Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3)

by John Gold

  Project Chrysalis

  Book Three

  Sleeping Player

  John Gold

  Translated by Jared Firth

  Copyright © 2017 Litworld Ltd. (http://litworld.com)

  All rights reserved.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase another copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Contents:

  Contents:

  Part One

  Algeron

  Part Two

  The Riddle

  Book Recommendations:

  Part One

  Algeron

  Alice Walton watched the sea through the window. She was waiting for Robson, her brother, who was supposed to introduce her to the hospital staff.

  A week before, she’d picked up her certification as a clinical psychologist. The girl’s whole family worked in that area, and so finding an internship hadn’t been hard. There was a special clinic in Project Chrysalis for the mentally ill in the archipelago called Clover. Alice’s family had worked there for eight years, ever since the game was released. Miss Walton had arrived that morning, and she was waiting for her brother to show up and bring her up to speed.

  Rob walked up quietly and sat down in the chair next to her. He looked to be around thirty, with the same typical beer belly he had in real life. The short beard and barely visible scar on his eyebrow completed the picture: real-life Robson and Project Chrysalis Robson looked exactly the same.

  “Hey, Alice. Okay, let me be up front with you: I’m happy you’re following in our footsteps, but the work is anything but a piece of cake.”

  “Rob, don’t even try—I know where I am. My dissertation was on Clover, so I know a lot about our patients.”

  “Exactly—you know a lot about them. But you have no idea what kind of people live here. We have maniacs, nutcases, criminals, the insane, and run-of-the-mill problematics who were purposely sent here. This is the archipelago’s administrative side, so you can’t see how terrifying they are from here. When I arrived, I couldn’t sleep for the first few months. I just about went crazy!”

  “Rob, I’m not some little girl you can protect or scare. When I was sixteen, I already had my specialization diploma. Don’t underestimate me.”

  Robson shook his head at how presumptuous his sister could be sometimes. When she was in this mood, Alice never listened to anyone. The view she was taking was just too superficial.

  The archipelago that Clover was on had been man-made in the Sea of Monsters. The benefit to this was that the patients were free to move around on their islands. In total, there were six. Five were shaped like petals around a circular island at the center, and the circular island was where the clinic’s administration was located. Around forty similar medical institutions for the mentally insane had been built in the Project Chrysalis world. There were also analogous organizations for rehab and serving prison sentences in the colonies.

  The clinic’s islands were delineated by patient aggression. Each was given a negator bracelet that blocked the use of spells and combat equipment. When fights broke out, the bracelets were used to calm things down by sending out an electric shock. Pain sensations were boosted to fifty percent.

  Rob took his sister to the acceptance room, which housed the portal that represented the only connection to the outside world. Swimming was impossible, and the sky was full of monsters.

  A new batch of “guests” had arrived that day, and they were going to be Alice’s problem.

  The head of the family, Sam Walton, was Clover’s head doctor, and he was already in the acceptance room when Alice and her brother walked in. Belish, a large Siamese cat, was sitting on his lap and enjoying some attention.

  The new patients started filing out of the portal. All of them were in nothing more than their underwear, their personal effects confiscated during the trip to the clinic. The women held embarrassed arms over their chest, even if it and their other more interesting parts were covered by clothing that was at least symbolic. The men were calmer, just a few showing nerves at their perceived defenselessness.

  The medical staff placed negator bracelets on their arms and got them dressed in the clinic uniform. The father began his speech.

  “Good afternoon. Starting today, you will be undergoing treatment in our clinic. You will have two lessons a week with a psychologist,” he continued, pointing at Alice, “who will be your supervisor for as long as you’re here with us. The bracelets on your arms block spells and combat equipment, and will also shock you if you get into a fight. In addition, they boost your sensitivity to fifty percent, so think twice before you decide to throw down with someone.”

  One woman took issue with this.

  “What if I’m provoked or someone tries to come on to me?” she shrieked hysterically.

  “The shock punishment lasts several minutes for entrapment or goading other patients into a fight. Exactly how strong it is and how long it lasts is determined by the ArtIn in your bracelets.”

  That got the men going.

  “So, I guess we’re going to be here for a while,” shouted one. The father nodded. “Where are we going to live?”

  “Each of you will have your own personal house on one of the islands. Your respawn point will be there, and that’s where you’ll have your conversations with your psychologist, too. Oh, and let me tell you right up front: your things were confiscated and will be returned when you leave the clinic. Your inventory bag was replaced by the starter version, and your chat and friend lists have been blocked. Only live conversation is permitted here.”

  The hysterical woman chimed back in.

  “Hey, are we supposed to walk around naked?”

  “You’re going to be given a special change of clothes. As soon as you put it on, it will become indestructible. Also, while you’re wearing it, your call sign and hidden level will be displayed instead of your username. We do that to maintain your safety in case you make enemies here. You’ll also have a good mask you can wear if you want to keep secret the fact that you’re at a psychiatric clinic. Look around! In this room, nobody can see your username.”

