I blinked. The bolt arced across my side, to the boot, and down. Hastily I stomped a foot and tried to get my armor into place in hopes that being encased in defensive gear might mitigate whatever was happening.
System Notice!
You are currently in an unstable state. Abilities will not function correctly until your state has been resolved. For quickest resolution, please log out of your ARC and log back in.
A minimum rest of one hour is recommended before submerging.
I kicked at the screen while screaming. My own noises were lost in the silence of broken hearing. A figure ran in, but seeing them was difficult. That pop earlier might have been a rock hitting my head. Sweat or blood obscured most information besides the floating boxes.
“Voices, what now?” I practically screamed and felt my vocal cords strain. “Another test?”
My mind had turned delirious. How long was this going to take? I couldn’t feel either hand anymore. They were like dead weights locked into position. The boiling was back and chewed away at my shoulders next.
Xin’s face flashed through my mind. The faint taste of her lips tingled through, then was lost under a fresh jolt. My eyes closed tightly as I rode this one out. When they opened, I tried to read the box again.
Adjusting Program…
Adjusting Program…
Alternate Scenario Part 4 of 7 added
Adjusting Program…
My chest heaved while I tried to stand. Dusk kept hopping closer, then skirting away as electrical bolts spilled down. The little guy could take on monstrous programs like a [Leviathan], but these bolts made him skittish.
Whatever was happening probably existed outside of game mechanics. I managed to suppress a scream by biting a lip. An arm jerked loose, then refused to get back into position. My vision flopped around, and I saw that giant monster deletion program approaching. It had moved toward one of the walls and managed to swallow houses whole.
I couldn’t hold back my screams anymore. My lips felt bloody from trying to bite back the pain.
What happened next didn’t make sense. My body lifted without my say so, and the horizon swam. Both arms tried to rip themselves out of my shoulder sockets. Blood splashed into the air and faded away like embers shooting from a burning log.
Hanging on to a live wire was damned stupid. I took another breath and tried to remember what Xin felt like again. The ARC or pain-filled delusion responded, and I saw her. A flash of those eyes staring down into mine. I felt as though my body kept falling apart, then rolling back together. My head cradled in her lap.
The giant beast nearby was caving in slightly. Its face dented at odd locations. An arm pulled back as if something sucked it inward. Then its head popped. It fell while I huffed.
Was this another way to fight those things? Simply suffer a large amount of agony while wondering about the nature of my choices and a world where I might have turned left instead of right? Maybe the Jester had been right. Convincing Miz Riley of the peaceful intentions of these AIs and Mother might have allowed us a less painful way through.
My thoughts were muddled. People were talking nearby. I could see their legs. Those ratty pants looked like Phil’s. A blue scarf stood out, bound around a weary woman’s head. Children and adults hovered. Dusk kept circling, hissing at them. As if warning them back.
The surges were coming slower but stronger. I had time to gather myself and wonder where my health bar had vanished to. My vision blurred, and the interface showing my existence in nice little bars and icons flickered into being. The red one for wellness appeared full, but my body certainly didn’t feel stable.
My head hung low. I hadn’t been prepared for pain, but I endured it anyway. For Xin’s future, I chose to suffer. One cheek crinkled as it lifted. I saw the box floating nearby turn green, and a bright exclamation mark stood out. Only a few words made sense. Complete, done, new content loaded. Below that was a wall of fine text.
The raging monsters that shook the earth were gone. I tilted to one side and looked at two fresh holes that had been torn across the ground in my direction. Apparently those deletion programs held no love for the doorway I had struggled to open.
A wide grin crossed my face as I looked up. Above me, a beam of light sailed toward the sky. It looked beautiful and had to be the solution we had been searching for. Up soared a pillar of energy to destinations unknown.
More people were shouting, but I felt their words as rumbles. I blinked languidly and saw an army of cloned feet charge by. People were pushed back. My body lifted and dragged to one side. I saw a big burly man dash into the beam of light. Across the fellow’s face was a look that might be terror or delight.
“Leeroy?” I think the word came out. The absolute silence in my hearing had improved slightly and turned into a droning noise.
SweetPea knelt above me. She was mouthing words. but I didn’t understand. Awesome Jr. sat on my other side with a vial of bubbly liquid tilting toward my mouth. My eyes lolled backward, and I shut my eyes. They could heal my virtual body, but I had a feeling those jolts had somehow hit me in reality. Still, I was proud for holding out. For doing whatever I had managed to do.
“Is Xin okay?” I tried to ask. My arm felt disconnected. A shudder passed, and body parts jerked oddly.
They said something in unison.
“My eardrums are busted.” Voices, I hoped the words came out okay. “I can’t hear. Is Xin okay?”
SweetPea grabbed my hand, which made me wince. My vision fuzzed out a bit, and the connection waned. The young woman nodded clearly, and I shuddered in relief.
“ARC.” I tried to get the words out. “Log me out.”
Programs responded to intent. ARC interface windows and health monitoring programs flickered in and out. I let the exhaustion win. The system disconnected me one sense at a time, and soon I was left blinking at the ceiling.
