Dennis heard more steps running down the hall and turned to see Jimmy with a few other players behind him. How would he tell them Valen had managed to kill Bronson, for good? And their chances of saving Bishop just dropped drastically.
Chapter 5
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Alana crossed her arms. “Dennis?”
He rubbed his balding head as he faced the rest of Harrison’s guild in his private apartment. “Bronson is dead, and has been erased from the servers as if he never existed.”
“And this is bad because?” Jimmy asked.
“Bronson was one of the first built-in fail-safes against the AI getting out of hand,” he explained, his rubbing growing frantic. “He was meant to trigger a trap that would catapult the AI back into its script and erase any changes that have been made.”
“And he’s just gone? How is that even possible?” Callie looked around, feeling eyes on her. After hearing Valen’s voice in her room and her latest encounter with Jinx, or Bishop, or whoever, she was on edge. She didn’t want to admit she was paranoid, but she was quickly heading in that direction.
Dennis shrugged. “It shouldn’t be, but somehow she’s found a way into the system as an admin and she erased him. Poof.”
“Poof. Yeah, that’s fantastic. Can this get any worse?” Jimmy mumbled, and Dennis cringed.
“It can?” Callie supplied.
“If she managed to get access into the system, then her hold over Bishop has grown exponentially. She can manipulate the world around him to make him see whatever she wants. To keep him there.” He attempted a smile and Callie looked around for something to throw at him. He must’ve caught her violent stare because he held up his hands. “There is a tiny bit of good news.”
“Oh? And what’s that exactly?” Callie snapped.
“Valen destroying Bronson means she’s weak in the game, momentarily of course. If you’re ever going to make a push to hit level seventy and take out the next Demon Lord, it would be now.”
A collective groan of annoyance and exhaustion went up at his words. “That’s ten levels!” Jimmy complained. “Ten levels at a higher level is a pain in the rear to grind! We’d have to play nearly twenty-four seven to get there in how many days exactly?”
Dennis’ fingers wiggled as he calculated in his head. “Three.”
“Three days,” Jimmy said dead-panned. “You want us to hit level seventy in three days? That’s impossible!”
“Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you; however, I sense things are changing within the game for you to adapt to these new circumstances.”
“English, Dennis, or shit’s going to start getting violent,” Alana warned.
“I understand your frustrations, but you can’t continually take your anger out on me,” he said. “If you would let me explain?”
Alana crossed her arms, but Callie motioned for him to get on with it.
“Callie’s character has pushed the limits of her fury,” Dennis started. “If she was able to do that, then something else is occurring in the game that I only hoped to witness. Your emotions, your real-life emotions, are driving your characters to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”
“Meaning what exactly?” Eric, Trajan’s name in real life, asked.
“It means what Callie did can be possible again, and the same goes for the rest of you. With enough push, your abilities will go beyond what the game set out as limitations.”
“Why would you set it up like that?” Jimmy asked. “You’d wind up with some incredibly OP characters walking around just destroying everything and other players. What’s the point of leveling?”
“I didn’t set up the system this way. Valen did when she pushed the limits of her script. She’s changed the game which means she’s changed the script for everyone involved, including the heroes she wants to keep in check.”
Callie frowned. “Won’t she know that, though and find a way to stop us?”
“I believe that’s why she created the ability to wipe out heroes for good,” he sighed. “She knew she would affect the game somehow and this is her way of balancing the scales.”
Callie threw her head over the back of the couch and glared at the ceiling. “But you told us she can’t do the permanent kill thing unless you get touched with that vial of whatever she had, right?”
“Correct.”
“Then does she think she has a way to make us all stand in line so she can douse us with it?”
Dennis appeared at a loss and Callie grunted. The man was a genius but, when they needed straight answers, he had nothing to offer. If this was the game, she’d jump across the room right now and strangle him out of sheer frustration.
“And,” he told them, “I have instructed the techs to send each of your players all the XP boosts we have available to aid you in leveling quickly.”
“Yay, goodie for us.” Jimmy paced around the room as Alana whispered to him. He shrugged and stomped to the windows, staring out over the gardens. Callie felt for him, they all did. Harrison might be with her, but he was friends with Alana and Jimmy first. They had befriended him, had been there since the beginning. They wanted their friend back. “What about the other fail-safes?” he asked, turning around. “You said there were three?”
“Bronson, Winston, and the woman you call the Red Witch.”
“Wait,” Callie asked, hunching over so her arms rested on her knees and she could hold her head in her hands. “Isn’t she one of your wife’s personalities or whatever?”
Dennis tilted his head back and forth. “Yes and no. Her main purpose is, as with Winston and Bronson, to aid the heroes with the end game. Her original purpose was, and as far as I can tell still is to fight against Valenastrious.”
“So she’s going to fight against herself?” Jimmy asked confused.
“Yes, but the Red Witch doesn’t know who she is. She has not become aware as Valen and Tavin have.” He tugged at his shirt collar and Callie saw the beads of sweat break out on his forehead.