  The patients started moving around, looking to check out their new clothes. In the meantime, the cat jumped off the father’s lap and marched imposingly across the entire room. It drew the attention of most of the patients, although there were a few of them who didn’t react to anything. Orderlies handed them clothes and ushered them into the next room.

  One of the patients fixed his eyes on the cat, who Robson was petting. Belish purred, offering his back and head to be petted. The patient completely ignored the orderlies in favor of the scene. Finally, one of the orderlies grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him over to the rest. The portal was activated and started sending the patients to their houses.

  Everything went smoothly. Alice got the impression that she’d been handed a calm group, so she decided to visit her new wards right off the bat. That took up the rest of her time that day. A few of them were open to conversation with her; others were in no hurry to chat. With two left on her list, Alice found herself in the room belonging to that last, strange patient.

  He looked to be about twenty. When she showed up, ported directly to the table they were supposed to talk at, she noticed him sitting on the porch, where he was licking his own hand. It was easy to spot him—all the houses were identica
l. But what caught her attention was that he was wearing a striped cat outfit. Red and white stripes lined his pants and the remains of his shirt. There were feline ears on his hood. While the sleeves of his shirt had been torn off, he had cat gloves complete with claws on his hands. Toe holes had been cut out of his white slippers. Needless to say, there were claws fixed to his toes.

  It had taken him just six hours to put together his costume, all made out of special clinic clothing. A thought flashed through Alice’s mind: the kid was pretty elaborate for a game avatar. That sometimes happened when players used a single account over a long period of time—the avatar adapted to the player’s growth and complexion. Really, the difference was in the details, just like right then.

  The patient paid no attention to her address and invitation to come sit down. The porch was considered part of the house, so the system didn’t see any point moving him over from where he was. The kid continued licking his hand until he laid down and went to sleep.

  Ultimately, she was forced to leave empty-handed.

  Her father and brother just laughed.

  “He’s smart, I’ll give you that. As soon as a patient puts their clothes on, they become personal and indestructible. He was good enough to do all that first and then put them on.”

  The following three days proved that the boy considered himself a cat, just as independent as any other. The surveillance system showed that he hid from everyone else and spent most of his time sleeping in the game. He never logged out of Project Chrysalis.

  On the third day, Alice asked her father for the kid’s file.

  Bak Kvan was a patient at a hospital in one of the Venusian colonies. Brain trauma had resulted in psychological problems, a cerebral lesion impacting reticular formation. In real life, he simply couldn’t sleep. The med capsule at the psychiatric colony kept him permanently in the game, stimulating his muscles with an occasional electric charge to keep them from atrophying. His file said that he was part of a patient test group for new blood circulation stimulants. They were what had caused the stroke and brain trauma. At Clover, he took the name LJ and refused to answer to anything else.

  Even his behavior turned cat-like. His manner of sleeping, eating, hunting, grooming himself, playing with his prey, sleeping most of the time—he thought he was a cat.

  It had been almost a month since Bak showed up at the clinic. One of his neighbors on the island decided to play a prank on him, leaping out of the bushes with a shout of “boo!” when Bak was coming back from a fishing trip holding his prey in his teeth.

  With one fast, powerful, precise strike, LJ ripped out his neighbor’s Adam’s apple. There was no weapon involved; all he had was the claws on his gloves. Alice was summoned immediately to his house. Then, the kid was ported there, as well. He showed up, fumbling with the bracelet on his arm as it intensified the shock. That was something the negators did when the patients had strong resistance to electricity. Right then, in fact, it was pulsing so strongly that even being close to LJ was dangerous. Ultimately, the charge killed him, and he respawned five minutes later in the same room.

  That day, Bak was transferred to Fitz, the fifth island where all the most dangerous “guests” went. It wasn’t just anyone, not even someone with finely honed skills, who could tear out an opponent’s Adam’s apple with just one strike. For some reason, there was nothing about combat skills in his file.

  Everyone working at the clinic started calling LJ an idiot. Alice’s father told her why.

  “Bak Kvan is a Korean name, and the name ‘Bak’ sounds like ‘baka. In Japanese, ‘baka’ means ‘idiot.’ That’s basically the only invective they use, and he certainly fits the bill.”

  LJ didn’t react in the least to the move. He continued acting like a cat, continued heading down to the sea to catch fish. Instead of sleeping at home, he found trees with hefty branches in thick crowns. Eating fruit and drinking milk were also favorite activities, with the milk picked up as loot from the local bison. The strangest aspect of his behavior was that he jumped into the water to catch fish with his bare hands. Cats don’t like water, though he didn’t react in the least when confronted with this fact.

  What happened next was practically nonsensical. When Alice showed up for a regular conversation, LJ was sleeping on the porch. Next to him, however, was a girl his own age sitting cross-legged and stroking his head. Bak had let her get close without killing her. Also, the girl was dressed in patient clothing.

  “Be quiet, miss. He’s sleeping.”

