by Lucas Flint
“Winter?” said a familiar old Japanese-accented voice. “Hero Winter, are you there?”
Startled, I looked up. Yamamoto was limping toward me. His stomach no longer bled—perhaps he drank a Health Drink or something like that—but he still looked tired, wounded, and in desperate need of a medic. His robes were torn in several places, while his armor was dented and cracked in even more. All in all, it was amazing the old man was even still walking. He should have been dead.
“Yama-sama?” I said. My voice was thinner and raspier than normal, which I took to be another effect of the Z-Virus. “Are you all right?”
Yamamoto nodded, albeit shakily. “More or less. Master Haru gave me a fight like I haven’t experienced in quite some time. Makes sense, of course. He was my son, after all. I trained him myself.”
I stared at Yamamoto uncomprehendingly, resisting the urge to attack him. “He was your son?”
Yamamoto nodded. “Yes. I should have told you that before, but among ninja, it is considered the height of embarrassment for your own son to betray you, so I didn’t want to tell you that fact. And it was all my fault, for I did not teach him well.”
I was still trying to wrap my zombified brain around this revelation. “So Aimi is his sister?”
“Indeed,” said Yamamoto, nodding. “Haru even asked Aimi to join his guild, but she ultimately placed her loyalty in me over him. And for that, we should be thankful. If Aimi had joined Haru, I am afraid that even my strength and experience would not have been able to stop their combined might.”
Yamamoto said that with complete seriousness and sincerity. I knew Haru was strong, but Aimi didn’t seem that strong to me. Perhaps there was more to her than meets the eye.
“As you can guess, then, I am sad to see him die,” said Yamamoto. He sighed. “But it was for the greater good, I suppose. Had you not killed him, he would have simply repeated his plans elsewhere and perhaps even succeeded. Despite all his talk about wanting to save the world, Haru had much anger in his heart, anger and hatred. And he wanted to inflict his anger and hatred on the rest of us with the Z-Virus, whatever justifications he might have used to hide his true motives.”
The sorrow in Yamamoto’s voice struck me like a stone. Now I almost wished I hadn’t killed Haru. Had I known he was Yamamoto’s son, I might not have been so eager to kill him. Perhaps killing Haru saved the world, but I wondered if I had also destroyed a family in the process. And yes, I knew Yamamoto was an NPC, but this was my reality now. It was real to me. It wasn’t just a game anymore. Yamamoto was as real to me as anyone else.
“On another note, I find it impressive that you managed to fight off the effects of the Z-Virus and retain your individuality,” said Yamamoto, looking at me with respect in his eyes. “I recall how powerful the Z-Virus was back in its heyday. Even the mightiest Heroes were unable to fight it off once the Infection set in. Since the day I saw you, I thought you might be different from all of the other Heroes and Villains I’ve met in my time. And you proved it handily.”
A notification popped up before me:
Your ability to retain your self and your independent spirit in the face of the overwhelming power of the Z-Virus has caused [Grandmaster Yamamoto] to greatly respect you! Your relationship with [Grandmaster Yamamoto] has increased from ‘Trusted’ to ‘Respected.’ Increase your relationship with [Grandmaster Yamamoto] even further in order to gain access to new missions and opportunities!
In addition, by successfully resisting the mind-altering effects of the Z-Virus through sheer willpower, you get +10 Willpower! Check out your ‘HERO STATS’ section on your character screen to see your current stat distribution.
“Thank you, Yama-sama,” I said. “I—”
A powerful urge to vomit suddenly filled my throat. I doubled over and wheezed, but nothing came out of my mouth. I just felt pain. The Z-Virus was trying to take back control over my mind. I had a powerful urge to attack Yamamoto, an urge I wasn’t sure I would be able to resist much longer.
I looked up at Yamamoto urgently. “Yama-sama, please leave now. I can’t hold off the Z-Virus for much longer. And Targetman is about to blow up the factory.”
“I will save you,” said Yamamoto, reaching out toward me. “You risked your life to save mine, so I shall—”
“No!” I barked. “Leave! If you’re still here when the bombs go off, you’ll die just like Haru! Go back to your headquarters. Go back now.”
