by Dante Doom
“My scanners indicate that we are currently in the final Instance leading to the secret portal,” Ten-Thirty replied. “It would appear that my guess was close, but not close enough.”
“Holy crap, we are not prepared for this thing!” a woman screamed as she leapt into the air and fired a few energy beams at the boar. The beams did no damage to the creature, but it looked up at her in response. Its large, hideous mouth opened wide as flames came pouring out, covering the woman. 250 damage hovered above her, dropping her health down to 1,500.
“Man, that is some high-grade armor she’s wearing,” Savannah said. “This looks like a serious raid boss.”
“Our weapons are freaking useless!” another player complained. “What kind of damage will kill it?”
“Just keep hitting the thing,” a tall man with a golden helmet replied as he dodged the boar’s charging attack. “Once it soaks up enough damage, it will become vulnerable for a few seconds.”
“That is ridiculous!” someone complained.
“The exit portal is over there,” Ten-Thirty said, pointing to a swirling green portal at the base of a nearby volcano. “I believe I should be able to adjust our odds of reaching the college.”
Savannah paused for a moment and contemplated an alternative. “So, what are our exact chances of landing in the college next time?”
“By my calculations, we have a fifty percent chance of landing there now, which is fifteen percent higher than the chances of success in our last jump,” Ten-Thirty replied.
“Fifty percent?” Savannah gasped. “That might as well be a coin toss! You said there was a secret area here, right?”
“It can only be accessed once the boss is defeated, and these players have clearly leapt into a fight they can’t win,” the Machina replied.
Savannah glanced at the Arc Rifle sitting in her inventory. “They might not be able to win this fight alone, but with the three of us jumping in, we should have an excellent chance of turning the tables.”
“You think it would be a good idea to fight it and kill it?” Timon asked.
“I think so,” Savannah said. “We were lucky enough to land here with Ten’s portal idea, so let’s not push it any further.”
“My portal idea was pure genius,” Ten-Thirty replied.
“If that ego gets too big, your head might explode,” Timon answered back as he pulled out his rifle. “I say we help these suckers out.”
“Great, so let’s do this!” Savannah shouted as she pulled out her Arc Rifle. The gun crackled with life. Savannah had discovered that, unlike with other weapons, this one could be upgraded with points. She had upgraded its firing rate so that it could shoot a little faster. In addition to the increased firing rate it now sported, the rifle also had a new Shatter ability. When activated, the Shatter power would not only damage the enemy, but would also destroy ten percent of the target’s armor. Each successive hit would destroy more armor. She was more than ready to test out her new power-ups.
Timon let loose a torrent of blue energy blasts from his Sniper Rifle. The energy smacked into the side of the Nidhogg and the words Soak 86% hovered above it.
“What the hell?” the leader shouted as he turned to see Savannah and Timon in battle positions. The players had been too busy fighting in the raid to notice the three total strangers in their background. “This is an Instance! How did you get in here?”
“I guess it was some kind of glitch,” Savannah replied. “Mind if we give you a hand?”
“Aiiiighhhh!” a player screamed as he was eviscerated by the Nidhogg’s giant tusk. He was thrown to the ground, where he clutched his side in agony.
“Yeah, never mind how you got here—please do!” the leader replied. “I’m Kevin.”
“The name’s Savvy and this is Timon,” Savannah said as she aimed her Arc Rifle at the beast. It was quite large, towering at eight feet in height. It was a wide target, too, and she didn’t think she’d have any trouble hitting the creature. She pulled her trigger and felt the gun shudder as it released a blast of lightning at the beast. The words 350 damage hovered above the monster’s head. Its health dropped from 5,000 to 4,650.
“That thing’s health is way lower because of the soak!” Savannah shouted. “We should be able to kill it, no problem.”
The sudden damage to the creature’s body caused it to turn its attention towards Savannah. It growled and stamped the ground with its hooves, readying for an attack.
