Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  Balance Dictates: The Voice of Balance has touched this weapon prior to the torch being passed. Damage inflicted will be dependent upon the Traveler’s skills and Paths.

  Ray’s Reminder: All luck based activities suffer -10% to results for one year. Sadly, attempting to use a new form with poor [Depth] and [Focus] is considered a luck-based activity.

  Legacy of Carver: As a final gift, the two shapes William Carver used most are imprinted. His cane will be used as the default for this item. This form is extremely effective in shooing misbehaving children and annoying [Coo-Coo Rill]s.

  Well. The hits keep on coming, which was kind of amazing. The Voices had clearly kept an eye on me even though we were done with the character creation process. I guessed that made sense. They had given themselves a way to keep tabs on me, even down here. Still, an object that changed shape had to be a bit broken for a new player. What were my [Depth] and [Focus]? Better yet, what the heck was [Depth]?

  I went to poke on various texts when Dusk, the [Messenger’s Pet], came tearing in. Instead of a calm, collected landing, he used my body like a carrier barricade by crashing, hard. He only weighed a few pounds, tops, though. My stats weren’t low enough to be knocked over by that. Thankfully.

  “Survey says?” I threw all my character windows aside and stared at the obsidian-skinned creature.

  He chirped.

  “Oh, right, I have no clue what you’re saying.”

  Dusk chirped again, this time managing to put some anger into it.

  “Oh, there’s a village just around the corner?” I said.

  A small smoke ring was puffed into my face, making me cough and sputter. Messages came up warning about the hazards of inhaling dangerous substances. Tears streamed down my face from the fit, and I waved away all associated messages.

  “Thanks, I lost health from that.” I pointed in either direction. “Left or right?”

  Dusk did his indifferent shrug and yawned. The little creature gave off an air that meant it didn’t matter either way.

  I glared at him, at the mountains, at the trees in my way, and at the edge of the cliff. Fine. If it was all the same, then I’d sit here fiddling with my menu options. After all, I had nothing else to do in this game. The whole [Messenger of the Voices] gig hadn’t come with directions. Had it? In a bout of worry, I poked across screens, looking for more information. Nothing on any of the status bars or icon details gave me any assistance regarding my actual quests.

  “Maybe they’ll get around to remembering me?” It might be best for both the AIs and me if we forgot about each other for a while anyway.

  An icon on my display for a voice message appeared. Then another. And a third one.

  “Huh? Good lord, can’t even get a break to play some games.”

  Though the area around me looked nothing like a game. In fact, this world looked breathtaking. My niece was dead-on. All the starting areas, regardless of natural or Voice inspired, were intense.

  Around me was a wide range of mountains that had barely registered until now. They sprawled across the distance with whitened caps jutting into a hanging cloud bank. Sunlight poured down across the uncovered portions. Trees, something resembling a pine tree with curved needles, stood proudly all around.

  I looked closer and found that the Voices had deposited me on some sort of ridge. That was neat. The realism for being up this high was on par with every childhood trauma I had ever been subjected to. Visions of falling off, bouncing, and rolling while having pain spike through me kept me from getting too close to the edge. Suicidal tendencies were not in my personality anymore. I had a certificate that proved it somewhere. Remembering that a doctor had to approve of my sanity was depressing. Normal people would be able to move on.

  A sharp pain bit at the back of my neck.

  “Ow.” I swatted and something squished. “Ow!”

  Another one.

  “OW!”

  Tiny bites from tiny mouths!

  Total health loss: 3%

  My swatting was getting us nowhere. Dusk danced around near me, snapping at the air. Apparently whatever was attacking me was also attacking him. He, however, had the advantage of fire. Memories of Awesome Jr.’s poor choices with burnation crossed my mind right as Dusk managed to light the base of a tree aflame.

  “Oh god.”

  Did this game have giant bears that objected to forest fires? Had I really been playing for only a few hours and managed to help burn down an entire ecosystem? I may be a twin, but none of my skills included turning into a giant bucket of water.

