by Luke Isaacs
“Neither did any of our spells or weapons,” Rania added.
“Or even our altered powers,” Mario confirmed. “Our only option is navigating the maze, till we break out.”
As the team argued, Rick felt a weird tug, almost like a charge of static electricity on one side of his face. It was followed by strange tingling in his fingertips. When he imagined he heard a voice calling for him from one of the branching tunnels, he went to it and put his hand in the opening.
“Guys, I feel weird.”
“You have always been weird, Rick,” teased Rania.
“Not that kind of weird,” he pointed to the hand in the tunnel. It was trembling and had begun to glow faintly. “I think I’m developing a new power.”
“Without leveling up?” Mark approached his teammate.
Rick nodded, then took his hand out of the opening and slowly turned 360 degrees. Rania looked as though she were going to make another crack when she noticed that the glow and trembling of his hand faded away until he had come full circle and faced the tunnel he’d been drawn to originally.
“We haven’t tried this tunnel yet,” he said.
No one needed a second invitation.
Dana picked up her staff from the floor, “lead the way kid.”
14
They walked for what felt like miles. At every fork of the tunnel, Rick would place his hand over each branch then lead them on.
After what seemed like hours, they could see a bright light at the end of the tunnel they were in. This was something they’d not seen in any of the other tunnels; enthusiasm drove them to run more quickly. The voice in Rick’s head grew louder the closer they got, and finally loud enough to make out that it was the voice of his grandmother.
Please come back, Rick!
He was very puzzled. How could he hear his grandmother’s voice in the game? And why was she asking him to come back?
They emerged from the end of the tunnel into a well-lit chamber. In this room there were five doorways stood with strange runes etched over each of them. None of the runes made sense except one.
Lord Errate – Ricardo Hernandez
That was obviously his.
“Hey, this one has my game name and my real name on it, but what are the others?” asked Rania.
“Well this one has my name on it,” Rick said, pointing to his. “But yours just looks like chicken scratches to me. They’re obviously enchanted so only the one they belong to can read them.”
“Weird but cool,” said Rania. Does everyone have one?”
“Yes. There is one for each of us,” Mario pointed to another door, “as this one is mine.”
Dana claimed hers but Mark’s avatar stood with its mouth hanging open under the last door. The name above his door read Son of Beelzebub – Edward Yu. Somehow his real identity, the one he had cloaked and hidden for so long, was known in the game.
That. Was. Not. Good.
“What’s wrong Mark?” asked Rania.
They all turned to him.
“Um, nothing. It’s mine.”
“So, what are we waiting for,” Dana stepped up to her door. “Let’s open them all at the same time.”
Except for Mark, the team members all moved into place. He was still looking at the name above his door in disbelief because it meant real world consequences. If it were known in-game, that knowledge would soon reach the ears he had hidden it from for so long.
Mario noticed him.
“Mark, I don’t know what’s holding you back, just know this, we have your back no matter what, right guys?”
“Yeah, we got your back man.” Rick’s game form approached Mark and patted his shoulder.
“Yes,” said Dana. “We are like family now, and family members stand by each other.”
“Come on, Mark,” Rania said. “We faced this maze; together we can face anything.”
Encouraged by his teammates, and unwilling to disappoint them, Mark approached his door and put his hand on the golden knob.
“After three. One, two three…”
15
The unit where the Valhalla Greatest team members were was a frenzy of activity; all four doctors on duty were on hand, equipment was beeping, and lights flashing.
Of course, to the people waiting outside, seeing all four doctors convene and converge on the room at the same time, was strange, if not frightening.
“Something’s happened,” Selma said to the others in the waiting room.
As if to punctuate her point with a horrible exclamation mark, the viewing window suddenly dimmed to black opaqueness – nanotechnology doing its job to ensure the privacy of the patients during a time of stress.
Rania’s parents gasped. Selma was worried, but the dark thoughts that kept floating in her head were quickly pushed away by logic. Rick and the others were in the best care money could buy, and they had been assured all along that the comatose players were in no danger.
A half hour after the window blacked out, the doctor that had been so kind to Selma came into the room. The parents and relatives there gathered around fearing the worst. Then the doctor smiled.
“They are all awake.” The doctor fended off the rushed, joyful questions and asked them to quieten down. “We have to run some tests; then you will be allowed to see them.”
*
By the time the team was fully awake, all the medical tests on them checked out, and they were released from their protective bubbles. The departure from the stasis of the bubble was a traumatic experience in itself, as they suddenly re-discovered air, not unlike a newborn taking its first gulps of breath.
By the time they were allowed in, the doctors had given the awakened team members a brief explanation of what had happened, and they were all in a state of disbelief. Selma hugged Rick, kissing his face all over, but he didn’t fight it. She was obviously happy to see him. The news they’d been in a coma for 21 days had been shocking, and he can only imagine how worried she’d been. Before they were able to talk further, security people entered the room and shuffled the relatives into a corner.
