by Edward Brody
Chapter Twelve
Day 20 (Earth)
Gustov sat his bag down on his desk in the Crylight headquarters and slumped down in his chair. He placed his thumb and index finger over his temples, closed his eyes, and sighed.
“I still can’t get over it, man,” Sung said. “I just can’t believe we—“
“We didn’t do anything,” Gustov scoffed.
“We did,” Sung countered. “We killed him, man.”
“We didn’t mean to,” Marcello, who was leaning over with his hands on his workstation said. “We didn’t mean to...”
Gustov took a deep breath. “Kevin knew the possibilities before he volunteered to login to the game. We all heard when he said he was ready. None of us bear responsibility for his death.”
“But he thought he might die and just be stuck in the Eden’s Gate,” Sar explained. “He didn’t think he’d just die and… die.”
“We don’t know if he’s still in there or not,” Gustov asserted.
“You saw the error message, Gustov,” Sung said desperately. “You saw how his body reacted when he was murdered. It was nothing like the other people who’ve transition in game with a Nexicon.”
Gustov cleared his throat and perked up. “But we still don’t know.”
Marcello bobbed his head up and down. “It could’ve just been a miscommunication between the game and the beta headset. It’s very possible that he was just disconnected on our end and whatever error correction the game has in place worked everything out.”
Sung snickered. “Yeah, wishful thinking, Marcello. Let’s just be honest here. His subconscious was here on Earth while his consciousness was in the game. When whatever happened, happened…when he died… he experienced death in the game and simultaneously experienced it here on Earth. Something got scrambled, and the game misfired.”
“You’re making assumptions,” Gustov said.
“Educated assumptions,” Sung refuted. He turned to Sar. “You have more programming knowledge than any of us. What’s your assessment?”
Sar swallowed and spoke slowly. “I had a look at the code that appeared after Kevin was killed, and it appeared that the game tried to access something—maybe his subconscious. After he was killed, the game errored out. It was like he was suddenly invalidated. I don’t know… It’s hard to understand.”
“But do you think he’s still in game or not?” Sung asked.
Sar shook her head slightly. “I don’t think so…”
Gustoff huffed and pressed his lips together. “It was a risk, and we all knew it, including Kevin. Things happen. We’ll work through all the data that we have, so next time, we have a better chance.”
Sung leaned forward and his eyelids shot open. “Next time?!” He shook his head rapidly. “You want to send someone in there again?”
Gustov nodded. “Did you guys see what I saw?” He turned to each of the Crylight members, waiting for a response, but no one acknowledged him. “Eden’s Gate is real… realer than real. It’s a breakthrough of mankind. We don’t need to send anyone back in there tomorrow, but one day… after we’ve sifted through the code and built a better headset, we can try again.”
The crew was silent.
“Has there ever been a game like this?” Gustov asked.
Everyone shook their heads simultaneously.
“And I’m sure that we can all agree that we’d like to get inside—safely. If we can hack into the system safely and—“
The door of the Crylight headquarters was busted off its hinges and flew across the room. Six men dressed in all black SWAT gear shimmied inside, each pointing assault rifles at the Crylight team.
“Put your hands in the air! Now!” one of the intruders shouted.
All of the Crylight members placed their hands in the air, and Sung even dropped into a prone position on the floor.
“Oh shit, oh shit!” Sung cried.
The men in SWAT gear surrounded the room and held all the members at gunpoint. The one closest to the broken door waved his hands and yelled to the outside, “We’re clear!”
Chapter Thirteen
1/20/0001
“Who’s up for sparring?!” Donovan called out as he approached our village. “Looks like the whole guild is here. We can practice group battling.”
Aaron looked up from a long length of steel he was grinding on his grindstone. “Hey, Donovan!”
“I’m down,” Ozzy said, rising from a fallen log that had been strategically placed near our homes for seating.
Jax shrugged and gave a nod. He was in the middle of eating a cooked rabbit, and threw Fenris what he had left over. The large wolf quickly gobbled it up.
“Gunnar is heading out, but I suppose I could join in as well,” Keysia said.
“Oh yeah?” Donovan asked. “Off for another adventure of yours?”
“I’m heading to The Vale to report to the Queen and visit Adeelee,” I replied.
“Ah…” Donovan said. He looked troubled at the mention of Adeelee but quickly tried to hide it. “Well, I hope you have a safe trip.”
I nodded.
Donovan turned to Keysia. “The other elves that you signed up for security should be heading over to the village today. That brings you up to how many now?”
“Ten,” Keysia said.
“Incredible,” Donovan said. “Ten dark elves you’ve employed, not including Keysia, who’s part of your guild and all the elves that are earning wages by trading with your store. The things your guild is doing for Edgewood is incredible.”
I smiled and placed my hand on Donovan’s shoulder. “We’ve got a long way to go, and you know you’re always welcome to join us. You already feel like one of the team with all the time you’ve been spending here.”
“Perhaps someday, Gunnar, I’ll take you up on your offer.” Donovan smiled and reached for the two curved swords draped on each side. “For now, I appreciate your willingness to allow me to loiter. I never thought I’d enjoy the company of humans... and um… Reborns.” He sprinted off towards Ozzy without saying another word, and the two started swinging their weapons at each other. Donovan quickly got the upper hand.