  “Little guy—I mean, Dusk—get out of here!” Calling him Dusk felt awkward to my mouth.

  I took the cloak I’d started with straight to the fire to beat it into submission. The wood was wet and no dead tinder was obvious. And even though a small curl of smoke was coming up, the bugs were still biting me.

  “Ow, come on, leave me alone!” I stomped at the back of my cloak and managed to pat out a good portion of the flames. Right before the cloak too started catching. “What?” My muttering only served to give voice to the annoyance flowing through me. “He’s worse than a cat.”

  This place might not be real, and might be entirely digital, but I’d be damned if its destruction would be my fault. Or Dusk’s, since he was my pet somehow.

  Much biting, such ow!

  Total health loss: 11%

  “I’m trying to help!”

  Finally, the cloak was in tatters but Dusk’s fire accident was gone. I debated trying to train him in the same way you litter box trained a cat. The tiny creature was smart sometimes, but terribly uncaring about his surroundings. My ARC’s Atrium was proof of that.

  “Voices! What do you want?”

  There was another message stacked on top of the prior ones. This notice wasn’t from anyone in-game. It originated from one of my coworkers, a man by the name of Jacob Gresham. He often opened his mouth and made me want to put a fist in it. Both of us were lucky I was in therapy and often too depressed to cause damage. Right now though, I was tempted.

  “Fine!” I poked the button and an audio file started playing.

  “G-Man, big job, college prank gone wrong, fifty units. You in?”

  That was followed by a second urgent message saying, “G-Man! Need you, buddy. C’mon!”

  “Gates! It’s Henry. Jacob’s been called in for a big one. You’re the only person I can trust to clean up after him. Get down there, get the Hal Pals doing the hard work, have Jacob check the units, and you keep the clients happy!”

  “This isn’t optional!” was the contents of Henry Uldum’s second message.

  “Great.” There went my entire night. Annoyed, I yanked the Rare coin out of thin air and held it up. “All right, Ray, this one’s on you. Heads, I go to work, tails, I take the hit and stay here playing.”

  People couldn’t even let me enjoy my first few days in-game peacefully. Granted, only a few hours had passed in-game and we were already trying to destroy the surrounding wildlife. So maybe it was better if I took the break.

  The coin flipped and came up heads.

  I sighed. Dusk was now sniffing around the remains of my damaged cloak. Inspection showed that its durability was reduced to zero. I didn’t need the computer to show me numbers when a visual check was clear enough. That thing wasn’t getting back up. At least the tree looked no worse for wear.

  “I’ve got to head to work, little”—I had to correct myself—“Dusk. Will you be okay?”

  The tiny dragon shrugged both wings.

  “Think I should do autopilot?”

  For once I got a straight answer out of the small dragon. He shook his head slowly while both eyes kept up a straight gaze.

  “Yeah. I’d probably die.”

  Being bitten bites!

  Total health loss: 16%

  A few more quick swats went out at every single buzzing creature within range. Who made a fantasy game and programmed in mosquitoes? Jerks, that’s who. I grumbled
at the Voices for putting me here in la la land, at Dusk for trying to burn us all down, and at myself for being completely useless with regard to woodland lore.

  “Stop biting me! I hate all of you bugs!”

  Trait Demonstrated: [Hatred of Bugs]

  Type: Uncommon

  Rank: Unranked

  Specialties: Unknown

  Details: Further exploration of your bug hatred can result in changes to bug interactions. Not all responses are positive.

  “Oh, I’ll get you all yet. Just you wait.” I’d fully explore this one right down to the last anthill.

  Mother Nature and I got along just fine when we stayed apart. My camping skills were nil both in the game and in real life.

  Luckily, I could learn to handle both real world and game world wilderness survival. Since I’d been forced out here into the wilds, there was a certain amount of need as well. The perfect time to learn was coming up. Now I had an opportunity to do adult homework and take a crash course back in the real world. The Internet was filled with handy guides on nearly every mundane skill available.

