“Allurie, do your thing with that crossbow,” I said as I pointed past the group of allied guards.
“Leo, I’m just learning how to do this. I don’t think I can shoot past all of them and hit the--”
I ran back into Chrysa’s room, grabbed the table Allurie’s crossbow had been sitting on, and then yanked it out into the hallway. My friend understood what I wanted her to do without my asking, and she jumped up onto the table so that she could have a better shooting angle.
Her first bolt slammed into the shoulder of one of the enemy guards at the line of scrimmage. He spun around like a top and let out a scream of surprise. I knew the feeling and didn’t envy the pain the man must have felt in his chest.
I leapt up onto the table next to my friend so that I could survey the battle. Allurie already had another crossbow bolt ready, and she aimed toward another man at the front line. The man noticed her coming, and he managed to get his shield up in time to block the bolt. The missile still knocked his arm aside, and he let out a scream that fit his broken shoulder.
The Thizzle Thrower really did kick like a mule.
I hit another one of our guards with a Minor Heal and then used a Guardian of Fortune on one of our men who was getting double teamed. The ability saved him from getting cut on the back, and he yelled a word of thanks to me.
The battle had been deadlocked when Allurie and I first ran into the corridor, but it now turned, and the pretend guards were starting to back away from the line of battle. I guessed they would break at any moment and the survivors would sprint toward the double doors of the wing’s exit.
Just as I thought they were about to break, the double doors did open, and a mass of armored guards ran through the doors. These men and women were wearing gleaming plate and burgundy capes. I guessed that they were the elite guard, and the imposters all threw down their weapons as soon as they realized they would be unable to escape.
Then the battle was over.
Quest completed. You have been awarded 4 attribute points.
I jumped off the table and held out my hand to help Allurie get down.
“Did you call me?” I asked as I pulled her away from the mass of angry guards.
“Yes! We needed your help so bad! I’m glad you came,” she said as she threw her arms around my neck.
“Did you call me after I called you? Or were you calling me before?” I asked as I tried to put my longsword away while I simultaneously tried to pry her arms from my neck.
“I don’t understand your question,” she said as she pulled away from me and blinked.
“I called out to you from my room, and then you called back. Was that the first time you called me?” I asked as I put my new sword in its sheath.
“Oh, I was calling for you for a long time before you answered. As soon as those men attacked the front door,” she said as she gestured to the foyer.
“Okay, let me clarify. You called my name as soon as the men attacked, for a few minutes at least, and then you kept calling? Then you heard me shout your name, and you shouted in return?” I couldn’t believe what she was saying, so I had to make sure of it.
“Oh, yes! We really needed your help. I yelled your name as loud as I could, and I wished with all my heart and love that you would hear me from your home and come back. Did I interrupt your time with your parents? If so, I am sorry. We really needed your help.” Allurie’s face saddened as if I had just told her that her favorite puppy died.
“No, no. That is fine. You didn’t interrupt me. It is weird though,” I said with a sigh.
“What is weird?” she asked.
“You shouldn’t be able to call to me. I shouldn’t be able to hear you. This is crazy.” As I said the words, my stomach began to flip-flop. What the hell was going on? Was I going insane? How was an NPC from a video game communicating with me in real life?
The chill from my stomach filled every muscle of my body, and I felt my jaw slacken as I stared at Allurie.
“What is wrong, Leo? Were you injured?” The beautiful elf woman set her fingers on my arm where I was cut and started to peel back the cloth.
“No. I’m not injured. Ahh. Allurie, I need to ask you something,” I felt as if I had to kick the words out of my throat.
“Is it time?” Her eyes opened as wide as I had ever seen them. “Did I do good? I think I did the right thing. You seemed happy with me using the crossbow. Can we mate now?”
“No, uhh no. Okay, how do I say this? Fuck…” I covered my face with my left hand.
“Fuck? Yes, I would--”
“I have to go,” I said with a sigh. It was better not to talk to her, or Cornalic, or Chrysa, or Bolverk right now. There was only one person I needed to talk to:
Zarra.
Chapter 22
“That was quick,” Ky said when I took off my VRIU mask.
“Yeah. I’m good,” I said as I waved his hand away from helping me climb out.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. How long was I gone for?” I asked.
“Ahh, ten minutes I think. Jennifer?”
“Twelve minutes,” the blonde woman answered through the speakers.
“Ahh. That was my quickest.” I put my robe on and turned to face Ky. Our eyes met, and the man smiled at me. When I didn’t smile back, his eyebrows pushed together.
“You sure everything is okay?” he asked with concern.
I thought about confronting them both. I’d just said ‘gone for,’ and neither corrected me. Maybe it was just gamer slang, and they thought it was close enough to the term of logging in. It was possible that I was jumping to the wrong conclusion about what was going on with Ohlavar Quest. Fuck the idea that I was teleporting to another world seemed impossible.
“Yeah. I’m going to take another shower. Talk to you guys tomorrow morning,” I said before I returned to my room.
I paced the floor for a handful of minutes and reviewed the conversations with Jennifer, Ky, and Zarra. I thought about what I would say to the purple-eyed woman when I saw her in an hour. Then I let out an angry sigh before I jumped in the shower. When I finished I put back on the clothes I had already worn, and then I paced the room again.
