Lost in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  “It’s a work in progress,” Frank said, and rose. “So, are you ready for your championship match with the up-and-coming Spellcaster?”

  Siena lifted an eyebrow. “Sorry?”

  “What? You haven’t heard?” Frank frowned. “Some Spellcaster won several rounds in the Coliseum in a row, going completely undefeated.”

  Siena quickly pulled up the configuration menu and saw that she had forgotten to turn on her alerts after the last dungeon she had done. As soon as she turned it back on, several alerts showed up at once.

  The one that caught her attention first said:

  — COLISEUM ALERT: A NEW CHALLENGER HAS EMERGED! —

  Siena swiped the menu away and grinned evilly up at Efty. “Okay then, what say we head to the Coliseum? Looks like I have to defend my title against another pretender to the throne.”

  Chapter 7: Cipher

  In all honesty, I didn’t mean to win the first Battle Royal so easily, but seeing the ex-Catastrophe members competing had lit a flame inside me. And after I won the first, I felt so drunk on victory that I couldn’t help but compete again . . . and again, until I pretty much lost count.

  Really, I won five of them in a row? I thought as I looked up to see the score --.--.-- at the top of the arena screen. I better quit now while I’m ahead. Besides, having a blank score next to a gap where a name should be is suspicious. I guess Data didn’t expect me to score so high.

  On the bright side, I had shown Chloe what I wanted to show her, and she looked well impressed. She was still staring at the pits as I came up to meet her in the stands, as though trying to work out how I had pulled off such major wins.

  “Okay, Noah . . . I knew you had gotten better, but geez . . .”

  I sat down next to her, still feeling the adrenaline of the last match rush through me, making me want to get up and do another one.

  “So . . . ?” she asked, trying to coax an answer out of me.

  I shook my head. “Sorry, can’t tell you what it is just yet. I still have to wait to get Windsor’s permission. That’s exactly why I’ve only clued you in on it. I didn’t want anyone hounding me for the secret.”

  “So, what?” Chloe crossed her arms. “You’re showing off a new ability that gives you quick enough reactions to beat everyone and then not tell me how you do it?”

  I waggled my head. “Seems so. Sorry, Chloe.”

  She leaned back in a sulk, putting her feet up on the outer banister. “Must be nice, being Windsor’s favorite.”

  I knew I had to get her mind off the subject. Besides, I had tested what I needed to test here and thought it was time to move on with what I really needed this ability for: tracking down the Screamers without being killed in the process.

  I stood up. “We should head off. We’ve been away for long enough. Time to check and see if Dice found anything out about the code you found.”

  Chloe smiled up at me. “Oh, that’s just evil, Noah. But you’re right. Let’s go back.”

  I put my hand down to help her up, but she jumped up by herself and stalked past me, leaving my hand to hang limply, untouched. I followed on her heels. We made our way to the nearest stairs that led to the outer ring of the Coliseum and around to reception and made for the entrance. Being just south of the Onjira Desert, the air outside was warm, and walking into the shadows of the lobby after fighting for so long was a relief. However, the heat quickly returned, but only to my face, when I saw what was showing up on the big screens above the reception desk.

  Two screens revealed flashing lines that became the words:

  — NEW CHALLENGER! —

  One was showing nothing but my user code’s number and the --.--.-- of my blank record. The other showed another code number I recognized, the numbers 09.50.21, and finally a figure that I couldn’t help but recognize as well. It was the red-haired, red armored, and busty figure of the champion: Siena_the_Blade.

  Chloe followed my eyes and covered the grin on her face when she looked back to see the agitation on mine. “So much for keeping your Survival Record a secret. I mean, if Siena doesn’t reveal who you are to everyone, then you can believe she’s going to want to kick your butt to prove that she’s still the best.”

  “Oh . . . no,” I groaned.

  I didn’t need the prediction software to know how this was going to turn out. Siena would want to prove herself against the new up-and-comer, and if she was aware that her enemy’s code number belonged to me, she would threaten to reveal who I was if I refused.

