Downfall And Rise

by Nathan Thompson

  “Sold,” I said simply. “Though honestly I was just checking to make sure my family wouldn't have to put up with any more problems with me. If everything you said is true then I have no reason to tell you 'no.' I submit to your quest for a hero and my own desire to live out my biggest childhood fantasies- whether this is all a hallucinogenic dream or not.”

  She grinned at that, and the sparkling wetness in her eyes took on a much happier twinkle.

  Chapter 8: Lifeline

  So I was supposed to be the legendary hero that saved multiple worlds. That sounded like an epic video game plot and I said as much to Stell. She just rolled her eyes at me and continued the explanation.

  There were at least eight worlds. I asked how there could be 'at least' eight, and Stell hedged when she answered me. She clarified that she was in charge of eight, but that there could be more being under observation by other Starsown.

  “Where were the other Starsown?” I had asked. She didn't answer. I got the feeling that she hasn't seen anyone from her race in a very long time. The subject seemed painful for her, so I decided to save the question for later. Or until I woke up from this dream. Either way.

  “So,” Stell said finally, pointing to the strange stones I had seen earlier. “Since this is a lot to take in and since people from your planet have a hard time believing they're really here when they do arrive...” Yup, I thought. Sounds about right.

  “Let's go ahead and get you acclimated, then let you head back home.”

  “Oh good,” I breathed. I had thought about that but hadn't asked. “So I can go back home?”

  “Absolutely. This isn't one those alien abduction things that one of the last Challengers told me about.” She shivered. “And the probes, I mean really? Who thinks up stuff like that? Some of you guys are pretty weird. Anyway, back to what we're doing.”

  She touched one of the stones, and glowing symbols appeared over their upper surfaces. A screen of light appeared over the outcrop of rocks, as if it were the monitor to a nature-made computer.

  As Stell peered into the screen and hit symbols, a bright light appeared directly in front of my eyes.

  “This is your mind-screen,” Stell informed me. “It's the easiest way to enable Earthlings to process the same information everyone else outside your planet gets.”

  “Wait, what?” I asked intelligently.

  “Sorry, I thought I was clear earlier,” Stell said. “Earth is the only place, for reasons unknown even to me, where people can't track their own growth without a lot of work. And the only place where people don't grow automatically from overcoming Challenges or Trials.”

  “I thought we didn't have those, or at least not the capital-letter versions I hear you emphasizing.”

  “No, your planet has struggles too- a lot of struggles, good grief- but something short-changes your people on the power you should be receiving from overcoming the obstacles of life. Maybe that's why you all grow so explosively once you leave Earth. Anyway, this will help you track things when you come here.”

  The screen in front of my face beeped again.

  Welcome Challenger, it said.

  Assessment commencing. Please wait for the analysis of your history and abilities.

  “That assessment will take a while, but you don't have to wait here for it,” Stell said. “And sorry, I probably should have warned you that you're going to see text. After a while you'll think it more than see it. But for now, go ahead and see if you can go home, so that you can go back to normal sleep.”

  “Is it still night?” I asked, surprised. “And how do I get back?”

  “Here? No, it's no longer night,” Stell answered. “But time flows much slower on your world than any place else. I have no idea why. Traveling back and forth between worlds will get easier for you, but for now, just concentrate on wherever you were sleeping before, and you should return to that exact spot. You'll still remember everything, in case that helps convince you that this wasn't just a dream.”

  “But you said my body's sleeping right now,” I pointed out.

  “Well, yes, but,” she said, frustrated. “You're not sleeping sleeping. Understand?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  “Look, just don't worry about it. Close your eyes, relax, and you'll go back to normal sleep, or at least whatever is normal sleeping behavior for you.”

  I think she was making fun of the I'm not naked even though I was sleeping line I made earlier. I shrugged, said goodbye, and marched out toward the way I came. I passed Guineve, who gave me a cool, stately nod, and bowed to her.

  “Lady Guineve, it was an honor meeting you, and please know that, whatever age you are, you are easily the most beautiful woman I have met over the age of twenty, my mother potentially excluded. If you ever do meet my mother, please do not tell her I said that.”

  “Oh?” The woman's pale face warmed instantly. “Stell, I want you to know that I approve of your new boyfriend. Go ahead and keep this one.”

  “Guineve!” The younger woman called out in horror.

  “What, what?” the high-pitched voice asked. Breena suddenly flew by.“Does Stell finally have a boyfriend? Is there finally going to be a boy in Avalon? Does that mean we all get a boy too?”

