AVARICE ONLINE: KEL'VAN RED HAND

by Titus Nettles

  “Who are you...and how did you get Kevin’s account?! I swear to god as soon as I’m able, I am going to make sure you can’t get a job pumping gas …you animal!”

  “Wait! Kandice hold on, it’s me, I promise you! Look, remember that time you broke into Stanford’s account?’ You took all his gear and modded a big diaper on his favorite character. The only person who knew you did it was me because I was there laughing the whole time you did it. You even spilled your coffee all over me from laughing so hard. We were the only people in the office that night. It’s me, Kandice…. Kandice?”

  There was an audible empty sob on the other end.

  “Kandice...” Kevin said slowly. “What's going on? How come I'm still logged in?"

  "Kevin, we came to your house. It was in flames. By the time the fire department and cops came through; all that was left was burnt out furniture. It was an electrical fire, Kevin. Your body was found boiled in the pod and fused with the helmet on."

  Kevin blinked for a couple of seconds and heard howling of some sort in the valley's background.

  "Wait…what do you mean found my body? "

  Kevin's panic again started to rise in his gut.

  "There was an electrical fire Kev!" she screamed. "They think it's faulty wiring from the connection. They say power arced from the headgear in the pod. Electrifying your head and body, then catching flame to everything in the apartment. There was nothing left but a boiled corpse attached to an Avarice Online headset!" sniffled Kandice.

  Kevin stepped back, almost falling off the edge of the cliff.

  "I'm dead."

  It sounded weird just saying it. Like it was happening to another person.

  "Kandice…that can't be right. I'm talking to you right now. I can't be dead," he said in an almost serene matter.

  "Don't tell me what I saw Kevin!!.... It was a burnt-out husk in pajamas! It was you!" All of a sudden, the sniffling stopped on the D.S. Kevin was still stunned by the story she told.

  "Kevin, that blackout you had; I think it was about the same time the firemen said the fire must have started. I couldn't think of it before after seeing your body like that. But I think you…or what makes you …when you go online, got stuck when that electric arc happened."

  "Kandice," Kevin slowly said in order to keep himself under control." That doesn't make sense. This is not the twilight zone. That is not possible with the dive pod."

  "Yeah? Then who am I speaking to then damn it, because nobody else knew about that prank except you and me!"

  There was silence on the connection accompanied by the sound of slow breathing coming through the D.S.

  "Look, they just called a staff meeting at work, most likely because of this…whatever this is that's happened. I'll bring it up with the guys at the table and see if they believe me enough to do something about it. I'll message back as soon as possible," she replied.

  "And Kev, if this is really you… I'm sorry."

  Kevin waited for over an hour after the D.S. connection went off. The whole time he was trying to come to terms with his "apparent" death. It just didn't make sense. For one, his apartment was only twenty years old and relatively new. There should not have been any chance of any type of electrical power problems between the pod and headgear. How was he able to operate the systems at all if he was "dead?" He damn sure didn't feel like he was in the afterlife. Just then, the message screen from the D.S. started lighting up.

  "Kandice?" Kevin asked. There was a slight pause she spoke. "Kev…The meeting was over 20 minutes ago. I'm calling from an outside line with a personalized VPN."

  "Wait …what?!" Kevin asked. "Why would you need to do that? What did they say about my situation?!"

  "Kev, hear me out and let me finish before interrupting. That meeting, in so many words, WAS about you. They told us that all info about you would be directed to management to answer. All of us had to turn in our passwords for our characters. We are no longer in-game techs… 70 grand had been deposited in each of our accounts before we even entered the building. But this part is the most important, Kevin…Everyone who was at that meeting was either upper management or was receiving info from you about "Gladys Mountains."

  Kevin slowly clenched and re-clenched his hands. This was beginning to be too much for him to handle.

  "There's more Kev…. They said the money was for us cooperating fully. They wanted to keep info about what anyone knew concerning recent events about you or this meeting confidential. They said they would hate for things to go badly. “For our own protection." Their words almost verbatim. Kevin, accident or not, I don't think certain people want this to go public."

