The Alchemy Worlds: Enter T(he)rap(y): A LitRPG Adventure

by Victor Justice

  Up ahead was the Grim Lady. The large, vaguely human-shaped spar of rock served as a prominent landmark and had been the inspiration for one of Amy’s in-game monsters. She’d been quite pleased with that particular creation and wondered if Matias had been offered the Kragg quest. She could well imagine his reaction if he ran into one of those things.

  Chances were, though, that he had quit Feysecret Forest altogether. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have stayed in the starter settlement of Ironthorne until they had learnt enough about the Alchemy Worlds to venture beyond its walls. But then, Matias was probably too arrogant to see it that way. The communal living and harsh discipline would go against his lone wolf tendencies. Matias would want to do things his way and his antisocial nature would mean cooperation with others was going to be a struggle. He would set out on his own the first chance he got. Beyond certain training zones set up throughout each of the Worlds, such as Feysecret Forest, all the quests would be generated by BeyondMind itself, as opposed to being designed by her or one of the team. This meant that Amy had no idea what Matias would be facing and what his chances for surviving would be. The computer played by its own rules and it did not always play fair.

  Reaching the Grim Lady, Amy carried on running following the track as it banked down to the left. Usually, she finished her run here and headed back to the penitentiary, but she had an extra hour or so before she had to start work. They had been up all the previous night, overseeing the immersion of the next three subjects. And by rights, she should be having a lie in, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. This latest immersion had not been anywhere near as dramatic as Matias’. BeyondMind had not become a demonic entity, dragging the three subjects into its virtual reality. They had simply been put to sleep inside their membrane bubbles and connected up alongside Matias. The immersion had been smooth and less traumatic, but the same rules still applied; they could be killed inside the Alchemy Worlds simulation the same way Matias could be.

  It made her feel bad that she was exposing more people to such a dangerous situation, but those three were in a whole different league to Matias. She had been shocked when Calladyce had picked them, yet knew better than to argue. She just hoped Matias wouldn’t run into any of them before he could look after himself. She hoped as well that they wouldn’t cause as much havoc in BeyondMind’s virtual universe as they had in the real world.

  The path curved west, cutting through scrubby grassland and barren rock. In the distance was the penitentiary, a grim, hulking fortress against the skyline, and she was coming up to the steep ravine that split the island like a crack on the surface of an egg.

  Amy looked down at the black gash with a sense of unease. She didn’t like running this close to the ravine, not because of the obvious danger, but because of the sense of dread that exuded from it. Sometimes, she could hear strange and disturbing moans from deep within the opening that chilled her blood, even though she knew it was just the wind.

  She turned away from it quickly, and started to head back to the penitentiary. With any luck, Doctor Calladyce would still be asleep in his quarters when she got up to the office. She still felt bad about going behind his back by trying to contact Matias, and the guilt was chewing away at her. Still, in a few hours’ time, it would all be over.

  Behind her came a plaintive howl as the wind sliced through the ravine.

  * * *

  “Okay, come on and be quiet,” Shane said anxiously as they headed down the access corridor at twelve thirty that night. “If anyone stops us, tell them we’re just going out to get a bit of fresh air.”

  “Shane, we both work here,” Amy replied, folding her arms as they walked. “I’m Gerald Calladyce’s personal assistant for crying out loud. Nobody’s going to ask us what we’re doing.”

  “Well excuse me for being worried,” Shane griped. “It’s okay for you. You’re the old man’s favourite. If we get caught, he’ll probably just give you a dressing down. Dumbo me, on the other hand, will get the chop.”

  “Don’t be such a drama queen,” Amy said, getting irritated. “We’re not going to get caught.”

