Continue Online (Part 2, Made)

by Stephan Morse

  “Oh, there, we finally found it.” The other player I had passed earlier was on the ground huffing. Chilled air escaped him and faded into the surrounding fog. He looked happy at least.

  “You could just jump off. That’s a quick way down. I’ve heard that it’s a rush. My niece plays this game and she really likes doing that sort of thing.” My face was lighting up with horror. Talking about my family to random strangers in a game was not a good idea at all. “I shouldn’t have said any of that. Ignore me.”

  The other man raised an eyebrow but otherwise stayed silent.

  “Hey, do you know where Shazam is?” I kept talking and hiccuping. My sentences took almost three times as long to get out. Each time my body heaved with the reaction I would restart the sentence. “Is she this way? I’m going to go this way. Goodbye.”

  Twenty minutes more passed with me following the quest arrows now. The former path that I had been trailing after stopped at the outcropping. Apparently they only cared about guiding new recruits to their designated hazing point. Further directions weren’t needed. Luckily I was getting close.

  Around the latest corner, there was a person fighting. One woman clad in white leathers had a completely passive face. She carried a small dagger in hand and was clearly facing off against something else. I strained to see who her enemy was through the snow.

  On the other side of the small snow plane was a difficult to pick out mass of white fur. Its coloring blended almost perfectly with the mountain top. I couldn’t even make out enough to trigger an [Identification].

  The two figures clashed a few more times. My quest marker for [Pass to Pass] was following the female around as she engaged her foe.

  “Well, this is silly.” I hiccuped. “What are you doing up here, ahhh!” The creature was huge and a lot closer now. My stream of talking must have set it off.

  “No! Do not want! You’re ugly and remind me of a giant dog! I hate dogs. My sister had a dog that peed on my bed!” In all honesty, cats were much better anyway. My hand reflexively switched [Morrigu’s Gift] to its two-handed sword form. I swung away at the approaching creature.

  “Stop trying to hit me! What is with this game! Why is everyone so violent! Why can’t a monster just attack me with a nice sandwich and some afternoon tea!” My mind was clearly fully of complete nonsense. The sentence didn’t even come out right in the midst of all my attacking and hiccups.

  The white-furred monster fought back. Shazam, I think it was her anyway, maintained her silent stare and passive expression while attacking the creature’s back. Ribbons of red crisscrossed from where the small blade sunk in. My constant stream of talking must be attracting a lot of attention. The only actual damage from me was one gash on its shoulder.

  Then came a solid connection that sent me back ten feet.

  “Mah noos!” In a twist of irony, my own nose had been busted by the giant creature’s lucky shot. “Wub is dis!” Today had started off so well. Now it was ending with a creature attacking me, a broken nose, hiccups, and an inability to prevent myself from saying exactly what was on my mind.

  I tried to concentrate and switch the weapon to a better form. This large two-handed blade kept getting caught by the mountain top’s wind. By the time I managed to connect with the furry white creature my blow was reduced to a love tickle.

  Finally, Shazam landed on the thing’s back and dug her small blade into its neck. The giant gave way as its huge eyes rolled backward. I scrambled to escape its face to ground collision. The snow was thick enough that the monster’s falling thud was minimized. Instead, there was an almost happy puff of snow floating around.

  “Hho woold put a-” I hiccuped and lost my thoughts. “Why is der a ye-” Another one interrupted me. I huffed and banged the giant sword down. “Really. Dibs is annoying. Whatever. Zaazam. Derr. Thibs is yours.”

  I managed to get the scroll out of my player inventory without letting blood from my nose or face fall onto it. Dusk was down on the ground sniffing at the giant furry white creature but otherwise unexcited.

  Shazam took the scroll from me. I tried not to lose my mind while hiccuping and babbling constantly. She didn’t comment either way and maintained a passive expression. There was a lack of color to her face that was from more than the cold. I tried to remember my exercises in paying attention to other people. Deep green eyes were visible if I tilted my head back to see. It looked like her face had freckles buried under her already dark skin.

