Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (32 page)

"Exactly. Turn their own ploy against them. Show them that we are not to be trifled with."

"That sounds kind of neat." I wouldn't expect a person to fall apart into smaller critters. So far there had been no upper limit to the amount, other than my own body size going down each time. Ten, maybe fifteen? All of them keyed to my
[Domestic Trainer]
commands. I smiled happily, using the
[Power Armor]
until it drained my juice completely then shattering into smaller Dusks could be fun.

"Good. Keep thinking that way. Keep trying new things. No one grows by standing still in life," Emerald said. With that the older
[Mechanoid]
and his worn looking framework walked off.

I turned to watch the man go. It felt so oddly familiar, but the memory wasn't coming to me. The marker floating above his head clearly indicated a computer generated character, so he wasn't somehow my father in a video game. That idea made me shudder. Playing with my dad out here in space would be fairly awkward.

Dusk chirped in irritation. I nodded while putting my hands up in defense, "Okay. Right. No standing around."

The
[Wayfarer's Hope]
was in much better condition. Like myself, it had a size upgrade. The cockpit had room for three people now, but so far Dusk was the only person besides Jeeves and me to use it. I tried to find a critter cage upgrade, but there was none on the purchase options list.

"Button. Button. Where's the button?" Dusk leapt across the seats and canceled my musing. The engine of our ship hummed powerfully inside our small room. Light bounced off our confines and the floor started rolling up like an area rug.

"Yes?" I said. A button popped up and Dusk almost beat me to this one too. Only a quick flailing of my hands in the small guy's face kept me in vague control of the spaceship.

Dusk chirped and clacked his jaws but didn't look super offended.

"I know how to press a yes button," I said while raising one hand up with more drama than needed. Maybe I was overly excited about such a simple action.

My ship promptly jetted between the
[Wayfarer Seven]
and this player ship
[WTS a Spaceship]
. I tried not to over think the name, clearly humans were weird when it came to their choices.

The other ship looked odd close-up. Having the
[Wayfarer Seven]
as my first ship gave me a certain standard of comfort. I was used to sleek edges, well-polished floors, and shiny surfaces. This craft looked almost cobbled together from a frying pan. If I took that and put a small mountain of dirt in it then randomly interspersed plant life then maybe it would look close to the
[WTS a Spaceship]
. I could see why they might want to sell it and get another one.

A message popped up telling me the ship owners had enabled free landing points. There was no cost for me at this time. I hummed happily. There were notes online about players setting up space bases and charging fees for other players to come aboard.

Musical chimes greeted my landing inside a dull looking hangar. I stepped out of the vehicle and took note of a force field between me and space. It seemed to hold in a curtain of air that was filled with yellowish powder. The substance swirled around bashing against the force field in spots. No warning messages came up so I assumed it was natural for this type of ship.

The
[Wayfarer's Hope]
shifted to dormant mode by collapsing into a lump of metals.
[Mechanoid]
items were convenient with how they transformed and adapted around a programming matrix. This giant ship I had landed in could probably grow as well if people threw space mud at it.

Hopefully, no one would try and steal it somehow. I worried for a moment then shrugged. Nothing was truly impossible to replace in here except Dusk.

"Don't wander off alright, big guy?" I reached up and tried to scratch his head. The action felt surprising normal given our alternate forms.

"Hey!" someone shouted at me. Their voice felt odd after spending so much time around the dual tone
[Mechanoid]
s. I turned while rubbing Dusk's head and looked at the other person. "Want to buy a spaceship?"

The man's smile was downright silly. It went well with his short round body.
[Teeny]
s looked even smaller than I expected. Some sort of threading was knotted through his hair on one side and a pair of thick welding goggles hung around the player's neck.

"Got one already." My head shook slowly and I thumbed at the lump of metal behind me.

"Damn. I keep hoping someone will actually buy this hunk of junk." The other player stomped a tiny foot on the ground. A smile seemed permanently etched on his face.

"Maybe." The word came out slowly and I shrugged. I had no idea what a ship like this would cost. At least a few months of gameplay would be required.

"Ah well, who are you, and what are you visiting for?"

"Hermes. I got a task to drop by and join some arena thing. This is the right place, I hope?"

"Great. I'm TLM." He held a hand up to shake. I took it and tried not to crush the offered limb. It felt small, like a toddler's might. "Trial is this way."

"TLM?" I asked.

"TheLittleMan. I used to have a real name, but the guild nickname stuck when I switched games. Hey, I ask all the newbies, but how did you get the quest for this?

"I asked?" My eyebrows wrinkled up a bit. What was so special about showing up to fight other players? I remember in my teenage years people used to do all sorts of player versus player things. It had never been my speed, but it wasn't anything special.

"I've never seen a Mechanoid doing it. Your race almost never needs to."

"They sent me here. My current tasks weren't getting many character points." I actually wanted to increase my skills, but this should help. Advance Online rewarded people for duels like they did for any other event.

"What? Really?" he squeaked, surprised at my answer. I tried not to give him a weird look and shook my head. The tiny fellow kept talking. "Your race must like you."

"I guess." I tapped over to the reputation window of my interface and stared. Sure, it was high, but that was also limited to the
[Wayfarer Seven]
's consortium with minor gains across my entire race.

"Come on. We've got to move," he said, the sharp squeak to his voice took a lot to understand. "The guys will love someone new popping in."