  Shane huffed and they walked on in silence. After the success of the latest three immersions, the tech team were carrying out full scale system maintenance in preparation for Stage Two. That was something else making Amy fret. Doctor Calladyce had been so pleased with Matias’ immersion and the three other subjects he now intended to expand the programme to include women. The women’s wing of the penitentiary had just been completed and forty new inmates were due to arrive shortly. Amy wasn’t against women entering the game reality of course, heck, she wanted everyone on the planet regardless of creed, colour or gender to experience the limitless grandeur of the quantum simulations they were creating here. But the harsh, medieval backdrop of the Alchemy Worlds was going to be hard going for a female and, now that the safety protocols were being dispensed with, there were even more dangers to face.

  They stopped outside a door and Shane swiped the pass card he’d stolen from HR along the lock to open it. The pass card had been imprinted with a fake ID, so nobody would be able to track them through the security ledger. He wasn’t going to take any chances, and that was for sure. Amy had rolled her eyes at all of these precautions.

  “Okay, let’s make this quick,” he said, as the door clicked open.

  “That’s what you always say,” Amy replied, giving him a playful nudge.

  “Don’t goof around, we got to hurry,” Shane hissed, deadly serious.

  Amy sighed and followed him in. It was truth enough she was as anxious as he was about getting caught, but he did have a point about the doctor. If they did get caught, chances are she would get a warning, whereas it could be a lot worse for Shane. After her conversation with Doctor Calladyce about the powerful people behind their work here, she dreaded to think that he might lose more than his job.

  She pushed aside her fears before they got the better of her. It wouldn’t be that bad if they did get seen, and they weren’t going to be anyway. This wouldn’t take long and nobody would be any the wiser.

  They entered a narrow room filled with sleek black servers. Blue and green lights flashed on their surfaces, and at the far end of the corridor the servers made was a small desk with a large screen on it and an office chair underneath it.

  Amy closed the door behind them, and Shane hurried over to the desk. He was full of nervous energy and Amy found herself liking him less and less. She knew he was taking a big risk and appreciated he was scared, but she kind of got the feeling that if Matias was here with her he’d act way much calmer and cooler. She suspected Matias would get the same thrill of excitement that she was feeling right now, despite her anxiety.

  As she joined her boyfriend, he was bent over the screen and plugging it into one of the servers on the back wall. There was a sharp bleep and then the screen flickered into life.

  “Okay, I’ve hacked into BeyondMind’s neural cortex,” Shane said, calling up his wrist holo pad so it floated in front of the screen. “With the server maintenance going on, its security protocols are dormant so you can reach out to Matias, but you’ll only have a few minutes before it detects the hack. When that happens, you have to disengage quickly. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Amy said, impatient to contact Matias. She pushed Shane out of the way. “I can take it from here. You got to keep watch in case anyone comes in.”

  “Thanks for all your help, Shane, and for risking your neck,” Shane said sarcastically, giving her a black look.

  “Stop being a little bitch and go keep lookout,” Amy snapped.

  Shane muttered something uncomplimentary and shuffled off toward the door while Amy sat down in front of the screen. An image came up of the four subjects connected to BeyondMind, and Amy clicked on Matias’ avatar. The screen zoomed in on his unconscious body and then plunged straight into his mind. Amy felt her heart jump as she felt herself sink into the simulation and the screen c
hanged again to the lush sprawl of vegetation of the Feysecret Forest. She spotted Ironthorne, the ‘tutorial town’ she’d designed and then the scene moved on toward the huge gateway leading into the gnome colony.

  “So, you did go to Kragg,” Amy muttered to herself. “I’m impressed, Matias.”

  “What you say?” Shane called back at her.

  “Nothing. Shut up,” Amy retorted, shooting an annoyed glance in his direction.

  Turning back to the screen, she found it had suddenly gone black. “What the hell? Where did everything go?”

  She tapped at the holo-console but nothing happened. Frustrated, she was just about to call Shane over when a flickering blue light appeared on the screen. Amy stared at the light in bafflement, waiting to see what would happen next. The light grew brighter, becoming a glowing shard of ice that glittered beautifully. Amy stared into its shining depths, losing herself in its glacial brilliance. Coldness seeped out of the screen, reaching out to freeze her hands, but she ignored it. Her attention was ensnared on the ice shard. It was growing larger and larger, filling the screen, and Amy tumbled into its translucence, engulfed by its beauty.

