End Online: Volume 3

by D Wolfin

  The girl gave a little affirmative ‘unn’ sound before happily following behind me as I lead us to the third floor.

  Inside of the room that I paid a full gold coin and fifty silver for, there is a small round table on one side of the room. Two chairs on either side has the same intricate bronze framework and decoration as the table, completing the set.

  Along the opposite side of the room, two single beds are positioned up against the wall. Each appear to be of a relatively simple make, yet they had extravagant cloth sheets laid across them with a thick woollen blanket folded up at the end of each bed to provide extra warmth if required.

  The first thing I do is walk directly across the room, and exit the room through a pair of bronze and glass double doors onto a balcony overlooking the streets below. The entire balcony balustrade is made out of maple hardwood. With a slight reddish tinge, it appears to be both stable and warm at the same time.

  The streets below still appear to be quite bustling with players, all happily haggling with each other underneath the paper lanterns that emanate a warm and gentle glow.

  Fen reveals her presence behind me by leaning on my back, entrusting her body onto mine. Feeling heat rushing to my face after feeling a glimpse of some of the curves on her body, I quickly manoeuvre myself in a circle around the girl and back inside the room, leaving her to either continue standing there or follow me in.

  She closes the balcony door behind her with a displeased face, yet not saying anything.

  “Goodnight, Fen.” I say to her as I climb into one of the beds, unequipping my armour.

  As I close my eyes, it is only a few minutes before the system assistance helped induce a sleeping state and my consciousness faded away.

  ***************************************************

  The morning sun is shining through the glass on the balcony doors as I open my eyes. The light fills me with a warmth that seems to nourish me down to my bones.

  ‘No, wait. That isn’t what this feeling is.’

  My mind gradually began to start functioning normally, giving me a better perspective of around me. The warmth I can feel isn’t produced by the sunlight, but by a body that had managed to slide under my arm and was firmly attached to me.

  Pulling off the bed sheet, I see Fen, who has wiggled her arms around me pulled her body completely against mine. Her dress has also been ruffled, with the hem lifting up and revealing a slender milky white thigh resting across my hips.

  She would be the perfect girl in any man’s dreams, except for the drool that is coming out of her mouth and soaking into my tunic.

  I’m not even sure why I asked for a room with two beds, I had already figured out this would be the resulting situation.

  Silently I slip out of her grasp and leave the bed. Despite my efforts to keep her asleep, as soon as I stand up her eyes slowly open.

  “…Mmm.” Fen grumbles half asleep still, stretching her body under the sheets before getting out of bed as well.

  “Why do you always have to climb into my bed? It isn’t good for a man’s heart, in more ways than one.”

  Not only is she visually beautiful, but she is also incredibly dangerous. Even I don’t know the full extent of what she is capable of.

  ‘I think I will have to explain to her the difference between what is okay and what isn’t one day soon. Drooling is okay. drooling on me, is not.’

  “Because I… want to.” She states to me as a matter of fact, almost as if it is perfectly natural.

  “Let’s go downstairs, that prince of no virtues is already online and probably waiting downstairs for us as well.” I can only sigh. There is one idiot more than likely already downstairs and another one that is lacking common sense in front of me.

  As I think about it, if Fen’s existence began with the game. Does that not make her not even six months old? Well, the program known as ‘Fen’ would have been running for nearly six months at least.

  She doesn’t say anything back to me, but she does quietly follow me out of the room and downstairs.

  In the common area downstairs, there is a small fire burning off to the side, eliminating the morning chill while multiple serving girls run around serving breakfast menus to the many players present.

  I spot a player off towards the back of the group. It was not hard to find the person I was looking for, their steel armour is polished to a near mirror finish which is honestly a little hard to miss.

  “I see you are up nice and early.” I said to him.

  Prince Charming may only be a head taller than me, but he has a strange way of looking down on me. He clearly doesn’t have anything to say back to my attempt at starting a conversation and simply looks at me.

  ‘At least he acknowledges I am here all on his own. This is a significant improvement from how it used to be.’

  “I guess not… Are you waiting for Verde?” It is a stupid question. Of course he is waiting for the only person he seems to pay attention to. But at least it may start up a conversation.

  “I am.” Short and to the point. His response carried nothing more than it needed. He does, however, throw a prolonged glance at Fen.

  “It appears Mason and Matrix just logged in. We are nearly all here.”

  At least I tried to start a conversation with the man.

  Five minutes pass by and the two brother also show up at the barrel like table we are gathered around.

  “Lost, looks like our adventure is about to begin once again.” Mason seems highly excited about exploring the forest.

  “Well, I wouldn’t imagine for it to be too much of an adventure. We are only searching through a beginners hunting area.”

  “It may be small right now. But I am sure with you it will turn into something interesting.”

  “You seem to be in a rather good mood today.” I give a short laugh, “Did something happen?”

  “Well. If I am to brag, not only has my latest video hit seventy thousand views when I wasn’t paying attention and I even received an offer from an advertiser to pre-order the first advertisement slot on my next video.” Mason speaks while maintaining a big grin on his face.

