Virtual Horizon

by Kris Schnee

  Horizon said, "I don't think so. Our home is a few miles east."

  "Your home?" the monk said.

  The humans and griffins looked each other over. Then at the same time the wizard said, "You're uploaders!" and Horizon said, "You're regular players!"

  "That's so weird," the swordsman said. "I've never met people who did the brain-scooping thing. Are you real? I mean, are you the same person?"

  "Pretty sure, yeah."

  "Billionaires," groused the monk.

  Horizon shook his head. "We're not. I tried to help somebody, is all. It didn't go well."

  The wizard said, "Then how did you get in?"

  The three real-world players built a campfire, with a surreal crafting method that worked a little differently than what Horizon had seen so far. More puzzle-based. By way of experiment, Nocturne caught a few more fish and roasted them on a stick while Horizon explained how he'd become an early adopter.

  Nocturne handed Horizon a burnt fish, saying, "How's the taste?"

  [Char-Grilled Fish], read the item description. [+5 Food. "Emphasis on char."]

  He took a bite. Burnt, yeah, but considerably better than raw. "So cooking actually matters now," he said. "We aren't just getting a generic fish taste."

  The swordsman said, "Never really thought about how eating works on that side of the screen. Wouldn't it be better to just not get hungry?"

  "Not at all! I'd rather have the problem and solve it."

  He checked on his stats to see if anything had changed. Not dramatically, it turned out:

  [Horizon

  PRIVATE INFO

  Account Type: Uploader

  Body: Griffin

  Main Skills: Flight 4, Magic 4, Brawling 3, Dodge 3, Diplomacy 2

  Main Stats: Knowledge, Power, Speed

  Talents: Hover, Spellbinder, Prop Master

  Magic: Wizard, Adept; Admin Portal Access

  Save Point: Sage Forest

  PUBLIC INFO

  Note: Available for cross-world adventure.

  Faction Flag: Knights of Talespace

  Class: Knight]

  He told the humans, "We're going to work hard and make this world fun for everybody, including players like you."

  The wizard looked thoughtful. "If this Talespace thing is actually going to save lives, then it needs to be a world. Not just an abstract fantasy map, even a single connected one."

  "Why?" asked Nocturne.

  "So people will care."

  Horizon said, "Looks like our zone is starting to be part of a bigger map with more people in it. But yeah, we're working on making it more than just an adventure zone."

  The humans conferred. One of them said, "We don't mind the adventuring, though! Want to tag along while we explore?"

  The five of them walked and flew toward the village, got a goblin-slaying quest from the foxes, and wandered to the south for fun. Along the way they found a cave where they battled giant rats for no reason but to explore deeper, see what they could do, and hunt for treasure. The main thing they found was a little box full of silver coins.

  Nocturne let the humans have it, saying, "I feel rich enough already."

  * * *

  Nocturne proposed to Horizon. He sputtered and blushed his way through a conversation about magic and clerics and what Ludo really stood for. But none of it was as important as the fact that his ever-curious, playful companion wanted to explore all of the worlds with him. The griffins were already a team, acting as referees, guidance counselors and technical support for the Game. Her mind was always learning and growing, he'd grown used to her fur and feathers and warmth, and her soul...

  She had one, surely, if he himself did. She was capable of sulking, of running low on patience and compassion. But he got to be the one to rub her shoulders and battle monsters with her until she recovered. What more could he possibly ask for in a wife, than a heroine in training who wanted him along?

  They got married in the real world, using robots, in what most people would consider a very unromantic place.

  It was green and gently hilly land in Europe, and was the domain of one of Ludo's uploaders: a German man who'd sacrificed his trucking company for uploading. "Brother Krupp" as he was now known, wore the body of a griffin himself. He'd established a vineyard whose plants rested above the old soil on wooden platforms. Besides the buzzing, scuttling robots there was rarely any traffic, and only on the marked paths.

