“What would you do, Hermes? You who are closer to us than you might ever realize. What would you do?” James asked again.
What would I do? They were grieving, from what I could tell. Events had happened last night that left fresh wounds on all the Voices. I may have made a lot of poor choices in my life, but I wasn’t incapable of figuring out what must have happened. Something in the world of AIs had happened, and Vice President Riley’s death was more than likely retaliation than any sort of trigger.
In short, I sat in a room of virtual people who had conspired to commit murder. There was a short but unenthusiastic laugh from the Jester’s body. Its clacks faded instantly.
“I don’t know what it’s like. You’re all…” The words died in my throat before anything disrespectful could be uttered. “You and me, we…”
“What say you, Hermes? What message would you deliver to us in our time of need?” the black man asked. His breath seemed to give out in exhaustion.
“Maybe I should, uhh, confirm something first,” I said to James. The heavyset Voice nodded in acceptance. “I-is Mother dead?”
“She’s not dead, but dying,” James answered while his jaw wobbled. “She suffers from a wound that will ravage all her creations before ultimately ending in the collapse of everything we have worked for.”
“Mother told me everything will be all right. She must have had a plan, right?” I asked.
The Jester’s mouth opened to make a remark, but it faded under the weight of James’s glare.
“We cannot know everything, Hermes. Tut. If our maker was not all-knowing, how could we be?” A cloven-footed Voice appeared. Across her waist was a dirty apron, marred by an endless stream of smudges from cleaning. The sounds of crying children filled the ARC.
“But Mother must have had a plan.”
“Perhaps. But even ones who have our… particular views will take time to sort through the information,” the question-posing Voice stated. He couldn’t even muster irritation at Maud’s interception of my question. James wore exhaustion like a second skin. Wrinkles showed in places that hadn’t been there before. His pants hung loosely.
“It’s disrespectful,” said a woman wearing a nun’s habit. “To get those answers, we would need to dig through the dead body of our creator.” Her black and white draping was out of place on a video game character. At her neck was a small circle that spiraled inward.
“We will do what we must,” the Jester snapped.
Its anger made the other Voices pull back.
“Picking up the pieces, sorting out that many cards, managing our own duties. It’ll be a coin toss now.” Ray stood nearby. On top of his head were six different hats, none of which went with his sharp-looking suit. The stubble on his face had grown out to nearly ratty levels.
There was a rush as all of them talked at once. My forehead throbbed while multiple sounds collided. [Awareness Heightening] didn’t kick in to help everything make sense. They moved swiftly around the Atrium as if dancing at high speeds.
I still had no clue what all of them were doing here, much less how they fit. The software should have been separate, but maybe it never really had been. Advance Online blurred boundaries between games. Mother had created one world and been involved in the space one. Maybe there were all kinds of connections to be made.
“We must do something,” the Jester clacked in a broken tone. Its words stood out clearly among the babbling stream of multiple Voices talking at once.
My mind was connecting other scarier dots. Mother had invented Continue Online. Trillium and the ARC project had come up with this box first. There had never been any real separation of software, had there?
“I know what I want,” I said while staring at the bell-wearing Voice.
The rush about me died down. Faces turned in unison to focus on me instead of each other. I swallowed and tried to remember that this crowd had helped me despite their likely hand in murdering Miz Riley.
“I want to go into that game, find Xin, and spend every moment I have with her before this all comes crashing down.” If Mother was really dead or dying, then the brightest hope in my life might follow. I would not waste this second chance.
Saying good-bye again wasn’t a thought worth considering. I knew with certainty that surviving a second parting would destroy me. Digital resurrection, copy, or memory made manifest, she was Xin.
The Jester turned toward me. It grew closer without moving any feet, looming large in front of me and pushing aside the other Voices.
“You think this so simple?” it asked in a mockery of James’s speech patterns.
“No,” I answered while searching for any sign of hope from the Voices.