“You’re doing a great job, Keysia. I’ll leave the management of everything in your hands while I’m gone, but if you have any questions or concerns, consult with Aaron.”
“Thanks and hurry back. The guild needs you.”
I turned and looked at my friends. Jax had joined in on the sparring, and Aaron was carrying a completed weapon over to the shop. He opened the door, and I could see Gerard standing there counting out change to a stocky, low-level human with a new bow on his back. We had been getting a small trickle of humans coming from the newly created road, so word about our store was getting out.
Aaron threw the weapon in a crate near the door. “Shortsword! Pretty good quality-wise.”
Gerard nodded but didn’t look up from the change he was still counting.
I turned back towards Keysia. “Yeah… And I need this guild.”
“Thanks again for the magic scroll yesterday. I’ll put it to good use.” She leaned in close and gave me a light hug.
“Of course,” I replied, giving her a pat on the back during our embrace.
I saw Aaron approaching as I had an arm around Keysia, and he raised one of his eyebrows comically. He pointed his index finger at me and then darted it back and forth between me and Keysia, finishing the maneuver by jolting said finger in and out of a circle that he formed with his other hand.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the lewd gesture. Aaron just laughed. Though older than me, he was just a big kid at heart.
“Heading out now?” Aaron asked when he was close.
“Yeah, I’m out.”
“Say hi to the Princess for me, and if you go on any adventures, keep an eye out for schematics, damnit!”
“Will do,” I said.
“I’m working on a pretty sick sword for you, by the way. It’ll have better stats than
that crazy fire sword you’ve been using. I should have it done by the time you’re back.”
“Oh yeah? Thanks dude… You’re killing it.”
Aaron smiled. “I’m enjoying myself. I get to craft all day and hang out with my friends. How sick is this life?”
I smiled and creased my eyebrows. “And I’m about to teleport across the world to see a princess… a hot elven princess at that.” I shrugged and took a deep breath. “And I can do this.” I held my hand out and shot an Arcane Missile near Aaron’s feet. “Pretty sick lives, I think.”
Aaron jumped as the blue-hued energy splashed nearby. “Hey, watch it!”
“Sick life?” Keysia asked. “Are you in need of medical attention?”
I chuckled and rubbed my hand across the top of Keysia’s hair. “No, but you’re adorable, I think.” I didn’t have it in me to explain to her that ‘sick’ was just a Reborn saying. I was pretty sure we had already gone over that with Adeelee at some point.
Keysia looked speechless and confused. “I don’t understand.”
“Aaron will explain it to you.” I held a hand out to Aaron, he quickly grabbed it, and we bumped our shoulders together.
“See ya, dude,” he said.
“See ya, man.”
Aaron strolled over to Keysia, placed an arm around her shoulder and started walking her over towards where the others were sparring. “You see, Keysia… The more ‘sick’ something is, the more awesome it is. But being sick isn’t awesome. That’s actually bad. Unless you’re the ‘sickest’ like me. Sick is only good when you’re not actually sick. In which case, the most awesome person is the sickest.”
“So you’re the sickest?” Keysia said.
“Baby, you’ve never met anyone as sick as me,” Aaron tutted.
I shook my head and snorted as I pulled the runestone from my bag. Soon, Keysia would be talking like the Princess, I was sure.
I grabbed my recall scroll, read it, and the scroll faded into nothing.
Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Recall.
Next, I pulled the marked runestone out of my bag and admired the complicated pattern that was etched on the top before bracing myself to cast recall. It was the first time casting the spell, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be much different than the first time I stepped into the portal to Gramora.
But then again, I fell face-first in the mud that time… and was eaten by a dinosaur shortly afterward.
I shrugged and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing…
I fixated on the pattern of the runestone, and just like other spells, I simply focused on the spell ‘recall’ and tried to will myself to cast it in conjunction with the runestone.
The pattern on the runestone began to glow, and I felt slight tingles coursing all over my body. After a few seconds of channeling, the image of the guild’s village began to fade to black, and for half a second, I was in complete darkness.
And then I was suddenly there.
Wind, air… lots of dry air. I took a huge breath as soon as I materialized and was surprised to find myself crouched down in an awkward position. I blinked a few times as my vision started to clear and patted at my body to make sure I was all there.
I felt fine, physically. A little dizzy or drunk maybe but otherwise fine.
But as everything started coming into view, my heart started racing.
I was in a cave of some sort?
No… It was a prison!
Above and behind me was hard rock, and the space I was in was barely big enough to fit two or three people. Below me was also hard rock covered in a layer of fine, yellowish sand, and directly in front of me were thick metal bars. I could see outside but couldn’t make anything out other than more yellow sand and a yellowish hill of something that also looked like sand.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
I immediately scrambled forward and grabbed the bars, yanking at them hard like a dumb monkey trying to figure out how to get out of the zoo.
There was no give.
