“What?” she asks, shrinking away from me.
“Just looking at you.”
“Well don’t. I’ve had enough people doing that lately.”
I recall what Zedic mentioned last week about her family constantly trying to marry her off to guys from China, or Taiwan – I can’t quite remember where in Asia, but I know it’s some place I’ll never visit.
“What were you saying about my weight?” I ask.
“You’re still underweight, but you’ll get fatter. Especially if you keep up your current eating habits. I was just updating your medical file. You have an FCG Monitor, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll forward him your information.”
“Do not.”
“Excuse me?”
“Do. Not. That FCG monitor has been on my ass since last night. You do know what happened last night, right?”
“Yes, you were assaulted.”
“And I’m here right now.”
“Yes, in my office.” She clears her throat, places her hands at her sides, suddenly less sure of herself. “Um … What’s your point?”
I try to hang onto my temper, but despite my best efforts and intentions, I find myself speaking to her in what my mother used to call my outdoor voice.
“I’m here right now after little or no sleep, if you don’t count the hours that I was unconscious from head trauma, and the last thing I need is Evan, my goddamn FDA Monitor, who is now also my PTSD counselor, getting any more information on me. Do not send anything to him – anything! Any information about me in any way, shape, form or description is personal, private, confidential, and not for release. So, is there anything about this that you’re not clear on?”
She’s backed herself into a corner, eyes wide, hands clasped under her chin. It’s very apparent that she doesn’t get spoken to like this very often. Her mouth flops goldfish-like several times before she manages to choke out a subdued No sir.
I sigh again. “No need to call me sir,” I tell her. “I don’t run that tight of a ship. Not gonna lie – I’m just sick of people screwing with me. It seems like I’ve been at odds with just about everyone around me since getting out of The Loop. I didn’t want a life chip nor do I want to be part of iNet. I don’t want Humandroids bothering me, and I certainly don’t like government droids using my own feed to monitor me. You hear that, Evan?”
My FDA Monitor doesn’t respond.
“The point is – I’m adjusting, but it ain’t easy. So do me a solid and keep these goons off my back. If there’s an issue, come to me first.”
“Okay.”
Frances Euphoria: We are going to dive soon; you ready to do some monitoring?
Me: Sophia and I were having a moment.
Frances Euphoria: Don’t fall in love.
Me: Fat chance. I got a pretty full plate these days.
Chapter Four
“How’s this work exactly?” I ask Rocket.
The other Dream Team members are vatted up, ready to dive to Tritania.
Rocket says, “You are still technically diving, but you aren’t fully emerged like you are when you’re in a vat, meaning you can take off the NV Visor if you get dizzy or feel – I don’t know, I’m not a concussion expert – anyway, if you do, your view will switch to the holoscreen. It’s called a partial dive.”
“Let’s just start with my view on the holoscreen.”
“Fo’ sho’.” Rocket types something on a keyboard, and an image of the Tritanian village of Shiya flashes on the screen. Coordinates are listed in the upper right hand corner and a list of login names as well as class abbreviations are on the bottom left hand screen. Zedic is already in, speaking with Aiden and Veenure, the mysterious Dark Mage of the group (every group has one, I’m guessing). The image is pristine, as if I’m watching a high definition video.
Rocket explains, “Use your NV gloves to zoom in and out by spreading your fingers. You can also point at the screen until a green dot flashes and zoom to that area. Otherwise, you’ll get a bird’s eye view.”
I give it a shot, pointing at Aiden’s face and the image zooms and zooms until I’m just about looking into his pores.
“Neato.”
“Too close,” Rocket says. “To zoom out, reverse your hand gesture as if you’re squeezing a breast or something.”
“How would you know anything about that?” I ask him with a grin.
He harrumphs. “I’m more experienced than you think.”
“NPC girlfriends don’t count.” I instantly regret saying that, and am glad that he doesn’t challenge me.
“The term generally used is digital fondling or NV grope.”
“Alrighty, digital fondling it is.” The single earbud is comfortable and it provides simulated 360 degrees surround sound, which is convenient.