  “Yoor-” My own body betrayed me once more. “Dis autopilot. Oooo kehy.” Shazam’s autopilot seemed more intent upon cleaning her gear and wiping off the red blood than any real interaction with me.

  “Wubever. I need coffah.” I logged out of Continue Online and took a break.

  Session Twenty Eight – The Falling One

  The next week of real time passed fairly quick. My recaps to Miz Riley were straight forward for each day. I could have given every single moment, but the Vice President wasn’t interested in that. She wanted my experiences with the Voices.

  Out of game, I managed to work a few jobs per day. Nothing dire or amazingly mind numbing. It was just enough to keep the skills somewhat fresh as the game world ran one new thing after another by me. Driving around in the Trillium van kept me from completely losing myself in the other world. There had to be people who went to work the next day and completely forgot how to function. With Continue’s time compression, real life almost seemed like a part time gig. A large part of me was willing to believe that people were out there trying to cast fireballs by chanting words from Continue.

  I did my standard session with the shrink. He asked about my time in Continue and seemed proud as always. His giant long chair was cliché but amazingly comfortable. My sister invited me over for a dinner that was pleasant. Beth was sucked into her game doing whatever. I left a message about Camp Grey Skull’s lack of a [Porter].

  In-game I spent a lot of time cold and sniffling. Those first few days involved me shivering uncontrollably until Shazam showed me a hot spring in a cave. That removed my [Stench] and [Mush Mouth]. The other diseases faded away slowly leaving a resistance in their wake. The game was too kind on that regard. It took a few days of her dragging me out to watch her fight [Snowmen] before we had enough materials for a real set of armor. Shazam was perfectly comfortable stitching the pieces together.

  She seemed nice enough but wasn’t talkative. Our conversation was mostly through pantomime. Her autopilot was often a more engaging personality. Shazam had rather violently gestured at me for half an hour until I agreed to leave my own autopilot going. That resulted in me logging into a new situation with every round of Continue. Once I returned to the game and found my character freezing in a deep lake. Shazam was casting some healing spell on me and putting my autopilot through hell. The result was a more natural [Chill Resistance] skill.

  I began to suspect the Voices were messing with me during my logged off period. That or I acted too accepting in-game. There was no reason to truly distrust Shazam, though. The worst she could do was kill my character. Anything else could be avoided by simply logging out and going about my day.

  Combat was going better as well. I rather enjoyed fighting one of the [Snowmen] monsters myself. In four weeks, I had gained additional stats which helped me handle one of them without assistance. They hit far harder than any four [Gobbler]s put together. Having decent armor was the key.

  The biggest victory was the improvement in the real world. I was down fifteen pounds since starting Continue Online. Most of that was probably from better eating habits. Working fewer hours meant less take out. Eating power meals before logging controlled my tendency to stuff myself. EXR-Sevens were burning calories and I could actually see the edge of an ab, just the one. It was exciting.

  At this rate, I would be able to join Beth for her crazy event and actually show off some good points. At least, if the enemy was a bunch of monsters. It had taken weeks to get used to things screaming in my face and spittl
e flying about. HotPants and the other players I traveled with adapted to this alternate reality far quicker. Still, any improvement was improvement.

  “Waaaagggh!” The wild yell was echoed by multiple creatures around me. I was trying to move in the snow and ice to dodge and failed.

  So right now, when a swarm of monsters similar to frozen angry chickens attacked, I was actually entertained. This was far better than tax season. It was better than dealing with elderly people and their half-broken ARC devices.

  “Waaggggrr!” I dodged as one of the smaller creatures spring boarded through the air towards me. A week ago these little monsters would have torn me open multiple times. I learned a lot by watching Shazam handle some herself. She could demolish them in a few quick slices. It wasn’t just player paths and ranks that were different, it was her attitude.

