GodsRealm- Betrayal

by Luke Isaacs

  Dana released her calming spells at him. The giant slowed and looked around, apparently confused about where he was. Mark took the opportunity to dart in and start chopping at its feet.

  Mario began to cast his Cold Poultice as Rick joined Mark, helping him attack the fire giant’s feet.

  The giant swiped his club at Mark, knocking him heavily to his back, then swiped back at Rick who rolled under the blow and came up releasing Ice Blizzard at the giant. Rania shot a row of arrows into the giant’s fighting hand, causing him to drop the club and back up a few steps.

  Mark shot back to his feet and ran back to the fray, gulping a Health potion as he went. He gave a mighty roar and severed the other hand of the giant. He was engulfed from head to toe in flames but continued swinging his sword.

  Rick ran behind the distracted giant as it fell back from the burning human. It was trying to fathom how Mark could be standing when Rick crippled it by severing the tendons of its heels with two quick slices of his blade and darting away.

  The giant fell with a huge boom and the members of the team with blades instantly jumped on it and began hacking at the giant’s neck. When their bloody work was done, Mark pointed to the distant mountains.

  “We should head towards Jörmungandr now!” he called and began running.

  9

  “Lara, it is time you did what we agreed upon.”

  Yee watched the game anxiously; the Thugs were down to their last Health potion facing a stone giant. He. Could. Not. Lose.

  “I’m on it,” the husky voice of Lara sounded from his wrist phone. “I’m placing the charge at the main capacitor of the Dome now. With luck, the players will only suffer minor injury from the sudden electric surge of this section of the grid.”

  “You are sure it won’t kill my team?”

  He was desperate, but this action was only to postpone the championship while he figured a way to get them the cheats they would need to get through to the final round.”

  “Sure enough,” she said. “Remember, one hundred thousand DC in my Swiss numbered account, or I’ll come after you next, my love.”

  “It is done; the money is in your account.”

  “Pleasure doing business with you.”

  *

  The Valhalla Greatest team was already at the immense mountain range that was Jörmungandr. As one they began incanting breaking spells. They had barely thrown three volleys when the world exploded in light and everything went black.

  Yee unhooked his globe and looked down upon the real-world field. The technicians and medics ran frantically over the field, unhooking unconscious players from their rigs. Some began performing resuscitation and Yee felt a little knot of worry form in his stomach.

  At home, Selma held her heart as she watched the aftermath of the accident or whatever had occurred. Finally, just as she decided she could bear waiting no longer and would go to the stadium, the announcer put a finger over his earpiece and listened.

  “It appears the incident is a result of a power surge in the grid servicing the stadium. GodsRealm officials have informed us that most players have only minor injuries or shock.”

  Selma sighed in relief.

  “However, it appears that the team most advanced in the game were more severely injured. The Valhalla Greatest team are comatose and have been airlifted to hospital for assessment and treatment. We send our condolences to their families and join with thousands here in the Dome to pray for their recovery.”

  Selma didn’t hear the last few sentences, she had fainted and fallen out of her chair.

  PART TWO – METAMORPHISIS

  10

  Selma hovered anxiously around the Medi-Bubble. Rick’s body, naked except for a loin covering, was floating in hyper-nutrient solution with an array of electrodes attached to his shaved head. He looked peaceful and the signs of worry that she frequently saw in his features were absent.

  She looked at the other team members of the Valhalla Greatest. Except for two, Dana and a solidly built man of around 50, they were young. Selma had been curious about the man straight away. No family visited him. She was quite sure that Rick would be just as surprised as she to learn the mysterious Mario was a middle-aged man.

  The old woman was devastated over the accident. How would she get by without her little Ricky? She gave herself a mental cuff over the ear for her self-pity. They were the ones she should be sad for, not herself. Her life was nearly over, but these people, well, the young ones anyway, they were the ones with their lives ahead of them.

  She wiped a tear from her eye. If they were going to come out of it, this is where it would happen. The Alpha Life Medical Care Center was the go-to medical facility for the extremely rich and famous.

  The expenses would normally have crippled the families of the team for ten lifetimes of servitude to the mega-corporations of VNet, but Realms of VR had graciously taken this burden from their shoulders. They had vowed to pay the medical and rehab costs indefinitely with no cap. A generous gesture that was not easy to overlook for the families.

  Frankly, Selma thought it was the least they could do. She knew it was mostly a PR stunt to minimize the damage of the paused championship and she also knew they had a lot to gain if the Valhalla Greatest team made a miraculous comeback.

  Yes, no doubt there was a PR executive somewhere who was being patted on the back for coming up with the idea to cover the minuscule cost to the company for taking care of the team’s medical expenses.

  There were only four human doctors in the entire 10-floor facility. AI programs ran everything. The building itself was the most advanced of its type in the world. AI was built into the very bones of the structure. It controlled environment, security, lighting, power, and of course, the medical treatment and care of those who could afford the steep prices of the center.