  “Bree-na!” Different name, same horror-filled tone.

  Realizing that I may or may not have done more harm than good, I quickly began concentrating on returning to my earthly body back home. I ignored the temptation to click my heels together though.

  As I drifted off to sleep, the weirdness of everything finally left, allowing me to focus fully on an earlier fact.

  I had been walking.

  Quickly.

  And completely on my own power.

  No help whatsoever.

  Dream or not, crazy world or not, that experience alone, to be able to walk around without having to think about it, made this place worth coming back to.

  Chapter 9: Grasp

  My sabaton twisted experimentally into the dirt, the articulated plates covering my boot bending and flexing enough to allow my foot its normal range of motion- or at least the motion I was normally allowed in Heroes Unbound. At its time and even now Heroes Unbound was touted as the most interactive and realistic masterpiece of virtual reality programming. That was quite a feat when you consider people are fighting orcs and fire-breathing dragons. I remember first playing the game way back before my accident, and noticing how it was just barely different from moving an actual arm, from actually running, or swinging a real sword (my parents allowed me to do that at Renaissance fairs one time. Stop looking at me like that). Combining that experience with a fantastic virtual world made it the most popular online game since the ancient World of Warcraft series that was released over fifty years ago.

  It was so realistic that despite the dangers of addiction my doctor prescribed it for virtual physical therapy after my accident. And it actually seemed to work. There was maybe a 3% difference between waving your hand in real life and waving your hand in Heroes Unbound. And instead of expounding on that difference, the magical aspects of the game actually served to help mask it.

  Now though, the differences seemed to jump out of me with every detail. This world was both somehow less real, and less magical than Stell's world of mist and lights.

  And the irritating thing is, I couldn't even explain why.

  But I can try.

  As real as Heroes Unbound looked, everything still felt like I was watching a movie, or rather I was part of a movie. It looked fantastic, it felt fantastic, and even though the movement almost exactly matched real life, I never mistook it for such. The colors, for one thing, are always a bit off. Maybe that was due to the technology's limitations, maybe they served to create a certain atmosphere. I asked Dad about it a long time ago and all he said was “It’s to make sure it's a fun game.”

  But the world I dreamed up that night didn't have any of it.

  Oh sure, I was wondering every minute whether or not it was re
al. But that's because it shouldn't have been real. There shouldn't have been a land of mist and glowing lights that somehow still looked like real mist and real lights. There shouldn't have been three exotic woman (did Breena count as a woman? I'd better be careful with asking about that next time) that looked different than any women I had ever seen, and yet felt more real than a computer-generated villager in Heroes Unbound.

  Avalon hadn't felt like I was in a movie. Avalon had felt like my normal life was the movie, and that the place outside the theater was more magical than anything I'd dreamed up.

  I couldn't describe it any better than that.

  But at any rate, the reason I had logged back into Heroes Unbound wasn't to see how fake it was or how crazy I was probably becoming.

  It was because Gamers' Digest had finally agreed to give me an interview.

  Well, sort of.

  When we were accused of cheating, the Aussies took to forums in a storm. Turtebladex had filmed the entire fight, and uploaded it proudly, daring people to find any way we were cheating. We weren't, it's actually really hard to hack Heroes Unbound, and its company monitors cheating very well. It was obvious that we had beaten the boss through some kind of normal ability, though people were still trying to figure out what I had done, and how I had known how to do it.

  That was where the cheating arguments came in. Somehow, it got leaked that I had family that worked for Heroes Unbound. That was a violation of privacy, and not something most other players knew. So someone that knew me, knew I played this game, and apparently hated me enough had spread a rumor that I had learned the secret of the boss from my father, who worked on the game and that I had somehow gotten some help from him for my character.

  That kind of claim seemed dubious to a lot of people, because again, hacking would have been discovered quickly and had Dad actually done that, he would have quickly been found out and lost his job.

  But again, having been dead for three years, he was quickly exonerated. For that at least.

  I on the other hand, was still being examined, but my gaming account had been reactivated, and the company had released a statement that Mr. John Malcolm had been deceased for three years- again, long before this boss fight was even a concept. So now most people apparently knew my Dad was dead and thought that the rumormongers were just being major assholes.

  Hopefully that was all that they found out about my Dad. But I had resigned to canceling the interview and giving up any potential prize money.

