Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  The creature was huge and a lot closer now. My stream of talking must have set it off.

  “No! Do not want! You’re ugly and remind me of a giant dog! I hate dogs. My sister had a dog that peed on my bed!”

  In all honesty, cats were much better anyway. My hand reflexively switched [Morrigu’s Gift] into its two-handed sword form. I swung away at the approaching creature.

  “Stop trying to hit me! What is with this game! Why is everyone so violent! Why can’t a monster just attack me with a nice sandwich and some afternoon tea!” My mind was clearly full of complete nonsense. The sentence didn’t even come out right in the midst of all my attacking and hiccups.

  The white-furred monster fought back. Shazam—I thought it was her anyway—maintained her silent stare and passive expression while attacking the creature’s back. Ribbons of red crisscrossed from where the small blade sank in. My constant stream of talking must be attracting a lot of attention. The only actual damage from me was one gash on its shoulder.

  Then came a solid connection that sent me back ten feet.

  The [Snowman] has attempted to shut you up with his fist.

  Total health loss: 40%

  “Mah noos!” In a twist of irony, my nose had been busted by the giant creature’s lucky shot. “Wub is dis!”

  Today had started off so well. Now it was ending with a creature attacking me, a broken nose, hiccups, and an inability to prevent myself from saying exactly what was on my mind.

  I tried to concentrate and switch the weapon to a better form. This large two-handed blade kept getting caught by the mountaintop’s wind. By the time I managed to connect with the furry white creature, my blow was reduced to a love tickle.

  Finally, Shazam landed on the thing’s back and dug her small blade into its neck. The giant gave way as its huge eyes rolled backward. I scrambled to escape its face-to-ground collision. The snow was thick enough that the monster’s falling thud was minimized. Instead, there was an almost happy puff of snow floating around.

  “Hho woold put a—” I hiccupped and lost my thoughts. “Why is der a ye—” Another hiccup interrupted me. I huffed and banged down the giant sword. “Really. Dibs is annoying. Whatever. Zaazam. Derr. Thibs is yours.”

  I managed to get the scroll out of my player inventory without letting blood from my nose fall onto it. Dusk was on the ground and sniffing at the giant furry white creature, but he was otherwise unexcited.

  Shazam took the scroll. I tried not to lose my mind while hiccupping and babbling constantly. She didn’t comment either way and maintained a passive expression. There was a dark flat tone to her face that felt dull. I tried to remember my exercises in paying attention to other people. Her deep green eyes were visible if I tilted my head back. It looked as though her face had freckles buried under her already dark skin.

  “Yoor—” My body betrayed me once more. “Dis autopilot. Oooo kehy.”

  Shazam’s autopilot seemed more intent upon cleaning her gear and wiping off the red blood than any real interaction with me.

  [Pass to Pass] complete!

  “Wubever. I need coffah.” I logged out of Continue Online and took a break.

  Session Twenty-Eight — The Falling One

  The next week of real time passed fairly quickly. My recaps to Miz Riley were straightforward each day. I would have given her every single moment, but the vice president wasn’t interested in that. She wanted my experiences with the Voices.

  Out of game, I managed to work a few jobs per day. Nothing dire or amazingly mind-numbing. It was just enough to keep my skills somewhat fresh as the game world ran one new thing after another by me. Driving around in the Trillium van kept me from completely losing myself in the other world. There had to be people who completely forgot how to function at work. With Continue’s time compression, real life almost seemed like a part-time gig. A large part of me was willing to believe that people were out there trying to cast fireballs by chanting words from Continue.

  I did my standard session with the shrink. He asked about my time in Continue and seemed proud as always. His giant chaise was cliché but amazingly comfortable.

  My sister invited me over for dinner, which was pleasant. Beth was sucked into her game doing whatever. I left her a message about Camp Gray Skull’s lack of a [Porter].