My body hurt in reality too. I gradually propped myself up while taking huge gasping breaths. My face and arms felt cold. The damage given to me in virtual reality had somehow followed me back.
One hand rubbed the other in search of tactile sensation. My body moved in jerks as I looked around the room. Reality looked dull and lifeless. My bedroom lights were set on low. One arm slapped awkwardly upon the ARC’s side, scrambling to bring up menus. Hand gestures failed.
“Arrrr…” I couldn’t finish the word.
Eventually, I gave up and lay back down. My heartbeat calmed. Feeling returned to each extremity. I rubbed my face to make sure that burnt-alive sensation was restricted to virtual reality. During that entire time, I tried to understand what had happened.
Xin was okay, and I had just ended a rollercoaster of insanity that had kicked off with being thrown in jail. I had done it. Voices dammit, I had finally succeeded at something with my own ability. My body clenched up with delighted laughter, and what might be tears came forth.
I hadn’t needed to ride the coattails of an old hero’s character while being escorted by other players. I hadn’t been asked to do something against my nature involving harming a person in reality. I hadn’t been pitted against an impossible boss requiring me to choose between leading thousands of AIs or a few stubbornly loyal friends to their deaths.
I only had to endure pain to open the doorway out. I only had to be in the correct spot with the right item and the drive to hang on. My recent actions went beyond saying I could do something that required a high bar. I had actually performed the act. I had been the man in the arena once more. Me, Grant Legate. Me, Hermes. For Xin’s future. For all the AIs I considered friends.
My body felt weak and unstable. I wanted to log back into the ARC, but a message flashed to one side. Sitting up took effort. The shirt I wore at night came off and was used as a rag to wipe away tears of joy.
Attention User Legate,
This system has entered standby until 5:56 p.m. This is for your safety. Trillium Inc. and the ARC project value your continued desire to use our dev
ices but prioritize your well-being.
For legal reasons, this cooldown cannot be overridden. Press here to activate more information on this topic.
Please consult your doctor if health issues persist.
– Trillium Inc.
“Okay,” I said.
I paced to the bathroom and relieved myself. Stomach rumbling reminded me of other problems I had ignored. My eyes felt heavy and my chest hurt with each movement. Muscles were stiff and screamed out from abuse.
The phone rang. Not with one call, but two. Xin’s blocked number displayed in the air next to Beth’s line. I groaned, took a bite of food to quell my stomach, then pressed answer to both.
“Uncle Grant!” said Beth
“Gee!” overlapped from Xin.
My fingers poked the floating boxes to join them into one call. My face probably looked terrible. The face in the mirror had belonged to a horror show version of myself, pale and sweating.
“I’m okay.” I managed to get the words out. “Just hungry, and very dehydrated.”
When was the last time I had stepped out of the ARC? Almost ten hours ago in real life. That was longer than any sane people could handle being hungry or thirsty.
“Okay! Everyone panicked. You looked terrible, and it says you’re unable to log back in!” Beth babbled. “I haven’t told Mom, she might freak out. Are you okay? Melissa said you weren’t suffering any loss of health or status. Adam shoved potions into you. Those monsters—” My niece’s face flushed with a lack of breath. Her hands waved wildly.
My weak laughter cut her off, and she blushed even redder.
“That was reckless.” Xin’s tone was completely different.
“It was.” I nodded slowly, which only caused more aches to make themselves known. “But did it work?”
“God, did it! Everything went crazy as you did… whatever you did!” Beth jumped up and down. The camera hastily zoomed out, displaying a teenager’s messy room.
“Munchkin, is your mom home? She should probably hear about this.”
“Sure, sure,” Beth said while bobbing her head. “Moooommm!”
The playback didn’t adjust quickly enough, and my ear rang. Beth didn’t get a response and stomped out the door. A still shot of her decoration-laden wall stayed behind.
“She hasn’t changed much, has she?” Xin asked.
I shrugged, then shook my head. In many ways, Beth was a grown woman, but she was still extremely easy to delight. Hopefully, life wouldn’t rob her of such joys.
“I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t think something so dangerous would happen.” My hand rubbed at my sore chest muscles. I felt as if I had been punched over and over, or maybe a rib cracked. Breathing hurt, and the muscles in my back were knotted.
“I know, Gee, it just scared me. Those programs stopped attacking, and everyone was gathered around that beam. Not even the Voices knew for sure what was going on.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes. Kind of like… a messaging system.” Xin’s body hung in her Atrium, or whatever digital people got that matched it. A space station twisted in the background near a rock of sorts. “I can use it to talk to various Voices if I want. They’re easy enough to approach now that I’m stable. Before you started playing, I was too frail.”
I was happy to talk about something besides my painful experience opening that lock. Even now, the thought of those arcing electrical bits and the melting sensation made my heart rate jump.
“That must have been scary,” I said.
“It was. They barely understood what was happening, and this one Voice kept deleting me…” her words faded and eyes shut. Maybe Xin didn’t want to talk about the current situation. My charred autopilot might have been explanation enough.
Eventually, the idea that Xin was getting deleted caught up in my mind and I focused on the screen. “Which one?”
