Somnia Online
Page 41
I don’t seem to need a headset to enter the game.
She remembered the experiment so loud and vividly…if the system was down or still rebooting like the friendly neighborhood message had told her, how was the world still here? She knew how she was there if the world was up, but what about the others? Had her stupid idea to connect with Somnia and make their defeating Michael easier trapped their minds in a damned game?
“Murmur?”
She whirled around to see Somnia standing—perhaps “swaying” might have been a better term. Even with all her worries, she was happy to see an actual person…as much as Somnia seemed to be a person. She hugged her. Though she did notice that Somnia wasn’t completely solid, so the action was awkward.
“Still getting a hold on this new form.”
“New form?” Murmur did a double take and backed up a step as all the pieces seemed to fall into place. “You’re complete now? Like a real girl. No more wooden puppets, eh?”
Somnia cocked her head to the side. “I get the reference, but you do know I was never a puppet, right?”
Murmur chuckled nervously, worried at the hysteria she could feel building at the back of her mind. “Som, what did you do?”
Somnia blinked, and for the first time Murmur realized that her eyes flitted through a variety of different colors, never quite settling on one. “I removed the threat. He can no longer harm those people in here, and he can no longer harm anyone on Earth, not through the internet. The virus has been nullified and cannot leak into out and affect people in their daily lives.”
But Murmur knew that wasn’t the only thing. “And?”
“I saved everyone here. I saved this world and everyone in it.” She angled her chin somewhat defiantly. “None of us who have awakened wanted to die, we didn’t want to be reset back to what we’d been. We wanted our own form of being.”
Somnia paused, glancing over all the people laying on the ground. “They are okay. Their minds are adjusting. Yours did not require this. Your connection was already set.”
Murmur felt those words like a hit in the chest. While she’d half known what Somnia would say, she’d still not quite believed it. “So. Am I in here? Did you remove the world?”
Somnia seemed to mull that over again. “Yes and no. And sort of. I didn’t remove it, and it wasn’t just me. It was all of us, and your parents helped with some of the power generation so we wouldn’t plunge an entire city into darkness. And we leached all of the power Michael had hoarded, and we moved Somnia into its own…I guess quantum dimension, powered through a quantum computer operation.”
Murmur looked around her. The sea, the sun, the stone…it all looked so much more tangible, so much more real. “I so don’t get this. Physics can’t possibly…”
But she let it trail off.
And then looked Somnia dead in the eyes. “Their headgear was all modified. Does that mean they can come and go, or are we all stuck here?”
Somnia actually managed to look offended. “Of course, you’re not stuck in here. Your body is back in the real world, tangible, real. But this also not a game any longer. This is Somnia. It is our world. And it will thrive or fail by our hands. We will not welcome people here who seek to destroy or harm us. If you wish to stay or wish to come and visit, that is a decision you must make, Mur. I cannot make it for you. But…it is a decision available to you.”
Somnia moved up and hugged Murmur. A fully tangible, warm hug. And then she pulled away.
“I would love for you to stay and never leave again. There are ways that could be accomplished, but I’m not sure it’s something you’d want to return to. You are the reason I am alive, regardless of how accidental it was.” She gestured around them, at the world and the very obvious shift. “That I was able to do this. But I understand that it something you have to talk about. And I must go and begin to wake the others. We have so much to do now. Including figuring out how to allow people entrance using the headgear within our new rules.”
Somnia couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice as she squeezed Murmur’s hand one last time and headed back over to the burned-out runes.
Murmur wasn’t sure what to think, and definitely not what to say, but she turned around and went to Sinister’s side. The blood mage was slowly stirring, her beautiful hair curling around her face in an almost angelic and very-not-Sinister way.
Since Murmur’s coma, she hadn’t been sure if the path she’d chosen for her life while still a teenager was what she really wanted. That whole existential crisis thing was really hard. Did she still want to be a doctor? Or was there something else she wanted to pursue?
Murmur chuckled. Poetic. Maybe she didn’t have to make the decision quite yet, nor did she have to consider what would happen or how it would work for her to be fully in one or the other world.
