Child of the Underworld
As a priest of the god of the Underworld you have the ability to navigate the afterlife more freely. When you die, you will be instantly transported to the Land of the Dead instead of the local afterlife, and while in the Land of the Dead will be able to teleport freely to any known location within that realm. NOTE: A minimum time will still be required before respawning will be allowed. Additional abilities unlocked at later levels.
Additionally, your ties to the underworld allow you to see into the realm between life and death, allowing you to see normally in darkness, and grants the ability to see spirits and other incorporeal beings that would otherwise be invisible.
It was an amazing skill. While death would still hurt like a bitch, and suck due to the delay in respawning, the ability to skip the lines when in foreign lands and not have to take the long walk from the entrance to the portal was going to be quite nice. I would also be able to travel to the temple itself now that I knew where it was.
“I see dead people” I whispered and laughed. Being a chosen of the god of death gave me the ability to see in the dark and see spirits. These would be great tools to hunt the undead that were to be my prey. Hell, just the ability to see in the dark was a major bonus. No more stumbling around in dark caves for me.
I smiled again, quite pleased with my decision as I stepped into the swirling gate.
*** Respawning at your last known bind point: Approach to Tael’va.***
The world resolved into a familiar view of a giant sand dune. It seemed that my last bind point was where I had entered the main game from the tutorial. I really needed to find out how to bind somewhere else. It was full on night at this point, and it was damned cold out.
Wrapping my arms around myself for warmth, I began walking quickly back to the city, looking through my inventory along the way to see if I’d lost anything. Nothing was missing, which was a relief.
Entering the city, I glanced at the system clock and cringed at the time. I’d be cutting it pretty close.
I was much more on my guard as I made my way through the streets towards the Stone Serpent, my skittish behavior getting odd looks from the locals. I gave exactly zero shits. They hadn’t just been assassinated, so they could deal with me being a little on edge.
I arrived at the inn and ducked inside, hoping that the common room wouldn’t be as busy at this time of night.
Making my way along the back wall, I searched the room for Kjara, but didn’t see her anywhere. I caught Mareej staring at me from the kitchen door and walked over to greet her.
“Good evening Mareej. Hell of a night, eh?” I quipped.
“You could say that. I see that the legends are true after all and there are now those among us that can return from the afterlife. May the honored ancestors have mercy on us all,” she said solemnly.
The NPC was taking it pretty well, but I guess the developers had probably built that into their code. Wouldn’t do to have the entire AI population flipping their shit when players respawned. A little suspension of disbelief is a healthy thing after all.
She continued, “That someone would assault someone so brazenly on our very doorstep is quite appalling.”
I beckoned her closer and whispered to her, “The one who attacked me whispered a message as he slit my throat, probably unaware of my ability to return. He said that Tepik send his regards.”
“What!” she exclaimed, “that foul smelling son of a thousand whores!”
Trying not to laugh at her colorful language, I replied, “I'll handle the bastard myself. Is Kjara still here?”
“The moon elf? She has retired for the evening. She asked that I let you know that she wishes to speak with you on the morrow.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Thank you again. I will also be retiring. If you see Kjara before I do please let her know I've returned.”
With nothing else to do I figured it was a good time to log out and start putting together my initial review for my streamers. Bills weren’t going to pay themselves after all.
I bid goodnight to Mareej and headed back to my room, locking the door behind me. As an added security measure, I dropped my pack into the locker and carried it over to the door, setting it up as a makeshift doorstop.
Not sure how logging out worked, I took off my armor and laid it on the floor next to the bed and leaned my spear and shield against the bed within easy reach. As an added measure I tucked a dagger under the pillow.
Laying back, I concentrated on logging out.
*** Congratulations! You have completed your first game session of Sosaku Online! ***
*** Session Duration: 23:36:45. ***
*** Your character is currently within a designated safe logout area. As such, you may leave the game without a delay timer. While logged out, your inn room will be inaccessible to other players or NPCs. ***
*** Would you like to log out of Sosaku Online at this time? (Y/N) ***
I focused on selecting yes and readied myself to leave the pod.
*** Character Skill Database Compartmentalizing.....Complete! ***
*** Deactivating Neural – Avatar Interface..............Complete! ***
The sense of my physical body slowly returned to me, and I blinked at the small touchscreen in front of my face that read “Shutdown Complete, you may now safely exit.”
…
Chapter 8
I reached down and pulled the release lever, squinting at the bright lights of the arcade’s pod room as the pod door opened up. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was just about midnight, then stepped out of the pod and barely caught myself as my knees tried to give out.
I recovered after a moment, doing some stretches and a jumping jack or two to get the blood flowing and get me reacclimated to my actual body. I guessed I’d gotten used to the way my avatar moved and needed a reminder of my normal self.
Once I was fully adjusted to my own body again, I glanced around the room and saw that all of the other pods were occupied.