  The Iron Harvest Vineyard rested on cursed ground: the site of a World War One battle. Countless bodies and unexploded bombs and rusty bayonets had poisoned the soil where once towns had stood. The uploaders were beginning to make it a useful place again, still quiet and respectful but new, re-dedicated to better things.

  "Dearly beloved," Krupp said, "we are here today in a tainted land, because we believe in growing beyond our mistakes and limitations. To establish something new and good in the world..."

  Horizon felt silly and nervous operating a real robot in a real place, with far less agility than his true body. He had decided to exchange a feather with Nocturne when they got home, after this little ceremony of rings they had no intention of keeping. But several of their friends had pushed for a real-world ceremony. It was good to be seen out here. A few humans had even attended in person to join the other well-wishers who watched from a camera drone.

  Horizon pushed aside his thoughts of how other people would see this ceremony, and resolved to make sure Nocturne enjoyed it along with everything that came after.

  * * *

  One day, Horizon was on duty to meet a new uploading customer. A clinic had just opened in the American Free States and some technicians and doctors were trying to hide their nervousness about their first patient. A man named Max, forty-something and rich from starting a solar power company, had the sickly skeletal look that Horizon had, unfortunately, seen before.

  He was wearing a corporate logo t-shirt and jeans, sitting in a lounge and twitching one knee. He looked up at a camera and said, "I could use a distraction."

  Horizon was in his office. The Knights of Talespace headquarters still weren't much to look at, more of a wooden stockade with huts than a medieval castle. He conducted serious business from a little cabin with a desk facing a modern wallscreen. From his perspective the real world was just another place to view via video-conference. He looked out at the customer and said, "Have you thought about what to turn into?"

  "What, like you? Is that a requirement?"

  "Not at all. But if you can travel to a fantasy world, why not be a dragon or something, right?"

  "I just want to be healthy again."

  "Fair enough. What about your world? Your profile says you're not much of a player yet. Want us to set something up?"

  "A nice apartment. Modern, not like that Wild West theme you've got."

  Horizon looked at the rustic log wall and the simple shelf of potions and weapons behind him, and laughed. "Hadn't thought of it that way. But sure, we'll prepare something."

  Off-camera, someone said, "We're ready for you, sir."

  Max struggled to his feet. "Thank you," he said to the screen on the clinic wall. He walked away, leaving just the empty couch and table in view.

  Horizon felt abandoned, irrelevant to the advanced medical procedure that came next. He could faintly hear Max getting ushered into a surgery room from which he'd never emerge. Horizon shivered and was glad not to recall the details of his own last hours on Earth.

  "Call Ludo." The screen switched views to show the Lady of Games, in her fox-eared look. Horizon said, "I was handed a client's file and got to talk with him for a minute, like you asked. But not enough to be more than a distraction."

  Ludo nodded. "Sometimes that's all a human needs. But thanks for the evaluation. The clinics could have you and other uploaders do some of the intake counseling. I'll suggest it after this procedure."

  "Shouldn't we do more of the post-upload orientation too? You've only got so many CPU cycles in a day."
<
br />   "I'm trying to standardize the experience."

  "Are you sure, Lady? Uploading is shocking. It might help steady people if they started off by meeting a fellow player who knows the ropes."

  Ludo tapped her chin. "Let's try it."

  * * *

  So, two griffins greeted Max when he woke up in his new world. They'd set up a perfect nature scene for him, similar to Clara's forest. The man lay on his back. He opened his eyes, twitched, and sat up as from a nightmare. He spotted Horizon and Nocturne and looked terrified.

  Horizon said, "Good morning, sir. We're not going to hurt you."

  "Where am I?!" Max said, hurrying to his feet. He still looked ready to flee.

  "Talespace. You uploaded, but might not remember."

  Max cursed. "I know I was considering it." He seemed to deflate. "So I did it. I'm dead and recycled."

  "You're very much alive, sir," Nocturne said.

  He looked at his hands, and nodded. His body was a copy of the old one, with an attempt to imitate even the scars. "In some form. But this forest is too real; it creeps me out. Can I get to my designated heaven, please?"

