by Ed White
“Speak freely Mr. Grey, Miss Cline duly signed her NDA. I want to know where the two of you disappeared during yesterday’s instance in the Wilds.”
“The quarantine?” he said.
David did hold some insight after all, he knew the function of the domes—spheres in truth, above and below ground.
Lisa sat up, her chest and stomach exposed, with one hip partially revealed from under David’s awkward privacy blanket. The young woman placed her hand on David’s shoulder.
Julia waved away the insightful question from David. “Perhaps it was another error of the system, but I lost track of both of you during the length of the instance.”
David cocked his head. “The entire time? What about Jonesy and the others?”
“No.” Julia conceded the point. “You did reappear before the instance ended.”
Lisa glanced at David. “We returned to the group after a side quest, and the Way of the Walk still wasn’t working. Then the Chol attacked and we fought them and attempted to rescue Jonesy, Paul, Granger, and Kona, so that was before the end of the instance until it ended and we returned here.”
Julia frowned. “How did you begin the side quest?”
David nodded. “We traveled through a stone circle power thingy.”
“An eschen,” Lisa and Julia said in unison.
David raised his palm. “So how did that work if Fast Travel was unavailable? I don’t get it.”
“That is precisely the purpose of our investigations. Perhaps the transportation error meant your destination, your coordinates, got misplaced by the system or our means to track you. What did you do on this side quest?”
David threw his hand around. “Will you believe what we tell you?”
“I’ve given you no reason to think otherwise Mr. Grey.”
Lisa turned to Julia. “We completed the quest. That’s what you do on a quest.”
“No Miss Cline, if there’s no one watching, then you should not play, you must fulfill your obligations.”
Lisa laughed. “We weren’t with our group, but who else might be watching? We don’t know. And besides, you can’t leave that atmosphoid unless you complete the quest. We wouldn’t have found any hackers if we’d stayed there looking. It’s a prison that captures players. Seems a stupid thing really, what you’re asking.”
Julia stared at David as he hastened into his pants. “Have you learned anything further since then?”
“A few things. First of all, if you can track us, couldn’t you prove a negative?”
“What?” Julia frowned.
David fumbled with his belt. “If events occur around players and they react to something you don’t see, then you know something must be there. Or is it just…do the hackers mask themselves? Wait, I think that’s what I mean.”
“Mr. Grey, this is about your findings. Have you made any? Because lives are very much at risk. Did you see anything unusual either on the sky island or during the encounter with the Chol?”
Julia huffed, the lives of everyone around them and across the Wilds stood to die in-game during the purge and the intruders with them. The possibility of capturing the Bounty of a Billion Souls added to her frustration with David. Was he intentionally playing dumb? He seemed quite ignorant—a proper fool.
Standing by the bed, David tucked in a clean white shirt. “There are reports of a player who advises or helps players like an imp. That’s the most promising lead. Are you guys aware of him? He wears green and people know him as Barnaby and Barnabas or ‘the First Player’.”
Surprised, Julia suppressed her reaction. She found it becoming an unfortunate habit. Barnaby’s description and actions proved familiar to her, but this was no intruder. Perhaps an agent for the intruders, to provide entry to the Lenscape? To outright deny the possibility was foolish. She made a mental note to research this in person.
“That is useful. Do you know where this individual is located?” She knew the answer before David spoke.
David and Lisa shared a glance. “No.”
Of course he didn’t. Would David or Miss Cline be of any use before the purge? Distracted by Miss Cline? Perhaps not.
David slipped into his shirt. “We reached out to the settlement builders. They’ve noticed several changes, but all players are threatening to drop the game and end their subscriptions. I think the bad PR train is ready to leave the station.”
David swung his hand in a sweeping motion.
“If that proves true Mr. Grey, the Conglomerate is under no obligation to employ any of you.” Julia crossed her arms, pressing up the breasts of her milky-skinned avatar.
