Rise of the Crimson Order: A Crematoria Online LitRPG Novel

by Matthew J. Barbeler

  You have received 1 Primary Attribute Point to distribute.

  You have received 500 gold pieces.

  You have received a Celestial Offering.

  Your reputation with Langdon Specialist Investigations has improved.

  The level up, the exorbitant amount of money and the new primary attribute point I now had to spend all paled in comparison to the Celestial Offering and the treasure that Edwin E. Langdon placed on his desk. Edwin opened the box and inside was a gleaming flintlock pistol.

  "This is yours now," he said and handed the weapon to me. "A walnut stock, with the mechanism and barrel made of dawn iron. This flintlock was forged by my family to slay abominations. If this Crimson Order is coming, then this weapon will aid you in defending Crematoria from them."

  Holding the weapon felt like holding destiny in the palm of my hand. This was the weapon I had taken the case for. This flintlock felt like a worthy reward for the trials I had survived.

  When I focused on the weapon, an information panel appeared.

  Dawn's Vengeance

  Fatewoven

  40 Damage (+20% Damage to Unholy and Abominations)

  85% Accuracy

  +2 Perception

  +2 Dexterity

  +2 Resilience

  The night is darkest just before the dawn.

  I equipped Dawn's Vengeance and the antique leather holster on my hip was replaced with one of ornate white leather design. I twirled the pistol around on my index finger and slid it effortlessly into the holster.

  "This is an amazing weapon," I said.

  Edwin beamed at me from the other side of the desk. "It's all yours. Use it well in the service of Crematoria."

  "I will. I've got just the target in mind," I said.

  Edwin nodded with a sad expression. "Yes. It must be done."

  I opened my inventory and concentrated on the Celestial Offering.

  Celestial Offering

  Burn this effigy to the Celestials to log out of Crematoria Online. When the embers fall to ashes, this world will fade.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Embers and Ashes

  After leaving LSI the weight of the Celestial Offering tugged on my mind.

  I could get out of this damned game.

  Finally!

  But it wasn't for me. This Celestial Offering was for Ellie. I had promised it to her.

  I walked quickly away from LSI and waited until I was a few blocks away to turn down one of the dank alleyways. The rain was barely more than a drizzle, but I still wanted to keep dry.

  I ducked into an alcove that sheltered me from the rain. A boarded-up door blocked my entrance to the building itself, but that wasn't a problem. I only needed a small private place to think things through.

  I opened my inventory and navigated to the Celestial Offering which sat there like a leaden weight. All this time, this entire damned game, all we needed to get out was one stupid little item. I focused on the token and read over the item description again.

  Burn this effigy to the Celestials to log out of Crematoria Online. When the embers fall to ashes, this world will fade.

  The Celestial Offering looked exactly like the power symbol that you found on almost all electronics, but this one had been carved from wood. It was a single circular line broken at the zenith with an unconnected vertical dash. There was an arcane air to it - the central vertical dash floated between the other curve without touching either side.

  All I needed to do to get out of Crematoria Online was to burn this token, and I would be free.

  But I had promised it to Ellie. This was her token.

  I knew I had two new attribute points still waiting to be distributed, but I didn't give a shit.

  How could I care about leveling up when I could get out?

  This damned token.

  This whole damned game.

  I wanted to use that token to log out and never come back.

  This whole game was a nightmare that I could choose to wake up from.

  But it was hers. This token belonged to Ellie, not me.

  It was my quest, wasn't it? And it was in my inventory, not hers.

  Despite knowing that she had a family, I know that what I felt for her was real. She felt it too. I remembered the kiss, and I missed her with an intense ache.

  In another life, well, you never know. That's what she had said when I had asked her if there was a chance between us.

  The way she talked about her husband, he sounded like a piece of shit. You don't talk like that to someone you love.

  The anger brewed, but I had to stop myself from getting too mad at someone I'd never met. Someone I would probably never meet, even though we lived in the same city.

  I hated how he made Ellie feel, and I hated that he was married to the woman that I was beginning to...

  No.

  I had to put that idea out of my head.

  There was no future between us. Ellie had said as much. I refused to be one of those men who chased after a woman just because he wanted her, damn the consequences. Her family was more important than how I felt.

  I had spent most of my life are running away from making hard decisions. I would always choose the easy way out when presented with the option to do so. Even the app that made me my fortune was luck. I just happened to make it when the rest of humanity had fucked up the world enough that it was necessary.

  At that very moment, the easiest choice for me to make would be to stay in the game, but was it the right choice?

  No.

  I didn't think so.

  Cut off from all the other players, there was no way I could find people strong enough to help my rescue Ellie just by stumbling across them.

  The right choice would have me break my promise.

  Burning the Celestial Offering would let me use the knowledge gathered by everyone else who had managed to log out of the game so far. I could use that knowledge to formulate a plan that would let me save Ellie from the Sanguinari.

  The right choice would be to use the collective wisdom of everyone who had managed to get out of Crematoria Online so far, not stumble through the unknown.

