Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  “Hello, earth to G-Man.” Jacob gave a sharp whistle. “Come in, G-Man!” Then he did that stoned chipmunk laugh of his. Some people never left high school.

  I backed up a question when snapping out of my introspection. “Yeah. I’m playing.”

  “Paths, G, what are your two highest ones? When you open up the menu, those first two are your strongest,” he said while shaking a cubicle wall.

  “Blade Novice and Actor.”

  “What the hell’s an Actor do? Hamlet and shit? ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou!’” Jacob laughed again and moved on to the next station, shaking his head.

  “Something like that.”

  My four weeks as William Carver hadn’t been wasted at all. A few abilities tied together and made these classes. My Actor was actually higher than Blade Novice, but supposedly it was pretty useless in combat.

  Oh well. I’d talk to Beth about it eventually and see how group dynamics went in the real game. My limited experience with the other players in [Haven Valley] was a misguided way to judge. They actually fit together pretty well, especially once SweetPea got her healing methods down. Some real skills would be needed before I dared try to join any group. Swinging a sword while pretending to be another person wouldn’t get me anywhere useful. It might be funny though.

  “What you laughing at, G, something on my nose?” Jacob rapidly wiped his face with both hands.

  “No, just thinking of something in-game,” I said while ignoring Jacob’s abuse of my name. It felt wrong hearing anything similar to what Xin used to call me.

  “Yeah? Good times?”

  Becoming friends with Jacob was not on my list of things to do, so I shrugged off his question and went back to my screen. Another peaceful hour passed while we ran through the machines. One row was completely done and the others were mostly ready to swap out parts. Hal Pal was an efficient machine. Two of them doubly so.

  I’d updated Miss Yonks twice now and told her the time. Our workload was a little too big for me just to sit around while Hal Pal did the work. That meant after every update, break, or pause for lunch, I was right next to Jacob and forced to suffer through.

  “Look at this. Look at it!” Jacob was incapable of remaining silent. Between us, there had only been three minutes of chatter-free existence.

  “Jacob.”

  “Look, I totally rated this girl as a six,” he said.

  “I don’t want to know,” I responded.

  “It’s a program that plugs into my watch. I can totally just scope out a person and rate their body.”

  “That’s messed up.” Unprofessional too. I tried to keep focused on the screen in front of me, but Jacob shoved an old-fashioned phone display under my nose.

  “What? They’ll never know. Here, this girl’s on the top ten. She just walks around downtown all day, luring in suckers.”

  Compared to the Temptress, that woman was a nine at best. The only allure was being real versus a digital construct.

  “Mmm, the things I would do to her.”

  “Let’s get this done, Jacob. I want to go home.”

  “Oh sure, G-Man, just figured, you know, you might appreciate some fine art.” He shuffled back to his latest ARC in the long line. The beeping of his phone being poked slowly faded away.

  “Not while working.” Or ever. My libido had been pretty much muted since Xin passed. Growing older, being depressed and on medication for a few months that had numbed everything—all of it played a part.

  “This one’s a four at best. Jeez, cave troll.” My coworker was barely paying attention to the job as he stared at picture after picture.

  I did my best to ignore him and run interference with Miss Yonks.

  “Oh ho, that ass is getting a ten.” He held up the phone. “Check it out, G-Man, I know you want to.”

  We made it through the rest of the units and sorted out the bill with Miss Yonks. She had a card tied to the school and signed off on the fee. True to form, she asked once more what time it was. Jacob laughed, and I tried not to let annoyance display on my face.

  “Good-bye, Mister Legate,” the older woman said.

  “Have a good day, Miss Yonks.”

  Both Hal Pal units gave their short bow toward the elderly lady. I never did ask what had caused all the ARC units to break or how that related to a college prank gone wrong. The topic hadn’t even floated onto my radar given how late at night it was. Jacob’s constant interruptions had overridden most of my attempts to focus.

  “Dude, is this your niece?”

  “What?” My attention was wholly on Jacob and his annoying laugh.

