by Dan Thomas
When he didn’t see anything, he backed up and started scrolling through the various forum posts, looking for posted tips for training and taming dinos, updated lists of custom charges for bringing various items across different worlds, and what the next expected dino release would be.
Glancing at a post of a player showing off their Tier-four Ankylosaurus tame, Max paused as a notification flashed up on his screen.
HOT NEWS: Terra Verse has just OFFICIALLY announced its next upcoming event: The Terra Trials!
Max tapped the notification, which brought him to a brief article explaining that only the name had been announced, with no other details known outside of speculation, other than the fact that the event has been rumored to be one of the longest-running, most difficult events Terra Verse had ever seen. The blog post ended saying that they’ll be posting updates regularly, but any official information was being kept under tight wraps.
Max shifted his sitting position, casting his mind back to his time in Cerribue. He couldn’t remember what exactly Oswald had said about the event, but even now Max couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew something he shouldn’t have, especially with the whole encounter with Indigo.
Max shook his head. If that were the case, he couldn’t imagine that the highly leveled player would have shared forbidden knowledge with a random player he picked up off of the streets.
Max closed the notification and placed his thumb on the screen to scroll further down the posts for that day.
He stopped himself before he did. Moving his thumb aside, he read the article title that had been partially covered by his hand.
The biggest virtual reality scandal since Qualia? How rumors of disappearing players and rogue Crews could rival the controversy of the Qualia Incident.
Max closed the Terra Verse forums and locked his phone, left listening to Pez shuffling around in his room.
He turned and looked toward the kitchen cupboard. He’d have to ask Chopsticks for advice on making a tinfoil hat.
Chapter Forty-Four
“So, all of the charcoal is wet?” Max asked ShadowHog as they tramped through the jungle behind Rednex.
“Yeah, soaked through. The roof leaked or something. Right on top of the coal store. There is nothing left dry in there, and it’s probably going to take days to dry out. A leak must have come in through the roof, so we’ll be moving all the charcoal, and Mamba will be checking the roof to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” ShadowHog slapped a leafy frond away from his face. “What are the chances, you know?”
“What are the chances,” Max repeated. “I’m sure we can shuffle everything around, put it all along one wall or something.”
“But I’m not complaining,” ShadowHog dropped his voice to a whisper. “I haven’t been out on a hunt for weeks. The Ravagers upped my quota of iron bars just before you arrived, and it takes me most of my free time to get all the smelting done. I don’t have any other times I can get in-game. It feels like Goose and Nik are the only ones Remington takes out hunting, and Maeve seems to always choose Aedyn when she hunts. I don’t get it.”
Max nodded in understanding. “You deserve a day off.”
“I do,” ShadowHog agreed.
“What are you two girls whispering about?” Bullet57 slipped out from behind a large leafy shrub and pushed between Murf and ShadowHog, shoving them with his shoulders as he strode off to catch up with Rednex.
“That guy is the only thing stopping this from being a great day off.” Max’s hand tightened around the spear he carried. It would feel good to hunt Bullet instead of the Baryonyx that had been stealing all the fish.
“Bullet is one of a kind. But I’m sure he doesn’t mean half the things he does. He just isn’t a team player.” ShadowHog was about as naive as they came. A noob through and through.
“He’d fit in well with the main Ravager crew,” Max ventured.
“No. He’s not Ravager Crew material.” ShadowHog shook his head.
“But he’s been here for longer than a lot of the other recruits, seems that’s what the Ravagers call us. Don’t you think they’ll let him join them permanently?” Max asked.
ShadowHog shrugged and then pulled an arrow from his quiver. “I see something moving.”
Up ahead, Rednex had stopped, with Bullet57 at his side. Rednex looked back at them, lowering an outstretched hand, then pointing toward the river which was on their left. Max and ShadowHog crouched down, moving quietly through the undergrowth toward their prey. Max lifted his spear, ready to strike, while ShadowHog notched his arrow. They’d made a bet which of them would get first blood today. The loser got to muck out the dinos when they got back. If one of them made a kill, the other would have to pick up the other’s chores for a week.
