I ground [Morrigu’s Gift] into the dirt. Its staff form was handy for taking my frustrations out on local fauna and geology. Now I had two reasons for reaching a [Porter].
Finally, my tube for sending messages to the Voices rapidly warmed. I set down [Morrigu’s Gift] and tore off one end of the case. A message popped out.
Shazam watched with a passive expression. If her meal was hot, she showed no concern. I read the results from James eagerly.
Hermes,
I am pleased to hear from you. How is your mission with Requiem Mass progressing?
– James
“Damn.” Right, James wanted answers before providing much in the way of information.
Shazam put one hand toward the letter in my hand. Providing her the letter wouldn’t hurt anything and might also help in completing the quest with her. I forked the parchment over and went about answering James.
My silent babysitter pointed at the response I was writing.
“Oh. I’m writing to my Voice. I chose James.”
She put her thumbs up and did the “which” gesture. Shazam likely wanted more information, so I started rambling while trying to scribble out a status update.
“I chose a Voice named James. He’s a large black guy who loves asking questions,” I said.
She gave a thumbs-up and did the “which” gesture again.
“He’s nice enough, but there’re always extra hoops to jump through. How is your Voice? Does she at least answer your questions?” I had to figure out how to get Shazam talking about herself.
The response was a thumbs-down.
“No? She doesn’t answer your questions?” I asked.
Shazam shook her head then shrugged. She pointed at the quill and parchment in my hands.
“Hold on. I’ll read it.” I wrapped up my message to James and decided to read it out loud to Shazam. “‘I’m not sure about this player Requiem Mass. He responds with violence when angered and is fighting another Traveler. I need to observe them more before figuring out how to overcome my bindings.’” The message should be clear enough for James.
Shazam didn’t show any signs of having suggestions on my text. I shrugged and sent the message through the tube. Now would begin another round of waiting. Shazam stared at me for a moment longer and nodded slowly. Moments later, she was unrolling the rest of our campsite. She pointed at a cot for me while she went into another tent and closed the flap.
“Thanks for taking care of me,” I said toward her tent.
There was no response from her in any fashion.
Being alone in the wilderness had been odd the first few nights. Most of the time I logged off and let the autopilot do its thing. Who would actually sleep in-game? The few times I had tried had left me feeling even less rested than before.
An hour later, my Voice finally sent a response.
Hermes,
You are doing the right thing by observing the Traveler Requiem Mass. He has been a problem for Jean, and many of us hope you will be able to find an avenue that we have not. He is amazingly cautious for a Traveler. Regarding your original question.
Contacting Xin can be done. We will only be able to send one message a day. Anything more risks unwanted attention at this stage. Simply address the letter to her as you would to one of us. Would you like to send her a message?
– James
I scribbled “Yes” onto another of my endless parchment supply. The next task was trying to figure out exactly what to say to Xin.
Xin,
You may not believe it, but I finally learned to dance…
I laughed to myself and tried not to feel emotionally torn up. She was dead, but she was alive. I was writing her a letter in a fantasy world while camped out next to creatures that were both horses and rabbits. Maybe none of this was real and I had finally broken down and disconnected from everything else in the world.
I put more words to paper, parts crossed out and hastily reworded. There was only so much sunlight left, and I had to try to tell her everything while trying not to sound desperate. Anything in the hope that she would write me back an equally long letter. Finally, the sun vanished completely. Even Dusk was passed out next to me, looking content from his excursions.
I slowly put the message into the tube. Once again, the insanity of my situation raised concern. None of this would have even seemed possible to me if I hadn’t seen William Carver’s autopilot.
What was it that little girl Voice had said? Some people have more of them here than others. Trillium’s Vice President Riley had advised me that Xin was one of the first testers of an ARC. If William Carver and his virtual years within Continue had created someone so lifelike, wouldn’t Xin Yu be that much more real?
How did we define a person anyway? Was it the sum of their memories? Was there something more?
A box popped up notifying me that my consciousness was being relocated. Part of me welcomed the distraction of Requiem Mass and his arrogant point of view. It was that or bite my nails for hours while wondering exactly what Xin might write and exactly how insane this all was.
Session Thirty-Two — To the Letter
Requiem Mass was busy cleaning up the latest round of monsters to be hunted down. He kept counting to himself while muttering how a billion more were needed in order to make some recipe. Honestly, any time Requiem opened his mouth, I lost focus.
For three game days, we had been chasing down these zombie monkey creatures and chopping off their tails. My job was either to be bait or something similar. Nothing was working as I had hoped.
“Hold that one! Right now!” Requiem shouted. He pointed at a mid-level monkey. This one was slightly bigger than the others.
I gave in to the order. This wasn’t the type of thing worth fighting over anyway. Death by monster just meant returning to the Hermes body.
“Keep holding him!” the Traveler ordered. One of his hands slipped a sword into its holster and generated a giant trail of flame. The flames licked across the landscape and tore into the undead monkey I was grappling with.
The heat felt warm and mildly pleasant. That was a change from Requiem’s normal idea of discipline. Messages of [Fire Immunity] rippled across my screen as the last of the flames passed, and the monkey screamed loudly before collapsing.
