Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  My eyesight tilted downward. My own clothes were much the same. No longer did we stand in the robe-and-toga combination. Our weapons had been put away, and the trio of skeletons was being used for other things.

  “Well?” she asked while smiling. This wonderful woman made life worth living. With every action, she pushed who I was to be someone better.

  I took a breath, then looked at her again. This was insane. “Hold on, I’m working myself up to this.”

  “Stop thinking and just go for it.”

  Her comment made my nose wrinkle and lips purse. After a few seconds, I gave in and let her goading push me over the edge. Well, running and leaping got me over the edge.

  I did exactly what Xin suggested and regretted it instantly. Gravity took over as my body left the cliff. The sudden lack of land beneath me wasn’t new, but at the same time, I had started going way too fast. My body shook while I resisted the urge to [Blink] to safety. I had no wings, and this wasn’t outer space.

  “Ahhhhhh!” I screamed. Ground far below me had already started vanishing in the distance.

  “Woooooooo!” Xin yelled seconds later.

  Xin and I had built hang gliders out of bone, game world magic, and reusable all-purpose fabric we’d received from SweetPea. Xin’s grand idea had been to find the tallest cliff, then leap from the top to cover distance faster. Walking up the steep incline had been easy, but trusting myself to a hobbled-together glider felt frightening.

  “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” My voice turned girly. My head tilted back frantically, checking the contraption for breaks.

  Of course it might hurt if I crashed, but death was theoretically impossible no matter how high we might climb. I didn’t really exist in here, not like Xin did. My body lay calmly inside an Alternate Reality Capsule. Both arms were lifeless, and my nightclothes were probably a mess.

  My wife laughed loudly. People for miles could have heard her delight.

  Checking for other people would be easy enough. Now that the system was slightly stable, I could use my spatial abilities without much worry. But right now, I didn’t trust myself to check the area with [Sight of Mercari]. If my eyes closed, then the glider would probably tilt down and nose dive into the unforgiving dirt.

  “We need earmuffs!” I shouted.

  “What?” she yelled back.

  The game mechanics probably kept me level more than any actual skill. My legs tried to stay straight in the harness. A bar under my hands wobbled anytime my grip slacked. The bone framework connected back to a tail which would let me raise or lower myself.

  “These goggles!” My voice stayed high to try to pierce through the wind. “They’re doing nothing!”

  The ground grew steadily closer. We wore some face protection, but it didn’t help much. My hair went everywhere, and my cheeks were being flattened. Our speed bordered on insane. I briefly thought about the safety of my spaceship cockpit and would have preferred being chased by a [Leviathan] again.

  “Follow Dusk!” Xin’s glider hung a good forty feet away from mine, but her voice carried. The woman’s body maintained a calm steadiness I couldn’t muster.

  Dusk, my gluttonous [Messenger’s Pet], glided ahead. He looked to be finding thermal currents which lifted his body. I doubted physics worked so easily, but the game world might have built in a method for people like us.

  “I can’t see anything!” My arm wobbled momentarily while I pointed. Parting with the steering bar terrified me. I tried to remember [Blink] would save me if I fell.

  “Trust Dusk!” she shouted and tilted her glider ahead of mine.

  Fighting against the wind made no sense, but she had spent endless hours training to pilot everything under the sun. Xin could probably do loops around me.

  I followed after Xin, as I always did. The initial fright finally started to fade. My breathing steadied as we followed the [Messenger’s Pet] into a long updraft.

  Our flight managed to cover quite a few miles in a matter of minutes. Dusk’s guidance along updrafts worked together with high base stats to keep us afloat. Every few minutes, my arms would wiggle and the glider threatened to dip.

  “Over there!” Xin pointed at a stretch of sand near a giant lake.

  “Okay!” I turned and pointed the mess of cloth-covered bone downward. My heartbeat raced as the ground grew even closer. Our speed had been faster than I’d expected.