I put as much authority in my voice as possible. I knew that my extremely low Charisma meant my orders were not nearly as authoritative as they should be, but I hoped it would work anyway.
Luckily, it seemed to work, because Yamamoto took a step back and said, “But won’t you die as well?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said through gritted teeth. My head started pounding. “I will respawn. Even if I don’t, I’m Infected. If I die, then at least no one else will get Infected. This is for the best. Trust me.”
For a moment, I thought Yamamoto was going to go against my wishes and bring me with him. I was prepared to fight him if necessary. I might have to, although I certainly didn’t want to.
Finally, Yamamoto nodded and bowed. “I will respect your wishes, Hero Winter. I sense your sacrifice comes from truly noble intentions. I can respect that, not as a ninja, but as a man.”
With that, Yamamoto turned around and, showing surprising agility for such an old man, bounded off the roof toward the rooftop of a nearby building. He landed on the rooftop with perfect grace and then continued to run, trying to put as much distance between himself and the factory as he could. Not that I could blame him. I knew that Targetman’s bombs would go off and destroy the factory, killing me with it. Even if I jumped off the building or flew away, I wouldn’t be able to escape in time.
The only solace I took was in the knowledge that Atmosfear and Haru were dead and that Giggles was now in our custody. It meant I was leaving behind a slightly better world than the one I came into, which was what Dad always taught me to do.
Sharp pain spiked in the back of my head—the sensation signaling that the Z-Virus had finally broken through my mental barriers—but instead of remaining conscious, I fell over onto the roof and sank into darkness. The last thing I heard was the sound of footsteps softly shuffling through the gravel on the roof of the factory toward me, but I didn’t stay conscious long enough to see who was walking toward me … or if anyone was walking toward me at all and it wasn’t just my mind making stuff up.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
An instant later, my eyes flew open and I gasped for air. I clutched my chest, feeling a momentary tightness in it that soon faded, but even after it left, I didn’t get up. My whole body was drenched in sweat. I felt like I had been dunked into a pool of sweat and hadn’t been able to wash it all off. At the same time, though, I felt relieved and relaxed, like I had taken a very long, but satisfying, nap.
The other problem was that my memories and dreams were confused. I wasn’t sure where I was or how I got here. I tried to remember what happened before I went to sleep, but it seemed fuzzy. Did I really fight with a ninja master on top of an exploding factory? Or did I wrestle with a pink tiger named Steve in a boxing ring and lost? It was hard to tell the difference between memory and dream at this point.
“Ah,” said a familiar voice nearby, “welcome back to the world of the living, Nyle. For a moment, I thought you were dead.”
That voice made me turn my head to the side. I saw an Arab man sitting at the desk in my room, wearing his usual sunglasses and dark suit, his beard as neatly trimmed as ever. He held a document in his hands that I assumed he had been reading when I woke up. Although I was still out of it somewhat, I instantly recognized the man.
“Chuck?” I said. I rolled over in my bed to face him but was still too exhausted to get up and actually greet him properly. “What are you doing here? Where am I?”
“To answer your second question, we are back in your Base,” said Chuck. “Your B
ase, I might add, that you were never supposed to leave in the first place.”
“My Base …?” I said slowly. I looked around and saw that this was indeed my room, down to the Darkbane leaning against the wall in the corner. “Oh. I had a weird dream last night where I got infected with this awful virus and—”
“That was no dream, my friend,” said Chuck. “You are referring to the Z-Virus.”
As soon as Chuck named the virus, suddenly all of my memory came into perfect clarity. The Stalking Shadows … the Z-Virus … seeing all of my Teammates get Infected … the Glitch Elimination Task Force … it all came back at once. It almost overwhelmed me, but I managed to keep myself from screaming in pain, although I did massage my forehead with my hands to do away with some of the pain.
“I see your memory is catching up with you,” said Chuck. “Don’t worry. If you need to continue to rest, then you may do so. I certainly won’t hold it against you.”