ShadowHog was taking the whole thing very seriously. However, Max would not complain about a few days off from shoveling shit, he would happily be given free rein to poke around the forge and storage area. He’d also like to get more info on the special deliveries, and having two sets of chores would give him the excuse of being in the game longer so he could watch out for any large convoys coming into the base.
Of course, it could all be for nothing since ShadowHog said the special deliveries were infrequent. However, he’d heard that they had increased in frequency right about the time ShadowHog’s smelting quota had gone up. Only Max saw that the two were connected.
“Hey, pay attention,” ShadowHog whispered as Rednex and Bullet57 crept forward through the undergrowth in front of them. “Unless you want to do Bullet57’s chores for him.”
“He’s not in on our wager,” Max hissed back. “He can do his own stinking chores.”
“They don’t stink as bad as yours.” ShadowHog pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger before he half-crept forward through the vegetation. The closer they got to the river, the lusher and bigger the leaves that hung from thick-trunked trees, which made it easier for them to stay hidden from the Baryonyx.
“Have you seen a Baryonyx before?” Max asked ShadowHog.
“No. Only on the forums and in videos. I think the biggest dino I’ve seen in the wild is a Parasaur.” ShadowHog’s intense expression said he planned to see one today. And with some luck, help kill it. There was a certain resemblance to Chopsticks in that expression. Maybe the Coprolite Crew could take on another member.
Or maybe one dino-obsessed player was enough for any Crew.
“Well, this is your lucky day.” Max figured that Murf might just be able to help his friend fulfill his dream, if not of killing the Baryonyx, then at least landing a few hits and being involved in the hunt.
They had lost sight of Bullet and Rednex from where the trail they were following curved, but he could hear them making their way through the jungle. They weren’t exactly subtle.
Up ahead, Max could see a break in the trees where the light shone through, too bright to see much past it. That must be the river.
Max then heard Rednex shout something from in front of them.
“They must have found it!” ShadowHog jogged forward. “Come on, we’re gonna miss the action.”
“Whoa, wait for a second, I’ve got a better idea. Have you been to this part of the river before?” Max asked.
ShadowHog stopped in his tracks. “Uh, yeah, this is where we get our fish from. Someone has to come and chase small dinos off the nets almost every week. Why?”
Interesting, Max thought to himself. “What’s the layout like? Is there somewhere we can get to a vantage point?”
ShadowHog’s eyes lit up. “There is! We always just wade into the river and chase off the smaller dinos, but there’s an outcrop we can get onto. Come on, we’ve gotta go!”
ShadowHog leaped off the trail they had been following and into the jungle, Max running hot on his heels. The ground started to slope upward, and before long they stepped out of the trees and onto a plateau of scraggy rock.
ShadowHog stopped short of a sharp drop a couple of yards in fron
t. “There it is! I see the Baryonyx!”
Max jogged over to join him, looking down at the wide river. They stood at a bend in the watercourse. Across from them was a sandy shallow in the outer bend along the bank, which led into more jungle.
Just upstream from the bend were two large nets submerged in the water, tied to logs sticking out of the riverbed. And that was where the Baryonyx waded. The water rose to just above its legs as it tore at the nets with its two powerful forelimbs, before dipping its long, crocodile-like jaws into the water, sweeping back and forth before tipping its head back and swallowing the mouthful of fish it had just snapped up.
“Do you see the others?” ShadowHog asked.
Max stepped toward the edge of the outcrop, looking upriver where Rednex and Bullet57 had been heading. “No, I can’t.”
The snap of a gunshot echoed across the landscape, Max caught the muzzle flash out of the corner of his eye from a section of the river where trees and vines overhung into the water.
As the Baryonyx roared from the shot, Bullet waded out into the water, firing a bolt from a crossbow across the expanse of the flowing water.