  In-game, I spent a lot of time cold and sniffling. Those first few days involved me shivering uncontrollably until Shazam showed me a hot spring in a cave. That removed my [Stench] and [Mush Mouth]. The other diseases faded away slowly, leaving a minor resistance skill in their wake. The game was too kind on that regard. It took a few days of her dragging me out to watch her fight [Snowmen] before we had enough materials for a real set of armor for me. Shazam was perfectly comfortable stitching the pieces together.

  She seemed nice enough but wasn’t talkative. Our conversation was mostly through pantomime. Her autopilot was often a more engaging personality. Shazam had rather violently gestured at me for half an hour until I agreed to leave my own autopilot going. That resulted in me logging into a new situation with every round of Continue. Once I returned to the game and found my character freezing in a deep lake. Shazam was casting some healing spell on me and putting my autopilot through hell. The result was a more natural [Chill Resistance] skill.

  I began to suspect the Voices were messing with me during my logged-off periods. That, or I acted too accepting in-game. I had no reason to truly distrust Shazam though. The worst she could do was kill my character. Anything else could be avoided by simply logging out and going about my day.

  Combat was going better as well. I rather enjoyed fighting one of the [Snowmen] monsters by myself. In four weeks, I had gained additional stats, which helped me handle one of them without assistance. They hit far harder than any four [Gobbler]s put together. Having decent armor was the key.

  My biggest victory was the improvement in the real world. I was down fifteen pounds since starting Continue Online. Most of that was probably from better eating habits. Working fewer hours meant less takeout. Eating power meals before logging in controlled my tendency to stuff myself. The EXR-Sevens were burning calories, and I could actually see the edge of an ab, just the one. It was exciting.

  At this rate, I would be able to join Beth for her crazy event and actually show off some good points. At least, if the enemy was a bunch of monsters. It had taken me weeks to get used to things screaming in my face and spittle flying about. HotPants and the other players I’d traveled with had adapted to this alternate reality far quicker. Still, any improvement was improvement.

  “Waaaagggh!” The wild yell was echoed by multiple creatures around me.

  I was trying to move in the snow and ice to dodge and failed.

  Waltzed into a claw

  Total health loss: 10%

  So right now, when a swarm of monsters similar to frozen angry chickens attacked, I was actually entertained. This was far better than tax season. It was better than dealing with elderly people and their half-broken ARC devices.

  Succeeded at playing Chicken

  Total health loss: 15%

  “Waaggggrr!”

  I dodged as one of the smaller creatures spring-boarded through the air toward me. A week ago, these little monsters would have torn me open multiple times. I’d learned a lot by watching Shazam handle some herself. She could demolish them in a few quick slices. It wasn’t just player Paths and Ranks that were different; it was her attitude.

  I tried to apply my growing [Coordination] and [Speed] to the fight. It wasn’t easy. My in-game body kept up, but my mind didn’t. It was amazing enough that this program operated at a four-to-one compression speed. The magic behind that was still beyond me. Part of me wondered if the system only gave stats a measure in order to gauge a player’s actual growing ability. That would mean that everything about the game had a soft cap of sorts based on human limitations. Neat. Given a few more months, I might catch up to the average person.

  “Hhhuuurr
rr.”

  These ice chickens sounded funny. They were small enough that Dusk himself could tackle one at a time. It was entertainingly savage fighting a mob of tiny monsters with him.

  Seven of the swarming creatures were down. Eight remained. Dusk was currently fighting the smallest one and trying to roast its face with a stream of tiny fireballs. The small creature used snowdrifts to dodge and hide from his flames. I was trying to use a weapon much like the one Shazam had been using. [Morrigu’s Gift] had taken days to get the simple shape down. The weight of it still hadn’t changed despite the huge difference in size.

  Dusk pummeled another one of the small creatures at about the same time I managed to off one of the small monsters myself. The gloves Shazam had given me were thick and allowed me to grab one of the monsters and toss it far away. Dusk bounded over like a puppy playing in the snow.

