Veil Online - Book 2: An Epic LitRPG Adventure

by John Cressman

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  VEIL ONLINE

  Copyrights

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Epilogue

  Join the Adventure

  LitRPG

  More LitRPG

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  VEIL Online

  VEIL ONLINE

  Book 2

  An Epic LitRPG Series

  Written by John Cressman

  Copyright © 2020 John Elijah Cressman

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, subject “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the email address below.

  ISBN: 978-0-9844087-7-1 (Paperback)

  ISBN: 978-0-9844087-8-8 (Hardcover)

  ISBN: 978-0-9844087-6-4 (Amazon Kindle)

  ISBN: 978-1-7351302-9-3 (Audiobook)

  Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s twisted imagination.

  Front cover image by May Dawney from maydawney.com.

  Book design by Rebecka Yaeger of Becka’s Best Author Services.

  Printed by Maverick-Gage Publishing in conjunction with IngramSpark, in the United States of America.

  First printing edition 2020.

  Maverick-Gage Publishing

  Allentown, PA

  info@maverick-gage.com

  www.maverick-gage.com

  John Elijah Cressman

  www.johnecressman.com

  This book is dedicated to my friends and family, who continue to support my crazy dream of being a writer.

  Chapter 1

  “I said, I found your body,” Charlena repeated. The red-headed elf had finally shown up in the Dwarvish Fork Inn just as they were finishing dinner and suddenly announced she had found Jace’s body in the real world.

  “Wha-” Jace said in shock. He tried to sort through the maelstrom of emotions he was feeling. When he’d first woken up in the game, he’d assumed he was dead and had been uploaded into VEIL Online as his last will and testament had stipulated. It had been a surprise, but he quickly realized other things were amiss.

  Waking up in a non-player character (NPC) monster body hadn’t been part of the plan. He had expected to wake up in Mordred, his vampyre assassin character that he had spent years building up. Not only that, the money from his life insurance policy should have been transferred into the game, giving him a comfortable “after life” in the game.

  Instead, he’d been inside one monster body after another as he was killed by players. Each time he died, he’d end up inside a different monster, able to control it but not communicate with anyone except other monsters.

  Luckily, being a junior programmer, he’d managed to hack the system and changed himself back into a player but only as a human character, the most basic race in the game with no special features or abilities.

  He’d met Charlena, who was a real life person playing the game, and together they’d made it to the capital where he could find an old and now hidden way of contacting support inside the game. Inside the Royal Palace was a secret room that contained a Help Desk that would allow him to communicate to support and get this situation resolved.

  Along the way, Charlena had found out that he had no death certificate and thought he was alive. Now, she was saying she had just found what she thought was his body. He had no idea what to feel. Should he shout for joy or cry? He didn’t feel like either of those. Jace just felt… numb.

  Was it possible that he really was alive and stuck in a coma inside a medical VR pod? He knew hospitals had them. He’d seen commercials on the vid streams about them. They were meant for long term use and took care of a body’s biological functions while keeping the brain active.

  So much had happened, so quickly, he didn’t really know what to think or feel about this latest development. Part of him thought of all the things he’d thought he missed out on. Now he’d get a true second chance.

  Another part of him held back. He’d had so many things happen to him in such a short time span, he didn’t want to get his hopes up. Not yet. He had to know. Jace had to be certain before he really released the floodgate of emotions that would go with truly being alive.

  “Thomas Jefferson University Hospital,” she said, snapping Jace back to the conversation.

  He noticed that Charlena was looking a little green and seemed to be swaying on her feet.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  “Too much celebrating last night,” she told him. He knew she’d gone out drinking with her friends in the real world. She must have really over done it.

  “So,” interjected Diana. “You found our savior’s body. He’s alive?”

  Diana had been in the same situation as Jace, trapped inside an NPC monster body until Jace had helped free her by showing her how to hack the system and convert herself into a player. Surprisingly, Charlena had heard of her. Her real name was Anika Holden, but she was a romance novelist who used the pen name Diana Stewart.

  “Truly?” Mika asked, smiling.

  Like Diana, Mika had died and been uploaded into the game. She was Japanese and had been flying back from inheriting her grandmother’s estate in Tokyo when the plane had crashed. She’d been trapped inside a monster body as well until Jace freed her.