  “So, you’re going to lose to her so she will keep your identity a secret?” Chloe asked, seeming to understand the situation better than I did.

  “Only if she knows it’s me. If she doesn’t know my code number by heart, she won’t be able to out me.” I turned to leave. “Who knows? Maybe I can get Data to alter it before she—”

  “It’s Siena, Noah!” Chloe interrupted, following on my heels. “Do you really think she won’t be able to find out who you are?”

  “Hope for the best but expect the worst is what my mom always used to tell me.” I shrugged. “Still, I’m an optimist, so there’s no reason I shouldn’t strive to make the odds of her not knowing more likely. Come on.”

  We walked out into the street. Although there hadn’t been many people in the crowd, I could already see several avatars looking at me, pointing at Siena’s new challenger. Word would spread. I had to change my avatar again as quickly as possible. Raising my cloak’s hood, I dashed down the street toward the Trans-House.

  Once there, I moved to one of the booths and pulled up my custom avatar menu. Luckily, I could revert back to my default avatar without anyone seeing; however, I wanted to be sure.

  I sent Chloe a private message: “I don’t want people seeing my face leaving this place after my disguise just went in, so I’m just going to wake up. I’ll see you when you get back as well, okay?”

  A message alert came quickly after.

  Chloe: “Still won’t stop Siena from finding out who you are.”

  I didn’t reply, not wanting to waste time before asking Data to change my player code. I selected the “Wake Up” Key Trigger, which was only given to admins. With a sudden jolt, I was pulled from sleep into the real world. Again, I awoke to the soft buzzing from my automated recliner lifting me into a sitting position as my Dream Engine retracted into the cubby.

  I remained still while letting the fuzziness clear from my head. As my blurry vision left me, I straightened and looked around the room. Dice was looking at me with a pleased grin on his face, still sitting at the wall desk with his open laptop resting on it.

  “So, Daisuke, I assume you found some connection to the code Chloe found?”

  Dice’s grin widened. “I might have.”

  I could see from his expression that he was playing coy. Still, I knew it would be better for the team if his hard work could be shared with Chloe directly. If I was lucky, Chloe might even apologize for being so demanding before.

  “Chloe’s about to come out of the Dream State; tell her when she does.” I stood up and caught his eyes. “Be nice about it, and she might even be grateful. I have to go see Data.”

  “What do you need him for?” he asked.

  I stopped at the door. “I just need to sort something out before we start our Screamer hunt.”

  Exiting the GC, I moved down the corridor, once again toward Datalent’s team chamber. Again, it was one of Data’s new teammates who received me. This time it wasn’t Shawn, but a young Asian woman who looked like she had arranged her wardrobe to match her black and neon green headphones.

  “Noah?” she asked.

  I nodded. “That’s me.”

  “Ah, Data’s still under. He won’t be out for a little while. He’s investigating a . . .” She hesitated, so I made a guess.

  “Another Screamer attack?”

  She looked taken aback. “How did you know?”

  I gritted m
y teeth. “It seems to happen whenever someone gets close to one of their secrets. If you work here long enough, you’ll start seeing their appearances as a good thing, despite the number of customer complaints Wona gets.”

  I was about to ask her to wake Data up anyway, fearing the mess Siena could cause. However, I stopped myself when I realized how selfish it would be for me to ask such a thing, just to cover up my mess, when the Screamers were our real targets. I couldn’t interrupt Data when he was doing his job. What I myself should have been doing.

  “I’m Lisa, by the way,” the girl said, her voice quickening in pace. “I don’t suppose there are any openings for Catastrophe right now? Working as an overseer is so much more work than I thought it would be when I signed on.”

  “Catastrophe?”

  “Yeah, you know?” She looked into my eyes, one eyebrow raised. “Your team?”

  Catastrophe . . . my team?