  It took another few passes to clear the remaining creatures. Three more died to Dusk and me. The final ones ran away. Shazam slowly clapped and gave me two thumbs-up. Her face wasn’t smiling though. I had begun to wonder if she ever expressed happiness or anger.

  The follow-up process to dealing with monsters involved looting them. That was weird to me. Dusk happily chewed on one of the deceased. I had learned to transport some of the items to my player inventory. Ice creatures gave me some weird version of a frozen chicken breast. They worked as Dusk treats and kept my satiety bar from hitting zero.

  Shazam crooked a finger in my direction then pointed at her wrist. That seemed to loosely translate to “come with me” and “time is short.” Faster wrist tapping meant to move quicker.

  So we marched briskly along the mountaintop. I was no veteran or professional. My few weeks in-game helped but didn’t make everything a cake walk. Shazam, on the other hand, hauled across the landscape like nothing was in her way. She probably had some high-powered skill that let her move through terrain quickly. My character sheet had added [Mountain Man], and [Wilderness Survival] had taken sizable strides.

  These skills were high enough that they might be of use in real life. Someone would need to give me a giant two-handed sword and one [Messenger’s Pet] first though. I wasn’t about to leap out into the Montana mountain range to see if living off the fat of the land was doable. If my future in robot framework polishing fell through, then maybe that would be my next choice.

  Despite all the pain of Continue Online and the soreness of my muscles, I kept coming back. Part of it was learning the new skills. It was like being in an interactive school that taught anything I was interested in. Part of it was the strange hope that there was a purpose behind it all.

  Shazam was leading us up the mountain even father. We might be heading toward the peak again. Maybe not. I’d only had one trip up this high before. Everything else took place in a sort of valley on the backside of the mountain.

  “I don’t think I’ll need heals this time,” I said.

  Shazam shrugged and gave a single thumbs-up. She was agreeing.

  “Are all mountains this easy?” I asked while climbing over another snowdrift.

  She shook her head and kept right on moving. The woman was fast. Our path wove and bobbed a little bit. The only things that really stood out were the bits of her face that weren’t covered by her white fur armor. I had a similar set. Shazam was even kind enough to give me a helm that replaced [Wild Bill] up here on the mountain.

  The hat would be silly to use in this weather. Maybe once my stats were much higher, I could walk around the world with it and [Morrigu’s Gift]. All I needed were some boots. A shirt and some neat pants would be nice. The ones Shazam made chafed something fierce.

  “How far are we going?” I asked while pondering how one went about collecting gear in this game.

  Shazam pointed upward then motioned twice more.

  “The top?” I tried not to sound whiny about it. Fighting a small herd of ice chickens for so long had been mentally tiring. At least my physical issues went away pretty quickly.

  Shazam nodded slowly. It was a shame she never smiled. Those darkened freckles might be kind of cute.

  “Okay, I’ll be right back then.”

  It would take hours to get up there. I zipped out of the ARC, relieved myself, grabbed a snack, and got back in. My autopilot was docile enough to travel up the mountain behind Shazam.

  “Back,” I announced upon return.

  Shazam gave me her standard thumbs-up.

  I shook my head. She must be mute in-game. I didn’t know how much of it translated back to real life. It wasn’t like she never communicated with anyone. Every so often she would pause and wiggle her fingers in the air, meaning a text message was being sent. Shazam often sent little notes to her guild members. Neat. Maybe I should look into getting a guild one of these days.

  We marched up even higher. Our trail went back to the mountain path I had first climbed. It took an hour to make it past the new-recruit-shouting rock. It would take another hour to get to the peak. My [Light Body] skill was barely still in effect, though it helped out immensely. All this [Snowmen] armor pushed the weight limit.

  Finally, we made it to the top. Shazam had managed to lead us around most of the monsters and reduced the time needed. The summit was only twenty feet away. She pointed at a ledge twice.

  “Over here?” Normally her pointing meant I needed to go stand somewhere. The reason often became apparent right away. Like a monster attack.

  She nodded.

  “It’s not a spider this time, is it? I really hate spiders.”

