Mr Love: Dream Date Chap 22 The Other Side of Wind

After a 2.5 months journey and daily questing, I finally reached level 70 today which is the current max level. It feels kind of surreal. I don’t think I have ever reached max level in any game I have played so I have to give credit to Mr Love for sustaining my interest this long.

However something happened in the global server today. Due to a political statement made by the newly hired English voice actor for Victor, he was fired from the cast causing a huge uproar amongst the community. The most ironic thing here is there people play games to escape from reality, yet reality and its strife has found its way into the game. The key argument is that the game developer had succumbed to pressure from the ruling government and is inadvertently clamping down on freedom of speech while supporters said that it was probably better to fire one person who had said something inane than to shut down the whole server and cause possibly hundreds of people their employment. It is a delicate issue but what disheartened me most was how this political issue had created divisiveness amongst players due in part to lack of empathy for either side which I feel stemmed from different cultural upbringing. I feel people removed from the actual political situation shouldn’t comment about things they don’t understand. It is so easy to fight for freedom of speech but another to experience the repercussions of thoughtless comments. I shall just attribute this to the loss of hearing Victor call us dummy that had made players react so defensively.

A day after the announcement were made, fans and perhaps even non fans continued to flood the FB and Discord server over the dismissal of the new VA. To make matters worse, both the VAs for Gavin and Kiro (no, not you too Sean) said they would not be renewing their contract with PaperGames until they reinstate their colleague. The whole community was in uproar. Now players are concerned over whether the global server will actually be shut down. The VA who started this whole mess even came out to apologise for his rather brash tweet. Yes at least he realised how powerful social media can be. I can’t help but feel skeptical that some of these players fanning the fire have a political agenda themselves! This morning, the supporters of the game have came out strongly to say they will continue to play this game no matter what because it has become so integral to their lives. Thankfully Lucien’s VA has chosen to remain silent throughout this episode. This is what wisdom of years teach you. To add a little slice of humor to this otherwise ridiculous event is that Lucien had predicted a storm was coming in the latest PV of the new chapters. As always, Lucien knows everything.

Chapter 22 begins the new expansion called Infinite Winter and is currently where the SEA server is stuck at. I really don’t relish having to wait till Oct or Nov for the new chapters. I wonder if I will be able to stay faithful to the game without the main storyline. Much as I like the characters, it was the story that captivated my attention. Anyway the beginning of this chapter seemed a bit disconnected to the ending of chapter 21. You were determined to reverse the events of a world where humans persecute Evolvers and blame them for a series of terrorist attacks. However now you are thrown into the thick of investigating the cause of this Eternal Winter that threatens to turn Loveland City into a icy wasteland. Was there some kind of bridging that I missed out? Spoilers ahead.

You start the day disguised as a STF employee Mary Sue so as to break into their archives. Shaw had helped to create some credentials for you so that you were able to clear the security checks almost without hitch. After settling down at your workstation, you were surprised that Shaw himself had snuck up onto you. You called out his name in shock but he hurriedly shush you. He was afterall top of STF’s wanted list and was sure to get executed if found out. He told you to meet him at the archives room at 7pm that evening as you returned to doing whatever day job your were supposed to do.

That evening you made your way to the archives and was impressed that the credentials Shaw forged for you was given the highest authorisation access to the files. Without waiting for him to turn up, you started to search through the files on anything related to the big snow event – whether it was the work of an Evolver or simply a meteorological anomaly. However it seemed that STF’s investigation had hit a roadblock without further clues to go on after confirming that it wasn’t a natural disaster. Suddenly the doors behind you opened as you hurriedly closed your search session and deleted your browsing history. The new entrant was Eli. Though you recognised him, he obviously had no recollection of you in this alternate universe.

Eli eyed you suspiciously and questioned what you were doing here. Lost for a valid explanation, you decided to name drop Gavin thinking that they were squadmates and good friends. You told him that you attended school with Gavin but lost touch hence you wanted to tap into STF database to locate Gavin and find out how he is doing. I don’t know about you but that is a really dumb reason. Even if Eli believed you, it is probably against company policy to access confidential files for personal agenda. Anyway Eli’s negative reaction towards Gavin surprised you and you realised too late that in this alternate world, Gavin was at NW and never had become buddies with Eli. Eli decided that you were a hostile target and ordered a lockdown while he attempted to arrest you. You quickly escaped his grasp and ran for the exit.

