by Harper North
INTO THE VOID
by Harper North & David R. Bernstein
The Crossing Copyright © 2019 by Torment Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Crossing: Into the Void
Book Two in The Binding Series
Harper North & David R. Bernstein
www.tormentpublishing.com
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 1
AT FIRST, SHOCK overtakes me.
And then guilt strikes.
I run over to Atlas’ corpse, jumping over the still form of Gen_W31. I unequip my Sniper Rifle and kneel beside Atlas. Of course, he’s not here. He’s either respawned or he’s logged out of the game.
Is it true that Gen_W31 has him hostage in the physical world? If so, that’s bad. Very, very bad.
I’ve let him down and I know what that pain is like.
It’s because of me that Atlas was killed. Maybe I shouldn’t have walked out here with my gun raised, but there you go. Impulse always wins. I’ve seen that before too.
“Atlas,” I say, placing my hand on his corpse. There’s nothing but Nanobot Packs in his hotbar and I can’t see his inventory. I can only guess that something Gen_W31 has done has taken his weapons away. “Why did you have to try to protect me? I can take care of myself.”
“Raven_Vex,” The Hermit says, seemingly from nowhere. “You are now masked from the ICC Admins. I have retained some of Master Admin346’s code.”
I jump, removing my hand from Atlas’ shoulder. Whirling, I find the surrounding field empty. Only the stumps face me. My chest aches from every disappointing event these past several minutes, but I keep my expression neutral. Meran pride. But I don’t think I deserve to feel the honor or glory of my people.
“You’re in my HUD,” I say. “And call me, Raven.”
“That is true, Raven. When Atlas_Reign touched me, I was able to jump to your avatar. The Ancient Artifact no longer binds me. Gen_W31 wanted to obtain me, but Atlas_Reign made sure that I did not transfer to her.” His voice, as always, translates perfectly into Doxi, the most common Meran language. Everyone in The Bindinghears each other in their native tongue.
A sigh of relief escapes my throat. “That’s good. Hermit, are you always this obstructive? Why couldn’t you have used text chat?” I smile, though. It’s good that The Hermit has escaped from Gen_W31 and whatever horrors she has planned. And The Hermit will be able to tell me about them. All I know is that there’s a scheme going on that might disconnect players from the game in a way that might harm them.
“Atlas_Reign preferred speech,” The Hermit says. “He would make a strange expression when he typed messages to me.”
“A strange expression?”
“Yes. He would partially close his eyes and turn his lips down.”
“That’s called ‘frustration,’” I say. With The Hermit here, I almost feel as if Atlas is still here too. The surrounding field remains empty of Atlas and everyone else. Of course, if he respawns, he wouldn’t do it here. “Where’s Atlas?”
He could be––
“I have evolved to understand short-names. Does he prefer Atlas? Like you requested Raven?”
“They’re called ‘nicknames’ and sure,” I say, ending with an irritated sigh.
“Atlas has logged out of the game. And what is ‘frustration?’ Is it like typing in all caps?”
“Yes.”
Anything could be happening to Atlas right now. He speaks like Gen_W31 has access to his Immersion Box in the real world. There’s nothing I can do about that.
Unless I meet her again.
She could end up keeping Atlas alive to use as a bargaining chip. That’s my hope.
“Raven, we should move to a new map before anyone returns,” The Hermit says. It’s odd to hear his voice over my comm and not see him. “Loot Gen_W31’s corpse before you––oh. You already are.”
I don’t waste time. Pulling up Gen_W31’s hotbar reveals an Automatic Railgun. I take it and a message appears in my log.
Automatic Railgun: For the brave and impatient. Usable at Level 35 only and Above. Adds +5 to General Accuracy when selected as Starting Specialty. Adds +2 to General Accuracy as well as for all other specialties.
I sigh. I have seven more levels to go, but I’ll keep it. Even a Sniper needs a backup plan. Tucking it into my inventory next to my Digital Transfer Credit, I return to looting.
Gen_W31’s hotbar includes an Electric Mod as well. I’ve never seen one. They’re said to only get sold at hidden Mod Shops around the game, at least on the Meran side of The Binding. A player can electrify their armor temporarily if they have something less than Electrified Titanium Armor. I pick it up.
New Achievement: A Shocking Development.
You’re the life of the party. For about 20 seconds at a time.
The Mod does have a debuff, though. Decreases Speed by 5 points while in use but does damage to anything that tries a melee attack on me. It’s something a tank would use and something Atlas would love. I place the Electric Mod into my inventory.
Gen_W31 also has a few Proximity Mines. Then I move on to looting the other corpses and end up with another 4th Tier Sniper Scope. Nice. The Hermit remains silent as I take everything I can.
“Now where?” I ask The Hermit. So far, no more Admins have come for me. That’s a good sign. “Remember. I don’t know this side of the game well.”
