A few hours later, I logged in, more nervous than before. I planned on fighting when needed, but it wouldn’t be fun or exciting. Battle-blinded lust wasn’t one of my personality traits at all.
The guards were far enough away that we might be able to risk conversation. Our two escorts had met up with another six people wearing bulky armor. The bus was heading to a harness platform of some sort. Looming up above, in a swirl of brightly lit orbs, was the tower that had been visible from a distance. It reminded me of the old Starry Night painting, only the very air around the tower warped with colors. It went up into the sky quite a ways.
“Tower of Stars, that’s it, right?” I vaguely remembered Beth talking about it as a raid-level zone. She’d died here more times than I cared to think about, but so far no one had made it to the top.
“Stop three on The Wheel. Average deaths per three-man team, seven. Loot we get to keep, bound. The winner last round? Android Seven over there. Soloed the boss when all the other convicts were dead,” a man next to me said calmly. His shoulders looked lopsided. “But we’re not doing the tower. We’re doing the much less exciting group dungeon called the Black Hole of Light.”
The carriage stopped completely, and the giraffe-oxen creatures groaned in unison. They sat down, and our cart rocked as the platform took on our weight. We were four feet above the ground, suspended by heavy wooden beams. Two clear circles were marked nearby. Both guards got off their mounts and walked toward the circles.
“Android Seven?” I tilted my head in confusion. Continue Online didn’t have robots or androids, did it? Thankfully our guards were away from the shock buttons, so we should be able to converse a little.
“Just another player punished for whatever crimes the game lured him into. If you draw his group, he’ll probably let you live. He rarely does anything to lose points.” This person didn’t even stop to introduce himself.
“We’re going to be in groups?” I asked while eyeballing the crowd around me.
A gate clinked behind us. My head had just enough slack to see some sort of fortified wall with guards on top. It felt like [Camp Gray Skull] but with NPCs dressed in fine armor.
“We’ll be in groups of three. Luck of the draw. We get about an hour between groups,” the man beside me said.
Without being able to completely see faces, it was difficult to anchor all these people. Plus everyone wore the same orange-and-black clothing. Why a fantasy world was intent upon using modern prisoner coloring was beyond me.
The tower’s base was almost the length of two football fields. We could see it through a set of bars that separated us from the actual dungeons. No other Travelers were headed up into the building, so maybe normal players were given a different entrance. A tunnel wrapped around the tower’s base like a nautilus shell. One end tilted up into the dungeon that Beth had probably played. Down went into a darkened pit.
“That sounds messy,” I said while trying to figure out what would happen next.
The two guards that had ridden with us were now sitting in their circles. Runes on the ground around them were lighting up from [Lithium] spells. I smiled briefly, remembering Requiem’s [Lithium] chanting. It had sounded like bad childish poetry, or it did back in my [Red Imp] era.
“It is. Groups are encouraged to kill each other and whatever monsters they can find to keep the dungeon under control,” the other Traveler said and gave a barely visible shrug. He must have known I was new.
I hardly remembered the rules on how dungeons worked. There were bosses, lots of little creatures, and some had treasure or puzzles. Others came with quests. They were dynamic, so each person entering got a slightly different experience.
“How did Android Seven win?” I had to know if there was a secret that might help.
This guy would be within his rights to keep it to himself or feed me false information, but he didn’t seem to care. “I got nothing. He just does. Man has about five hundred murders under his belt and will be out in weeks at this rate.” His head shook. “Good for us, I guess. I’m more worried about what quest might require mass murder.”
I blinked a few times, then stared at the quiet man in a corner. He looked almost normal. If I were to slap a business suit on him, then he could fit in on Wall Street or some other business area. Not that they were popular anymore, thanks to the technological growth of these last two centuries. Still, he wore the same bright orange garb all of us did.
A flash of light up front distracted me from staring at Android Seven. [Lithium]-fueled runes had spiraled into a brightly glowing shield around the guards. It looked to be a protective barrier. A third light slowly coalesced between them in a box sitting atop a table.
“Shut up!” Knight Middleton yelled at us. “Listen closely! Your kind”—the man sneered under his visor, then went back to shouting—“should be getting information from the Voices right now. You’ll get regulations for your stay. Kindly don’t waste our time by trying to escape.”
Warning!
People wearing the [Convict Brand] are restricted in their ability to stray from [Redemption] points. Each brand needs to stay within one hundred feet of a [Redemption Wagon] or only act within an approved location. Straying outside these bounds will result in a cumulative damage effect until the death of your current physical existence.
“Next up is group lots!” one of the guards shouted. “Most of you should know the drill by now! As this is what you Travelers call a group dungeon, three make up a squad. Survive, bring out your trophies displaying kills, and the highest group stays off the equalizing block.”
The bindings keeping us tied down dropped away. I reached up and felt along my neck for a thick bracing that no longer choked me. The weights around my ankles and hands were gone as well. I looked around, but no one appeared to be taking advantage of the freedom to rush or attack mindlessly.
