GodsRealm- Betrayal

by Luke Isaacs

  The team had barely gotten their in-game bearings when right there at the spawning point, a team called Hel’s Own charged the Valhalla Greatest.

  The attack was vicious, fast and precise.

  Hel’s Own had eight players just like the now dethroned Odin’s Hand. It had two Battle Mages, two Fighters, one Cleric, two Backline Mages like Dana, and one Rogue.

  It was not enough that almost every member of Valhalla Greatest had to face two members of the opposing team; their powers were still not strong enough to face a level 20s team like Hel’s Own.

  The only advantage they had was their experience, and the time spent together in the coma, which seemed to have made them a lot more synchronized.

  Regardless, they were on the defense as soon as the battle began.

  As Rick countered a fire blast from one Battle Mage with a Chill spell, he turned to clash swords with the other but was slowly driven back.

  Dana had the unique spell replicator on hyperdrive since she had to cast four times what she normally used in order to counter the two Backline Mages from the other team.

  As Rania disappeared and appeared haphazardly, her chameleon powers working for much shorter periods of time, arrows flew around and at both teams from all sides of the battle area.

  Edward was in an impasse with the two fighters from the other team, barely holding them at arm’s length. He moved around and into their fields of attack, countering their strikes in a tight, deadly tango with footwork that would have impressed the most enhanced dancing AI on VNet.

  Mario was busy countering the curses of the other team’s Cleric and casting boosts and blessings of his own, an effort hindered by his reduced power. The effort cost him double the Mana for the task, and he had to guzzle one Mana potion after another just to stay in the fight.

  The battle was already grim when it was further complicated by a raging Fire Giant hurtling itself at the battling teams. As if Hel’s Own had a death wish, they ignored the attacking giant and intensified their assault on Valhalla Greatest.

  Rick eased his spell casting and withdrew as the giant’s club crushed one of the other team’s Battle Mages, removing him from the fight completely.

  He renewed his attacks on the remaining Battle Mage, who was, in fact, a level 20. Rick was a level 25, which should have meant he had double the power of his contender – on paper at least. It didn’t show in their evenly fought battle; it was taxing to say the least as he also had to take time to throw the occasional Chill spell at the advancing giant.

  For self-preservation, the Battle Mage from Hel’s Own threw a Mana Bomb at the advancing giant, and a flagging Rick took the opportunity to withdraw and drink some Health and Mana potions. He thought hard. What are my gifts?

  As the Battle Mage closed in again, Rick screamed out loud.

  “What are my gifts!”

  He threw himself in anger at the charging Mage.

  Suddenly, something clicked in his mind – he was using his powers in the game as he had before the coma! Maybe he had to use them as he had been in real life.

  Even as he thought it, Rick felt a rush through his entire body, and he called on the Area of Effect spells, mimicking how he had used them in real life. Suddenly his whole body began emitting a terrible heat, just like the Fire Giant. This heat power, unique only to the Fire Giants, was now at his disposal.

  The unfortunate Hel’s Own Battle Mage closed in and didn’t realize that he was depleting Health points so fast that he failed to consume enough Health potions to compensate. His game ended with terrible screams as he was engulfed in a ball of flame.

  Edward was the first to note the effect of Rick’s spell. He recognized immediately how Rick had done it and stopped his dancing without warning. Taking a deep breath, he faced them and thundered, “Fear me, mortals!”

  His two foes froze in place, unable to move from fear. Edward advanced and decapitated them in one swooping arc of his huge sword.

  Dana, Mario, and Rania were quick to follow suit, and within seconds the Hel’s Own team were decimated, and the giant was down to its last 10% of Health.

  Rania, now unshackled, became a real chameleon, imitating the background of the battle zone landscape as her arrows struck the shrieking giant, eventually exploding its head as it tried to fend off the attacks of Rick.

  “This is crazy,” she panted as she came across to her teammates. They had gathered to rest before advancing to the next fight. “Our new powers are ten times more powerful than our game powers.”

  “Yeah, Rick here was the first to notice the possibility of using them,” Edward inhaled deeply to push the tiredness out of his body. “So how are we doing in killing count?”

  “We are almost there,” Mario answered him. “Either we take on another team of eight or another giant, what do you prefer?”

  “Let’s get to that spot,” Rick pointed at a spot where a high tier team of 23s was facing two giants at the same time. The whole team flashed the red aura of low health – they were about to be defeated. “Let’s give them a hand.”

  “We better hurry,” Mario commented as he pointed to the emptying playfield. “Only us and a few players are left, the rest are either dead or have passed to the next zone.”

  “Yeah, the fight with Hel’s Own took way too long,” Edward said, already running toward the fighting spot.

  As Valhalla Greatest arrived at the battle scene, the other team was down to one Cleric, who was desperately casting healing on herself.

  Valhalla Greatest attacked the nearest giant when they reached the scene of the battle, dropping its Health to 25% with Spirit Shatter spells from Dana and ice arrows from Rania.

  Edward darted in and began chopping at the giant’s feet, hoping to drop it and force it to meet them at eye level. He succeeded with a few well aimed blows and Rick froze it as it fell. Edward and Rania intensified their attacks on the supine giant, finishing it quickly.