“We can go to Yaren’s moon, Minos,” he says.
“What’s there?”
“Mining operations and several underground maps, caves, and bosses,” he explains. “It isn’t a place one would expect to find a Sniper.”
“Good plan.” Snipers prefer large, open maps. Caves don’t work. I board a hacked Jump Pod and follow his instructions, pulling up a map of Minos. It’s a gray moon. Boring. I tap on a far corner to enter a cave. The Pod takes off.
I hate the thought of running and hiding but, to get Atlas out of the mess I’ve left him in, I have no other choice. Cowardice isn’t a coveted Meran trait.
I’ve done something a loyal ICC servant would do. Even if it was an accident, I’ve put a friend in danger for my own benefit. And that scares me.
It takes ten minutes to get there. The entire way, I grip the Jump Pod’s handrests, trying to cast the thoughts from my mind. Once the door opens, I step out into a gray, featureless cave. Several crates lay stacked nearby, but otherwise, there’s no one. The shelter is something I’m glad for.
“Now,” I say. “How are we going to get Atlas back?” Pacing around the small cavern, I settle against the stack of crates. My log tells me that breaking them open and stealing the loot wil
l aggro the Mining Bots inhabiting this planet.
The Hermit speaks in his calm voice, as if this is a zen session. “Atlas would not wish for you to place yourself at risk of bodily harm.”
“But I put him at risk of bodily harm,” I say. “I have spent considerable time with him. He says that he wants to marry you, which I take to mean that he wishes to be your friend.”
“He what?!” I almost choke.
“What does ‘marry’ mean?”
“Hermit,” I say. “You have a lot to learn.”
“Once I cross The Binding, I will have opportunities to evolve further. It is my wish to understand human and Meran functions and quirks. Raven, how did you get back out of the physical world and log back in? I understand that other physical people were hunting you.”
“Yes,” I say, glad that he’s moving the conversation to something else. The Hermit is going to be helpful, but he’s also going to be equally as annoying. “I received a favor from a friend who works for the ICC’s game development department on Mera. Basically, she tweaked bits of code to trick the ICC Admins to think that I was back in the game after I had logged out.” I think of my frantic video call to Loxia right after I had hugged Atlas and left the game. Our friendship spanned several rotations and we attended Occupation Training together. Then we went to work doing data entry like so many others. The pay was low, but we had just enough to eat and maintain our strength. Loxia risked her job, and perhaps her life, to throw the ICC off, by making them think that I had returned to my Immersion Box. She was another friend I had put in danger. But, I was able to escape my cube in time to avoid death when they had taken their time coming to kill me.
I owe Loxia now, just as I owe Atlas.
I won’t willingly jeopardize someone else to get ahead, lik—
“What happened next?” The Hermit asks.
“I took an illegal transport to the Primal Lands,” I say. “On Mera, it’s a barren wasteland near the planet’s northern pole. Radiation from our star reacts daily with the magnetic field over that region. Electricity is nearly impossible because of the EMP’s. Only a few people survive underground there, in hiding from the ICC.”
“Why did you go there, if there is no electricity?”
“There’s a little bit underground,” I explain, turning my thoughts to the barren rock and bald mountains that make up the Primal Lands. “You have to travel there first to access the Aquatic Sector. Some of my species migrated to these wastelands hundreds of rotations ago, searching for a place that wasn’t overpopulated. This was before the ICC even existed. Basically, it’s an underwater city in a dome. The ICC hasn’t managed to penetrate this Sector yet because they don’t consider it a threat. The people of that Sector are isolated and rarely take in outsiders. But, sometimes, they like shipping in things from the outside, and that includes Immersion Boxes that are now off the grid.”
“They sound like Gen_W31,” The Hermit says. “You are not in danger, are you?”
“Well, the Aquatics almost didn’t let me in,” I say. “As I said, they don’t like outsiders much. I had to beg and share my real story to receive entry. I’m sure they’ll want something from me soon enough.” Hunger and exhaustion hadn’t made me the most graceful new arrival. I’m still ashamed of my lack of dignity.
“Sounds like a difficult mission,” The Hermit says. “Things will also be difficult for me once again as I no longer have an avatar.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, pacing again. It’s as if I’m trying to escape the mess I’ve created. Then I force my expression into a neutral one once again. It’s not easy. “Hermit, do you know a way to get to Earth?”
“Do you want to marry Atlas?”
A sigh escapes me. “I want to find him. You took an Admin’s form. Did you learn anything during that time?”
“Yes,” he says. “Connecting to Master Admin346 has enlightened me further. I have become more evolved. It is possible I can transcend this world and get into the ICC’s framework to secure you transportation to Earth, once I meditate on the protocols to get there. However, to accomplish that, we will need to draw the attention of this world’s main Admin. Truly divine enlightenment will be necessary to escape from this world.”