“You tried to talk to her, didn’t you,” she stated. “Tried to what, wake her up?”
“I did, in hopes she would actively find a way to stop this horrible situation from getting any more out of hand, but I’m afraid she did not recognize me and fled.” He rubbed at his chest as if it pained him.
Great, Callie thought, damn old man’s going to have a heart attack and die before he can help us beat the crazy AI he created.
“A few moments after my failed attempt,” he went on in a quiet voice, “Valen appeared and destroyed Daemyn’s character.”
Callie swallowed hard at the pain evident on his face. He was essentially killed by the woman he loved, and all her musings of hurting Dennis disappeared. Dealing with this was hard enough for the guild because of Harrison, but she hadn’t stopped to think how difficult it must have been for Dennis, facing down his wife and plotting to basically bring her down, destroy what was left of her mind if necessary.
Everyone remained silent for a few moments longer before Dennis cleared his throat and soldiered on.
“I’ll keep working on ways for you to level faster so you can hit your next target level and complete the next dungeon. After that, there’s only one more and then fighting Valenastrious herself,” Dennis said. “I have faith that you’ll succeed and you all need to continue to have hope. The odds I’ll admit are against you, but that’s how it always is for the heroes, right?”
“You think she’ll go after Winston next? When she does make a move?” Eric stood uneasily as the rest of them, anxious to get back in the game and continue on even though they all were in dire need of sleep and time in the real world.
“I do, but I’m not sure how. Winston will not accompany you on the next dungeon, or the one following.” Dennis tapped his chin in thought. “He will reside with the rest of his Order in Seaside for when you turn in quests until you summon him again.”
“
The Order we met up north?”
“Yes, the very same. As long as you see him in Seaside, you can know he’s safe.”
“Should we leave some players there to watch over him?” Callie asked, not wanting to force anyone to face down whoever, or whatever might come for Winston, but they would at least have some warning if Valen or Bishop came to take him away.
“We’ll have to. We’ll get it set up once we reach that town,” Eric agreed. “Right, let’s turn in everyone. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
“I’ll catch up with you guys,” Callie said, and she waited until they were gone before she sat back down on the couch. “Dennis, is it possible…is it possible to hear voices from the game through the speakers in the facility?”
His face paled as he sat down across from her. “And here I thought it was only me.”
Callie curled up on the couch, feeling as if she was being watched again. “I hoped it was all in my head. I keep thinking I see her walking around, or Bishop.”
“You mean Harrison.”
“No,” she corrected in a whisper. “I mean Bishop. I see him in the crowd of players, hear his voice in my ear…I’m going mad from this game, I can feel it.”
“I wish I could tell you it was all in your head, but I’m afraid that’s not the case.”
“You suck at sugar coating,” she grumbled.
“I’m an honest man,” he informed her with a laugh that lacked any amusement at all, but was filled with bitterness. “For all I know, she’s watching us, day and night. Might know our plans already.”
“You think she does?”
“Not right now, no. She’s too distracted with the fail-safes I think to care much about us and, besides,” he added, pointing towards the corners of the room where the security cameras were. “I unplugged them. She can’t see or hear anything within these walls.”
Callie relaxed, slightly, and forced herself to stand. “Then I guess your place is now ground zero for making plans when we’re not in game.”
“Of course, whatever you need. I wish I could do more.”
Callie was ready to scold him again, but stopped herself short. The man was in enough pain and another berating from her would only make things worse. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, Dennis. We’ll make it through this, one way or another. It’s what heroes do.”
She gave him a half-hearted wave and left to catch up with the others and make their plans before attempting to get a few hours of sleep.
***
Jimmy shot upright in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “Hello?”
Silence met his question, but he swore people were talking in his room. Or had he dreamt it? Before he had turned in for the night, he had sworn he had heard Harrison’s laughter drifting by his ears, but he had chalked it up to lack of sleep and wishing for his friend to come back so hard that he just made himself hear his laughter. Back when times were happy and they weren’t fighting for their lives.
Yawning, he tossed back onto his bed, scrunching his pillow up into a tight ball and closed his eyes. Only a dream.
Jimmy…
His eyes opened wide, but he refused to move. “He’s not here, he’s not here,” he whispered repeatedly and shut his eyes tighter, curling into his pillow and wishing for sleep to come and take him away again.
Come on, Jimmy…is that any way to treat an old friend?
That voice definitely didn’t belong to Harrison or Bishop
It was a growl, deep and guttural, and it was definitely female. It continued its whispering, on and on until Jimmy couldn’t take it and threw himself out of bed to duck into the bathroom. He turned the water on in the shower, drowning out the sound as he stripped out of his sleep pants and shoved his head directly under the spray.
Callie had broken down before they had turned in for the night and confessed to everyone she’d been hearing Valen’s voice in her room coming through the speakers. That she swore sometimes she saw Bishop wandering around the halls of the facility. She looked afraid, like she was losing her mind, but Jimmy and Alana assured her she was fine and whatever she heard was just the game messing with her.
