Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (17 page)

Logs
started rolling out of nowhere into the room. They certainly hadn’t
been around a moment before. Most of them were small and clearly
moving towards the middle where I stood with a stupefied look on my
face. I stepped over one and kept watching. The logs didn’t
seem to collide with each other, but one I almost failed to get over
certainly made an impression on my foot.

“
What’s
going on now?!” I hopped around another set of logs while
feeling completely unbalanced.

“
Practical
evaluation. Our world is going to measure the skills you’ve
learned in yours. Then it will assign placement based on
performance.” James spoke from somewhere else. At least his
words were clear and not shouted across the distance.

“
That
doesn’t sound good.” My placement would be terrible. I
hadn’t touched a set of weights in years.

“
Are
you worried?”

“
A
little. I’ve never swung a sword before.” I said.

“
Ah.
Your worry is understandable, but that is another phase. We’ll
work up to it. For now, keep trying to get over the logs.” He
spoke slowly with deliberation. The speed both calmed me and helped
focus on his words.

“
What
about that one?”

“
Which
one?” He asked.

“
The
one with spikes!” The spiked log wasn’t huge, but it was
certainly imposing and far too realistic.

“
Don’t
get hit.”

The
tiny dragon was flying around the room. Stupid thing would hop along
some of the logs and run with the motion to stay upright. It was a
tease how easy things seemed for the creature. I was huffing after
the first few logs yet kept on trying. The first spiked one was easy
enough to walk around. They weren't moving too fast or too tall yet.
One log was stepped over. Another from behind went the other
direction moments later, requiring me to back pedal. I had to try and
find room to dodge another few while getting over the small ones.

Not
too hard, not easy either. Physically this was more work than
anything I had done recently. Nothing comparable came to mind, even
hefting objects to the van was easy enough with Hal Pal's help. I
didn't have a robot to do all the work for me now.

"Come
on, Grant Legate. Keep trying until it's over."

"When
is that?" I asked.

"When
you can't keep trying." Was his dry response. "How long do
you think you'll last?"

"Probably
not long," I said.

"You're
not very self-confident are you?" James asked a second question.

"It's
my turn!"

"Ah,
true. Feel free to ask a question if you've got one."

"What's
the little dragon's deal?" I huffed out between the latest
rounds of logs. There was a new one that rolled in a manner that was
wobbly compared to the other logs' straight lines. I could see around
it but they were getting bigger.

"That
little dragon,” he mimicked my words without much inflection.
"is a curious sort. It will stick around until you chase it off
or it grows bored."

"Okay."
They were waist high now. "I forgot your question." This
one might get me. I had to make it down to the end fast enough and
leap over the smaller end.

"You're
not very self-confident are you, Grant Legate?"

Thin
spikes tore into my back and I saw a red bar flash into existence.
Enough pain feedback went through the system to worry me. I had
forgotten this program came with every sensation. The pain was a
reminder to do better.

"Ow,
ow ow ow.” I groaned and got around to answering James’s
question. “I’m realistic." There were a few seconds
before the next set of hurdles.

"Oh,
that's criminal." The small dragon was leaping over some of them
with steadied movements. Gauging them in the same manner a cat would
before using wing assisted power jumps. "I want to do that."

"Feel
free to try, Grant Legate."

"Why
do you keep saying my whole name like that?" I asked.

"It’s
your name, that's what I'll address you by until you decide
otherwise."

"Are
you kidding me? You want me to create a character name while trying
to..." I managed to power over one of them and fell on the other
side. My kneecaps cried out in pain with a poor landing.

"What
I want does not pertain to this case. You will need to decide what to
go by in our world. It matters not to us, but your kind nearly always
picks something outlandish."

"Okay.
Okay." The little drake was having a harder time now. Even
assisted, since it was mostly leaping around, these logs were many
times taller than he was, and some were up past my waist. Those I ran
around.

"Did
you have a name in mind?" He sounded intrigued by any possible
answer.

"Ask
me after this!" I would think about it. Often game names were
stuck on the character throughout play. Continue only allowed one
character supposedly, so I needed to pick something bearable.

