Rebirth Online 6

by Michael James Ploof

  “I’ll give you some time—”

  “Can I see them again? Can I say goodbye?” I asked, and my digital voice coming through the speaker cracked.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he said. “But we can talk about it later. I’ll give you some time to think things over. If you agree to the surgery, we can perform it as soon as tomorrow morning.”

  I saw the doctor pat my shoulder before he walked away, but I didn’t feel a thing. I lay there for hours, numb in body, mind, and spirit. I didn’t care about the surgery, all I wanted was to go back into the game. I wanted to wake up in bed with my women and feel their warm skin, see their smiling faces, and hear their beautiful voices. It didn’t matter to me whether they were NPCs or not. They were real to me, more real than anything that I had ever experienced.

  I had loved them all, and they had loved me.

  “Sam, are you awake?”

  I opened my eyes to find my parents standing on each side of my bed. My father had his hand on my shoulder. He looked happy. My mother bent and kissed me on the cheek. She had been crying tears of joy.

  “Hey,” I said, and my voice expressed a smile.

  “You did it killer,” said my father. “You completed their experiment.”

  “They have you scheduled for surgery first thing in the morning,” said my mother.

  I glanced at the big round clock above the door. It read either midnight or noon. There were no windows in the room to tell me otherwise.

  “Doctor Marks told me,” I said, and my parents noticed that I didn’t sound very excited about the miraculous news.

  “Sam, what’s wrong?” My mother asked. “Are you scared?”

  “Doctor Marks says that there’s a 90% chance the surgery will work, and there is little to no danger,” my father ensured me.

  “You lied to me,” I said to them both. “You went along with the corporation’s farce, and you knew how much my guild mates meant to me. But you went along letting me think they were real. You made me think that it was all real.”

  “Sam, you went along with it all as well,” my father told me carefully. “We were there, your mother and I, and you. We all agreed to this; it was the only way.”

  “This is state of the art medicine, honey,” my mother added. “And it’s not available to everyone. You should feel lucky.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’m just really confused right now, you know. It’s hard to tell what is real and what isn’t, how I should feel and how I shouldn’t.”

  “You’ve a right to feel whatever you feel,” my mother said with a smile and shimmering eyes. “You’ve been through so much, and it breaks my heart, but everything will be okay—”

  She choked up and began crying, and I cried with her as she cradled my head and held me close. I couldn’t feel her against me, but the gesture and the closeness warmed my heart all the same.

  We talked for a little while, but they could tell that I needed to rest, and they left saying that they would be back in the morning.

  I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night, and at three o’clock in the morning Doctor Marks returned to check on me.

  “How you doing, Buddy?” he asked cheerfully when he entered.

  “Doc,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry for killing you in the game.”

  He laughed. “It’s all good, Sam. I didn’t have any pain response programmed into my avatar.”

  He checked my stats on the halo chart and nodded. “Everything is looking good. How are you feeling?”

  “Like I was just told my best friends are NPCs, and that I’m going to be able to walk again… Conflicted,” I said with a small laugh.

  “About the game,” he said as he came to stand beside my bed. “I’ve spoken with Doctor Hamilton and my other colleagues, and we think it would be alright to provide you with a version of the game. Your implants are permanent, so you might as well use them.”

  “Really?’ I said, my voice cracking.

  “It will be a bit different. Not quite so intricate.” he warned. “The game will be reset to where and when you began. There won’t be a team of programmers on the job around the clock to gear the storyline for you, and you won’t be the center of attention like you were last time.”

  “Thank god,” I said with a laugh.

  “You’ll start out a level 1, with no special ability this time. But your friends will be in there, all you have to do is find them again.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said. “Thanks doc.”

  He nodded. “Thank you, Sam. You’ve not only helped the corporation move forward, but you’ve also helped countless people who will benefit from what we’ve learned through your sacrifices.”

  “I think I’m the one who should be thanking you,” I admitted. “You’ve given me my life back.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” he said with a smile.

  I was prepped for surgery the next morning, and my parents came to visit me one last time. They tried to keep their chins up, but I could tell that they were nervous. They had been through so much since my accident, and I felt lucky to have them.

  There’s not much to relay about the surgery. I was under for twelve hours while Doctor Marks and Doctor Hamilton did their magic.

  When I awoke, I found the two doctors standing beside my bed, one on each side. There was a nurse at the end of my bed busy with her work, and behind her, high up on the wall, was an observation window with at least two dozen other doctors observing me.

  “How are you feeling Sam?” Doctor Hamilton asked.

  I tried to say, “like shit”, but nothing came out. I did, however, feel my mouth move.

  My eyes widened, and Doctor Hamilton smiled.

  Doctor Marks touched my hand, and I flinched when I felt the warmth of it against my own.

  “Try to squeeze my hand,” he said softly.

  I did…and it worked!

  “Strong grip,” he said, his own eyes shimmering. “Nice to officially meet you, Sam.”

  “Nice…t-t-to meet you too,” I croaked.

  My throat burned when I spoke, and my body ached all over the place. But I felt it, and it was real. I was a little alarmed about how I sounded, but I chalked it up to my brain getting used to speaking again.

