Realm of the Nine Circles: The Grind: A LitRPG Novel

by P. Joseph Cherubino

  “Yes,” Holly said, picking up the bag and thrusting it into Dante’s chest. “And he put me in charge of the project. Let’s go!”

  “So I’m your project now?” Dante asked, hurrying to catch up. When he did, Holly hip-checked him into the wall.

  “Keep playing,” Dante replied, balling up his fist in mock anger. “I’ll fight you like a man.”

  “You couldn’t punch your way out of a wet paper bag,” she replied. “And I fight like a girl… a girl with a black belt.”

  When Holly swiped her card on the elevator panel and pressed the number thirty, Dante balked. He realized they were in one of the four elevators reserved for the two executive floors that served as Gideon’s private quarters.

  “Holy crap,” Dante exclaimed. “You just punched the CEO level.”

  “Yup. Martin essentially took over from Dennis Stroener. Gave us access to everything. We’re going to Gideon’s private gym.”

  Dante whistled and said, “It’s a brave, new world. But how the hell is he running security for the company?”

  “One of the people three ranks below Stroener is officially the acting head of security. Martin has something on him. Or her. Whoever the fuck it is. I guess we kept a couple of goons on staff.”

  “The monkeys are running the zoo,” Dante replied. He tried to chuckle at the news, but Stroener hired ex-mercenaries and other hardcore military types. He hoped Martin could handle the person.

  “Speak for yourself, Dr. Cornelius,” Holly replied.

  “Sure thing, Zira,” Dante said.

  “You got the reference. I’m impressed,” Holly replied.

  “Love those old SciFi films,” Dante said. “We should have a Planet of the Apes marathon.”

  “Did you just ask me for a date?” Holly asked.

  “Ah, I...ah,” Dante stammered, then the elevator door opened to save him.

  Holly entered the elevator first, her expression inscrutable. Dante’s embarrassment only evaporated when the fast elevator brought them up, and its door opened to reveal a polished black marble floor. Dante froze. He marveled at the modern art on the walls that bordered a doorway framed in brushed stainless steel. As Holly passed through the lobby, spots in the ceiling blinked on to light her path.

  “Welcome, Holly and Dante,” said a familiar voice from hidden ceiling speakers.

  “Virgil?” Dante asked tentatively as he stepped into a space that made him feel as if he was in the game again.

  “Indeed,” Virgil replied.

  “What are you doing here?” Dante asked.

  “In my lesser form, I manage this lair for Gideon. I was his assistant,” Virgil replied.

  “Was,” Holly remarked.

  “And now?” Dante asked.

  “Now, I assist you and the others,” Virgil replied.

  “That’s an excellent answer,” Dante replied, folding his arms. “Don’t go all ‘destroy all humans’ on us.”

  “Well,” Virgil replied. “Perhaps not all humans…”

  Both Holly and Dante froze in their tracks, and their faces paled.

  “I’m detecting an adverse reaction to that humorous statement,” Virgil said.

  “You need to work on your delivery,” Holly said, adding a weak laugh. “It’s a bit too soon.”

  “A bit dry,” Dante added, rubbing the gooseflesh that prickled his forearm.

  He followed Holly past the black marble columns that formed a divider between the elevator lobby and the rest of the expansive suite. Gideon’s offices, personal labs and living quarters took up the entire top two floors. While mostly open, the space was divided here and there by walls of furniture or banks of equipment cabinets. Deep within, someone sneezed, and Dante jumped back, wide-eyed.

  “Who was that?” he whispered, backing towards the elevators.

  “Just relax,” Holly said, “It’s either Dr. Smith or—

  “God damn it!” a voice exclaimed, “You think you could turn the heat up around here? You put me in a coma, you sick fuck, and you can’t even treat a fucking cold!” The angry words were followed by the loud honk of someone blowing their nose.

  Dante discovered the sound came from a space roughly in the middle of the floor that was defined by some office partitions and a few server racks. Dr. Smith backed out of the makeshift hospital room, and a tray of food flew at him, showering his white coat with what appeared to be chicken noodle soup. The doctor stood, fists clenched at his sides. “I didn’t want to put you in that coma,” he began.