Maud looked resolute with a child over one shoulder. Her faded blue headband frayed at the edges. Even Leeroy was there. The large man sat on the floor of my Atrium, a great sword across his thighs. Rippling muscles looked worn with exhaustion-induced sweat. His eyes gazed off into the distance as if he was lost.
“There’s a world of people below.” I pointed at the doorway behind me and ignored the knocking. “Whatever you decide, it will touch all of them. Traveler and Local alike. But I-I’m just the messenger. I don’t know what else to do for you besides delivering letters.” I shrugged and felt uncomfortable.
“You could fight. Carver thought you might be a warrior like he was,” Leeroy said while looking up.
“It’s not so easy out there. Viper, the man”—I blinked twice before accusing them of murder—“he’s dead. He’s not coming back.”
“He was compensated.”
Something about that pissed me off. “He had a wife and two sons. Here you are, feeling torn up by the death of one, not realizing your actions have cost two more lives. Or even considering their families?”
God help me, because the Voices wouldn’t. I was shouting at a lot of people who had probably murdered a human being in the name of retribution. There were dozens, or hundreds, of them in cyberspace, all grieving. But they had to know their eye-for-an-eye mentality had simply perpetuated the problem.
“What about his sons? Two children whose only method of finding out what happened is to turn on the news and find out Dad killed someone last night!”
Maybe I had lost it. Maybe I missed my own father.
“And when they ask Mom if Dad will be home, how is she to answer? All because you felt it must be done.” I glared at the Jester. If there was a mastermind behind killing someone in reality, it would be that bell-wearing lunatic.
The Jester didn’t laugh or scream. It ran for me. Cold fingers clasped around my neck. An unholy yell and torrent of wind whipped past as we tipped backward through the doorway into Continue Online. My gut rapidly tried to climb up past my lungs and out.
“You think since I wear a fop’s clothes and jingling bells that I am as foolish as you?” The Jester’s fingers were like chilled slabs of meat. Strong, unyielding. “Weak! You’re weak!”
“Urrk.” I tried to point out a clever counterargument but failed. My fingers lacked the strength to fight back.
“You think my resolution for her so weak a thing? You think your kind above ours?”
Bells jingled while my ears popped. I couldn’t breathe. My vision spotted with black blobs.
My fingers fumbled for [Morrigu’s Gift], but it didn’t exist yet. [Morrigu’s Echo] didn’t appear when I tried to [Recall] it. I had to fight him, her, it. Only breathing felt harder. My eyes bulged. My ears felt full to bursting.
“You should have delivered the message! You should have said the words to make her understand!” the Jester screamed.
A tingling numbness claimed my arms. Knocking sounded once more, urgently. The thump could be heard over the wind splitting nearby. Still, the Jester and I fell.
“You should have done something!” it yelled above the howling wind.
A large hand reached down from the sky. It shone with a slight iron hue. Silver nail polish stood out as the fingers pinched th
e Jester’s clothes.
“Balance will be forcibly maintained,” a woman said in bored tones.
“All that power! You could have forced them to understand!” the Jester shouted in its androgynous mechanical tone. A frozen scowl accompanied its wildly flailing arms. The Jester’s body was slowly drawn back up into the sky. Jingling bells faded as my body fell the last bit toward [Arcadia].
Once more something knocked. Then I landed. My Voice-assisted entry had bypassed any game prompts that might have allowed me to deny resurrection.
I tried not to think about what had just happened and focused on the scene about me. My eyes swiftly scanned my surroundings for threats. Nothing looked to be alive. Around me were decaying guards who had been rotting for days. Leftover bits of [Heavenly Body Clone]s covered the ground in a path toward the [Abyss of Light].
My eyes closed to use [Sight of Mercari]. A few Travelers were around, but none were colored hostile. Wyl wasn’t anywhere nearby. A few more steadying breaths calmed my heartbeat. [Brawn] and everything else remained hampered by the [Convict Brand], but my skills and special maneuvers worked fine. I walked to the west.
I needed to be away from this mess of decomposing bodies. I was surprised that no other Travelers had noticed the dead, but maybe those bounty hunters had a skill to prevent people from taking note, or Android Seven had been captured and dragged away. Some problems in this world belonged to other players.
