The Player Blackout

by Lucas Flint

  Deciding to change the subject, I said, “What about Sally and my friends and family?”

  “What about them?” asked Chuck.

  My scowl deepened. “Are they okay? Can I talk to them?”

  “You know the rules,” said Chuck, his old, professional demeanor slipping back on like a cracked mask. “You are not allowed to speak to anyone from your former life and they are not allowed to know you are even still alive.”

  “But I spoke to Sally,” I said. “I told her that I’m still alive.”

  “Did she believe you?” said Chuck. “I doubt it. Given the advancements in voice-changing technology over the last few decades, it would be trivially easy for someone to fake your voice in order to trick her. I doubt she’s given your conversation a second thought since it happened.”

  My hands balled into fists. “Can you at least talk to her for me, Chuck? Give her a message?”

  “Why should I do that?” asked Chuck. “That would be going against Project Second Life’s protocols.”

  “Screw protocols,” I said. I jerked a thumb at my chest. “You yourself said that if the Blackout continues, this will be the end of Capes Online and Project Second Life. But did it ever occur to you that it will be the end of your career as well?”

  Chuck went unnaturally still, which made me wonder if something had interrupted his connection before he said, “I do not understand.”

  I spread my arms. “The Department of VR exists to regulate VR games, right? And part of that regulation is protecting players. What kind of public outcry against the Department do you think will happen if the Blackout continues and thousands—tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands—even millions of Americans die?”

  For the first time, I saw a hint of worry cross Chuck’s features. “It would not be our fault. It would be SI Games’ fault for—”

  “No, no, no,” I said, wagging a finger in Chuck’s face. “This is totally your fault. You said the hacker and leaker are the same. What if the hacker/leaker decides to leak that information out to the public?”

  Chuck gulped. “Well, that would be—”

  “And I know that the President doesn’t really like you guys in the first place,” I continued. “Maybe your failure to prevent the Blackout will be just the excuse the President needs to shutter your Department. And if that happens, I don’t think you’ll just get shunted off to another Department. Most likely, every last one of you guys will end up homeless on the street. Who wants the guys who couldn’t stop the deaths of millions of innocent people working for them?”

  Chuck, apparently, had nothing to say to that, but I did notice a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

  Putting my hands on my hips, I said, “But if my Team and I can stop Dark Kosmos, then we can avert that. The Department can keep going, you and your coworkers can keep your jobs, and everyone will be happy. But if we choose not to stop Dark Kosmos—”

  “You wouldn’t,” said Chuck.

  I shrugged. “We still have freedom of choice here, Chucky. And I’m the Team Leader. I can still go back if I want to. Heck, seeing as I live here, I won’t even have to worry about dying in the real world, since I’m already dead there. You, on the other hand, have everything to lose if my Team and I don’t succeed here.”

  Chuck’s fingers twitched. “What do you want?”

  “Simple,” I said. “In exchange for saving Capes Online from Dark Kosmos, I want you to give Sally a message. Tell her I am okay and that I hope to see her again one day.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” I said. “You don’t have to tell her anything else if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to mention Capes Online if you want. But you do need to tell her that I am alive. Deal?”

  I knew how harsh I sounded, and frankly, I was bluffing a little, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t making up anything I said. Everything I predicted could very well happen if Dark Kosmos wasn’t destroyed. I was just tired of playing by the rules of everyone else, of not getting to talk to Sally or anyone else from my former life. I might have just been another player in-game, but that didn’t mean I had to lie down and take the various beatings life gave me.

  Chuck was silent for what felt like forever before he said, in a soft voice, “Very well. I accept your offer. If you can defeat Dark Kosmos and save Capes Online, I will personally visit Sally and inform her of your survival, which I will not tell anyone else.”

  “Good,” I said, nodding. “I know I could trust you, Chucky. You seem like a reasonable guy. Glad to see I didn’t misjudge you.”

