World-Tree Online

by EA Hooper

  “A few hours?” Jim asked.

  “He killed me hundreds of times before I realized my rune hammer would work,” Vincent explained. He looked at Jim, Quinn, and Xan. “I’d like to talk to Fynn, and I don’t mind waiting a few hours. You all can go if you like. I know you’re excited to start your vacation.”

  “Yeah, I’d like to spend time with my family,” Xan said. She spread her arms out and forced her three friends into a hug. “But I love you three. You’re the best friends I’ve ever had!”

  “Aw,” Jim said. “I love you three too.”

  “Ugh, the sappiness,” Quinn muttered.

  “You know you love us,” Xan said, smiling.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Quinn replied. “You know I do.”

  “I love you three,” Vincent said. “Now, go off to your much-deserved vacations.”

  The four friends broke away from one another. Xan walked toward Athena, Lloyd, and River. Jim strolled in one direction, and then spotted Farah leaning against the wall of a nearby building. Quinn touched the daiglass tower to trade out items before leaving.

  Vincent’s heart felt heavy as he watched his friends leave.

  All that time on Eramar, I almost always knew where they were. Or at least where they’d respawn. But now, everyone’s heading in their own direction. Quinn will likely go to Firepeak to see her cousin—maybe search for a higher-level arena. Xan will stay with her family. Jim will probably party nonstop. What am I going to do for my vacation? Party? Visit old acquaintances? Help ensure the Justiciars are dismantled for good?

  Vincent sat by the tower and thought to himself for a long time. He weighed his options for how to spend the next few years, but for the first time in decades, he seemed to have too many choices for the path he could take.

  The future is too hazy now. Everything is simple when I have clear-cut goals. Make a negative-energy spell. Climb the World-Tree. Power-level. Defeat Lucas. But now—just relax? I need an objective. An enemy. Something to conquer. A challenge to distract me until my friends are ready to climb the World-Tree again.

  Fynn appeared in front of the daiglass tower, and his eyes scanned the empty street until they fell on Vincent.

  Vincent stood and approached the Wolf Lord with his hand extended. “Good game.”

  Fynn stared at him for a second, and then shook his hand. “Same to you. I guess you did something creative, didn’t you?”

  “Something like that,” Vincent replied. “My offer’s still on the table for us to work together. I know you want to climb the World-Tree and defeat the angels.”

  “We’ll see,” Fynn replied, adding Vincent to his friend list. “For now, I need time to rethink my priorities. I should never have allowed myself to become part of something like the Justiciars. It’s easy enough to say now that I’ve lost, but I mean it sincerely. Give me some time to think things over, then maybe I’ll join your team.”

  “Don’t worry about it. My friends and I are taking a vacation. They want to enjoy time with friends and family for a few years.”

  “And what will you do?”

  Vincent paused, trying to think of an answer. “I’ll find something to distract me until they’re ready to climb again.”

  “Then let’s agree to meet again in a decade or two. Maybe on Styxis. It’s the highest City-World of the middle tier, so it’s a good place to prepare ourselves to fight the angels.”

  “Alright, I’ll see you there. One day.”

  Fynn nodded, took some items from storage, and then left.

  Vincent sighed, looking at the empty streets. The light of the skybox dimmed as it turned to night, and he smiled at the glow of different colored worlds above.

  What a beautiful sight. I didn’t get to enjoy this view on Eramar, and I barely thought about it on our way to fight the war. For the first time in a long time, I can sit back and enjoy the view of all those worlds up there. All those places I’ve yet to explore. I remember when I couldn’t make a choice, Monika always said to go with the decision that added more excitement to my life. So, I should use my vacation to explore out-of-the-way worlds barely seen by humans.

  The old man smiled and imagined all the adventures that awaited him on the World-Tree.

  Epilogue

  Lucas screamed into the darkness. He cursed Vincent, Erik, and even ARKUS itself. Minutes passed, and Lucas curled into a ball on the floor of the infinite dark plane. He cried and punched the ground, but his body seemed weak. He felt as if he’d lost all his levels. All his power. Finally, his body crumbled away, and he lost himself for a moment.

  You’ve been permanently banned. Thanks for playing.

  “Wha—what?” Lucas said.

  He could feel the headset over his face and his hands on the armrests of his gaming chair. His body felt so different from the virtual one he’d known for decades. It felt heavier—weaker.