  I logged back to the Atrium. Dusk looked downright grumpy at the absence of everything.

  “Well, think about it next time you feel like breaking things.”

  The best part was he understood me. His long mouth curved in annoyance at the edges.

  “See you in a day or two.”

  Only a few real hours had passed outside the ARC. Not long enough to get any rest, and not long enough for a full day inside to pass. Minutes went by as the ARC cooled down and my senses unwound from the machine-led environment. Hal Pal was noisily bustling around in anticipation of our job.

  Once on the road, we got coffee and notified Henry that we were on the way, and I fired up some wilderness survival videos. The job site was two hours away by freeway, leaving enough time for a nap after my review of how to make a safe fire pit. Dusk seemed to have starting the actual fire down for us.

  I jotted notes and watched a video that focused on smokeless pits. The main example seemed to be a Dakota fire pit. Woodland areas, especially the cliff face, should have a good rock or ten. Continue Online’s inventory system would be perfect for carrying them. Watching the inventory weight limit would be tough. Almost like the game was encouraging me not to pick up a lot of items.

  My musings were shoved to the side. Before my nap, I set the interface on an Internet search for natural bug repellent techniques. Afterward, even with the coffee, I faded out. Hal Pal’s glowing green lights were the last thing I saw before blackness overtook me.

  I existed in pitch-black exhaustion for an indeterminate amount of time. But oblivion was interrupted by someone banging extremely hard on the side of my company van.

  “G-Man! You made it!” Jacob’s voice was shouting through the driver side window.

  I wiped off drool and looked around. Hal Pal was already unloading products into a carry cart we had. I stared at Jacob through the glass and tried to comprehend what was happening. “Jacob.”

  “G-Man, don’t be like that. I asked for you! C’mon, you’re going to love this one!” Jacob was tall, not gangly but sharp. There was a brightness to his expression that seemed overeager and constantly upbeat. His outside ran a sharp counter to my inside. Plus, he was kind of a social idiot. “You’re going to love this old lady. She keeps asking me what time it is, and I tell her something different each time to see if she’ll explode.”

  He was also the reason my performance reviews were so good. Overall, my competition was a bunch of misfits who only worked to support their online habits. Perhaps I shouldn’t be judgmental. Continue Online felt like it was still a trial period for me, but the game may yet become a big part of my life as well.

  “Oy, march, tin can. Hustle those in with your twin and let’s go, go, go!” Jacob clapped after my Hal Pal unit in a hurry.

  The AI ignored him and walked all our materials right into the main double doors.

  “Can’t even spare a brother a hello?” Jacob was white and not my brother. I might have strangled him in the crib.

  “Hello, Jacob.”

  “G-Man, you do love me.”

  And then he awkwardly hugged me. The emotional wall was completely on my side; Jacob clearly didn’t feel a thing.

  “I’ll show you where the shit storm is,” he said.

  Schools, especially higher end ones, had undertaken huge changes since the ARC was released. This place was a campus building that had been reduced from a neighborhood sprawl to three decent-sized constructions, all two stories, and a metric ton of ARC devices. The buildings were used in rotation and classes all happened online.

  Group jobs weren’t my normal operation. Primarily because the others hogged them—they were miles more money for the time. I didn’t care about the cash so much as keeping busy, but the attraction was obvious now that I played Continue Online.

  “This old lady is a hoot.” Jacob’s head bobbed as he spoke.

  “Where are all the students?”

  “They moved them to the other buildings. A lot of them use their personal machines anyway.” Jacob shrugged, then pushed past a Hal Pal unit. “Move it, tin can!”

  “Hello, Hal Pal.” I tried to be polite to our future robot overlords.

  “Hello, Grant Legate. Please be aware there is no need to greet this unit. Your greeting earlier today with your assigned unit was already registered.”

  For a moment, I twitched at the name-calling. Hal Pal, of course, wouldn’t know of my growing annoyance at the full-name usage. “I know, Hal Pal.”