And I waited for Zarra.
The ringing phone pulled me from my thoughts, and I turned to glance at the clock on the device. It had been an hour since I’d logged out for the second time.
“Hello?” I said as I picked up the phone.
“Hey Leo, I am finishing up here. Did you order food yet? Or were you waiting for me?” Zarra asked.
“I was waiting for you,” I replied.
“I will call and have them fix something for us,” she said.
“Great.” I forced a smile to my face.
“Should be fifteen or twenty. Looking forward to seeing you,” she purred.
“Yeah, me too. See you soon,” I said before we hung up.
Then I let out a long exhale and paced my room some more. My back and shoulders were all sorts of tense, and they were actually starting to ache. I forced myself to do a few mobility and stretching exercises. It took three passes, but I eventually got my body to relax.
My mind was far from relaxed though.
There was a knock on my door, and I opened it cautiously.
“Hi Leo,” Zarra greeted me with a beautiful smile. There were three women from the restaurant behind her, and they each had silver carts with covered trays on top.
“Come on in,” I said to them as I stood away from the door.
“Did you have a good session today?” Zarra asked as she walked into my room.
“Yeah. Got some new equipment. Tomorrow is the second challenge. How was your day?”
“Busy, but I’ve been looking forward to talking to you.” Zarra glanced to the women setting up the food and then gestured to the door. “We can get the rest, ladies. Thank you for bringing it.”
“You are welcome, Ms. Zerne. Have a nice evening,” one of them said, and then the three of them lef
t.
I closed the door and turned again to face her.
“You seem tense,” Zarra said. “Come sit with me.”
“How can you not be tense? Armed gunmen broke into the complex last night, shot at us, and then tried to destroy your AI server.”
“Well, when you say it that way, it sounds like I should be more stressed.” Zarra laughed, and I found myself smiling against my wishes.
“Who were those men? Why did they break in? Why are they going after the AI? Zarra, I feel like there is something you aren’t telling me. Actually, I feel like there are a lot of things you aren’t telling me.”
“Can we talk more about it while we eat? I’m starving,” Zarra said as she opened one of the plates of food. “Oh perfect. This is a green salad. Can I serve you some?”
“Yeah,” I said as I sat opposite of her.
“I’m working with the FBI on the break in. Chip is also involved. He’s proven invaluable with these matters. It looks as if they might have been hired by one of our competitors.” Zarra put some of the salad on a plate and passed it to me.
“Who would risk that? It seems like it would be terrible for their PR.”
“The men didn’t know who they were working for. They are a mercenary team hired by someone unknown. Their contact gave them the schematics of our complex and then told them where to hit.” Zarra shrugged as she dished herself up some of the salad. “It is possible that we might not find out who is behind it, but that is how these things go. We are increasing security, both externally and internally. The blueprints of our facility were leaked to someone, so I think I have a mole.”
“They knew where to hit you. So yeah, there is a mole. That leads me to my next question: Why did you run to the AI room? It was crazy dangerous. You could have been killed. Hell, I could have been killed when I chased after you. You said the server is backed up every day. Why does it matter if it was destroyed?”
“It isn’t so much the backup. That is the data. I didn’t want to lose the hardware either. The men we killed at the door had explosives on them. It would take us a month or more to replace the hardware and room. The system is closed off to the outside world, so I can’t just host the game off site.” Zarra took a bite of her salad and shook her head. “I don’t want to waste a month, or more.”
“But you could have been killed. Yeah, losing a month sucks, but you could be dead. Zarra, you aren’t an idiot. I’d like to think that you don’t believe I am either. It doesn’t make sense.” I stared at the woman and her purple eyes locked with mine for a few moments.
“Maybe I was foolish,” she said at last. “This is my life’s work.”
“But you can replace it in a month.”
“Okay, Leo. I get it; you think I was an idiot. You are right. Is that what you want me to say? I made a foolish decision and wanted to defend something I’ve spent my whole life building. Yes, I shouldn’t have bothered, but I let my emotions rule me last night.” Zarra crossed her arms, and she shook her head.
“No, I, ahh. I didn’t mean that. It didn’t make sense. I’m not accusing you of being an idiot. I just thought there was something special about the AI, and you thought it was worth risking your life over.” I shook my head.
“Ohlavar is special, of course. He does feel like he is my child, or maybe like a sibling since he’s evolved to become so intelligent. The thought of some fuckers destroying him filled me with anger. You are right, I shouldn’t have risked my life. Nor should I have brought you. If you died, it would be worse than if the server was destroyed.” Zarra smiled at me.
“You could have gotten someone else to play the game.” As soon as I said the word “game” my shoulders tensed again. “Can we talk about the game for a bit?” I had asked before I took a bite of salad.
“Of course.” She smiled and then took another bite.
“Is it a game?” I asked the question I’d been pondering for the last hour.
“What?”
