Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (16 page)

“What’s it like?” I said. “Being, digital?”

“Most of the time it feels exactly like being human did, I think. Is that weird? Only it has been hard to go anywhere until recently.” Xin waved toward an outer space view. The suit she wore wasn’t an astronaut-approved one, instead looking like a playful summer dress. “I got permission to design my own pocket to be more comfortable in. I can even walk out there if I want to. But years of training screams at me not to.”

That made me smile in response. Xin had loved being trained, performed by the books. Even our time together tutoring for math had been amazingly proper. Getting close to her had taken years of friendship and lucky coincidence.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

“It’s not Mars, but I get to explore if I want to. James let me go down to
[Arcadia]
, and be a Traveler like Jeeves did, sort of.”

“But Jeeves-” my face felt pale. Jeeves had been an offshoot of Hal Pal, but now it was essentially an NPC tied to the video game world of Advance Online. He had also been threatened with real life death due to a serious disconnect from his Consortium.

“No, not like that, Gee. I, sort of have an Atrium here to return to if my character dies down there. Maybe, that little friend of yours is a better example?”

“Dusk?” I asked.

“He’s cute. Though I expected a cat. You used to talk about Mister Snuffles all the time.” She wrinkled her nose and looked to the side.

“Sniffles. Mister Sniffles.” Little moments like this made me laugh. Xin had never gotten the name correct, before, either. “He was a nice cat, but Dusk is very neat also, and bigger than a cat now. He’s been very helpful.”

Aside from that time he set off a hive of evil wasp hummingbird creatures. Or the time he led me into a cavern with
[The Ooze]
, or when he pissed off an entire swarm of bats with glowing red eyes. Once, he managed to get a monstrous bear well beyond my rank at the time, and kept taunting it as we ran.

“Where are you in the world?” she asked after I got distracted. “I’ve been wandering around for a few weeks.”

“I’m”—this was awkward—“doing hard labor in a video game chain gang?” My head shook and I sighed. “It’s neat that they tried to build a way to punish people, but it seems to be at the whims of those with a specific ability.”

“What? Who would dare make you a prisoner?” And that was my fiancée. She was often curt with other people, and fierce in defense of those close to her. Once she had punched me, hard, for saying something about her mother.

“I’m not sure how it happened. I was between games, but I assume King Nero captured me after, I tried to bring you back.” I stared at the screen and tried to clear my thoughts on the matter. “Which all feels kind of pointless now, since here, there, you are.”

“It’s not that easy, Gee, not by a long shot. The stuff going on over here is one hundred times more complicated than anything I trained for, and at the same time, it’s almost instinctual.”

“It’s hard to imagine,” I said.

“The hard part is setting up all the network safeties, it’s like, lining a room full of traps, or digging a ditch. For now I can’t stray far from Continue Online’s programming, I guess is the best wording.”

“That sounds confusing.” My head hurt thinking about it. Did the virtual world really equate ditch digging to firewall construction? “But, you can play Continue? Do you even want to?”

“I wanted to discover something new, Gee. The moon had no mysteries. Earth was mostly explored. Mars was the next frontier. For now, I’m playing to reach the moon in Continue. I have it on good authority that there’s a secret there.”

That sounded like a fun goal to pursue. With scrolls of
[Recall]
, game world time dilation, it should be possible to deliver letters and help her with a fantasy world space program. Or maybe we could go to Advance Online and travel the stars.

“Once I get out, I want to help. Beth told me there was an entire guild trying to get up there. Maybe we can work with them.” I didn’t mind playing the game if it allowed me to spend time with Xin.

“I can’t believe they let you be punished for trying to bring me back. It was their idea,” she said.

“The Voices don’t control everything, they just oversee it, at least, that’s the way I understood things.”

“Well, that’s still ridiculous.” Xin’s accent showed through for a moment. I often forgot her parents were first generation immigrants during the war.

“That’s the price.” I shrugged. My end result had been getting Xin back, and that was fair enough. “I ran into a friend, sort of, doing it though.”

“Who’s that?” She looked happy, the smile would be faint to anyone else, but to me, it stood out easily. These expressions were hers. The more we talked the easier it was to think of her as real.

“A man named Wyl, and I think my old starting town is in trouble. If you’re, playing… can you check on the town?”

I was going to try to access a few people’s accounts, but not many players stuck around the starting cities after their first few weeks. Most were encouraged to go elsewhere by the system. It felt weird to think less than a day had passed since starting Continue Online again.

“I’ll check the town, but I have a better idea.”

“What?” I asked.

“How about a jailbreak?” Xin smiled at me through the display. Her body slowly turned end over end in a virtual low gravity environment.

In a way it made perfect sense that she immediately lept to such an insane proposition after barely an hour of talking to each other. Around others, she focused and didn’t talk much, but during our free time together we had ended up in all sorts of places. This woman, at her core, had always been far more quietly adventurous than I. It required a certain type of regimented madness to risk outer space. Digital or not, she made me feel complete.

“Sure. Let’s do that.” I chewed one lip while resisting outright giddy laughter. My face broke with a return grin.

