Torian, aka Trent the biggest asshole I’d ever had the displeasure of knowing, could eat his heart out. I wrapped my arms around Keia, getting into the moment and enjoyed myself, truly enjoying myself, for the first time since we lost Diana.
Keia finally pulled away and grinned, then blushed. She looked down and brushed a strand of hair away from her face. I’d never seen a girl who looked more beautiful than she did in that moment, and that was only partially because she’d been making out with me pretty hot and heavy just moments ago.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. I was wondering what that would feel like and…"
"No," I said. "You don't have to apologize at all. In fact…"
I pulled her close. This time I was the one taking charge as I pressed my lips against hers. It felt good to be taking charge after spending so much of my time today reacting to things instead of taking the initiative.
She tensed for a long worrying moment where an irrational part of me screamed that I’d read this situation wrong, for all that she’d just kissed me first, then she melted into me and all was right with the world. I held her against me and enjoyed the single greatest video gaming experience I’d ever had in my life.
We’re talking even better than the time I managed to solo Neonyxia in NuWoW through means that were quickly patched out of the game once the video of that livestream hit the Internet.
Hey, my illustrious game exploit career hadn’t started with tricking Horizon gamemasters into owning themselves, even if that was my crowning achievement thus far.
Eventually, frustratingly, we had to come up for air. Even though what we were breathing was technically a digital representation of a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and everything else and not the real stuff we were breathing back in whatever room we sat in paralyzed by the Lotus hardware.
This was one moment where I didn’t want to think about the disintermediation that came with the Lotus hardware. I had a beautiful woman in my arms, and it was real to me. That’s all that mattered.
"Holy shit," I breathed. "I suppose that answers one question about how realistic this game can be."
"You've got that right!" Keia said. “I guess it really is fully functional like people said!”
“Very funny Mr. Data,” I said.
“I’ll do things to you that Mr. Data could never imagine,” she said with a wink that promised interesting things to come.
We took a moment to regain our composure. Keia smoothed her armor even though it was rigid leather which meant there was no need to smooth anything. Finally she took a deep breath and tried to hit me with a semi-serious look, but even then she couldn’t help but break into a goofy grin that warmed my heart.
And other regions of my body. Lotus had been extremely thorough with mapping natural biological responses to situations like this, and I found myself turning to the side so it wouldn’t be too obvious, which was good for a giggle from Keia as she clearly saw what I was doing.
I immediately stopped doing it once I realized what I was doing. She had to have felt the damn thing pressing into her while we were making out, so what was the point in trying to hide it now?
“So what what now?" she asked once she’d stopped giggling at my odd dance.
“Right now I’d love nothing more than to go look at some of the crafting tools that are no doubt all over this town, avoid some Horizon people, figure out a little bit more about this Spellcrafting thing, meet up with Kris, come up with a plan to…"
Keia grinned and shook her head.
"What?" I asked.
"You," she said. "Still planning, even after all that."
I shrugged. "I figure the thing that got you interested in me in the first place was my scheming, not my stellar fighting ability, so why not keep at it? If I manage to kick Horizon out maybe I'll get more than a kiss!"
Keia rolled her eyes. "Men. You're all pigs."
"Says the girl who just made out with a pig in a back alley in a videogame," I retorted.
“A fair point,” she said. “And who knows? You might get more than that kiss even if you don’t kick Horizon out of here. It’ll help your chances, of course, but it’s not like you have to defeat the dragon to get the maiden fair.”
“Oh?” I said, even more intrigued.
“Totally,” she said, her bow and arrow materializing in her hands. “This maiden is interested in coming along for the dragonslaying.”
Holy fuck was this girl more amazing the more time I spent around her.
“So we’re heading to the local forge or something?” she asked.
I glanced at the time and realized it was very late. On a school night, no less. As much as I didn’t think school was doing all that much to prepare me for the crapsack world waiting for me after graduation, I could also get in shit if I missed too much.
If I missed too much school I could get kicked out, which had always seemed like an odd punishment for someone who didn’t want to spend time in school. If I got kicked out of school then my parents had made it clear I’d get kicked out of the house.
That I wanted to avoid more than anything.
“I think we’re both going to have to dodge the alleys in a few hours and pretend to not be sleeping in class,” I said. “Even if it does feel like time is moving slower in here than in the real world.”
Her eyes went distant, then wide. “Fuck. I didn’t realize it was this late!”
“You and me both,” I said.
I reached out and touched her hand. She wrapped her fingers in mine and met me goofy smile for goofy smile.
“See you tomorrow at school?” I asked, holding my breath.
There was still a part of me that couldn't believe all this was happening. I worried she might be totally willing to suck face with me in the game, but not acknowledge me at school. Which was a ridiculous thought, but stranger things had happened.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.
I figured that was a good high point to log out on. I’d been flailing around and reacting to what other people were doing to me all day long, but reacting to what just happened with Keia was just fine with me.
