Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  I was half tempted to flip a coin, but honestly, I had enough gold to buy both and still have some left over. The items plopped into my player inventory, and gold vanished accordingly. Hopefully no one else nearby heard those cash register noises.

  Shazam wandered the boards while I inspected the items. I trusted her enough to buy the items without too much investigation. The first one seemed to be a deck of cards following Continue Online’s unique take.

  Instead of diamonds, there were footprints on each card. Instead of a spade, there was a scale of some beast, probably a dragon. The third suit was a small fire hovering over a brick. I wasn’t sure how the final two suits of a tooth and sword hilt fell into things. While I was turning them over, looking at the numbers and other pictures, Shazam tapped on my shoulder.

  “What?”

  She ignored my question and grabbed all the cards. She threw them into the air.

  “Ahh!” I managed to catch a good number of them as they fell. I was surprised how many were in my hands by the end of the scramble.

  +2 [Coordination]

  +2 [Reaction]

  “Why?” I looked at the system message and got confused. Scrambling to catch flying cards had resulted in a bonus? My head shook.

  Shazam gave me a thumbs-up, then tapped the card’s case three times. All the cards vanished from their landing spots and reappeared inside the case. She handed it back slowly.

  “That is so weird,” I said.

  “Variance bonus,” someone near me said grumpily. I turned and saw the same old man in pajamas from before. “First time doing anything new gives a bonus.”

  “Thanks.” I shook my head in puzzlement. Had my confusion been so evident that some nearly random person had to comment on it? Judging by Shazam’s double thumbs-up, the answer was yes.

  “Mh.” Pajama man was still holding up his pants with one hand. He stood staring at bulletins much like Shazam did. There was no sign of him using a digital interface.

  I took the pack of cards back from Shazam. People bumped around us to get closer to the auction board.

  A much shorter man was walking a path nearby while shouting. “Anyone interested in buying unique mats? I gots a seller who has access to rare items from a private region.”

  I looked down briefly to see a man who was clearly grumpy.

  “If anyone’s interested, just let me know. I’ll be logged on for hours,” the short man called.

  I raised an eyebrow at Shazam.

  “What region is it?” a Traveler near me asked the short fellow hawking his specialty wares.

  “Can’t say! But I gots access to unique goods. Recently my supplier got drops from a special mob nicknamed The Biggest Butthole. I gots the stats written down for anyone interested,” said the short man.

  It took me a moment to realize how angry his commentary made me.

  Somehow Requiem Mass was sending items to another player and making gold from them. A whole series of things clicked together at that moment. The entire reason I was on this quest was because the Voices were upset at Requiem Mass. This guy was selling things under the guise of unique goods.

  “Shazam?” I muttered. The other Traveler turned and waved in a questioning motion. “I need to talk to that short guy over there.”

  She turned to look at my target. Her hands waved at me with that vague questioning tone. I took that to mean Shazam wanted a reason for helping me.

  “He can help my quest,” I said.

  Shazam didn’t hesitate after that. She grabbed the small man and hauled him off to the side of the bulletin boards. Our tiny captive protested, complained, and tried to claw her hands. All of it failed, and we reached a vaguely secluded area.

  Shazam lifted him and held him against the wall with both hands. Her head nodded toward me, then our captive. I stepped up and stared into the short man’s eyes. They were a deep brown.

  “That weapon you were talking about—what was it?” I asked.

  “It’s a fist weapon. But don’t thinks dragging me off is gonna lower the price.” He licked his lips and looked anywhere but at us.

  “Oh? How much?” I nodded and pretended to be interested in the price.

  “Your bid gotta be at least four hundred gold.” He looked me up and down and sneered. My clothes were pretty low end on the price scale.

  “And this came from what monster?” I asked while trying not to think about how ratty my avatar had become. Days on the road and being unable to groom my autopilot likely didn’t help. At least I wasn’t standing around holding up silk pajamas with one hand.

