Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  Requiem shuffled his feet, then peeked at Xin. “Figuring this out took me two months to grind out and was one of the last things I did before the beta closed.”

  “Stop your useless attempts at impressing another man’s woman,” Wraith said.

  “That’s not it,” the younger man muttered.

  I shook my head. There was no doubt in my mind that Xin would stay loyal. She had always been forthright in her feelings to everyone. It had taken me years to even get close to her. Such a hard-won person wouldn’t be fickle no matter how longingly Requiem gazed.

  “There’s no need to worry, Wraith. I can hate someone and respect their hard work,” Xin summed up her point of view.

  Voices help me, but I snickered loudly. Requiem’s glare caught me in one of the pools. In a completely separate pool, I caught a reflection of the space under Xin’s robe. The sight was startling enough to make me double-take. All thoughts of Requiem were gone as I realized she had nothing on under the thick black robe. I almost laughed even harder. My wife was a keeper in every single way.

  “Xin’s not so easy to sway,” I said.

  It was unlikely that Requiem’s personality would work for her anyway. She was high speed, adventurous, and sneaky with her fierceness. Even now, Xin’s free hand was typing in the air and sending a message. The box popped up. I wasn’t sure if now would be a good time to read it.

  Hecate: Ever wanted to have sex on an alien planet?

  Hermes: I think it’s on the list.

  Hecate: What else is on the list?

  Hermes: A lot of things. But you saw Shazam’s message. Time’s running out.

  Hecate: Pick one then. If you had one day left to make the best memory ever, what would you do?

  Her last question made me shiver. I nearly looked up but froze at the last moment. Xin’s hand squeezed mine.

  “You don’t have to answer,” she said.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to freeze,” I whispered while closing my eyes. The question struck far too close to home. It was the sort of inquiry I had spent many nights contemplating.

  “We can only take it one day at a time.” My wife’s hands rubbed my bare arm.

  We weren’t in chilled water. This place felt neither warm nor cold. Sand squished unevenly with each step. Behind us, our footsteps faded away as if they had never been.

  “What are you two talking about?” Wraith rumbled nearby. “Lovers’ talk perhaps?” Giant horns bobbed up and down while he rambled. “I know a fabulous demon of lust who might be able to provide tips if your wife has already grown bored of you.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Xin’s hand tightened while her head tilted. She glanced at the demon, then cast her eyes down. We were both having a hard time preventing ourselves from looking up.

  “Her name is Katrina,” the large demon said with a rumble to his words. “She’s excellent at telling men tricks to better pleasure women and keep them coming back.”

  “No, thank you,” I said. Wraith meant well, I thought, but dealing with a demon of lust scared me after having to suffer the Voice herself. “I’ve had enough help from Mezo.”

  The greater demon paused. I turned to look at him, and the giant’s body almost vibrated with excitement. His wings fluttered and his head tilted to one side. Other parts of him also looked excited. I shook my head, and Xin closed her eyes slowly. The image of a towering demon being excited in all the wrong aspects seared its way into my brain. There might not be enough virtual reality bleach left on [Arcadia].

  “Truly? You know the Voice of Lust herself?” Wraith asked.

  “Jesus, really? What is wrong with you all?” Requiem turned and looked back at us. I couldn’t see his expression completely because we were trying not to look up, but the tilt of his head showed clear interest.

  “Yeah. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

  We walked after Requiem. The young teen kept grumbling and moving farther away. I noticed that some of the puddles displayed sickly versions of [Arcadia]. Or had holes. Almost like the planet below was made of Swiss cheese.

  “You are the best brother!” Wraith cared not for my disturbing discovery and laughed in a boom.

  I swore his giant bull horns curved into a second grin while Xin shook her head. “I wish you luck. I have Xin, and that’s all I’ll ever need.”

  “Ah, the Voice. To stand in her presence would be welcome enough.” The demon’s tail wiggled. “Not to downplay the attractiveness of your wife, brother, but Mezo, she is a Voice that can speak to my soul any day.”