“Is it a game, Zarra? It is too real. I heard Allurie calling me when I wasn’t logged in. Then I jumped in the game and they were fighting. She admitted that she had been calling for me. I heard her. How in the hell did I hear her call me outside of the game? How in the hell am I so strong? I know you gave me your reasons, but it doesn’t feel like it is a game. It feels real.” The words tumbled from my mouth in a completely different manner than I had planned for the last hour.
“Uhh, Leo, I don’t understand.”
“Me either. All I know is that I heard Allurie call my name, and this isn’t the first time. It happened before. Both times when I jumped back into Ohlavar Quest, and I talked to her about it, she said she had called for me. She knew I was ‘at home,’ but she thought I could hear her if she yelled enough.”
“I do not know what you want me to say. Should I say that you are crazy? Should I say you are not crazy? How can you hear someone outside of the game speaking to you? Maybe you are spending too much time logged in.” Zarra’s face looked concerned.
“So that is your answer? I’m spending too much time logged in the game? Come on, I’m not crazy, Zarra. I know what I heard. I know what I feel when I am in the game. It feels real, and I don’t know how I could have imagined Allurie yelling for me. Even if I had imagined it, how could she have confirmed it in the game?”
“So what do you think is going on?” Zarra’s face had slightly shifted from a look of concern to one of annoyance.
“I don’t know. That is why I am asking you,” I said.
“I think you have a guess. Or a hypothesis. Let’s hear it, Leo.”
“It isn’t a game. I’m somehow being teleported to another world.” I felt a chill descend my spine once I said my thoughts. It sounded just as stupid coming from my mouth as the words did in my head. This was like something out of a terrible sci-fi movie.
“Leo.” Zarra chuckled and then shook her head. Her laugh wasn’t mocking, but it communicated some frustration. “Do you seriously think that you are stepping into the VRIU and being teleported to another world? Part of me is truly happy you feel that way since it means the game is doing a great job with the immersion, but I’m worried about you.”
“I don’t know how else to explain it. How can I hear Allurie’s voice outside of the game?” My stomach was growling for more food, but I ignored the salad in front of me.
“You’ve met most of my developers, and artists, and designers. You’ve read the white papers on how the VRIU works.”
“What about the overseer?” I asked.
“Who?”
“The black tentacle tree monster with all the mouths that I met in the ancient dwarven city. The creature spoke in my mind and called me Leo Lennox. He knew about Earth.”
“Leo, we want it to feel like the player is on another world. This could be the AI messing with you,” Zarra said.
“So this is just a game then, and I’m just hearing Allurie’s voice because of what? Because I’ve been playing too much? And I’m super strong in real life because I’ve been confusing my nervous systems with the game?” I felt my anger rise, but I was mostly angry at myself. I sounded crazy.
“You’ve been playing a lot. More than anyone else ever has. You’ve been clocking days over sixteen hours. Playing a game that long, any game, will take its toll on someone’s mental state.” Zarra reached her hand across the table and rested it on mine. “I’ve been pushing you too hard.”
“No, it’s fine. I want to play. If it is just gamer symptoms, I’m okay. I’ll get over it,” I said as I looked into her purple eyes. “Feels like I’m fraying at the edges. I’m not used to it. I probably do need to get more sleep, maybe get some real exercise outside of the game.”
“Sure. You also need to eat more,” she said as she nodded down to my food.
“Yeah,” I agreed and then took a bite of the salad.
“I can tell you are passionate about the game. I love it as well. That was why I ran to protect the AI.” Zarra shrugged and
took a bite of her own food.
“Can you show me the AI server?”
“What do you mean?” she asked after she finished chewing.
“It’s behind the vault. I want to see the hardware of the AI system. Can you show me after we eat?”
“I will need to think about it,” she said after a moment.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “What is there to think about? I’d like to see the mastermind of the world.”
“It is just a series of computer towers. Not that interesting,” Zarra explained.
“Yeah, so it won’t be a big deal if I see it. How many towers is it?” I asked before I took the last bite of my salad.
“I dunno. A bunch,” she said with a shrug.
“You don’t know how many server towers it is? I thought the AI was your baby?”
“It is, there are many towers though, and we rotate hardware in and out so that we have new equipment there. There could be ten, or thirty, I don’t know at the moment. I can send a quick email and find out, if you wish,” Zarra said as her purple eyes narrowed a bit.
“Would be easier for me to just see it.” I opened the next tray of food and saw it was filled with sushi. “Let’s take some plates of food and go for a walk.”
“Now?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Not now, we are eating. Let’s finish our meal and talk about our conversation about having children in the game. I had some other points I wanted to make,” she said as she pulled some of the sushi pieces off the plate with her fork.
“We can talk about that on the way there as well.”
“No. I don’t want to see it now. We’ll have to go through the scrubbing process, and I’m tired--”
“Aren’t I an owner in the company?” I asked as I tried to control my anger.
“Yes, of course.”
“Then I want to see the AI server, now,” I said, and my eyes met her angry ones with the same intensity.
We stared at each other for a few moments, and then Zarra shook her head.
“Not now, Leo.”
“That isn’t the answer I want,” I said.
“Well, that is the answer I am giving right now.”
Lion's Quest: Trinity: A LitRPG Saga Page 32