Page 158 of Mud

“They only have wine—red and dry and not very tasty.” He laughed a bit, and it didn’t seem forced. “But wine’s wine.”

I smiled. “Wine’s wine.”

So, Ben Kovak led me into the nameless bar where the Iridians who were already there cheered at the sight of him.

“Everyone, say hi to Rora. Rora, this is everyone,” he said.

“Hi, Rora!” they all said in unison, and I had no clue ifI’d seen any of them before, but none were the Whitefires from the alley, and none looked at me like they wanted to murder me right now. I took it, even if this was not real at all. Not part of the game. And most definitely not going to last.

Before I knew it, I was sitting at the leftmost table with two other Iridians, one Blackfire, the other Greenfire, and Ben sat next to me when he brought me a cracked glass half filled with blood-red wine. Just the sight of it brought bile to my throat—I was so sick and tired of blood. It seemed to be everywhere I looked lately.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” I asked Ben when the Greenfire mage told me all about the lion-like creature he’d bonded with when he first came into the game—one of the very first. The Blackfire, who hadn’t been to the Tree of Abundance yet, was way more interested in asking him questions since he was still here in the first challenge of the Roe.

“Of course,” said Ben, turning toward me with his whole body, glass of wine in his hand, almost empty now.

“You saidloopback there.” I pointed my finger toward the door. “For the duration of this loop—that’s what you said.” I was sure I’d heard him right.

He nodded. “That is correct.”

“What does that mean exactly? What loop?”

Ben’s brows shot up. “Oh, you don’t know?”

There went my stomach, twisting and turning again. “Know what?”

“That Night City is a loop of tomorrows and the only way to move forward is with the key,” said Ben, and his smile faltered a little as he waited for my reaction.

Of course, I gave him none.

“A loop of tomorrows.” Vuvu’s voice was in my head—this is Night City. The time is nighttime—we have no other time.

“So, we’re…” The words escaped me like my own mind didn’t want to make sense of them.

Ben was more than happy to fill them in for me, though.

“We’re stuck in a never-ending night, possibly the same three hours, if my calculations are correct, and the only way to get out is with the key.”

Exactly what I feared. Which would explain why the players had become so ready so suddenly to kill anyone in their path. Not that they’d needed much incentive, but still. Aloop.

“And if wedon’tfind the key?” I dared to ask, though I suspected I already knew the answer.

Ben shrugged, drinking the last of his wine. “Then we remain here until they either kill us, or we die of hunger, or we off ourselves.”

Red stained his lips. I saw it because I read the words coming out of his mouth.

Stuck in Night City.“The game never ends.” If I didn’t find a body, this game would never end for me.

“Pretty much,” Ben said. “You haven’t touched your wine.”

“Please take it.” I pushed the glass toward him absentmindedly. “So, how much time passes in the real world then? How long have we really been here?”

“Three hours,” Ben said. “And I’m not sure how much time passed out there. I’m hoping not a lot.”

I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly so dry. “Do you…do you have a plan for the key then?”Or are you just going to try to kill the residents until one counts as a natural death?was what I didn’t say.

Ben met my eyes. “Keep searching,” he whispered. “The plan is to keep searching for a cemetery until I get lucky.”

Except I wasn’t entirely sure he meant those words.

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