"Oh..."
A giant log rumbled in my direction. This one was taller than I was
and had no way of leaping over it. Even if I was some sort of ninja
who could bounce from one log to another to gain altitude.

"Ahhh!
Little guy!" I didn't know if it was a guy or not, but the
dragon was still playing around and completely oblivious.

Back
on the log I could see a hint of how to escape. Luckily both the tiny
dragon and the giant hole in the log were in the same path. I ran and
grabbed it on the way. The dragon squawked and bit and scratched the
entire ten feet to our safe spot. The rumbling grew louder. Rolling
doom came closer with each one of my poor strides. I fumbled over a
tiny log going one way and had my calf torn up by a spiked log from
the other direction.

"Arghhhhh,"
I shouted as the biggest one passed over us and crushed my foot.
"Ahhhhh."

"Oh
god. Oh god." The feedback was incredible. I forgot it was a
game. I forgot that this entire place wasn't real. The biggest log in
the universe had personally crushed my foot. I twisted and tried to
look down.

"Grant
Legate."

"Oh
god. It got me. I'm going to die. That's it."

"Grant
Legate. You are fine." James had a note of confusion in his
tone.

"No.
No, I'm not." Cue my manly sobbing. That was my livelihood. Who
would hire me now? No, wait, I could get a prosthesis. A doctor would
see how much of my leg was salvageable.

"The
damage is not lasting. Shake it off, Grant Legate."

I
huffed and felt biting at my fingers. In a panic, I nearly suffocated
the tiny dragon against my chest. Once released it huffed a roll of
fog at me and flew off. The sensation of pain lingered along with an
elevated heart rate, but my foot was in perfectly fine condition. I
still felt overworked and exhausted, though.

"Oh
God." There needed to be a ruder cuss word to utter at someone.
I felt out of touch with all the good ones. Curse words had been
slowly removed from my natural tendencies.

"Are
you alright?"

"Me
first. I think. How did I do?" I asked.

"Terrible,"
He said dryly.

"Oh."
I fell back and gasped some more. "Okay. I'm alright. I think."

"Good.
I'll let you catch your breath, and review your results. Then we'll
move on to the next event."

There
was a pop-up for more information, which I pressed of course.
Anything that provided me more detail would be welcome. The next
message overwrote the old one. It was in the same cruddy outline I
setup during the initial process, before meeting James. There was a
list of my currently unlocked traits broken down into categories.

I
stared at the small window floating in front of me. Interesting I
guess. Performing my leaps around logs had seemed to set a baseline
for some of my abilities. Clearly these little exercises would matter
in the game, but the traits were far from normal for a role playing
system.

One
finger poked at the screen, but it bounced away as if my gesture was
more rude than useful. Maybe James would have an answer if I cared
enough to figure the puzzle out. This wasn’t huge on my mind
yet. There were more tests, and we would see where things stood
afterwards.

"How
many tests are there?" I asked.

"Hundreds,
if we could do them all, but you and I are limited to ten. That was
one. It allowed me to measure your reaction, planning, coordination,
and strength. Our world will assign values accordingly."

"Okay."
The huffing for air did not stop. Even though this was a game and the
stimulus had ended, mentally I was still wounded and strung out. Yet
according to this bouncy little box my focus was fairly high. Was a
nine in coordination something to be proud of? What sort of scale
were we working with?

"Tell
me, Grant Legate. What are you confident in?"

"Dancing.
I can dance."

"Very
well. We shall load something up and see how you perform." James
said.

"Can't
you import my other program?" I asked. The dance history saved
there should amount to something impressive.

"Officially,
no. Measuring your skills and abilities has to be done within our
world, or within a between space like this one."

"But
you have all the data." And had somehow activated the room,
brought it to life, and made my fiancée whisper words she
shouldn't have been able to. That strange murmuring in the background
started up again and I looked around. James sighed heavily.

"I
shall check for you then. Why don't you take a break, revisit your
world for a bit, while I consult with the others."

"Okay,"
I said. "ARC."

"Awaiting
input." The machine responded.