  Kevin couldn't even answer. Too much was running his brain into overdrive. They knew.

  They knew, and these bastards wanted him gone.

  "Kevin," said Kandice. "I didn't even bring you up after that. These guys? I think they want this to stay covered. I don't know if it's about liability or Wellcorp being shut down, but they are serious. Kev, I have kids…I can't ever put them at risk."

  "I get it, Kandice, and I'm not asking that either." Kevin numbly replied.

  "Kevin, listen, tonight was supposed to be a massive update, right? That means the system is going offline for a major reboot. That is when all of our accounts are going to be deleted that were connected to Gladys…. including yours."

  At first, it didn't register why she would even tell him this. Too much was on his mind to think about an almost routine reboot. Then it dawned on him.

  Delete accounts.

  His account.

  That was all that was left of him and his connection to the outside world. Worse, the upload could erase him.

  "My God." Kevin breathed. "I’m really going to die…for real”.

  “We don’t know that,” breathed Kandice. “Kev, I’m sending you some gear. It’s useless until you get to level 5, but it was the lowest gear I could get off the server at this time. If the reboot leaves you alone, try to message me. If you’re able.”

  That was a BIG IF. There was just no way to know how G.A.I.A. was going to treat him during the reboot.

  “Kev, I gotta go. There is no way to know if they could track me or monitor this call, even with the VPN. Take the gear; it’s purple ranked mage and warrior sets. Hopefully, one of the sets come in handy for you. Be safe, and again Kev…I’m sorry.”

  With that, Kandice logged off, and the message went dead.

  Kevin stared at the Yellow light of the D.S. for a full minute before hitting the accept package icon on the message board. She was right. It was useless to him before hitting level 5, so he put the item in his inventory slot, which read 14 of 100 full in green letters. He highlighted the game clock to see the time before the system shutdown. It was a routine system check and update that happened every Sunday to fix minor bugs and update patches big or small on Avarice online. Nothing new to any gamer...but this time, it might as well have been a clock ticking down the minutes to life on death row. It was a high probability he was going to die… again.

  Kevin spent his last moments watching the very landscape he thought was so beautiful before the shit hit the fan. His predicament didn’t change its magnificence. But a part of him was seething at the unfairness of it all. Those bastards wanted what happened to him held secret. Far as he knew, they had him killed for it. Every avenue for help or people finding out about it was being cut off from him. Even his friend. The how nor why it happened no longer mattered. The clock clicking 2 minutes till system shutdown didn’t matter. He was going to live through this. Somebody did this to him, and he was going to survive to find out why.

  “I have to hold on to me when it happens.” Kevin thought. Sitting there, looking at the sky darken and the two bright moons in the distance. “When it happens, I have to hold on to me and live.” It didn’t even make sense knowing how the system works, but at this point, it didn’t have to. It was all he had left. As the minutes turned to seconds, he said to himself one word.

>   LIVE.

  Time stood still. There was a landscape he was watching…and then darkness engulfed everything. System reboot flashed across his screen

  Sweeping Avarice Online…

  Sweeping Accounts…

  Bugs identified….

  Rogue A.I. detected…

  Initiating repair sequencing….

  Account Error….

  Rogue A.I. Error

  His vision blurred; in front of him, he saw a hazy woman...with six arms? She was staring at him intently; her arms began reaching for his face.

  PAIN...

  He screamed as if his whole world was being pulled apart. Memories came unbidden to the front of his mind. His 5th birthday...His father tucking him to sleep..his dog Lucky barking in the yard...

  PAIN...

  Again the multi-limbed creature peered at him, no irises at all for what passed for eyes...

  "Am I in hell," was a thought briefly escaping his mind as more memories came flashing through painfully. Him graduating high school...The warm kiss and smell of raspberries from a woman's neck...Joining the airforce...Becoming an N.C.O. and leading squads into battle...A young soldier reaching out for help after being engulfed in flames…

  PAIN...