David jabbed his finger at Julia. “Yeah, about that. What about treating my illness? If Fast Travel remains unavailable, how the hell am I going to get anywhere in the Wilds before my time limit ends? I’ve got less than a week. Walking or riding around this place takes days!”
“We will have a report on your health soon enough, but suffice to say that your deadline is malleable, given the ever-changing nature of the intrusions.”
A sharp change in the droning tone of the crowd preceded an eruption of chaos outside, as voices rose with the roar of battle. Julia, Lisa, and David moved as one toward the window with perplexed expressions and curiosity as the frame and a large section of the masonry exploded inward knocking them off their feet.
Julia recovered first, shoving debris aside. Each covered in white dust and splinters, they gawked at the black armored warrior sprawled against the wall and floor nearest the door—a Scythe Warrior…
Chapter Twenty-four
Ears ringing, I drag myself to my feet, casting around in the domestic twilight trying to find Lisa.
Greywaters HP: 20/22
Julia stands near the door to the room, still open from when she barged in. Beside her, in the dim light, the outline of a figure in black leygun armor breaks the pattern on the pale wall beside the door.
Sharra HP: 7/20
Lia HP: 9/10
On her feet, naked but for her cotton shirt, her baton equipped, Lisa aims the weapon at the fallen warrior. Julia backs away even as I equip my baton. From my HUD, I guess this isn’t a Scythe Warrior, given the gamer tag above him or her. This is a player, in leygun armor, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a hacker. I glance at Julia.
“You still in there, Miss Beechum?”
She shoots me an angry grimace. “Why wouldn’t I be, Mr. Grey?”
“I don’t see your status tag,” I say.
Lisa edges to the figure. “This Sharra person’s health isn’t low enough to cause unconsciousness.”
“Likely a stun, Miss Cline. Be cautious.” Julia crosses the room to the enormous hole in the wall.
Lisa grunts. “How? I thought weapons are inactive within Haven.”
I wave my baton at her. “Well, it works here.”
Lisa laughs. “We can equip, but I don’t know beyond that.”
I blanch. “Were you going to club the leygun warrior over the head?”
Exasperated, Julia huffs. “This isn’t the Haven, think of tenement settlements, slums built up around a major city, like Rio and its falevas.”
I laugh. “These are megalithic slums?”
Julia ignores me. “By the rules of play, any aggressive violence within Haven gets you suspended from the Lenscape. Rules dictate the Haven is just that, a refuge, neutral ground for all levels. Weapons are deactivated within the Haven. Most weapons simply return to the player’s armory, your inventory in the Haven. Yet as I stated, we are not within the boundaries of the Haven.”
“Do you think this is another game instance and we’re caught in it?” I say.
Lisa nods, not turning away from leygun Sharra. “Maybe the hackers are making their move?”
Julia answers both of our questions with a vehement negative. “No. The irony is, these fools have started a bar brawl. I fear tensions and hot heads have taken things too far.”
Outside, the crowds fight as a chaotic mass, settle
ment builders and adventurers, against a number of leygun armored new arrivals. A full-scale riot is underway.
I turn to the ladies as they watch the madness. “I think I know who they are, the leygun players.”
A thick crimson fog falls across the contentious crowd, obscuring our view. Julia pushes us back from the hole in the wall. A booming voice thunders down. Hovering over the mist as it penetrates the bodies of the embattled players, the red Battle Avatar—scary man Stalem—points with his double-bladed weapon. “Cease and desist.”
Short and sweet, scary and creepy, as ever.
I turn to Julia. “Why don’t you tell him…?”
Her hand shoots up. “No.”
Stalem descends and the mob looks up in mixed awe and anger, their bodies locked in place by his mists. A large armored leygun player yells out. Stalem snaps the point of his weapon to the player’s helmet.
A silence falls over the crowd. The three of us watch with them, even Julia, enraptured by it all. Stalem is the guy I jumped bodies with, the Battle Avatar I controlled to stop the Scythe Warriors.