The only other person in the room not in a pod was the arcade’s janitor, who was mopping up a wet spot near one of the other pods. I wondered what that was about.
I made my way out of the pod room, still a tiny bit off kilter, and headed over to the main desk where Bill was sitting.
As I approached, he tapped his earpiece to indicate he was on the phone and motioned for me to wait while he finished his call. “Yes, pod two is now available. For how long? Hold on a second," he said, hitting mute. “When are you coming back in James?”
“Hmm. Probably not until nine tomorrow. I have a lot to edit and write up, and I need to get at least a few hours of sleep,” I replied.
He unmuted the call and continued, “Until 8:30 AM tomorrow. Yes, I will get everything ready for them now. Okay, thirty minutes. Got it. See you then.”
He hung up and looked over to me with an eager grin on his face. “So, tell me, what was it like? So far I’ve had one player come out who couldn’t stop raving about the realism of it all and signed up for another session as soon as one was available... and one come out and vomit all over my floor, threatening to sue us and Kabishiyama. Thank God for the waivers we have you guys sign.”
I laughed a bit at that and looked him dead in the eye, pausing for a few seconds for dramatic effect and then slowly said, “It. Was. Amazing,” emphasizing each word.
“The graphics are the best I have ever seen in a game, and their art and design teams are gods among us plebs. The interface is pretty seamless and everything is so real."
"It’s difficult to describe unless you’ve played. It’s pretty much like you are living in that world. And holy hell they have some weird game memory system…” I finished, cutting myself off
He looked at me expectantly. “And what?” He asked.
I grinned evilly and answered, “Tune in to the stream to hear it all.” And laughed at his expression.
“Hah, the look on your face. No, there is a system that allows
you to access character memories and skills and shit, and it’s like you know them all yourself, and the muscle memory is there as well. I can’t wait to get back in tomorrow.”
“Damn,” he said. “Now I’m regretting filling the pod reservations so fast. I should have given it a test drive myself.”
“Don’t you guys have your own pods set up for practice?” I replied.
He shrugged and answered, “Not the Kabishiyamas. We were only able to get so many and we decided as a team to dedicate the first wave to the arcade. We can get our own later with the profits once these are paid off, but until then we are in the same boat as the rest of the world.”
“In any case,” he continued, “If you ever decide to take a day off let me know first.”
I chuckled and waved goodbye as I exited the arcade. The busses weren’t running on anything resembling a convenient schedule this late at night, so I shelled out the credits for an automated taxi. It was twice what the bus would cost but saved me about two hours of travel time.
My family was sleeping when I got home so I made my way as quietly as I could to my room, cringing with every creak of the old apartment’s floorboards.
I ducked into my room and closed the door gently, flipping on the light and powering on my laptop. A lot could be done with my VR headset, but I preferred the old school keyboard and mouse interface when I was editing video for streaming.
Sitting on my desk was a covered plate with a note folded up on top. I grabbed the note and lifted the cover to reveal a ham sandwich. I opened the note and smiled.
Hope your adventure went well! Thank you so much for everything. Don’t forget to eat!
Love, Mom.
I tucked the note into a drawer, sat down at my laptop and signed on to my account via the Sosaku Online portal where all of my in game recordings would be available.
Flipping through the various preview images, I noticed that there were some missing parts towards the end around the time when I had died.
Instead there was a small text file that included a brief explanation. For the current phase of the game, no footage of the afterlife would be available. A strange decision in my book, but I guess it would give it a sense of mystery.
Eating the sandwich as I clicked through the footage, I decided to cut together three videos. For the first video I focused on the character generation process, showing some of the different race, class, and customization options.
The video was straight forward and to the point, going through the different phases of the character creation process with some commentary on how those decisions had become relevant in the game itself.
It wasn’t very long, but it got something out there on my stream to wet my subscribers' palates. I posted it up and watched the number of views start to climb as I began on a second set of videos.
The first of the pair was a complete run through of my tutorial, with some of the more mundane portions cut for time.
Once that was complete, I made a copy and then went through it and removed all of the game mechanic and tutorial parts, leaving only the story of my escape from the slavers.
After the final two videos were posted, I gave in to my exhaustion, closed my laptop and set an alarm for 8AM before collapsing into my bed.
…
Chapter 9
I woke up the next morning to the blaring of my alarm. Groaning as I crawled out of bed, I almost gave in to temptation and mashed the snooze button, but the promise of another day of Sosaku Online was enough to overcome sleep's sirens call.
I threw on some comfy cloths, cleaned up and then headed to the kitchen to grab a quick bite to eat.
The kitchen was empty, my family already having departed for the day. I grabbed some juice from the fridge and spotted a note saying they had left early to find a replacement dishwasher. I smiled, happy that my contributions to the family were going to make my mother’s life easier.
I toasted a bagel and popped open my stream account with my phone to see what the masses were saying about the new content. I had gained a decent number of subscribers overnight, and even a few small tips.
