Lost in the Game

by Christopher Keene

  The Screamer who had been fighting Lisa suddenly stopped his onslaught of Cyclones pushing her back. He did the motion for Speed Amp and directed it at Malcolm. As soon as the sparks rained down on him, Malcolm used Siena’s mouth to smile. With Siena’s already maxed speed and stamina stats stacked with the speed spell and the prediction software, Malcolm was now the fastest avatar with the highest reaction time of anyone else in the game.

  How did I know this? Because I had the software, too, and saw his movements before he did them, his blue form moving in a line from Data to Vega to me. I was just too slow to stop him. Using only his blackened fists, his punches acted like bullets that shot out, knocking Vega and Data back onto the pit. Knowing I couldn’t fight back against his speed, I dove out of the way and drew my Sapphire Edge.

  However, with blinding speed, he knocked the Color Blade from my hand and lifted me up by the collar of my cloak. He raised his hand, intending to finish me off, when he heard a call and looked over his shoulder.

  “Hold on!” Chloe cried out.

  My team had killed enough of the Screamers that Chloe and Dice could back me up. However, with Siena’s speed, I knew they wouldn’t stand a chance.

  I shouted, “No, stay back!”

  Chloe lifted her revolvers to shoot him, Dice nocked an arrow to fire, Lisa blasted a wind spell, and Shawn charged a Plasma Beam to fire at him.

  “Ah, backup,” Malcolm said. “Excuse me for a moment.”

  As he said this, I saw his blue projection bounce from Chloe to Dice, and then Shawn and Lisa, knocking each of them to the dust. He dropped me to do this, but was so fast that I had barely hit the pit before he returned to grab hold of me again. I had come to this pit intending to be beaten by Siena, but this was not what I had in mind.

  “Now, where were we?”

  Over Malcolm’s shoulder, I saw Vega staring at me. Having caught my gaze, his eyes shot to the part of the pit just next to his foot where my Sapphire Edge lay, behind him and just off to the side of where Malcolm stood. I then remembered the ability Vega had introduced us to, one I had bought in Heaven but had never used.

  “You were gloating over having a new body,” I said, my fingers working at my side to pull my menu over so I could shift the ability into my Key Triggers. “Or maybe that you can bring your Screamers back? Or maybe that you can break the game’s rules now?”

  Malcolm shook his head. “I was actually about to say that I finally can communicate with people that might able to help them.”

  I gritted my teeth. “If you wanted to help them, then you would tell us where they are.”

  “Surely you have everything you need to find them yourself.” Malcolm’s head lowered. “And yet here you are, hesitating, wasting time playing games.”

  He was right, of course. Out of fear that the footage we worked so hard to get would lead us nowhere, out of fear that something bad would happen IRL were we to continue on our search, or—just like Siena—out of fear of letting Chloe down, I had been hesitating and second-guessing myself ever since I saw the boatman murdered in cold blood.

  But no more. I wasn’t going to let Malcolm take Siena’s avatar, I wasn’t going to let him stop Siena from helping us find the betas, and I wasn’t going to let my fear of what might or might not happen stop me from finding them.

  “You forgot something,” I said as Vega kicked my Color Blade so it was in line with his back and I triggered the Weapon Retrieval ability. “I’m going to stop.”

  My Sapphire Edge flew from the dust of the pit and landed directly in his back. After he had been hit by both my Ice Coffin spell and two complimentary level-two spells, his Hit Points were low enough that my Color Blade hitting him in the back put his health in the red.

  Still not enough!

  He could have been killed with one more hit, but everyone else was grounded, and he had them all in front of him now so they couldn’t strike him from behind. He released me and reached back to pull the Sapphire Edge from his back. Then he held it at both ends as though to snap it as he had the Ruby Edge.

  He peered down at me, grinning. “And you were so close, Noah.”

  Instead of the snap of metal, there was a gunshot that echoed from the entrance behind him. It was a fire-specialty bullet from a regular-looking pistol, and as weak of an attack as it was, Malcolm’s final Hit Points vanished. As his body exploded in a ball of fire, I looked up to see where the gunshot had come from.