  “That’s incredible!” I exclaim “How much was the offer? Did you accept?”

  “The offer was for two hundred dollars. Of course I accepted it.”

  All of a sudden the whole conversation in my mind seemed to stop like a broken record.

  ‘And all you’re excitement is over this?’

  Seeing how cheerful he seems to be. I had thought it would have been something considerably higher than two hundred.

  Our conversation continues for the good part of an hour. Matrix was his usual quiet awkward self, while Prince Charming showed a little interest in the group and joined in from time to time.

  After the second hour, however, the conversation slows to a stop. Extended silences overcame the group as we began to grow tired of waiting.

  “Where is Verde?” Mason asked, his earlier good mood ruined.

  “I’m sure she is coming.” I answer back to him, not even believing my words myself.

  “Well, we can’t wait forever. We are simply wasting time waiting for someone who clearly has more important things to do.” Mason says in an overly ridiculing tone.

  “Mind your tongue! I’m sure she has a reason why she is delayed!” Prince Charming raises his voice at Mason, clearly angered by the sarcasm in his comment.

  “Why. I’m sure we all know she is probably currently-” Mason sarcastically starts to insinuate something before the prince grabs him by the shirt and shoves him backwards.

  “I will defend my lady no matter what. I will go find her, and be back only after I do so!” With those words, Prince Charming storms out of the inn in large strides.

  I give Mason a criticising stare until he starts to look guilty.

  “I think you went a bit far there. Don’t you think.”

  “I’m sorry, Lost. I think I am a bit high strung from sitting around and doin
g nothing. I play this game full time and am trying to make a living out of it. Pointlessly wasting large amounts of time seemed to put me in a bad mood.”

  “Don’t let it happen again. We are a team so there should be no infighting whatsoever.”

  “I understand. I won’t let it happen again.” Mason casts his eyes towards the ground, regretting his actions.

  In my mind, I know I am partly at fault too. Being the leader I should be controlling the situation. It simply happened so quick I was as stiff as a statue with my mouth hanging open.

  With the situation now calming down, I leave the inn with the others meekly following behind me.

  ***************************************************

  ***************************************************

  -Verde(Verity Lee)-

  A gentle knocking on the door resounds from outside the room I am currently in.

  “Verity,” A females voice comes from behind the door, “it is time for dinner, can you come eat with us?”

  I don’t say anything back. I am so terrified at the moment that I can’t even open my mouth. In my silence, I hear a sigh from outside of the room.

  A man had come knocking earlier as well. He left shortly after I didn’t reply, just like this lady hopefully will.

  “Oh, you must be on that VL thing again. How many times do I have to tell you that you need to use it a little less.” The door slowly opens and what must have been the most beautiful woman in the world walks in.

  She has dark auburn hair waving down to her shoulders and a tight fitting blue dress, which reveals her voluptuous figure. The most striking part about her image though, is her face. Her skin is like silk, with a natural colour that emanates femininity. Her facial features are perfectly symmetrical as well. There could not be a single possible person who could rival her beauty.

  The lady stops in her tracks as she sees me pressed up against the back of the bed, absolutely terrified.

  “Sweetie, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “….” I try to speak, and my mouth opens and closes, but words refuse to form.

  The lady takes another step towards me before I finally manage to speak.

  “S-s-stay back. I-I don’t know w-who you are, j-just stay a-away.” My voice croaks as I speak and nearly falters, but I manage to get the words out.

  The lady is clearly quite intelligent. She immediately realizes something is seriously wrong and hurriedly leave the room in shock, calling out to the man that was knocking earlier.

  “Dear! Come quick! Something has happened to our Verity!”

  Thundering footsteps follow quickly as a slightly chubby man in a suit with short hair and reasonably good looks appears in the now open doorway. He speaks immediately without wasting any time.

  “What’s happened!?”

  “I’m not sure, she is either experiencing a delusion or has lost her memories!”

  “What are you talking about?! What could possibly cause such a thing?!”

  “I don’t know, dear. But it seems serious.”

  “Call Doctor Petroni immediately! Have him meet us at the hospital!”

  As the woman gradually starts to calm down, the man correspondingly begins to get more worked up.

  “Darling, Please don’t be alarmed. We are going to take you to someone who can help.”

  A small part of me tells me to trust them. With a short nod of my head, I extend one of my slender arms towards the woman who grabs and embraces me. I feel a strange comforting feeling inside my chest. A feeling of safety.

  ***************************************************

  “It is completely abnormal. I don’t know what could have caused this.” The family doctor, Petroni, said while shaking his head.

  During my trip to the hospital, I learnt that the woman, Honya Lee, is my mother while the man, Lucas Lee, is my father. At first I thought they were speaking nonsense when the lady introduced herself and the man. I only began to come to terms with it and understand after I tried to think about who my parents were. I knew I have parents, but when I try focus on who they are, the knowledge is just on the tip of my tongue, yet just out of reach.