  Chuck scowled. “I can accept ‘Chuck,’ but ‘Chucky’ is—”

  Chuck’s avatar froze mid-sentence. Then it flashed in and out before disappearing entirely, leaving me standing alone in the storage closet, confused and startled.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  A few seconds after Chuck disappeared, I suddenly heard a ping in my inbox and saw that I got another message from Chuck. Opening the message, it read thus:

  Nyle—

  Sorry for disappearing like that. It appears Dark Kosmos became aware of what we were doing and cut me off before I could finish speaking. He will probably plug the hole I am sending this message through as well, so this might be the last time we can talk for a long time so I would advise not to respond to this message.

  Our agreement still stands. If you can defeat Dark Kosmos, I will talk to Sally. You can be assured of that.

  I frowned. I still didn’t like Chuck all that much, but hey, if he was going to keep his end of the deal, then that meant I had to keep mine. Not that I intended to run away either way. I just wanted to make sure I would get at least something out of this whole ordeal, even if it was something as small as the knowledge that Sally would know I am still alive.

  Shaking my head, I exited the storage closet and was immediately bombarded by multiple questions from my Teammates all at once:

  “Who were you talking to?”

  “What did they say?”

  “Are we going to get out of here? Are people dying in the real world right now?”

  “Does anyone want to see my new dance moves?”

  Everyone looked at Cy, who had asked that last question. He was smiling as always and said, “Is that a yes?”

  As one, the rest of my Team shifted their gaze from Cy to me. I heard Cy mutter something about how no one appreciated dance, but I ignored his comments in order to tell everyone what happened.

  I explained as quickly as I could what happened in the closet. I had to omit certain details, like Project Second Life and my exact relationship to the Department, but I managed to give a good rundown nonetheless. Everyone listened intently, especially Funky, who gazed at me so intently that I felt like he was trying to read my mind.

  “And so it looks like the only way to free everyone is to stop Dark Kosmos,” I concluded. “SI Games is still working hard to free us, but they haven’t had a whole lot of luck so far.”

  “Dang,” said Dillo. He looked like I had just sucker punched him. “It sounds even worse than I imagined. Two days have passed already?”

  “The human body can survive without food for about three weeks,” said Recover. “So it won’t be that much longer before we start seeing the first player deaths.”

  “Who is to say we haven’t already?” said Funky. “I could easily imagine SI Games keeping that a secret from both the government and the public in an attempt to engage in damage control. Only they have access to that player information, after all. Some of the older or sicker players might have died already.”

  “I know,” I said, “but whether anyone has died or not, that’s why we need to keep moving forward. Defeating Dark Kosmos is our only shot at saving everyone.”

  “Didn’t the Department agent say that Dark Kosmos is undefeatable, though?” said Dillo. He was rubbing his hands together anxiously. “If so, then maybe this entire mission is doomed to failure.”

  “What choice do we have a
t this point?” I said. I looked around at my Teammates. “Are any of you guys planning to turn tail and run? Even if you did, would that solve, well, anything? Would that change the fact that all of us are going to die for real if we don’t stop Dark Kosmos?”

  Of course, I knew that I wasn’t going to die, or any of the other Project Second Life Participants, for that matter. But I still didn’t want to share that particular fact with the rest of the Team yet. The Department of VR might not be able to access the game right now, but I didn’t want to find out what their reaction would be if I told even just a few people outside of the government and SI Games what I really was.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Funky agreed. He stroked Lennox’s tiny head. “Regardless of whether or not the Department or SI Games can save us, we need to do this. Failure is not an option, unlike in normal missions. We fail here, we die in real life.”

  “What about that hacker within the Department?” asked Dillo anxiously. “The one who freed Dark Kosmos in the first place? Do you think he might be here in-game, too?”

  I bit my lower lip. “I wouldn’t worry about him. From what Charles told me, it sounded like the hacker is not a player himself, but someone from outside the game. He’s probably laying low now that there’s an investigation within the Department searching for him. Or he should be if he’s smart.”