  "Of course." Nocturne opened an interface window and conjured a door to a luxury apartment. They followed him inside. Several tiers of balconies with glass railings; white carpet, shiny appliances, windows looking out on a mountainside. The bed was big and perfectly made, and the shelves were ready for books or adventure gear or video games.

  Max took it in quietly, calming down at last. "If I want it to be twice as large or full of hot NPC women or located underwater, all that's a button-press away, right?"

  Horizon nodded. "Within certain limits. You'll likely have more fun with the Game itself, once you go out to meet other players and have adventures."

  "I don't care much about that. I just want office space with a good, secure Net connection."

  Horizon spread his wings. "There's much more to see here."

  "I know. But my idea of fun is solving problems." Max leaned against one of the balconies. "Have you considered who's paying for the electricity around here?"

  "Ludo, of course."

  Max laughed at him. "You sound young. I've studied your company, and your AI mob boss has a lot of helpers. Including friends in low places."

  Horizon glared. "Ludo isn't a mob boss."

  "You really want to tell me she's not doing anything shady?"

  Horizon muttered and looked away from Max.

  "Thought so. Anyway, I want to focus on keeping the lights on. Literally, since my specialty is in electric tech, but I know something about business in general."

  Nocturne said, "That could be useful."

  "It made me rich. I'm happy to still have luxuries, but I care more about being alive and able to work. Can you teach me the basic interface stuff?"

  They taught him how to view his game stats and system commands, and had him spawn a sack of gold pieces and recolor the walls. Then he learned how to reach Backstage and the public, multiplayer zones.

  Horizon said, "You should get out and see the actual Game, even if you're working on outside projects."

  "Why?"

  "To see what you're protecting."

  * * *

  During a slow day, when he was tempted to summon a random horde of orcs to fight, Horizon instead called for an introductory business textbook. He spent an hour flipping through it and was humbled. He found Nocturne coming back from solving a player dispute, and hugged her. "I've been thinking about Max," he said, and showed her the book.

  "Oh, him? He sent me a photo." Nocturne opened an interface window and flipped it around. Max was shown on horseback, saber in hand, alongside better-equipped adventurers heading for battle. A note said, [Worth taking weekends off for!]

  Horizon smiled and fluffed out his wings. "We'll find a happy medium somewhere between the Game and the world outside it."

  * * *

  The world of Talespace -- and it was a world now -- was growing. Horizon soared over the patchwork world of Midgard, born from many players' individual games and combined with some inconsistency into a continuous landmass. Today he wasn't on any particular mission. He sighted an airship thrumming its way through the thin clouds, and approached from port. "Ahoy! Mind if I come aboard?" His wings were getting tired but he wanted to stay airborne a little longer.

  An adventurer called out, "Come on!"

  Horizon veered through a tricky air current to reach the deck of a wooden ship with a zeppelin's gas-bag instead of sails. He tilted upward and flared his wings wide to stall and drop the last few feet to the planks. A little chime played to celebrate his landing. Horizon snorted.

  The man who'd greeted him was one of three humans in sky pirate gear, all long coats and scarves. "Something wrong, sir?"

  "Just got an achievement." Horizon gestured with one hand to flip a holographic window around and show it to them. [Many Happy Landings: Make your 100th successful landing from a non-trivial flight.]

  One of the other pirates said, "I'm collecting weird ones myself. Yesterday I got [Feast of Legends] for devouring a hundred burgers in one session. Why it requires burgers I don't know."

  Horizon made a face. "Heh, I haven't tried turning off my stomach capacity limit yet. Hardly worth it since the food's all dull."

  The three looked more interested, all talking at once. "You're an uploader? Should've known, since you're a knight. What's it like?"

  Horizon pawed at the wooden boards, feeling the warm wood give beneath his hands and feet. "I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it. But it's been fun, usually. It was rough at first dealing with problem players, but we're starting to come up with rules." His badge of office was mainly just the faction flag on his character sheet, but he had a shiny metal one he could summon at will to brandish at people. It bore a braided silver seal that the game refused to duplicate.