Just as he was about to grab you, the door slid open and Shaw nimbly pulled you towards him, avoiding capture. He swiftly shot out a kick at Eli who was ready to gun you down. When Eli realised that it was Shaw he was facing, his face contorted into an expression of hate and malice. Shaw managed to block his attacks while giving you an opening to flee. You hesitated and he told you that he already got the information he wanted as he flipped a microchip in his hand. After he knocked Eli away, he pulled your hand and made a dash for a secret escape route. Did I tell you that I like Shaw’s voice and after Googling who his voice actor is, I am charmed by the boyish good looks of the 25 year old American born Asian. I might just like Shaw for his voice.

The alarm started to blare along the corridors and you heard the sounds of boots stomping after you on all sides. Panicking from fear if you get caught, you were flustered to see Shaw looking all cool and calm as he surveyed his surroundings. Then he pulled you into a wall causing you to scream in anticipation of impact. You found yourself in a dimly lit empty corridor. Apparently the wall was a hologram wall meant to hide this passage. Shaw took off down the passage swaggering as he hummed a tune confidently. This was juxtaposed against your fear of being hemmed in on both sides should the agents find their way to this place.

Your fears came to pass as you soon found yourself surrounded on both ends by STF agents who had located your position. Shaw didn’t look perturbed at all and goaded the agents to attack. Just as they triggered the stun guns in their hands, Shaw acted instantly by channeling the current created back towards your pursuers. The sound of electricity crackled as all the agents crashed to the floor agonising in pain over the sudden shock that came from their ear pieces. You were too stunned to move as you observed Shaw’s power for the first time. After a brief look of annoyance, Shaw offered to carry you as he made his way out of STF headquarters.

After making your way to safety, Shaw set you down and passed you the chip he had stolen from STF, not before teasing you a little and getting you riled up for the adventure he had put you through this evening. He told you that the archives’ information were only for appearances and the information in the chip would contain the real stuff you were looking for. With that he reclaimed his skateboard he had stashed nearby and started to leave. He asked if you wanted a ride back and you hurriedly rejected the offer. The skies started to rain out of the blue. Seeing that you were getting drenched, Shaw offered you his jacket as some form of shelter as his receded into the distance. What originally appeared to be a nice gesture, turned out to be a fluke when you realised that his jacket was hardly water proofed.

You made your way to the bus shelter thinking about how Shaw had suddenly appeared in your life and his actions were always so erratic – one moment here and another moment gone. I guess his personality matches his powers probably. Shaw strikes me as someone who seems indifferent about everything and does whatever he likes whenever he likes it without a regard for rules or decorum. I can’t figure him out yet and probably because I can’t quite ‘stereotype’ him. Gavin is your classic knight in shining armor, Kiro (not Helios) is your radiant sunshine boy who seeks to please everyone, Victor is your house husband tsundere and Lucien has the signs of an emotional masochist (something I learnt recently and wonder if I have such tendencies myself and thus the gravitation towards Lucien). Perhaps I can’t figure out how a happy go lucky guy would ever be tied up in a relationship.

Your thoughts were broken by the repeated error message coming from a vending machine. You turned to look at it. A gentleman wearing a completely white tuxedo was trying to buy a drink from the machine and seemed to be experiencing some technical difficulties. As you approached him, you realised that he was a world renowned pianist by the name of Cyril. Strange that you didn’t recognise him back in your dream world.

Thinking it was odd that Cyril didn’t know how to operate the vending machine, you nonetheless decided to help guide him along step by step. When you realised that he didn’t even have a payment app installed on his phone, you offered to pay the drink for him instead. As he handed the drink to you, you were shocked that he had no tinge of warmth in his hands so you got him another warm drink in addition to the iced tea he had bought. To thank you for your kindness and generosity, Cyril gave you VIP tickets to his sold-out concert aboard the HMS Victoria. You rejected the gift as it was too expensive but he insisted and also asked you to bring a friend along. As your bus had arrived, you reluctantly pocketed the tickets and thanked him as you boarded the bus.

Scanning through the files in the microchip, you noted that it did contain more information compared to the archives but what was most revealing was that STF was actually stealing most of their intel from NW. As you read on, you found out that Gavin was leading the investigations into the incident since two months ago and wondered if you would be able to approach him to learn more. However based on what Eli said back at STF, you weren’t sure if Gavin was really the same person anymore. This prompted you to do a quick search on Miracle Finder and you found to your horror that all those episodes which you had filmed with either Gavin or Lucien never existed. Indeed all those times when you paths crossed had been erased from this world. You renewed the impetus to solve the mystery so that your life can be restored.

