It felt strange being back. He’d only been gone two days.
He’d spent long hours crafting in this house, but all he remembered now was his time with Holly.
A soft flash of light briefly illuminated the quiet street. Jack straightened his hat and smoothed his clothes as she appeared a few meters away.
He approached. “Holly! Hi!”
“Hello, Jack. How are you?”
“I’m good! You?”
“Happy,” she said with a smile. “Today was my last exam before winter break.”
“Congrats. Does that mean you’ll be playing more now?”
She giggled, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “A little more. But I still have to finish writing reports. I can only stay in the game for a couple of hours.”
“In that case, shall we?” Jack gestured toward the direction of their new base of operations, still a fair distance away, and she fell into step beside him.
“So... what’s up with your robots?” she asked.
“I’ve been leveling up Tinkering, and I did unlock something new at Journeyman level 4, but I don’t think it’ll be very useful.”
“No kidding? What is it?”
He opened his menu and sent her the recipe.
Recipe Unlocked: [Clay Arm Cannon]
Ingredients:
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Clay
-
Wick
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Gunpowder
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Cannon ball
Instructions:
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Shape a large, cylindrical vase.
-
Mount it securely on your [Pot Bot].
Requirements:
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[Pot Bot] recipe
-
Tinkering, Journeyman Lv. 4
She scanned the recipe, grinning. “This is awesome!”
“I don’t know… it needs to be manually reloaded. Just imagine having to pour in gunpowder, then stuff in a cannonball every time you want to fire. Not exactly practical. Besides, I could just make a bigger cannon and set it up anywhere—not stick it on a pot bot.”
“Still. A cannon!”
Jack shrugged. “I’d better not do it. Besides, Marie would take offense. She’d say something like, ‘How dare you blow up stuff without my permission?’”
Holly laughed. “Your impression of her is spot on.”
They reached an intersection. Left would take them straight to the base, but that would mean company. Right meant time. Time alone, with her.
“This way,” he said, turning right. He hesitated, then asked, “Listen, yesterday you mentioned Cheap Mart…”
“What about it?”
“I take it you watched the video.”
“Of you ‘quitting your job like a boss?’” She shifted her voice, doing her best Jack impression.
“First of all, that impression of me is terrible. Secondly... how on earth did you find my channel?”
“I looked up your name online. It popped up.”
He tried to sound casual, but curiosity crept into his voice. “Why would you look me up?”
“I got bored during a lecture. Looked you up. That’s all.”
“Huh...” Jack said, not quite sure what to make of it. Had she been checking if he was who he said he was? Looking for Amari’s videos? Or had she just wanted to know more about him?
She winced. “It was... definitely something.”
Jack winced. “I was... yeah.”
“I saw you posted them, what—two months ago? Was that when you quit?”
He nodded.
She looked over at him, surprised. “Huh. I thought it had been longer.”
Holly’s expression turned pensive. Jack imagined what might be going through her mind: Is this guy just another jerk? What a letdown. I thought he was different.
Part of him wanted to explain. To talk about how life had worn him down. How he’d drifted, bitter and aimless, until he found something that mattered. But even in his head, it all sounded like excuses.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
There was nothing he could say to erase those clips. He let the moment slip by and steered the conversation somewhere safer.
“Listen... I need your advice on something.”
“Shoot.”
He explained the whole situation with his dad—the unexpected message, the awkward offer to join the game, and how he still didn’t know what to do.
Holly stopped, thoughtful. “That’s... actually kind of sweet.”
“Maybe. But what if he slows me down? I mean, I’m trying to come up with the money for his treatment, and I don’t have the time to carry him.”
Holly creased her forehead.
“What?”
She turned to him, her voice serious. “Jack, what if he’d thought the same of you when you were making those videos and rage-quitting jobs? Would he have let you accompany him on his work like that day in my dorm?”
Jack clenched his jaw, eyes on the ground.
“You obviously love him—you wouldn’t be doing all this if you didn’t. He loves you, too. Why don’t you just enjoy your time together?”
“You’re right...”
They walked on quietly for a moment.
“So,” Jack said after a while, “tell me more about yourself.”
She blinked, caught off guard. “Why?”
“The other day, you said I didn’t really know you. I’d like to change that.”
“Seriously?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay… What do you want to know?”
Everything, he thought. “Where are you from?”
“Columbus, Ohio.”
“Oh? Isn’t that mostly a college town?”
“It is… Go Bobcats!” she cheered jokingly.
“Then why Boston? Why not study closer to home?”
She hesitated. “Honestly? I didn’t want to see people I knew.”
“What, like old classmates?”
She gave a small nod. “Yeah.”
He paused, then gently pressed. “How come?”
She glanced over, then said, “Listen, the other day, when I told you that you didn’t really know me… it came off the wrong way. You don’t have to—”
“No,” Jack interrupted, shaking his head. “It’s not like that, Holly. I want to know.”
She held his gaze for a moment, then looked ahead. “I had to take a gap year after high school. I had a burnout in my senior year.”
“That sounds rough.”
“Took me months to get back on my feet, but I’m better now. And when I was ready to apply for college, most of my old classmates were already a year ahead.”
“And you didn’t want to see them move ahead while you lagged.”
“Exactly. So I came to Boston for a fresh start. Knew no one, and no one knew about my burnout.”
“Kind of sounds like you don’t want people to know about it. Why be embarrassed that you pushed yourself too hard?”