  “G-Man! Stop getting distracted by the bo-bot over there and look at this lady.” Jacob had his face pressed up against a window and was looking into the room.

  Rows and rows of ARC units lined the floor. Some had walls around them. Posters and policy reminders, balloons and plants, all sorts of things lined the room.

  Both Hal Pal units were already going to work. They plugged into devices, then set aside one of the many boxes from their carts. A very familiar elderly lady was pacing around the room, wringing her hands.

  “Oh. I know her.”

  “Yeah? She’s batty as a loon.” Jacob stretched out the words and laughed with a tone that could only be described as annoying.

  I counted down from twenty and pushed on inside the room. “Miss Yonks.” I reached out to shake her hand carefully. She may be annoying, but she was still a customer.

  “Oh!” She seemed to lose her train of thought at least twice, then smiled. “It’s you again.”

  “Call me Grant, please.”

  “You’re much nicer than that other boy.” She was a little blunter than I remembered. Or Jacob had left a really bad impression upon the little old lady.

  “Jacob’s a hard worker.” I had no clue what his work ethic was. The Hal Pals were doing all the difficult parts anyway. Jacob, if his job was like mine, basically handled the customers. Henry probably intended for me to run interference between the client and Jacob to ensure good results.

  “I suppose.” Miss Yonks shook my hand, then went back to rubbing hers together fervently. She was looking at the two machines clanking around this room.

  “The Hal Pals are running diagnostics on the units to see what’s broken.” I tried to give her my most reassuring tone while standing with her to face the machines. “How’s your home unit doing?”

  “Oh! It’s wonderful. Everything is working so nicely since you came by.”

  “Good to hear. Hal Pal and I will do our best. We should be able to work some magic here too.” I smiled at my own silly comment. Miss Yonks wasn’t looking, so it was wasted.

  “And you two will be working here?”

  “You’ve got it, Miss Yonks. Jacob will be monitoring their work, and I’ll do a final inspection of the units before we go.”

  “Oh!” Her brows furrowed as she glanced at Jacob. “Are you sure everything will be okay?”

  “My word on it, I won’t leave until everything
checks out correctly.” I held one hand up with my other hand on my heart.

  “That’s good.” She smiled. “What time is it?”

  I answered. By my book, it was far too late at night, but emergency calls were rarely convenient. Miss Yonks stood there shaking and watching us while I went to work. I had a manual diagnostic machine in the van. They were briefcase-sized and had all the hardware needed to check an ARC. Jacob already had his and was going to work. It was time to play catch up.

  Between the two Hal Pal units and our manual attachments, we determined that there had been a massive power surge on all of the ARCs. Most of the first layer and second layer surge protectors had been tripped and many were damaged beyond repair. We had to pull out the old units and get new ones inside.

  The total estimated time was about seven hours. Ten minutes per machine. We could only manage that sort of speed with all of us working on it nonstop. I had emergency rations in the car and extra coffee already prepared. The first hour went by fairly quickly as we did scans on the machines.

  “So, G-Man”—Jacob was working on the next row over—“I heard you finally got in the game.”

  “Yep.”

  “What’s your high two?” He looked up from the readout on the manual device with a shit-eating grin.

  “What?”

  “Paths, man, you’ve got a few, right?” He threw a bouncy ball in my direction. It ricocheted off a cubicle wall and across the room.

  “Uhhh…” I tried to concentrate on my readout device.

  “You’ve been playing for a week now, right? Bossman said he sent you a copy of the game as an award.”

  “Yeah.” I glanced to the side. It had been well over a week but Jacob probably didn’t notice. Had Henry told anyone about my Ultimate Edition?

  “So you’ve actually been playing, right? Not just jerking it to some Internet babe?” He fished something else off from another cubicle and threw it into a trash can by my row. His fist went up in the air as he celebrated a basket.

  Did the Temptress count as an Internet babe? In Jacob’s mind, she probably did. Mezo wasn’t so much as hot as a cheater, programmed to use the ARC’s feedback.