They watched on as the ten-foot-tall dino turned around in the water, slogging toward the opposite bank. As it hit the center of the river, it lengthened out its body as it began to swim, the current pushing it downstream as it tried to flee.
“You got your bow?” Max glanced over to ShadowHog.
He held up his hunting bow. “Yeah?”
Max nodded toward the dino that was being swept toward them by the power of the river. “Shoot some arrows at the dino before it gets away, man.”
ShadowHog shook his head. “There’s no way I can hit that from here.”
“You won’t if you don’t fire anything. Just aim high, it’s not even that big a distance, and we’ve got the height advantage.”
ShadowHog reached for an arrow from his belt, putting it to his bow. “Just for the record, this is going to be a waste of an arrow.” He pulled his bow back, aiming up into the sky.
“A little lower,” Max said, and ShadowHog adjusted his aim, then let the arrow loose. They watched as it arced through the air, dropping down and landing with a thud into the side of the Baryonyx, which writhed around in the water as it tried to stay afloat.
“Holy crap, I hit it!” ShadowHog whooped then held his hand high.
Max chuckled as he high-fived him. “Yeah, man, I told you you’d land that.”
“I just haven’t had much experience with, well, weapons, I guess.”
“Yeah, same here,” Max rested on his spear. “But as important as Traits are, it just takes a good eye to hit a target, you know? Now, keep going before that thing gets away!”
ShadowHog jumped to it, grabbing another arrow and firing it off. He missed a few, the arrows splashing into the water, and hit a few others, sinking the metal-tipped arrows into the dinos flesh.
Bullet had waded a fair way into the river, the water rising close to his waist as he tried to keep range on the dino. Rednex stayed on dry land, firing another round from his reloaded gun.
The Baryonyx took the hits, the arrows sticking out of its body, but it was starting to slow down. It was close to hitting the shallows on the opposite side of the bank, but it struggled more and more to resist the current as it came close to passing around the bend in the river away from Rednex and Bullet.
Max turned away from watching ShadowHog’s shots and cupped his hands over his mouth toward the other two. “Hurry! It’s going to get away!”
Bullet57 looked up at him. He must have thought the same because he pushed as fast as he could, trying to keep a line of sight on the dino. As the water reached his chest, he disappeared under the water. Max kept watching as he bobbed up farther downstream, heading for the nets as he tried to keep afloat.
“What’s going on?” ShadowHog looked away from his target.
“Nothing at all. Just keep firing, you’ve almost got it.” Max grabbed his arrows from his belt, offering them to ShadowHog. “Here.”
ShadowHog glanced around. “Thanks!” He grabbed one and nocked it to his string, firing it off in the river before grabbing another. “I think it’s almost down!”
The Baryonyx broke free from the strong current, limping its way to shore where it collapsed onto the sandy bank, the water running red around it.
“Yes!” ShadowHog punched the air. “We did it!”
Max smiled. ShadowHog was like an overly excited puppy. “Well, you did most of it. All I did was stand here.”
“Aw, come on, Murf, we both know that dino would have gotten away if you hadn’t thought of breaking away from the others.” ShadowHog beamed. “They’d have lost sight of it around this rocky part.”
“He’s not wrong there.”
They both turned around at the voice. Rednex stepped out of the jungle, a beat-up rifle over one shoulder. “Good job, you two. We’d have lost that kill if you had just followed us. Especially since Bullet wasn’t much help there.”
They all turned to look down at the nets, where Bullet57 was struggling to free himself from the damaged fishing equipment he had become entangled in.
“I can’t take much credit,” ShadowHog said. “It was Murf’s idea to split up.”
Rednex nodded. “I like it. I guess you’re used to coming up with visionary alternatives. Keep it up, though, and you’ll be a true Ravager in no time. Now come on, let’s go back and celebrate. We’ll leave Bullet to figure out how to get the kill back to base.”
ShadowHog laughed as he followed after Rednex. “His loss!”
