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I passed the Gnoll Hill to the teen players' delight and stepped onto the trail leading to the city. This was the easiest way: I had to turn off into the woods just before the city gates and there we were.

I spoke too soon. I hadn't made a hundred paces when I walked right into a well-organized ambush.

Teddy was trotting just next to me when a rogue unstealthed behind his back attacking him with a long combo. Bellowing, the bear swung round and charged at him, met by the attacker's two blades. Another rogue materialized a
 
dozen feet away from me. He held two swords covered with steaming green poison. The pet froze a couple dozen feet away from us, unable to help—apparently, controlled by an enemy caster. Oh. They made quick work of my Ted. I tried to freeze the rogue nearest to me when a warrior tumbled out of the roadside shrubs and went for me in large leaps. Tavor, the motherfucker.

I switched target and activated Deadman's Hand. It worked. My first stroke of luck. Time to leg it. Nothing was keeping me here. I pressed the mental teleport pictogram. Activation took five and a half seconds. Would I keep the concentration? The rogues went for me, their four blades showering me with blows. My shields seemed to hold. They absorbed damage preventing the two from disrupting my casting.

Two seconds. Would I make it? Tavor bolted, going for me in one large leap, and kicked me to the ground. His special abilities again. The two jumped onto my back twisting my arms, not letting me get to my feet. A mage appeared from behind the trees, a glowing artifact in his hands.

"Quick, hand him over and come right back. I got a word from the gate there's another digital shit coming to the Gnoll Hill. Would be nice to get him, too."

He activated the artifact in two clicks and dropped it onto the ground in front of me. The gold-framed crimson stone filled with light and discharged in a flash.

Warning! Scared Crystal creates an energy spike! This is a spatial anomaly zone! Automatic teleport to the mother stone. Destination: Forest Cats Castle.

With a pop, we fell on the hard, damp stone tiles. The weight of the bodies collapsing on top of me kicked the breath out of me.

Welcome!

Warning! The clan is at war! The castle is concealed by Small Silence Dome. For reasons of confidentiality, all outgoing messages and access to built-in portals are blocked. Contact the commandant to gain clearance to send outgoing traffic.

If you don't agree with the above conditions, you must leave the Castle at once.

Warning! You've been affected by Astral Stone! The unique half-sentient crystal grows smaller copies of itself and teleports them to all corners of the world. When Scared Crystals sense its magic, they create a portal anomaly teleporting the Mage to the mother stone which absorbs all magic energies.

Effect: -30 pt. mana per second.

Some people grabbed me under my arms and dragged me up some stairs, panting and cursing 
the fucking rock
. I noticed the gloom of an enormous dungeon and the iron bars that divided it into separate cages. Behind the bars, prisoners' faces showed in the crimson glow of an enormous crystal.

Any struggle was pointless in the grip of those thugs. Nor could I cast a spell on the go. I couldn't even try and smash my head on the stone steps as suicide wasn't part of the game. I tried to send a message to Dan, hoping that the welcome warning was BS. It wasn't. 
Contact the commandant to get clearance...

They pulled me out into a courtyard. Sunshine hit my eyes. I squinted, missing the exact moment when they pushed me out into an arena.

Welcome to a training fight at the Forest Castle Arena!

Laith, level 52, vs. Danathos, level 144

Fight mode: Combat realism, fight to death

Respawn location: arena

Grave location: graveyard

On guard! May the strongest one win!

Before I could raise my eyes, a powerful combo drove a sword up my ribs, sending me to the Rainbow Bridge.

A second later, I respawned. Hot sand was burning my feet. Again they grabbed me under my arms and pulled me running downstairs back into the dungeon, peppering me with kicks and punches. The bastards had it all choreographed as if they were doing it a dozen times a day. Having said that, maybe they did.

They rushed me into the dungeon under the influence of the strange crystal, dragged me into a cage and threw me onto the stones. A knee nailed me to the floor.

"Five minutes," a guard croaked. He spat on the tiles next to my face.

