by Matt Ryan
I nodded slightly.
“Then you know about all the families who were paid to come to the V Corp. gaming headquarters two months ago?”
“Yeah, seemed a bit weird,” I recalled, thinking of the few articles I’d read.
“We were going to go, but the week we were supposed to be moving into the complex, my dad got into a horrific accident at work and was exposed to a toxic level of radiation. He had a week or two to live, at most. So, we canceled, even though our rep told us they had the facilities to take care of him,” she continued, her breath heating up my ear.
“When we refused, we got a video call from Seth, my brother, he said he couldn’t leave and to please come to him. But he touched the scar on his face, a long one reaching down from his eye to his chin. It was a code to each other. He was lying.” Her voice wavered. “I knew then that something was terribly wrong. Once our father died, we tried to get in, but we were blocked. Seth called us and told us everything was fine, and V Corp. just wanted to make sure the game launched in secret. But each call he made to us, he touched his scar. He was telling me it was all a lie.” She pulled back and wiped her cheeks.
“How is that legal?”
She shrugged and dropped her head, speaking downward in a small voice. “It isn’t. But when I went to the cops, they laughed at me. I even went to Congressman Jones, but he brushed it off as well, telling me to let it go. I wrote letters to anyone I could; TV, blogs, anyone that had a platform. I got a little bit of traction, but it went nowhere once Seth got on to tell the few conspiracy blogs that everything was okay.” She touched her face and stared at the wall across the room.
“That’s just crazy.” I stared at the dark-brown wall across from us, while trying to formulate my next sentence. “Why do you think he’s in-game?”
“A few things, but what really sent it home was a note in the box that came from V Corp. A small handwritten note addressed to me and in Seth’s handwriting. It said that he’s in-game.”
“So, you think he’s in this game, as a player. What’s his gamer name?”
“I don’t know. He was always very close-mouthed about his gaming.”
“Were there any clues?”
Her lips thinned and she moved in closer once again. I felt her breath on my neck this time, and it sent chills down my spine. “He had drawn one symbol on the note. The Trinity Symbol. The one on the floor at Trinity hall. I think he’s stuck in that hall.”
I tried to recall the symbol and thought of the two figure-eight symbols on the floor. “You think he’s . . . like a prisoner?”
“Maybe, I don’t know. But I’m never going to get in there, unless I am nearly a god in this game.”
I gave her a quick inspection and saw she was Level 14 now. “KILLian, you didn’t sleep, did you?”
“I’m not stopping until I get him back. I have people watching after my body while I’m in here. It’s why I started the game so late, I had to prepare first.”
“People can die from that kind of gaming. What are their names? I can give them messages.”
“No, it’s better to not mix the inside with the outside,” she said, and I slumped down. “Where did you go anyway? You logged out without telling us again.”
“I went back to my apartment. Listen, I think I need to tell you something, but I don’t want . . .” I looked up. “Them to hear.”
“What is it?”
“I didn’t get to realm one without help,” I whispered, matching her secretive tone from before.
“You have a sponsor, don’t you?”
I sighed. “I’m not some rich hipster, dressing poor to be ironic. I’m actually poor, and pretty much homeless. Someone in this game sent me the tier one gear that allowed me to enter this realm.”
“Who?”
“I don’t want to say his name. Not here. Give me your real-life info and we can talk.”
She laughed. “You think the outside world is any more protected than the world in here?”
“What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dude, it’s V Corp., they own everything.” She looked at the ceiling again. “I shouldn’t have even told you what I said, but I feel so alone in this.” She growled in frustration. “We shouldn’t even be having this conversation.” When she looked to the ceiling, I studied her profile.
“I’m glad we are.” I reached out and put my hand on her arm. “I’ll help you find him.”
“Thanks,” she said, wiping her nose with her other arm. “I’m just running out of places to look and . . .” KILLian turned to look at me. Our faces were inches apart, and her gaze flitted down to my mouth before she continued. “I just don’t know what to do. This game is so real. I know they have the standard style quests and such, but the people in this place, the NPCs, I can barely tell the difference.”
I knew exactly what she meant, and when faced with killing something that felt real, it crossed into real life moral issues. I let go of her arm and fiddled with cleaning some dirt out from under my fingernail. “Hey, you remember those two guys I killed at the start of the game?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I went back to the town and they were having a funeral for them.”
“What?” She gasped and I looked up and met her shocked expression. “No way.”
“Yeah, and the woman—the one we saved? She was draped over one of their caskets, sobbing. Then she saw me, and blamed me for their deaths, which caused the entire town to run after me, calling me a murderer.”
“Holy crap. I’ve never heard of something like that in a game.”
“And it doesn’t make sense mathematically. If I kill someone in-game and they stay dead, then how can the rest of the players play the game with me?”
I waited for her to come to the same realization I had. Then I saw it light up her face as her eyes went wide and she raised a single finger.
“You think this is all part of the game, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure. What do you think?”
“I guess, it’s possible. But that would mean you may not be real, and this entire world is made for just me. Are you real?”