  “To each their own,” I muttered, then looked at Xin.

  She was visibly upset by the conversation. Maybe because of that past near-violation that Mezo had visited upon me. That scene had been disturbing to live through but also reaffirmed where I stood on relationships. It was Xin or no one at all.

  “Would you like to dance?” I asked.

  My wife nodded as I put out both hands. A slow smile crossed her features as we joined together. We didn’t need to look up to dance. I hummed while my wife rested her head close to me. There, upon the surface of [The Moon’s Shore], we swayed to music no one else could completely hear.

  Our pace went fast enough. When Requiem got too far ahead, we [Blink]ed another ten yards in the right direction. Our feet barely avoided puddles. Having her next to me felt great. Lists, our insane quest, and jealous teens aside, dancing with her put me in another place where nothing else mattered. It was just us.

  Empty space hung overhead. It felt like being in Advance Online again, as if this place existed between game worlds. I wanted to look up but couldn’t see more than a hint of reflected starlight. The planet in those puddles looked so much like Earth that I thought we might be on the moon.

  “Did it look like this from space?” I asked my wife.

  “In parts, except for the breathing part and wearing these clothes,” Xin responded.

  “Hey!” the teen shouted. He sounded upset, but I didn’t feel like looking at him.

  “What?”

  “If you two would pay attention to anyone else, then you might realize we’re here!” Requiem looked angry.

  “Maybe you don’t need that demon’s help after all,” Wraith said dryly. After a pause, he started laughing again. His wide eyes could be seen through a mirror-like puddle.

  Requiem started marking out crosses on the sand for us to stand on. They were all located around a puddle with a planet reflected in its center. This version of [Arcadia] looked like every other one we had traveled by. How the teen knew which one to go for was beyond me. Maybe trial and error, or a system notice we weren’t receiving.

  “Everyone get ready. The same way we got in. Breathe in, then look up slowly,” he said.

  Requiem vanished, followed by Wraith and Xin.

  I looked at the reflection and worried about the holes piercing [Arcadia]. They were digital representations of the damage being done by [World Eater]s and the ongoing deletion process that would eventually claim Mother’s life. It was like knowing a friend was dying rapidly of aggressive cancer.

  My head tilted back. Then the world below was above me and below me. They flipped back and forth while I felt dizzy and pressure weighed upon my chest. My hands shot up, and I felt weightless as one place switched with the other.

  Xin’s lap felt comfortable. I didn’t know when she’d gotten her knees under my head, or how long I had been lying there. We sat on the edge of an ocean. Waves could be heard, along with the cries of birds overhead. Dawn colored part of the sky, what little was visible through my wife’s draping hair.

  “Are you all right?” she asked quietly.

  I shook my head and touched her face. “I saw the world. It looks bad.”

  “It is. But we’re going to figure out this next spot. I’m confident that whatever this Yates person left behind will make everything better,” she sounded firm.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  She tried to smile, but
it faltered. Then my wife closed her eyes and nodded slowly. Her uncertainty echoed my own. The pair of us were clearly dancing around the same future outlook.

  Heavy footsteps thudded by, jarring my mind out of the moment. Xin’s lap was comfortable, and any expression on the woman’s face beat a day without her at all. I sat up and saw an ocean that felt very different from the one at [Haven Valley].

  The black-haired teen was yelling from way farther down the shoreline. There were a few monsters nearby, generated by the game, but Wraith looked to be killing them quickly. Xin’s white skeleton monster had been summoned as well and was competing with the demon.

  We stood up, then walked silently toward our party members.

  “Good, the boat’s still here.” Requiem stood near a chest-high mound and started pulling back dead branches. Layers of items covered the object, disguising the boat.

  “This is yours?” Xin asked.

  The teen nodded while pulling off a final cloth cover. There was a rather solid-looking vehicle carved out of wood. Between the boards, black paste had been applied to seal potential leaks. The boat was big enough for two people tops. Assuming Wraith could fly, Requiem and I would need to go across together.