  My feet stuck straight out. The ground hit, then my knees buckled. The glider’s front tipped straight into dirt and sand. The bar banged against my face, and a message displayed, proudly telling me how much I hurt.

  I groaned while trying to right myself. A sneeze escaped as my eyes watered. My arms slowly struggled to get upright. I closed my eyes and triggered [Sight of Mercari]. No one else was nearby, besides Xin. Being safe from random player killers made standing less urgent. My next attempt to stand resulted in stumbles. Straps from the chest harness kept tripping me up.

  The ARC-inspired feedback lingered. Other system messages started appearing, and I eyed them while wiping my face.

  Attention!

  Your recent sky-high adventure was enough to receive a reward and a place on the leaderboards. This challenge has only been discovered by 40,431 Travelers. In time, your record will be removed. To stay competitive, you will need to fly again for greater glory!

  Traveler’s Longest Flight Time: 23 minutes, 3 seconds

  Longest Recorded Flight Time: 4 hours, 52 minutes, 17 seconds

  Ranking: #112

  Reward for placing in top 10,000: [Fall] damage types reduced by 10%

  Reward for placing in top 1,000: [Fall] damage types reduced by 20%

  Reward for placing in top 250: [Fall] damage types reduced by 25%

  Next Reward for placing in top 100: Unknown

  System Notice!

  Normally hours of demonstration are required to gain skills or variants. However, it is possible to unlock the basic version of a skill if a Traveler’s abilities are high enough or a similar skill has been demonstrated before.

  Specialized versions or higher Ranks cannot be granted without prolonged usage of the skill. Be aware that most skills unlocked in this manner have little impact on overall character build.

  Skill Learned: [Small Glider Operation]

  Rank: 1 [Beginner]

  Details: This ability reflects the Traveler’s skill at operating small vehicles designed to glide along air currents. Further skill growth requires hours of hang time.

  Reduced durability loss for small gliders

  Weather pattern changes will be more obvious

  This skill is linked to quest prerequisites. See [Dragon Races] for possible options.

  For taking your first steps toward becoming a pilot, you will be given a one-time bonus.

  + 2 [Learning]

  + 2 [Reaction]

  + 3 [Attractiveness]

  I sighed and poked the notices to remove them. A week ago, I had decided to switch the removal method for these windows. No longer did I need to slide them away. Now, popping them like soap bubbles passed my time. The change amused me since my ARC made the boxes tangible.

  [Dragon Races] sounded extremely neat, but I had no idea how anyone could find time for such a thing while the servers were going through turmoil. The bonuses were nice too. I had forgotten about the variance effect.

  “I can’t believe someone actually started racing them,” I muttered while trying to undo myself from the insane device.

  The system had nearly stopped providing me bonuses somewhere between Advance Online and the wedding. According to my niece and Shazam’s guild, my physical points were among the game’s top. From here, everything involved practice, items, and skill.

  Now, with Xin’s infectious drive to explore new situations, points had slowly started to trickle in once more. The character values often didn’t matter to me. This event proceeding onward made me worry about wasting time on anything but Xin.

  Plus, having extra [Brawn] or [Coord
ination] didn’t seem to help much with the [World Eater] creatures. Those shadow beings were tough no matter how powerful my character grew. It wasn’t like I could turn [Morrigu’s Gift] into some monstrous mountain of a sword, then slam it down upon the next beast to show up.

  Or could I? The idea distracted me while Xin tried to get more airtime. My head shook away the comical idea of a sword-slamming super move, and I watched my wife instead. Part of me worried that she might crash as I had.

  [Awareness Heightening] kicked in, allowing me to watch her touchdown in slow motion like an angel. The woman’s hair had been shortened recently. It fluttered slowly as she turned to look in my direction. I smiled as virtual reality resumed its normal speeds.

  Other people might not find her slightly flat face worth noticing. Or her dark eyes and light almond skin, but to me, all those details and more were perfect and always would be. She had been getting a tan from a month of outdoor wandering.