“Another one!” Requiem pointed at our next target. These undead had no brains or they would run. “Hold that one! Right now!”
Some skirmishes created easier opportunities for Requiem’s murder than others. The system was tracking my attempts, and the totals were getting high. I had defied him forty-six times. I had followed instructions erroneously sixteen times. Two direct attacks failed to succeed. An effort to launch the shapeshifting [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] through his backside ended up as a nearly comical poke.
That event had made me laugh myself silly and resulted in another beating. My [Red Imp] character did not have the acting chops of my primary one. Hermes could have probably dropped a tree on Requiem and gotten away with a single “oops.”
Hours after our monkey fighting, Requiem settled down for sleep and left me with an order to gather herbs. For two game hours, I gathered plants from all over the area. The stacks of badly uprooted plants were about to be used in another virtual murder attempt.
Now they were being returned in mass, all at once and all over his stupid snoring face. Hopefully he would breathe them in and choke. I was constantly trying to figure out the fine line on what the system allowed and didn’t.
“Mmfgh!” Requiem sat up, spitting out a ton of small leaves. While he sputtered, I dropped two more armfuls on his face from above. “What the—what is this?”
“Herb forpotion things!” I shouted happily. Slowly these skills would pay off. [Identification] had let me find a few poisonous plants to insert with my presents. “I gatheredthem, just like youordered!”
He ignored my shouts, which meant my latest attempt had failed. The only consolation was that Requiem’s sleep was ruined.
He put all the items into player inventory, then collapsed with exhaustion. I was unsure why he didn’t log out to sleep like a normal person.
Eight hours of rest in-game was only two hours in the real world. His brain must be half broken to keep up that schedule for long. When I came back with a second mass of plants and threw them at his face, the results were predictable. He sputtered and brushed off dirt, leaves, and other goo. Moments later, I was ordered to stand in one place all night and not move.
For whatever reason, Requiem refused to let my summons release. Still, his actions did me no harm. I logged out and went to sleep. Sticking around only increased my synchronization bar. Three in-game days had ground my bar up to fifty percent. The reward was neat.
Reward:
For reaching 50% Synchronization, you will gain further access to racial skills.
Unlocked! Rank 2 synchronization – additional changes
[Blink] Racial skill developed
[Fire Resist] upgraded to [Flame Regeneration]
[Red Imp]s had proven amusing, except for the stumpy legs that were unable to dance. Humming still worked until Requiem had ordered a cessation of the noise forever. The young Traveler seemed intent upon micromanaging me into oblivion.
On the plus side, three days of flying around in-game had improved my coordination with these wings. I was fairly confident about being able to avoid most tree trunks. Finer hairpin turns were beyond me, however.
[Blink] was even neater and insanely hard to use. It would teleport me a short distance according to the text. There was no solid trigger at the moment. It wasn’t like I could shout “Blink!” and change locations. The game relied heavily on mental imagery similar to [Morrigu’s Gift]. My few private attempts had awkwardly missed the target.
I refused to practice [Blink] in front of Requiem Mass. That young man was driving me insane with his conniving attitude. The minute I showed any new skill, he found a way to abuse it. [Fire Immunity] resulted in holding rotting monkeys with rectal problems while trying not to retch.
After a good rest, I loaded up my remote ARC display to see what was going on. Requiem was busy forcing my [Red Imp] avatar to lure in more undead monkeys. I found myself laughing around breakfast as the [Red Imp] stabbed monkeys out of decrepit trees right over Requiem’s head. One, two, and finally twelve rotting monsters were brought down. The autopilot quickly tried to aggro the entire region.
Requiem just took it. I snickered to myself, finished my remaining food, and logged into my ARC. Something had shown on the side of my Continue Online remote display that required a personal touch. Maybe attempt thirty-eight at digital elimination would be effective.
Once inside, I spun around. Getting my bearings always took a moment. A specific area had caught my attention.
“Imp!” Requiem was shouting at me while monkeys gibbered.
The realism in this game had taken weeks to get over. Even now the game kept throwing gross new objects at me. These simians’ mouths were falling apart. Some had broken jaws. Others had mold-ridden tails, and most had no control over their sphincters.
“What?” I shouted.
Requiem Mass was to the left. Monsters were all around us. That meant my target was forward and right.
“Fight these monsters!” Requiem yelled.
“Yes, Requisite Ass! Right away!” I shouted while flying at high speed. I had no clue what the Traveler had ordered me to do.
There, just past a motley series of trees, was my goal. A monstrous rotten ape that was hidden away. My unique remote view of the [Red Imp] had happened upon the boss-level creature. The autopilot would never have noticed it.
“No! Fight these ones over here!” Requiem ordered me. He was busy shouting over the crazy monkeys’ garbled chattering.
“When?” I shouted back with my high-pitched imp body. It bought me a few more seconds for this reckless idea. The boss giant ape thing was just through the wall of withered bushes. I lined up my pitchfork weapon.
“What is wrong with you?!” Requiem demanded. The answer was clear—a lot of things were wrong with me. “Now, of course! Now!”