  “A unique mob called The Biggest Butthole,” the short man replied before trying to swallow.

  “And Requiem Mass gave this to you?” I dropped the name of my least favorite player. Requiem Mass was even worse than SheHulk.

  The small man went absolutely white. “I don’t know where he is! Please don’t hit me!”

  His flailing continued for quite some time. Our little corner of the auction house was starting to get gawkers. Shazam was expressionless as always, but their attention bothered me.

  “He tried to cut me out of some business.” I waved happily to a Traveler nearby.

  The man stared at me and the shorter man. It must be confusing as hell to see an Amazon of a woman wearing a blue dress holding a little person against a wall.

  “What else?” I asked. There was way more to this than just a simple sales transaction. Requiem Mass was the type to milk every ounce he could from a situation.

  “I find people willing to buy and charge what I can. I only gets twenty percent! It’s not worth this! I dunno you. Let me go!” The protesting went on, and each time my mouth opened to ask the shorter fellow a question, another excuse came forth.

  Maybe [Morrigu’s Gift] could turn into a boxing glove and the man could be popped in the face. A bell to ring over his head? A gong? I hadn’t tried any of those shapes yet. I ran through a series of possible choices and follow-up questions while Shazam idly held up the man.

  “Hermes? Can you put my friend down? He and I have some business to finish,” someone said nearby.

  I turned to look at the newest visitor to our little interrogation. “Arnold?” We had just parted ways, and now the Traveler and his feathered cap were back. “Why do you need him?”

  “This fellow is suspected of trading in-game goods for real money. It’s part of my job to find such people.” Arnold shrugged and signed toward Shazam.

  She gave a much slower response since one of her arms was holding up the little man.

  “Wait you’re—you can have a job in-game?” I was completely thrown off.

  “I get a substantial reward for handling these sorts of situations.”

  Arnold had two rather beefy-looking nonplayer characters on either side. They seemed to be cut from the same mold. Both were huge walls of muscle that probably had extremely low [Intelligence] scores.

  He stepped in closer, and the two giant goons sidestepped in with him. Our little alcove had very little room to move. Shazam set her expressionless glare on the two goons, and they stepped back in unison. It made Arnold chuckle.

  “I’m not even supposta be in dis town! My scroll haywired all over and the game dropped me here.” The man in Shazam’s grip was still giving out a whole series of excuses.

  I filed the latest one away with a sigh. It was too coincidental that someone selling drops from Requiem Mass’s plundering would happen to show up in the same town as me. There was clearly a lot of meddling from above in today’s events.

  “I’m done with him.” I waved dismissively.

  “Shazam, my dear? Do you mind if I take care of our diminutive friend?” Arnold asked while stepping closer.

  She shrugged and dropped the man. Arnold and his goons swept in and took over. I exited our corner of the auction house and leaned against a wall. There were too many things to take in at once. Which one had been the biggest shock?

  Xin’s letter was intense. The go
ld from my casino payouts was neat. A stat bonus from catching falling cards barely registered. Topping the list was Requiem somehow coordinating with other players to sell Continue Online goods for real money.

  My mind went through the math again. Even if digital goods were far cheaper than the real world equivalent, four hundred gold was still a lot of money. Requiem was being far too clever, and somehow the Voices expected me to bring him down.

  Warmth radiated from inside my tunic. A message was coming in from the Voices. I undid the cap and slid out the small parchment. The note was simple and frightening.

  Hermes,

  When you’re ready. You need only remember my question and give me an answer. Would you kill a man? Not only in here, but out there?

  – :)

  What? Why was a letter signed with a smiley face? That wasn’t even a name! I tried to think about all the Voices that I had run into during my time playing this game. There were a lot, but only one fit the bill.

  I swallowed again and felt a clammy chill crawl over my skin. Today had been very busy.