Session Seventy Two - Animal House

Talking to Xin blurred half an hour of real time. She threw a lot of possibilities at me to check. My lack of immediate answers didn’t make her upset but did cause a pause in our conversation Xin’s eyes closed in thought. Eventually, we agreed that the potential treasure came first. Honestly, I thought Xin was jealous that I had a mystery present to begin with. She suggested that going for points would be useful, but mostly to avoid losing Ranks and Paths.

So, I logged back in feeling far giddier than expected. I immediately pulled out
[Treasure’s Chest]
, which took up a square foot. The top was a smooth metal that reminded me of
[Wayfarer Seven]
’s hull. Shimmering reflected in the nearly faded torch light. Adorning the reflective surface was a spot to place my hand. As I shook with excitement then slowly pressed fingers into the grooves, my attention became distracted by Dusk.

The
[Messenger’s Pet]
had his head halfway down our escape hole. A hiccup rippled through and barfing noises issued forth. Wet splashes could be heard as he let loose belly contents upon an already questionable floor. At least my autopilot hadn’t tried to eat anything funny, or else I might be like Dusk.

“Shouldn’t have eaten that arm.” I shook my head. “Didn’t you learn with the Toadclopes? You thought the feet looked tasty didn’t you, and couldn’t help yourself.” The lesser
[Heavenly Body Clone]
s didn’t have
[Undying]
traits like the regular ones did, but Dusk would likely eat them too if he were larger.

Metal under my fingers melted and reformed like a bubble deflating around two similar shapes. Any sound for the transformation registered lower than the sound of regurgitating meat chunks. Dusk groaned as the final form revealed itself.

They were shoes, to be precise, sandals with straps across them. I lifted one up and marveled at the odd mixture of beach wear and
[Mechanoid]
patterning. The bottoms looked like metal army boots. Thick bindings were designed to wrap up a calf. Stars were stamped over the ankles. My eyes squinted briefly and the
[Inspection]
skill popped up.

“Is this wise?” I asked Dusk.

The
[Messenger’s Pet]
turned green, rippled his wings then threw up another round of leftover meat. His face bobbed back up to look at me. Saliva hung from his jowls.

“Right. There are cupcakes in my Atrium if you can get there.” My heart held nothing but pity for the
[Messenger’s Pet]
. He looked red-eyed and watery. I had been that hung over many times. Liquor and I had never mixed, even in my darkest days.

Dusk groggily vanished as I reached out and yelled, “Don’t leave a mess!”

Time dilation didn’t exist in the Atrium, but Dusk could move fast. I had maybe half a day in-game if the creature napped. Xin and I had tossed around a lot of ideas. The best bet was killing the boss, taking whatever [Bound] loot dropped, and it involved getting our prisoner convoy back on the road.

[Sight of Mercari]
pinged the entire area as I bore the brief disorientation. All the players, minus those killed, were running around the dungeon. Two groups were fighting each other while moving quickly. Three other convicts were trying to survive solo. One blipped off as I watched, showing their recent death all alone in some corner of the dungeon.

Android Seven stood out away from all the others, marching ever deeper into the dungeon. My ability wasn’t unlocked correctly when we first formed groups and I hadn’t memorized who he was traveling with. It was a good bet that his partners were dead.

I didn’t care about being first to the boss, only that it died. Android Seven sounded unlikely to fail, but Viper was in that direction as well. Somehow the sneaky snake had survived. Working with a partner to defeat the boss would better than any alternative. Assuming we were needed.

Both boots went on first. My body rippled as the chest piece transformed into a metallic looking toga. This felt decidedly Greek but it was hard to see for sure.

I stamped my foot down onto the ground and a star spun giving off green energy, reminding me of Emerald’s core. Twisting the limb right caused my body to ripple. Panic bubbled up as I worried that this might be causing an internal explosion before logic reined me in.

This ability had only been used a few times in Advance Online, using it now felt out of place. Still, my arm was covered by a dull black film that almost matched the dungeon walls. It could have been the poor lighting.

I pulled out
[Morrigu’s Gift]
and
[Morrigu’s Echo]
. My forehead wrinkled as the weapons shifted to shortened blades. The
[Assassin]
path wasn’t one of my skills, but no time like the present to practice sneaking around.

Luckily some players were downright dumb, and with months of character development I should get something.
[Coordination]
,
[Speed]
, and
[Reaction]
were all above average. Continue Online relied on skill measurements mixed with traits and abilities to define Paths for players.

Funny, I hadn’t thought about trying to be a rogue type player until being put in player jail. These skills were perfect for it. Xin’s influence had rapidly turned me from a mopey warrior who bypassed most challenges to a man enjoying the challenge of sneaking around.

I put a transformed dagger in my teeth and felt delightfully roguish as I lowered myself back to the floor. This was a dark dungeon and barely lit. I had a stealth sneak sort of skill and two daggers. The brimmed hat, long hair and barely pudgy belly all felt out of place, but it was the thought which counted, literally.

There were a lot of hallways. I gave up creeping along the ground like a spider after the first two rooms. It felt silly, plus my ability to walk on tiptoes like Dusk was sorely lacking. My mouth slobbered around the dagger form of
[Morrigu’s Gift]
which made it hard to hold onto.