Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (36 page)

I ripped the note up and groaned in frustration. My message hadn’t been sent to any specific Voice and of course, she had to answer. The image faded away.

“Who, was that?” Beth sat from over my shoulder. I turned to see an amused grin in my direction. She must have logged back in a moment ago.

My face felt redder than either woman’s skin. Reading a message from Mezo with her curves and tantalizing tone was similar to dad walking in on me during my teenage years while I watched adult entertainment. That embarrassment never got old or less awkward. Plus Beth had inherited a skin tone that looked like an even but lightly tanned sunburn.

Another message came through as the tube heated up. I sighed then twisted off the top. Out came another parchment of paper.

I rapidly tore it to shreds then a third followed. The Voices had put me in a hell made of porno pop-ups in public. Beth had the good grace to laugh her brains out behind me.

“Argh!” I yelled at the latest note while my heart rate went up for multiple reasons. Mezo wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t help when the Voices seemed to believe this world was falling down. Maybe a certain red skinned Voice was simply following her impulses as well.

“Who was that?” Beth asked while fighting to suppress laughter. Her eyes were watery from amusement.

“That, was Mezo. A Voice. I call her the Temptress, but I’m not sure if she has an actual title.” I refused to use
[Inspection]
on her after that series of quests for
[Instant Gratification]
.

Even thinking coherently the one time she decided to mount me had been impossibly distracting. The Voices had access to all the feedback they might want inside an ARC, which made her advances close to mental rape.

“She looked like fun,” Beth said. “But what was that part about her and Xin?”

I turned to stare at her and my niece’s face actually turned redder. Both eyes closed and I had mental war with myself. Beth wasn’t ten anymore, but there were certain comments I didn’t need to hear.

The torn bits of letters fluttered away. They spiraled together as nonexistent wind wove the pieces together, then they self-immolated, a smoky woman bent over and beckoned toward me with one finger. Beth laughed. My reaction was much different. I wanted to log out then take a cold shower.

“Let’s not tell your mom or Xin about her,” I said. The very idea of being together with Xin did bring about a few long numbed desires.

“Have you seen my mom?” Beth said while putting a hand on one hip then continued speaking. “The first thing she does is size every guy up. That’s why I’ve never invited any boyfriends over. Thank god she avoids my ARC.”

“Yeah.” My head nodded but my heart rate was still trying to calm down. I had to focus on getting to Dusk, who should be near Wyl. Then Xin, and afterward we could tackle the issue of intimate activities.

“So, you’ve actually talked to a Voice? I thought they were just something made up for background story.”

“They’re very, very real,” I said while blinking heavily then gesturing to the mess of letters that had burned up. “As you can see.”

“Are they all so intense, like that?”

“Not even. All the ones I’ve talked to are different. Some are funny, serious, mechanical, or disturbing.” I looked off to one side while trying to figure out who fell into which category. Mezo, for example, seemed to have her own separate box to fit into.

Beth, sure enough, did have food. She provided me an honest to Voices sandwich which filled me up. I relished the taste of ham and layers of mayo that my power bars couldn’t replicate. Though this meat probably wasn’t ham, it tasted too melty to be pork.

Beth smiled then pointed in the direction we had been walking. My autopilot had kindly left a dirt engraved arrow to assist with navigation. I smothered the fire then we moved through the woods for another hour.

In the middle of another fight, my niece kept on talking. I admired her ability to multitask.

“So my friend says that King Nero’s castle just sunk into a bottomless pit,” Beth said while slashing her sword at the air. A moment later singular bolts of blue energy spiraled out toward a wolf.

“What?” I said, pulling
[Morrigu’s Gift]
out of my own recently cleaved wolf. The beast let out a deflating yip of noise.

“I think we’ll be in trouble soon. We’ve been running into fewer wolves,” my niece muttered.

“Oh—” I stared then activated a fresh fireball from
[Breath of Flame]
.

Something screeched. First one, then another until the forest felt filled with the short bursts of noise. They were leather winged monsters who were not Dusk. They were the same size as his old form and flew between trees while clicking.

“Called it!” Beth shouted while ducking under a flying creature. “Sonic Screechers!”

“What?!” I yelled over the increasing noise. Hearing anything was hard. I turned to swing at one of the tiny creatures but it dodged quickly.

“Hit them!” My niece pointed upward.

I followed it and studied for a moment. They were moving quickly but some of the
[Sonic Screecher]
s paused on tree branches where they hung by absurdly long hooks. Both eyes narrowed, they were too fast and agile for my skills, especially in the dark.
[Blink]
went off and I found myself falling mid-air over a
[Sonic Screecher]
with a two-handed version of
[Morrigu’s Gift]
out.

One got sliced, but the blade’s narrow edge failed to get any more monsters. I fell the fifteen feet down and thudded. Plant life nearby wiggled as something else burst through. Thick vines shot out and wrapped around me.
[Morrigu’s Gift]
twisted badly against some of them.

Continue Online proudly explained what was going on while my eyes wildly looked around.
[Awareness Heightening]
was trying to kick in but kept failing. My real life worn feeling was translating to an inability to focus.