Being on another race's ship was weird. The prospect of being here to battle other humans in digital combat also had me out of sorts. My ability to stay calm had improved over months of practice in Continue, but I still felt the rush of unease often. Exercises in positive thinking helped and soon the moment of panic was under control.

Did stage fright ever really go away? I got used to dealing with customers working for Trillium. Hopefully, these butterflies would eventually become a thing of the past. Choosing to do virtual battle against another person could only help.

I felt proud for deciding to pursue player versus player combat myself without any prompting by a quest from the Voices. Most of my own development had been done in order to complete their quests. James especially could press my buttons and get me moving with his questions.

"Another one for the rankings!" TLM shouted as we rounded a mud-walled corner. I stepped in behind the shorter player and saw a mess of other people.

"Hey!" an older lady said. Her face looked damaged from burns. She nodded in our direction but managed to get half a smile across. "Someone else is on this quest?"

"God dammit. A Mechanoid? Who honestly plays those?" another player said. I looked over to see a human with two side arms and a short sword on his belt.

"Just 'cause you picked a boring human," TheLittleMan said.

"Hey, fuck you, you're in last place and suck," the human player said. They all had something to say about that. Most of them insulted the human player, and a few stood up for TheLittleMan.

"Last place? Rankings?" I tried to interject between all of them. Only TLM heard my question.

"Yeah. Newcomers start with ten points, you get a match with everyone here. A win gains you one of their points, a loss costs you one. Reach zero and you're out," TLM said to me. I'm not sure how he could stand looking up at everyone in the room, but he managed.

"What's the point?"

"Top three gets picked by the Commander to move on," he said and shrugged one tiny shoulder. I almost missed the motion entirely.

"Can I keep going?" I didn't care about the points so much as the experience. There were a lot of people in the room to practice against. Assuming I could handle the first one without getting too worked up. I had to think of them as monsters like in the Continue Online universe.

"Oh sure. Those two have been basically trading their points back and forth for hours." TLM waved at two other players. One had to be a
[Cricket]
race. He, she, glared at me through pitch black eyes. The other was human and decked out in heavy armor. "It's kind of dull. Fresh blood will do us all good."

"Can I watch?"

"Nope! If it's your first night in a fight ring, you have to fight!" TLM laughed and many of the others joined in. My heart rate jumped hearing everyone find amusement at my confusion. This idea had been both good for me as a person, and terrible.

"MrJohnson!" TLM said in a squeaky accent. "You in for this one?"

"Sure." a giant player responded. I looked over to see a huge player with dirt colored arms crossed. Each limb was easily thicker than my torso. Small vines wove in between the dirt looking like veins.

"Neat." I tried to sound positive. The other players in the room laughed. TLM pointed to a bright light on the floor that had appeared.

I hesitated for a moment and swallowed. Music played in my head and one foot tapped. The mental displacement exercises were helping keep me calm in the face of this kind of situation. My finger reached for the yes button.

The ground around MrJohnson and me sunk downward. Behind me, a shimmer of opaque blue rippled into being. I looked around and rapidly tried to understand what was going on, learning my surroundings in preparation. It seemed to be a four walled square with no cover points. Eventually, the ground stopped moving leaving us in a huge pit ten feet deep.

Other players stepped toward the edge and looked down.

So, my first player versus player combat in Advance Online involved me against an absolute giant. I bristled a little and felt upset that my increased mass meant nothing in the face of a
[Behemoth]
race. His head easily cleared the arena's walls. They were far more impressive across the room then they had been in the character creation screen.

"I love newbies," MrJohnson said. I got ready to flick on the
[Power Suit]
but chose not to activate it quite yet. The ability drained my energy and I would need it.

A small circle displayed in between us with a countdown. The
[Behemoth]
player MrJohnson smiled and cracked his rocky knuckles. Dirt flaked off and hit the ground. On behalf of all
[Mechanoid]
s in the world I felt annoyed by a mess being made. This place needed dozens of [
ByteMite]
s to show improvement.

The countdown hit zero and he lifted one arm in the air like a maestro signaling for increased volume. Flooring quivered in small circles and spikes shot out of the ground rapidly. More came and the ground shook. I swallowed a moment of panic then dove to one side. My feet were lifted off the ground as a few of the earthen cones dug into my legs dealing decent damage.

"Voices!" I shouted while lamenting how unprepared the
[Behemoth]
caught me. Another move created a wall of earth which bisected our square arena. My face slammed into the newest obstruction and I fell to the ground.

Dusk stood up above on a ledge and stare down at me.

"You helping?" I wrinkled my eyebrows together and looked at him. Dusk yawned then did his shrug move.

"His pet's ignoring him. What a joke," the human jerk from earlier said.

"Fine!" I got up and twisted behind the wall, barely dodging another wave of ground spikes. This

newest earthen formation was starting to crumble.

If MrJohnson wanted to play a ranged game, I would give it a whirl too. This was practice for me after all, no time like now to try out new stuff.

[Power Suit]
flicked on. My body shifted and things felt heavier. I readied my
[Heavy Weapon Core]
's prime weapon, the large one that fired rapidly and tore through objects. Metal flowed and rippled in my hands and handles formed. A grin crossed my face. I looked at the crumbling wall then up to Dusk. He was staring across the room at a different location. That was my cue to switch target zones, MrJohnson was trying to flank me and that wouldn't be allowed.