The latest notes showed Evol anomalies spiking in several locations in and around the city but otherwise had come to a standstill. You found that Gavin was currently leading an investigation in the North Mountains so decided to head there the next day to continue your search. At that moment, Shaw called you. You thanked him for the intel and informed him of your next course of action. He wasn’t too pleased that you chose to follow after Gavin. He warned you that the closer you get to the source of truth, the more danger you would put yourself into. While it could only be a scratch for Gavin, it would be perilous for you. However you refuse to back down and with that Shaw hung up on you. You could hear the crack of thunder outside. Almost as if he was throwing a tantrum at your stubbornness.

It seemed like the only way up the mountains was via a cable car that looked worn out from weather and use. You weren’t sure about its safety but the lone caretaker, a wiry old man told you the path up the mountains had been impassable for a long time now. Without any other way forward, you agreed to risk it and take the cable car and pay the exorbitant price. Halfway up the cable, you heard a loud explosion causing your cabin to sway violently. As you propped yourself up to look ahead, you saw the electricity towers were collapsing one after another like dominoes. Soon the tower closest to you threatened to collapse as well.

You hit the emergency alarm frantically but there was no voice on the other end. Looking out the window, you realised you might still have a sliver of chance of survival if you leapt out of the car onto the patch of clearing before you. Not thinking twice about how dangerous this was, you smashed the window, held your breath and jumped out into the blistering cold. You felt the cold air swirl around you as you descended and then the warm arms of a person. Arg!!! There we go again, Gavin had heard the emergency alarm and had rushed over to investigate thus saving you in the nick of time.

He was annoyed to see you again, seemingly having no sense of the danger that you put yourself in. Suddenly the cable car you were just in moments ago exploded into tiny bits, sending an involuntary shiver down your spine. As you continued to tremble in fear, Gavin softened his disposition and shielded you away from the heat of explosion. After you have calmed down somewhat, Gavin brought you to a camp where skiers and other hikers had been brought into for interrogation. As Gavin was busy dishing out orders, you walked about on your own taking in your surroundings.

The wiry old man who had sold you the tickets came out of a tent having given his testimony. When he saw you, a creepy half smile appeared on his face. He pulled a nearby NW officer and pointed towards you after saying something to him. The officer then stalked towards you and held out a scanner in his hands. It started to be beep violently. Without further explanation, the officer roughly twisted your arm behind you. You screamed out in pain and demanded that he tell you what was happening. He said that the explosions were the works of an Evolver and since they have determined that you are an Evolver, you would be placed on immediate arrest as a potential suspect. You couldn’t believe that such apparent discrimination could take place. You shouted that he had no right to treat you like this but was quickly silenced when you felt the cold hard barrel of a pistol at your back. The officer growled softly that he will not hesitate to kill you if you resisted.

Gavin approached the both of you and told the officer that he would take over your interrogation. The officer hesitated to let you go but since Gavin was the commanding officer, he reluctantly handed you over to Gavin. Gavin brought you to an empty tent. With a serious expression, he cleared you of suspicion and told you to get out of the place now as he won’t save you the next time you get caught again. Not willing to let go of your only lead, you decided to tell a little lie. You told Gavin that you were actually with the STF and came here to tell him that STF had been stealing NW’s intel. You also said that you could help him with the investigation with the intel that STF has since all his clues had ran dry based on the latest reports. Gavin narrowed his eyes at you but seemed to buy into your story.

He brought you to the peak of the mountain and explained what they had been working on. He then turned to you and asked if you knew what STF did to traitors. Without batting an eye you told him you don’t care. He asked you why you were so insistent about putting yourself in danger and you replied that you desperately needed to bring someone back. Gavin obviously had no idea you meant him but he offered to help you locate the person when everything was over. Both of you got to the source of the explosion before the rest of the squad. As you surveyed the area, you could see the neighbouring city filled with the verdant colors of spring in contrast to Loveland City which seemed encased in an icy tomb.