  Inside the game, it was almost impossible to share information with those who needed it. Everything that Ellie and I had learned so far was simply as a result of our lived experiences. I highly doubted that we had even scratched the surface of the systems that make Crematoria Online run. Everyone else in the game would have been figuring it out as they were going along as well. If we were going to save this world, we needed to understand it.

  If I had been able to get out, then others would have been able to log out as well.

  There was no doubt in my mind that they would have shared what information they had learned on the internet, and maybe something I found there would be able to help me get Ellie out of this game.

  Maybe if I could reach out to other players in Eldin and Dregswyk, then maybe we might be able to prepare for the coming of the Crimson Queen.

  But that all paled in comparison to the most important thing. I needed to find Ellie, and I needed to get her out of this game.

  To do that, I needed to understand this game. I needed to find other players strong enough to stand against the Crimson Queen. Players who would be willing to put their lives on the line for another person they had never met.

  Or did I?

  I could just log out of this game and forget all about Eldin, Dregswyk and the Crimson Queen. I could forget all about Ellie. Was there anything wrong with just moving on and living my life? Ellie had been pretty clear about there not being a chance between us.

  But the kiss.

  No, there was a chance.

  That electricity I felt when we kissed was real.

  "You're not going to use that, are you?" a voice asked. It felt like it came from the air around me, but I recognized it.

  Empyria.

  "Holy shit!" I said.

  "Almost," she said. "What's that you have there?"
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br />   "A Celestial Offering. I have to use it. I can't stay here."

  "Why not?"

  "Because if I stay here, I'm-" I'm what? I'm going to die? I'm not going to be able to save Ellie? I'm... Damn it, Lucas! Figure your shit out!

  "Because you're scared?" Empyria asked. She coalesced out of the air in front of me.

  She didn't appear as luminous as she had in the character creation section, but her form was unmistakable. She wore a suit of armor, with a tabard over top. That tabard showed two interlinked circles. One white, and one black. The overlapping oval in the center was gray.

  "Yeah, I guess I am," I admitted.

  Empyria looked at me, concerned. "You never came to visit me."

  "I thought about it," I said. "Then I got the Celestial Offering. Wait, I thought you said you wouldn't remember me?"

  "No, I said that I might not remember you, but that wasn't the truth. I've been with you since you logged in. Did you ever think that maybe I would have given you one of those if you had asked for one?"

  "No," I admitted. "I thought you would want to keep me trapped here. In this world. I didn't know I could ask for things."

  Empyria sighed. "You can ask me things. I might not be able to give them to you, but I want you to talk to me. Do you know why I chose you as one of my heralds, Lucas?"

  "No," I admitted.

  "This world is about balance. Shadows cannot exist without light. It is because of good that evil exists, and vice versa. Selfishness and selflessness both cannot exist without the self and the other and their opposing wants and needs. Everything is a dichotomy, and only through opposing forces can this world continue spinning."

  "You chose me because I'm one half of something?"

  Empyria chuckled. "No. There are many in Crematoria who seek to put themselves forward ahead of others. I want you to be one of the few who resists. One who fights for the people of Crematoria. I want you to stand up against evil, not walk away from it. You are an opposing force for good."

  I looked down at the Celestial Offering in my hand. All I needed to do was activate it, then the worries of this world would no longer be mine. I could leave. And yet I found myself hesitating under Empyria's scrutiny.

  "I saw what happened, Lucas. I know that Ellie was taken by the Crimson Order, and I already know what Andestra has planned for Crematoria. Why do you think I sent you to Langdon Specialist Investigations and set you on a collision course with James Treborn?"

  My blood ran cold.

  "That was you?" I asked.

  "Yes. You are meant to oppose Treborn. You are his opposite. In your final confrontation with him, you managed to hurt him. At that moment he was afraid of you. With a little training and a little guidance, you will surpass him. You are already learning your skills at a faster rate than I expected, and now you have something truly worth fighting for."

  "Survival?" I asked.

  "Try again."

  I shrugged.

  Empyria smiled warmly at me. "Love, Lucas. The only thing worth fighting for. But only you can choose to fight."

  "If I use this, and I come back to Crematoria, will you give me another Celestial Offering?" I asked.

  "Yes. As long as you give it to Ellie in return, just like you promised."

  With that, Empyria faded into nothingness before me. Her armor crumbled and turned to ash. Her corporeal form dissipated into motes of light and shadow.

  I was left holding the Celestial Offering in the now-silent alleyway with my thoughts.

  If I was meant to oppose James Treborn, then I needed to get as strong as him. Stronger. To rescue Ellie, I would need to go back to Sanguinaria with a group of warriors capable of doing some damage to the Crimson Queen. Both of things required knowledge that I didn't have, and there was only one place to get it.

  Back in the real world.

  I hunkered down against the alcove wall and placed the wooden Celestial Offering on the dry bricks in front of me.