It was crazy, but in the best possible way. That goofy grin stayed plastered on my face as I thought of logging out and the timer ticked down to pull me back into a real world that was suddenly a hell of a lot more interesting than it’d been before I logged into Lotus earlier this evening.
41
Bully the Bullies
Trent was, as usual, lording it up at the front of the class to anyone who’d listen. Though I did note, with no small amount of satisfaction, that the number of people hanging on his every word was a hell of a lot smaller now that the game was actually live.
The number of people in our classroom was a hell of a lot smaller now that the game was actually live, for that matter. I’d almost skipped this morning too, but I had at least one really good reason to come to school that didn’t involve not getting kicked out.
Though that good reason hadn’t arrived yet.
"I can't believe those bastards,” Christine said.
“What can’t you believe?” I asked, turning to her. “That they have two neurons to rub together?”
"Lording it over everybody because they had early access,” she said.
“I mean that is sort of a big deal around here,” I said. “Those fuckers shouldn’t be able to afford it, so of course everyone is going to be sucking their dicks.”
“Might not if they knew Trent was sucking some Horizon dick to get that early access,” Christine grunted.
"Did I hear my ears burning?"
I winced. The last thing I needed was more attention from the asshole attached to that voice. I wasn’t worried about him trying something in class, but I didn’t need him waiting for us after school let out.
“What do you want Trent?” Christine asked.
“I wanted to come over and see how y’all have been doing in Lotus Online,” he said, sta
ring at me with a particular intensity that suddenly had me wondering if Kara was the only one who’d figured out my secret identity.
Exactly how the start mechanism worked had been one of the first things I looked into after logging out. Honestly I wasn’t working at one hundred percent even now because I’d been up way too late reading everything I could about Lotus.
It was a battleground with Horizon now, and not a game I wanted to play for fun. Which meant all bets were off when it came to spoilers. Fucking over Horizon was more important than spoiling the game.
“What makes you think I was in the game?” I asked, deciding to play innocent.
Though it didn’t help that Christine was right there hitting me with a look that said she thought I’d gone crazy. Trent didn’t miss that look either.
“Come on Colin,” Trent said. “You’re supposed to be clever. More clever than smart the way you run your mouth, but you’re still clever. You know everyone on our level gets shunted into the same starter area.”
“They do?” Christine asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
That was one I’d learned pretty quickly. It turns out Lotus had considered accommodating a world made up of massive arcologies slowly strangling the natural world to death. Their solution? Make a planet to play on that was way bigger than any rocky planet could ever get in the natural world, which meant there were enough starting areas for each overpopulated level, or a few levels if there weren’t many people logging on, of an arcology to have its own small region to start in.
The mechanics involved in creating something at that scale, even a digital world, were mind boggling. Yet they’d done it, and the practical upshot was I was a hell of a lot more likely to run into people I knew in our little corner of the Lotus world than I’d thought when I first logged in yesterday.
“They do,” I said, my eyes darting to Christine. “There’s a region that encompasses our whole arcology, but Nilbog is the starter zone for our level.”
“And there aren’t many people who can afford to play Lotus on our level,” Trent said, an evil grin splitting his face. “Which means anyone we meet around Nilbog is bound to be someone we know, right?”
“I had no fucking clue that’s how it worked last night,” I said, thinking about my surprise at discovering Kara’s secret identity.
My “no spoilers” policy regarding Lotus was biting me in the ass in more ways than one. Even if yesterday had come to a more than pleasant ending.
“So you were playing,” Trent said, menace in his tone. “So interesting. What exactly were you two numb nuts doing in my town?”
My mind raced trying to come up with a plausible lie before Christine said something that stepped all over anything I could come up with, but a voice from behind Trent saved me from having to come up with an answer that wouldn’t reveal who we were. Even though I was pretty sure that ship had already sailed.
“What are you doing bothering these two?”
“Kara,” Trent said, turning and grinning at her as he gave her a once over that had her rolling her eyes. “Since when do you sit back here?”
“Since I can do whatever I want,” she said. “I didn’t remember ever having to ask you permission to do anything before.”
“Not outside the game, at least,” he said, that grin turning to a leer.
He glanced back at me, and blinked when he realized I was staring at Kara with a goofy grin. I couldn’t help it. I kept thinking about all the fun we’d had the night before, and that was enough to fill me with a happiness that’d been missing from my life since Diana’s death.
“Stop looking at my girl,” Trent snapped.
Kara’s eyes narrowed and she hit him with one hell of a deadly disgusted look.
“I’m not your girl you prick,” she hissed. “And I never was.”
Now she was looking at me with a worried look. Which was good for a laugh. I couldn’t believe she’d actually think I’d believe that gorilla for even a minute, but the worry was there.
“Come on Kara,” Trent said, his eyes hitting her with the kind of eyefucking that should’ve had security coming for him. “You know you want this.”