The wrappings tightened around me squeezing instead of dragging me to some mouth. I felt thankful for not repeating the
[Leviathan]
’s innards dungeon crawl. Bits of plant roughly peeled exposed skin. My eyes focused on the two-handed form of
[Morrigu’s Gift]
. Its sharpened edge snapped another loop but more came out with a near hiss of movement.

“Uncle Grant!” she shouted. I tried to turn my head but had mostly been bound. The vines knocked me over. My eyes scrambled for a spot to
[Blink]
to.

A box vibrated out of the corner of my eye. I growled at it and jerked my head around. My
[Brawn]
was over three hundred and fifty, my
[Coordination]
over two hundred and fifty, such a lame set of loops shouldn’t have been able to pin me!

Beth didn’t look any better. The bats had successfully distracted us from a bigger threat. Her sword couldn’t cut against the edges.

My health had dropped below half and the
[Sonic Screecher]
s were hanging around waiting for us to die.
[Blink]
went off with the fourth attempt, and all the bats were startled into motion.

Something knocked again and the earth shuddered. Vines and bats that had overwhelmed us withdrew. Beth snapped her sword through the air with a frustrated yell. Bolts of light zipped off without a target, burning, freezing, and melting plant life all around.

“What was that!?” My niece looked wide-eyed at the bushes nearby.

“You didn’t hear that knocking?” I asked while huffing. My recent freedom had included a vague plan to save the day with vicious leaping at vines or slashing wildly.

“No! I don’t hear the knocking!” She threw up her hands. “And monsters don’t just stop attacking!”

The few vines we had managed to chop off or scorch were sitting on the floor. They rapidly turned brown and I stared at the bushes watching for a sign of enemies.

“Arrrgghhhhh. And of course, there’s my alarm.” Beth stomped around looking like we wrecked her favorite doll by accident. “Argh. Sorry, Uncle Grant, I’ve got to log out. Mom will cut me off if I don’t get out of the ARC for homework and sleep.”

She valued completing school over helping me rescue an NPC. I felt oddly proud of her ability to prioritize but wondered which one of us had more questionable ethics. Beth at least knew we were trying to get to an in-game friend for a quest, at least I remembered talking about it as we walked.

“Are you going to catch up later?” I asked.

“I’ll try. I’d like to see Xin in the game. To”—Her forehead wrinkled slightly and Beth chewed on her lip. Voices help my family, the nervous habit was genetic—“well, I want to talk to her. The whole thing with her is weird, and I want to see what she says.”

“It is weird, and I understand.”

Beth’s character pulled out a scroll then shoved one thumb at the parchment. She twisted it and purple runes flared to life. The avatar vanished in a streak of light.

I looked around at the bushes and trees waiting for something to rustle, but nothing did. At least now I could move at my own speed,
[Blink]
and all. My path was forward. A few dead
[Sonic Screecher]
s lay to the rear. They would eventually fade away or be eaten by those constricting vines.

My head shook. This was a world with its own rules. Monsters coming from nowhere then vanishing away didn’t have to make sense when I recalled it was a video game.

The Temptress’ comments floated by my brain again. I wanted to be with Xin. There had to be some weird partial existence in which we could meet or cohabitate. It would great if we could hang in the ARC’s Atrium and watch a movie like old times. We could pretend to be one of those long distance couples using virtual reality to fill in the gaps. Our little home in cyberspace with whatever sized house we desired.

I could find a neat program to outer space. We could go to virtual Mars. We could find a bed and maybe prove Mezo’s words of me being a prude wrong for a week or six. All of those would be awesome. Xin. Where was she right now?

Another set of the stupid bats attacked. This one was easily bigger than normal. I waved at the small creature to keep it from clawing my head with those leather wings. Chirping noises filled my ears and I prepared to draw out
[Morrigu’s Gift]
.

A ball of fire came to in front of my face setting me backward. My brain tried to put two and two together and only came up with a fire-breathing bat.

Large wings batted in front of me carrying a slim body. Dusk was far bigger than a bat. Nighttime forest traveling had played a trick on my ability to react.

Dusk’s body glittered from the ball of fire in my hand. Small flakes of gold were more obvious as he hung there chirping in his weird catbird mixture.

“Hi, Dusk,” I said slowly. My hand had
[Morrigu’s Gift]
at the ready. “You scared me. Is Wyl okay?”

Dusk chirped once then turned to take three long leaps before flying away. I held onto the ball of fire with one hand lifted up and
[Blink]e
d alongside the
[Messenger’s Pet]
. There were no monsters in the darkness to keep us company.

My black and gold buddy led us into a small cluster of trees. Wyl lay in the middle of two, vaguely sheltered between their thick trunks. The ground was stained with a deep crimson color.
[Sonic Screecher]
corpses were piled next to wolves.

“Voices,” I uttered while Dusk chirped and spun nearby. His larger claws dug into the dirt. “He’s not doing well.”

Wyl groaned then tried to sit up. “I’ve seen better days, convict.”

“Hermes, please.” I tried to smile but Wyl looked terrible. His clothing had blood all over it. There were signs of a struggle that hadn’t been there while I drove home. Dead bat creatures littered the area along with a few brown vine ends.

“Well you’re not Carver, that’s for sure.” He huffed while trying to sit up.

“That I am not.” I have only a few traits in common with William Carver. Living up to his adventurous spirit had been hard to manage in the last few months.