You remembered the reports had said that the signal plates had been illegally moved inwards to face the city. The Evolver who was responsible for this Eternal Winter had supposedly used the signal transmissions to amplify his Evol to cover the whole city. However what was puzzling was that the coordinates of where the transmissions were coming from were slightly different from the locations of the signal towers. You pondered on these irregularities and the possibilities as a light bulb came on in your head. Before you could share your conjectures with Gavin, an invisible swirl of wind had materialised out of nowhere and shifted the gigantic metallic structure that was once the signal tower. You were amazed at how casually Gavin could move these objects and that his power had indeed grown since you last recalled.

Beneath the signal tower, you spotted an inconspicuous trapdoor leading underground. You instantly realised that the signal towers were meant as red herrings all along and the real source of transmission were probably coming from underground. Gavin looked at you indifferently and told you he didn’t need help from civilians for his investigation. After easily clearing the debris from the entrance and radioing the coordinates to his colleagues, Gavin stepped into the darkness. You quickly ran after him not wanting to be left alone in the cold nor to give up on finding the source of all this trouble.

As you walked silently through the passageway, you observed that the area was decked with all kinds of computer equipment and screens. On all the screens, red numbers were counting down towards something. Nervously, you asked Gavin if it could be counting down towards a bomb. Gavin wasn’t sure but he added that it could also be counting down towards the launch of something. He eyed you solemnly then cautioned you of the possible dangers ahead which he may not protect you from. If you wanted to leave, you should. You shook your head defiantly. Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Gavin passed you one of his pistols and told you to use it to protect yourself as he guided you on how to use it.

Finally at the end of the passageway, you came onto a iron door. Whoever your enemy was could be awaiting both of you behind these doors. Gavin told you that your first and only mission is to watch out for yourself and to leave him to do the rest. You nodded while gripping the cold metal in your hand tightly as Gavin burst the door open with his wind power. The room was filled with all kinds of electronic equipment but there was no one within. Gavin walked confidently into the room, stepping over the wires and then cleared out an area. Placing his ear towards the ground, he reported there were sounds coming from further underground. Scanning around, he pushed a button which revealed an elevator heading further down. Though he had asked you to stay back originally, you insisted on following after him.

The elevator descended several levels down. When you stepped out, you were greeted by a scene of many flashing screens displaying the files deleting message. Whoever was the mastermind behind this occurrence was trying to get rid of evidence of their nefarious scheme. While both of you hurriedly scanned through the remaining files, you learnt that turning Loveland City into a city of eternal winter was only an experiment. The perpetrator intended to launch a satellite into space to emit his power throughout the whole world. The only key to stopping this was the Black Swan Queen hence it was imperative that she is found. You had no idea how you would be able to stop this madness from happening. However figuring that you could trust Gavin, you turned to tell him the truth.

However before you could speak, Gavin pushed you aside as a mechanical arm rushed towards you. As both of you swung to meet your adversary, a voice resounded through the AV system that you would not live to tell another soul about what you have witnessed here. What ensued was an all out battle between Gavin and his cyclonic powers against an army of mechanical arms that kept springing out of the floor. You did your best to put your gun to use by shooting at the arms though it did little damage except to distract it temporarily. Standing back to back to Gavin, he told you calmly to observe the regularity of the movements of the arms and train your gun on its most vulnerable point. Following his instructions, you managed to cause one such arm to stop moving. Despite the dangers around you, you were slightly heartened to be able to support Gavin even this just little bit as he trusted you to watch his back.

The battle wore on mercilessly. For every arm that Gavin was able to tear apart, another one appeared to replace it. Soon Gavin was running out of stamina as he strained to destroy the arms while erecting a protective force field of wind current around you, and you were running out of bullets. The situation looked hopeless as you could see that the wind currents Gavin was summoning was getting weaker and weaker yet the arms just kept coming. Suddenly a group of arms focused their attack on Gavin, while he was able to shield a few, he was caught by another and flung violently across the room as he slammed into the wall. You rushed to his side, his clothes and body bleeding profusely from the lacerations all over. Your unseen enemy laughed maniacally. This time his voice seemed to be coming from within the room itself.