  “Good afternoon.” Alice looked at the girl who had dared approach Bak. “Who are you?”

  “Milisandra. You must be new—I haven’t seen you before.” It was only then that the girl turned around, and Alice noticed her bloody clothing and overall paleness. Red hair hung down to the middle of her back.

  “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Doctor Alice, his doctor,” Alice replied, pointing at Bak. “How did you get close to LJ? He usually attacks everybody.”

  “I used a fish. What, did you not know how much cats like fish?”

  She was behaving oddly. On the other hand, it certainly made sense that one tortured mind would understand another. Milisandra looked around twenty, though she talked like she was twelve. But the question remained: why did Bak let her into his space?

  “Why are you all bloody? Did he attack you?”

  “No, of course not! He’s a good cat! He licked all of my wounds.” LJ picked up his head and nudged her to keep stroking him. “We were on the beach when some angry men attacked me. They’re always hunting me! But my monsters save me—this time, it was LJ. I don’t like it when people touch me.”

  Alice had no idea what was going on, so she went to see her father. As the director of the clinic, he was supposed to know about patient rights.

  Sam Walton spent most of his time at work talking with the patients. He was in the middle of a break right then, however, so Alice was able to talk with him as he ate.

  “Papa, what’s going on with Milisandra? Why is she getting felt up, and we’re ignoring it?”

  “Bon appetit to you, too, sweetie.” He pushed his plate of meatballs away. “What’s wrong?”

  “Well…well…they’re touching her! Father, psychologically, she’s still a child!”

  “That monster is certainly no child.” Her father was always rough when it came to his wards. “Five years ago, she passed the trial for the League of Hunters and joined them. She was just fourteen! A year later, she was the world’s most famous PKer thanks to her heinous experiments and…fighting style. She’s a chimerologist, and she uses her monsters in battle.”

  “What monsters? She’s a child!”

  “Her own! She keeps them in her body.” Her father shivered and threw down an uneaten piece of bread. “Ah, I can’t stand even remembering it. When a fight starts, all kinds of nastiness crawls out of her body, each worse than the one before. It isn’t a battle ability or a spell—they’re her chimeric pets. Her skin turns pale, her hair turns red, bloody lacerations open on her body. Sometimes, her hair gets shorter, depending on the pet.”

  Alice wasn’t about to let him get off the hook that easily.

  “Father, it maybe be revolting, but she’s still a child inside. What would you do if some grown men started groping me?”

  “I’d kill them! But not in her case. She’s been a full-fledged player for two years now—she’s a life mage. In real life, she has all kinds of family problems, and that’s where her psychological issues come in.”

  “What kind of problems?”

  “Domestic violence, alcoholic parents, sixth level of citizenship, life in the station cesspool. When she was twelve, one of her parents’ drinking buddies raped her, figuring he could have some fun while they were out cold. She closed down and stopped talking after that. Her parents sent her to a psychiatrist, and he was the one she told about what happened. As a result, her parents were stripped of their rights. She was sent to a sixth-tier orphanage. Constan
t trips to the psychologist, particular cruelty in the game, delayed social development. Her doctor thinks she uses her monsters to protect her from aggression in the outside world. For her, it’s a way of expressing herself and living life on her terms. How do you think I know all that?”

  “How?”

  Alice had a pretty good idea. Her father was the director of the clinic, after all.

  “In the past two and a half years, she’s been sent here five times. Five damn times! Other players constantly complain about her cruelty. They crack jokes about her, but she interprets that as a threat and starts torturing them. She told me she’s trying to teach them a lesson. ‘People are cruel, and they don’t understand the pain other people are going through until they feel it themselves.’”

  “Awfully wise words for a girl like that. With me, she talked like a child.”

  “That’s her protective behavior model. She doesn’t talk normally with anyone besides me, and she’s just been better with me over the last six months.”

  “She may have someone else to talk to now. She tamed LJ—used a fish to make nice to him, and now she’s petting him like a real cat.”

  Sam closed his eyes and frowned. Two patients who were less than pleasant had found each other on the worst island.

  “Interesting. I wonder how that will impact them. A chimerologist with delayed development and a guy who thinks he’s a cat.”

  ***

  Her and her cat

  LJ thought of himself as a very independent cat. He didn’t care about the rest of the world—all he wanted to do was live quietly and peacefully. He could sniff out whenever his neighbors were coming near him, so that enabled him to make sure he avoided their company. If there was one thing he knew, it was that humans were cruel, humans were evil, and humans were to be avoided.

  He also knew that he’d been born just recently, and that you get knowledge by thinking about things. The first thought he remembered having was: “Being a cat is a good deal. Everybody loves and pets you.” LJ realized that practically the second he found himself in this world. He was given a new skin, and something inside told him he had to change it in order to make himself into a real cat. He drew on whiskers, made himself ears, and put together some cat paws. The problem was the tail. LJ knew how to make it, the problem being that the things on his paws itched when he tried.