“Yes. And I know it sounds a bit arrogant, but it feels that way for me too. As if all these things are being played out just for me,” I said.
“We’re all the heroes of our story,” KILLian whispered.
“What?”
“Nothing, just something my brother would say.” She shook her head as she stared at the floor. “I don’t know. Seth had mentioned something about bandwidth and storage. He used to tell me a bit about it before the lockdown, but basically, they have limitations on what can be transmitted and stored, so I think the idea that all of us are on a different path is unrealistic. I think this is the real game and we are all playing in the same world. It’s just the paths are more complicated here,” she said and patted the tops of her legs, making quick glances at me, as if trying to build up some courage.
I licked my lips and waited for her to speak, then she burst out with, “When are you going to meet this man you mentioned?”
I let go of the breath I’d been holding. “He wants something and as soon as I get it, I can meet him again. But it’s on Spider Island.”
She nodded. “I’ve been hearing a lot about that place from the NPC’s. Sounds pretty nasty, but it’s the endgame for this zone. We’ll need to kill the Spider Queen to move on to the next, I bet.”
I nodded and smiled. “We stick together and we’ll make it through this.”
The room fell silent as we ran out of things to say. The insane part of my brain briefly thought about leaning in to kiss her, but she reached over and touched my hand, snapping me out of my trance.
“Thank you,” she said, and I pulled her in to give her a hug.
I wasn’t sure how she pulled it off, but her hair smelled amazing.
“Whoa, you two want me to leave?” Gor asked. He must have logged back in because I hadn’t heard the door open.
“Damn, girl. Level 14?” He gave her a high five.
“Thanks. We’re going to make a run at the Spider Queen,” KILLian said. “I got my permission slip from the mage master.”
“Oh yeah, I haven’t gotten mine yet,” Gor replied. “I’m not even sure how to get it. What do you do?”
“It’s a long quest chain that ends in something crazy. I basically had to save the entire town from someone poisoning the water supply.”
“Dang, nice. What did you have to do?” Gor asked me.
“I haven’t done mine yet. I still have the quest though.”
“Dude, share it with us, we can bang it out.”
“I don’t want to do it. It involves killing someone.”
“Why? It’s just some NPC, right?”
I quickly told Gor about what I’d seen at the small town. He plopped down on the edge of the bed, rubbing his chin. “That’s messed up, but this is a quest spawn. I bet he pops right back into existence in like five minutes.”
“I don’t know.”
“Dude, trust me, I know games.”
“We don’t really have any other choice,” KILLian said. “The only way we can make progress is to get that permission slip from your clan master.”
“Fine, but you’ll see what I mean. The guy is nice and has a family. I even have a meat delivery to do for him.” Which I hadn’t completed. “Shit.”
I jumped off the bed and headed down stairs. Giving Tommy the meat, he wrote me a note to give to Butcher Bob. A note popped up in front of me.
Quest complete!
+ 35 XP
Quest: Return to Butcher Bob’s with Tommy’s receipt.
The three of us left the inn to finish the quest. The morning sun had everything brightened up, but it hadn’t beat out the night’s cold yet.
“Share that quest,” Gor said.
“Fine.” I brought up my menu and created a party. Once shared, it went from a light red difficulty to a dark yellow.
“This is going to be awesome. What kind of weapon does he have?”
“He carries a meat cleaver,” I said.
“Sick,” Gor said.
“I think we should offer him a reprieve. We tell him to leave town and never come back. We can tell Denton we killed him and no one has to get hurt.”
“How are you going to fool the system?”
“I think it can be fooled,” I said.
“I agree,” KILLian said. “All these quests seem to have different ways to finish them, if you want.”
“You guys do it your way, but if I see an opening, I’m going to take it.” Gor’s attitude didn’t sit well with me, but I was sure we could get through it with some diplomacy.
“Just let us do the talking, okay?”
“Fine.”
We crossed town and got to Bob’s Butcher shop in under ten minutes. I could see him through the windows, hacking away at what appeared to be half of a cow.
“He’s huge,” Gor said.
“And a Level 19. We better go with diplomacy,” KILLian said.
I opened the door and the bell above announced our arrival. I glanced at the closed door in back and hoped his wife wasn’t behind it.
“Oh hey, you finally made it back.” He set his cleaver on the butcher block and walked to the counter, wiping his hands.
I was extending my hand with the note from Tommy, when I heard Gor’s battle cry.
“No!” KILLian and I both yelled, but it’s too late.
Gor had already leapt over the counter, with his ax in the air. Bob punched him in the face, sending him in a direct course to the floor.
I checked his HP to make sure he wasn’t dead. He was just stunned, but had taken some damage. “Wait,” I said, holding out my unarmed hands, but it was beyond civility now.
Bob reached back, grabbed the cleaver and in one motion, threw it at me, striking me in the shoulder.
Magoton hit by Cleaver Strike!
- 190 HP
Bleeding damage – 10 a second
Couple more hits, and I’d be dead.
I yelled when I saw Bob jumping over the counter with a kitchen knife in his hand.