  My mind went to how I felt when I saw the ex-Catastrophe members at the Coliseum, and the memory of what that word used to mean to me came rushing back. I felt my jaw clench, and I balled my hands into fists.

  Why haven’t I changed that name yet? After everything they did!

  “There are going to be trials soon,” I said, my voice sounding madder than I meant it to. “Sign up if you’re interested.”

  I whirled about and jogged to the elevator, determined now. I didn’t care what I changed my team’s name to so long as it wasn’t Catastrophe. I wanted to erase that cursed name from the Wona records, make it mean nothing. Taking the elevator to the ground floor and striding into the reception area, I saw Wanda catching my aggressive advance with a puzzled frown.

  “Can I help you, Mr. Newbolt?” she asked as I reached her desk.

  “Yeah.” I gave her my most joyous sneer. “I want to change my team’s name.”

  Her brow furrowed. “But it’s already been changed.”

  “Seriously?” I asked, her words taking me out of my rush. “I don’t remember changing it. What is it now?”

  “Oh, no, please, tell me what name you had in mind so I can amend it.” She pulled out a list and pen and crossed something off nearer to the bottom.

  I actually didn’t have a name in mind.

  “No, wait.” I raised my hands. “What did you just cross out?”

  Wanda smiled at me and rolled her eyes. “Well, you gave me a list of words and said I should choose a related synonym. So, I looked through a list of synonyms online and found one I thought you youngsters would think sounds cool.”

  I put my hand out and she passed me the list. There were several synonyms for the word “zero” among the ones I had impatiently listed to her after returning from Sue’s grave. Crossed out at the very end of the list was a single word that looked like Wanda had underlined as her final choice.

  “Cipher?”

  She shrugged. “It was either that or just stick with Zero or Nothing, but I thought those sounded just as grim as Catastrophe.”

  Cipher? Well, I did want to turn Catastrophe into nothing, so why not? It saves me from having to make up a name for myself.

  I nodded. “Okay, Cipher it is, then.” I caught the knowing sparkle in her eyes. “Good job, Wanda.”

  I walked from her desk, already feeling a little better. You might even say I had a spring in my step. I think I was ready to track down Lucas. Caught in my own thoughts, I was back in my team’s GC before I knew it, ready to give my announcement. To my luck, not only were Chloe and Dice there, but Vega had finally shown up as well.

  “Everyone, our new team name is Cipher.”

  Vega lifted a fist, as enthusiastic as ever. “Alright! Go Cipher!”

  Chloe took the photo from Dice’s desk. “That’s great and all, Noah, but we’ve got news too. Dice worked out the code.”

  “Oh . . . great.” I turned to Dice. “What was it?”

  “After seeing the numbers involved and typing them into Wona’s code archive, I found that they were the coordinates for a location in the Dream State, a Primatier dungeon in the archipelago off Yarburn.”

  I nodded, eyeing the faces of my team eager to get to work. “Okay then, let’s go check it out.”

  Chapter 8: Romit Island

  The four of us flew over Yarburn Archipelago and in the direction of the coordinates Dice had found. I squinted down at the beautiful view.

  Yarburn had always been my favorite area, being all on bridges and walkways over the water connecting the fresh water of a river with the salt water of the ocean. I had even been told that if you tasted the water, you could tell which one was the salt water and which one was fresh, which I thought was some crazy attention to detail for a game where all senses were involved.

  Despite having never explored this far out from the shore, something about the view looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I had seen such a familiar series of islands before.

  Somewhere in real life maybe? Brock would know. He knows every detail about this game.

  With all of Cipher mounted, it didn’t take us long to fly over the bay toward the collection of islands. With Chloe on her phoenix, Dice on his Black Dragon, me on my Peragon, and Vega riding, of all things, a magic carpet, we descended down to one of the largest among a curved line of islands—the one that contained the dungeon the coordinates had pointed out to us.

  “The dungeon is on the east side of that island,” Dice called as he pointed down.

  “What’s this place called anyway?” Vega asked.

  “Romit Island.”

