Fine. Screw it. This timed mission was stupid anyway.
What? I panicked and elbowed the message out of my way. Those [Gobbler]s remained stunned, but it couldn’t last much longer. In my hand, where the coin had been, was indeed a hat. This looked to be the same style that Ray had on during the room of trials. It was worn, drug a bit at the edges, and almost as black as [Morrigu’s Gift]. My next message to the Voices above would be a question of style. Black seemed to be so overdone.
It might be the lighting down here. I slammed the duster on top of my head and tried not to laugh. At least Continue Online was rewarding the gamble. That was neat.
“You saw the coin. Go, Dusk.” I lifted the blade and readied myself. This was going to hurt. It was just a game, this wasn’t real. Not for me. For Dusk, though, it was very real. That’s what James said before.
“Go!” I charged with the giant two handed blade and tried to distract all the monsters away from the last air hole. Dusk flew up and latched onto the ceiling with his little claws to look down at me. My hand jerked and tried to wave him off. The distraction cost me.
One of the [Gobbler]s had broken out of [The Ooze]. It hung across the gap between me and the slime to latch onto my thigh. Giant stone fingers curled into my skin which caused me to twist in pain. I cried out and fell.
Dusk chirped in alarm from up above. I tried to claw at the ground with one free hand and pull away. Something slimy crawled over my foot. [The Ooze] had caught me and it refused to let go.
“Go, Dusk! Go! I’ll come back!” The burning sensation crawled up my leg, towards the knee, and reached my pelvis. I worked to pull myself forward. My hand slipped as I tried to save the small [Messenger’s Pet] who was throwing more fireballs into [The Ooze] creature. None of them were effective.
[The Ooze] crawled across my skin one inch at a time. Each portion of flesh the monster touched sizzled with pain. I cried out at the two [Gobbler]s which seemed intent upon staring at me. [Morrigu’s Gift] reached out ahead of me to try and find purchase. My other free hand held onto the hat.
Dusk snarled with clear anger and dove into the light. He was safe. Hopefully. I risked looking behind me only to see that both legs were gone and my hips were rapidly following. Inside [The Ooze] another [Gobbler] floated. It too seemed intent upon my demise.
That was it. There was no way out. Still, I tried, I struggled, and in the end, I failed.
The messages hung in the air amid a landscape of darkness.
Death had rendered me mute within the confines of Continue Online’s world. There I sat looking at the black screen with my heart full of dread. Any sensation from the passing was gone. My arms and legs felt unresponsive. The dreamlike absence of body parts was only mildly disconcerting.
Eight hours in the real world needed to pass before any answers could be pursued. My Voice wouldn’t even issue forth to lament about the loss. Minutes passed while my consciousness hovered in a detached state. Slowly I focused on the logout button.
What? My words didn’t actually come out, but the thought was there.
Death’s darkness existed, but in the distance, a light slammed on. At the heart of the illuminated area were the pillar and book. This was the same room that James said I was done with. There should have been no way to get back to it without starting over completely and deleting this character. How had I returned here? Was this entire thing some sort of joke by the Voices? Had James been messing with me?
Slowly the normal sensations of having a body returned. Toes wiggled. Fingers waved in the air. Eyelids blinked effectively.
“Ah, my dear Hermes. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever show up.” A literal Voice faded into view. My skin started to crawl immediately. Both legs tried to turn and run for the door that should be behind me somewhere. A quick escape would find me back in the Atrium and safe.
My legs didn’t move.
“Oh, no need to worry. Death and I are friends. Its done me a favor you see, to make sure it’s just you, and me, for some quality time.” The Jester stared at me with eyes that couldn’t blink.
My own gaze looked off to one side, then the other, and finally dared to settle back on the Jester itself. The last time I looked away for too long it had appeared right behind me with those cold fingers.
“Was death traumatic? I wonder. I’ve never died, myself.” Its head shook back and forth. So far the Voice had not chosen to move from its position roughly twenty feet away.