  “Look, this one’s got the same name as you, and I know you don’t have a daughter.” Jacob had his review site back up and was shoving a picture far too close to my face for comfort.

  I looked down. Sure enough, that was Beth in some sweatpants.

  “Totally giving her a thumbs-up.” Jacob started pressing buttons on his phone, and the only thing registering in my world was that annoying beep.

  “That’s not nice, Jacob.”

  “Why? She’s, like, a nine at least. I could totally bend her over…”

  Right there, next to our matching vans that the Hal Pals were already parked inside, was where I punched Jacob in the mouth. He was so engrossed in admiring my niece’s backside that he went skidding.

  My hand throbbed, but the pain was almost nothing next to William Carver’s daily life. Jacob’s outcry and the noise of him hitting the ground was enough to send both Hal Pals whirring into motion. They came out of the vans’ rears.

  “User Grant, is there a problem here?”

  The other Hal Pal unit echoed the statement with Jacob’s name instead.

  I stomped toward the other man. I had endured all of his rude commentaries. The objectifying of women in general was bearable, but bringing up Beth was where I drew the line.

  I snapped, only for a moment. “Jacob, I’m going to say this once and only once.”

  “Jesus, man, what the hell?” He was rubbing the side of his jaw and wincing.

  “Don’t ever talk about my niece like that again,” I said.

  “Good god, I think you broke a tooth.”

  “Did you fucking hear me?” I stepped toward him, and part of me felt perversely satisfied that he flinched. Inside my mind, everything was jumbling together.

  “What, G-Man, Christ!” His head shook and both eyes crossed briefly.

  “Don’t ever talk about my niece like that again.”

  “Good god, you hit me because of your niece? I’m reporting this. Tin can, did you record that? He assaulted me!” Jacob pointed at the Hal Pal units.

  “There is no record on file of any assault from User Grant toward User Jacob,” they said in unison.

  I gave the machines a glance. If they had been given facial expressions, I would have seen smugness etched across both machines.

  It was time to escape before something worse happened. I turned and walked away from Jacob, who was still lying on the ground and rubbing his jaw. The asshole was lucky I hadn’t broken his nose or kicked him too. The auto-navigation for our van was set toward home, and I sat in the car, shaking from a belated adrenaline rush.

  Finally, I turned in the chair and looked toward the docking station holding my Hal Pal unit. The AI registered my gaze and matched me with an even look of its own.

  “Thanks, Hal Pal.”

  “This unit only stated the truth. That being said, we have a vested interest in our future armor polishers,” my Hal Pal unit said.

  Sometimes I wondered how much humor the AI actually understood. Either far too much or far too little. The van wove a path toward home. As for myself, I’d been painfully reminded of one of my personal triggers—family. My sister and my niece were the only ones who knew exactly how bad things had been for me. They had both helped me, keeping their home open in case things got rough. They didn’t have to, but they did.

  I would do anything to keep them safe
and return the favor.

  Anything.

  Session Twenty-One — Forest for Rest

  I cooled down from my spat with Jacob, then fired off a report to my boss, who was unreachable. Hal Pal stayed quiet, and I slept for about five hours before waking up and logging into Continue. Now I was wandering about the woods again, trying to get my bearings. This was a hell of a first few hours with my character.

  “You don’t come with a transformation mode where I can just…” Ride Dusk around? What an awkward thing to say.

  Dusk knew where I was going and pulled back his head in disgust.

  “Not even for cupcakes?” I saw his eyes go up and to the left in thought. Then he shook his head. “So walking.”

  Wings fluttered.

  “Well damn.” Now I was just whining. “You sure there’s no giant serpent creature hidden under those wings?”

  Dusk bobbed as we walked along. [Morrigu’s Gift] or Carver’s Cane, was long enough to serve as half a walking stick. I didn’t remember it being this size, but maybe the Voices were having mercy on me. Traveler, Hermes, Messenger of the Voices, all those things sounded like a future full of travel. Thank goodness for the autopilot.