Stone chippings bit into my cheek. When I tried to move, I got a nice kick in the ribs. The other guard placed his dirty boot onto my head, pinning me to the cold floor. Scumbags. Cursing soundlessly, I scrolled through my combat and social logs, moving their names onto a separate list. I was going to find each and every one of them. I'd make them wear Negators, then kick them into a waste pit up to their chins and keep them there until the shit turned rock solid.

"Time," the hoarse guard snapped. "The cuffs!"

They jerked me to my feet. Shackles snapped shut on my wrists. A long chain dangled from them. The guards hooked the chain up to the ceiling. One of them struggled to turn the winch as the rusty mechanism pulled me up. Now I was hanging in the middle of the cage. Even if I had enough mana, I couldn't dream of casting anything in this position.

"He's done. Let's go back to the crystal. They're bringing another one soon."

The other guard wasn't in a hurry. "Wait up. You know me. I always finish with my signature punch."

He took a boxing stance and started
 
jumping around me, pounding my ribs and liver with a rather decent punch sequence. My health shrunk somewhat, a wave of shallow pain running through my body. I winced.

"Quit screwing your face," the boxer guffawed. "This is nothing compared to what our torturer has in store for you. With his experience and imagination..." He raised his voice, addressing the other prisoners. "Am I right, shitheads?"

The dungeon echoed with curses and groans. Someone wept.

"See?" he went on. "Everyone here knows Ivan the Terrible. They have respect for him. So will you. Just keep hanging here for a bit."

The two walked out of my cage and sat down on a bench not far from the wretched stone that took up most of the far wall. Not a wall, really, but rather a slab of rock exposing one side of an enormous crystal gleaming an ill-boding crimson. The Forest Cats must have come across the artifact while investigating or working the caves and had enough sense to buy the land and build the castle.

My inbox flashed. I opened it praying for a miracle and cavalry.

Hi Nec! So they got you too?

The sender was Cryl—the rogue I'd met on my first day and with whom I had then lost all contact. So he was here? I strained my eyes, scanning the cages.

On the ceiling
, Cryl prompted.

I raised my head and recoiled, swinging on my chains. My jailors glared my way.

Awful, eh?
 
Cryl gave me a sad smile.

You could say that. The kid hung by the ceiling, his flesh pierced by a few dozen rusty hooks every which way. His rib, his elbow, his shoulder blade, his hand... Bastards. Just wait till I get to you.

"Are you crying? Don't," he wheezed. "Don't worry. I have a high pain threshold. I don't feel a thing... almost. The Cats aren't worried I'll go nuts so they hang me up here to instill a fear of God in the rest."

I hadn't even noticed I was all tearful. Not with fear—these were tears of sympathy, anger and helplessness. What kind of monster is man?

"It can't be," I managed.

"It can. I got perma-stuck three days after our gnoll adventure. My dad is a programmer. He writes virtual world stuff so he has this password-protected capsule with no time restrictions on it. I hacked his password—it was easy, he has the same one for everything. Mom and Dad left for the weekend, and all I wanted was to play a bit longer. But it got me perma-stuck..."

"How did you get here, then?"

"I was an idiot. I was sitting there by the Gnoll Hill wiping my tears and wondering what to do and how to log out. That bitch, she came over to me, like she wanted to help me. Fuck her... She said she'd help me contact my family. Then she said I could stay in the castle. I joined her group and we teleported here. They do the same to everyone. They take you to the arena first, then keep you in a cage for twenty-four hours to bring mana to zero and make sure you're hungry and thirsty. You won't die from that but you won't be able to regen. Then they show you around the castle pointing out the good conditions slaves live in. They suggest you make a bind point in a special dungeon room. If you say no, they'll take you on another tour, this time to the torture chamber. To meet Ivan the Terrible. He's an amazing man. He'll try to convince you to do as they say. He nearly always succeeds. Then they either leave you in the castle giving you twenty-hour-a-day crafting jobs. There's other work available, too. Some Cats like their beds warmed by young boys. Not just male Cats—there're some really sick females among them, too. They can use you as a target for archery practice... you'll have to catch their arrows with your own chest and fetch them back to the archers in your teeth. They've lost all perspective here. They're drunk with anarchy better than liquor..."