“Come on!” Savannah taunted it as she blasted the Arc Rifle right into the creature’s face. The energy crashed into the monster’s snout and 350 damage hovered above it again, dropping its health even lower.
“Get all of your best attacks ready!” Kevin shouted as he pointed to the Soak 98% hovering above the boar’s head. “The window only lasts a few seconds.”
The beast charged at Savannah, moving with blinding speed. Flames were spewing forth from its mouth as it bounded toward her.
“Now, Timon!” Savannah shouted. Timon activated his Swap power and the two switched positions. This caused the boar to slide to a halt and reposition itself so that its body was aimed at Savannah once again.
At the same time that Timon appeared in front of the creature, the words Protection Broken hovered above the monster.
“Fire!” Kevin screamed as all of the players focused their attacks on the beast as it ran for Savannah. Pure streams of energy from all directions crashed into the monster, lowering its health down to a paltry 700 points.
Savannah rolled out of the way just as the Nidhogg tried to trample over her. She noticed that Ten-Thirty wasn’t fighting, though; rather, the android had wandered over to the portal and was moving its hands in the air. I certainly was growing more prideful.
“It’s regenerating health, damn it!” Kevin shouted as he pointed to the Nidhogg’s health bar. It had indeed begun to regenerate, albeit slowly. The words Soak Restored hovered above its head as the players all began to fire upon it. In the chaos, the beast lost interest in Savannah and instead focused on attacking two players who were wielding laser swords.
Savannah activated her Overdrive+ power and aimed at the beast. With a single shot, she dropped its health from 850 down to 150.
“What kind of crazy gun is that?” one of the players asked. She had paused from attacking and was staring at Savannah’s weapon.
“One of the best in the game!” Savannah replied as she fired another blast at the Nidhogg, killing it instantly. The beast let out a final roar of defiance as it faded away into nothingness. Orbs began to flow towards all of the participants involved.
“Nice work!” Timon shouted as he ran up to Savannah. “I’ve got to admit, I thought this fight was going to be way harder.”
“Yeah, this gun made it much easier,” Savannah replied as she patted her rifle. She glanced up to see that all of the other players were staring at her. Kevin had even taken off his helmet, and he stood staring at her curiously.
“So… what kind of gun is that?” Kevin asked as he walked closer.
“Oh, it’s the, uh…” Savannah trailed off when she noticed that the group of eight was beginning to get closer to surrounding her. Their weapons were still in hand, and she felt nervousness shooting up her spine. Would they attack her to get the weapon? That wouldn’t be a good situation to deal with. Players were far more troublesome than a single raid boss. “It’s a really nice gun, that’s all.”
“It shredded that monster,” Kevin said. “Some people have said that it takes hours to kill that beast because of its regeneration and shielding combo. But your gun… it completely ignored the shielding effect. May I see it?”
“Oh, I’m afraid not—really, we gotta go,” Savannah replied as she put the gun back into her inventory. She glanced at Timon with a worried expression.
“We’re looking for a secret area here,” Timon explained as he stepped in front of Savannah. “So, we’ll be on our way.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kevin repl
ied as he held up his hands. “You can’t walk away without answering some questions. First off, how did you get into this map? Secondly, why is there a Machina over there? And thirdly, how much do you want for that gun? I’ve got thousands of points, and I’ll pay whatever you want for it.”
“Those are a lot of questions,” Timon said, “but there are far more important things for us to be worrying about right now. In short: the gun is not for sale, we ended up here by virtue of a glitch, and the Machina is an ally of ours.”
“Look, we’re trying to be polite here,” Kevin whispered as he leaned in. “We don’t want to do any kind of nasty PvP business, truly, but that gun would be really valuable to me and my team. I don’t really think that holding on to it is worth your lives. Do you?”
“If that is a threat,” Timon replied with a growl, “then you best realize that she easily shredded through that beast’s armor. Do you need another demonstration of how that gun works? You’ll be waking up a Serf before you have a chance to blink.”