  A synthetic metal and plastic limb being attached to his amputated arm…The anger and resentment he felt for not being able to save his men…The pitying stares as he painfully learned how to use the wakizashi short sword for three years…The deep satisfaction of plunging his sword through any who opposed him online…

  PAIN…

  Integrating Rogue A.I. with G.A.I.A. parameters

  Integrating Account into G.A.I.A. parameters

  Bugs issue resolved….

  Account Error resolved…

  Rogue A.I. Error resolved….

  Sweep of Avarice online complete…

  There was only white pain. Then the feeling of himself being pulled apart like taffy in all directions at once. Roaring sounds engulfing everything. Something akin to buzzing amplified a hundred times…. And then blissful silence. It was then followed by a feeling of weightlessness. He felt his body soon after floating upwards, towards what, he couldn’t fathom. He was too drained in mind and body, and moments later, he felt his body bobbing. Kevin opened his eyes to see himself floating away from a pool that was ebony black, sprinkled with dots of light shining the way a person would view a clear night sky.

  A pair of hands reached out and pulled his body upon dry ground. Barely conscious, he saw similar green bodies pulling others out of the stream where he apparently came out of.

  “Wha... What’s happening?” Kevin murmured. Then he blacked out.

  One of the taller of the two carrying him looked at the other and said,” Hmmm…. maybe we should just throw this one back…He’s pretty gone, No?”

  CHAPTER 2

  Kevin opened his eyes slowly. He sat himself upright on what seemed to be a make-shift cot of some kind. “Jesus.” he thought. “What the hell did I drink last night."

  He absently thought about fixing himself some eggs and waffles to chase away the apparent hangover he must have had from drinking. That was until he looked around his surroundings. He was just one guy situated next to 3 rows of what could only be orcs, laid out on cots just like his. All under what seemed to be a dark tent.

  ” Wait,…am I still playing?” he thought. Then it all came back. Gladis Mountains, Logout button fail…. The danger of reboot.

  “I’m alive,” he whispered to himself. A gigantic grin began to form on his face as the realization hit him. “Jesus Christ on a crutch. I’m ALIVE!!!!” One of the orcs outside peeked into the tent.”

  "We know already youngling,"said vaguely familiar Orc."Maybe we shouldn’t have pulled that one out.” Shaking his head, the Orc closed the tent flap. Kevin could hardly believe it. G.A.I.A. didn’t erase him.

  “Okay, before I do anything else, let’s look at the D.S. chart."

  “Okay. At least my D.S. still works, but heat wave is greyed out.” Which made sense because it was a level 10 spell. Kevin's hopes were cut short though, when he noticed that the log-out button was gone entirely.

  “It’s okay; I need to understand my surroundings first. Let’s see what I’m working with here.”

  Glancing over his specs, he got a mental picture of what he was capable of. “Wow…that’s a lot of hit points for level 1 character…strength is pretty big as well,” he thought. It made sense though, he was an orc after all. He stood up and gave his new body a once over. He was about 7 feet tall, a light greenish skin…a little wiry but with a bulging muscular build. He wore nothing but wool pants and boots and no shirt.

  “Not Bad…Not bad at all.” smiled Kevin.

  “Are you still standing there admiring yourself Orc? Get out here already!” yelled the Orc, who had complained about him earlier. Shaking his head, the Orc closed the tent again. Kevin hurried toward the opening, eager to see his new world.

  Two things became obvious when Kevin parted the tent flap. The first was just how busy the place was. There were rows of tents behind his own. In front, he saw sections of Orcs running in groups. Some were carrying make-shift wooden swords and axes. Not too far off, he saw a round circle where a couple of orcs were paired off against each other.

  “I’m in a military camp,” he mused.

  The second thing he noticed was that he wasn’t the physical essence of masculinity he thought he was. When he first saw the orcs from afar, he imagined them around 7 feet. These guys in person were about 8 feet…some of them maybe even 9 feet tall. All of them ranging from a deep dark green to a lighter shade than himself. Compared to their frame…he was definitely on the skinny side and small.