Select members of the press were allowed in to cover the attendance of representatives of Realms of VR, VNet executives and the championship scoring panel of veteran celebrity coders. Even amongst the elite, there were hugs and laughter for the contestants. It was a great day. Their money-making machine could power on.
The press took pictures of the representatives as they hung out with the Valhalla Greatest team members, even though it was pretty clear that the team had no clue who most of the well-dressed people were.
Finally, the sideshow moved out, and the families had a little more time before they were shuffled out as well. Selma promised Rick she’d be back the next day.
The fans outside the facility had heard the news eventually, and it spread through their ranks in Chinese whispers. The news was warped and molded as it went from mouth to ear until the last few to get the update heard that the team had risen from death. That even though victory had been snatched from them 21 days before, they had turned the tables and defeated the evil conspiracy against them for a second chance.
Soon it was all over VNet. GodsRealm conspiracy theories became most popular tubes on the net and the fans of Valhalla Greatest began to form a cult.
When the team members were finally left alone, they gathered around in the hovering convalescence chairs they’d been confined to until their strength was back.
“So, we were in comas,” Rania said, in a whisper and with raised eyebrows. “What about the tunnels then?”
“You remember them?” Rick received a nod from each of them. “Good, I was starting to think I’d dreamt the whole thing. Then this is unprecedented. A shared experience like this outside the game is impossible.”
“And you know that because?” Dana asked.
“Because I am a psychology major drop-out,” Rick coughed to cover his embarrassment.
“At least we are still in the championship,” said Mario ex
citedly, before noticing some were staring at him in disbelief. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well aside from the fact that I thought you were a scrawny teenager, we were linked in a strange coma for 21 days, and during that time we had powers and could communicate with each other. I think that’s a little more exciting than the game right now,” Mark, as his teammates still knew him, mused.
“Yeah, and it wasn’t in the game!” Rania said with a sharp laugh.
Rick knew for sure that she was a girl now and roughly his age. She wasn’t at all how he pictured after knowing her avatar so long, but he was pleasantly surprised. She was slim and pretty, with a cute upturned nose and a spattering of freckles. That made Mark the youngest member of the team at 17 years of age.
“How come we had powers out of the game?” Dana asked the team.
“Maybe a residual memory from the last experience that we had in the game?” Rick speculated.
“Maybe we still have them,” Rania closed her eyes and to the amazement of all of them, her body suit changed color from white to light grey. When she opened her eyes, she said in awed tones, “The strange powers we had inside of the maze are still with us!”
The rest of them tested themselves, and amazingly, even though they didn’t quite simulate their full powers from the game, each of them had a residual power the equivalent of what they’d had in the maze.
Mario placed his hands on his lame leg and put his head down. He began whispering soft incantations of healing, and Rick felt the hair on his neck stand up. The power was undeniable. They’d known of Mario’s limp, but no one knew the extent of his old injury till they woke from the comas and saw the scarring for themselves. When he looked up, tears ran freely down his cheeks.
“It works! I lived with this pain for so many years, since I returned from the first China war, and even the most powerful medication couldn’t ease it. Now it’s finally gone.” He started to sob and cry freely. They didn’t interfere and allowed the big man to embrace his joy at the miraculous healing.
“I was only 16 when I was drafted.” He finally looked up at them and saw the sympathy and encouragement in their faces so he continued. “My entire leg to the hip was shattered by a pressure mine. I opted for the medics not to cut it off. They warned me the pain would always be there… tried to convince me over the years since to cut it off and receive a robotic one, but I wanted to die whole, not missing a leg. GodsRealm was my escape from my pain and disability for so long.” He moved his leg up and down. “I was a 17-year-old, crippled veteran of war too young to drink, so GodsRealm was good to me in that respect.”
They nodded solemnly and gave him pats on the back. Perhaps inspired by Mario’s personal story, Mark stood up from his chair. A soft beeping alarm began to sound.
Rick was about to tell him to sit back down when he spoke.
“My name is not Mark Beckham. My name is Edward Yu, son of Jamal Yu.”
“Odin’s Beard!” Rania gave a squeal of surprise, “You are the son of the most famous man on the planet! The one and only creator of God’s Realm!”
“This explains the extravagant spending!” Rick said, laughing nervously. Suddenly he was in the presence of what he considered royalty. “I thought you were a hacker.”
“I am a hacker,” Edward smiled. “The best that ever graced VNet, well, for the last five years at least. You see, my father is overprotective of me, so my presence on VNet was always monitored. And of course, me playing and competing in the game might affect his image. I mean, imagine if the son of the guy who created the game, really sucked?” Everyone laughed. “But what if I was good? He thought that people would put me under scrutiny for being his son even though it’s well-known he never shared any of his coding secrets with anyone. The thing is, until my mom died he didn’t give a shit I existed except to make sure I never made him look bad. So, I hacked the system. I created the Mark Beckham proxy identity out of nothing… the rest is history of course.”