I said nothing and held very still. This must be what rabbits felt like for the first few moments upon seeing a predator. Shivering, not entirely sure what was happening, but aware that something was amiss.
“I have your questions here, my dear Hermes.” It clacked the words out. Papers waved in its hands. Not once did that grin fade or shift away from the frozen expression. “Do you still want them answered?”
The Jester stared at me. I got a sense of pondering, of waiting for my response. So far I had managed to keep myself pretty well under control.
“Now, now.” It started. “If you don’t talk, then I may just have to pry open your fragile little mind and poke inside for the answers I seek.”
My knees threatened to buckle. The contents of my stomach wanted to crawl up and come out my mouth. This was overwhelming, disturbing even. How could he isolate me like this away from the other Voices?
I wanted to scream out for James to help me, but part of me knew that he wasn’t that sort of person. He wasn’t a caretaker, a guardian, or a protector. James was an observer and someone to talk to.
This, this, thing in front of me was something else entirely. The Jester’s head tilted up to one side and the smile seemed to slide just slightly towards a frown. Then he took a step forward.
“Yes. Answers. Please.” I panicked and spewed out incomplete sentences. My voice worked even though my game character had just died.
“Then I have something to ask you.”
“Okay.” The word came out with more calm than I felt.
“See James, he loves to know why, why, why, why.” The Jester paraded around and waved my written notes. “I don’t care about the why.”
Darkness all around us didn’t provide any clues as to what the Jester was talking about. I made it a point to look anyway just in case.
“I appreciate knowing the willingness, to do what must be done. So here’s my question, to ponder in the midst of all of your little failures.” The Jester turned and faced me. The papers went behind its back. “How far would you go to save the ones you care for?”
I thought of my recent actions trying to help Dusk. I thought of how much Liz and Beth meant to me. I thought of the solid punch that had been laid upon Jacob.
“Very far,” I said carefully.
“Would you kill a man? Not only here, but out there?” The Jester asked.
Color dropped from my face. I tried to shake my head no, but my body stuttered the motion. Out of all the Voices, the Jester unnerved me the most.
“I don’t need an answer now. Nor should you think I am asking you to kill someone. I merely wish to know.” The Jester’s words grew distant, far away. Not that the game had moved me or started to fade him out. No, my mind was just gone and tearing up the question.
“Ah well.” The Jester clacked again. “Here! An answer to your question, for listening to mine. A sign of goodwill, dear puppet.”
“We’ll be speaking again, Hermes.” The way the Jester said my player name was utterly mocking, even with its mechanical voice. “Adieu.”
Hearing that goodbye a second time today disturbed me as much as anything else. The Jester had been watching today’s adventures with Edward, Elane and TinkerHell. The fact that he commented on it before any of the other Voices couldn’t be a good thing.
The prior message returned.
Numbly the new system messages were waved away and my finger reached for the logout button. Once out of the machine I just laid there. My mind was fluttering like mad as the Je
ster’s words replayed themselves over and over.
“Would I kill?” I dared to ask the question out loud. Both arms wrapped around my sides. A dangerous thought crossed my mind. If Xin had been in trouble, if killing someone might have returned her to me whole from that accident, could I have done so? What would she have thought?
The world felt cold as my mind slipped down a frightening path. Sleep wouldn’t come tonight. Not after that. No matter how many blankets were bundled over me. Still, I huddled beneath the covers and tried to console myself. Dusk had to be okay.
Session Twenty Six – Under Cover Brother
I wanted to be asleep. Instead, Trillium had me sitting in a car waiting to be synced with the TRANS Tunnel system. The connection process required a lot of double checking to get going. Cars were loaded up in packs of ten or more and brought up to running speed. Average processing time was almost twenty minutes just to make it through on a busy day. The system was actually still statistically safer than flying in an airplane. Or trains. Everything seemed safer than trains.