  “It’s going to be a long road, Sam,” said Doctor Hamilton. “You’re going to have to go through extensive physical therapy for at least six months. You’re going to have to learn to speak again, walk again, but we’re confident that you’ll excel at every turn.”

  “By all indications,” Doctor Marks added. “Your body will recover to within 80% of what it was capable of before the accident, and that gap can be closed through hard work and determination.”

  “Thanks,” I whispered, and this time I felt the hot tears on my cheeks.

  The doctors performed extensive motor skills tests. They asked me at least fifty questions, both to see how well I could speak but also how well the old mental wheels were turning. It was exhausting, but I did well, only getting wrong the name of the president, but the doctors laughed it off, saying they’d give me a pass on that one since it didn’t seem real to them either.

  I was thankful when they let me sleep. Answering so many questions and having my body poked and prodded for responses was exhausting.

  When I woke up, there were more questions, more tests, and my parents came to visit me for the first time since the surgery, which to me could have been a few hours or days before. It was all a blur of overwhelming emotions, sights, sounds, and feelings.

  “Hey M-m-mom. Hey Dad,” I said when they quietly entered.

  “Oh my god!” My mother said in a shaky voice.

  She ran to the bed and threw her arms over me, but then the realized how fragile I still was and loosened her grip. With great effort I was able to lift my right arm and pat her shoulder as she hugged me, which sent her into a crying fit.

  My father took my left hand, which I squeezed weakly, and he too began to c
ry.

  “You’re b-b-both getting m-m-me all wet,” I teased.

  My father laughed, sniffled, and rustled my hair. “Well the sense of humor is intact!”

  “We’re so blessed,” said my mother as she backed up and gazed at me with shimmering eyes.

  They both hugged me again, and though it hurt like hell, it filled me with so much love that I didn’t mind the pain at all. I had gotten used to pain, both mental and physical, and I didn’t fear it anymore. I don’t know if is was facing my ego that left me feeling so damn at peace. I don’t know if it was the drugs. But as I lay in that hospital bed at that moment, I felt content with my lot in life for the first time in a long time.

  Chapter 16

  Two weeks after the surgery, I took my first step in over a year.

  Six months after that, I walked out of Horizon Corporation on my own two feet. There were reporters everywhere, but security kept them away from me as my parents urged me into the waiting car.

  “How do you feel?” yelled a reporter.

  “What’s it like to walk again?” another asked.

  “Give us a thumbs up!”

  “Sam, what do you have to tell the world?”

  “Over here Sam. Smile at the camera!”

  The questions bombarded me like a magic spell, and the flashing camera’s left me with disorienting spots in my vision. I tripped on my own feet and fell, but My mother and father caught me. They urged me on, but I shook my head and tried to catch my breath.

  “I have something to say,” I whispered, but I might as well have shouted it from the rooftops, because a silence replaced the ruckus, and everyone became still.

  “I want to thank my parents,” I said as clearly as I could. “And I want to thank Doctor Marks and Doctor Hamilton, and the entire team that helped me get to where I am today. And to all the rest of you and those watching at home, I have only one thing to say…”

  They all leaned forward, waiting with bated breath to hear my words of wisdom.

  “It’s all just a game, this thing we call life. Try to enjoy it while you can.”

  When I got home, my parents had a surprise party waiting for me. Some of my old college friends were there, an ex-girlfriend or two, and some relatives. Dad grilled burgers and hotdogs, and I tried to answer everyone’s endless questions, but I didn’t mind all the noise, all the questions. I was just glad to be able to walk again, to be able to talk again.

  The last of the guests left shortly after sunset, and I retired to my room, telling my parents that I needed to rest. They were more than understanding and told me to holler if I needed anything.

  In truth, I wasn’t that tired. I was jumping out of my skin with excitement.

  I closed the door to my bedroom behind me, turned on my computer, and reverently pulled the hard drive containing my copy of Rebirth Online out of my pocket. Then I sat down and loaded the game, nervously bouncing my leg like I used to while the game slowly loaded. It was a huge file, and it took an excruciating fifteen minutes for it to load.

  When it was ready, I plugged the jack to my implant into the computer, let out a long exhale, and clicked on START.

  There was a strange sensation in the back of my head, then a few electric zaps shot through my brain, and everything went black.

  I opened my eyes and squinted against the glare of the brilliant sunshine. The smell of flowers caught my attention, along with horse manure and rotting leaves. I put my hand up to blot out the sun, and when I saw the village full of waddle and daub buildings a smile spread across my face.

  “Well hello there,” said an NPC with the name Friar Peterson above his head. “You look like you’re new around these parts, welcome to Tallis-Arken.”

  I tapped on my interface, which confirmed what Doctor Marks had told me; I was a level 1 Fire Mage with only ten gold in my six-slot pack. I was a noob, but it was awesome to be back.

  “You look like a mage in training,” the Friar said affably. “If you’re looking for the mage trainer, he can be found—”

  “I’ll figure it out,” I said and ran past him.