“I’m sure your dad loves you, Edward,” Dana said softly as he sat back down in his chair, which was now glowing red. It cooled to blue immediately. “Sometimes dads can find it hard to express their emotions. So you were only 13 years old when you did that?”
“Yeah, seems I do take after my father. When it comes to coding it seems we share the same talent.”
“Since this has turned into a confessional,” Rania said, fidgeting with her hands, “I would like to make mine. I am a coding major, destined to be a coder like both of my parents.” She sighed raggedly. “I mean, they are not famous like your father Mark, I mean Edward. But they are pretty good. Anyway, thing is, I don’t really want to be a coder. I want to be a professional player.” She holds up her open hand in Rick’s direction before he can tell her that pro players are not allowed. “They are real, I met one three years ago. She beat the hell out of me in Fighter’s Arena and didn’t argue when I accused her of being a pro. I asked if I could join and become one. She told me to play long and hard and when I reached level 30 to meet her in the Crystal Grove of Montotar, the highest level area in the regular game.”
“And what do your parents think of that?” Edward asked, “I can’t imagine they would be happy.”
“Pfft, they outright refused of course.” She had the mischievous look about her again. “They told me it was a fantasy and even threatened to cut the funding for my studies. This is why winning the championship is so important to me.”
“I want to hear more about this professional,” said Rick. “But, in the meantime, we’ll see what we can do about winning the big one for you.”
Rania smiled and reached over to put her hand on his. Rick felt his stomach flip.
“Well I guess it’s my turn,” said Dana. “You all know that I’m a has-been.” Rick started to object, and she shushed him. “It is true; I used to be famous in the late 2020s and early thirties, as a singer. Of course, that was before Alena, the first successful AI entertainer. We scoffed at Alena. No one in the entertainment industry realized the threat we faced from advanced AI. Within two years, 90% of entertainment performers and the industry itself was run by coders specializing in AI.
“So, there I was, a 21-year-old retiree, replaced by genius robots and their coders. I had Peter, my son, then, and of course his father who was my boyfriend. When the money started to run out, Milad left us for better and greener pastures. I did what I could to live and support my son, in fact, for the past five years I worked in the ComSE with Rick here, but he might not know that.” She smiles at his look of surprise. “Anyway, I saved money whenever I could, and studied coding too. Right now, I am preparing for my masters in AI – I want to go back to entertainment. I figure if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. The prize money would help with that.”
“I’m sure you’ll make it even if we don’t win,” Rick said.
There was a pause in the conversation, then Rania leaned forward.
“So, what’s your story, good lookin’?” Rania said cheekily to Rick.
He immediately turned a bright shade of pink
“Nothing exciting as anyone else,” he shrugged. “As I said, I’m a drop-out. I live with my grandma, because my parents were taken into servitude for their debts ten years ago. And I work for ComSE secure data holding as a VNet archivist.”
Dana jumps in.
“Well, he’s being modest. He’s a bit of a company celebrity. His hacker apprehension track record is 100% and all!”
“It is just a job,” Rick waved the compliment away. “But I hope to win the championship so I can afford better medical attention for my grandma,” he paused. “And maybe to be able to hire a detective to find my parents. They were supposed to serve five years, but they never came back and their trails on VNet end at the time they entered servitude.” He shrugged. “I kind of miss them.”
“Of course you do!” said Dana, hovering close. This was the longest time they’d interacted on a personal, real-life level for so long
and she was fast becoming the mother figure of the team. “Did you try going to the police?”
“Or the UN Peace Core?” Mario added.
“We tried every legit channel, and they say they found nothing. More like they wouldn’t want to tread on corporation toes. They told us a bullshit line that my parents got spooked by what happened and got themselves new identities after getting out.” Now anger tinted his words. “I know that it’s not true. I’ll find them someday.”
“I’m sure you will,” said Dana. “You’re a pretty determined guy.”
Her sentiments were echoed by the team and then silence fell over them.
Rania, as usual, was the one to break it.
“Edward? Do you think we can convince your father to let you keep playing?”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head, looking thoroughly depressed. “And now that my secret is out, he’ll pull out all stops to cage me up. It’ll be easy for him. I’m still a minor and he can prevent me from playing.”
“We will convince him then,” Dana said mysteriously as blue electricity crackles between her fingertips. “If not through logic, then through magic.”
16
The next day, the families of the five players returned. Earlier that morning, they’d been given a checkup and told they were free to go. As expected, Mr. Yu was beside himself with anger and after greeting Edward with a hug, proceeds to berate him for his foolishness.
Only when Dana, Rania, Rick, and Mario approached the famous man did he end his tirade.
“I know as a fellow parent,” said Dana. “You’re quite angry at Edward but your son, without your support and hiding his own identity to spare you any embarrassment, came to be a game celebrity in his own rights.” Before he could object, she put her hand on his arm. Yu felt his hair stand on end and was amazed at the warmth of her fingers. “He may have chosen poorly, but you should be proud of his coding talent and inventiveness. It might grow to match his father’s one day. You should let him play on; I’m certain he’ll make you proud.”