  I saw who I thought was a stranger standing at the opening to the pit. The girl had short auburn hair, looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, and her face was strangely familiar, mainly because it reminded me of the thing that had just exploded in front of me.

  “You were wrong, Noah,” the girl said in a voice I recognized. “I do have someone I don’t want to disappoint.” Although she was breathing heavily, as though she had sprinted to get there, she was also smiling. “Me.”

  I grinned up at Siena, knowing I was looking at her default appearance as a Range Niche. “How?”

  “The E4 code allowed me to bypass the level restrictions, and I ran the rest of the way. Lucky Range Niches are so quick and that Tessa was willing to send me a gun filled with explosive bullets. She and Frank should be on their way . . .” She broke out into laughter and held up her pistol. “But I have to say, shooting that prick felt really good.”

  “Do you think you can remove his program from your account?” I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure you want your other avatar back.”

  She shrugged. “I’m guessing he just added a copy of himself to the software code he gave me. Shouldn’t be too hard to remove it.”

  I nodded but then noticed her looking over my shoulder. I turned to see that there were two Screamers still remaining. They had removed their helmets, and I could see that one of them was the blonde girl—Siena’s friend—and the other was a young man with black hair. My team encircled them and looked like they were about to finish them off. Without Malcolm giving them commands, they seemed uncertain about what they had to do, looking around like lost puppies without their mother.

  “Kristie, we should go,” Ray said to Kristie.

  Kristie, however, kept staring at Siena’s new avatar, a semblance of recognition in her expression.

  Why aren’t they fleeing through Chaos Engines?

  Data advanced on them, raising his new Topaz Edge. However, before he could cut them down, someone shouted from the stands.

  “Wait!”

  I frowned up at Frank’s Tamer avatar. She jumped down on the sand and ran up to the Screamer.

  “Raymond Cranel, I saw your social media feed. You’ve been updating it even after you were taken,” Frank called, peering down at the dark-haired Screamer. “If you’ve been given access to the Internet, why aren’t you contacting your parents? Why aren’t you addressing being kidnapped? If you’re trapped, then why are you working with Malcolm?”

  Finally, the two remaining Screamers summoned Chaos Engines behind them. Kristie walked backward toward hers. However, before Raymond followed her lead, he grinned up at Frank.

  “I never said I was trapped.” He looked over at Kristie. “Let’s go.”

  So some of the Screamers are working with Malcolm voluntarily? Why would they? What are they getting out of it?

  The Debug Room then swallowed them and vanished into thin air, leaving us to puzzle out what we had learned from this encounter. Personally, I had learned more than I wanted. Not only could Malcolm copy himself and possess people, but he could do it with anyone who accepted his ability with an offer to become more powerful.

  So his appearance here confirmed for everyone that Malcolm's Ghost was indeed in Heaven. But now what’s stopping him from just making an army of himself in the Dream State?

  Still looking at the area where Kristie had vanished, Siena frowned. “She won’t be the same until she’s out from under his thumb.” Then she faced me with a sudden grin. “Thanks
for loosening that jar up for me.”

  I grinned. “No problem. And now that you have your account back, you’ll still have access to those photos, right?”

  She sighed and put her hands on her hips. “I couldn’t have gotten my account back by myself with an avatar as weak as this, and it was because of you that I managed to . . .” She grinned, belaboring the point. “I mean, I will have to reconnect with a few people, grab the photos, and post them alongside the same sob story you’ve been peddling, but I can make that sacrifice. Hopefully it shouldn’t take me too long to have some addresses to send your way.”

  I grinned back, finding it amusing to look down on her in a smaller Range form for once. “It’s all on you now.”

  Siena nodded and turned to leave the Coliseum, vanishing with her E4 hack before reaching the entrance. The others in my team joined me, looking confused by her sudden appearance.

  “So did we win?” Vega asked.