Surprisingly, the most popular of the three videos I’d put up had nothing to do with game mechanics or walk-throughs at all. The storyline cut of the tutorial had twice as many views.
I glanced through the comments and saw a ton of people who couldn’t wait to see where we all ended up. I made a mental note to prioritize that style video in the future.
Popping the last bite of my breakfast in my mouth, I cleaned up and then headed out to the bus stop.
While the bus trundled down the street towards the arcade, I read through some of the comments on the character creation video. There were a lot of people that wanted to see more of the races and what you could customize for each.
I flipped through some of the cut footage and found a few clips of some of the races I had dropped to streamline the video and grimaced through the video editing process on my phone, putting together all of the races into a single montage.
As the bus pulled up to my stop, I posted the video and then responded to the comment that inspired it with a link to the new vid.
I stepped off the bus and walked down the block towards the arcade. As I got closer, I started to worry as I took in the huge crowd gathered outside.
The staff had even put up some of those velvet rope thingies that you’d normally see outside the swanky night clubs in New York City.
I walked past the line towards the entrance, taking it all in. Some of the people in line chuckled as I passed and I heard some muttering about me getting tossed out on my ass when I reached the front.
Some glared at me angrily. I could understand that anger. I’d get pissed if someone was trying to cut, or thinking that the line didn’t apply to them. But then again, the line really didn’t apply to me.
I reached the head of the line and saw that Tony Lu, one of the co-owners of the arcade was on door duty. He glanced up as I arrived and said, “Damn it, James, after this I’m really going to give Bill an ass kicking for signing that contract with you.”
Giving him my biggest smile, I laughed and replied, “You know you love my business skills, Tony. You just don’t want to admit it.”
I took out my phone and pulled up my stream account, looking at my new subscription totals from tips, calculated the five percent that was heading to the arcades pockets and shrugged, showing him the number on my phone. “The arcade’s cut of my stream with my current subscribers this month. So, it’s not all bad”
He waved it away and then towards the line stretching down the block. “See this line? You know what they are waiting for?”
“To play Sosaku Online,” I replied. “Obviously.”
“No.” Tony said, pointing behind him at another line I hadn’t noticed, this one inside the arcade along one of the walls. “That’s the line for people to play the game today. Each of them has reserved a 1-hour block.”
“This line,” he continued, gesturing to the gathered people behind me, “is to sign up to play on a future date. Right now, we are booking for…” He glanced down at his book, “June eighth.”
“Hot damn, guess you guys will be able to get more pods sooner than you think, especially if you’re collecting a reservation fee,” I said and raised my hand for a high five, but his expression told me quite clearly that they had not, in fact, thought of collecting a reservation fee.
I grimaced and glanced down at my phone, seeing I had five minutes until my pod should be available to me. I leaned into the owner and whispered, “You know, you could always advertise my stream as well. More streamers for me means more revenue for you, think about it. And the reservation fee.”
I clapped him on the back and headed into the arcade, waving as I went. I heard some of the people in line start to talk but Tony said something to them about my reservation and that everyone would have a chance, and then I was inside.
As I made my way past the second line, I saw Bill sit
ting behind the counter, waving me over when he saw me enter.
I took another look at the line of players and whistled under my breath. People were really jazzed to play Sosaku Online, and I knew just how they felt.
“Your pod should be ready in a minute James,” he said. “We had to initiate the forced ejection protocols on the last player. They never bothered to check the game clock or set a timer. Needless to say, they weren’t too keen when they were booted. They were here before the lines formed so they at least got another slot later today. Now I know why the cell phone companies used to charge overage fees. That may be the next thing added to our rules.”
Sighing at the delay, I replied, “Yeah, I was talking to Tony outside. Looks like you guys have a hit on your hands. I’ll tell you what I told him.”
I paused, then simulated a drum roll on the desk, finishing it off with my impression of a cymbal crashing. “Reservation Fees. Collect a deposit or charge a small fee to take a reservation. Judging by the interest, people will likely pay it."
As his mind started to work I snuck in my more self serving request, "Also, would you be down if I printed out some flyers for my stream, or business cards to leave? It’s your profit as well.”
He shrugged and said, “Sure, go for it.”
Just then the phone rang. He answered it and the gave me a thumbs up and said, “Your pod is ready, have fun and message us if you’re going to be using any of your flex hours. With this many people waiting around, we need to keep things on a tight schedule.”
“Got it," I replied. "Oh, and one more little suggestion for you. I‘ll throw this one in for free.”
“And what would that be, Mr. CEO of what company again?” he said sarcastically.
“See all those people waiting over there?” I said, gesturing at the line of people against the wall.
When he nodded, I continued, “Why aren’t they playing any of the other games? If you get one of those pager things the old school restaurants used to use, they can play whatever the hell they want instead of standing in a line. You buzz them when it’s their turn, and in the mean time you make money instead of wearing a strip of your carpet bare. Think on it.”
Crimson Sands Page 14