KILLian thrusted her rod forward and a blast of cold hit Bob, freezing him in place. “He can still hear us, but it won’t last long.”
Bob’s gaze darted between each of us.
I pulled the cleaver out of my shoulder and almost passed out from hearing my blood splatter on the floor. “Bob, we aren’t trying to kill you,” I said. “The Shadow clan has a quest out for your head. You need to take your wife and family out of here.”
He laughed. “I will kill all three of you, and butcher your bodies into bits for the woodland creatures.”
“He won’t be frozen much longer,” KILLian warned, tossing a pad with medicine on it toward me.
I grabbed it and put it on my wound, staunching the blood flow. KILLian hit me with a heal spell.
Light Heal from KILLian
+ 50 HP
Gor got to his feet and staggered around, as if he’d been drinking way too much. He spotted his ax, and after a bit of a struggle, got it into his hands. “What happened?”
“You got hit,” I said.
“Bob, listen, please. Just leave the city,” KILLian said. “We can say we killed you, and no one will come after you. It doesn’t have to end with any of us getting killed.”
Bob let out a battle cry and broke from the icy shell holding him in place. Gor jumped and slammed his ax on the ground next to Bob, sending him stumbling back. Bob then turned his attention to KILLian, as she used a frost shot on him.
Her freeze spell would still be on cool down, she couldn’t use it again for another thirty seconds.
Bob dodged Gor’s next attack, moving unbelievably fast as he shoved Gor back. With the knife still in his hand, Bob jumped for KILLian. KILLian ducked down, trying to protect herself from the massive man about to kill her. I’d already hesitated for too long. Using my dash spell, I extended my rusty dagger, slicing through Butcher Bob’s throat. Then I knocked him away from KILLian’s path.
Critical Strike!
290 Damage
Bob fell back, with his hands stuck to his bleeding neck. The gurgling sound that came from him would haunt me for some time, but the man wasn’t dead yet. A knife appeared in his bloody hand and he threw it at me, but it missed wide. Then he staggered toward KILLian with both bloody hands extended.
KILLian produced the rod she’d looted from Nathaniel, and held it out in front of her. It turned blue and an icy blade extended from it, hitting Bob in the chest.
Good Job! Butcher Bob is Dead.
+ 75 XP
+20 Evil
Congratulations! Level 9 Unlocked:
+5 Attribute Points
+ 1 Specialization in Daggers
New Ability Learned From Shadow Master
Bob’s lifeless body thumped to the floor. And no matter what Gor believed, I knew he’d never move again. That was the end of Butcher Bob. There wasn’t going to be a resurrection or a respawn. Bob would no longer exist in this world.
“What the hell, Gor?” I said. “And don’t even think of looting him.”
“What?” He breathed hard and looked at me, gripping his ax as he kneeled next to Bob. “That guy was never going to be negotiated with. He was going to kill us.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know games, Mago. Do you really think the program wants us to negotiate him out of the city? Every second we wasted with that crap, the more suspicious he was going to get. You heard him laughing.”
“You went against our plan. You could’ve gotten us all killed,” KILLian said. “And now we’re murderers.”
“Sorry, I was just trying to win the quest. And what do you know . . . we won the quest. You’re welcome. And murderers, really?”
“Gor, don’t you know this is a city of laws?” I
pointed out to the street. “Haven’t you seen the guards at every freaking block in this place?” I pushed my hair back, and as if on cue, a guard came walking down the street.
The air sucked from my lungs, and I stood there, wondering if I’d been stunned. Then I quickly realized it was just me. That guard—or any guard in this city—could one shot all three of us. Gathering my wits, I pretended to be looking at some meat on display as he walked by. Thankfully, he never even looked in our direction, or else he would’ve seen the crimson nightmare spreading over much of the white tiled floor.
I pulled up my stats.
Magoton:
Level 9
Spec 1: Service
Spec 2: Shadow Caster
XP 1415
(335 XP until next level up)
HP 38/400
Mana 100
Stamina 100
Attribute Points: 5
Bank: $172.85
Crit rating %6
Attack Power 16
Spell Power 0
Agility 20
Dash 15
Charisma 5
Intelligence 13
Strength 0
Service 20
Merchant 0
Perception 25
Stealth 9
Evil 45
Good 0
Weapon specialties:
6 points in Spears
6 Point in Daggers
Companion:
Moonchild - Dire Eagle
“I can’t believe you, Gor,” I whispered. “I’m at a 45 Evil now. A little more and I’m arrest on sight, if they don’t just kill me first. And I meant what I said. We aren’t looting him. We’re going to have to hide this. We can’t have a single item of his on us. It’s all evidence of what we did here.” I stared at the large body on the butcher shop’s floor. “We’ve got to get rid of the body.”
“That’s stupid,” Gor said. “If we loot him, he’ll just disappear and respawn. Watch.”
“Stop. He’s not respawning. I tried to tell you that earlier.”
“We just need to leave the area, then it will happen,” Gor said.
“No, Magoton’s right. We need to get rid of the body. I’ll check the back and see if there’s any way we can move it.” She hustled through the back door.