Kevin turned back and looked at his team. They were all ready for action, and Savannah could see the impatience in many of them. She pulled out the Arc Rifle and placed her finger over the trigger. This was going to be one messy fight.
“Cease your infernal bickering,” Ten-Thirty said as it approached the group, and everyone turned to look at the Machina as it approached.
“You can talk?” Kevin asked. “Man, what is it with your team?”
“We are here to find a secret area, one that will lead to a hidden level where there is limitless potential for gains,” Ten-Thirty replied. “If you try to kill Savannah, we will massacre you. However, if you join us, you will gain plenty of points, as there will be many opportunities for growth.”
“Join you?” Kevin scoffed. “I don’t think so. See, I’m starting to think that you folks are a bunch of cheaters. She’s got a gun that ignores armor, you’re a Machina that can interact, and you all simply show up in an Instance fight? You’re breaking the game somehow. Consider yourselves reported.”
“Don’t report us!” Savannah shouted out instinctively. Reporting them would cause Police Machina to arrive and begin to attack. It was true that a player could report another if they recorded some kind of infraction live, and that was the last thing they needed to be dealing with. Since Savannah was illegally in the game, the police would trace her connection and ban her pod from being in the game in the future. And though it was possible to get in anyway after that, it would take hours to get around the ban, as her pod didn’t have the best masking software.
“Oh, so you don’t want to be reported?” Kevin asked as he crossed his arms. “Then I suppose you best make a trade. Give me the gun, or I call the cops on you.”
Savannah sighed. “Fine,” she grumbled. She motioned as if she were handing the weapon over, but at the last second, she pulled the gun up and fired a blast of electricity right into Kevin’s body. The words 350 damage hovered above his health bar, killing him instantly.
“Holy crap!” another player shouted.
“Kill them all!” Savannah frantically shouted as she began to fire on the remaining players. With their leader dead, though, the group fell into chaos. A few of them scrambled to simply escape, but were quickly caught by Ten-Thirty, who proceeded to effortlessly throw them around. Those who tried to fire back were overtaken by Savannah’s Arc Rifle. The firing rate was fast enough for her to hit each one without a problem. Timon got a few shots in, as well. In a matter of seconds, all eight players were dead and their points had gone surging towards Timon. 325,000/1,500,000 hovered above his head.
“Well… that didn’t go exactly as I had hoped,” Savannah said as she looked at all of the gear crates on the ground. “But in hindsight, killing these players was a great idea.”
“It would have been preferable to have them join our side,” Ten-Thirty replied as it began to move to the north of the Instance area. “I believe that there will be a secret area on the ground, by that Joshua Tree.”
“Nice reflexes,” Timon said as he looted each crate in a hurry. “That gun is extremely overpowered.”
“No kidding,” Savannah said. “I wonder why it was implemented into the game.”
“Well, if the original intent of the creators was to make a game out of killing Virals, then it would make sense that they wouldn’t want players to kill each other. I’m willing to bet that the Arc Rifle was designed for a sheriff of sorts, to keep players from attacking one another,” Timon replied as he pulled a few impact grenades out of one of the crates. “These will come in handy.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, I guess,” Savannah replied. She looked up at Ten-Thirty, who was staring at the ground at the base of the black, twisted tree. “Did you find anything?”
“I have found the portal that will lead to the next area,” Ten-Thirty replied. “This will take us to the College of Colossus.”
“Perfect!” Savannah exclaimed as she walked over to the section of the ground where Ten-Thirty was staring downward intently.
“I have a question,” Ten-Thirty quietly asked. Its voice was low, and had a sad tone to it. As each day went by, Ten-Thirty’s ability to emote was getting stronger and stronger.
“What is it?” Savannah asked.