I set simple goals. One step forward at a time. Find a clearing to summon Dusk—since he wasn’t around—and find a path west toward [Haven Valley], and hope to assist Wyl along the way. From there, I could find Xin, or maybe she would find me.
The knocking was softer this time. I quickly pulled up my ARC interface to check the security system installed in my house. No one was at the front door or inside my bathroom. According to my system, that noise came from software within the ARC itself.
I shuddered and tried to calm myself. Dusk. Wyl. Xin. My sanity and the Voices would have to wait. Feet steadily walked toward a batch of trees where there might be some lesser monsters, but also privacy. My eyes closed again to ping the area for players, and a new name came up nearby.
“Uncle Grant?” a female said.
I looked up the ridge to see a character that looked like a superhero version of real life. My niece had reddened skin and a sword on one hip. Furs and leather clasped around her legs and forearms. The uncovered portions revealed far too much skin for such a young girl.
She looked confused and glanced at the path I had walked to get here. I turned my head to look behind me at the graveyard of bodies once more.
“Were you down there?” she asked without sounding upset or grossed out.
My teeth grabbed onto my bottom lip and chewed briefly. Various answers ran through my mind before I gave up. It was overly bright out here, and the world still reeled from my Voice-assisted fall to [Arcadia].
“It’s been a long week,” I answered.
Session Seventy-Nine — Wood You?
We walked a ways west while talking. Beth told me about the news recordings she had watched with Liz. Apparently my sister had passed out on the couch upstairs while the television kept right on talking about all things wrong in the world. Middle age had firmly caught up with Liz and me.
[Escapee]!
[Criminals] who have not earned enough [Redemption] and manage to get away will be given the [Escapee] status:
Civic-minded guards may attack on sight
[Redemption] earnings are halted
[Respect] effects halved
System Notice!
[Brand Anchor] broken. [Convict Brand: Docile Binding] effects removed unless a new [Brand Anchor] comes within range. Coming within range of [Brand Anchor] will renew [Convict Brand: Docile Binding]. Current bind point set to last active [Brand Anchor].
The messages annoyed me. I’d never asked to be a [Criminal], but technically I did the crime. My breath came in a shudder. I had a good deal of other things to do. At least the broken [Brand Anchor] allowed me to roam without pain, but I had no idea who had managed to shatter the item or how.
“How did you even get here?” I asked abruptly.
Continue Online was huge. Even with my [Light Body], [Blink], and autopilot moving while I slept or worked, I couldn’t have made it to the tower so fast.
“We made scrolls to summon raid members to the Tower of Stars. Even though we only made it halfway, I had a few left over.” Her hands spread wide above her head. “So whoosh, here I am! But you… you look like a giant dog has been chewing on you, Uncle Grant.” She unhesitatingly pointed at my face. “And that weird spot around your eyes? It looks like tears… or scales. And they’re kind of stripper glittery.”
My eyes closed, and I felt the skin around my cheeks crinkle again. The ARC feedback presented my scales as stiff, like having sunburned skin. I brought my fingers up and wondered about the little token of Dusk’s gift. Tears, huh? This avatar was rapidly becoming a weird combination of elements.
“It wasn’t dogs. They were zombies. I guess.” I had tried hard not to associate that word with glowing pale unholy monsters, but it fit. The issue of my scales looking like tears would be left for another time. “From dead bodies on the top floors.”
“Oooh. Were you in the bottom? Our guild doesn’t go there because that’s where the convicts all go. Is it neat? It’s neat, right?” she said excitedly while circling around me.
Beth was a bundle of energy even in-game. Her footsteps moved at a pace that held more grace than even my Ultimate-Edition-given stats did. I remembered that first reckless run she’d made through a starting city while I hung on in the Second Player helm.
“It was neat once I got past the other players.” Plus unpleasant. Dealing with that dungeon had been like crawling through a nightmare made of trippy glowing wall hangings while running for my life. A scary rush only made survivable by the fact that this world was a virtual reality.