  “Aww, crap...” whispered Kevin as he palmed his face.

  The Orc that called him outside smiled a little at him. Obviously amused by Kevin’s discomfort. “Come youngling…An orcs power is not always measured in his stature, yes?!’ He pushed Kevin towards the front and pointed towards the south, where orcs were gathering. "

  "My name is Tent master Orn Iron Tusk. When the day is done, you will always come here after you eat to sleep. Tomorrow, you see the Chief of Orcs. For now though, you will meet your taskmaster and trainers. From them, you learn the spirit of your clan.” Orc Orn then pushed Kevin toward the group. “Go youngling…. learn your place among your people.”

  Kevin walked toward a group of orcs standing around a make-shift podium as if they are waiting for something. A couple of them looked him over. A bald orc with a dark brown goatee looked at him and asked,” Are you lost youngling?”

  Another orc with grizzled black hair tied in a ponytail replied, “No, he came from the life pool with us. He is from our tent.” The bald one was about to speak when he was shushed by the others. “Quiet! The Task Master approaches.”

  A group of four Orcs began walking towards the backside of the podium. The largest, being almost 9 feet tall, stood atop of it and surveyed the crowd. A dark green orc who wore a grey leather-like vest with the arms bare, long grey hair braided that cascaded down the sides of his face surveyed the crowd. His bushy grey eyebrows with the customary teeth grown outside of the sides of his mouth, made a terrifying sight as he turned to and fro. He waited a few breaths before he spoke.

  “Welcome younglings of the Mountain Orcs!” he screamed among the crowd. “I am Ulgo Stonefist, Taskmaster of this tribe!”

  He started pacing the podium as he eyed the young orcs watching and hanging on his every word. “I will make this brief. As you are now, you are not fit to be called warriors of the Ulgo, The Mountain Orcs! You do not own a surname to be recognized as I have. You are only younglings, new to the world. But fear not, you will get the chance to improve your standing among your people. These trainers behind me will guide you into becoming Berserkers, Slayers, Raiders, and Shamans. The training will not be easy, for life is not. But we will equip you with the skills necessary to defend your clan and earn your name!”
>
  He took out a sword, the length of which was 3’4 of the human body, and looked quite capable of cutting one in half., and raised it to the sky. “Death to our enemies and life for the Ulgo Clan!!!!!”

  A roar came up from not only our group but the soldiers that were all across the encampment. Even Kevin himself felt a certain energy and a sense of purpose from Stone fist’s impassioned speech. After cheering subsided, Stonefist walked off the podium. A trainer came in front of our group and gave them the once over.

  “I am Trainer Ulgo Meat grinder…He began to scratch his beard, which was braided from his chin and hung just below his neck. You will be separated into four groups and then into pairs for training. For now, you will form as I tell you, or I will clunk you across the skull with my mallet here.” He lovingly patted a long metal rod with a blunt hammer-like and flat spade on the other side of it… A smile broke out on Orc Meatgrinder’s face.” Please try me…”

  Shortly after, the crew of 12 Ulgo’s began marching in an orderly line, 3 vertical and 4 horizontally. They came to a section where a big circle was carved out into the dirt. Outside of the circle, there were stands with assorted wood carved weaponry, such as medium-sized swords to longswords, double-bladed large axes, and the like. Kevin and his group of younglings ogled the sight as the trainer walked into the middle of the circle.

  “This.” as Meatgrinder spread his arms wide and turned in a circle.” Is the Gauntlet ring…Your personal ring that is.” You will soon choose weapons for yourselves, but first…” He pointed his finger towards Kevin, and then another orc next to him.” You two will fight. ..unarmed.”

  Kevin gulped as he entered the center of the ring. His counterpart, an orc who of course, was not only taller but was corded with thick muscle from his thighs to his arms, stepped into the ring after him.

  Meatgrinder pointed his chin at him and asked. “What is your name youngling?” The Orc bellowed. “Youngling Fer’shad.” Meat grinder pointed at Kevin. “And You?”