I turned and jumped a little when I saw the skeletal remains of a humanoid lying next to me, its dirty equipment resting on top of its bones. On the other side of the small cave-prison, there was a large runestone, but there was literally nothing else inside—other than me—and there was no obvious way to get out.
In other words, I was totally and completely fucked.
Chapter Fourteen
1/20/0001
I sat in the cave for 10 minutes or so, trying to assess the situation. The last time I saw Adeelee, she had given me the runestone so that I could easily travel to the Vale, so why didn’t it send me to the Vale, and where the hell was I?
I looked over to the skeleton, its hollow eyes and open jaw looking blissfully happy in death. Scary really. Even as a Reborn, death was still a frightening concept.
As I let out a sigh, I turned to the large runestone and rubbed my hands over the runes that were engraved on it. It looked much like the other praying runestones I had seen before, albeit a little bit smaller. Over to the side of the runestone, a flat section of the wall stood out, and I rubbed my hands over it to remove a sandy film that was covering it.
Those of us who pray may find ourselves unconstrained.
Yeah, okay… I thought as I read its inscription. Considering that runestones would bind any Reborn who ‘prayed’ at them, who the hell would pray inside of that prison? A non-reborn before death, maybe.
Again, I checked the bars in front of me, and then I scurried around the prison, rubbing my hands over every surface of the cave, trying to find a lever or hidden method to get out.
Nothing.
I leaned back against the cave wall and breathed heavily. What the fuck is this?
I grabbed the runestone I used to teleport and focused on teleporting again. Again, the images around me began to disappear after several seconds, and moments later, I reappeared in the same spot, feeling physically fine but a little disoriented.
I grabbed at the bars and stuck my head as close to them as possible. While I could see nothing of interest outside of the prison, I figured there must be someone around that could help me. “Help!” I yelled. “Help me someone! Over here! Helllllllp!”
I must have yelled for five minutes or more, but I was answered with nothing but the sound of the whistling wind.
Am I caught in a bug? I wondered. I could think of no reason why Dr. Winston would have programmed a place like that into Eden’s Gate. Why would he want Reborns to be trapped inside of some shitty, tiny cave prison? That’s not a perfect world by any means.
Definitely a bug. It had to be.
Dr. Winston told me and Aaron to contact him if we experienced any bugs or errors in the game, and I was stuck in the be-all, end-all of bugs. I pulled up my in-game menu and immediately moved to the setting that showed the unique ‘Contact Game Master’ button that only Aaron and I had.
I clicked the button, and there was an audible ‘bing’ noise.
And then I waited.
And waited some more…
After what seemed like an eternity of sitting on my ass in the small prison, I heard a slight buzzing sound, then a whoosh of air, and Dr. Winston began to manifest in front of me.
“Dr. Winston!” I said.
Dr. Winston manifested in a slight crouched position and immediately tried to stand up straight, banging his head on the top of the ceiling. “Ow, fuck! What the hell?” He was wearing his usual plain brown robe and otherwise looked unchanged since last I saw him.
“’What the hell?’ is right!”
He rubbed the top of his head and blinked a few times as his vision started to clear. “Hey, Gunnar. You called me?”
“Yeah, I called you,” I said mockingly.
“What’s up?”
“What do you mean what’s up?” I snapped. “You told me to contact you if I experienced any bugs. I held my hands out wide and turned my head from side to side. “Welcome to a very obvious, game-breakin
g bug.”
Dr. Winston raised his eyebrows and scanned the cave, the skeleton and the large runestone. He turned around and looked at the prison bars. “You think this is a bug?”
“Yeah, obviously. I can’t get out!”
Dr. Winston chuckled and shook his head. “I’m afraid this isn’t a bug, Gunnar.”
“Isn’t a bug? What do you mean this isn’t a bug? You can’t be serious.”
“An uncomfortable situation, yes, but not a bug.”
“An uncomfortable situation?! You actually want people to get trapped in this place?!”
“Trapped?” Winston asked. “It doesn’t look like you’re trapped. I can think of at least two ways… maybe even three that would could out of here right now.”
“How?” I asked.
Dr. Winston shook his head. “I gave you the button to page me to report bugs, not to get gameplay advice. If I told you how to do things, it wouldn’t be fair to anyone else in the game. And this isn’t a game anyway—it’s a world where no one should have an unfair advantage.”
I huffed. “I was supposed to be teleported to the Vale.”
Dr. Winston shrugged and smirked like he knew something. “Things aren’t always as they seem.”
“Come on, man…” I groaned.
“Use your head, Gunnar. You’ll be fine.”
“This is some bullsh—“
Dr. Winston held up his hand. “Feel free to page me again if you really encounter a bug. Right now, though, I have to be going as there is a real bug that I need to investigate.”
“A real bug, yeah? Something worse than this?”
The doctor nodded. “Yeah, it seems that we’ve had our first Reborn death… I wouldn’t have expected it so soon, and oddly enough it happened within twenty-four hours of the player entering the game and outside of the permadeath zone. That, Gunnar, is a real bug.”
My throat tightened, and I felt even more uncomfortable in the cave. Reborns were dying outside the permadeath zone? Was there a possibility I was going to permanently die in that tiny prison? “A person died?” I clarified.