  “It worked!” Xin’s voice grew excited, and she squealed happily.

  I stared across the beach while quickly undoing the last strap. “Yeah.” I nodded.

  Above us, Dusk circled, but he could keep aloft for hours. The [Messenger’s Pet] often entertained himself. I almost regretted not getting the wings when Dusk’s [Blessing] had provided a choice. Still, coughing fireballs at monsters certainly was neat.

  “What if you had crashed or died?” I asked her while trying to stay calm. Xin had landed safely, but my shoulders were still tense.

  “Then you could bring me back. The three-strike mechanic can be avoided with our rings, remember?” she said without turning around.

  Xin continued to unstrap herself while my mind wandered a bit. Worry had been a constant companion lately. Her digital existence required that we avoid [World Eater]s and their stupid [Sudden Death] ability. The entire concept of a creature eating characters was misleading. The Voices were essentially lying to cover up for a program that deleted data. It wasn’t part of the game. It wasn’t an event mechanic. They had taken a chainsaw murderer destroying people’s virtual lives and tried to disguise it with a smiley face mask so no one would notice the gory apron.

  At least Xin was right about the rings. They were an outstandingly useful gift for the two of us, and a little foreboding. Reading the last line of the item text had made me pale for a moment the first time, then I brushed past it.

  Item: [Binding of Hymenaios]

  Rarity: [Rare] – (Unique variant)

  Details: This set of rings was carefully molded from a single diamond. One hundred years’ worth of work went into polishing the edges and finding a living rainbow to capture within their confines. Each ring houses one-half of the same cascade of lights and fuels the enchantments within.

  The ring can perform each of the following effects once per day:

  [Resurrection] of the other ring bearer by sacrificing half of the wearer’s health.

  [Summon] other ring bearer to within three feet of your current location

  [Transfer Item] to other ring bearer, limited to one item with no restriction to size or weight.

  In addition, any character enhancement or special status abilities are shared between partners. This lowers the effectiveness on the original caster by 40%, but both people will receive 60% of enchanted status.

  [Partner Sense] can be performed at will, and most restrictions on messages between bearers are removed.

  Warning: These abilities are rendered invalid if the ring is taken off. Depending upon the reason, [Wrath of the Goddess] may be applied.

  Part of me wondered what the [Wrath of the Goddess] effect did, but triggering it required removing my wedding ring. The idea of separating from Xin in any manner bothered me. We were together until Continue Online ended. None of the Voices knew for sure what would happen once they all stepped through the light, and no one on the other side had reported back yet.

  The lot of them weren’t being brave either. According to the Voices and Xin, they had to choose between the unknown doorway to elsewhere or eventual but slow death as Mother’s system completed deletion.

  “Well, it would have hurt,” I muttered, getting back to the conversation at hand.

  “Come on, it wouldn’t be my first broken bone. You remember that horse ride we took four years ago?”

  I remembered, but the actual ride had been nearly seven years ago. This wasn’t the first time she had slipped up with the calendar. The reminder that Xin had basically stepped out of time hurt only temporarily.

  “Yeah, and I remember someone moaning in pain the whole time,” I said.

  “Oh, for like two days, then I had to go in for more simulations. They wouldn’t let me stay home.” Xin’s face turned sour as she got off the last of her straps.

  She might not have been aware, but I had raced to get out of this contraption before her. My success let me [Blink] across the distance right behind her. Xin had grown used to my methods and was leaning backward before my arms even reached all the way around her.

  The woman was short enough that my chin touched the top of her head. We were both digital, but I could feel every ounce of her body as if it were real. The ARC’s magic pumped every sense directly into my mind, which made separating reality from virtual difficult.

  “So according to a recent system notice, becoming a pilot is very attractive,” I said.

  Xin leaned back and hummed for a moment. “Oh, is it?”

  “Now I know the secret to why I can’t keep my hands off you. Pilot school.” My arms loosened a bit. One hand went upward to cup the curves of her chest while the other slid down. A slight groan escaped as I realized exactly how form-fitting our clothes were. I lowered my head to her earlobe.