  “Why would anyone do this?” asked Recover, stroking her long, dark hair with a disturbed look on her face. “Unleash a powerful NPC who isn’t finished yet, risking the lives of millions of innocent people from all over the globe in the process … it doesn’t make sense. It seems like the actions of a madman.”

  “There have been dictators throughout history whose mad ideology makes more sense than whatever this guy is doing,” said Funky, “but I agree with Winter. We have no choice but to keep going forward. Dark Kosmos is somewhere within this Hideout and the sooner we find him, the sooner we get the answers to our questions that we’re looking for.”

  Dillo gulped. “Or the sooner we die.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said, holding up a hand. “Keep thinking positively. There may yet be a way to stop Dark Kosmos, no matter how ‘undefeatable’ he might be.”

  “I agree,” said Cy, popping up next to me all of a sudden. He struck a pose. “I always think positively. In fact, I’m the most positive guy on the planet. I never think negative thoughts. Ever.”

  I looked at Cy deadpan. “Weren’t you the one telling me we should hide inside our Base until someone else took care of Dark Kosmos?”

  Cy bit his lower lip. “Well, we all have our moments of weakness, don’t we?”

  I shook my head, wondering just how much longer I was going to have to put up with Cy’s antics, and then said to everyone else, “Anyway, I think it’s time we moved forward. Thanks to Omega Burst, we know Dark Kosmos is aware of us and monitoring our every move. The longer we stay in one place, the more likely it becomes that Dark Kosmos’ minions come after us. Let’s go.”

  -

  The journey up to the first floor didn’t take too much time, but during that walk, we were all silent, aside, of course, from Cy, who was rambling to Brawn about the best way to cook ramen noodles in summer. No one really paid attention to his rambling, however, probably because we were all focused on the news we learned from Charles.

  It was indeed grim news. The part that most disturbed me was the revelation that Dark Kosmos was not just an NPC, but some kind of prototype for ‘digital life.’ I didn’t know for sure what that meant. Did that mean Dark Kosmos was a real person like us? Did he have rights like us? If the world became aware of him, would he be allowed to apply for US citizenship (or citizenship of whatever country he wants to live in) and get the right to vote, among other things?

  If this digital life thing took off—which seemed unlikely to me, given the current situation—what was to stop Dark Kosmos from taking his case to the Supreme Court to determine his citizenship and personhood? Dark Kosmos v. United States Federal Government seemed odd, but I knew from history that there had been plenty of oddball Supreme Court cases over the years.

  I wondered how my Dad would rule on such an issue. Unlike Dad, I wasn’t a lawyer, much less a constitutional scholar, but it still made me wonder what he would think if something like that happened. I knew for a fact that Dad didn’t care very much for video games, which he always saw as a waste of time. I kind of agreed with him—I didn’t graduate from the police academy by spending all my time playing games, after all—but it was always fun to poke fun at Dad for his dislike of modern video games when I knew for a fact he was a big fan of the classics like those games with plumbers or that one game where you chased ghosts around in a maze.

  Thinking about all the times I poked fun at Dad for his inconsistencies put a smile on my face and then Cy suddenly said, “Oh my God!”

  I started and looked at Cy in surprise. “Cy, what’s the problem? Did you see something?”

  “Nope,” said Cy, shaking his head as we walked. “I just noticed you smiling.”

  I frowned. “Is that really so unusual?”

  “Yes,” said Cy, nodding. “You’re always frowning or scowling. And if there’s one thing that my parents taught me, it’s that ‘frowning’ and ‘scowling’ have the word ‘ow’ in them, while the word smile has the word ‘mile’ or maybe slime if you move the letters around a little bit.”

  My frown deepened. “I don’t get it.”

  “Point is, you should smile more,” said Cy, slapping me on the back. “Yeah, things look grim, but Heroes always smile. At least in public. Of course, Villains smile, too, but usually whenever they’re torturing someone or getting away with a crime. But you get what I mean.”