  Charlena nodded and Jace could see it was taking some effort for her to stay upright. He stood up and helped her sit down in his chair. He would have offered her the chair next to him, but it was currently occupied by his familiar, an orange tabby cat he’d named Luna, after his sister.

  Luna stirred slightly when Charlena sat down and opened one eye. After seemingly finding n
othing interesting worth waking up over, she closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

  After sitting, Charlena looked up at him gratefully but still looked a little green. “Thanks.”

  “This is very good,” Mika said smiling. “You are alive.”

  Charlena nodded. “I just need to go ID the body.”

  “ID my body?” he asked.

  Charlena let her head fall into her hands. When her voice came out it was muffled. “I guess I forgot that part. There’s a John Doe that matches you. Well, what happened to you. John Doe brought in the same day, car accident and coma patient.”

  “Darling,” Diana said. “You’re not even sure it’s him yet?”

  Charlena let out an exasperated breath, her head still in her hands. “It’s the same things that happened to Jace, on the same day in the same way. And there’s no death certificate for him. It’s got to be him.”

  Was he this John Doe? He did agree with Charlena that it seemed remarkably coincidental that another auto victim would come in the same day in a coma. Jace didn’t believe in those types of coincidences.

  He felt the excitement finally getting some confirmation that he was actually alive not really dead. Even though Charlena had told him earlier that he might be alive, he hadn’t really believed it. Things just never seemed to work out that way for him. As Damian said, if Jace didn’t have bad luck, he’d have no luck.

  “Yes,” Mika said, looking at Jace. “You are a good person. You should be alive.”

  Jace was sure that wasn’t the way it worked. Just because you were a good person, didn’t mean things always worked out for you. He’d learned that at an early age when his parents and his sister were killed in a car accident on the day of his high school graduation.

  No, life wasn’t fair. The good guys didn’t always win, and the bad guys didn’t always get punished. That was life. He’d learned to accept it. But he did hope he was alive. Especially since that would mean he might possibly have a real relationship with Charlena.

  “I have an appointment for Friday to go identify. We’ll know for certain then,” Charlena murmured.

  “You know I don’t look like this right? I’m much skinnier and my jaw isn’t quite as um… heroic….” Jace felt a little embarrassed to point it out but he knew it needed to be said. The game generated an avatar for you based on your DNA. Basically, it created your ideal body in peak athletic shape. If you chose a player race that wasn’t human, it would apply that race’s template to the body but usually the person was recognizable unless they chose one of the more monstrous races like half-dragon.

  Charlena looked up, forcing a smile through her obvious discomfort. “You know I’m not really an elf in real life, right?” She winked at him. “I know you look different too, but I’ll recognize you.”

  Jace put a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for coming in and telling us. Why don’t you log out and feel better? We’ll meet you here later?”

  Charlena gave him a thankful smile. “Okay. I’ll be back tomorrow.” Without any further ado, her avatar faded away.

  “Poor thing,” Diana commented. “I remembered my party days. Or should I say, I remember I had party days. The details are a bit sketchy.”

  Jace turned away from the spot where Charlena had been and back to the two women in front of him. “So, about our plan to get inside the Royal Palace.”

  “We have a plan?” Diana asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Jace rolled his eyes. “No, I mean we need to make a plan.”

  “Yes,” Mika agreed. “We need to make a plan.”

  “Darling,” Diana cooed. “I know you have feelings for him, but you don’t have to parrot everything he says.”

  Mika quickly lowered her head but not before Jace saw the color in her cheeks. It also surprised him. He had no idea that Mika had any feelings for him. After all, their initial meeting was short, and she’d been a yeti at the time. Tonight was the first time he’d seen her since then.

  The revelation made him feel awkward. After all, Charlena and he were… well, he wasn’t sure what they were, other than the fact they’d shared some kisses. He liked Charlena and he was attracted to her but then again, he was attracted to Mika too. Jace was even attracted to Diana but knowing she was in her 90s, or had been, made it very weird.

  He tried to push those thoughts out of his mind and get back to the plan. After all, they were all stuck like this until they could get the game maker, WorldCog, to fix them. And the only way that was going to happen was for them to contact support directly. That meant getting to the Help Desk.

  Diana looked over at Mika, who still had her head bowed. “Oh darling,” she said, her voice now tender. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. The way you wore your heart out there on your sleeve, I didn’t realize you were trying to hide it.”