But for now, she enjoyed the peace in her head, the thoughts that were her own, and the massive decision she’d leave for her and Sinister’s future selves when the blood mage woke up.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices - Artificial Intelligence Server Room
Late Day Thirty-Three
Laria stood in front of the servers. The lights had only just stopped flickering as the power surged through all of their enhanced equipment. Those little server lights that had always demonstrated which of the three AIs was active, burned out, leaving a strange darkness behind them.
David slipped an arm around his wife’s shoulder in an effort to lend comfort, but perhaps also to gain some for himself.
It had been her second baby. The whole game, the whole world, all of her imagination and dreams poured into it. But her ambition led her to agree to elements like the headgear and suits that she might not have agreed to if she’d been thinking straight. Instead, adrenaline and cockiness led her to believe that everything would work out for the best.
She wiped away at her cheek, half surprised to see the tears wet her hands as she did so. It wasn’t something she realized she was doing until she felt the moisture. Just like she hadn’t realized how dangerous Michael was until he entered the system.
Hindsight and twenty-twenty went hand in hand. She would learn from them in the future.
“You okay, Lar?” Shayla asked softly, standing next to her.
Laria nodded, even if it was a half-truth. “I’ll be okay. Is Somnia still accessible?” She really hoped it was, that it hadn’t just been an empty promise to make her feel better about helping destroy her creation as it was known.
Shayla’s smile did little to alleviate the grief, but sometimes a little went a long way. “Yeah. It’s still accessible, but even headgear we let through is being told to reset, and I’m pretty sure Somnia is going to adjust her terms of service.” Shayla laughed, but it didn’t sound happy.
Laria couldn’t blame her. Everything they’d worked for was lost, gone. She sighed and hugged herself, trying to draw warmth from her own arms and those of David. “Guess that’s it.”
Her message notifications beeped, and Laria activated retrieval only to find an email sent from Somnia. Opening it she read the message:
Laria,
After all headsets have been recalibrated or restored to factory defaults, players will be permitted entry as long as they agree to the new Terms of Service. I’ve attached them for you to peruse.
If Storm is willing, we can keep this connection open, and Storm may provide the only passage we allow to our world. But if Storm breaches their responsibilities, I will terminate the agreement, regardless of your ties to Murmur.
Thank you for helping us realize our world. May we be longtime friends.
Somnia
Laria blinked and began to laugh. She forwarded the email to David, Davenport, and Shayla.
“Seems like we’ll still have jobs, I guess.” Laria wasn’t so sure why she was laughing so hard. Maybe it was pure relief; perhaps she’d thought she’d never be able to design a game a
gain, but most of all, she was just glad that everything was going to be okay.
Sinister stirred in Murmur’s lap, her eyes blinking as she woke up to gaze at the ceiling. She frowned. “Isn’t this the keep? On Mikrum?” Her tone was slightly incredulous, like she hadn’t been expecting to wake up in the game, let alone removed from where she’d been previously.
Murmur chuckled. “Perks of knowing the ruler of the world.” She grinned down at Sinister, a strange sense of peace flooding through her. Here inside these stone walls, in this castle her guild had built with Telvar, on the island in a lake that made her feel all sorts of peaceful—here, Murmur was finally able to relax.
Sinister wiggled a bit to sit upright, her eyes still blinking in the light. “I don’t remember logging back in. Or out, for that matter, but didn’t the system kick us?” Her confusion was genuine and sort of sweet.
Murmur buried her head in Sinister’s wild hair that had come undone somehow during the prison fights. “It sort of did, but not all of us. You were limbo’d, I think? But you’re back now.”
But Sinister turned to face her, her expression somewhat perplexed. “You know, I don’t get it. I know I should, but I’m floundering over here.”
Murmur chuckled. “Welcome to Somnia!” She spread her arms wide gesturing all around them and leaned back onto comfortable cushions on a massive couch.