“Stand down.” Stalem pokes the head of the leygun player, now free to raise his hands in surrender. A collective sigh crosses through the crowd. The riot is over.
“You think he’s still pissed at me, the Battle Avatar?” I say.
Both Julia and Lisa return incredulous stares.
***
Jonesy yells at the leygun players from atop the wall at the edge of the cliff over the Wilds. Granger and Paul stand with him.
Guess I’m correct. These leygun players are Jonesy’s old group, those we suspected as hackers, and in their aggravated and frustrated mood, the crowd believed those rumors and attacked—all thanks to gossip spread by Jonesy and Paul.
Jonesy calls out the big leygun-armored player standing at the business end of Stalem’s double bladed weapon. The player is level ten and must’ve returned from the Realms to confront us.
“That level ten is allowed to be here? What happens once you’re in the Realms, do you still spawn in the Citadel or Haven?”
Julia shakes her head. “They reenter in whatever Realm their avatar has allegiance with.” She turns and crosses her arms, her chin raised. “So, are these the players you believe manipulate the Lenscape to their own ends? Are these your intruder candidates?”
She couldn’t be more condescending.
Stalem now stands, his ruby crystal armor reflects the dance of lamp light, his face hidden beneath the ornate helmet. But I recall the face and its eerie familiarity.
My gut tightens and the heat of the night overcomes me.
My breath comes harsh to my throat, but not from a panic, I’m running through the jungle. Dim shapes loom, I avoid them as I barrel on.
Lisa claps me on the cheek, shakes me by the shoulders. Concern in her pixie face greets me as I return to the room, followed by the clinical, chilling curiosity of Julia’s expression. She stands behind Lisa, who helps me to stand.
“What was that, Mr. Grey?” Julia asks.
Confused and annoyed, I jerk a finger to her face. “My incentive.”
Lisa pulls my arm down, but Julia laughs. “Incentive? We have nothing to do with your behavior, but I do notice Mr. Bledstoe is present.”
“He’s got nothing to do with this.” Or does he? How does he tie to the jungles and United Nations offices of my nightmares? He looks nothing like the red-headed giant intent on crushing my throat. Red hair and red armor and a name like Bledstoe does not make a conclusive or logical link. Still, I see her point: when I faint, I find myself in another place. Is that so different than during the game instance with the Scythe Warriors, when I took control of Stalem’s body?
Stalem Bledstoe. Damn, what a creepy name. It suits him.
What am I experiencing? Do I tell Julia about my nightmares or ask if dreaming is possible while logged in? Even if the Conglomerate are listening in, I only admitted to the visions with Lisa, in detail, on the sky island when Julia said they lost track of us. Lisa and I spoke tonight, but I was vague. Is it worth sharing? Maybe I have a worsening neurological disorder or I’m losing my grip on reality. What is reality? This place is as real as any, except for the need to take a whiz or drop a load.
But if the Conglomerate isn’t blocking or is unable to block my illness, maybe they are incapable of providing an eventual cure.
Julia sighs. “I’ve just asked my staff to check on your medical status. Your body shows no signs of distress, but remember, Mr. Grey, anxiety is both a chemical and psychological disorder.”
Is she insinuating my illness is all in my head? I listen, but I’m still unsure how much to say. Do I mention the Grey Zone? The lives of the players matter more than my health. But what’s best for them is to end any hope I have for an easy cure, if any cure.
“You have to shut down the system. End Lenscape.”
Julia breaks the awkward silence with a high-pitched guffaw. “Mr. Grey, that is precisely what we are trying to prevent.”
“I’m sorry, but I thought it was to protect the players. You want me in here running after some fucking ghost, while people’s lives are at stake. Hanging that shit over my head. All you corporate and government types are a bunch of cold sociopaths.”
Lisa snaps her fingers. “Damn.”
The silence stretches out between Julia and I until movement catches our attention. We’ve woken our guest.
Lisa whips around with her baton aimed at the stirring leygun-armored Sharra.