  “So, back to the plan,” Jace cleared his throat. “Our goal is to get to the Help Desk. That’s inside the Royal Palace, which is inside the Noble District. The Help Desk is hidden. We can address that when we get inside the palace. We can’t get inside the palace until we get inside the Noble District.”

  Jace had planned assaults on strongholds and castles before and was usually pretty good at it but this was unlike anything he’d ever pulled off. The first rule to assaulting a stronghold seemed to be applicable here to: gather information.

  “If you’re both willing to help,” he said and waited for nods of confirmation. “Good. Since you’re both willing to help, I suggest gathering all of the information we can about the Noble District and the palace.”

  He turned to Mika, who had finally raised her head. “Mika, can you find out about the Noble District? Find out who goes in, who goes out, do they need papers, passwords. That sort of thing. Gather as much information as you can.”

  “Diana...” he started but she interrupted.

  “Find out everything I can about the Royal Palace,” she interjected. “Darling boy, I’ve written a few intrigue novels in my day. I’ll do my best to find out everything there is to know about that place.”

  Jace couldn’t help but crack a smile. She was certainly a feisty old woman. And confident. But then again, she had more life experience than Jace, Mika, and Charlena put together. Plus, she was a famous author. She had every reason to be confident. The only thing she really lacked was experience in the game.

  “I will do my best,” Mika said, not quite making eye contact with him.

  “I know you will.” He smiled at her, trying to make her feel at ease. Jace was all too familiar with being embarrassed in front of someone you were attracted to. Heck, that was pretty much the story of his real life dating experience.

  “We should also get a room,” he told them.

  “Dear boy,” Diana purred. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Mika blushed and Jace just rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but feel a little excitement. Diana seemed to be an incorrigible flirt but Jace admitted it was nice having an attractive woman flirt with him. Even if she was old enough to be his… grandmother?

  He’d never really thought about age before in the game. Everyone’s virtual body was generated to appear 25 years old. Other than a few friends in college, he’d rarely known the people he associated with in game or how old they were. And most of the time it didn’t matter. But thinking of this attractive, raven-haired young woman having the mind of a 90-something-year-old was very strange.

  “To use as a base of operations,” he continued. “That way we have a place to meet, no matter what time of day it is. I’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that we don’t sleep.”

  They two women nodded.

  “And like real life, the shops, inns and taverns have a schedule. The NPCs go to sleep just like real people which means we need a place to regroup,” he said. “This seems like a good place, plus I’m hoping one more person joins us.”

  He had freed another player, Duglas Morgan. He had been a day trader who had been uploaded. Duglas had been in the body of a
goblin when they’d met and Jace had shown him how to hack his way into a human body. Like the others, he’d told Duglas to meet here but so far there was no sign of him.

  “How are you two on gold?” he asked them.

  “I spent my last gold on this lovely outfit,” Diana said, leaning forward so Jace got an unobstructed view of the plunging neckline and her ample bosom. “Wouldn’t you say it was worth it?”

  Jace cleared his throat and only lingered for a moment before looking over to Mika. “I have 32 gold.”

  He nodded. “I have a little over a hundred left, so I’ll pay for the room but we’re going to need to earn some more money. Not only will we need to maintain a room, we’ll also need supplies, bribes and who knows what else to get into the palace.”

  Diana sat back against her chair and crossed her arms over her breasts. “And how do you suggest we earn money?”

  Jace smiled. “Quests!”

  Chapter 2

  “Yes,” Mika agreed.

  “Quests?” Diana said disdainfully but then brightened. “How about I make money my own way?”

  Jace raised an eyebrow. “And how’s that?”

  Diana stretched sublimely, displaying her large assets. “Let’s say my real body never looked this good and it’s been a VERY long time since I was able to use what I have to get what I want.”

  Mika’s almond eyes went wide, and she flushed crimson. “You would trade… for money?”

  Diana gave her a dismissive gesture. “We’re consenting adults. And if they want to help a girl out, who am I to say no.”

  Jace shook his head at the wanton ex-author. That type of thing wasn’t unheard of in the game and most people didn’t find it offensive since it was all virtual. “If that’s what you want to do, good luck. Just be careful.”

  “I am the vision of caution, young man,” she replied confidently.

  “Mika?” He turned to the girl.

  The Japanese girl’s face went red and she shook her head. “I will do quests.”

  Jace smiled and winked at her. “Me too.”