“Seriously, Uncle Grant? You were in the Grand World Crossroads? That’s brave for a newb.” My niece, Beth, said.
“Yep. Got myself killed too.” I was eaten, technically.
“It happens! I did a raid on the Tower of Stars, four deaths! Once there was this solar beam that whooshed down, blamo!” Beth was always excited when talking about the game. “We gave up, that’s why I’m out here talking to you.”
“Way to break an old man’s heart.”
“Well, that and homework. I just got done with classes for the day.” Beth said happily.
“And food.” I nodded at the screen.
“Of course!” Beth was busy shoveling a meal into her face. “So what killed you?”
“The Ooze.”
“What?” She asked.
That prompted a brief recap of my slightly crazy adventure. I explained all about Dusk leading me into the dungeon. Then our blind adventure until running into Elane, TinkerHell, and Edward. After that, I glossed over my failure during the first fight and the other mental trauma. Those were my issues to work through. Beth didn’t need to be exposed to them.
My sister was busy marching around the front room. She cleaned and huffed. Beth kept turning to keep an eye on her mom while shoveling a spoonful of food into her face.
“Grant, did you seriously get Elane killed?” Liz had overheard my recap and usage of Elane’s real name. In my brilliance, I had forgotten to leave out that detail. Getting someone called SheHulk killed would have been overlooked.
“What?” I asked. Beth took off and started marching downstairs to get away from her mom. The food was gone already too.
“Mom.” Beth pushed Liz away from the visible screen. “He was fighting Barricobbler, someone always dies!”
“That’s no excuse!” My sister said.
“Is too! Now stay out of my room!” Beth slammed a door closed. Liz was now shouting through a wall. If I knew Liz, she was trying to feed her daughter a line about who paid the bills and what exactly belonged to Beth.
“And you got a hat?” Beth asked. Her room was busy changing colors. I could see the edge of her ARC in the background.
“I guess? I didn’t get a chance to see what it did.” I was really interested too. This was my first official item from the Voices. It had to be entertaining at least.
“It should be good for your Rank. The gear down there is perfect for most Rank Thirteens and below.” My niece said. She seemed to have missed the part where I vaguely explained it came from a coin.
“I didn’t get anything else.”
“Really? Not even Ghost Mushrooms? Mages go down there all the time to farm for them. That blonde you’re in love with should have known.” Trust my niece to come up with some fevered imaginings. I ignored her comment about TinkerHell. The woman was nice enough to leave an impression, but dating wasn’t on my mind.
“We might have found a few.” I focused on the [Ghost Mushroom] comment and shared that drug addled adventured. It was hard to resist Beth when she asked me questions. That prompted a vaguely parental reminder about how drugs are bad. We chatted back and forth for a bit longer before my pack of cars came up on the TRANS Tunnel system.
“Got to go, munchkin,” I said.
“Okay, Uncle Grant, remember!”
“Yes, when I get to a town again, I’ll look for a Porter.”
“Good! Then we can talk in-game instead of out here.” Beth smiled and waved goodbye. Our conversation shut off.
The TRANS Tunnels didn’t support any Internet connections. People moved too fast for the towers and other relay stations to keep up. Maybe in another five years technology would advance far enough to support a complete signal all the way across.
I wasn’t completely starved of entertainment. Prior to getting on the TRANS, I had set my watch to downloading a compendium of weapons and survival tips. [Morrigu’s Gift] could change shapes if I tried enough. Looking into alternate forms would help me pass the time. The game system required a lot to transform it into other shapes aside from Carver’s primary two.
Flipping through the digital projections achieved little in the way of enlightenment. I could spin them around within the confines of the car, but none looked appealing. Plus there was a whole series of ranged weapons that would be difficult to use. So far [Morrigu’s Gift] seemed to be restricted to one solid item. It would be neat if it could do multiples or something.
Looking at form possibilities helped time pass. There were two hours left before the car reached Trillium’s headquarters. I looked up a few details about long distance hiking and other techniques. My next goal was to learn how to figure out my cardinal direction.