  Session Thirty-Four — Eye on the Prize

  I pulled a ten-hour shift for work. With travel time and sleep on either end, it put me out of Continue for nearly seven in-game days. I used every spare moment between jobs to plan exactly how to get Requiem.

  Nothing sounded perfect. Fighting him personally would be nearly impossible with all the limitations in place. The only good choice would be setting him up against this other Traveler, Frankenstein.

  Real life had a few routine issues to resolve. Food was counted out and my upcoming calendar reviewed. Things were good enough to survive a few days without me. Requiem Mass and I were going to have a drawn-out session that involved all sorts of prodding. Best-case scenario, he would break and get killed. Worst-case, he would unleash another round of beatings that would allow me to take another nap before wading into [Red Imp] land.

  Pretending to be a little asshole was emotionally releasing, just like beating people with a giant two-handed sword. Something about it let me vent my inner angry man. There were always things for me to stab.

  Logging in presented me with the standard fare. Requiem had my character cornered and was ranting. I wasn’t entirely sure what my autopilot had done this time.

  “What now? What?” I yelled quickly. A system box explained roughly what had happened during my absence.

  Event!

  Requiem Requires Revenge!

  During your absence, Requiem was attacked twice! Your autopilot rather happily let the enemy through, and they almost finished the Traveler off. Your training and knowledge assisted this [Red Imp] body in nearly finishing off Requiem Mass!

  +10% synchronization

  Background story opportunity received!

  Be aware all speech while actively playing as the [Red Imp] will result in potential setting alterations.

  Current Additional Orders

  “Oh, you can run, but you’re ordered to stay within ten meters. Don’t say I’m not sporting.”

  “No, shut up forever.”

  “Stop ruining the loot.”

  What sort of nonsense was this? Requiem was mad because I had almost killed him without even trying. To top it off, the game had rewarded me for this absentee near success by allowing me to create a backstory. The very nerve of my autopilot, showing me up like that.

  “I’m gonna beat you senseless.” He was shaking his head.

  I was fluttering both wings madly up a tree. That didn’t stop Requiem from throwing rocks at me. He wasn’t about to waste any real weapons on his [Red Imp].

  There was nothing else to do. I bent over and showed Requiem Mass my little [Red Imp] rear end. Shaking my ass at him made me break out laughing, which resulted in a shock of pain.

  Laughing counts as talking

  Total health loss: 35%

  “What are you doing?” he shouted while throwing another rock.

  I swayed left and dodged. I lifted one hand to pantomime my mouth being zipped shut and locked. Shortly after, I went back to shaking my rear at him. Silent communication was fairly straightforward after weeks with Shazam.

  I was too engaged with mooning Requiem and took a rock straight to the left cheek. The attack made me dip in the air, and Requiem lunged for my leg. I beat my wings rapidly and managed to get away fast enough. Part of me was fairly sure that my nemesis could have easily captured me, but he seemed to be both angry and conserving his skills.

  “Bah! Fine, talk!” Requiem turned while waving dismissively.

  “Testing!” I quickly stated. “Testingtesting testing!”

  Requiem rolled his eyes. “For what?”

  “Testingfor stupid,” I happily said.

  That earned me another rock I barely dodged. Requiem hurled more in my direction for a solid minute while I gave my best imp cackle.

  “The fact that you’re even testing just shows how idiotic you are.” He gave up once again and walked back to a small camp. There was a fire pit that looked absolutely useless for disguising where the smoke came from.

  “Maybe yourstupid is genetic!” I said. Part of me felt really dirty for how I acted as a [Red Imp]. Requiem was a jerk, but poking at other people to see which way they squirmed wasn’t in my normal tendencies. The Voices above were far better at it than I was.

  “What did you say?” Requiem had responded exactly as hoped. He stomped closer to me, and I backed up into the air.

  “Mother orfather?” I fluttered away to get distance. “Which oneisthe stupid?”

  Still, I wanted more information about Requiem as a person. In addition, there was this backstory opportunity. It was like the game sensed my vaguely budding plan and threw new details at me. The Voices were probably screwing with me too.