We slowly formed lines with a startling level of organization given our [Criminal] status. I tried not to flinch away when other people bumped into me. They weren’t bigger or anything, especially considering my Hermes character had an insane amount of [Brawn], but they could be crazy or backstabbing. Plus my clothes were beyond recovery. Maybe I was nervous thanks to the reminder of my own clothes and their dried, crusty status.
“What about the losers?” I asked the talkative guy. We had been getting along well enough for now. He hadn’t been revealed to touch young elves or murder hundreds of people. Both ideas were reprehensible to me.
“You can come out ahead if you do well enough down below, or at least try to break even with the death penalty,” he said.
I nodded, then looked at the next message on my screen.
Quest: King Nero’s Offer
Difficulty: Variable
Details: The king has made you an offer you can’t refuse. In order to atone for your failures and ensure that other rule-breaking Travelers suffer appropriate setbacks, you will be rewarded with twice the [Redemption] points for every other Traveler brought low.
Current Redemption Remaining for freedom: 7,000
“Worst case, take the easy out and die to a boss or something. Just don’t let another player get you,” he said.
“Why would they want us to kill each other?” I asked while shaking my head.
It made no sense. They could have offed us easily while we were bound in the cart. Based on what little I had gleaned, the NPCs had the option of setting our resurrection points in a kill box that fired walls of arrows each time we risked coming back.
“Player-versus-player penalties are greater than dying to the monsters, and most NPCs killing us costs us nearly nothing but time,” he explained as we shuffled forward.
The line moved quickly. People dipped hands into the box, pulled out their small piece of wood with a number on it, then walked off. The unnamed, but helpful, person in front of me took a number, then sighed. I followed promptly, sticking my hand into the dark pit of a box. I pulled out my prize and saw the two burned into its sur
face.
“Two,” I said while trying to run through scenarios in my head. It put me, and two random people, ahead of nine others who would have reasons to kill us and take our success as their own. As the second group, we’d be behind one group that might have placed ambushes in their hour lead.
“I’m three.” The talkative man sighed. “Guess that means we’ll be enemies.”
“Oh.” I felt bad that he had helped explain things only to possibly be killed by my virtual swords. This may have been a digital world, but it looked real and the pain still hurt.
“That’s how it goes while you’re here. This whole thing’s a mess. At least I get redemption points for explaining to newbies. Once inside, there’s no truces.” With that, he turned and walked away.
After being broken into teams, our situation turned far different than I had thought it might. What had been at least a mildly professional relationship was cut off in the face of future conflict.
My eyes followed the man as he moved toward a number on the ground. This place was like a box with starting positions. There were gates for up to eight teams, but we only had enough people for five in our convict band. Fourteen other people who might try to stab me in the back during this adventure.
Part of me expected these guys to be worse, or harder, or downright rude. Daylight might have brightened my perspective though, as did knowing Xin was out there. These people were intent upon serving their sentences as quickly as possible. It made sense—this was a game, not a hardcore prison. Anyone who truly screwed themselves over could go play somewhere else, like Advance Online, or delete their character and start over.
“Group one, over here. Two, here!” The guard pointed at three spots for the other groups then explained. “Restriction crystals are active. Idget, I’m saying this for you since you keep trying to escape. Tampering will get you killed! Trying to escape will get you killed! Post-death regathering of your essence brings you back to the bus! You’re here until your debt is cleared!”
One more surprise was waiting for me. The guard, who had been mostly covered from head to toe in plated armor, lifted his visor to look at us.
His face looked familiar enough that I broke our shuffling silence to ask, “Wyl? Is that you?”
“You’ve no right to call me by my first name, convict,” Wyl responded.
I was floored. He was indeed the guard captain from [Haven Valley], and my time as William Carver, but what was he doing out here, escorting prisoners of a completely different kingdom? Had something happened while I was gone?
Session Sixty-Nine — Blue Monday
My partners were the guy who touched little elves, and another man who looked blind. They were indifferent to my presence. There we were, trapped in a barricaded square and about to chase each other to repeated death, and most of my thoughts were stuck on Wyl.
The former guard captain of [Haven Valley] stared right through me with complete apathy. His body was held rigid in the protective beam of light. I couldn’t remember enough details of our time together. The automatic game journal notations from William Carver’s era were mixed. Many items had been recorded, but a low starting [Depth] and [Knowledge] limited the information. Having both stats higher would have helped record additional details automatically.
I tried again to talk to him. “Wyl? Is Haven Valley okay?”
That earned me a dirty glare. The man was in his forties and looked rough compared to his nearly constant smile from before. It had been almost ten months in game time since then. Something must be wrong in [Haven Valley]. The idea made my face turn white. I stepped past Knight Middleton’s post to get closer to Wyl. He stood a bit shorter now that I was no longer in a hunched old man’s body.
“Mylia? The kids, are they okay?” I banged into the pillar of light and lost a chunk of health as my teeth vibrated in pain.
Wyl winced, then ignored me to stare off into the distance. I panicked and hit the barrier again. My health dipped as pain rippled through me. My ability to grit my teeth and suffer through was far less than the Hispanic guy’s had been.
