sighs.

Chapter 10

Tyson

Rohan waits outside while I tell the innkeeper we might be staying a few extra nights, unfortunately. She nods and takes the gold before I head out to join him. The wooden door creaks on its hinges as I step into the morning sun.

I scan the street looking for my little headache. He couldn’t have gotten far, seeing as our HP bar is doing fine. I walk closer into the bustling square and see him handing something to a kid, his mother nearby. He nods and smiles warmly at them. A smile I’ve never seen before. It looks nice on him.

Rohan finally sets off, turning around. When our eyes meet, he scowls a bit. Back to his usual self, I suppose.

Hopefully, we can get along well enough to get out of here.

“You ready?” I ask as he approaches me.

“I guess.” He mutters, walking ahead of me.

We both should be able to see exactly where the NPC is via our map. It says he’s not far. We walk in silence through the stone-lined streets. Rohan’s brows shoot up here and there. I notice how his eyes light up when he sees something interesting to him. I wish we had time to stop so he could look, but the sooner we find out what’s going on, the better.

Rohan and I turn a corner into a small courtyard, lined with trees. Birds are chirping as they fly above our heads. And crouched down is the NPC we’re looking for, he’s planting some kind of shrub into the ground next to one of the trees. He stands to his full height when we get a little closer. Close enough to see his name, Leon. He’s fairly tall. I try to get a look at his face, but it’s covered by a hooded cloak. He seems a little older than us from what I can tell, early 30s maybe. Something about his stature feels familiar, though.

But I can’t place it.

“Hey there! Need something?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

“We’re here to accept a quest?” Rohan says, shifting on his feet.

“Ah! Well, aren’t you boys brave? I’m looking for this rare plant seed. They’re dropped by the bees down in the blossom fields. If you boys wouldn’t mind going out there and retrieving them for me, that would be great.”

“Seeds?” I say, squinting my eyes.

“Yup.”