  I nodded. “We will soon enough.”

  Chapter 31: Sacrifice

  Windsor leaned back in his office chair behind his desk, steepling his fingers. “So, what have we learned today?”

  Data and I sat in his office chairs facing him, our focus contrasting his relaxed posture. Behind us, our teams filled the room, some of them looking annoyed that they didn’t have seats despite the necessity of a long conversation after what had happened.

  I was sensitive to their plight, and so I attempted to sum up what he thought they had learned and what they were going to have to do. “Essentially—and I want everyone to repeat this lesson later on in this meeting, because it’s the conclusion you’re all going to come to sooner or later—you’re going to have to spend money to make money.”

  Windsor frowned, but it seemed to say he was considering that I had a point. It wasn’t until he turned this expression on everyone else in the room that I realized it might have been sarcastic.

  I guess I’m going to have to elaborate a bit.

  I rolled my eyes. “Think about it; what’s the main problem your customers are having?”

  The question had an obvious answer, but I let the silence rest to see if anyone would take the bait.

  “Uh, the Screamers?” Lisa asked, but her voice sounded more sarcastic than Windsor’s expression had looked.

  “But we already knew—” Shawn began, but I continued my train of thought.

  “Why?”

  Windsor seemed to be enjoying my little pantomime.

  However, Chloe’s patience had finally worn out. “Stop it, Noah.”

  I shrugged. “So, if we want to stop players from being affected by the Screamers, you’re going to have to do a recall and give out thousands of free Dream Engines. To put it simply, that’s how you solve that problem. But that’s obvious, and I’m feeling generous, so I’ll add another solution for a more pressing problem for free.”

  I turned to see the rest of them looking at me with angry expressions, but I didn’t know if this was because I was keeping them standing, or if they had no idea how there could be a more pressing problem.

  “You guys were there!” I raised my hands, but then suddenly realized they had no idea Malcolm had possessed Siena.

  Only Data looked like he knew what I was talking about. “I don’t know how, but when we appeared to fight the Screamers, I noticed Siena’s user code had changed. I looked it up and saw that it was Malcolm’s.”

  Windsor sat upright, placing his hands on the table. “Wait, Malcolm took over Siena’s account? How?”

  “Siena told me that Malcolm gave her the Future Predicting Software. He used that as a shortcut for a copy of his A.I. to take over.”

  “Crap. I was afraid of that. If he wanted to, he could create thousands of copies that could possess any player he summons to his Debug Room.” Windsor rubbed his face. “The fact that he hasn’t done it already just to spite me is the real mystery. If he did it to Siena, he could do it to anyone.”

  Chloe shook her head. “I just thought she was still angry at you, though I did think it was strange that she didn’t stop when the Screamers showed up.”

  Windsor continued to focus his gaze on me. “So Malcolm can now possess other character avatars by giving them the software. But I locked him in his Debug Room. How did Siena meet with him?”

  I shook my head. “I figured Malcolm was following her actions, saw what happened in the Coliseum, and decided to invite her in and offer it to her so she could get back at me. It was a good plan—after all, it worked. Hundreds of players were logged out and are pissed that they lost their equipment, which, by the way, should tell you that not all of Heaven’s Coliseum should be a Tertiatier dungeon, considering they were all spectators.”

  “And what’s your great solution to stopping Malcolm this time?” Data asked, as though thinking I had argued myself into a corner.

  I raised my eyebrows at him. “Simple. The only way to get in and out of his Debug Room is through Chaos Engines, right?” Saying this, I leaned back in my chair, imitating the relaxed posture Windsor had been in at the start of the meeting. “So just remove all the Chaos Engines. It would stop the Screamers from getting into the Dream State and causing trouble, and it would stop players from going into the Debug Room so that Malcolm can’t give them the ability he needs to possess them.”

  Data’s smug expression faded as I spoke until he was looking at Windsor with raised brows himself, as though wondering why this solution hadn’t been thought of before.