I hear a goofy bell just as Frances materializes on the holoscreen. Hot to trot, she’s in a sexy Robin Hood outfit with chainmail leggings. Talk about chaffing! An almost-corset with brown fringe gives her a most interesting décolletage, and a series of small daggers attached to a bandolier run across her chest. High heel boots complete her outfit, that, and her trademark red hair.
Rocket says over my shoulder, “Great, everyone is almost in.”
“I thought you controlled when we dove or not?”
“I can, but everyone here also knows how to use a dive vat manually, except you. Now, point at Frances and the screen will tell you her deets.”
I do as instructed. Frances Euphoria, Dark Thief, Level Fifteen.
“She take a booster shot or something?”
“She leveled up over the weekend,” Rocket says, “auto-player leveling.”
“And how do I speak to people logged in?”
“Proxima Worlds integrate with iNet after you’ve logged in. Just speak to the person as you normally would, either aloud or by text. You don’t have the capability to speak to NPCs – there’s a hack for it, though – so if you need to tell something to one of them, tell one of us. With your earpiece in, you’ll be able to hear us. You can also read the play-by-play at the bottom of the holoscreen.”
Me: Save that outfit for later.
Zedic: What do you mean?
Rocket laughs, “I forgot to tell you, I have it set to message everyone at once whenever I talk!”
Frances Euphoria: Way to go, Quantum, already getting creepy on the comms.
“Shit, Rocket, that’s an important detail!”
“Almost forgot … ” He pops open drawer and retrieves a small Bull Bean energy drink. The lid comes off and he chugs it down, sighing once he’s finished. “If you want to speak to someone in a private chat, point at that person with your glove and wait until a red light flashes, then say something.”
“Roger that.”
Sophia’s avatar spawns and floats a foot off the ground. She’s in a long, white dress, similar to her lab coat in real life. The only other thing that resembles her real life form is her frizzy, just-stuck-my-finger-in-an-electric-socket-hairdo. Even her Asian features are gone, her eyes and cheekbones replaced with non-Asian features and the requisite elven ears.
“She’s an avid Tritania player,” Rocket explains before I can comment.
I point my finger at her and read her stats.
Sophia Wang, Mind Mage, Level Sixty-One.
“She sure climbed the ladder.”
“Yup.” Rocket stares at her avatar a bit too dreamily for my tastes. “She’s kind of a badass.”
Sophia: Are you going to sit there, Rocket, or are you going to spawn?
“Got to go,” the kid says. “Oh! One more thing, transfer item 574 to Frances.”
“My dragon mirror necklace … how?”
“Real simple. Scroll to the upper left hand corner, wait for your inventory list to appear, scroll down, select the relic and drag it over to Frances. It’ll return to your list once she logs out.”
“Damn, I forgot we are going to a new continent today. Wish I coul
d dive.”
“Tomorrow, Q,” he says as he places a hand on my shoulder. “Doctor’s orders.”
“The doctor actually said I should wait three days.”
“In some Proxima Worlds, one full day is equivalent to three Earth days.”
“That sounds like the it’s always five o’clock somewhere excuse to drink.”
“Peace out, Q-Tip.”
“Dammit, Rocket,” I grumble.
I hear him laugh as he climbs into his dive vat. One glance over my shoulder and I catch him finishing the wiring on his own.
~*~
“Where’s Steamboy?” Veenure sits on an overturned barrel, her hood covering her face and her green eyes blazing beneath it. She drops her head a little, letting her long nose peek out into the digital daylight.
“Steamboy ate some bad Vietnamese food,” says Rocket. “Everything inside him has since turned to pho, if you get my drift.”
Me: Ha-ha, real funny.
“And who are they?” Veenure nods at Frances and Sophia.
“The new members of the Knights of Non Compos Mentis I was telling you about,” says Zedic. He’s in his White Archer regalia, geared up and ready to heal and shoot. “Frances was on comms during our Cape of Chukis quest.”
“More new members?”
“They’re some friends from a different world we like to dive in.”
“Which one?”