A hole materialised on the floor as another mechanical arm appeared from beneath, this time with a man sitting on it. You immediately recognised him as the cable car ticket seller. He was part of this whole operation right from the beginning. He admired your persistence but it was getting tiresome and it was time to end everything. You stretched out your arms to protect Gavin to no avail as another arm picked you up effortlessly and threw you into a pile of of broken mechanical arms. Though it broke your fall, you cried out in pain nonetheless. Gavin was slipping into unconsciousness and if you didn’t do anything to stop the onslaught, he would die. You tried to distract the old man by asking him about his objective, hoping to stall for time and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

The old man figured you were just trying to stall for time and told you it was pointless. As long as he killed both of you before reinforcements arrived, he would be able to fabricate a story that you died while trying to save him, just like any other heroic stories where superhumans died to save weak defenseless ordinary folks like him. You told him that if he hated Evolvers so much, why would he help an Evolver to destroy the world. He replied it would still be a sight to behold the pinnacle of human evolution. Not wanting to waste anymore time entertaining you, he trained the mechanical arms onto Gavin’s lifeless body, threatening to disembowel him.

At that moment of sheer desperation, combined with all your feelings of hope, love, loss and the gratitude of being protected all the time, an overwhelming surge of power welled within your body and burst out. Everything went white for a moment. When colour returned again, you saw that you had somehow destroyed the mechanical arms around you which also resulted in the old man being flung off his seat. Instead of widening his eyes in fear, it widened with a deranged look of glee as he realised that the Black Swan Queen they had been looking for was here all along.

Suddenly, the old man’s eyes widened even more unnaturally as spurts of blood came out of his mouth. In the next moment, his lifeless body was flung aside like a rag doll onto the broken wreckage of the mechanical arms. It didn’t feel like you had unleashed any powers and reinforcements had not arrived. Turning back to look at Gavin, you saw that he had returned to consciousness, though the look in his eyes told you that something was wrong. A strong black swirl of wind started to lash violently around him destroying the remnants of the enemy bot. However, it seemed like Gavin’s power had gotten out of control such that he continued to wildly lash out at the mechanical arms even though they were no longer a threat. And every time he unleashed an attack, the backlash hit him twice as hard, tearing into his clothes and skin.

You called out to him to stop, hoping that your words would reach into his inner self and prevent his powers from eating him alive. Gavin flashed you a momentary look of recognition as the swirl of wind started to calm down slightly. However reinforcements arrived at this point which caused Gavin to renew his vigour as he mistook his them for the enemy. You watched on helplessly as Gavin’s tortured body strained under his powers. Finally Gavin seemed to reach the end of his stamina and collapsed to the ground. Upon assessing the situation, the leader of the reinforcement squad reported that Gavin had gone out of control and requested permission to suppress him and bring him back to HQ. With permission give, the NW officers rushed in and pushed Gavin to the ground to restrain him. You were appalled at how they treated Gavin considering his wounds.

One of the officers held you back roughly pointing a pistol at you. He eyed you suspiciously and demanded your identity. You figured it would be useful to reveal yourself as the Queen. Just as you opened your mouth, Gavin quickly grabbed your wrist to shut you up. He requested to speak to you in person first before he agreed to go back to HQ. Gavin brought you close to his face, forehead to forehead. He told you in a soft voice not to reveal your identity to NW. He also advised you to let go of your Queen status and live your life normally. He didn’t think that the fate of the world should be rested upon your shoulders only. He implored that you trust him to help you find that friend once he had recovered. With those last words, he nodded towards his comrades who injected a serum into him and took him away.

As you stared at his receding figure, a sense of courage and hope arose in your heart. The Gavin you knew had always been in there. No matter what kind of monster people branded him as, he had never lost his unwavering belief in justice and righteousness.

The two key characters in this chapter are Shaw and Gavin, perhaps to show the contrast between someone who plays by the rules and one who doesn’t. If I have to choose between the two, I would go for Shaw, simply because I like his voice. Shaw warned you not to get in over your head in business that you don’t have the power to protect yourself from, while Gavin told you not to shoulder the world’s burden regardless of your identity. I felt that Shaw was being practical in his advice. He knew you would be in trouble and true enough, Gavin had to come rescue you each time, sometimes to his own detriment. For example, if he didn’t need to protect you while fighting the mechanical arms, he would have probably been more efficient in destroying the mechanical arms. On the contrary, Gavin was the idealist. Maybe he doesn’t really understand the role of the Black Swan Queen thus his advice for you to live a normal life and forget it all. Maybe it would work for awhile but sooner or later, your destiny would knock at your door again. I’m not entirely sure Gavin understands the weight of your burden and whether he has the strength to support you. With Gavin, it always feels like he is going to die because of you.