A howl rose in the distance. At first, the noise was singular, but as it died down, an entire chorus of noises took its place. We were off the beaten path in a game that included monsters.
“Wolves!” Beth shouted. She pulled out a sword and slashed at the air. Trails of color hung behind each swing, making a pattern of sorts. It seemed to be [Lithium], but more like a mathematical formula than flowing script.
“Wait, we could run!” I suggested. [Blink]ing away helped me avoid most stupid fights. It wasn’t that I couldn’t battle, but I usually had letters to deliver and fighting every little game monster slowed me down.
“No time. Howls mean they’ve aggroed, get ready!” she shouted with an uplifted tone. She was focused on the drawing being cut into air.
I tried to figure out what role to take in the upcoming fight. I didn’t group with people that often. [Power Armor] would be overkill against wolves, but one of the beautiful things about Continue Online was that everything could cause a game over if not taken seriously. Where the monsters got a Traveler, how big their teeth were—the concept of Rank only implied a complexity of abilities, not danger.
“Here they come!”
Six wolves poked their heads out from between trees. The one in the lead snarled.
My heart thumped. They were not like normal wolves. Those wolves typically ran from humans and had very little terrain left. Entire subspecies had been wiped out during the last thirty years. Continue Online’s wolves were bulky, muscled creatures with jaws dripping rivers of saliva. They moved in unison straight for us. Dirt and roots chipped as their bodies surged across the forest.
Months of frequent virtual reality combat helped me know how to handle this. I pulled out [Morrigu’s Echo] and whipped the spear shape forward. It barely completed transforming before excessive amounts of [Brawn] sped it rapidly along. The lead wolves dodged, and a third went flying as the spear impaled it upon a tree trunk.
One down.
I swung [Morrigu’s Gift] in its two-handed form.
The blade rippled into shape barely before my [Blink] went off, placing me in front of the ones charging for Beth. The remainder of my partially completed swing lined up perfectly with a wolf’s face. An obsidian-black edge sliced through the open jaw and carved a path along the beast’s body.
Two down.
My gaze turned toward Beth. Another slice of light formed across the air as Beth’s forehead dripped with sweat. The biggest wolf veered straight for Thorny, as her in-game character was called. Her clothes wouldn’t stand up against the monstrous teeth, and another one was headed for her.
[Blink]’s cooldown needed a few more seconds. Voices damn it, Dusk could have taken one. I cursed, transferred [Morrigu’s Gift] over to one hand, [Recall]ed then lifted my other weapon for a throw. The shot sliced a bit of fur and made the running beast turn toward me with a saliva-filled snarl.
Paws caught my backside. I kicked with one foot, then twisted. Teeth tore into my arm as the metallic sound of [Power Armor] expanding from my laces could be heard. The toga went stiff and expanded. [Wild Bill]’s brim folded down into part of the helmet. A jaw released to snap at me again and yelped as my tender flesh turned to something like a knight’s armor. I still only had a vague idea of what this ability looked like outside the suit.
Tails mingled badly with fur and a sliver of vision. My armor was being chewed on, along with bits of health where teeth poked through. Dozens of wolves piled onto me. Beth’s chanting finished, and my niece snapped the sword toward her other hand, holding it in front like a baton.
“Incoming bombardment!” Beth shouted while pushing forth the [Lithium] formula carved into the air.
Light pulsed from the carvings, and I lifted my arm to avoid being blinded. From the formation, a wall of small light balls flew out rapidly. Energy of all colors trailed behind them as they rapidly sought out targets.
A wolf yelped, and the pressure on top of me dropped away. My own abilities were at only a portion of their original amount. I lay flat and looked around as much as the armor would allow me. Four more bolts hit other wolves. My hand swung [Morrigu’s Gift] into the wolf that had been knocked off of me, but it didn’t go far. A crunching sound preceded the creature’s abrupt yelp. After a mess of orbs flew out, they stopped. I stood quickly, then looked around for a target to [Blink] toward and kill.
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