“A Zompoc world called Dead City,” says Frances. “We’ve been playing together for years.”
“I’m actually from here, from Tritania.” Sophia floats just a bit higher in the air, making it easier to peer down at Veenure. “But I spend most of my time in Porthos, just bought a home in Valhalla. I dabble in Dead City too, which is how I know these people. I’m in between guilds at the moment, so I thought, why the hell not be the strongest player on a team?”
Me: Humble much?
“Hi Frances.” Aiden approaches her and I scroll over to his NPC avatar to see his class: Berserker Assassin, Level Twenty. I recall going to the church with Aiden and Dolly, watching them get their classes. It’s weird – digital memories seem just as fleeting as memories from the real world.
“Hiya, Aiden.” Frances gives him a conspiratorial nod; he responds instantly, takes a few steps away from the rest of the group.
Me: Wait a darn minute – so Frances gets to keep her name in Tritania, but I still have to go by Steamboy_889?
Rocket: It’s a precaution. You’re a legend in the Proxima Galaxy. Plus, Steamboy is a way cooler name than Quantum, trust me.
Me: You do a gig at the Comedy Cellar later or something?
Aiden and Frances move to the shaded side of a wooden hut. A cat perched on a stump nearby takes interest in them, but Morning Assassin shoes the digital gato away.
“Quantum was attacked last night,” Frances says. “He’s monitoring, so he can hear us, but he’s been told not to dive today.”
“I see.” Aiden runs his hand through his hair; I reset my viewing angle just in time to see the vengeful look spread across his face. “Who did it?”
“Rollins, the Reaper who always led the Reaper Gang attacks. Quantum killed him.”
“How did Rollins get into the real world?”
“Not Rollins-Rollins, the kid that used Rollins as his avatar – Matthew Henderson,” she explains. “He ran out of the hotel room firing and Quantum got him with the sword in his cane.”
Me: Swordstick.
“–With his swordstick. He wants me to correct my earlier statement.”
Aiden asks, “Quantum has a swordstick?”
“He bought it using my money.”
“Good purchase. What kind?”
Me: Tell him it’s a United Cutlery Commando Survival Cane, limited edition and signed by Steven Seagal. That’ll impress him.
Frances rolls her eyes.
“So Rollins got skewered?”
“Well, yes, that’s one way to put it.”
“Good riddance.” Aiden nods, looks directly at me, which is startling as I didn’t know that he knew my current viewing position. “The bear trap would have worked too.”
Me: Ha! Now there’s a throwback!
“He was lucky,” Frances says, “that’s for sure. But the kid died, and the fall gave Quantum a concussion.”
“A concussion is better than a bullet in the chest.”
Me: Ditto.
“Aware of that … ” She pauses for a moment, tries to find a different way to explain her concern. “Anyway, you asked and that’s what happened. Just keep quiet about it with any other player characters. Don’t tell the other NPCs either, unless they can keep a secret.”
“Burly can, the others can’t. Jim the doorman can’t, Chef and the Saucier can. Dirty Dave is MIA,” says Aiden. “But I think I could get hold of him if pressed.”
Me: Figures. Ask him how the others are getting along.
She relays my question.
“The UK Assassins have been bitching about the quality of the whores in Tritania; Scotty likes to joke that they are to the right of wenches, whatever that means. They’re also not the biggest fan of our guild quarters. They keep trashing it.”
Me: We have an actual place now?
Frances Euphoria nods at the sky. “Yes and no. Some guilds have actual physical locations in Tritania that they lease to own with real world dollars. For the guilds on the cheaper side there are virtual guild quarters available for rent.”
Me: I thought everything was already virtual.
“Yeah, it’s like virtual within virtual.”
Sophia: I couldn’t help but notice the conversation you two are having and would like to clarify what it means to be virtual within virtual, as that sounds like something someone with an associate’s degree in Virtual Entertainment Management from the University of Phoenix online would say. It all boils down to orthogonal matrixes. For every Proxima World created, there is an inverse world also created, all based on principles of linear algebra. Some world developers use this for additional storage and Proxy hackers, like Rocket, use it for backdoors into restricted areas. I’ll explain more later.