  As she watched it though, two eyes, yellow and reptilian, took shape inside the shard. They fixed Amy with a stare of sneering contempt, and the girl’s wonder turned to fear. She tried to pull away from the baleful gaze but it held her in an invisible grip. Behind the eyes, she sensed a vast intellect. It overwhelmed her like a tidal wave and she shivered, small and pathetic beneath its power and hatred. She let out a frightened whimper and cowered from it. And, as she did, she thought she heard rasping laughter coming from the screen. The serpent eyes narrowed and now she heard a voice. It did not speak in the physical sense as such, but she felt it stab her mind like a hot poker. It issued a single, sibilant order, and Amy realised it wasn’t speaking to her but about her:

  Kill her!

  Somewhere inside her, a feral animal instinct to survive surfaced. It gave her the willpower to rip her eyes away from the screen. As she did so, she was aware of Shane standing behind her. She spun round in the chair, meaning to go to him for help, but she let out a terrified scream when she looked up in his face.

  Something that looked like Shane was staring down at her, but it was not her Shane. The creature in front of her had grey, mottled skin crusted with ice crystals and its eyes bled with a harsh white light. Gnarled black hands reached down to grab her.

  Amy snapped out of her shock and dived out of the chair before Shane, or whatever the thing that looked like Shane was, seized her.

  She scrambled along the floor before getting to her feet and rushing for the door. When she reached it, she turned back and saw Shane lurching after her. Amy screamed again and yanked open the door.

  Almost tumbling into the corridor outside, she stopped dead when she saw that it was crusted with a patina of blue ice. A thin layer of snow stretched beneath her feet. Amy stared around in confusion, not knowing whether what she was seeing was real or if she was going stark raving crazy. From the server room behind came a harsh, keening shriek that made her ears burn with pain. Gripped by blind panic, she bolted down the corridor toward her quarters, the snow crunching underfoot.

  Turning the corner, she nearly ran into two prison guards who were looking the other way. She’d never been so glad to see those uniformed apes in her entire life.

  “Thank God,” she gasped. “You got to help me! Something crazy’s going on!”

  The guards turned as one and looked down at her with glowing white eyes. They lurched forward with blackened hands. Amy darted away like a wild animal, going back the way she came. She screamed again as Shane came lumbering out of the server room to trap her.

  He let out a strange gurgle as he made a grab for her arm. Amy recoiled, smashing her shoulder into the icy wall. Pain shot down her arm but she ignored it as she ran down the corridor, away from the three monsters. Another shriek filled the air and her mind burned as she heard the strange, terrible voice baying for her blood.

  Kill her! Kill her!

  Amy ran blindly, plunging into the network of service corridors beneath the penitentiary, with no idea of where she was going. The ice and snow had receded, and her surroundings looked normal again. She came to a sealed door and had calmed down enough to use her security pass to open it. As the heavy door slammed shut behind her, she began to think more clearly again. Those things couldn’t be real, she told herself, but they certainly looked real to her and dangerous, and what about Shane? Was he dead or could he be turned back to normal?

  She didn’t want to think that he was gone. She couldn’t process that idea right now. She focused on the thing in the screen, the malevolent intelligence that had reached out to her. It felt just like BeyondMind had when Matias had been immersed. Somehow, the quantum computer had gained sentience and it was hostile to human life.

  Her mind racing, she headed down the corridor. She had to speak to Doctor Calladyce, better still she had to get up to the office. It was there that she could access BeyondMind’s central processing systems. This project had to end right now. It was too dangerous to keep going.

  She reached a t-junction at the end of the corridor and stopped to get her bearings. She rarely came down to the lower levels and she had no real idea how to get from the tower from here without just picking a direction and trusting to luck.

  She was just about to do that when she heard a door swing open somewhere along the left hand corridor. Amy instinctively went right and darted for the first room she came to. Luckily, her pass card worked on the door lock and she slipped through it and found herself in the laundry room.