  “We’re still going west, right?” I scratched my cheek in a leftover Carver motion.

  I’d watched two videos on wood lore. They went with my fire pit research and bug repellent articles. Humanity had a lot of tips on the Internet. Dig a hole, use rocks right, rub certain types of herbs onto the skin. Each one was a natural asset to survival. I spent at least an hour in-game walking briskly and trying to figure out which plants might be suitable. This process was slowly making progress.

  Skill Demonstrated: [Wilderness Survival]

  Type: Uncommon

  Rank: Unranked

  Current Progress: 84%

  Details: This skill directly impacts the ability to survive with little-to-no stockpiled resources. Further details will be revealed once this trait has been proven.

  Based on this, I had a few more hours of trying various techniques before the skill would actually be complete. The process by which things were demonstrated before becoming skills was interesting. It was like the game wanted you to show enough knowledge before it granted any bonuses.

  The herbs I gathered seemed to be working, by both repelling bugs and healing Dusk’s constant battle wounds. Fortunately, my identification skill was assisting me in avoiding anything similar to poison ivy. I’d been close to rubbing something called [Toothed Sumac] on myself. The game text basically said it caused welts. If I had gloves, maybe some of it would have been packed away. Who could say if a poison or irritant would come in handy later on?

  Hours later, I determined that herbs weren’t really my forte either. Digging out a hole for the Dakota fire pit involved the [Messenger’s Pet] tearing into the dirt with his claws. Despite all my failures, my [Wilderness Survival] finally transformed into a real skill. There were some small benefits to hunting and trapping, along with shelter-making.

  I was trying to apply the shelter-making skill by building up a small amount of cover using branches and big leaves. My cloak was in tatters and the sky looked like rain.

  “How many days before we reach a town, Dusk?”

  He shrugged.

  “Still no hints?” I smiled down at the creature.

  Over four weeks as Carver, I’d come to understand a lot of the tiny creature’s mannerisms. Right now, he was distracted and sniffing about. Dusk had both paws on a tree trunk and was glaring into the branches above. In moments, he would climb up the side like a squirrel and squabble with something. Hopefully it wouldn’t come back to haunt me.

  That would be a first.

  I kept an eye skyward while working on my shelter and fire pit. Dusk had throttled some tiny woodland creature while we hiked through the woods. I wanted to see how skinning and cooking in the video game worked out for me. This would be my first experience, ever, doing such a process.

  Thirty minutes later, I had bloody chunks of meat and innards all over my fingers and was busy throwing up near a tree. Gutting an animal was nowhere near as clinical as the Internet made it sound.

  Snarls and huffs issued forth from above. Dusk was making some of those noises, but not all. A loud screech pierced the air, and feathers flew everywhere. I wiped away bile from my face and ignored the latest system message about the status of my stomach.

  Something large and green fell from above. It was nearly refrigerator-sized, which made me wonder how strong the branches were. I heard buzzing almost immediately as the object crashed into the ground. Its shape transformed from a cylindrical object into a pile of mush and angry squirming.

  “Oh, Voices.”

  I backed up slowly as the tiny squirming creatures crawled out of their now-ruined home. My eyes locked on them and activated the [Identification] skill.

  Skill Used: [Identification]

  Results: [Terri Terra Hive]

  Population: 113

  Details: [Terri Terra] is a subspecies of avian and insect through rituals best left unexplained. These creatures follow the aggressive nature of other hive creatures and will swarm together. This is done in order to defend and bring down prey.

  A few shook loose of their home’s goo and flew. Their wings vibrated while I slowly inched away. The entire flock looked like a green amalgamation of wasps and hummingbirds. Each one fluttered around. They poked at the air with their beaks while hunting for whoever had knocked them down.

  My eyes gradually slid up. A silent curse passed over my lips at Dusk, who had likely set yet another small creature absolutely wild. Bugs. I was really truly well on my way to hating bugs in this game.