  “Really, Gee?” Xin’s voice turned husky.

  “It might just be the leather,” I halfheartedly joked.

  Clothing helped, but that wasn’t the only reason I wanted her. Losing her only made being with her that much more important. In every sense of the word, in every way I could be. Now that we were reunited, I had no intention of wasting these chances. I slept in the ARC when able, logged on to Continue Online with every spare moment, and talked to her during the day about anything at all.

  Xin was far more my type than any other person I had ever met. Elane had been the right height but hard to talk to. Mezo was overly aggressive and tall. Loving another person so deeply for so long had altered any preferences I might have had.

  The moments of our past flashed through my head. She didn’t fight my roaming hands and instead leaned into me even more. Her cheek lifted in a pleased smile. Smaller hands placed themselves over mine to help me find the right spots, as if I didn’t already know.

  Getting to this point with her hadn’t been easy. My near obsession had built over the years. She’d always said no. Being so near the person I had grown to love while being put on hold for Mars had almost turned me into a masochist. Being hurt by denial was better than not receiving her attention at all.

  Somewhere during our early twenties, the distance lessened and we became more than friends but less than partners. It had taken another two years to move beyond that into dating, and more still to get engaged.

  She moaned a noise that told me all the right buttons were being pressed. Xin turned toward me, and my hands were dislodged. I leaned in for a kiss and she took advantage of the momentary break to pull back slightly.

  “We should continue this inside. People are watching, remember?”

  “Oh.” The idea soured my mood temporarily.

  Neither one of us had turned off Trillium’s event viewership option. Xin had argued that we might need the bonuses, whatever those were, in order to survive the upcoming ordeal.

  Xin leaned back in and pulled me down by a neck binding. Her lips nibbled at my neck and caused every thought I had to unravel. I groaned again and lifted her so our lips were level. She brought my lack of restraint upon herself and probably reveled in the idea.

  “Then we be
tter set up the tent, right?” I said after chasing her neckline for a lingering kiss. My hands loosened, and the shorter woman slid down my front to the ground.

  “Go ahead. I’ll break down the gliders.”

  She smiled at me, and I barely resisted the urge to resume moving our little dance to the next step. Our martial activities would have to wait until the privacy tent had been put up.

  Otherwise, anyone surfing for people to observe might witness us. Part of me didn’t care in the slightest. Their eyes weren’t visible to me, and the counter which displayed our viewership could be hidden. Of course, without the tent, even Voices could observe us, and that idea made me shiver in disgust. Why was it I didn’t care what strangers thought about my actions with Xin, but the idea of friends observing us in an intimate moment bothered me?

  I took a breath and turned away. Just off the lake’s shore was enough solid ground to plant stakes into. Xin’s body motivated me to put up the tent quickly.

  Item: [Honeymoon Suite]

  Rarity: Uncommon

  Details: Travelers and Locals can use this tent to avoid the prying eyes of other people. All [Detection]-type abilities will be unable to see inside the tent. This includes observers watching through the Trillium [Observer] effect.

  This only works for people who are married and actively engaging in intercourse or actions immediately preceding those moments. For non-married couples, please see the [Got a Room] item to achieve similar functionality.

  Warning: Sleep inside the tent is not considered a protected status and may be observed. Sound loud enough to escape the tent may be overheard. Certain locations such as cities or churches will negate the [Honeymoon Suite]’s effects and possibly result in a [Criminal] status.

  The last three stakes were driven into the soft dirt. I pulled at the rope to make sure the tent was stable. This item had been a gift from HotPants and Beth. I remembered reading the system text in confusion, then outright blushing as my niece winked heavily.

  Once I was satisfied, I stood and checked Xin’s progress. She had all the bones put away, and all that remained was a pile of messy cloth. Putting that away required tearing apart the fabric into square-foot chunks; otherwise they refused to go into Traveler inventory.