  Unfortunately, by the time they’d finished, the other giant had killed the desperate Cleric from the other team. Valhalla Greatest advanced on it.

  Combining attacks of electric shock with cold on the Stone Giant, Rick brought the giant to a halt. Edward repeated his routine, severing the tendons of the giant’s feet, forcing it to fall face-first to the ground where Rania’s exploding arrows met it.

  With their job done and points in the bag, the team raced for the nearest spot on Jörmungandr’s hulking body.

  They used combinations of Cold with Hot spells to defuse the armor around the hulking snake, then Rania chucked explosive arrows in the softened spots, enlarging them to three times their size. Then came Edward’s turn. He started hacking at the soft, vulnerable flesh that had been protected by the armor.

  Within a few minutes, there was a hole through the flesh of Jörmungandr big enough for them to squeeze through to the final zone. One by one, the team filed through the gap and as usual, having successfully passed to a new level, they were whisked out of the game to the real world for a few minutes of rest and equipment calibration before the final.

  20

  Valhalla Greatest sat beside their holo globes sipping energy water as the score was displayed on the massive scoreboard. They were there, in the last few names to pass through. Just above them were the Thugs.

  In total, there were three teams and two singular players in the final battle to face each other and the end fight.

  Frigga’s Element, a team made up exclusively of girls, was the third team. Joining them were the single players, Crock the Defiler and Smug the God Killer. Each of them was a level 30, placing them at the very top of the players ranking for the entire game; in fact, they were number one and number two on the charts respectively.

  Once rested, the team started to stretch their muscles and approach their holo globes. Rick was about to give his final pep talk when a booming voice emanated from every speaker of the dome.

  “By the power of the Virtual Net Security Board, I am seizing control of thi
s championship and stopping its advancement until further investigations are concluded.”

  Every holo device in the dome was suddenly disconnected and the guests of the event removed their glasses in bewilderment, looking around for the source of the announcement.

  Detective inspector Jones marched onto the playing field with at least 10 uniformed policemen accompanying her as she approached the Valhalla Greatest team members.

  “I am placing all five of you under arrest for charges of fraud, manipulating the game’s engine for personal profit, team cultivating, hacking and in-game cheating.” She ushered to the nearest officer. “Cuff them and escort them out of here please, Officer Jackson.”

  As the massive crowd begins to boo and roar its disapproval, the confused and puzzled team members are led out. Jones spoke into her lapel mic.

  “Subjects have been arrested; you better have the riot squad on standby, the natives are restless.”

  As rubbish and objects began to rain down onto the playing area, she picked up her pace.

  PART THREE - TESTED

  21

  Jamal Yu was a major shareholder in the VNet mega-corporation, Tomorrow Meets Today (TMT) holdings, one of six companies controlling almost all the data space sold or hired over VNet. The ‘big six’ were the inheritors of companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google and Facebook from the earlier era of the non-virtual net. After the uber financial crisis of 2024, these six rose from the ashes, and each one was a merger of no less than 5-10 companies, including some of those old behemoths. The six were invested in every aspect of life around the planet, but VNet was their mainstay since the beginning of the 2030s. After succeeding and replacing the internet, VNet had become so much more than its predecessor. It was a necessity of life for nearly every human on Earth, almost as much as water or air. Unless you were off the grid or living in the Sahara, you needed VNet to be a part of modern society.

  Jamal Yu was furious after the arrests. TMT controlled 50% of the security panel of VNet, and hence it controlled the police forces paid by the panel. Even with this power and influence, he had not been informed of the pending arrests nor even given a heads up. Not only that, he directly owned 20% of Realms of VR, the company operating and controlling the GodsRealm game and all its events, and even now, he couldn’t find out where his son was or by whose authority he and the team had been charged with the serious crime of game cheating.

  He spent the entire afternoon after the news of his son’s arrest searching for an answer that no one would give him, not even from the CEOs of the two companies he virtually controlled. Calling in favors from other moguls and high-powered politicians also netted zero results.

  Ending his final Holo-call with a swear word, he swept the knick-knacks and papers from his desk angrily and poured himself a whiskey. Jamal Yu was not a man accustomed to not getting his way.

  *

  The five members of the Valhalla Greatest team sat, or in the case of Rania, laid back, in their luxurious holding cell, if it could even be referred to as a holding cell. The place was agreeable even to Edward, the son of one of the richest men on the planet. For the rest of his teammates, it felt like a 7-star hotel. The only drawback, of course, was that it was VNet blacked, meaning none of them could reach the VNet with their chips or wrist devices.

  Other than the lack of communication, the place was a surprise to the team, especially to Mario who had experienced military jail time early in his military career. Suffice to say, it was nothing like what he was experiencing now.

  “This is strange,” the relaxed Rania said. “We’ve been here almost all afternoon, and nobody has come to interrogate us or anything.”

  “What is stranger,” Edward said. “Is that we haven’t been given access to our lawyers.”

  “You are definitely talking only about yourself there,” Dana laughs. “None of us happy few can afford one.”