  “I’m going to autopilot and take care a few things before we get too far,” Requiem said. “We’ll need to put in a few hours on the boat, then we’ll be ashore.”

  I looked at Xin. “Can you recall to town and get any supplies you think we’ll need from the auction house?”

  “And my money,” Requiem said. Even his apparent drooling over Xin couldn’t overcome his need for money. It was another place where our priorities differed.

  “And half of his money. Twenty thousand. Then I’ll summon you back once we get ashore.”

  “Okay,” she said and nodded.

  She pulled out a scroll, then [Recall]ed back to [Haven Valley]. Part of me hoped she would run to the beam of light and vanish to safety.

  Requiem logged out, leaving behind a serious-looking autopilot. The pale version of Requiem inspected the docked boat for cracks. Items came out of his inventory, and a fresh layer of goop was applied. It might have come from a stockpile of crafted supplies, or he’d expected to need it all along.

  I followed suit and went about cleaning myself up. A quick nap, shower, and food gave me the energy needed to function. I felt as though we were entering a home stretch. At the very least, I wanted the next day in game to pass without interruption from the real world.

  An hour later, I logged back into the Atrium and saw Dusk sulking on a broken couch. His body looked absolutely huge compared to the version I first met. He had been the size of a very small cat, but now he looked equivalent to a medium-sized dog.

  “The world’s ending. Are you going to come, or sit and pout all day?” I asked.

  Dusk lifted his head and puffed a fireball at me. I dodged quickly, unsure if the fire would actually hurt me inside the Atrium. The [Messenger’s Pet] had proven more than once not to care about system programming. He could apparently alter portions of the ARC to suit himself.

  I stood in a new spot, watching for further aggression while contemplating this standoff. Dusk and I had been together everywhere, and four real-life days without him felt downright weird.

  Finally, I decided on a method that would satisfy me, annoy him, and probably still be okay. It would involve ruining the anniversary present I had prepared to buy him. We had only been together in real-world time for around half a year. With the ARC programs crashing, maybe there would never be a better time.

  “ARC!” I told the machine above.

  “Awaiting input,” it responded.

  “Buy the one-year package.” My hand went up before the machine could ask for confirmation. “Yes, buy it.”

  Dusk stared at me with his head tilted. A dozen cupcakes appeared, centered around the dragon. They had wings. This program was actually customized. I’d bought a chasing game for virtual cats where creatures flew around, but instead of birds or other crunchables, I’d asked the designer for cupcakes.

  The [Messenger’s Pet] went absolutely crazy when they all took off in separate directions. His tail went in one direction while claws scrambled in the other. My couch was knocked over as the large creature spread his wings. One of the cupcakes got knocked around while others darted by his nose at high speeds.

  I stood there laughing. One of the cupcakes started chasing me, which only increased the chaos. At some point, Dusk ended up with a pile of five or six large crushed cupcakes. Bits of pink frosting layered upon his wings and everything else. For my part, I was huffing from exertion. Even though the Atrium version of me should have been tougher, the action got my real-life heartrate up.

  “There.” I gestured to the defeated mess of baked goods. “When you have the urge to chase something, can you come here and do it instead?”

  Dusk cocked his head to one side and lowered his ears in my direction.

  “No, of course I’m not still mad. I’m sorry I grabbed you,” I responded. “We were in the middle of trying to help everyone and didn’t have time for playing with the lesser monsters.”

  The [Messenger’s Pet] whined a little, then gave a noise that sounded like a bird and cat mixed together. His increased size turned the sound into a choppy deep mix.

  “Do you want to keep going? There’s…” I took a breath as Dusk walked over. “There’s not much time left, I think.”

  He sat on thick hind legs and gazed at me. I sat on my rear, which put us at nearly the same height. One eyebrow went up as I tried to figure out what was going through Dusk’s mind without system messages.