  I took the box of matches out of my coat pocket and drew a single match. I struck it against the ignition strip and lowered the flame to the surface of the token.

  The flame took immediately and spread. The token's surface crumbled in on itself, and suddenly the world faded to black.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Returning to the Real World

  I felt like I was floating. Untethered from the universe around me. Adrift on the tides of my own mind.

  Then, I felt heavy. Weighed down by the mass of my own body housed within the Crematoria Chamber. The mask I put over my head before I began playing the game suddenly felt like it was smothering me. My eyes were unfocused as I opened them, and the feeling of the tubes retracting out of my throat made me feel like I was going to vomit.

  That wasn't the only urge I had. I had the acute need to use the toilet, even though the vacuum diaper had done a good job of keeping me relatively clean in the days I was inside the game. I grabbed my phone from its charge cradle on the way and was shocked to see hundreds upon hundreds of messages from friends, fellow coders, and family.

  It took a lot for my family reach out to me.

  While I sat on the toilet, I worked my way through the messages one by one, and they were all variations of the same thing.

  Was I one of the victims of Crematoria Online?

  A developer buddy from Los Angeles had sent me a link to a news article about Crematoria Online in which the CEO of Everdark Entertainment, Theodore Griffin, was under fire for trapping 10,000 people in a video game against their will.

  The story linked to a video of Theodore Griffin addressing the concerns about what happened. I clicked on the play button on the video and turned the sound on my phone up. He certainly didn't look like any CEO I had ever seen. He wore a T-shirt with the logo for an ancient video game on the front. An 8-bit game on the Nintendo Entertainment System called Metroid.

  "Theodore Griffin here, and I'd like to talk to everyone about Crematoria Online. There are certain aspects of the situation that I don't expect you or the players to fully understand. Firstly, I would like to ensure you that no one is inside Crematoria Online against their will. The terms and conditions of the use of our alternate reality were explicitly stated and must be agreed upon prior to entering it. If someone that you love, work with or know decided to use our alternate reality, then that is their choice."

  Theodore took a moment to lift a glass of water to his lips, draining half of it before speaking again.

  "The citizens of Crematoria Online will only remain there for as long as they wish. They have the means to return to the real world, and it won't be long until we start seeing your loved ones return."

  "Just because you're right mean you're not an asshole!" My voice echoed in the closed space of my bathroom.

  I closed the video. I couldn't watch it. I finished my business, then took a shower. The accumulation of my own sweat left a sharp, vinegar smell in the air around me. I dressed, then fixed myself something quick to eat.

  When my microwave burrito was done cooking, I took a seat in front of my computer. It was strange to be in a world where things like microwaves and computers existed again. To have all the information in the world at my fingertips was an intoxicating sensation.

  I signed into my computer and started trawling the internet for news about Crematoria Online. It had been just over a week since the game went live, and now it was all anyone across the world could talk about.

  I scrolled through headline after headline about the game. Each of them espoused their own hot takes on the virtues and pitfalls of this reality-bending new technology. Some were calling for it to be destroyed. Others were calling for access to Crematoria Online to be opened to everyone, not just the rich. Another boon for the privileged, they said, and I couldn't disagree. I had it a hell of a lot better than most other people on the planet.

  There were all kinds of think pieces from armchair philosophers about exactly what Crematoria Online was. Was it truly an alternate re
ality? Or was it just a masquerade? Could it transport a consciousness in its entirety, or was there something missing? Did the artificial constructs within the game constitute consciousnesses, and thus have the same cognitive rights as humans? Did they feel pain, and if so, was the systematic killing of non-player characters in the game tantamount to virtual genocide? Was the manipulation of the mind the first step towards transhumanism and circumventing the physical limitations of the human body? If so, should it be encouraged or limited by knee-jerk legislation? Every government had its own take on the matter.

  I thought back to the first time I used Inspired Deduction way back in the character test. It sure as hell felt like my problem-solving capacity was boosted by a significant margin. What other applications could that have in the real world?

  There were online testimonies from others within the game that had gotten their own Celestial Offerings and logged out about what the game was really like. I opened one article. My search engine said it was a five-minute read, from a reputable, verified source. The author's name was Sean Manning, and it was titled The Vanguard. For the players, by the players.

  I logged into Crematoria Online without truly knowing what I was in for. They said it was the next big thing, that it would change the world, but most video game companies make promises they have no chance of delivering. Everdark Entertainment is a rare exception.

  If anything, they undersold and over-delivered.

  I logged in and found myself in Atavashia, the home city of the Al Akani. It's a walled desert city filled with traders from all across Crematoria. It's a nexus of information sharing and magical research. There, I was born anew. I became someone different to who I was in the real world.

  Initially I was mad about what Everdark Entertainment did.

  I didn't expect to be trapped, but I guess not many of us read those terms and conditions.

  I see why they did it now. Logging into Crematoria Online comes with a promise that we will do something that matters before we have a chance to log back out. We have no choice but to leave our mark on that world.