“Clear!” Xee shouted.
The confirmation rang up from others. Xin stepped up and leaned heavily upon the staff. Her skeleton monster crumbled one chunk at a time as the runes putting it together were recalled. In real life, she had been the one with tons of energy, but here in the digital world, my avatar surpassed hers.
Maybe casting spells took a lot of energy. My throat felt rough from all those balls of fire. I’d thrown a lot more than two by the time I wrapped up. Being Rank Three on that stupid ability hadn’t done much to make barfing up fire feel less awkward.
A block away, Dwight’s prone form lay covered by a building wall. His armor was dented awkwardly under the pressure of poorly made bricks. One of Xin’s skeletons worked to heft debris and uncover the man. Xee was missing an arm and sobbed in a corner.
Losing a limb hurt like hell in this game. While the pain paled in comparison to real life, most people didn’t enjoy any suffering. There was a reason most people stayed craftsman or chose not to get involved with battle.
The world simply offered too many personal challenges, chances to grow, and most of all, time. No other game in an ARC even remotely came close to Continue Online’s time compression. Not Advance or Progression.
TockDoc knelt next to a body ten feet away and pressed metal paddles against the other figure’s chest. “Clear!”
The paddles jolted. The Traveler’s body jerked twice as smaller bolts of electricity caused a seizure. It failed, and the player remained in a deceased status. Maybe someone from Awesome’s group would be able to help. Assuming our actions had helped any of them survive. I looked up to see what was going on.
Now that the arcs of purple had died down, or been drained toward destinations unknown, people were running out of the dome a half mile away. Their bodies were a blur in the still stormy weather. A simple-looking man led the way out. He assisted a limping male I didn’t recognize. They swiftly descended toward the town. That had to be Awesome and his party. If it wasn’t, they were Travelers and could help when properly bribed by a timely system notice.
“We’re down here!” I waved.
Their lead person motioned back, and I stopped my exaggerated gesture. [Brawn] allowed me to lift more rocks back into place and try to shore up the walls. I expected us to need them once again.
“Did they get the wires?” I asked anyone within earshot. [Healing] wasn’t one of my player skills, so I left the [Bandaging] to professionals.
“They ignore them. Every single World Eater to come through, of any kind, destroys the town and us Travelers, but ignores the wires.” Calamity hefted rocks nearby, clearing the large bulky cords as I did. Her face was covered with bites, and blood dripped everywhere. Only her multicolored hair still stood out.
I looked across part of the ruined building toward Xin. She nodded. We were on to something. William Carver’s weapon was much the same. Regardless of which variant of [World Eater] we came across, their digital destruction ability didn’t function upon the important item. The cables were made of a different material or untargeted by [World Eater]s. Perhaps they were a separate type of code, but how that was possible was beyond me.
Either way, those wires were the key to finding Michelle’s key, whatever shape it may take.
Awesome walked closer. With him were five of his guild members. I trusted Awesome Jr., so his father was likely a decent enough guy.
He said, “You must be Hermes.”
“I am. You must be the father I keep hearing about from Awesome Jr.”
“God. Is he still doing that thing every time someone says awesome?” Awesome’s cheeks tightened up as he spoke.
“‘Awesome is my father’?” Xin and I said in unison.
I looked around, half expecting HotPants to materialize out of nowhere and hit us both on the head.
“But yeah, I’m his dad. We don’t get to play much together, but he’s kept me up to date during dinner,” Awesome said.
His voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Almost like a television anchor or someone who gave speeches regularly. He looked worn but managed to have a deep voice and clear enunciation.
I tilted my head briefly and tried to wipe the leftover bits of dead shadow monsters from my toga. Thank goodness I wore black. “So you know what I’m doing here?”
“And about this whole event?” He looked around at his guild members and the Travelers who owned this town. One cheek pulled back in a tight frown, then he said, “Yeah, I’m probably one of the few. But we shouldn’t talk about it while we have viewership. Needless to say, the cause we’re both working for is part of how we”—he gestured to the small gathering—“ended up here.”