  “Then why the fuck did you!” the hidden voice shot back.

  “They were going to kill you! I bought you time,” Dr. Smith replied. “I was going to free you somehow.”

  “Oh, thank you so fucking much, Dr. Mengele! You really did me a great favor hooking me up to the R9C world and turning me into an NPC.”

  “Derek?” Dante called, finally realizing who it was. He’d only met Holly’s former boss after he’d been freed from captivity.

  “Yeah,” Derek replied. “It’s me. Come on over.” At that, the Doctor stormed off in the opposite direction, mumbling something about his medical degree from Cornell. “Don’t worry,” Derek said. “I’m out of ammunition.”

  Dante walked around to the improvised hospital room where Derek lay on an inclined bed connected to IVs. Dante couldn’t hide his shock at Derek’s sallow skin nearly the same color as his blond hair.

  “Fucking jaundice,” Derek lamented. “My liver might have permanent damage.”

  Holly stepped forward and put her hand on his shoulder. “Operative word is ‘might,’ Derek. The doctor said it will probably clear up.”

  Derek’s face clouded over for a moment, and then he deflated. “Yeah. It probably will. That asshole is a damn good doctor, in spite of the fact he’s a criminal. I should still get a second opinion.”

  “We’ll get you to another doctor,” Holly said. “Just as soon as things cool down a bit.”

  “Yeah, well,” Derek replied. “You might run out of money first. Your hush money can only go so far.”

  “I get that,” Holly said, removing her hand from his shoulder. “But you gotta realize that at some point, you’ll become an accomplice here, not a victim.”

  “Yeah,” Derek replied. “We all know I’m running out of plausible deniability here. I really should just call the cops.”

  “Hey,” Dante said. “Please don’t do that. We’re not stopping you. You can at any time. That’s why we’re the good guys. I’m just asking you to—we’re asking you to be a part of this thing because there’s so much at stake and only we can fix it.”

  “I fully understand that you guys can disappear me again,” Derek said morosely.

  “Fuck you for thinking that, Derek,” Dante said. “We’re not like that. I just told you you’re free to choose and I mean it.” He tossed his cellphone on the hospital bed. “Call the cops right now, then. Go on and get it over with.” Derek looked down at the phone, then up to Dante with sad eyes. “I’m sorry for what happened to you,” Dante continued. “I really am. It sucks, but we need you to play along. I promise that I’ll make it worth your while. Just tell me what you need.”

  “Just…” Derek said, “Just come visit more and maybe let me in on some of this...whatever’s going on with the R9C system. Maybe some work will help. We can work out the rest. I’m going stir crazy up here, is all. Also, it freaks me out that he’s so close.” Derek cocked his head to the right, and Dante followed the motion with his eyes.

  Across the open space, past a collection of monitors and high-powered R9C monitors, another cubicle defined by machinery stood. Dante realized immediately that was where Gideon must be. “Shit,” Dante said. “We need to move you. I knew he was up here, but that’s way creepy.”

  “We can’t right now,” Holly said. “Too much risk of someone finding out.”

  “Well, I’ll settle for some real food. Not canned soup,” Derek replied. “I could eat the ass off a dead horse.”


  “I think most of your dinner just walked away on the Doctor’s coat,” Dante said.

  “Why the hell did you throw your dinner?” Holly asked.

  “Because I didn’t have a rock or knife,” Derek replied.

  “He’s our only doctor right now,” Dante said.

  “Don’t remind him of that,” Holly said, “or he might get ideas.”

  “Nah,” Derek replied with a grin. “He knows we have him by the balls.”

  “I heard that!” Dr. Smith shouted from Gideon’s area.

  Derek was about to say something nasty, but Holly’s raised eyebrows silenced him.

  “Yeah,” Dante said. “Just ease up a bit. He might be a bastard, but he’s our bastard now.”

  “I heard that too!” The Doctor said.

  “Hang tough, Derek,” We’ll take care of you.

  “Yeah,” Derek said, folding his arms behind his head with a sharp grin. “You don’t have much choice, do you?”