She rolled her eyes and shoved past him. Though even when she was obviously trying to get away from him he wiggled his eyebrows and looked like he was enjoying the hell out of her brushing against him.
Which had me wanting to stand and do something. For all that I knew I wasn’t going to win in a fair fight with Trent. Not that not being able to win in a fair fight had ever stopped me from taking someone on before.
No, it just meant I’d have to be crafty. I wasn’t in Lotus where I had no idea what was going on anymore. This was school. Familiar territory. I glanced around looking for something I could use against him.
Kara took a seat next to me and hit me with a smile that was good for a choked noise from Christine. Kara pointedly ignored the way Trent stared down at us.
“Seriously?” he asked. “You’re sitting with these losers?”
“I’d much rather sit with them than with you,” she said. “None of them have ever taken an arrow to the ass.”
“Oh yeah? This is how you’re treating me after I got you into Lotus?” Trent asked.
“What are you talking about?” Christine asked. “She was in early too? How the hell is this prick coming up with that kind of money?”
“He’s taking payments from Horizon,” I growled.
A simple statement, but it seemed to suck the air out of the room. A few people had been watching our confrontation, and they started chattering after the moment of surprise was gone.
Trent glared at me like he didn’t want that revealed, but what the fuck ever. Though I was a little wary of the way his fists flexed like he was seriously considering using them.
I wasn’t too worried about getting in a fight with the prick, but it was something to be mindful of. Trent had been known to take matters into his own fists when he got pissed off at someone.
I figured that was mostly because the walking asshole lacked the charisma to take care of things using his words. Though I had to admit fists were an unreasonable but effective alternative for getting shit done when words failed.
“You talk about working for Horizon like it’s a bad thing,” Trent said. “I’ve got way more money than you losers could ever dream of.”
“That you got by getting down on your knees and sucking corporate cock,” I pointed out, the words escaping my mouth before I thought about it.
That was a problem I’d always had. Usually it wasn’t much of a problem in the game world since people couldn’t hurt someone in there. At least not permanently. It could very much be a problem here in the real world though.
“What was that, fucker?” Trent asked, leaning down over my desk as though that was supposed to intimidate me or something.
I stared up at Trent with unblinking eyes. I supposed there were some who’d be intimidated by that display. Trent was well known for solving problems with his fists, after all. He was the kind of asshole who enjoyed hurting people.
The problem for Trent, and maybe for me, was it didn't intimidate me in the least. Not now. I’d gone into the zone, something that’d been sorely lacking in my time in Lotus last night, and while that could be a good thing, it could also be bad.
I didn’t care about things while I was in the zone. Ever since Diana’s death I’d had trouble feeling much of anything. Which included difficulty being intimidated by anything.
Including, apparently, the threat of getting the shit kicked out of me in the real world.
Finally Trent blinked and turned away. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
I didn't bother to sigh in relief. There was no point in sighing in relief when I wasn't relieved to begin with. Sure it’d be nice to not have to fight Trent, or not to have to fight him fair at least, but at the same time it's not like I’d have a problem with that fight. Not with how pissed off I was at how he’d just been treating Kara.
>
"That's right rich boy," Christine said, adding a twist of mockery to the “rich boy” part of that phrase. "Walk away.”
Trent wheeled on Christine. Apparently he wasn’t up to taking me on with my deadeye stare, but he looked more than willing to cause some trouble with Christine. Where “some trouble” manifested as Trent taking a couple of steps towards Christine with his fist raised.
Which gave me the opportunity I’d been waiting for, and the casus belli for that matter, to set the plan I’d been working on into motion.
I stuck my foot out. It brushed against my bag which pushed out into the aisle between my desk and Christine’s. Which was enough to catch Trent's feet as he rushed at Christine. That set in motion a chain reaction where instead of punching Christine, Trent went cartwheeling forward, his arms flailing, and slammed his forehead against Christine’s desk before he went down.
"Holy shit,” Christine said, looking to me. "Did you…"
I shrugged. "My foot slipped."
I looked down at Trent who was rubbing at one hell of an egg growing on his head. Trent stared up at me with daggers in his eyes. It was the sort of look that said he was ready to commit murder.
I wouldn't be surprised if Trent tried something, but a bark from the front of the room to distract us all.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Mr. Armstrong had arrived. The man was pure muscle. A holdover from his time fighting in the various never-ending wars in the Middle East, China, and a couple of border skirmishes on territory that belonged to either Russia or one of several countries that were part of the former Soviet Union depending on the day and time.
"I know there's not going to be any fighting in my room Trent," Mr. Armstrong said.
He didn't exactly threaten Trent, but his voice was a low growl. As he growled the old battle-hardened teacher moved his arms back behind his head. It was a motion that showed off his muscles and made it clear that his time spent running the weight room after school was more hands on than most teachers got when it came to athletics.
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