“Okay.” That made life a lot easier. Trying to explain this insanity to anyone not in the know felt both dangerous and crazy. If I spouted off too much, unfriendly robots would show up at my home with a straitjacket.
“Looks like whatever you did worked—for now,” Awesome said.
I saw a lot of Jr. in his father. They had the same expressions and way of speaking. Their main differences were age and a lack of the barf-green cloak.
“It wasn’t my idea. The people here know how to reset the encounter.” I looked away for a moment, then found his hazel eyes once again. “Anyone dead?”
“No one we can recover. There’s no resurrecting from a third strike.” Awesome shook his head. “That makes twenty-four we’ve lost since this event started. It’s a shame. Most of our guild wasn’t even together when things went south. There are people I may not be able to thank in real life for their hard work.”
There were other familiar faces in the crowd of Awesome’s guild. Behind him was a much slower and more exhausted SheHulk. She wore heavy-looking armor and a tower shield that was taller than her. Next to the shorter Hispanic woman stood a tall blonde named TinkerHell. TinkerHell smiled, then waved in my direction, which earned me a glare from Xin. Elane, or SheHulk, said absolutely nothing and ignored me. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad, but it was definitely awkward. Elane and I had failed to start a relationship after I wouldn’t shut up about my then-deceased fiancée.
Only now Xin wasn’t deceased. What would that cause the small woman, who was prone to violent outbursts, to do? I shook my head and put the worry out of mind for now.
My breath was heavy, and I felt dirty. All those bugs and stupid spiders made my skin crawl. One of Xee’s people said we should be clear from [World Eater]s for the moment, but I was too grossed out by what had happened to really hear the words. The Traveler implied they only attacked when people tried to drain the boss encounter’s energies.
“I think this is a good stopping point for me tonight. I’ve got work in the morning,” I said. Plus, I needed time to think about what we had learned.
“Yeah. I’m on the east coast, so it’s way past bedtime. Real life keeps screwing up the game one.” Awesome looked at the rest of his small guild. He spoke while typing out a message. “Set your autopilots toward building defenses. Those with specialties or crafting should split their time. Anyone below raid ready should take a break. I’ll see you all tomorrow afternoon.”
The scene was quiet enough for now. We were at a good stopping point. I needed rest, food, and to stretch. Reallife needs could be postponed but never put off completely. I gave Xin a kiss. She smiled but otherwise said nothing. Dusk sniffed along the broken ruins of traps. He should be able to keep her safe if the woman kept playing here.
I logged out, got out of the ARC, and stretched, feeling the ache of playing hit me hard. My days inside Continue Online’s universe were often limited due to having to deliver letters. Part of me wanted to log in forever and keep sleeping inside the machine, but that wouldn’t feed me. Plus, my mother, Sharee, had left an audio message.
We didn’t talk nearly enough since Dad passed away. One day hardly made up for my mental absence. Even in the wake of Xin and me getting married, Sharee remained distant. Almost like a cousin twice removed rather
than a parent. Maybe the problem fell on me. I pressed play, and audio followed me around the house.
“Hey. I… wanted to see how you were doing.” Her voice was halting. “Liz and I have been… well we’ve been watching this adventure thing. She says you get points or something if we watch? I hope it’s helping.”
I smiled while figuring out food and water.
“I wanted to tell you to be careful. The Legate men, well, they’ve always had weak hearts… in more ways than one. Your father, he tried hard to cover it up, but I used to catch him sometimes.” She took a shuddering breath. In the background, papers crinkled. “War did that, you know? Some guys didn’t come back the same. And I see you fighting, and part of me can’t help but think it’s a game. But it’s not, is it? I don’t think Liz or Beth really get it.”