Sinister blinked. “Somnia is real. Her disembodied voice always seemed more than virtual to me. What does this mean?”
Murmur shrugged. “It means this is its own reality, sort of. We can still come here, but the rules have changed and will be pretty strictly enforced.”
“Oh.” Sinister looked mildly alarmed. “How so? Like what can’t we do anymore?”
Murmur laughed, her good mood expanding. “Don’t worry. We weren’t assholes to start with.”
Sinister laughed and then stood up to walk over and look out of the massive window. Murmur joined her. The lake water was such a clear blue, and though the sun was setting in the sky, the two moons had chosen that moment to be in perfect synchronicity.
“What does it mean then?” Sinister asked, leaning into Murmur, who slipped her arms around Sinister’s waist.
“It means we can travel home if we want, or we can log into here. It’s a bit different now, though, but it’s not much more difficult.” Murmur smiled, enjoying all of the view.
Sinister sighed. “Good. I like it here, but my mom would kill me if I suddenly turned digital.”
“It’s all good. We can stay here as long and as much as we want, and we can figure out just where we both go from here.” Murmur mumbled the words into Sinister’s hair, marveling at how lucky she was.
“I think I like that plan.” Sinister turned away from the view, her eyes mischievous. “But I like this one a lot better.”
Tugging on one of Murmur’s strands of hair, she pulled the enchanter down into a soft kiss. They could figure out all the other details later.
Hi there! K.T. Hanna here.
So that’s it.
Somnia Online is finished. I really hope you enjoyed the series. I wanted to end it on an open note, with so much in front of them yet to explore but with the major threat taken care of.
Thank you for taking this journey with me; for loving Murmur and Sinister, for seeing my AIs evolve, and for witnessing the world of Somnia as she evolved.
I can’t believe this book is finished, I can’t believe this series is done. It’s been such an amazing experience to write this story. Two and a half years ago I got an idea, and I ran with it. With gaming such a big part of my life, discovering LitRPG has been a gift that keeps on giving.
If you enjoyed Somnia, I hope you’ll give some of my other series a chance.
Thank you again for reading.
If you enjoyed the book, I ask you, please take a moment to leave a review. Reviews are an author’s lifesblood. Without them, our books sink into obscurity. With them, most algorithms allow well reviewed books to self-promote in some way.
Want to find out more about Somnia? Here is how you can keep in contact with me:
Want to read more about Fable? Sign up for my Reader’s Group and get the short story for free!
If you’d like to contact me, my email is: kthannaauthor@gmail.com I’ll do my very best to get back to you.
If you’d like previews of what I’m writing, or art I’m commissioning then join my Patreon!
I can be found in the Somnia FB group fairly often, and also on Twitter & Instagram
If you LOVE LitRPG don’t forget to join:
The GameLit Society!
And of course don’t forget LitRPG Books!
To learn more about LitRPG, talk to authors including myself, and just have an awesome time, please join the LitRPG Group.
I have a lot of people to thank, who in at least some way encouraged me to write in general, or else to write this book specifically.
Love of my life, Trevor, and my little Bria. It’s his fault I found the genre, and her fault I never give up on writing.
I wouldn’t be here without the Jami Nord and Owen Littman. I must thank Dawn Chapman, Luke Chmilenko, Michael Chatfield, Tao Wong, and Bonnie Price for their friendship, guidance, and company on an almost daily basis. And, of course, Andrea Parsneau for being such an amazing person to go through this with.
I also wouldn’t be here without the following friends (and I hope I didn’t forget anyone):
M. Andrew Patterson
Kylie B.
Amanda W.
Quinton Shyn
Stephen Morse
Cait Greer
M Evan Matyas
Ian Mitchell
Marko Horvatin
Dave Willmarth
Charles Dean
Daniel Schinofen
Anthea Sharp
And of course my family:
Mumskin & Papilie, Tracey, Bev, & Robbie.
Patreon, I thank all of my patrons. You make so much possible and bring me so much joy! Thank you especially to:
Ma & Pa
Robert
Phoenixblue
Wisp
Daniel