  I met a middle aged man at the hospital who was well dressed and absolutely handsome.

  He gave me a few quick general checkups before having me lie down on a bed which slowly moved into a humming machine.

  “I am having a hard time understanding it.” My father says, extremely stern with the doctor, “Please explain it to me again.”

  “Memories are stored in the brain as clusters of neurons,” The doctor starts explaining the problem once again. “For some reason, those clusters have been scrambled. They appear to be only slightly damaged, but right now they not only out of place, but incomplete as well. This is what’s causing her amnesia.”

  “If her memories are still there then why exactly can’t she seem to recall any of them at all?!”

  “It is because they are all out of place and damaged. Right now, I assume her brain is analysing them and trying to restore them to their original condition. You can think of the memories right now as data that while still being there, is unreadable. Everything from here is entirely up to your daughter and her mental ability.”

  “So there is nothing that we can do!?”

  “Nothing that can give a definite cure, so to speak. You could put her in situations that are related to her damaged memories. The familiarity should help her mind jolt some of these memories.”

  “Fine, I will do that.”

  “Thank you for allowing me to be of assistance today, Mr. Lee. I will now be off for the night, I also have a wife and daughter to attend to. Please sign yourself out when you are leaving.”

  My father nods to the doctor who then hurriedly walks off.

  “I have been speaking with your mother. I hear you have been playing some online game?” Father gives me a stern reprimanding stare.

  I’m not exactly sure what he means when he says this. Why would my mother know about me playing some game that my father doesn’t. Even more so, he appears to have a sore dislike about it.

  Unable to recall anything about an online game, I can only give him a blank stare with a tinge of fear around the sides.

  “Tch, I will be in contact with the game company in the next few days to sort this out. I don’t necessarily need you to go back and waste your time with the filth that play it. I will organize video footage of your entire gametime to try and trigger your memories.”

  I can’t seem to find any words to say back to him. Consciously, I have no problem with what he wants me to do. Yet, a hint of sadness appears from a dark corner inside of me.

  ***************************************************

  -Lost-

  Mason, Matrix, Fen and I arrive in front of Grenton’s beginner forest, located only a five minute walk from the city’s eastern gate. There are a few parties of newbies around hunting wild boars and other low level creatures.

  A lot of eyes seem to follow us after seeing what appear to be high level players coming through. There are some angry glares whenever a nearby monster falls victim to my auto-taunt. I don’t know if it is because Grenton is different from Iceridge, but a few angry looks is all I get. People seem to get over it and quickly move on to the next enemy.

  With lush green grasslands to our rear, the trees in the forest in front of us all look exceptionally similar, with branches twisting up to where the canopy from all the trees produced a solid shield against the world, barely letting any sun shine through and completely blocking off the view of the sky.

  Strangely enough, the small rays off the sun that broke through to the ceiling of the trees came directly down, removing all indications of where the sun is in the sky.

  “There is no point in delaying any further. There is apparently some kind of illusion in this forest that causes all invaders to return back to where they entered from. From what folklore I know in regards to ancient magic, it
could be anything from a natural misleading ensnarement to a full blown glamour.”

  I speak to the others about my suspicions. They aren’t necessarily correct and some of the others may have thought the same thing anyway. But it is my position as the leader of this party that requires me to take this role.

  “Do you all have the ‘Clearsight’ scrolls I bought for us earlier?”

  “Yep.” “Sure do.” The two brother respond immediately.

  Scroll of Clearsight

  A scroll with the ability to cast the spell 'Clearsight'. This scroll is incredibly useful against mental attacks.

  Clearsight will immediately disperse any visual illusions currently assailing the target.

  Requirements:

  - Level 50

  Grade: White

  Duration: 24 hours

  Incantation:

  "My mind is as clear as the fresh spring. My eye sees through the spring that has no impurities. Clearsight!"

  Fen doesn’t have to hold onto one of the scrolls as I will cast one on her myself. She is a companion and not a player, so she doesn’t have a personal inventory like the rest of us.

  Taking the first step forward, we all enter the forest.

  I pass on the thought considering the area is likely to be for new players who have graduated from hunting those odd green boars and are ready to move onto the next type of enemy. Being a low level hunting grounds means it will probably have low level rewards.

  There is definitely no shortage of monsters out here. I used my creature analysis on some of the local wolves, revealing them to be level 15. They are different from the wolves I remember from outside Iceridge. I spent a long time battling the light grey wolves and despite them being of a lower level, I can clearly tell the difference compared to these black ‘Forest Wolves’.

  When these wolves attack, their movement speed is only slightly faster than that of the snow wolf. Yet, they are multitudes more agile. Every single wolf that fell under my passive aggravation weaved in and out of the trees in such a fashion they were incomparably hard to follow with the eyes, and before you knew it, they were right in front of you.

  For a level fifteen player to hunt these wolves. They would need an incomparable natural talent or considerable prior knowledge in martial arts. The experience they provided was naturally much less than the difficulty warranted.