Electricity eventually cures stupidity
Total health loss: 70%
“Go on with your task, convict, so that we can move onward,” Carver’s former friend said.
Not wearing the old man’s body counted against me. Would Wyl feel differently when seeing [Morrigu’s Gift]?
“Wyl, I know I’m a convict to you right now, but life started for me in that town.” That location was where I’d first begun to wake up after three years of sticking my head in the sand. All those people were important to me for different reasons, even if none of them knew me as Hermes. “Can you at least tell me, are Mylia and the kids all right?”
Wyl studied me, then [Morrigu’s Gift]. His eyes lingered on the smooth blankness that went with the wooden cane form. I couldn’t outright say it, but at one point I’d had a [Legacy Wish] from Old Man Carver himself. Shortly after, the ability had merged into the [NPC Conspiracy] ability.
“No, they’re not,” he said while looking less hostile for a moment. “Haven Valley isn’t all right at all.”
I nodded. Now there was something to really fight for. [Haven Valley], a town that had started everything for me, was in trouble. Not to mention there was the issue of Xin floating in virtual reality and waiting for me to make a move of some sort. I needed to get a letter to the Voices quickly.
Quest: The Task at Hand (Stop #3)
Difficulty: Pathetically low to difficult
Details: As part of your attempts at [Redemption], there is a dungeon to be cleared. This dungeon will pose many challenges that typically kill normal Travelers. If anyone in your group has access to a [Resurrection] skill, you will be allowed to use it and bypass the (4 day) reconstruction timer. Convicts will be stuck at this stop for 28 days. Removing the final boss will allow for a rest period.
In order of value, points can be earned for:
Destruction of enemy monsters
Key resources collected
Defeating other parties
Contribution to current group
Survival duration
Points will be lost for:
Complete lack of participation
Destruction of valuable items
Betrayal of team members
System Help!
All items earned during the dungeon crawl will be removed upon the 28-day marker. Only [Bound] items are allowed to be carried over to the next point on [The Wheel]. Travelers who reach their [Redemption] requirements to remove [Criminal] status will be released at the 28-day marker.
I turned away from Wyl. Convincing him of our past history couldn’t be completed in the remaining hours before our dungeon entrance. Any quick method of convincing him required betraying William Carver’s last few weeks. Instead, I returned to my team’s gate.
“I go by Viper,” the blind-looking one of my new team members said.
That nickname fit once I noticed that his eyes had thin vertical slits. He appeared blind because so much of the eyeball was pure white without a standard iris.
“Hermes.” I spun around and halfheartedly smiled at them. Well, more at Viper; the other guy bothered me. My brain also felt conflicted about the idea of an eighty-year-old little girl. What kind of nonsense had the Voices put in this world?
“This is Mister Daft, not Hermes. Daft, as in can’t hear or think.” The guy speaking looked more human than Viper did. He was slightly shorter with brown hair and a goatee.
“That’s Ssquiskss. He’ll try to get killed.” Viper pointed at the guy who insisted I was Mister Daft. “Sso normally we let him.” There was a disgusted tone in his voice. “Dude sskatess by with twenty participation points each time, then logss off until the twenty-four hourss is up.”
“So the three-man team is really only two?” I tried to ignore the way Viper hissed certain letters.
“Until ssomeone bribess me with enough to kill you.” The funny-eyed Traveler shrugged
, then laughed with a stutter.
“That’s… up front of you.” I didn’t know how else to explain it. What kind of person advertised they were out to kill another player? People were weird. This was a game, and we were stuck in an endless respawn of a dungeon for the next week of real life. Everything fell under odd.
“Eh, I tell you because maybe during the next sstop, you’ll want to buy my sservices. I’m quite good at it.” He was glaring at Squisks.
“How do you do it?” I wanted to know what method this player had that made him so confident.
“Uh uh. I can’t give it all away.” He hissed while laughing again, then got distracted. “Thiss iss just my ssaless pitch.”
Was he doing that on purpose? There seemed to be something wrong with his neck muscles and other joints too. I studied them and compared him to all the figures I had danced with over the years. Those connecting points were too fluid. If I were to combine it with Continue Online’s weird half-breed quest lines, the hissing, and slit eyes, it was likely he had some serpent abilities.
“Well, I’ll keep it in mind,” I said. Loot never bothered me. Maybe giving some away to buy an ally would be good idea.
Now that we were all unbound and standing closer, the atmosphere felt a bit uglier. The first party was already lined up near their number and getting ready to go. A member of the first trio had their weapon out and swung the blade to warm up. A female kept shaking her hands, and every so often, a flare of blue energy floated from her wiggling fingertips.
Their third partner kept scouting the area, his shoulders bunched in nervousness. Then he broke away from the crowd and ran for a wall. The guards’ arrows rapidly brought the man’s health down to zero.
Behind me, a member of the fourth team screamed, then tried to run in another direction. I turned in time to see two arrows catch him in the back, leaving the man hanging limply over a wall. I barely had time to blink before a hand shoved me from behind. My body tripped forward, and the desire to [Blink] away didn’t gain a result.
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