  “No!” he shouted. “Let me back in. Please, ARKUS.”

  Lucas touched the side of the headset, flicking the power on and off. However, the game only greeted him with a ban message. Tears rolled down his face, and Lucas grabbed the headset and slung it across his messy room. He buried his face in his hands and cried.

  Already, his entire experience in the World-Tree felt compressed. Like he’d lived it on fast-forward. He could remember his breakfast with his parents that morning better than he could many of his adventures. But select moments stood out in his mind. Certain moments felt just as real as when he’d experienced them in the game, but many of those memories left him feeling dread at all the enemies he’d made.

  “I was supposed to be a god!” he yelled, throwing junk off his desk.

  “You’d better stop that screaming,” his mother shouted from the hallway. “Your father will be home soon, and he’ll be pissed to find you playing that game instead of applying for jobs.”

  “Leave me alone,” Lucas grumbled.

  His mother stomped down the hall, muttering that she couldn’t wait for his father to get home to deal with him.

  Lucas gaped at the augmented-reality feed projected by his contacts. The update hadn’t even ended yet, but AI news outlets had started to report on the millions of people trapped inside World-Tree Online from the small number of players whose friends or family had noticed something wrong and pulled off their headsets.

  His eyes stayed glued to the HUD as the first image of his game avatar appeared with a headline claiming him to be a virtual tyrant. Then one article after another appeared, detailing the countless horrible things he’d done.

  One article on a major news outlet read: WORLD-TREE ONLINE PLAYER COMMITS HUMAN-RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST PEOPLE TRAPPED IN THE GAME.

  Lucas sank into his gaming chair as his social media accounts exploded with accusations and threats. One of the largest news outlets in the world picked up the story with a live discussion titled: SHOULD WORLD-TREE ONLINE TYRANT SEE JAIL TIME FOR TORTURING PLAYERS AND SUBJUGATING MILLIONS?

  Lucas gripped the sides of his head and screamed. He cried and kicked his desk, but his body was so weak, he barely caused it to budge. A screen appeared, asking if he wanted to order antidepressants. He shouted, waving away all the screens, and sobbed for some time before looking at his notifications.

  A flood of news and notifications poured across his HUD as the rest of the five-hundred-million players finally broke free of the game. Lucas’s social media flickered lightning-fast with incoming messages. Hundreds of death-threats and tens of thousands of angry rants.

  He glanced at notifications from friends and saw a message from Harper: Even with centuries to reflect, you still disgust me.

  Lucas tried to reply, but he found himself blocked.

  “Lucas,” his mother’s worried voice sounded the hallway. “Why is the internet blowing up with accusations about you? What’s this about people being trapped in that game? And you tortured them?”

  “Go away!” Lucas screamed.

  “My friends that were playing said you did hor
rible things,” his mother replied. “The police department even sent me a message to ask if you’re home right now.”

  “Just go away,” Lucas cried.

  His mother fell silent, but he had no doubt she was flipping through her augmented-reality feed in a panicked frenzy.

  Lucas glanced at the new headline from one of the AI news outlets he followed: POLICE BOTS TO DETAIN WORLD-TREE ONLINE TYRANT FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

  Tears streamed down Lucas’s face, and he heard the distant sound of police sirens. He skimmed over his messages, hoping that even a single of his Justiciars would say they remembered him fondly. That they would speak out on his behalf. That he’d been the ruler the World-Tree needed to maintain order.

  His eyes fell on a message from Zhang that had been auto-translated from Chinese: I forgive you, Lucas. Not because of who you were, but because of the person you could’ve been. I’ll keep in touch while you’re imprisoned.

  The sirens reached his street, and soon a banging noise sounded at the front door. His mother screamed and cried for him, but Lucas didn’t move from his gaming chair. “I—I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

  Author’s Note

  Thank you for reading World-Tree Online. If there’s enough interest from readers, I’ll write sequels that explore the rest of Vincent’s time in the update. So, make sure to leave a review on Amazon if you want to see more of his journey.

  You can subscribe to my mailing list to stay up to date on new releases: http://eepurl.com/dyr-3H

  If you enjoyed World-Tree Online, you might also enjoy my previous series: Greatborn

  Once again—thanks for reading!