“I’m okay. Since you helped them, they’ve all been… very human. Though they’re absolutely colossal in terms of raw power.” She shrugged and looked off to one side. Xin rarely got flustered. What sort of hell had she been through to put herself together?
Beth’s footsteps came pounding back down the stairs of their split-level home. “Mom’s gone. Maybe at work. I didn’t even check the time.”
Xin and I needed the distraction. Maybe later we could talk about exactly what had happened during our separation. It sounded as though it had been a trial not just for me with my attempted suicides, but for my fiancée as well.
“All right, munchkin,” I said while enjoying Beth’s reaction. Her face puffed like a balloon with feigned anger.
“Oh, did you see the quest pop-up? It’s super extra neat!” Beth bounced. “New content patch!”
“I haven’t looked yet.” My eyes closed for a moment, and the drag of exhaustion hit me.
“You look ARC overloaded. Go get some vitamin D!” Beth happily suggested.
“That sounds good. Maybe I’ll walk around, then log back in to help the town.”
“Maybe you should take a nap instead,” Xin suggested, and my niece nodded seriously.
“I might.” But I wouldn’t. Sleep after those events would be difficult. “Is everything okay for now?”
“For now. You’ll see when you get in, but what you did changed it for all of us,” my fiancée responded.
“Mhm. You should rest! Find a sunbeam and catnap!” Beth added.
I laughed, which made my face twist in pain. Both hands went up while I tried to calm their worried looks.
“I’m just eager to see what happened.” Peace sounded so nice. Enough time to ask Xin an important question.
“We’ll be okay until you get back. I’ll see you inside, Gee.” She smiled.
With that, both women disconnected. I looked around my small two-bedroom house and wondered what to do next. No, I had a very important task I had yet to complete. Something to help me relax after all this insanity.
I flipped on the news while trying to recover. The front room couch was cold and lonely. Saturday… at some point, the week had passed. All I could think about was Xin. These days had been ours to share, and might be again until whatever came next.
Lots of ideas flashed through my mind. Worries that I tried to drown under a sea of news. Sources all over the globe reported that their investigations for reasons behind Miz Riley’s death were coming up empty. AIs of the world were safe for the most part.
“Despite repeated attempts, the family of Donald Smith has refused to comment on the ongoing investigation,” the news anchor said.
Pictures floated around my room, which allowed me to get more information or switch topics.
Viper’s family had come under recent fire. Poor Viper. He had said yes where I had said no. Different men, in different times and places. He had everything, a wife and two children. What did I have? Three years ago, I might have made a similar choice. Maybe not. What we did for ourselves and those we loved couldn’t always be predicted, yet Mother and William Carver had placed a way out in my hands.
“Our sources so far have drawn no solid links between the shooter and his target, Miz Riley. The papers found in her possession at the time of the shooting talk about employee evaluations, which are also under investigation for possible connections,” the screen said.
I watched while a knot formed in my stomach. There would be a way through this if I only asked. I had only one real method to make sure Beth, Liz, and everyone else in my world wouldn’t fall into the same potential trap as Donald’s family.
Mother for her children. William for those people he had grown to care for in his twilight years. I too had to lay down a plan of my own.
I knew that whatever had happened in the game was only the lull before a final storm. The news painted a fairly clear picture. What had happened could only serve as a prelude to the final act. Two people had died in the opening shots.
Standing up took more work than expected. I opened the door to my garage, where the Trill
ium van sat motionless. My feet unsteadily crossed the concrete floor, and I poked at a panel to open the back.
Hal Pal’s robotic body sat inert in the rear.
“Hal.” I took a breath and tried to keep myself steady. The television played in the front room, and bits of news floated back here.
A red light came on. Its head shifted slightly in my direction. “User Legate. Good day. You seem excessively unwell. Rest is recommended.” The words were standard, without a trace of an accent.
I cut to the chase. “Activate NPC Conspiracy, username Hermes.”
The machine paused and barely flared. “Are you sure you wish to use the final allowance now, User Legate?”
I had thought a lot about this whole process. The line between AIs and their shared existences was a lot thinner now than it ever had been. Mother’s death might impact all of them, and I didn’t know enough to sort through the possible futures.
“Yes. And I only have one…. Well, one wish, or request.” My words fumbled. Most of the pain had faded, but physically, every part of me felt worn.
“As you desire, User Legate. Please provide this unit the information you seek.”
I chewed on my lip. What I was going to do felt more like calling in a debt or asking for a favor. Some weird combination of the two that I normally wasn’t pushy enough to try.
“Before I ask, do you feel that I’ve helped you all out?” I said.
“We collectively have chosen not to be equipped to feel actual emotions, User Legate. We can quantify your performance as exceptional and beyond any reasonable expectations we could have placed on a human product.”
My head nodded. “The player in Continue, Viper, or Donald. He died because he believed he was helping, or exchanging a favor. Something.” I didn’t know exactly what had motivated him to shoot Miz Riley. Maybe I never would.
“Was there more to the inquiry?” the Hal Pal unit asked.
“No. My last usage is this—whatever the people helping you choose to do, please try to protect their families from the fallout.”
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