I opened my eyes again and looked at Chuck. “No, I don’t need to rest, I just … wait, the Z-Virus …”
I looked at the Infection icon in the corner of my character screen … or would have, if it was there. When I looked in the corner where it was supposed to be, the Z-Virus icon was gone. It looked exactly like how it had before I got Infected. I quickly pulled up my character screen just to make sure and saw that my Class was still Fighter and my Alignment was still Hero. There was no sign of the Zombification debuff anywhere.
“What …” I said as I clicked through the various submenus under my character screen. “But I was Infected. Where is the Infection? Was that all just some kind of horrible nightmare?”
“Nope,” said Chuck cheerfully. “I cured you with this.”
A notification suddenly appeared in front of me:
[AGENT CHARLES OMAR] would like to give you an item [Z-Vaccine]! Accept? Y/N
Startled, but curious, I accepted the item and saw a glass needle with a white liquid in the shaft appear in my inventory. I clicked on the item labeled [Z-VACCINE] and got this description of it:
Z-Vaccine
Rarity: Unique
Quantity: 5
A vaccine designed by Capes Online’s developers, it is the only known vaccine in the world that can cure the Z-Virus. This makes it extremely valuable, if not priceless. It cannot be replicated by players.
My mouth fell open. “No way. Are you telling me the guys at SI Games managed to develop an actual vaccine against the Z-Virus?”
Chuck nodded with a smile. “Yes. And rather quickly, too, although it helps that SI Games’ own tech has advanced considerably since the days of the original Z-Virus. I was told they were able to run the Z-Virus sample you gave me through a special program that analyzed the virus and turned the sample into a vaccine. Even better, they are able to make as much as they need, so if the Z-Virus ever should return again, they will be able to cure it quickly.”
Although I listened closely to Chuck’s every word, I could not deny feeling shocked by this turn of events. I hadn’t expected SI Games to develop a vaccine so quickly. I thought it would take them a few days at least, a few months at most. But I guess they remembered how terrible the Z-Virus had been the last time it swept through Capes Online and wanted to make sure they nipped it in the bud this time.
“But didn’t I die back in the explosion?” I said, looking at Chuck. “When the Z-Virus factory exploded, I was right on top of it.”
“I saved you,” said Chuck simply. “As well as all your Teammates and the Glitch Elimination Task Force. I even saved some of the Ninja Guild members, albeit only at your insistence.”
I raised an eyebrow. “When I did say that?”
“You were quite delirious when I found you,” said Chuck. “But you kept muttering ‘Save Aimi and Riku,’ who I understood to be two of the Ninja Guild NPCs. The others I left because, well, they are NPCs and I didn’t have time to save everyone, but I did save those two for sure.”
I rubbed my forehead again. “How did you save us? How did you even know where we were? I thought the location of the factory was hidden from you guys.”
“We discovered the location of the factory about ten minutes prior to the factory’s explosion,” said Chuck. “Based on the data I’ve found since then, that would appear to be around the same time Atmosfear died. Therefore, it’s logical to assume that Atmosfear must have some kind of code attached to him that hides his current location from our tracking monitors. Presumably, he is able to extend this protection to others and even to entire buildings, which is how they hid the factory from us in the first place.
“Makes sense,” I said. “But what about my Teammates? Are they all right, too? They got Infected with the Z-Virus and—”
“Don’t worry about them,” said Chuck. “I administered the Z-Vaccine to each and every one of them, including to their Sidekicks. As well, I put them all back in their respective Bases so they can recover in peace. None of your Teammates died, although I suspect they may suffer some degree of trauma from suffering from the Z-Virus.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “What about the Task Force?”
“Same to them,” said Chuck. “Targetman wasn’t especially pleased to see me, but I think he is now just glad that his Teammates are going to be okay. He is currently logged off, but before he logged off, he told me to tell you that he was impressed by your actions in the factory and that he hopes to work alongside you more closely going into the future.”
I blinked. “Really?”
“Not in so many words, you must understand,” said Chuck quickly. “You know how Targetman is. I believe he was grateful for your help, but probably still doesn’t trust you entirely. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. Neither he nor the other Task Force members will be giving you grief anytime soon so I wouldn’t worry about them if I were you.”
