Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (26 page)

“Dusk!” I shouted. “Help Wyl!”

Dusk launched a ball of fire straight into the pink haired Traveler’s back. Health dropped and his hair caught on fire. The former guard captain looked surprised but fell forward with a skilled tumble. In the span of three seconds, Wyl had broken loose, stolen another Traveler’s sword, and proceeded to stab someone.

“Kill them all!” the giant Traveler said. Viper’s autopilot slipped an arm loose. I managed to initialize
[Blink]
on the fourth try.

Others moved and I could barely keep tabs on anyone. My normal skills at group dances plus Shazam’s training would have helped predict people’s movements, but sleepiness won. For now, I only need to get away from the dungeon doorway. Barks could clearly be heard.

Viper and I were magnets for monsters from the dungeon. I managed to get my two-handed
[Morrigu’s Gift]
out and swung at one of the Travelers. Big O was attacking someone while another random convict died. This madness would only get worse once the undead breeched.

“Wyl! Run!” The guard’s head snapped up with an awareness I couldn’t manage. “Follow Dusk!”

Wyl looked troubled and stared briefly toward another body. I followed his gaze while staggering under a heavy blow from the larger Traveler. Knight Middleton lay upon the ground, his health bar empty.

Heavy hammering hit my giant sword again. I grunted, then twisted my foot against the ground. The toga rippled and flexed. Metal clunked together quickly then a helmet slammed on with a clink. [Power Armor] was in place. The next attack dented my side but was too late for a gutting blow.

Barks came forth from the
[Abyss of Light]
’s doorway. Everyone turned in unison to look at the monsters pouring out. A small wave of legless
[Heavenly Body Clone]
s came first. One player stood his ground and hacked away.

Then the
[Undying]
versions arrived. Small spiders scuttled along the doorway followed by undead
[Coo-Coo Rill]
s. I could hear the
[Messenger’s Pet]
happy chirp which made me shout orders.

“Viper! Dump the bodies or we’re all dead! Dusk, no cupcakes if you get distracted!” I yelled. Speaking through exhaustion made me feel barky myself. All those monsters pouring out had parts of my mind reacting but awareness itself seemed distant. Being slammed by a blade while in a tin suit didn’t help.

“Oh don’t worry!” another voice yelled from the crowd of emerging bodies. “I don’t take kindly to people hunting me down! You can all just die! And I’ll be taking those bodies too!”

Android Seven stood in the doorway with an army of undead flowing around him. His arm held up charging another bolt of blue. It was aimed in my direction. For a moment, I stared at the blue light and contemplated checking out completely from Continue for the night.

Reduced stats, sleepiness, low health. I couldn’t sit around here and deal with brawling nonsense. My teammate’s autopilot put bodies in a pile adding to the chaos. Another respawning Traveler appeared with a flash of light and promptly screamed like a girl seeing two rotting ponies humping each other.

[Blink]
failed again and I was left stumbling to the right. Blue energy flashed across then slammed into the brute who had been pounding on my two-handed
[Morrigu’s Gift]
. A woman stood on top of the wooden barricade that a crossbowman had been using prior. She looked to be reading a scroll while facing Wyl.

I ran toward her.
[Morrigu’s Echo]
didn’t have enough durability for a
[Recall]
.
[Blink]
triggered on the third attempt and a full blown headache started as my body tumbled into the female. Messages flashed across and I waved them away while readying my blade.

Armor clinked as I rolled to my feet. My character’s stats were almost back to day one level, but I could still right myself. Each step forward must have been terrifying to her. This [Power Armor] should be littered with glowing blood from
[Heavenly Body Clone]
s. My two-handed sword sat comfortably in one hand implying a level of
[Brawn]
that I didn’t have right now. All the unbloodied portions of gear were nearly black.

“Not me! Don’t kill me!” the woman shouted while throwing up her hands. “I was just paid to break the pillar!”

“You tried to kill my friend,” I mumbled at her. Wyl was an NPC, they didn’t grow on trees or respawn instantly. They weren’t like monsters from some vague dungeon. When it came down to player versus digital comrade, one of them would survive a deathblow.

Barks overpowered the area. I stomped forward. Wood creaked beneath my feet. People nearby screamed as convicts and free Travelers alike were overrun.

“It’s just a job! They haven’t even paid me my share of the money yet!” She kicked away from me. Her weapon fell over the edge.

“Don’t think of this as me killing you, think of it as me speeding up your trip back to town,” I said while bringing down
[Morrigu’s Gift]
.

Her eyes went lifeless as the blade slid through her chest. I felt sick. Breath shortened to heaving gasps while I tried to remember she had been part of the group intent upon killing us. I really didn’t enjoy being around other players anymore. They made me do things like murder them.

Viper was shuffling after Wyl. Both of them looked to be worse off than I was, which was impressive. I heaved another breath to steady myself against exhaustion.
[Blink]
went off and this time I managed to stay on my feet.

Viper’s autopilot halted in front of me. I tried to talk but was drowned out. Noises were overpowering the yells of players. Sizzles, blue beams, and earth rumbling filled in the silence between barks.

“Viper, you’re a bodyguard, and I’ll pay you all the gold I have to get Wyl back to Haven Valley,” I repeated myself a few times.

“I don’t trusst you to pay,” he uttered the line.

“I saved your life, you saved mine. Trust me. I’ll pay for my friend.” My unprofessional glare was covered by the
[Power Armor]
helmet. Shaking my head was tough and movements were restricted by the metal.

“What?”

“I can promise you the answer to one question, your choice, anything in the game.” To be accurate, James would tell me and I would pass it on. “But I won’t tell you if Wyl dies.”

“I do like ssecretss.” Viper’s autopilot hissed. “Deal, for now, Hermess.”