  Tallis’Arken was where all the new players started out, and I thought there was a good chance that one of my old guild mates might be hanging around.

  “Excuse me,” I said to passersby. “Do you know an elf healer named Anna? Has anyone seen a dark elf assassin named Ember? I’m looking for a blonde human warrior named Trinity.”

  “None of the NPCs, or the NPC who thought that they were real world players knew any of my friends, but I didn’t give up hope. Doctor Marks had said that the game would start for me the same way it had before, except that I was a level 1 instead of a level 10, and I had spawned in Tallis-Arken rather than on the road leading out of it. That meant that Anna was already a level 11, and she would be out on the road at some point, where she had found me the last time I began.

  “I need to get to the road north of here,” I said aloud, but no one paid me much mind.

  I took the ten gold from my interface, climbed atop a barrel beside the livery, and held up the money.

  “Ten gold to the player who brings me north!” I bellowed.

  This time, three people approached me saying they would do it, and I chose the highest level among them, a dwarf warrior named Brick who was a level 10.

  “You know,” he said after I gave him half the gold. “You really should save your gold; you’re going to need it. Why do you want to go north anyway? You’re way too low of a level to leave the city.”

  “I need to meet someone, and it’s way more important than ten gold,” I explained.

  He shrugged and summoned a mountain ram. “Alright, who am I to judge?”

  We mounted the ram, and Brick steered it north. I scanned the crowds as we traveled through the city, but I didn’t see any of my guild mates there. They had all been over level ten and up when I started last time, and they had likely already moved out of the noob city in search of grander adventures.

  The sun sat high in the sky, and the weather was exactly as I remembered it to be on my first day. We moved out of the city and rode along the north road for about fifteen minutes, until I recognized the tree that the Mage Trainer had originally had me practice my spells on.

  “This is it!” I blurted and leapt off the ram.

  Brick stopped the beast and dismounted, glancing around at the forest expectantly.

  “It is?” he said with a shrug. “So where’s your friend?”

  I looked up the road. “She should be coming any time now.”

  “Why didn’t you just have her meet you in Tallis’Arken?” he asked as he scratched his head.

  “It’s a long story,” I said.

  The sound of horses echoed from up the road, and my heart leapt.

  “I thought that might happen,” said Brick as he came to stand beside me and glance up the road. When Mad Morgan came into view, Brick nodded and spit. “This is Mad Morgan and his cronies route. We should get out of here. I can’t take them all on, and you’re a level 1.”

  “I know, it’s alright,” I said and handed him the rest of the gold. “Thanks for the ride.”

  He just stood there staring at me.

  “Dude, they’re going to kill you.”

  “I know,” I said and put the gold in his hand. “It’s all part of the plan.”

  He frowned and shook his head, then he shrugged and put the gold in his pocket.

  “Alright, dude, whatever you’re into. See ya later.”

  “Later,” I said, and turned to face Mad Morgan.

  Brick slapped his reins and high-tailed it out of there, and a grinning Mad Morgan stopped his horse in front of me.

  “Well, well,” he said in that familiar, dick-head voice. “What do we have here.”

  I unsheathed my sword. It was a rusty level 1 blade with more chips than smooth surface. Seeing this, Mad Morgan laughed with his cronies as they spread out around me.

  “Looks like the mage wants to play,”
said a warlock among them.

  I wanted to get the fight over as fast as possible, so I suddenly lunged toward Mad Morgan, intent on sticking him in the ribs. But my speed and strength were a laughable thing, and the highwayman grabbed the sword and twisted it out of my hand deftly. He kicked me in the face and leapt off his horse as I staggered back. The pain threshold in game was set at 50% real world, but it still hurt like hell.

  I lunged toward Mad Morgan, but an ice mage cast a spell on me that froze me in place.

  Curse of the Frost King

  100% movement speed reduction.

  Duration – five seconds.

  “Spry your chap, eh, Morgan?” an orc women said with a laugh.

  Mad Morgan nodded agreement and stared into my eyes. “Let’s see what he’s got in his pockets.”

  He went through my pockets, but when he found nothing, he scowled at me and grabbed me by the back of the head.

  “Where’s your loot?” he asked, and his voice, like before, smelled like cat shit.

  “I just pondered your mother’s booty,” I told him. “But the only thing I got from her was a pair of itchy balls.”

  A few of Morgan’s cronies laughed but quickly stifled their mirth. He scowled at them, unsheathed a dagger, and stabbed me in the right kidney.

  Warning!

  Health 40%

  “You’ve got a big mouth for such a little prick,” he said dangerously.

  “Speaking of little pricks,” I grunted as blood spilled out of my mouth. “Your father says hi. He was watching me pound your mom.”

  Morgan’s eyes flared, and he suddenly head butted me in the nose.

  Warning!

  Health 29%

  I reeled back from the blow, hoping that Mad Morgan would be pissed enough to just kill me without toying with me first. Luckily, my insults hadn’t put him in the mood for torture, and he stabbed me in the heart with a vicious strike.

  I clutched the sword sticking my chest and closed my eyes, then sweet darkness took me.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw the long, knotted planks of a ceiling.