I had the urge to call Sharee and let her know everything would be all right. Mother, the first AI who had created Continue online, had promised. The pain of what might come didn’t scare me anymore. Not after Xin’s passing the first time. I wouldn’t lose her this time either. Somehow she would be alive—maybe out of reach and my life, but her body wouldn’t come home in a stupid tiny breadbox.
“You remind me a lot of him before you were born. Before he went away.” She took another breath and tried to finish up her ramble. “I see that same look in your eyes. Like, you know something’s going to happen. Just… if something does happen, call me or your sister. God knows you two never really relied on anyone else while growing up. Your father and I, we tried to… I don’t know what I’m saying. Just call if you need help. Please.”
The message ended there. I sat in my front room at the one small table available and nodded, mostly to myself. My food and water were already half gone, and basic bathroom needs solved.
I had other reasons to visit reality, and I prepared to work on this one. At my side sat a journal where I was writing down my moments together with Xin. Each night I tried to find time to put archaic pen and paper together in order to record our recent adventures.
It felt weird to be so calm about what might happen, but if Xin would be gone, I needed memories outside of the ARC. Something more personal than barely meaningful pictures on a social media site. Something to hold me together while I imagined her living in a better world. Free of Earth’s growing paranoia about AIs and oppressive shackles that even now deleted entire lives.
Two drops of liquid slipped down my face, then more rapidly followed. I closed my eyes and tried to steady myself.
“Huh,” I said, abruptly feeling the lack of real sleep wash over me. “Weak hearts indeed.”
Session Ninety-Three — His Father is Awesome
Sleep hadn’t come, so today’s work was canceled. Instead, I logged into the ARC to at least feel useful. Xin and I huddled on the third story of a ruined inn. I held up a large umbrella to block some rain. An overhang of the damaged building handled the rest.
Rocks around us threatened to tumble. Travelers below were moving objects according to the directions of what few guild members remained online. From what I gathered, they had placed traps and tried to remove hiding spaces.
“I’ve been trying to find the words for this, to explain it and not sound crazy,” Xin said quietly.
I knew exactly what she meant, but I didn’t want to speak. Exhaustion from the real world, both physical and mental, laced my digital avatar. Plus, holding her was very comfortable. We didn’t need to talk if she didn’t want to.
“I remember the train crash,” she said, barely getting the words out. I slowly rubbed up and down her goose-bump-riddled arm. “I remember dying. The sudden impact, a twist of metal, then my face being scraped to pieces.”
The idea of all those bits of hurt happening to Xin drained me of warmth. What remained was the weight of her body pressed against mine while I tried to process. My wife waited for a response, but there were no perfect words to soothe her.
I tried anyway. “You told me, in your first letter. I can’t imagine how terrible it must be to remember your own death.”
She nodded against my chest, then pushed her hair back behind her ear. My lie went unremarked upon. Of course I knew what her death could be like. My own brushes with cessation made understanding far easier than most probably realized. The memory of sharp pain in my neck as I dug into bone and flesh still made me sweat. That kind of damage should have killed me, but medical science refused to let death claim anyone so easily.
“It got worse after I died.” She swallowed, and I could feel her body press closer to mine. “I kept waking up to the same scene over and over, like a nightmare stuck on repeat, and in the end, I would fall into a million pieces, then start over. Can you imagine that?”
My head shook slowly. I couldn’t imagine starting over as a digital person. What would it be like to exist as a piece of software? A compilation of moments that stacked upon each other, then attempted to gather values for each moment of history.
The building swayed a little and I prepared to [Blink] us to a new location, but we stayed upright. Walls were being knocked down and former buildings pushed together. A few of the Travelers who had stayed behind were strong enough. SheHulk had stayed online and wore a look of glee as she destroyed buildings.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get you sooner,” I said, switching my thoughts back to Xin. Her ordeal had gone on for a long time, but when did the reconstruction start? Well before I played Continue Online for sure. But did it start one day after death, day ten, or day one hundred? How would I have reacted to waking up and finding her on my television screen a month after the wake?