Jimmy tried to tell himself the same thing as he remained in the shower, letting the water run over his ears and drown out any other noises.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there before he finally turned the water off and listened.
When he heard nothing but the water dripping off the faucet, he shoved the curtain aside and yelled in alarm. He staggered backwards, slipping and sliding as he tried to keep his balance, and when he had his back pressed into the corner of the shower stall, he lifted his gaze back to the mirror.
Nothing, there was nothing there.
“Damn it,” he whispered, rubbing a hand roughly over his face. “Maybe Callie’s not the only one losing it.”
Her face, he swore he saw Valen’s face leering back at him from the mirror, green glowing eyes and horns. She looked at him, dead in the eye, as if they were in the game.
But it wasn’t Valenastrious. It couldn’t be.
All the same, Jimmy wrapped a towel around his waist and used the other one to cover up the mirror, just in case. He dried himself off, threw his pants back on, and slid under the covers.
No matter what sounds he heard in the night, the creaking, the shuffling of steps, the dark cackling that sounded so close to his head, he kept his eyes shut and his back turned to the room.
Chapter 6
“You alright?” Alana asked Jimmy at breakfast, watching him pick at his bacon. “Jimmy?”
“Didn’t get much sleep,” he muttered and gave up eating.
“Not you, too?” Alana looked around, but they were alone. “Are you seeing stuff too?”
Jimmy sat back and eyed her funny. “Are you?” he replied, and the way her gaze darkened was all the answer he needed. “Great, so she’s going after all of us outside the game. That’s effing fantastic.” Disgusted, he shoved his tray of food away and settled on drinking coffee for breakfast. It wasn’t as sweet as he usually made it and chugged it down so he could at least get a kick of caffeine. “I was hoping she’d leave you alone.”
“Why would she? I was the first one who met Harrison.” Alana twirled a braid of purple and black hair around her finger. “All night long, all I heard was her damn voice.”
“At least you didn’t see her.”
“You saw her? Like full body saw her?” she asked alarmed.
“No, but I swear I saw her watching me from the mirror.” He shuddered remembering the crazed look in her eyes. “I covered it with a towel and that towel isn’t coming down anytime soon. I don’t need some Demon hag watching me shower.”
Alana smirked and rested her head on his shoulder. “Don’t blame you.”
“You really think we can do this, beat the game?”
“You don’t think we will?”
He rested his head on hers and spun his coffee mug around. “I think we’re going to burn ourselves out before we even get to this epic final battle, whatever that even means.”
“We don’t have a choice I guess. It’s either beat the game or lose Harrison.”
And Jimmy didn’t want to lose his friend, but this game was hitting below the belt. No, not the game. That stupid AI consciousness Dennis thought was a great idea to upload to a computer. Like that could never end badly.
“I know. I’m just hoping the rest of us don’t wind up permanently damaged from this.”
“You’re already damaged, so what’s the problem,” she said with a straight face as Jimmy shifted to see her. Then they burst out laughing and he held onto the moment for as long as he could before heading back into the world he was coming to dread.
***
“We are in desperate need of supplies,” Maverick whined, sorting through the few items they had in storage still at the guild house. “I hate to say it, but we’re going to have to take time to farm tod
ay.”
Jimmy saw his level and grimaced. They were barely level 63 and, now, they were going to have to stop their questing to get mats for potions and gear. Their gold stores were running low from buying so much off the auction house and, though Dennis could easily give them more gold, the system wasn’t designed to just recreate materials they would need. The other guilds were being kind enough to aid them when they could. Their mailbox was constantly filled with raw goods and even gold, but it was never enough it seemed.
“I’ll go,” he said, volunteering himself. “Maybe I can find Willy while I’m out there.”
“I’m going with you,” Maverick insisted.
“No, you need to stay here and use what we’ve got to start making potions. We’re going to need them if we’re going to be tackling our next dungeon tomorrow night.” He gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. “And it’d be better if whoever else did go to farm split up. That way we can gather more stuff.”
Maverick frowned. “I don’t like you being out there alone.”
“I can handle myself just fine, me and my handy-dandy exorcist powers. It’ll be fine,” he repeated when she didn’t look convinced. “Promise.”
“Trajan? Calista? Little help here?”
Both shrugged. “He’s right,” Trajan admitted. “We need materials, and the more we have crafting, the faster we’ll get our new gear and potions ready.”
She growled in annoyance, but Jimmy dragged her with him towards the front door. “Promise me you’ll check in every few minutes? Or I’m coming after you and I won’t be happy,” she warned, tugging on his robes. “And if you see any sign of Bishop, you get your butt back here pronto. Understand? I’m not getting some message from the techs saying you’ve been kicked out of the game cause you’re dead.”
“I’ll be fine,” he repeated for a third time and hugged her, looking over her head to Calista. She’d been different since her encounter with Jinx and hadn’t told anyone what she had seen. Not even Maverick. Whatever it was haunted her still and she was fidgety, seeing things in the shadows that weren’t there.
The Final Chapter Page 7