  “Romit?” Chloe repeated, screwing up her face. “That’s a really weird name for an island.”

  I was about to agree with her. The name only increased my suspicion that I had seen it somewhere before. I went to say so but stopped when Dice pointed to what looked like a metallic black dome jutting out of the hillside. “Is that the dungeon?”

  Dice nodded. “Yup, that’s the Primatier dungeon the code alludes to.”

  “What’s the dungeon called?” Vega asked.

  “Romit Research Center.”

  I frowned. “Strange place to have a research center.”

  Not wanting to waste time hiking through the island brush to get to it, I directed my focus toward the dome. The warm wind rushed into my face as Peragon banked and we began to circle down toward it. We landed on the hard metal, hitting with a loud clunk that seemed to vibrate the whole dome. I climbed off Peragon and stood on the black dome. Even through my boots, I could feel the heat of the dark surface.

  Chloe grinned at me. “If there are any monsters in there, they definitely know we’re here now.”

  I shrugged, feeling reasonably confident in my own ability. Even without the FTS, we had little to worry about because I knew who was on my team and that the dungeon was only Primatier. I walked over to the edge and jumped off onto a surrounding pathway.

  The dome wasn’t that large and I stared skeptically, doubting that an entire dungeon could fit inside it. I halted at the large arching entrance, grinned and called, “Found an opening! Heading in!”

  As I went to push open the door to the Research Center, a red light appeared above me, and with a loud buzz, the doors swung open. I jumped back and equipped my Sapphire Edge. When nothing emerged, I looked inside the darkened room, frowning. There didn’t seem to be any monsters in there. Chloe and the others caught up with me and she gave me a puzzled look when seeing I had my Color Blade out for no reason. I grinned sheepishly and unequipped it before we all wandered inside.

  Of what I could see from the light outside, the floor tiles were separated into triangles that pointed into the center of the small room, kind of like a sliced pizza. At the back of the small chamber was a control panel on a raised platform, which glowed in the shadows.

  Chloe gazed at the panel, eyes wide. “Wonder what this is for.”

  The panel had several buttons and gauges. I tried to find a button that would al
low us to go farther into the dungeon.

  There was a narrow slit with the words “Enter Keycard” next to it, and I sighed. “Crap, first roadblock.”

  Dice moved up next to me.

  “Anything you can do about this?” I asked him.

  Dice nodded. “The card must be a key item in the game. I can go through the code catalog and make a copy so we can use it.”

  I patted him on the back. “I knew I kept you around for a reason. Just in case, though . . .” I turned to the others. “Take a look around the place and see if you can find anything that might act as a keycard.”

  “No need,” Dice said. He stared into space for a moment but then raised his hand. With a bright flash, a plastic card appeared between his fingers.

  Chloe smiled. “Wow! So much for a side quest to find the keycard.”

  “Thought I would bring it up before you demand I wave my hands and open it with magic.” Dice passed it to me. “Besides, we shouldn’t waste time when such resources are at our disposal.”

  I inserted the key into the slot and a screen lit up on the panel. The screen showed the floor separating and pulling into the walls, set on repeat. I was about to push the button next to it but then stopped, recalling how these dungeons generally worked, and turned to the others in the room.

  “This could be a trap. You might want to stand where I am.”

  Chloe and Vega joined me nervously on the platform. I pressed the glowing button. At first, nothing happened. Then there was rumbling and the sound of clanking gears. With a short vibration below our feet, the tiles on the floor separated. The pizza slice-shaped sections whined on rusted gears and pulled into slots at the base of the walls. The platform remained, allowing us to peer down into the room below.

  Although there was an elevator that could take us down, the ceiling of the room wasn’t very high, so I followed Chloe’s lead as she leaped down into the lower area. I regretted this almost immediately. Chloe gave out a short scream and before I knew it, something leaped onto my back, sharp claws digging into my coat. I smashed onto the floor, my Hit Points dropping in the corner of my vision.