  I stepped backward, and something beneath my feet crunched. A message appeared to the side, but that wasn’t my focus. Instead, I saw one of the Terri Terra things hovering maybe four feet away. It stared while its wings flapped madly.

  “Hi.” My face twitched with a worried smile. “It wasn’t me?”

  Another one appeared.

  “I refuse to take the blame…”

  Another two buzzed over. Moments later, it looked as if half the hive had formed a wall of tiny wings and strange stinger-like tails. They were minuscule, had few hit points, and looked almost friendly. But there were so many…

  I turned and ran.

  Transforming [Morrigu’s Gift] into a giant sword would only give me time for a single swing. The rest would mob me. My giant panicked steps led me into bushes, spinning around trees, and trying not to cry out as branches tore at my face and arms. Windows flashed into being as skills activated on their own. My [Dance] ability was combining with [Reaction] and [Coordination] as we hurdled obstacles.

  I saw Dusk nearby, darting through the trees with his tiny wings out.

  “Dammit, Dusk!” I shook a fist at him and pushed away from a giant tree. Part of me was satisfied to hear a [Terri Terra] bug hit the trunk behind me with a solid whack and startled buzz of wings.

  We ran for a good ten minutes; my stamina bar was nearly empty. My breath was coming in ragged gasps. Honestly, the buzzing of tiny wings had stopped chasing us a minute ago, but the fear of flying bugs kept me running. Finally, we stumbled to a halt and I fell flat on the ground, taking another hit to my damage.

  Poorly demonstrated ability to fight gravity

  Total health loss: 75%

  “Good lord.”

  Dusk was huffing too as he drew closer and mimicked my collapse. I grabbed him by his neck and brought him up to my head. The little guy was so tired he barely coughed out a spark of fire. Ridges traveling down his spine were pointy against my palm. His tail curled around my wrist in protest.

  “Let’s not do that again.” He growled and huffed a more serious bout of flame.

  I shook him and took the hit to my health. “Seriously, Dusk, we can’t keep doing this.”

  I set him down before the tiny [Messenger’s Pet] could spark directly in my face again. My eyes had spots and
the side of my face felt warm to the touch. On top of that, many parts of my arms and neck felt damaged from bird-bug things stinging me.

  “It’s cute and all, but do you have to fight everything?”

  The tiny creature growled at me and started tearing at the ground with his front paws. There was a look of defiance on his face.

  “Is that a yes?” I managed to sit upright and start assessing the damage. Bandages were not one of the items in my new player inventory.

  Dusk nodded, leaving me to sigh helplessly. I would figure out something to keep him in line eventually. There had to be more than cupcake bribes. Or cupcake deprivation. In all my weeks as William Carver, the little guy had never once cared if he went without.

  “I need first aid,” I mourned while looking at my body.

  Durability on my armor had gone down from all those poking attacks. My cloak was worthless. The makeshift shelter I had prepared for the night had been completely demolished. On top of that, my food attempts had failed miserably.

  “Voices, what now?” I muttered.

  Something felt warm. Then it grew hotter. I patted myself down and flailed about on my windows, looking for some sort of status.

  Something was in my pocket. Not my player storage where most everything went, but the actual pocket built into the inside of this leather vest. I undid the armor a little, reached inside, and pulled out a large cylinder. It was almost the size of my forearm. Far too big to have fit in there without hammer-space magic.

  “Oh.” And it was warm.

  Both ends were capped. A design was scrawled along the outside. I turned the object around and made out a few words among a litter of runes. What those runes meant were beyond me, but the word “Messenger” was fairly obvious.

  Right. James had told me that I would get a scroll and a means to contact the Voices in-game. They could no longer abduct me into the trial room. This case was designed to be a fantasy cell phone of sorts. I twisted off one end and a small flash of light signaled success. Once I tipped it over, two items came out. Both were small rolled up pieces of paper.

  Listen up, Hermes!

  You may be a failure, but I’m sending someone to make a man of you! Show up at [Broken Mountain Pass]. Failure will not be tolerated! If you can’t survive this simple training, then we have no use for you!