  Besides Rania’s parents and Dana’s son Peter, only one other person came to the care unit housing the team members as often as Selma. Jamal Yu, the creator of GodsRealm. At first, she thought he was representing the game and its owners. It was only when she heard his combative conversations with the human doctor overseeing the team’s treatment that she realized he was, in fact, the parent of one of them. Mark. Except Mark wasn’t Mark. Mark was Edward Yu, the son of one of the richest, most powerful men in the world.

  In the streets around the medical center, hundreds of fans had camped out for the 20 days since the incident. They’d erected shrines and performed candlelit vigils for Valhalla Greatest. Selma thought it was sweet but thought Rick might find it annoying if he was aware of it.

  Close family members were the only ones allowed to visit. When not at the sides of their comatose loved ones, they occasionally met in the waiting rooms. Jamal Yu rarely spoke to the others. Mr. Yu, who Selma couldn’t think of as merely Jamal even when he told her to call him that, spent hours in the waiting rooms. She learned by observing and eavesdropping that he was more shocked to find that his son had competed in the championship than he was of his coma condition. A testament to the fact his son had managed to hide his secret life from him for the past four years.

  The occasional visit from one of the four human doctors always inspired a clamoring of anxious family members; they would flock the doctor like pigeons eager for bread crumbs from a generous stranger. Mostly they went hungry. It’s a waiting game, they were told over and over.

  The doctors diagnosed the injuries as massive electric shock, the current’s entry point through the forehead and exit from the toes. They estimated the current that ran in the bodies of their patients to be nearly 10,000 volts but theorized that the traces of the sterilization mix used to lubricate and maintain the VNet suits was what saved them from a fatal outcome. The fluid’s rich mineral content had acted as a conduit for the current, preventing it from stopping their hearts or frying their brains. It was also the cause for the strange lines and shapes now burned into the team’s skin.

  And even though, according to all the scans, their brain dam
age was minimal and located only in the frontal lobe, the patients remained unconscious but with astounding amounts of brain activity.

  None of the doctors could say when they might awaken from their unusual comas.

  One of the doctors took pity on Selma’s advanced years and took the time to sit down with her and explain that in most cases, victims of VNet power surges were either killed instantly or sent into a transient coma. This hadn’t happened to Rick and the team, most likely because of the unique nature of the suits.

  “We just don’t know what will happen,” she said, reaching out and putting her hand over Selma’s. “What I can tell you, is that they didn’t die or end up brain dead and that means they should wake up – we just can’t give you a time or date.”

  “So you’re saying it could be tomorrow, but it could be in 10 years?”

  The doctor nodded.

  The conversation didn’t ease her worries at all. Selma was 78 year’s old, and time was never on her side. Sure, the super-rich could live their long lives. She would have bet on Jamal Yu being one of the lucky ones. No doubt he would have been first in line for the new nanite curing system. According to the ads, one dose injected in the blood would arrest aging and keep a person vital and healthy for an estimated period of 50 to 100 years on top of their existing age.

  Of course, no one could say this was accurate as the tech had only been approved for human use and introduced onto the market 10 years before. Selma wouldn’t have taken it even if someone offered to pay. People grew old for a reason and she didn’t think messing with mother nature was sensible because sometime in the future, the piper would have to be paid. She just had to pray that Rick came out of his coma before she kicked the bucket.

  Detective-inspector Dahlia Jones visited them twice in the days after the incident. The first time was the day after the incident, and she informed them in stiff yet firm tones that she would get to the bottom of what had happened, and if it turned out to be deliberate sabotage, she would catch the culprit behind it. They had a multitude of questions, but to the chagrin of the families, she refused to give them any information, even when Mr. Yu threatened to go over her head.

  Ten days later, she visited them again, this time erecting a soundproof Holo-Cubicle so she could speak to each of them in confidence. Her line of questioning left all of them feeling as though they were suspects. Jamal Yu was exceptionally pissed off at her accusatory tone and pushed out of the cubicle in a rage before making a call. Within seconds of him hanging up, detective-inspector Jones was called and ordered to end the interviews and come back to the office.

  Selma watched the whole interaction and, while she wasn’t privy to what was said, Yu’s show of power cemented the image she had of people like him. In this case, yes, the girl probably needed her ass kicked, but she knew some like him use their celebrity status as a conduit for vanity and power. She didn’t begrudge others their wealth and fame but loathed it when it was used to wield power and advantage for callous reasons on those less fortunate.

  11

  Exactly three weeks after the incident was Rick’s 24th birthday. In case he just happened to wake up, Selma had in her bag the present that she had saved up for the entire year to buy. With a tear in her eye, she put her hand on the warm skin of his Medi-Bubble.

  “Happy birthday, dear Ricky. I noticed how excited you were when you spoke about the recording module that Mark, I mean, Edward had in his suit.

  “You don’t know this, but your friend Mark is actually Edward Yu, son of the creator of the game, who I know is one of your favorite coding celebrities.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “Anyway, I bought this recording module for your birthday; it’s the Alpha Capture Think Tab.” She pulled it out and touched the module to the bubble. “The salesman told me it’s an older model but can be upgraded to be almost as good as the latest models.”