We all tense as Sharra stands. The chest armor is similar on all leygun, but the hips are a dead giveaway. She raises her hand to Lisa and removes her helmet.
“Sorry about the mess.” She glances between the three of us, lingering on Lisa’s nakedness before settling on me. “I’ve seen a picture of you on Jonesy’s social media.”
My rage toward Julia seethes, but I choke it down to address Sharra’s surprising statement. “Yeah, we grew up together. Am I right thinking you’re his first Lenscape gamer group?”
Sharra nods. “We returned from the Realms after the message boards started casting shade on us, accusing us of hacking.”
We all move to the hole in the wall where Sharra crashed through into the room. Outside, Stalem watches Jonesy and the leygun leader blow out their chests, pun intended, with the leader’s helmet removed. The leader is a lady. A damned fine, Amazon warrior lady.
Typical. Jonesy’s former gamer group is some sort of harem.
Lisa looks up at Sharra. “Hi, my name’s Lia.”
“Sharra.” She gestures above her head. “Like my name tag.”
Lisa shakes Sharra’s hand. “Is your whole guild female?”
“Mostly, and we deal with enough gamer shit, but we don’t need people spreading lies. There are many people and groups who use leygun armor.”
I glance at Julia, but she gives me a bland expression. “Really?”
Lisa shrugs. “Leygun are much the same as magical talismans or sigils, able to store or channel mana and life force. An extension of your baton. Just another fiction help focus your cultivation of mana and ley energy.”
Sharra grunts. “You want to play, you don a leygun and get to it. Don’t worry about batons and all that cultivation crap. It takes too long. Wear your weapon, socket and combine your leygun.” She steps up to the hole.
“Wait. What happened between you guys and Jonesy?”
“You’re David Grey, right? Davy Jones and all that?”
Confused, I sputter: “Yes?”
She steps out of the room and hovers above the crowd. “Then you know better than most. You probably pull that shit too.”
The hell, pull what shit? Out the hole she goes.
Julia laughs. “It’s best I log out.”
I grip her arm. “How about you stay around and help?”
Julia slaps my hand away. “Oh? And how will it look for an NPC to join your group of level ones? Who has followers at level one?”
I r
oll my eyes. “Obviously, you’d switch to a level one player. How much more legit can it get?”
Lisa giggles. “Too legit to quit.”
“Those people down there are pissed off, scared and according to you, in danger. We aren’t talking about quests, I’m talking about finding the hackers. Help me help them.” I point below.
Sharra descends to the ground, landing beside her collected group, surrounded by angry players, all observed by Stalem.
Her hands raised, Julia sighs. “No. Players are converging on the Haven. This is your opportunity to broaden your net and gather more information, as you did tonight.”
I make to interrupt, Julia extends her hand toward me, pumping my brakes. “Mr. Grey, as Miss Cline said, the two of you completed the Path of the Fallen quest. You secured the sedes?”
I’m confused and frustrated. “Yeah, but…”
The hand pumps. “Get it socketed. We’ve faith in you, Mr. Grey, and should you remain in the Lenscape, you will need the power the reward unlocks.”
“People’s lives are at risk, what the…”
Julia steps to me. “I will return with a full analysis of your illness. Until then, play the game, David.”
David? The intensity in the eyes of her avatar stops me cold. I want to protest—things are going to shit. Fast Travel isn’t safe, random encounters with mobs are more frequent, less “random encounter” and more of a statistical certainty if you walk the extent of the Wilds and Fell Lands rather than “teleport” by Fast Travel.
With the recent loss of faith in Fast Travel, settlement builders, crafting players, and adventuring companies are meeting and working together to adapt to the unforeseen changes in Lenscape. As they gather across the Haven, angry, hesitant, the earliest arrivals who respawned and remain here demand answers.
Will I be around to see where it all leads?
My frustration is about ready to erupt. I’m tempted to tell them all to run, to get out of the game. Danger Will Robinson, danger!