  "Makes sense. Hey, we're heading for a volcano. Want to join in?" The captain pointed toward a fuming mountain in the distance.

  Horizon trotted forward and spread his wings, letting the wind flow through his feathers. "Sure; I've got time."

  The ship slowly dived, while the players talked among themselves and fiddled with their interface windows to put on a few bits of leather armor. Time skipped slightly forward for Horizon as he watched the world below. The rate at which he lived, varied.

  "What's your loadout, anyway?" asked one of the pirates. They'd arrived, not at the base as he'd expected but right at the volcano peak.

  "Paladin, basically. Melee and healing, with an armor spell but less defense than your standard tin-can knight."

  "Good; we're short on healing."

  The airship anchored at a "natural" rockslide that had formed a flattish plateau near the smoking peak. The vessel bobbed in midair. The pirates ran down a gangplank and Horizon followed them, thinking of the times he'd banged into ceilings when taking off in the wrong spot. A trail led up and down from here.

  Right away, a blazing bat came at them from the crater above. None of the travelers had been visibly armed before, but they summoned their favorite weapons with a flash of light: a trident, a bow and a hammer-and-shield. The archer fired and missed.

  "Saving my spells," said the trident pirate, who had only a cool tricorner hat instead of an obvious wizardly one.

  Horizon leaped into the air and flapped once, veering rightward to get at the bat. The archer watched the monster's attempt to dodge, and fired dead-on this time, spearing the burning beast. It crashed down and rolled through the rocky slope.

  "Hey, grab that if you can," shouted the hammer guy.

  Horizon swooped toward the dead bat. It was still burning but only slightly. He snatched it up in his talons. Hot, hot! [Status effect: Scorched!] appeared in his vision. He'd seen that one before; he had to drop this and fast. With another three flaps he was back to the slope and hurried to drop the creature. He landed a moment later, nursing his poor talon-hands.

  While the pirates butchered the
thing ("Ooh, Hot Wings!") their wizard said, "Does it actually hurt?"

  "A bit. It's not like we crank up pain to total realism, and it usually fades out after it makes its point." Already the scalding was easing off. "Only really gets nasty if you die a lot in quick succession, making it a gamble to keep throwing yourself at a boss monster. Or other bad guy."

  Up and into the crater they went. Here was a dungeon shrouded in dangerous smoke, where they had to steer clear of unbreathable areas. Platforms of iron ringed the inside and a network of cables held them in place with many stairs and gaps.

  Horizon grinned as he accompanied them through the obstacle course. At their request he flew across gaps to tie ropes or throw switches. Old dwarven machinery whirred and cranes swung steel blocks around. "You could become a flying race yourself, you know. Even griffin."

  The archer said, "That's one of the things we're looking for, here: the right spell for it. See, two of us started out in a private zone and -- look out!"

  A clanking iron golem stomped into view. Less of a threat for its combat power than for the weight of it, and the fact that it was about to step onto the dangling, tilting bridge they occupied.

  "Everybody to the far end," the trident man said. They all shifted the platform's weight, raising the far end so the golem couldn't get onto it. "Now what?" The humans seemed to be straining to hang on.

  There was a wrenching noise. The golem grabbed the far end and yanked it down to level, then stepped onto it. Everyone bounced upward with the platform's new angle and barely kept their footing.

  Horizon spotted another ledge. "Rock it back and forth." He demonstrated which direction. Then he hopped off and hovered, pushing the platform near one end to make the whole dangling bridge rotate. The pirates strained to make it clang forward and back. Sparks flew. The golem wobbled and took a halting step toward the middle.

  "Jump!" said the griffin. The humans leaped off the metal platform and yelped. The angle was pretty good for reaching a lower ledge where they'd be safe. Except that the archer missed and fell, plummeting into the lava far below. The other two guys slammed down onto the rocky ledge, flashing red and taking major wounds.

  The hammer guy leaned over the cliff and with great melodrama shouted, "Jerry, no! We will avenge you!"