  She placed her gift on the table beside his bubble.

  “I really wanted to give it to you when I bought it two months ago.” She inhaled deeply, trying to hold back her emotions. “But I was waiting till your birthday; now I’ll regret that forever. Oh Rick, what I wouldn’t give to see that cheeky smile of yours.”

  She began crying freely and put her hand on the bubble again as she searched his peaceful face for a sign he could hear her. There was nothing.

  She wiped her tears away.

  “Please come back, Ricky.”

  She knew the AI controlling the climate of the room would complain of the extra moisture her tears would add to the atmosphere. It had done so before. She left before the reprimand from the overbearing AI came.

  12

  “Where are we?” Rania pushed her hand into the gelatinous wall surrounding them.

  “Odin knows!” said Rick. “One second we were breaking Jörmungandr and the next we we’re in here. Mario?”

  Mario was the most experienced player by far and had travelled far and wide in game, sometimes for months at a time.

  “I don’t know,” he said. Unknown to the others, he was in actual fact the oldest playing member of the team and was very secretive about it. “It looks nothing like any of the game areas I’ve explored or even the hidden ones I’ve seen in game tubes.”

  “This material,” Rick pushed at the wall before it bounced back, “is very strange. Soft yet unyielding.”

  “It can’t be a part of the game,” Dana commented, “else, where are the other players?”

  “How long have we been here anyway?” Mark asked his teammates.

  “Who knows?” Rick answered. “It can’t be that long though, I don’t feel hungry, and the suit is not giving me any warnings of fatigue or low blood sugar.”

  “If this is part of the game,” Mario theorized, “our powers should work, and we can get ourselves out of here.”

  “I’m pretty sure we’re in-game,” Mark said. “I feel Dark Bliss still surrounding my body, but it’s a bit different.”

  “You feel that too?” Rania questioned Mark, “I can’t fully mimic the environment, but I think I can match its colors at least. It’s is a bit different to normal.”

  “I haven’t tried anything yet,” Mario commented. “I will try to cast Fortify on all of you to test it.”

  He waved his hands as he recited the incantation; his hands changed color for a moment before going back to normal.

  “Well,” he sighs. “It was worth a shot.”

  “But it worked,” Dana said excitedly. “Not on us but look at the walls!”

  The whole team watched as the walls glowed briefly then expanded, retracted and formed dozens of tunnels out of the room they were in.

  “So, it feels bit different?” Rick asked as he conjured Light. Instead of the usual floating orb, the walls changed hue to a pale blue and lines of strange glowing glyphs appeared on the walls. “Wow, very different!”

  Mark leaned closer to inspect the glyphs, which swam and constantly shifted from weird shapes to letters of the alphabet and then back to glyphs. At one point he read a full word before it dissolved, and the letters moved along. The word was Trapped.

  “I think this is some kind of test,” he said. “I think we are inside of Jörmungandr, and we have to find a way out.”

  “Makes sense,” Rania joined Mark to inspect the glowing writings. “But if they added it in that big update after last year’s championship, how come we haven’t heard about it?”

  “Could be a surprise addition?” Rick suggested. “Eight years ago, was the first time they introduced the Jotun giants in the championship, and it wasn’t announced till the actual championship.”

  “Could be, but as I recall, that stunt caused a huge backlash over the event,” Mario said.

  “Well, it doesn’t matter does it?” Dana said firmly. “Fact is we have to figure out which of these tens of tunnels leads out to the battles.”

  “We could start with any of them,” Mark said. “I don’t think the glyphs are meant to help us decide. Maybe we should
just use a process of elimination.”

  “Let’s just hope we do end up back in the fight; if we end up in another part of the game entirely, our chances of winning the championship are screwed,” said Rania. “Come on, this one looks as good as any.”

  She darted into the tunnel closest to her. The team followed.

  13

  “Ugh! It feels like we have been here for weeks,” Rania said as they emerged from yet another dead-end tunnel. “I thought we were onto something with that one. It had four forks and they all ended in walls, this is torture.”

  “What do you suggest?” Mark sniped, who was getting edgier every hour that passed in the gelatinous maze. “Should we just suit off and quit the championship?”

  “No,” she answered with a tinge of heat in her voice. “What I’m suggesting is that maybe we should devise a plan, not hop around like total morons through the place.”

  “Well, for all we know,” Dana said, “we are about to lose the competition, or maybe we’ve already lost and another team is living it up with our prize money?”

  “Impossible,” Mario said authoritatively. “There has been no horn. We play until the final horn announces a winner.”

  “So, we suffer for nothing in the end?” Rania asked heatedly.

  “Not for nothing, at least we’ve mastered our altered powers,” Rick said. “Somehow we are better for it and we’ll be able to use it to our advantage.”

  “Still, we explored only one-third of the out-branching tunnels,” Dana said. “It will take us forever to finish them all off.”

  “We don’t have any other options,” Mark noted. “You do recall that Mario tried replicating the Fortify spell, no results on that front.”