Rocket: I’m not a hacker!
Sophia: You were part of the FR33 K3/1N /NON group that was busted by Federal Corporate Government agents.
Rocket: I was part of the B@CKD00R BuDDies too, but that doesn’t make me a hacker.
Frances Euphoria: Yes, it does.
Rocket: All right already, I admit – I’m a hacker, but now I’m licensed to hack by the FCG.
Me: Backdoor buddies? No comment.
~*~
Frances and Aiden return to the rest of the group who are loitering outside a restaurant called Medieval Times. Aiden is the only NPC right now, and Chrono, Veenure’s blacksmith friend, is also nowhere to be seen.
Like an idiot, Rocket is doing some stretches/ninja moves he probably picked up on YouTube or VineTwitch. He has since enhanced his getup – same ninja outfit with an unlicensed Kylo Ren mask, but now everything is red, with painted-on flames extending from his ankles and daggered wrist guards.
Me: You don’t have to stretch in a Proxima World.
Rocket: Yeah, but a little Tai Chi never hurt anyone.
Me: Is that what you’re doing?
Rocket: You got it, Q Papi.
Me: I’m going to unplug your dive vat if you ever call me that again.
Veenure removes her hood, revealing her elven features and the vertical tattoos on her cheeks. Her purple hair is tied into two tight Harley Quinn ponytails and she’s wearing a pair of gold earrings, one of which is linked by a thin golden chain to a stud in her nostril. “Does one of you have the dragon calling device?” she asks. “Otherwise, we’ll need to pay for passage by ship, in which case we’ll need to log out until later this afternoon unless we want to sit on the ship drinking Horse Piss, fighting randoms and playing card games. Magic the Gathering fourteenth edition is pretty popular in Tritania; some people are into Nightfall, but I�
�m not all about ghouls. There’s also a Thulean game called Banj Racka, which is a prayer based card game that relies on your constitution and magical abilities.”
Me: Frances, head’s up. Thulean = Ultima Thule, the northernmost floating continent. You are on the continent known as Hyperborea, next up is Polynya, followed by Ultima Thule.
Frances Euphoria: I’m familiar with the layout of Tritania, thanks for the refresher though.
Sophia: FYI – I have visited Ultima Thule, Athos twice, and I’m enrolled in a Thulean language night course at Valhalla Tech. I recommend everyone brush up on the grammar basics and I would like to suggest an afternoon session on the language, starting this afternoon. I’ve pre-booked a time for the entire team, btw.
Me: English is enough languages for me. Besides, we have other plans this afternoon.
Rocket: Hellz y34h!
Frances Euphoria: What’s up with the Leetspeak?
Rocket: I am getting back into it.
Me: Please don’t. Nobody needed Esperanto and nobody needs Leetspeak when there are actual keyboards and we pretty much communicate mentally anyway.
Rocket: That’s the fun in it!
Zedic: I’m thinking of getting a Thulean face tattoo. It is said to increase magical powers by 20%. Any suggestions?
Me: A teardrop? You have killed people, you know.
Zedic: Not in real life.
Frances Euphoria: Too soon, Zedic.
~*~
Frances Euphoria retrieves Mirror’s necklace, holds it up to the sky. The camera pans around her, not quite Bullet Time™, but definitely a throwback to old RPGs when someone uses a relic or a particularly powerful spell. That, or one of the Tritania developers was a fantasy movie buff. Either way, she holds up the necklace and waits for a moment.
“This is how it works, right?”
Veenure raises her hand to brow to scan the skyline. “I think… ?”
Sophia says, “You are all noobs, all of you.”
Rocket: n00bz0rz.
Sophia floats down a few inches and holds her hand out to Frances. “The first thing about a necklace that calls a dragon is finding the appropriate place. You really think a quaint little village like Shiya is the proper place to call a dragon?”
The Feedback Loop (Books 4-6): Sci-fi LitRPG Series (The Feedback Loop Box Set Book 2) Page 4