  “My dear Mage, you are mistaken,” Mario smiled at Dana. “Edward is right; we are all entitled to personal legal advocates according to clause 171 of the God’s Realm Championship fees rule set.”

  “Really?” Rania sat up. “You actually read the entire 60-page rule set?!”

  “I am a retired soldier,” he laughed. “I have a lot of time on my hands.”

  “So, we are entitled to lawyers,” Rick asked him. “Even to defend us against the most serious crime this side of the 2030s?”

  “Yes, according to rule set number 171,” Mario answered him. “Especially for the crime of cheating.”

  In a world immersed in virtual reality, cheating was second only to real-life murder; in fact, hacking was placed far below the list of punishable crime since hackers are just coders gone bad. In the eyes of the mega-corporations ruling VNet, they could always be reformed and reprogrammed for the greater good of the company.

  Cheating, though, was the equivalent of treason since it affected all the players and possibly the micro and macro economy – meaning the corporation’s bottom lines. The consequences for a user of VNet found guilty of cheating were quite serious and could end up as servitude for life or, in the worst cases, execution.

  “Cheating is the most questionable act in the game,” Mario added. “So, it needs powerful evidence to prove it, and the burden of proof is always on the prosecutor, but the consequences are so dire for the accused that a lawyer is essential.”

  “Something strange is going on then.” Rick slumped on the big floating mattress in the corner of the room and accidentally touched Rania’s elbow. He jumped back off just as quick, his face red. Only Dana and Edward noticed, and while Dana smiled knowingly, Edward looked really puzzled by Rick’s reaction.

  “I had really high hopes for the competition,” Dana sighed as she joined Rania on the mattress. “Now with this arrest and this waiting, it’s over for us, right? Even though we’re innocent.”

  “Something is wrong,” Edward said encouragingly. “But my father, who is the most stubborn man on the planet, will not let us rot here.”

  “I wouldn’t call it to rot exactly,” Mario pressed the buttons of the wall-embedded food and beverage delivery system. “This InstaFood machine has the best orange juice I’ve ever tasted in my entire life.”

  He took the can it produced and cracked it before downing the juice in a couple of gulps.

  “Ok, we won’t starve to death,” Edward said, smiling. “But we are cut off from VNet.”

  This received a round of sorrowful looks from the group.

  “As we don’t ‘rot to death’ here,” Rania approached the InstaFood and dialed in a cup of hot chocolate, “what in Helheim are we going to do to pass the time?”

  “We could tell stories about GodsRealm best moments for each of us?” Rick suggested as he contemplated ordering something from the InstaFood outlet himself.

  “Or worst.”

  Edward joined Rania and ordered some aromatic herbal tea.

  “Or most embarrassing,” Dana chuckled as she spoke the words.

  “Or why we play in the first place,” Mario added. “Although that could be very depressing to some of us.”

  “What about what you hope to do with the championship’s prize money?” Rania winked at Rick, who blushed again.

  “Or the celebrity status it entails, and the sponsorship offers that come with it,” Rick said as he fumbled with the buttons of the InstaFood to avoid looking at Rania.

  “I know what I will do with the money,” Dana volunteered, “I’ll do two things, no, actually make it one.” She sat up on the mattress in the lotus position. “I will deposit my winnings in the Advanced Investment Multitude program by VNet First Bank and it will fund my son’s and my own studies till I become a full-time AI entertainment coder.”

  “Forget about AIM,” Edward took a sip of his tea at the floating table and added, “they’re not all they claim to be. Put your money in the Long Unchangeable Collective of Kirby Bank. They have a constant interest of 3% that accumulatively…”

  �
��YAWN!” Rania interrupts, jumping up. “I might use Edward’s financial advice to invest my winnings. That will pay for my living and game fees, while I level up and start advertising myself on the private millionaire forum as a professional player for hire.”

  The millionaire forum was another urban legend that supposedly was on invite-only for people who had more than 1 million DC in their accounts. In it, millionaires met and mingled or did business that they didn’t want to go through the normal channels.

  “I would be more than happy to send you the invitation myself once you reach the invitation prerequisite,” Edward announced, smiling.

  “It’s real?” Rick said in a wondering voice.

  Edward nodded.

  “Told ya,” said Rania.

  Dana laughs and wonders if she’s the only one who saw the sparks between Rania and Rick.

  “I will give half of my earnings to the China Wars Veterans Society,” said Mario as he walked to the InstaFood again. “They stood by me in my darkest.”

  After some awkward silence, Dana asked him, “What about the other 50%?”

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged as he cradles a pack of hot noodles back to the table. “Maybe find love or something like.”

  “A worthy cause if I ever heard one. Something like it is definitely in my plans as well,” Rania said. Rick’s eyes widened.

  “I think if I told you what I want to do with my winnings,” Edward smiles weakly. “You would all think I’m just a rich brat.”

  “Honey,” Dana said from her perch on the mattress. “We have all the respect in the world for you, rich dad or no rich dad.”

  “You are good in my books, Edward,” Mario added encouragingly.

  “I don’t think you’re a brat at all,” Rania added. “I know some, and you are nothing like them.”