  I rolled my eyes, although for once I couldn’t really argue Cy’s point. Even so, I didn’t feel like smiling. Cy speaking was a reminder that I would never see or speak to Dad ever again. That was another reason why I was determined to punch out whoever had gotten me put into this game. It might not solve my problems, but it would definitely make me feel better, at least.

  A few minutes later, we emerged out into what Funky said was the lobby of the Hall of Justice, or, as it was now known, Dark Kosmos’ Hideout.

  I didn’t know what the Hall of Justice looked like normally, but I was pretty sure that the huge marble statues of Dark Kosmos lining the walls were a new addition. The heavy darkness that hung in the air, somewhat obscuring the lights on the ceiling, made me feel like we were still in the Sewers. Most importantly, however, was the complete lack of people. There weren’t even any minions or anyone sitting behind the greeting desk. A water fountain spewing black water stood in the center of the massive lobby, but even it was silent.

  As soon as we entered the lobby, however, a new notification popped up in my view:

  You have entered: Dark Kosmos’ Hideout. Due to being Heroes in a Villain Hideout, all party members suffer a 10% decrease in all Stats as long as you are in here.

  “What the heck?” I said, reading the notification. I pulled up my character sheet and saw a 10% stat debuff applied to all my Stats across the board except my Hero Stats. “Funky, what is this?”

  “Oh, right,” said Funky, who I could tell was also reading the notification. “In Capes Online, players who enter the Base or Hideout of a character with the opposing Alignment suffer Stat debuffs for as long as they are inside said Base our Hideout. For example, if a Hero enters a Villain’s Hideout, then you will suffer a Stat debuff, though the exact amount depends on the level of the Hideout owner and exactly how much of a Hero you are. Vice versa for Villains entering a Hero’s Base.”

  “And you didn’t think to mention that before we entered Dark Kosmos’ Hideout?” I asked.

  Funky shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. I keep forgetting how new you are to the game.”

  “Doesn’t bother me,” said Recover with a shrug. She patted her Costume. “One of the benefits of my Healer’s Suit is that I don’t suffer these debuffs when I en
ter a Villain’s Hideout. Of course, I’m just a Healer, so if we have to fight … well, sorry.”

  I groaned. “We’re really going to have to work on communication if we’re going to be an effective Team.”

  “On the bright side, I don’t see any baddies around,” said Cy, looking around the lobby. “But what is that?”

  Cy pointed at what looked like a glowing red pad on the opposite side of the lobby. It looked big enough for ten people to stand on and stood out sharply against the modernistic lobby, looking more like something out a sci-fi novel than reality.

  “A Teleportation Pad,” said Funky. “Remember what I said about how that’s how people get around here? It looks unprotected, so we should use it now before Dark Kosmos tries to stop us.”

  “What if there are traps?” said Dillo. He glanced at the floor. “My Trap Sense isn’t tingling, but it also isn’t very high-leveled yet. Wouldn’t put it past Dark Kosmos to booby-trap his own Hideout. Lots of Villains do that.”

  “Then find a way to test it for—” I was interrupted by a loud whirring sound that I couldn’t identify at first until Cy suddenly pointed and said, “Look! Someone’s coming!”

  Cy was pointing at the Teleportation Pad, which was now glowing dangerously bright. Energy sparked and crackled along its flat surface as the whirring sound grew louder and louder, practically drowning out even my own thoughts.

  Knowing I wouldn’t be heard if I shouted, I sent a Team chat:

  Me: Everyone, get ready! We have no idea who Dark Kosmos sent after us, so don’t lower your guard!

  As soon as I sent that message, the Teleportation Pad exploded.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Bright, shining red light exploded from the Teleportation Pad, briefly expelling the shadows around us. The light didn’t hurt, but it did force us to close or cover our eyes to avoid getting blinded. The light didn’t last long, however, and soon it went away, allowing us to lower our hands from our faces to see who had arrived.