“How are we going to do that?” I’m all business now.
“You still have your Digital Transfer Credit. It will act as bait to draw the Main Admin’s attention.”
“I take it the Main Admin is even worse than the Master Admins?”
“Do you mean ‘worse’ to mean ‘more difficult?’ If so, then the answer is yes.”
“I need to level up before I take on a Main Adin,” I say, eager to get started. “That’s no joke, Hermit.”
“What is a ‘joke?’”
I ignore him. “So, how do we use this Credit as bait, if I’m masked from the Admins? Do we just attract clusters and other players who want to steal it from us and lead the Admins to us that way? Since we’re masked, they’re going to use other methods to find us.”
“I was going to suggest the same,” The Hermit says. “We need to use an indirect approach. And I highly recommend leveling up before we use the Credit as bait. For now, to stay off the radar, you should stick with less publicized missions and join lesser-known clusters. You may be masked, but there are other ways the Admins can find you.”
He has a good point. It’s not as if I’m going to put my Credit up for auction and attract huge crowds. That would be suicide. But I’m also not a patient person. Patience didn’t get me across The Binding, let alone by playing fair. But, right now, restraint and a willingness to cheat might be necessary to free Atlas from the people who are using him to access The Hermit.
This is going to be a long, long campaign.
“But Atlas,” I say. “The people who have him might not wait long to hurt him.”
“I do not believe they will kill him so long as he can be used as bait,” The Hermit says. “I may not understand human interactions well, but I have learned that bait is valuable.”
“Agreed.” The crates hold me up again as I lean against them. “It’s time to go cluster hunting.” On the Meran side of the game, clusters always look for new recruits. I can’t imagine this side of the game being much different. “Where’s the nearest Recruiting Hub?”
“You are acting quickly,” The Hermit says.
“That’s how I function,” I tell him.
“There is an obscure Recruitment Hub the next map over from this one,” he tells me. “Banned players from other clusters gather there. I do not understand why.”
“That will work.”
The Hermit is right. A small Recruitment Hub exists over on the next map, very close to mining operations ran by Mining Bots. I don’t dare loot a single crate for sellable ore. But, like the Hubs on the Meran side of the game, there are counters inside the small building set up for cluster leaders to recruit. I take one, using its terminal to announce to any nearby players that I’m recruiting.
For the first time, I’m starting my own cluster.
And I need a name.
So I type, AnythingCanHappen.
Sure, I can name it something glorified like StompTheICC, but that would be too obvious. AnythingCanHappen is both appropriate and random enough to evade the Admins. Since I’m still masked, they won’t be able to see that I’m a cluster leader.
But this isn’t a busy Recruitment Hub. I’m standing here, waiting for the outcasts from other clusters to arrive and request to join a Level 27 player for level-building crazy adventures. It’s the way it needs to be.
While I wait, I pull my base stats into my view just to make sure that Admins haven’t messed with them or that hackers, allied with Gen_W31, haven’t done the same. Thankfully, I still have my 273 upgrades and 550 leftover XP.
+–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––+
Strength: 25
Speed: 37
Stamina: 21
H
ealing Rate: 27
Awareness: 40
Close Range Combat: 17
* Sniper Dead Eye: 41
General Accuracy: 40
Luck: 25
+–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––+
Nothing has been tampered with. Good. Of course, there’s still room for improvement.
“So, you’re recruiting?”
I look up from my base stats. A Level 31 female Android named Coco_Dream21, decked out in Titanium Armor, stares at me. Her Level is good but, of course, I don’t know who I’m taking in.
If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that people can be deceiving. A person can appear honorable and do the worst things behind the backs of others.
Even though I’m recruiting from a pool of ragtag players, these people are all lacking purpose or redemption in some way. I know how it works. But at least I have The Hermit on my side.
“What’s your specialty?”
“Stamina. I’ve allocated 50 points to it and can maintain speed and rapid fire on enemies for a long time. I’ve done a lot of Soloing, but I’ll need a cluster to advance any farther.”
A player at that level and with 50 Stamina points is capable of DPS—damage per second. And anyone who can do rapid fire for long bouts of time will fit the role well.
“You’re in,” I say, hoping I’m not regretting this decision. My gut doesn’t like trusting strangers.
It takes another twenty minutes for the next recruit to arrive––Vadie_77––a Human male sporting an Electric Glove and Plasteel Armor. Vadie_77 explains how he was recently booted from another cluster for not contributing enough XP. Like Atlas, he specializes in Close Range Combat.
“How much did you contribute?” I ask.
Vadie_77 shakes his head. “A 1000 per day, give or take.”
“And they kicked you out?” He’s a Level 15, one below where Atlas was when we met.
“Well, I don’t think that’s the real reason,” he says. “It was over a crush I had, and the cluster leader didn’t approve, so she booted me out. She didn’t want competition, I suppose.”