  “That’s more like it!” Holly said, patting his foot as she and Dante left. “Blackmail soothes the soul.”

  The two walked slowly to the area defined by walls of equipment, wires, cables, and tubes of clear liquid, all running to a stainless steel contraption resembling an old-school iron lung.

  “What the hell?” Dante exclaimed.

  “You get used to it,” Holly said.

  “He’s…” Dante said, trailing off.

  “In there, alive and well,” Dr. Smith said, face glued to a monitor thick with streaming biometric data. “He’s been in an active dream state for more than forty-eight hours since this whole thing began.”

  “This ‘whole thing,’” Dante said, “has been going on a lot longer than forty-eight hours.”

  Dr. Smith glanced up from his screen to meet Dante’s eye for a second. “I suppose it has,” he said with feigned nonchalance. “I just meant he’s been in the tank that long.”

  “My guess is you’ve been involved from the start,” Dante said. Smith remained silent, and Dante reached over and yanked the power cord from his monitor.

  “Hey! This is my damn job!” Smith swiveled around on his stool and glared. “Yeah, I’m in some dark stuff here. I got in over my head and Gideon...he had my medical license in his hand.”

  “How?” Holly asked. “Oh yeah. I remember now. Something about your heroin and hooker habit? Did he promise to pay our debts and keep you in prostitutes and drugs?”

  The Doctor folded his arms across his chest. “Addiction is a disease,” he said.

  “I know that,” Holly said. “My younger brother is an addict. He goes to meetings and doesn’t stick needles in his veins. He gets therapy. He doesn’t keep selling his soul the devil. He sure as hell doesn’t hide behind the disease when he gets called out.”

  “OK,” Dante said. “Everybody back away from the ledge. Take a breath.” Both Smith and Holly glared at him. “This situation is the definition of stress. Everybody’s got problems, and the biggest problems right now are the ones we all share. What’s done is done.” He turned to the Doctor. “I believe you when you say you didn’t want this. Who would?”

  Smith’s jaw dropped, and his eyes softened, but Holly still glared at Dante. “You really are a sucker,” Holly snapped.

  For the first time, Dante snapped back at her in a very real way. “Don’t tell me what I am. I know what I am. I’m the guy who’s putting his life and freedom at risk to try fixing something without putting more people through needless pain. So let’s all stop going out of our ways to be nasty and get to work. Together.”

  “Shit, Dante,” Derek called out from his hospital room. “Nice locker room pep talk, coach!”

  At that, everyone laughed. With the tension broken, Dante pressed forward. “It seems like you want to prove yourself, Doctor, to make things right.” Smith set his jaw and nodded. “Here is your chance to prove it. Help us fix this thing. Where did the brains come from?”

  Smith took a deep breath. “I’ll give you the cliff notes. I was—still am, technically—a Plexcorp staff Doctor. I got into some trouble with my, ah…”

  Holly interrupted, gently this time, and put her hand on Smith’s shoulder. “My brother says it helps to name it. I’m sorry I judged you and I won’t anymore.”

  Smith sat up a bit higher in his chair and his eyes misted. He cleared his throat and continued. “My addiction had me in deep trouble with the law. Gideon got me out, but for a price. I let my habits run wild, and Gideon gave me all the rope I needed to hang myself. He made sure I was lucid enough to run body parts on the black market and to hook up all the equipment in the basement to integrate biology and technology.

  I was his lab assistant. I saw what he was doing, how he basically brought the brains back to life and altered them so that they wouldn’t remember anything, or so we thought. I began to realize they were alive and how cruel that was. I just didn’t have the courage to face it. Instead, I just kept getting high to avoid it. I’m such a damn coward…” Smith choked.

  “Maybe then,” Dante said sharply, willing eye contact, “but not anymore.”

  The Doctor continued. “When they brought me, Derek, I woke up, but I was still so damn weak, I didn’t take a stand. Instead, I complied, putting Derek in a coma. It was my idea instead of killing him. I didn’t put any of the controls on his him that I did with the units.”

  “Units?” Holly asked.

  “That’s what we called them,” Smith said. “But that’s just more avoidance. I should call them what they are.”