I nodded, then turned toward the oncoming horde of monsters. This
[Dipped in Starlight]
had to go. Without the dead bodies and me as a lure, those monsters would eventually crawl back below. Hopefully.

“Carver!” Wyl yelled behind me. “Is that you?!”

“Not exactly,” I said, feeling slightly more energetic. There were far worse people to be called. “But I learned from the best!”

Wyl’s expression couldn’t be seen. Dusk was chirping in the distance. Those damned
[Heavenly Body Clone]
s were barking in an unending flood. Some were held up by the pile of dead bodies Viper dropped off. The rest were locked in on me, a man stupid enough to hang around while being
[Dipped in Starlight]
.

The sword came up. WWCD? William Carver would happily go down swinging, and so would I. Still, after this week, I almost welcomed the release that dying might give me. Not literally, but the game had taken a toll on me. Why then, did charging those monsters in a reckless kamikaze of sleepiness feel so good?

Session Seventy Seven - When the Sun Goes Down

Death came upon swift wings and with it the silence of dreamless slumber. Sometime later morning arrived, trumpeted by a startling ringtone. My hands didn’t even move in a tempo with the pop song from twenty years ago.

I groaned and tried to focus on the caller ID window floating nearby. Part of me knew because of the ringtone. Sure enough, my sister’s tired face sat on the preview. Her cheeks bloated out like a pufferfish.

“Liz?” I mumbled. My throat felt dry. “What, what time is it?”

My ARC happily provided numbers off to the side which I couldn’t read. Liz’s words were lost.

“Grant!” Liz shouted. “Wake up!”

“Liz? What time is it?” I repeated as the world recovered from being shut down. It was like an ARC going out of service, only my brain had done it instead.

“Mom’s having a bad day, can you cover for me? I have to show up at work today, and… you look like shit. God dammit, what is with this family?”

I waved at the screen and tried to speak but words were difficult. “I played online too long.”

“You sure, it’s not that, other thing?” Liz’s voice turned low like we were in a conspiracy drama.

“No, it was a dungeon.” It was only four days in a game world running from zombies in dimly lit hallways while they tried to eat my flesh. “I’ll take today off and go visit mom, but I need sleep too.”

“So? Get in the van, and come watch mom. You can sleep on the way,” my slightly older twin sister suggested.

True to form, I listened to her. Not because she was bossy, Liz was, but for the simple fact that mom might be in a bad spot. No matter how much the NPCs mattered, or Xin’s existence, the video game side of Continue Online couldn’t overrule reality. I wasn’t a teenager anymore, loot and skill grinding didn’t mean more than my only remaining parent.

One hand scratched at various sleepy itches. I fumbled around trying to find clothes to wear. I found myself falling through the van door to my chair and trying to press buttons. Dry mouth suggested that a cup of coffee might have been helpful.

“User Legate?” the machine’s sudden words barely made me jump. One hand twitched for a weapon that reality didn’t have. “You seem to be at lower than recommended performance levels. Please consider taking the day off.”

“Not work. Going to my mom’s. Probably sleep,” I mumbled at the AI.

“Ah. It is our recommendation that you choose to complete a rest cycle,” Hal pal responded.

“I agree,” I said with a slow series of blinks. The real world outside my Trillium van looked damned bright. Days inside that dark starlight [Abyss of Light] had warped my standards.

“User Legate, we note a level of physical distress and will adjust the lighting accordingly,” my friend said.

“Thank you,” I all but drooled the words. Three hours, that’s all the actual sleep I had gotten.

Once the windshield’s opacity turned down the world felt much better. Yet again modern technology helped me survive. I shuddered to imagine a world where cars needed to be driven manually or people had to wait in long lines for breakfast.

“Bring Viper, please.” I couldn’t properly articulate my thought. The mumbled words were followed by a long blink. This chair really was quite comfortable.

“One moment. Accessing Continue Online avatars for relation to Hermes’ character,” Hal Pal spoke and the drone was lost under the sound of our van wheels. “Possible match found, Ultimate Edition User John Messier, Avatar Viper.”

“Ultimate Edition?” They were supposedly super rare. My addled brain tried to run through the calculations on how likely meeting another Ultimate Edition user was but failed.

“Affirmative. User Legate has encountered three other Ultimate Edition users in his travels.”

“Who else?” I couldn’t even lift my head to look at the AI.

“Your current administrative rights include John Messier, Lia Kingsly, and Alfonse Stone,” Hal Pal said from behind me. “All three are Ultimate Edition users according to their profiles.”

“Alfonse Stone?” That name sounded familiar but I was too muddled to figure it out. “Have I met them?”

“Not directly. Alfonse Stone is a founding partner of the Stone Firm, where Stan Middlemire works. You may remember his character, Frankenstein?”

“Oh.” I did remember him. The man had an odd fascination with dead bodies of all types. Not necrophilia that I could tell, but certainly piecing together animals. “Freakinstain’s boss?” I slipped into Requiem Mass’ nickname for Stan.

I should have said hello to the guy more. He seemed jumpy in real life. The only impression really left was a stuttering man who was more comfortable with automatons of various types than people. Maybe in that regard, we weren’t as different.

“Show me John, Viper, first.”

“One moment, User Legate,” Hal Pal responded.

He looked ragged and the player’s chest lifted with exaggerated breaths. Darkness littered the world of Continue Online. Viper’s character sat across a small bonfire staring at Wyl. The two of them were in an odd standoff. Autopilot convict and Traveler versus former guard captain and Local.

The guard captain looked wounded. He moved arms in a well-practiced circle around his uncovered torso. There looked to be a nasty gash on his stomach that had likely come from another Traveler during the escape. Wyl said something but it was inaudible.

“Sound?” I asked Hal Pal.

“One moment,” the machine repeated.