  As she went into the middle of the room and looked around her, she heard Officer Keene’s gruff voice call out. “Find her! Search everywhere!”

  Amy’s heart leapt into her mouth. She looked around in panic and spotted some laundry baskets along one side of the wall opposite. Trying not to think about sharing an enclosed space with convicts’ underwear, she pulled open the lid and climbed inside. She had just pulled the lid back down over her when Keene marched into the room.

  The lid did not close completely, and there was a thin gap through which Amy could see. She held her breath as the man looked around the room. He was mean and ugly, but he wasn’t covered in ice and his eyes weren’t glowing, so that was something at least. All of a sudden, she realised that the creatures that Shane and the two prison guards had transformed into were familiar to her. They were identical to Chill Cadavers, undead monsters that infested the frozen regions of the Arieon Alchemy World. But that was impossible. They were just holographic simulations inside the game world. They couldn’t be here in this reality.

  As she watched, another of these holographic simulations lurched into the room. It was another prison guard and the Chill Cadaver stood slack jawed by the door, waiting for orders.

  “Come on!” Keene snapped, pointing at the laundry baskets. “Go and look for her!”

  Amy had to clamp her lips tight together to stop herself from crying out. The Chill Cadaver’s white light eyes fixed on the laundry baskets and it shambled towards her. Keene pursed his fat lips together and watched the creature in obvious disgust.

  Amy pushed down lower into the basket, as if that would help. Maybe if she covered herself in laundry, the thing would miss her altogether. She dismissed the idea out of hand. Not even zombies were that stupid. Her whole body tensed as she waited for the end.

  There was the sound of footsteps outside, accompanied by a sharp tapping, and Amy let out a deep breath as Doctor Calladyce puffed into the room. “Keene!” he gasped. “What in hell are you doing?”

  “Go back to bed,” Keene said gruffly. “This doesn’t concern you.”

  Calladyce glared at the man and then at the Chill Cadaver. “Stop that!” he ordered the monster, which straightened up and quit searching. It now stood waiting with a vacant expression on its ghoulish face.

  Calladyce rounded
on the prison guard. “I did not give permission to go to Omega Alert! Do you realise the damage you could cause, let alone if a prisoner saw this?”

  “I got my orders,” Keene said. “That girl of yours needs putting out of the picture.”

  “I will handle Amy,” the old man snapped. “She just needs to be brought round to our way of thinking. Deactivate the Chill Cadavers and let me find Amy. I will explain our glorious purpose in full to her and she will work for us willingly, I’m certain of it.”

  Keene shook his head. “Your mother doesn’t think so. The little tramp went behind your back to hack into BeyondMind. She’s too much of a danger to the plan. If that moron Shane hadn’t messed up the trap, she’d be out of our way by now.”

  “I said I will deal with this,” the doctor hissed. “Amy is not to be harmed! Do you understand?”

  Amy almost leapt out of the basket when she saw Keene casually pull his shock baton from his belt and crack Calladyce across the side of the head with it. The old man toppled over without a sound, and there was a sickening crunch as his head connected with the hard floor tiles. He went deathly still. Amy couldn’t breathe as a panic attack gripped her. The doctor was dead. Keene had murdered one of her closest friends while she just cowered inside a laundry basket and watched. The world was spinning now as she became lost in a surreal nightmare.

  Then, with a slowness that was truly terrifying, Calladyce stirred and sat up. Amy could almost weep with joy but a fresh wave of fear smashed into her as she stared at the old man’s face. On the doctor’s right side, where Keene had hit him, the skin was cracked and falling away like it was broken porcelain, to reveal a pulsating mass of vomit coloured maggots, fat and squirming, glued together in a grotesque mockery of human muscle tissue. As he remained seated on the floor, the strange creature that was Doctor Calladyce looked up at Keene with wide, hurt-filled eyes, like a child who had been smacked by his mother, and his lower lip trembled. It looked like he was going to burst into tears at any given moment, but then he suddenly glanced over at the laundry basket that Amy was hiding in and their eyes met.