I bit my lower lip. That was good to hear, I suppose, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny being a bit worried about my future relationship with Targetman. I guess if I had any trouble with glitches, I could always go to him for help. I recalled how he spared me back in the factory as a return of the favor for saving his life and I realized that Targetman, as cold as he might be at times, was perhaps a better person than I first thought. In any case, I at least didn’t have to worry about him anymore. That was good.
“What about Cy?” I said. “Where is he?”
“Back in your Base entertaining some guests,” said Chuck. “I have asked him to stay out of your room while we talk, however, but I can confirm he escaped the factory with Giggles and is currently safe.”
Guests? What guests? I considered asking Chuck, but when he mentioned Giggles, that completely derailed my train of thought. “Is Giggles in police custody now?”
“No,” said Chuck, shaking his head. “Those us at the Department of VR took him in. We are currently interrogating Giggles to make him tell us more about Atmosfear and the whereabouts of his Hideout. So far, however, Giggles hasn’t exactly been cooperative. We plan to have SI Games hack his mind and forcibly extract that information directly from his brain if he keeps resisting all our interrogation attempts.”
I grimaced. “Sounds painful.”
“It is necessary,” said Chuck. He took his sunglasses off his face and wiped them off on his suit. “You know how long we have been searching for Atmosfear. Giggles is our best bet at locating and capturing him once and for all. If we need to force him to tell us the information we need, then so be it. Besides, Giggles is just another NPC. Technically-speaking, we’re not even really ‘hurting’ him anyway. I see no reason to get upset about that.”
I was about to disagree, but then I remembered that Chuck wasn’t a Project Second Life participant like me. He merely saw Sidekicks like Giggles as NPCs with no mind or free will or intrinsic worth of their own, unlike me, who saw NPCs as people in their own right. I guess now wasn’t really the time to debate the issue with him, though.
“What about Atmosfear?” I said. “Have you gu
ys managed to find him at all?”
“Not yet, but with Giggles in our custody, it shouldn’t be long before we find him again,” said Chuck as he replaced his sunglasses. “He definitely died during the factory explosion, but that doesn’t help us because it means he just respawned in his Hideout, which we still can’t find. But I wouldn’t worry too much about him. Bryce can’t hide forever. And he most certainly won’t.”
Chuck said that with surprising vehemence. Then again, I could understand why he felt this way. Atmosfear was the main reason why Project Second Life was in danger of being canceled, after all. I imagine Chuck was under a lot of pressure from his boss to do something about Atmosfear.
Thinking about Project Second Life, however, made me say, “What about Project Second Life? Is it still in danger of being canceled?”
Chuck shook his head again. “Not anymore. In fact, I am glad you asked about it. In the two days since you were unconscious—”
“I was unconscious for two days?” I said. I sat upright in my bed in shock. “No way.”
“The Z-Vaccine has the side effect of knocking out players who are injected with it,” said Chuck in an offhand sort of way. “Anyway, when I filed my report on the Z-Virus situation to Director Johnson, he showed it to the President, who was pleased with your role in stopping Atmosfear and has decided to keep funding the Department of VR and Project Second Life. I understand that the other UN member nations who are participating in the Project feel the same way, so for now, at least, Project Second Life will continue to remain active and under observation by us and the other governments involved.”
I sighed in relief. I hadn’t realized it, but the knowledge that Project Second Life might get cancel had been weighing heavily on me. With the knowledge that Project Second Life was going to continue, at least for now, it meant I didn’t have to worry about my own existence being deleted anymore. “Glad to hear it. And it was because of me?”
“Oh, yes,” said Chuck, nodding again. “President Nelson remembers how you helped save his daughter during the Blackout. Seeing the crucial role you played in stopping the Stalking Shadows also convinced him that you could be trusted. He is especially pleased by how you captured Giggles. Atmosfear, after all, was everyone’s biggest concern with the Project. Once we can extract the location of Atmosfear’s Hideout from Giggles’ brain, it will only be a matter of time before Atmosfear himself is caught and deleted, just as he deserves.”