“It’s not that I’m ashamed. I just didn’t want that to be what defined me. I wanted to be Holly. Not ‘poor Holly who had a burnout.’”
“I never would’ve guessed.”
“For real?”
“Yeah. You’re so full of life. I mean, from what I’ve seen, you don’t stop.”
She gave a short laugh. “I know. I’m... not great at slowing down.”
“Are you pacing yourself this time?”
“I am.”
“You sure? Every time we talk, you’re juggling five things.”
She nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m staying on top of things so that it doesn’t happen again.”
“Just make sure you get real rest from time to time,” he said. “Not just VR naps.”
“I do every weekend,” she said. Then, with a grin: “Look at you, worried about me.”
Jack’s ears burned. He felt too embarrassed to reply.
Holly shot the question back at him. “What about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“When we met on the train, you told me you’d been dumped and had an argument with your parents before you started playing New Earth.”
“That’s right.”
“You didn’t say why you argued with them. Or why you and your girlfriend broke up. What happened?”
Jack cleared his throat. That was... direct. She’d probably wondered about it back then, but had been too polite to ask. Now she clearly felt comfortable enough.
“It all happened on the same day the Cheap Mart video came out. My ex said I wasn’t taking our relationship seriously enough, and that I couldn’t hold down a job.” He hesitated, then pushed through. “She said I wasn’t planning for our future. So... she dumped me.”
“Oof.”
“When I got home, my dad told me he’d seen the video. Said I had to start paying rent.”
“That’s kind of normal, right? For grown-up kids to chip in?”
“I know. I only started recently, though.”
She bit her lip.
“Go ahead. You can ask.”
“Why were you like that?” she asked gently. “Where did that attitude come from?”
“That’s a good question.”
He tried to gather his thoughts. He’d never had to explain it. Never had to say it out loud.
“When I was in middle school,” he began slowly, “one of my classmates—his parents hired my dad to fell a tree in their backyard. I didn’t even know about it until the kid came to school the next day, bragging about it. Said stuff like, ‘Your dad works for my dad.’ Then the name-calling started. Lumberjackass. Pauper Jack, Jack, the Poortuguese.”
Holly’s eyes narrowed. “Jerks.”
Jack gave a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah. Kids are brutal.”
He looked ahead, hands in his pockets. “I guess that’s when I started being embarrassed by my father’s job. Not because I didn’t respect it... but because I didn’t want to get laughed at again. Fast forward a few years, and when it came time to pick a major, I chose something completely different. I applied to business school.”
“Business?” Holly frowned. “You?”
“I know,” he said. “I hated every minute of it. But around that time, I got into music. A few friends heard me and pushed me to try gigs. People liked it.”
He paused, a far-off look in his eyes.
“So I went to my parents. Told them I wanted to drop out and focus on music. My dad didn’t yell, but I could see the disappointment on his face.”
He looked down at the road as they walked.
“I threw myself into it. Spent months putting together a demo—writing, composing, mixing everything myself. I was proud of it. I thought it was good. Thought... this might actually go somewhere.”
He let out a breath.
“I reached out to every studio I could find. Finally got one meeting. Just one. I brought my best ten tracks. And the guy listens to maybe ten seconds before turning it off. Said it wasn’t what they were looking for and sent me away.”
His voice went quiet.
“I gave it everything. And it still wasn’t enough.”
He walked a few steps in silence, then added, more slowly, like he was just realizing it himself:
“I think... I think that’s when something shifted. Like—if even my best isn’t good enough, why bother? What’s the point in trying?”
Another pause.
“So… I guess it was a mix of all that. Wrong choices, disappointments, and being ashamed of where I came from. I only realize that now. Couldn’t see it when I was in the middle of it.”
She didn’t say anything right away. Just looked at him for a moment. Then, softly, “Will you sing for me?”
Jack blinked. “What?”
“Just do it. One of your songs. Please.”
He looked left and right. The street was nearly empty. He’d been sticking to secondary roads out of habit. Being hunted by the Slayer taught him that.
He swallowed. Usually, he hated it when people said that. Play. Sing. It always shut something off in his brain, like someone yanking the plug. Every chord, every lyric he’d ever known just... vanished.
But now, seeing Holly looking at him, the song he wanted to sing came easy. And it just came out.
Verse 1
Roads were supposed to all lead to Rome
But somehow I still lost my way
The choice should have been mine to make my own home
Then why, now, can't I have a say?
Chorus
The stars are dark, the compass points south
Everyone is just running their mouth
The radio keeps playing the music wrong
But in my heart, there’s a beat, there’s a sound
Of vast skies and solid ground
Oh, please, just let me sing my own song.
His voice came out unsure, like stepping onto thin ice. But Holly’s eyes never left his, and as he sang, the tremble steadied. The words flowed freely. For once, the lyrics didn’t slip away.
He stopped after the first chorus because he saw something he hadn’t expected. Holly had shed a tear.
“Holly, you okay?”
She blinked, wiped it quickly, and gave a soft, shaky laugh. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting that. Jack! That was incredible.”
He scratched his head, not sure what to do with the compliment.
“You really wrote that?”
“Yeah.”
“That studio guy didn’t deserve to hear you. I think I just fell a little bit in love with your voice.”
Jack’s breath caught. Fireworks went off in his chest. Had she really said that? “Thanks.”
They kept talking, their steps in sync, until they reached their base.