  Every minute out here was four not in the game world. After my nap, we had to be getting close to the island. It had been visible from the shoreline. I leaned back and looked at the dark doorway to Continue Online.

  A long tongue licked my face. I fell over and quickly looked at Dusk. My hand lifted to wipe away the fresh mess. Cupcake slobber created a trail of gross.

  “All right. Fine.” I looked at his face. The small beast had been with me since day one of this adventure. Leaving him behind didn’t feel right. “Birthday present respawn! Attack pattern dive bomb!”

  A dozen fresh cupcakes spawned into existence. This time, they didn’t run away or scatter but went straight for Dusk’s face. It was the first time I had ever see him run from a dessert.

  I laughed abruptly and ran through the doorway to Continue Online. The sound of thick nails scrambling against my Atrium floor quickly trailed behind.

  My body slid into the Hermes avatar with only a brief bit of disorientation. The trail of dragon slobber on my face faded. Cupcake bits also vanished. Those sensations were replaced by a salty smell and ocean breeze.

  I looked around. We had apparently made it to the island’s shore. All four of us stood on a dock. The material looked solid and well-built. This spot was at least twenty feet wide and had stairs made of thick bricks going down either side for boats. I looked off the edge and saw our tiny wooden vessel, sitting there indifferently.

  “Are we all here?” Requiem asked.

  I looked at Xin and wondered when my autopilot had summoned her. The idea bothered me a bit, that it would perform actions within my character.

  “Good. First, my money.” He put out a hand.

  Xin looked at me, and I shrugged. She handed over a huge bag that clinked with coins. Requiem lifted it, testing the weight. He nodded and put it into a backpack then poked fingers at air to check the actual figures.

  “All right,” he said.

  “What can you tell us about this place?” My wife voiced the question for all of us.

  “Once we step off the docks onto the actual sand, things will get weird.” Requiem pointed to the concrete ending. “We’ll be teleported inside somewhere and need to make our way to the maze’s center. At least, I think that’s what we need to do.”

  “Do you know which way to go?”

  Requiem shook his head
. His eyebrows lowered and lips tightened.

  “What do you know?” I asked.

  For once, he answered. “No one has made it even halfway. The last time I tried, it took six days for my supplies to run out. After that, my character starved to death and I had to release back to my bind point.”

  Wraith chuckled.

  “Anything else?” Xin asked.

  “Nothing I’m sure enough of. We’ll take it one step at a time inside,” Requiem said.

  My wife nodded, and we walked down the pier’s length. The forest in front of us looked plain. A steep hill loomed overhead, but there were no signs of wildlife.

  “You ready, babe?” I asked.

  “For adventure? Always.” She smiled at me.

  Requiem looked disgusted and stepped off first. Wraith chuckled as always, then moved next. Xin and I stepped onto the sand, hand in hand.

  We made it five feet before being hit by the teleportation. There was a sense of energy warming my belly, then digging in with a giant hook. It yanked me sideways, and the vision of Xin’s face and the island shore bled into a new location. I lost focus as she dripped away.

  The motion felt unkind compared to the moon’s gentle, dizzying swap. Using [Blink] repeatedly for months hadn’t prepared me for this. This reminded me of the [Red Imp] being summoned. Disorienting and a sense of immeasurable distance.

  “Where are we?” I asked as vision cleared.

  I rolled onto my side and checked all fingers and toes for a change of body dimensions. Eyesight locked on my hands until it became clear that these were not small red chubby fingers. This was not a demon’s body. Everything had remained Hermes.

  The warmth from Xin’s hand dimmed. I reached out as the fog cleared to try to find her. As seconds passed, it became apparent that no one was around me.

  Not only had we been teleported inside, but I was alone. That annoyed me. I knelt, then started scribbling out Dusk’s summoning portal. A moment later, I chanted the key phrase, while thinking about how many cupcakes Dusk had already been given, and watched the golden light flare up.

  The illumination faded, and the form of a hesitant and confused Dusk could be seen. He looked at me, then around at our location, and hissed. His body started vanishing away.