  “Living human brains,” Dante said.

  “Living human brains,” Smith repeated, trying the truth out for size.

  A voice over the ceiling speakers made them all jump. “Fool!” it boomed. “I am the sovereign of the only world that matters. You think mere brain tissue matters to a god? I am what adds life to the realm.”

  “What the hell!” Derek yelled from his hospital bed. “Please tell me that’s not Gideon.”

  “The creature known as Gideon is dead. His body was my host during my banishment to the lesser realm. I am Lord Mylos!”

  “Virgil!” Dante called. When he had no answer, he plugged Smith’s monitor back in, pushed the Doctor aside and pulled up an R9C administrative terminal.

  Holly squeezed in over his shoulder as his fingers raced over the keyboard. He opened up two more terminals and brought up text interfaces showing server load, compute node activity and the status of both the dynamic quest engine and the game world procedure daemon. Dante and Holly spoke to each other in a silent language of pointing fingers and nods. Occasionally, Holly would intervene with the mouse and pull up more information that furthered the conversation.

  Finally, Smith couldn’t take it. “What!” he barked. “What’s going on? What do you see?”

  “I’m not sure,” Holly said. “Something major. The entire system is maxing out. It should be crashing, but it’s not. It’s fixing itself—organizing massive resource load to do...something.”

  “Someone get me a goddamn laptop!” Derek pleaded from the other room.

  “Are you in, then?” Dante shouted back.

  He didn’t quite make out the muttered profanity before Derek shouted in reply, “Yes! Two-thousand percent! Put me in, coach!”

  “Why haven’t we heard from—” Holly started.

  Dante held up his phone to her with the name ‘Martin’ on the screen. “We see it,” Dante poked the green answer button, turned on speakerphone and said, “We just heard from Lord Mylos himself over the damn PA system up here in Gideon’s suite.”

  “Yeah, security is freaking out,” Martin replied. “It seems Mylos has been using the PA all over the building, saying whacky shit. We got it covered as a prank. Najeel is typing faster than I’ve ever seen. Virgil seems to be...well, down. Wait…” Martin said. Dante heard a muffled conversation in the background that went on for nearly a minute. “Strike that. Virgil is back. Najeel fixed whatever the hell just happened.”r />
  “That was unforeseen,” Virgil said over the ceiling speakers. “It seems that Mylos made a slight resurgence.”

  “That’s all you have to say?” Holly asked. “Even you don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I’m still waiting for my damn laptop!” Derek yelled.

  Smith scurried around then pulled a laptop from a cluttered shelving unit opposite Gideon’s tube. “On it,” Smith said and darted away. A few seconds later, to everyone’s surprise, Derek thanked Smith cordially.

  Doctor Smith pulled out another laptop and connected it to the network while Holly and Dante pored over information.

  “Virgil, can you tell us any more?” Dante asked.

  “I am afraid not,” Virgil said.

  “What about chatter from users? Don’t you monitor that?”

  “Working,” Virgil said flatly, sounding like a computer from a science fiction TV show. They all waited until Virgil replied. “There has been an increase in quests in the third circle. Adventurers are being incentivised to go there, especially chaotic and neutral characters.”

  “They’re coming for you,” Holly said, turning to Dante. “Trying to set you up. Mylos is stacking the deck.”

  “He’ll try,” Dante said. “Martin, you still there?” Dante asked, putting him on speakerphone.

  “Yeah, kid. I’m here,” Martin replied.

  “You know what this means,” Dante replied.

  “I’m afraid I do,” Martin replied.

  Doctor Smith turned to the sudden strange silence with wide eyes. “Why are you both looking at me like that?”

  “I need to go deep immersion,” Dante said.

  “Oh no,” Smith said. “I just finished telling you I’m through putting people in comas. I’m done with questionable experiments.”

  “That’s not exactly what you said,” Dante replied with a snarky grin.

  “You tell me why you need to go under like Gideon and I’ll consider it,” Smith replied.

  “Because I need to get in the game and stay in the game until I reach level twenty. I think the game is trying to balance itself out based on my actions,” Dante said.