Max stayed behind, staring into the back of Rednex’s head as he walked away, humming a catchy tune to himself.
There’s no way…Max thought to himself.
Chapter Forty-Five
“He said what?” Pez handed Max a cup of coffee and they headed for the sofa, ready for the next conference call with Chopsticks and Sam.
“That I’m ‘used to coming up with visionary alternatives.’” Max arched an eyebrow at Pez who didn’t seem to understand the relevance. “It’s the name of a certain company?”
“Ooh. From Murf’s profile.” Pez stopped walking and turned to face Max, who nearly spilled his coffee sidestepping Pez. “How did Rednex know where Murf works?”
“Exactly.” Max sank onto the sofa and grabbed a cookie from the box which lay on its side on the table. “No one should know. Aside from me and Jag, no one’s ever actually seen the profile, and you guys only know what I’ve told you. All the user data for Terra Verse is super encrypted and can only be accessed by people who work for Terra Verse and even then, they need to have clearance. No one can just go and look at someone else’s profile. At least that’s what Jag said.”
Pez pulled out his phone and used it to switch on the TV, changing it over to the Jabber app. He swept up a handful of cookies as he sat down and crunched one thoughtfully. “So, they do have insider knowledge.”
“Who has what now?” Chopsticks asked as his face appeared on one-half of the screen.
“Hey, how is it going?” Max asked.
“Good. We made a lot of progress last night with the base. Pez finished replacing the wall with stone, we’ve improved the spikes around the foundations, and Sam’s put a load more traps in the jungle,” Chopsticks began. “And I managed to tame a pair of Torosaurus this morning, one for the battering ram and one spare. Sam doesn’t even know yet.”
“Sam doesn’t know what yet?” Sam asked as she logged onto the call.
“I tamed two Torosauruses,” Chopsticks said. “And one of them is a big female. We can use her to take the doors down. Also, I’ve been using the Iguanodons to help me get a big harvest of Igni-Beans for fuel. I think I have enough to make some Molotovs.”
“We’re looking good.” Sam leaned slightly forward in her seat as she looked at Max and Pez. “So why do you two look as if you won the lottery and lost your ticket?”
“Max has some news.” Pez leaned a
way from Max. “It’s not good.”
“What’s not good?” Chopsticks asked. “I thought it was all good?”
“One of the Ravagers said something to me,” Max replied.
“What? He upset you and sent you home crying to your momma bad?” Chopsticks asked, his spirits still high after his recent tame.
“No, more like he knows where Max’s momma lives and could come around and slit her throat while she sleeps kind of bad.” Pez’s words were not helpful at all.
“You told him where your mom lives?” Chopsticks asked incredulously.
“No! Rednex knows who Murf is in real life.” Max frowned. “If he existed in real life.”
“Oh.” Sam put her hands to her mouth. “Does he know it’s made up?”
“I don’t think so. It was a passing comment, but he mentioned that tag phrase from the real-life company Murf is supposed to work at. There’s no way he could have connected it to me unless he knew Murf’s ‘real’ name.” Max shook his head and took a bite of a cookie. As he crunched it, he went over all the conversations he’d had with any of the Ravagers crew. There was no way he’d let anything slip.
“So, you’re saying that whoever they are involved with has access to a player’s private information?” Sam asked coolly.
“Yes.” Max nodded. “I can’t think of another explanation.”
“Crap.” Pez put his head in his hands. “What are we getting ourselves involved with?”
“It’s not worth the risk,” Chopsticks told them. Pez really should not have mentioned anything about anyone’s mother.
“So that’s it?” Sam asked in disbelief. “You’re just going to quit and walk away?”
“Revenge in-game is not worth risking our real lives for, is it?” Chopsticks asked. “We’ve all heard the rumors of people being targeted from inside Terra Verse. And now we know that they’re not just rumors. I don’t want that to happen to me. Or my mom.”
“If we’re that worried, we could always ask Jag to cover our tracks,” Sam suggested. “He can alter details and make us disappear.”