Blood pounded in my temples. My mind was clouded with hate and fear. There had to be a way out. It wasn't the first time I was walking a tightrope. I could do it.

"Relax," he said. "Try not to attract attention. You will regret it."

"I won't," I tried to pull myself together. "Any other options?"

"Not many. We have customers here every couple of days or so. From the Arabic cluster, I believe. Just yesterday we had three dudes from the African zone. They have a new fad going there, the all-Caucasian harems. They don't even care which race white girls play for. They just want a white soul behind all the menagerie. Those are all our options, I'm afraid. Some guys just disappear. The guards collect them and take them away... and they never come back."

I nearly howled with my own helplessness. "What about the Admins? Surely the Cats couldn't block the access to Technical Support and Administration?

Cryl gave a weak shake of his head. "You try. They're fucking imbeciles."

And try I did.

I opened the Technical Support menu and dashed off a complaint about a group of players keeping me against my will. I also demanded to be released from the castle and attached the list of their names I'd compiled earlier. I forwarded a copy to the customer service. The latter replied immediately.

Thank you for your message. After due consideration, it was further divided into technical and administrative categories. A new technical support ticket has been created. Ticket number: 1176121b.

Message overlap warning! Tickets 1176121b and 1176002 have been merged. New ticket number: 1176771.

In response to your message 1176121а, please be advised that the said players' accounts were disabled over a year ago, following numerous complaints and breach of EULA agreement.

AI Crimson 9/155.

A minute later, the technical support chimed in:

Thank you for your message 1176771. After due consideration, we have granted your request re: forced imprisonment.

Command\unstick Error! Bug report generated!

Command\gate Error! Bug report generated!

Activating forced relocation via database. Error! Bug report generated!

We regret to inform you that relocation has failed. A report has been forwarded to the software developer. Estimated response time: 14 days.

AI Crimson 9/115.

Morons. I could forget it. Just in case, I wrote to them again asking to interfere and kill me somehow—with a lightning bolt if they wished.

We regret that we are unable to grant your request. Per section 14.1 of EULA, Administration cannot intervene in the game by eliminating particular players or NPCs.

Cryl watched the change of expression on my face with an understanding smile. "Having fun?"

"I'm not going to leave it like that. They're all idiots, those paper pushers."

"They're not. I think they understand everything. But for some reasons of their own, they either can't or don't want to interfere. They probably don't have an opinion yet or they just can't decide on their position toward the players and the players' position in the world. Here, catch their answer to my last email. It sums up six days of our correspondence. Saves you time."

In response to your messages 1172121, 1176612 and 117775 please be advised that the issue of the legal rights of digitized persons has been included in the Agenda of the September Session of the U.N. General Assembly.

"That's the end of it. They haven't written to me since," Cryl said.

Immediately I received
 
Dan's message. The inbox worked without a glitch.

Hi Max, were are u? Need to have a talk.

Come on, agent, show us your training. He'd had an Alliance member kidnapped from under his nose and was none the wiser.

A bit later I received Taali's text saying she was on her way home. I just gritted my teeth like a convict watching the happy outside life unfold beyond his bars.

Our jailors admitted a new prisoner, a level 12 kid, scared out of his little mind. Soon he was hanging on a chain too, whimpering with terror.

I kept applying heat to the Admins demanding they put me in contact with a human being and trying to prove to them the error of their ways. It looked like they just strung me along.

Dan flooded me with messages. He seemed to be worried now. Soon, I started receiving Taali's PMs—concerned at first, then outright panicky.

A gorgeous Elfa with a frozen face of a wax doll walked into the dungeon. She brought some beer and food for the jailors and stood next to their table motionless and vacant, oblivious of the guards' groping hands and hoarse suggestions of whether they should have a shag or eat first. Overhead, chains rattled as Cryl got restless.