  I tried to apply my growing [Coordination] and [Speed] to the fight. It wasn’t easy. My in-game body kept up, but my mind didn’t. It was amazing enough that this program operated at a four to one compression speed. The magic behind that was still beyond me. Part of me wondered if the system only gave stats a measure in order to gauge a player’s actual growing ability. That would mean that everything about the game had a soft cap of sorts based on human limitations. Neat. Given a few more months I might catch up to the average person.

  “Hhhuuurrrr.” Plus these ice chickens sounded funny. They were small enough that Dusk himself tackled one at a time. It was entertainingly savage fighting a mob of tiny monsters with him.

  Seven of the swarming creatures were down. Eight remained. Dusk was currently fighting the smallest one and trying to roast its face with a stream of tiny fireballs. The small creature used snowdrifts to dodge and hid from his flames. I was trying to use a weapon much like the one Shazam had been using. [Morrigu’s Gift] had taken days to get the simple shape down. The weight of it still hadn’t changed despite the huge difference in size.

  Dusk laid into another one of the small creatures at about the same time I managed to off one of the small monsters myself. The gloves from Shazam were thick. It allowed me to grab one of them and toss it far away. Dusk bounded over like a puppy playing in the snow.

  It took another few passes to clear the remaining creatures. Three more died to Dusk and I. The final ones ran away. Shazam slowly clapped and gave me two thumbs up. Her face wasn’t smiling, though. I had begun to wonder if she ever expressed happiness or anger.

  The follow-up process to dealing with monsters involved looting them. That was weird to me. Dusk chewed on one of the deceased happily. I had learned to transport some of the items to my player inventory. Ice creatures gave me some weird version of a frozen chicken breast. They worked as Dusk treats and kept my satiety bar from hitting zero.

  Shazam crooked a finger in my direction then pointed to her wrist. That seemed to loosely translate to ‘come with me’ and ‘time is short’. Faster wrist tapping meant to move quicker.

  So we marched briskly along the mountain top. I was no veteran or professional. My few weeks in-game helped but didn’t make everything a cake walk. Shazam, on the other hand, hauled across the landscape like nothing was in her way. She probably had some high-powered skill that let her move through terrain quickly. My character sheet had added [Mountain Man], and [Wilderness Survival] had taken sizable strides.

  These skills were high enough that they might be of use in real life. Someone would need to give me a giant two-handed sword and one [Messenger’s Pet] first. I wasn’t about to leap out into the Montana mountain range to see if living off the fat of the land was doable. If my future in robot framework polishing fell through then maybe that would be my next choice.

  Despite all the pain of Continue Online and the soreness of my muscles, I kept coming back. Part of it was learning the new skills. It was like being in an interactive school that taught anything I was interested in. Part of it was the strange hope that there was a purpose behind it all.

  Shazam was leading us up the mountain even more. We might be heading towards the peak again. Maybe not. There had only been one trip up this high before. Everything else took place in a sort of valley on the backside of the mountain.

  “I don’t think I’ll need heals this time,” I said.

  Shazam shrugged and gave a single thumbs up. She was agreeing.

  “Are all mountains this easy?” I asked while climbing over another snowdrift.

  She shook her head and kept right on moving. The woman was fast. Our path weaved and bobbed a little bit. The only thing that really stood out were bits of her face that weren’t covered by the white fur armor she wore. I had a similar set. Shazam was even kind enough to give me a helm that replaced [Wild Bill] up here on the mountain.

  The hat was silly to use in this weather. Maybe once my stats were much higher I could walk around the world with it and [Morrigu’s Gift]. All I needed were some boots. A shirt and some neat pants would be nice. The ones Shazam made chafed something fierce.

  “How far up are we going?” I asked while pondering how one went about collecting gear in this game. Shazam pointed upwards then motioned up twice more.

  “The top?” I tried not to sound whiney about it. Fighting a small herd of ice chickens for so long was mentally tiring. At least my physical issues went away pretty quickly.

  Shazam nodded slowly. It was a shame she never smiled. Those darkened freckles might be kind of cute.