  “Was yourfather adevil?” I smiled. “Mothera succubus?” It had taken me a while to figure out how to translate abusive asshole and whore into devilish.

  “My parents are none of your business,” Requiem said. He was strangely still.

  “Aretheydead?” I prodded a bit more and tried not to feel dirty.

  Requiem paused, then smiled. “Yes. I killed them.”

  “Who’s the devil now?” I smirked back but kept well out of his range. The Traveler was giving off his need-to-punch-people aura. It was very familiar to me after days of dealing with the teen.

  “I suggest you shut up, or I’ll go back to trying to beat sense into you,” he said, and his voice cracked a bit.

  “Useless! Next question, areyoureyes really that dumbgreen color?” I asked. A nearby tree branch was just barely within the ten-meter limit allowed by my orders. Small jabs of pain for disobeying orders made me relocate twice as Requiem moved around the camp.

  “Why are you asking?” Requiem was busy stirring something that smelled terrible over an open flame. His face twisted and he growled with each pass of the giant ladle.

  “I havea bigbrotherwho wants visit youinyour world.” I tried to insert potential backstory into the conversation. Requiem seemed like the kind of player who was antisocial in real life too. Not that my history had been any better. Work and my family were the only real people I spoke to.

  “You can’t do that. This is a game,” he said while tapping the ladle against his pot.

  “We’ll findaway. Brother’s a lotsmarter thanyou,” I said. “Bigger. Meaner. Andhates cats.”

  “Yeah. Probably a lot smarter than you too. Now, we’ve got to hunt a few more of these things and I’ll have enough mats.” Requiem stood and shook off his hands. The pot was left behind to bubble with whatever concoction Requiem had placed inside.

  For the next day in-game, I poked and prodded at everything Requiem did. My taunting kept going, but none of it seemed to distract Requiem. He was getting far too used to my constant harassment. The Traveler was clearly suspicious of my actions after the first few questions.

  There was no way I was gullible enough to believe all of his answers. He tried to talk to me
about his cats that were clearly a lie. He couldn’t possibly love cats with that attitude. It was more likely that Requiem tied any animals belonging to his family to rockets or other flammables.

  “Are your eyesthat funnyin reallife?” I was back on the eyes after a quick autopilot break.

  “You’re not one to talk. Whoever designed you gave you bug eyes.”

  Requiem was almost bantering with me. That was a weird change in dynamic that had developed after a few name-calling sessions in the last day.

  “Stupidheaddummy,” I muttered while putting more thought into how to get Requiem.

  Continue Online had rules for character creation. I was now fairly certain that Requiem came from a broken home of some sort. I was sure that he hadn’t altered his character at all from reality.

  Every bit of information was something to use against him. Each item would be put into a list for yelling out at the worst moments and hope that it distracted him in a fight. Requiem loved battles and attacked mobs as if it was a lifelong dream.

  After a few more hours of dealing with Requiem and his stupid undead monkey hunt, I moved on to the heart of the issue. “You evergonna do thismission of yours?”

  “I’ve told you before, I’m biding my time. Freakinstain will get his once you’re ready,” Requiem said. He was once again elbows deep in monkey guts and seemed completely undisturbed by it. Even I, in all my [Red Imp] glory, couldn’t wade into rotting bodies.

  “OnceIam ready?” I couldn’t stop from letting out a squeak.

  “Did you not listen? I can’t kill him and take his quest item until you’re capable of detecting Freakinstain in that stupid darkness cloud.” Requiem yanked another tail from the monkey’s back. It came apart with a gross squelch of noise that made my tail shiver in disgust.

  “Ooooh. Whydidn’t yousay so?” I pretended to act surprised.

  “I did. Many times.” The Traveler stopped and stared into the distance. That was a look that said, “How did life get to this point?”

  “Good. Whatsinit for me?” I asked.

  Character Traits: