Lores Submission for May 2022
Writing my own experiences in Next Island
Posting all 5 post/parts in one submissions
First Thing First
Part III
Sitting in my Strider at the start line, it seems like everything surrounding me went very quiet. The sound of my heart beats are getting louder and louder, palm start sweating, it reminds me of last time I was on this race track. The rule of this race is a simple. The racer needs to bring own vehicle, fuel it up and set it on the start line. Then just need to run the lap within the time counted by Greta. Like I said before, Greta is nice person. But, also a very precise and strict when it comes to the track run time. Even a second… No, even a millisecond will not pass by Greta, I need to be on time. As flashback of bitter memories cross by my mind, I shake my head off to get rid of them.
Greta: “Are you ok, Balam?”
Me: “Yes, Greta. Just thinking how to handle the course. I am ready now.”
Greta: “Ok, good luck and drive well!”
Me: “Thank you, wish me a luck. I need it.”
The 3 counts started by Greta, the grip gets firmer, again take deep breath.
Greta: “3…2…1…Go!”
Vooom, the Strider makes the fuel/electric combined sounds. Even we put common fuel in most of vehicle, it seems like each vehicle has it own mechanism to convert the fuel to it own source of energy. For the Strider, it does sounds like hybrid of both gas and electric, the hard part of this vehicle is that it goes much faster than it seems but it is very light weight. A high power vehicle with light weight, everyone know how that ends up.
Now crossing over the start line, a first segment of the circuit is always smooth. There is just small bumps and hills but nothing too difficult to handle. It is very much straight line, but I can’t let my concentration to be loose. As I check the response of my Strider, I need to prepare for a most difficult segment, the huge hill which only Strider can climb up.
Part IV
This hill is definitely the most problematic part of the course, well… at least for me. The bitter memory makes me feel the taste of the dirt I experienced in the past. It is tall, so tall that you can’t even see what is past it. The long climb requires the driver to muscle down the vehicle or you will eat the dirt back on the ground. If you are lucky, you may not eat the dirty and still manage to be on the vehicle, but staying on the course is quiet difficult for any driver.
Me: “Come on, you can do it… Woah!”
Even though the Strider did not slip away from my hands, but unfortunately it made wild 360 and slammed it’s body on the water body on other side of the hill.
Me: “Well, at least I am on other side.”
Yep, I better get moving. Floored the accelerator to the limit to earn some time. Rest of the course on both a water and a land, it is continuing winding road where you must make a sharp turn to cut to loss time. Left and right, I vividly cut the steering wheel with accelerator control to handle the speed. I was so focused that it felt like synchronization buff has been used. As I run through the last small hill, I hear Greta counting “10…9…8…”. This last stretch, I must hurry to make it to the goal on time. The rushed feeling had made me step on accelerator further down. [Splash] Next moment, my sight was spinning hard. Not only my sight, but the Strider slipped and spin on the paddle of a water on the end of the course. Placing the it’s direction to completely opposite side of the course. My heart was beating fast, so fast that I couldn’t think or hear anything. It was very close call, if I was not lucky, I could have fallen off from the edge down to the lake.
Part V
[Beep]
The sound of the timer has echoed in this sunny and dry environment. I know it is loud sounds from when I watched others, but it only sounded like background noise to me at the moment. I was so shocked, that I completely forgot the race time counter was still going. The timer has announced that my challenge was over. Again at the disappointment to myself and bit of shame to talk to Greta.
Greta: “Are you ok, Balam? Did you get hurt?”
Me: “Thank you for worrying Greta, I think I am ok.”
Greta: “Make sure you are not hurt, you can rest at the side space of the track.”
Me: “Thank you, again. I need that.”
I slowly dragged my Strider to the resting space, sat on the vehicle and realized my hands are shaking. I was not sure if it was due to a rush of adrenaline going through my body or just fear of thinking that I could have fallen off the cliff.
Me: “Haha, well I am still in one piece. There is always a next time.”
I must overcome this challenge, but for now, I did not have a guts to go again right after. Even I challenge again, I did not have a confidence that I can be at the finish line before the timer ends. I need to rest and regain my focus. It is great that Greta is letting me rest so I can be calm before getting out of my Strider. I took a deep breath, closed my eye to take a little rest.
After the small nap, I felt much better. It seemed like I was sleeping for hours, but looking at the clock on a Strider, only several minutes has passed. Looking at my hands, it is not shaking anymore.
Me: “Ah, ah.”
Ok, it seems like my voice is not shaking either. I think I am good to talk now.
Me: “Hey Greta, thank you for letting me rest. I will get going for now.”
Greta: “Ok, glad to hear you are not hurt and ok. Take care.”
Me: “You too, Greta. See you soon.”
Surprise the Disciple
Part I
After leaving the race track, I had to take a rest and change the scene. No, I did not give up on the challenge, but I just need time to reset my mind. In order to regain the confidence within myself, I decided to go find my disciple K. It is easy to find her with the newly born player, yellow jump suit, yet just walking over and meeting her does not sound interesting enough. She needs a surprise. I opened the guide book {NI Helper} to see what is available for a such a surprise. It did not take much time to find and decide what to do next. Yes, you may have guessed. Let’s Monkeying around. I run down to the beach side where I know there are tons of Yellow Papoos. Papoo is a monkey like creature who lived in the Next Island long people our migration. It sometime feels that we are invading their original land, and I am sure Papoo feels same way. As soon as we get close to them, they will attack us without any warning. I know some creatures attacks us because they think we are just their food, but Papoo, I feel their intention is more complex than that. It may not be moral to kill Papoos after invasion we had made already, but the colony issued the order to kill many Papoos as possible. A termination is part of a good citizen duty. I grabbed the gun from my pack, loading the ammunition to get ready and aimed at the Yellow Papoos. For this mission, I need to kill 250 points worth of Yellow Papoos, which Old and Provider give 1 points and Guardian gives 2 points. It is reasonable and quick mission all players should try as the reward is definitely amazing. [Pew Pew] I mindlessly shoot the laser rifle then loot from their dead body. It was just repeatable machine work from here which it did not require me to think.
Part II
I do like a hunting, but a hunting is completely different type of activity compared to a mining or a crafting. I consider hunting as a speed and a focus required job. I am not sure if others feels so, but a hunting requires the significant number of kills to be a good hunter, of course in a skills but as a return. Those creature holds the various loot, but finding the one is previous treasure is just a number game, need to kill large number to hit one. Well, I must say, I am not the professional. Maybe a veterans knows which one to kill even though when I look at those Papoos I can not tell the difference between one and others. [Ping] I hear the sound in my mission counter indicating I have collected enough points for the mission. Finishing off last few Papoos on my sight, I run down to collect the reward. I was not doing this mission only to terminate the Papoos, this mission was to surprise my disciple. Did you ask how I am going to surprise her? Good question. The reward in my hand is the answer and you will see how. I softly hold the medicine looking capsule in my hand, and start walking towards the new arrival paradise landing beach where my disciple K should be at.
After walking my way down the long stairs while looking over the beach to locate K, I start to hear the laser pistol noise I recognize. It must be my disciple, distinct high pitch laser noise her favorite gun. I have found her over the trees where she fights off Papoo punies, I have arrived at the perfect moment. Sneaking around and hiding behind one of the tree, I have thrown the capsule I just got from the mission in my mouth. I usually can not drink a medicine without a water, but it is difficult to find a good purified water in this world of Entropia. The only choice was to swallow it with the determination to surprise K. [Gulp]