  “Okay, I’ll be right back then.” It would take hours to get up there. I zipped out of the ARC, relieved myself, grabbed a snack and got back in. My autopilot was docile enough to travel up the mountain behind Shazam.

  “Back,” I announced upon return. Shazam gave me her standard thumbs up.

  I shook my head. She must be mute in-game. I didn’t know how much of it translated back to real life. It wasn’t like she never talked to anyone. Every so often she would pause and wiggle her fingers in the air. Those moments where she paused and poked at the air meant a text message was being sent. Shazam often sent little notes to her guild members. Neat. Maybe I should look into getting a guild one of these days.

  We marched up even higher. Our trail went back to the mountain path I had first climbed. It took an hour to make it past the new recruit shouting rock. It would take another one to get to the peak. My [Light Body] skill was barely still in effect which helped out immensely. All this [Snowmen] armor pushed the weight limit.

  Finally, we made it to the top. Shazam had managed to lead us around most of the monsters and reduced the time needed. The summit was only twenty feet away. She pointed to the ledge twice.

  “Over here?” Normally her pointing meant I needed to go stand somewhere. The reason often became apparent right away. Like a monster attack.

  She nodded.

  “It’s not a spider this time is it? I really hate spiders.” We had fought a monster that seemed to be a glass cockroach. When it died hundreds of little grossnesses came out. I retched after that one and then shoveled the body off the cliff side using [Morrigu’s Gift]. Dusk helped by torching the smaller bugs and kicking them off with wads of snow.

  Shazam shook her head.

  “Oh thank goodness.”

  Her hand motioned me a few feet to the left and then she gestured for me to back up. This was putting me dangerously near the edge. Fortunately, heights weren’t one of my problems in this game. I had fallen once a few days ago. That event killed my character but otherwise left me unscathed. It just meant that real life issues could be completed while waiting out the timer.

  Shazam had a lot of skills. Resurrecting the dead wasn’t one of them. It took me two days to gain back the points lost from that little event.

  “Further left?” I asked. Shazam was motioning still. Then she put up both hands for me to stop. “Okay. Now what?”

  She unrolled the scroll that I had handed her over a week ago. Her eyes looked at the contents of the scroll and then towards me. That happened a few times. Finally, she held it up and squinted. I
couldn’t see what she was looking at from this angle.

  That being said, I wasn’t stupid.

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?” I muttered. Shazam didn’t answer me.

  That scroll came from the Voices. Whatever she was reading on it seemed to be giving her instructions. There was only one reason the Voices would want to send her instructions regarding me on a mountain top.

  Sure enough, she nodded. For the first time since we’d met, Shazam gave a slight smile. It was a small thing that made her freckled cheeks stand out even more.

  Then the woman ran towards me. Her speed was miles beyond anything she had displayed before. My meager skills built over the last few weeks in-game had no way to keep up or stop the bull rush. She ducked low at the last moment and drove her body upwards, into mine, with pressure from the back leg.

  There was enough time to blink once before the landscape spun away. Her move had launched me a good fifteen feet into the air. Fifteen feet was enough time to contemplate the choices that brought me here. I could see Shazam righting herself on the mountain’s top. She watched me with a calm expression as my body twisted and flailed in a completely natural reaction to being airborne. Her eyes followed mine as I twisted away and turned towards the oncoming ground.

  I felt like this was Beth’s intro all over again. My niece had a free fall from orbit log in that she used. This was much the same, only shorter, colder, and the stop at the end would be more violent.

  A window came into being citing my current flight time and distance covered. The seconds passed and the ground grew closer. I put my arms in front of my face to brace for impact in case it was survivable. Physical pain was only slightly scary by now.

  Static crossed my vision and interrupted the descent. I fell forward into a landscape no longer consisting of white mountain tops and cockroach monsters. The ground was hard, but there was no jar of pain. I rolled and tumbled until the inertia from my fall bled off.

  Everything about me was gray. It wasn’t the room of trials from my character creation. This wasn’t the Jester’s in between land either. I did look around for him with a worried expression.