“When you shut down the game, I believe that I will die. I have looked at the code for all of creation, including that of a Machina. They are not designed to be like me. They do not think; they do not feel. Their minds are blank and empty. When the Grind is rebooted, what… what I am will be wiped away. My consciousness is an accident, a fluke. I am an error.”
“Don’t say that!” Savannah said as she patted the machine on the arm. “There’s got to be some bigger reason that you’re conscious. Don’t forget what Kireen told you. She said that you are important.”
“She also said terrible things about fate and destiny,” Ten-Thirty replied as it stared up at the sky. The burning red atmosphere above them was so bright that it made Savannah’s eyes water as she glanced at it in following Ten-Thirty’s gaze. “I suppose that I cannot convince you or Elanor not to turn off the Grind. I am condemned, aren’t I? I will die.”
“Well…” Timon said as he approached the two. “Do remember: that’s the thing no one tells you about being alive until it’s too late. With the gift of life comes the curse of death. We all die.”
“I see,” Ten-Thirty said as it looked back at the two humans. “You are not metallic beings, so you will fade away, too.”
“Yeah,” Savannah said with a shrug. She wasn’t a particularly morbid girl, but she couldn’t deny what the android had said, obviously; perhaps because of it, she spent most of her time dreaming about how to make her life better, and she never thought about death.
“Everyone dies,” Timon said simply.
“So, why do anything?” Ten-Thirty asked.
“Because it gives our lives meaning,” Timon replied. “We might die, but there will always be more people coming and going. We’re part of something bigger. A human has maybe forty or fifty years of life, and then they’re gone. So, we think of bigger things. We try to make a positive impact on the world, so that… so that when we do die, the world is a better place because of us. We fade, but our legacy is eternal.”
“Legacy is eternal,” Ten-Thirty repeated. “That is fascinating.”
“Yeah,” Savannah replied absently. Her mind darted to her own mortality, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. She didn’t particularly like thinking about death, and she pushed it out of her mind. She had bigger things to worry about—right now, at least. “So, how do we activate the portal?”
“I shall do so now,” Ten-Thirty replied. “Prepare yourselves for a serious challenge. I do not believe the next area will be a safe one.”
“It definitely won’t be safe,” Savannah said with a forced laugh. “After all, we’re walking right into the bad guy’s house while he’s away.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Whoa, it’s so crazy from the outside,” Savannah said as she stared up at the spiraling tower before her. She’d been expecting a cluster of buildings, but was surprised to see only one. One very tall building that twisted like a corkscrew as it stretched upwards into the clouds. She couldn’t see where it stopped, or even if it stopped. It seemed endless. “I don’t think we’re going to have time to find Kireen’s artifact.”
Ten-Thirty had wandered over to a large series of carvings on the stone walls and was standing motionless, staring.
“Well, perhaps there’s some kind of directory at the bottom,” Timon said as he inspected the round, golden doors of the tower. He pressed his hands against the doors and ran his fingers up and down the gold medal, looking for a hidden latch or key.
“How do we open it?” Savannah asked as she walked up next to him and placed her hand on the door. As Timon brushed his hand across its surface, it briefly touched Savannah’s and she felt her heart rate rise a little.
“I don’t know, no handles…” Timon mumbled.
Savannah slowly glanced sideways at him. He appeared to be deep in thought about something. He leaned against the door and took a deep breath.
“Savannah… we haven’t talked about your last interaction with Leopold.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Savannah asked as she spun around and leaned her back against the door to face Timon. “That bastard tried to kill me!”
“Yes, and you managed to survive, which is no small task. But I fear he may still have an interest in you since you survived. People like Leopold are attracted to power, and he may try once again to get you to join his side.”
“You really think he would do that again?” Savannah asked as she blushed a little. No one had ever been interested in her in that way.
“Leopold has a reputation for being single-minded about his wives. He has had many. Each time, he’s profoundly becomes smitten over a woman. But the relationships are caustic and they rarely end well. I can recall more than a handful of incidents where he has tried to kill his wife.”