  We had fought a monster that seemed to be a glass cockroach. When it died, hundreds of little grossnesses came out. I’d retched after that one and then shoved the body off the cliffside using [Morrigu’s Gift]. Dusk helped by torching the smaller bugs and kicking them off with wads of snow.

  Shazam shook her head.

  “Oh, thank goodness.”

  She motioned me a few feet to the left then gestured for me to back up. This was putting me dangerously near the edge. Fortunately, heights weren’t one of my problems in this game. I had fallen a few days ago. That event killed my character but otherwise left me unscathed. It just meant that reallife issues could be completed while waiting out the timer.

  Shazam had a lot of skills. Resurrecting the dead wasn’t one of them. It had taken me two days to gain back the points lost from that little event.

  “Farther left?” I asked.

  Shazam was motioning still. Then she put up both hands for me to stop.

  “Okay. Now what?”

  She unrolled the scroll that I had handed her over a week ago. Her eyes looked at the contents of the scroll then at me. That happened a few times. Finally, she held it up and squinted. I couldn’t see what she was looking at from this angle.

  That being said, I wasn’t stupid.

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?” I muttered.

  Shazam didn’t answer me.

  That scroll came from the Voices. Whatever she was reading on it seemed to be giving her instructions. There was only one reason the Voices would want to send her instructions regarding me on a mountaintop.

  Sure enough, she nodded. For the first time since we’d met, Shazam gave me a slight smile. It was a small thing that made her freckled cheeks stand out even more.

  Then the woman ran toward me. Her speed was miles beyond anything she had displayed before. My meager skills built over the last few weeks in-game had no way to keep up or stop the bull rush. She ducked low at the last moment and drove her body upward into mine, with pressure from the back leg.

  There was enough time for me to blink once before the landscape spun away. Her move had launched me a good fifteen feet into the air. Fifteen feet was enough time to contemplate the choices that had brought me here. I could see Shazam righting herself on the mountaintop. She watched with a calm expression as my body twisted and flailed in a completely natural reaction to being airborne. Her eyes followed mine as I twisted away and turned toward the oncomin
g ground.

  I felt like this was Beth’s intro all over again. My niece had a free fall from orbit log-in that she used. This was much the same, only shorter, colder, and the stop at the end would be more violent.

  A window came into being citing my current flight time and distance covered. The seconds passed and the ground grew closer. I put my arms in front of my face to brace for impact in case it was survivable. Physical pain was only slightly scary by now.

  Static crossed my vision and interrupted the descent. I fell into a landscape no longer consisting of white mountaintops and cockroach monsters. The ground was hard, but there was no jar of pain. I rolled and tumbled until the inertia from my fall bled off.

  Everything about me was gray. It wasn’t the room of trials from my character creation. This wasn’t the Jester’s in-between land either. I did look around for him with a worried expression.

  System Help!

  Glitch Found. You will be rewarded for exposing this glitch. Please log out and log back in in order to return to your bind point at [Camp Gray Skull] – [Broken Mountain Pass] – [Arcadia].

  Dusk popped in just behind me and made a much more graceful landing. The small [Messenger’s Pet] sniffed the floor wildly. A face floating in his thought bubble went from a curious pink to angry red scowling. Actions soon reflected thoughts as Dusk started clawing at the ground violently.

  “What’s wrong?” I stood and kicked the clumps of snow off my [Snowmen Boots].

  Something moved. It was beyond giant, and whatever it was made Dusk go crazy. He started clawing at a wall that blended seamlessly with the floor. It was like the surrounding void of gray suddenly took on new dimensions as it was torn to pieces by the furious tiny creature.

  Darkness pierced the gray as the [Messenger’s Pet] dug into the wall. His claws shredded holes into the pseudo-fabric. I stepped back from Dusk and tried to grasp exactly what was happening. There seemed to be some sort of backdrop between where I had landed and another portion of the room.

  System Help!

  Stability of connection is deteriorating. Please log out to ensure there is no risk to your safety.