  “You might have to hire a few men, but it would hit two birds with one stone. You could even replace them with other monster generators.”

  Windsor raised his arms. “Mass recalls and hiring new programmers? Being a multi-million-dollar company doesn’t mean I can just spend multimillions at the drop of a hat.”

  I grinned back at my fellow teammates. “I hope everyone remembered my original answer to his question, because now’s the time to repeat it. And a one, and a two, and a three: you have to spend . . .” I trailed off after realizing they all had remained completely silent.

  I turned back and crossed my arms. “Alright, fine, you’re all fired.”

  Windsor ignored my joke and again stroked his beardless jaw. “It would solve the problem of having a repetitive job for my Overseers.” He turned his gaze to Data. “Do it.”

  “I want a raise,” Data replied.

  “Done. Now get out of my office.”

  Data grinned and moved out of the office, his team rising to follow him. Lisa looked confused, wondering if she should follow or stay with us. After a brief internal debate, she opted to leave with Data. I assumed it was because he would now get paid more than me. I turned to my own team and watched them eye each other to see who would get Data’s chair. Luckily for Chloe, Vega and Dice were chivalrous enough to let her take it.

  Windsor eyed me. “You do realize that with the Chaos Engines gone, you will have to be able to create them in order to get into the Debug Rooms?”

  I nodded. “We won’t be doing anything with the Debug Room for a while. We’re set on going after the betas as soon as we get our destinations. I don’t know where these places will be, but I never really had a set destination for my trip to begin with.” I grinned at Chloe. “Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and one of those pictures will be in Scandinavia.”

  “Looks like this will be the end of Cipher for a time then . . . and you just came up with a name for your team, too.” Windsor shook his head. “A pity.”

  I thought about correcting him and saying that it was actually Wanda who came up with the name, but decided to keep my mouth shut. Windsor’s gaze wandered to Dice and Vega. “I guess I’ll have to distribute your services to other places. Dice, you’re to join Data’s team and work on getting rid of the Chaos Engines. Vega, you’re on leave until I have a use for you.”

  Vega’s usual smile slipped from his face. “What?”

  “You said yourself when you first
started working here that you don’t like to spend too much time on a single game. Well, now you’ll have the time to play all the games you want until these two get back. It might then have a new challenge for you.”

  “Oh, but I was really starting to enjoy it!”

  “That’s the problem. Your malleability for learning different games is what makes you so valuable. I can’t have you losing that.” Windsor yawned and turned to look out the window. “There are going to be a few changes for the Wona Company soon. A new game to be made, new people to employ, new ideas to explore. After the work we put into the drones, we’re thinking about maybe getting into dream Augmented Reality next.” His gaze drifted to the window, the outside world he intended to utilize for his next project. “I’ll be sure to rehire you when we have something of note to test. Honestly, you couldn’t have picked a better time to disband.”

  Disbanding . . . Is that what this is?

  “Will I still have a job when I get back?” I asked.

  Windsor smiled. “Get your friend Brock to accept my job proposal, and I’ll think about it. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your trip to . . . Where are you going?”

  “I’m still waiting on that.”

  Windsor nodded. “Then tell me when you know.”

  Taking this as a signal to leave, Chloe and I rose from our chairs and left the room with Dice and Vega in tow.

  The elevator opened and we descended. Although Dice looked like he was heading back down to the GC, I was eager to hit my bed. Being back in my own skin again, I still felt a bit of jet lag that I wanted to sleep off.

  “I hope Data doesn’t work you too hard,” I said in farewell as we came to my room.

  Dice shrugged. “Considering coding is my specialty, I honestly don’t know why I was on your team to begin with.”

  I made a sour face and was about to reply, but then the elevator door opened and he admitted stubbornly, “But it was fun . . . some of the time.”

  The door closed. I was tempted to press the button again just so the doors would reopen and he wouldn’t have such a coy exit. But Chloe caught my eye before I could, grinned, and shook her head. I rolled my eyes and we both turned and made our way down the hall to our rooms.