I braced myself against the impending damage for insubordination. Now was far too absolute a word. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] elongated quickly and jabbed toward its target.
Ignored an Order
Total health loss: 18%
Pain tore at my neck. The monster I had poked also let loose its gurgled roar. A [Dazed] message appeared, complete with an associated symbol. Next to that was a countdown. My tiny [Red Imp] mouth spewed forth a long line of words that had to be curses in demonic. I tried to flutter the tiny wings on my back and return to Requiem Mass.
The monster burst through the bushes behind me as I regained enough control to lift off. A small box appeared telling me exactly what I had stabbed.
Skill Used: [Identification]
Results: The Biggest Butthole - Unique
Rank: Extra Large
Details: He’s big. He’s hairy. He’s kind of a jerk. This monster will chew you up and crap you out because that’s the kind of creature he is…
“Ifound one!” I shouted while fluttering madly.
“No, you worthless idiot!” Requiem was waving his hands.
A message popped up on my screen. I had managed to right my flying enough to speed at the Traveler. Behind me, branches cracked under the pressure of a thundering beast.
What was Requiem doing? Things were going to be neat in just a moment! The Biggest Butthole was like two rotting [Snowmen] shoved together. Even my Hermes character could handle that. Give or take whatever superpowers a unique creature had.
Your summons status is being released.
“Nowait, thisone needs stabbings!” That wasn’t what I wanted at all! He was too far away. “Allthe stabbings!”
The Biggest Butthole versus Requisite Ass would be a glorious fight to instigate. Who would win? Would Requiem be chewed up and spit out? These questions demanded answers.
“Nooo!” The scene in front of me swirled away in a wash of colors. Fine. I couldn’t win them all.
When everything synced up with the Hermes character, I was in a town. I grumbled for a good ten minutes before sighing and letting the disappointment fade away. Now was the time to be positive. That latest attempt had been a good one. Plus, the autopilot for Hermes had finally made it to a decently sized town!
This place was nothing like [Haven Valley]. My starter town from the Age of Carver had been scenic and peaceful. Here, the buildings were far more militaristic in design. [Haven Valley] had had small guard posts. This place had huge walls separating portions of the city. People in armor patrolled the tops of walls and were clearly equipped with swords and horns.
Shazam passed a hand in front of my face. I turned to look at her. She waved her arms, then pointed at a few of the buildings nearby. I followed her gaze to a series of shops. Oh. She must be asking if I wanted to get anything.
“I need to visit a Porter!” I shouted. Working with Requiem had warped my speech habits a little.
Passersby looked at me oddly. Shazam nodded, and our two [Caliburr]s changed direction.
A lot of Travelers like myself were running around. They all wore different items and pieces of equipment. A few clearly followed warrior paths, though I could make out some in decorative clothing that likely had no combat value. One lady was escorting a giant creature that looked like a wingless dragon. Its eyes had no focus.
I took it all in happily. Being in a city was so much better than the dead scenery of Requiem’s location. Everything there was either rotting or decrepit. His mind had to be warped to stand being there for months in-game.
Oh! I had one issue far more important to me than Requiem’s silly problems. By now I should have a response from Xin. Hopefully. I scrambled to find the messenger’s tube. My channel to the Voices above was inside my leather chest piece. As I twisted off the top and peeked inside, a system message popped into view.
&nbs
p; Warning!
Consciousness relocation in progress.
“Seriously? I hate you so much!” I shook my free fist at the system box. It did no good. “I don’t want to!”
People looked at me weird. I looked at my pop-up message with confusion. The [Caliburr]s were probably winking at each other. Shazam didn’t bat an eyelash. Then pain rippled through me.
Summons resisted!
New skill created [Resist Summons]
“What the?” My neck burned. I was in the Hermes character and pain was trying to send me to the ground. This character was not the [Red Imp]! The bar for my health dropped ten percent.
Shazam raised an eyebrow and pointed. I groaned as another wave of agony passed along with a summons resisted message. My fingers tried to pull out the parchment barely visible inside the messenger’s tube. Another bout of agony nearly knocked me out of the straps holding me onto the [Caliburr]. Each wave was doing more damage. I shook and ground my teeth together while trying to read a few lines.
Gee,
Do you remember what my father said? He found so much about America strange and used to say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This place isn’t Rome, Gee.
My eyes clenched tightly and I tried not to lose it. Gee. That was her name for me. It was Xin; it had to be her somehow. There was an insane wall of text to go through, but I held off on reading it as emotions wracked through me.
I didn’t feel actual pain anymore. It was as if those few lines had washed away all the worry and left behind euphoria. My eyes opened to read the remaining text. Only now there was no parchment, no messenger’s tube, no [Caliburr].
Chubby reddened hands held a tight grip upon the blackened pitchfork. Requiem was snarling nearby. I started shaking and huffing. Never had I been more upset with another human being. There was so much more in that letter, and it wasn’t in my chubby little hands!
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Requiem said. Deader monkeys were all around him. He was busy picking through bodies and tearing off pieces.
“Whatswrong with me? Me!” I tried to stab him repeatedly with the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift]. “I’ll kill you! I’ll killyou, youstupid self-centered little brat!”
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