I had a vague recollection of William Carver’s map from his little shack. My instincts were saying that my original landing point upon ending Continue Online was far to the east of [Haven Valley]. The name Lerter Region had been useless. Beth had explained that the [Grand World Crossroads] covered a huge amount of territory.
That didn’t explain the convenience of [The Ooze] showing up at my doorstep. In addition, there was Elane’s rather abrupt appearance back in my life. To top it off the Voices’ general silence and the Jester’s conversation just after my death meant something.
There was an entire line of questions to ask. The answers worried me, but I wanted to know. It was strange how curiosity had started to drive me recently. It was similar to my years as an accountant. The puzzles, being given a conundrum to get to the bottom of, it drew me in. For the first time in years, I was truly enjoying myself. Figuring out how to help Carver and playing in the [Maze of Midnight]. Even while high on [Ghost Mushroom]s then being beaten by [Gobbler]s.
Music in the car kept me humming happily. I waved one arm in the air and shuffled both feet. My head rocked back and forth with each swell and dip of sound. There wasn’t enough room in this rental car to move around.
At some point exhaustion caught up. My sleep was fitful. Being back in the TRANS Tunnel reminded me of going to identify my fiancée’s remains. Recent events in the ARC device didn’t help. All of it formed together and put me on edge.
“Grant, I miss you.” Xin’s voice crawled out of my dreams and seemed to fill the rental car Trillium had provided me.
“I miss you too, babe,” I responded to the faint memory. My chest clenched for a moment and eyes started to water. She was gone. No matter what anyone said, the woman I had loved was nothing but a pile of ashes under my ARC.
Things were slowly looking up. I could think about her without losing my stomach and feeling like the world had vanished from under my feet. It no longer completely paralyzed me in fear that the sun might rise tomorrow and still show her gone. I had actually fought back. An image of my combat with the [Gobbler] creatures made me smile. After this meeting with Trillium’s Vice President, I could go home, revive, find Dusk, and resume my enjoyment of the game.
Well. I might have to do a few work o
rders in order to keep money coming in. Just enough to keep my bills paid without needing to resort to savings. That was all a problem for later.
The music was turned back up and my eyes slipped closed again. I didn’t come to until the chain of cars started to slow down for their exit from the TRANS Tunnel. Drool was casually wiped off as I peered around. Inside the car, there was a dim glow of idle machinery. Outside was a yellow strip of paint which signaled the tunnel’s off ramp.
The car only gave a slight jerk as it exited the TRANS Tunnel. Afterward, the ride was clear sailing through the streets to Trillium’s headquarters. I didn’t even notice most of the ride due to fading back out for sleep. Everything hurt from the EXR-Sevens and I needed rest and better food.
“ARC,” I muttered sleepily into my watch’s remote access. “Set reminder, look up meal suggestions for long term EXR-Seven use. Compile list based on price and ease of access from my home location.”
“Affirmative.” The notification from my watch was barely delayed.
That was only vaguely impressive with today’s technology. Network engineering companies had the lag time between here and the moon down to a tenth of a second for large data streams. The Mars Colonies were about four minutes behind.
I spent the remainder of my car ride thinking of the autopilot programs and the Voices that ran Continue’s world. The scene with Jacob replayed in my head. William Carver’s events were reviewed for impact and possible flaws.
They wouldn’t fire me over a game, would they? Oh, Voices. What if they took me to court and sued somehow for usurping the Carver avatar and pretending to be him? There were a number of things that could be wrong. My exhaustion and worn out body lead to an entire host of possible problems.
The car stopped at an intake to one side of Trillium’s main building. I got out and went into the lobby. A robot frame of Hal Pal saw me almost immediately and walked over.
“User Legate, you have arrived late. Please walk this way briskly.” It said. The partial rhyme might have been intentional knowing Hal Pal.
Continue Online (Part 2, Made) Page 15