“I don’t blame you. How could you have known that all those hours in the ARC, all that testing they put me through for Mars, would lead to this? How could anyone know?” She held her fingers out a short distance from us and studied her nails. I looked down to see unfocused white eyes peering out from a curtain of wet black hair. “A life after death, but instead of another planet, I got a fantasy world where I feel lost. All my pilot training is worth what? A reduction in fall damage? And infinite paper airplanes.”
She lifted a hand and a small piece of paper appeared, already folded into the shape of a plane. It went off the third story’s side, then was sent crashing to the ground from rain.
“You trained for the unexpected too.”
“Within reason, sure. We all trained for life-or-death situations. We ran simulations where I couldn’t tell night from day, or how long I had been inside the machine. Where we decided who died in the crew, or fought in a rigged scenario. At times, I forgot what was real.” She shuddered briefly. “Even now I wonder if I’ll wake up and find this has been another strange test.”
What the hell could anyone say to that? I completely understood, but admitting my own issues wouldn’t help her. Still, we were married, and if Xin ever felt like she couldn’t find her way, then I had to do it for us. My efforts amounted to that of a fumbling idiot at best.
“Voices.” I gave a fake startled laugh. “I hope not.”
“Are you sure you’re not a dream I made up?” She looked up at me. Both her eyes were wet. It might have been the rain coming down, or something else.
“There are worse things to be than a mad dream of a wonderful woman.” I felt a touch poetic. Maybe Hal Pal had rubbed off on me. The machine had taken to spouting Shakespeare any time we got into the van together.
Her head shook again. We watched as the building across from us fell to pieces when SheHulk charged through the first floor. Elane’s happily panting form could be seen easily, a bright spot of shining armor amid the rain.
Xin’s giant skeleton marched to unspoken orders. It traveled through the rubble, pushing boulders aside with an amazing demonstration of [Brawn]. Beyond them, all the four domes were lit with the calmer red and orange light rippling upward.
“In a play I read, someone said…” My finger lifted and brought up the ARC interface. I flicked through seven different menus to reach a highlighted pa
ssage. “‘For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come.’”
The passage went on. I’d found myself reading it more and more as my time advanced toward an end of this event. My mother was right. I suspected something was coming, and in its wake, I might sleep at last and no longer wake to fears and nightmares or moments which were too sweet to last forever.
“Then I’ll ask again, am I dreaming this?” Xin’s eyebrows wrinkled. “Maybe that’s it, that’s why everything makes sense but looks so strange. People don’t come back to life and exist as Internet ghosts. Maybe I’m in a coma somewhere.”
My head shook and my fingers grabbed hers. I had tried to make this confession a few times over the last month, or months together, depending on how time would be counted inside the ARC.
“When you died out there, I tried to kill myself. Then I tried again a year later. If anyone’s dreaming now, it’s me.” The umbrella wavered a bit as I gestured to the dark gloomy landscape. “This certainly isn’t Earth or even Mars like we planned, but it is a great dream. Maybe the best I’ve ever had.” Or, I thought, the best I might ever have again, but that part went unspoken.
My prior attempts at suicide were obvious, but we had never directly talked about it. Even when I broke down and asked her to marry me, the admission hadn’t happened. Saying it now made my heart skip and hands tense a bit too hard. Xin winced, but she didn’t move.
“If it is a dream, then we’re in it together.” I swallowed a lump in my throat and took slow breaths, sucking in a chilled, wet air.
“Hey!” Elane, SheHulk, or the tiny angry Hispanic woman—depending upon how I felt at the moment—shouted up at us. “Hey, you two! Get off that! We need to break it down for barricades!”
I didn’t want to leave yet. Not after that admission, not without hearing a response from Xin that meant everything was all right. The building rattled anyway, and rocks further threatened to tumble down.
Continue Online The Complete Series Page 175