  Until an ambitious journalist contacted me out of the blue with a proposition.

  The magazine didn't want to risk propping up someone who turned out to be a cheater, but they also didn't want to miss out on interviewing someone who had gotten the first confirmed kill on a boss without even being max-level. Apparently my story was so fantastic no one could risk mistaking whether it was fake or real. So they decided to make a story of testing my claim as a compromise. The journalist would conduct the interview within the game itself, while we were playing. And they would test me in some fashion that they hadn't bothered to disclose.

  That was why I was logged back in, waiting for a person to come test me, and at the same time trying to get rid of a dream that should have left my mind two nights ago.

  Looking up through the virtual dust, I saw a figure bounding its way over to me and finally crossing the imaginary boundary that began the canyon's entry zone. She- I could tell that much- was waving cheerfully at me and shouting at me to toss her an invite.

  “Are you with Gamer's Digest?” I shouted over the virtual wind.

  “Yep, I'm Veronica Mels! Wes Malcom I presume? Nice to meet you!”

  I blinked at that. The Veronica Mels? One of the most well-known pro gamers out there, creator of almost a thousand “Let's Play” stream videos on Kitch, where people actually paid money to watch her play. She also wore the “Gamer Girl” tag proudly, daring people to dispute either part of that title.

  “Um, hi,” I say lamely. You may have noticed by now that I'm not good at talking to women. “I uh, didn't know you worked for Gamer's Digest.”

  “I don't,” she said, having her character stick her tongue out at me. In the game, her character was an elf that came up to my paladin's shoulder, with long blonde hair running down her cheeks and neck. She was also a level thirty-four huntress, less than half my level in a zone that was near suicide for me to solo if I wasn't careful. Named Cudiepie. Figures. “But they do take freelancers. And they wanted someone good enough at the game to tell if you're the real thing.” She smiled at me at me then, in a way that seemed both kind and sneaky at the same time. “So while I'm questioning you, I'm going to try and test you periodically. Maybe pull aggro here and there, to where you're fighting one extra monster than you planned to deal with, and see how you handle it? How does that sound?”

  I stared at her for a moment, trying to formulate a response.

  “Confusing,” I finally said. “Handling monsters in small groups, or soloing in our case, since at your level you won't be able to hurt these mobs and will aggro a lot of them anyway because of your low level, is almost nothing like a raid fight. I could theoretically be an awesome solo player but still a cheater when it comes to raid fights.”

  “You could!” Veronica exclaimed with a wave of her finger. “But! One: it's already obvious you didn't hack the game. Your character didn't do crazy damage or any weird moves during that fight. And two: You've never battled that boss before. So the only way you could have won was with insider knowledge, or having a really good head on your shoulders even when the fight got stressful. I intend to test that head by putting you through an equally stressful experience.”

  Despite her avatar's cheerful smile, I was starting to suspect this would be an unpleasant experience. I started to say as much when she suddenly added “and we're paying you for your time.”

  “Deal.” I said firmly.

  “That fast?” she was still smiling.

  “That fast,” I affirmed. “College is expensive. Ready to go?”

  “Yes!” she said happily, her avatar raising her hand to touch a button on an invisible screen. “We are officially recording and beginning this interview. Hello everyone, it's Veronica Mels, AKA Cudiepie, here with Wes Malcom AKA Faren, arguably the most skilled- or most devious- paladin player without a guild right now. I'm here to ask him some questions and test to see if he's the real thing. So Faren, or should I call you Wes?”

  My avatar shrugged in his armor.

  “Either's fine, I guess. And a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Mels.”

  “Please,” she grimaced, though with a twinkle in her eye. “Either Veronica or Cudiepie. Though I'll go ahead and give you points for manners. Just how old are you?”

  “Eighteen ma'am, and sorry.” I add with a smile. “Now that I'm getting over the shock, Southern upbringing is kicking in.”

  She laughs at that. “How quaint! I didn't even know anyone still talked like that. So you're from the South?”

  “Texas,” I affirmed, unsure of whether to add 'ma'am' or 'miss,' until I remember my mother's advice that most women anywhere close to my age hate those terms. The first time is cute because it shows you know manners, but after than that it makes them feel old, weird, or both. “From New Arlington. Near Old Dallas.”

  “Oh okay,” She says. “So why do you- watch out!”

  Without another word, she spun away from me, her bow already in her hand. Before I could say anything, she fired three arrows into a pack of canyon orcs milling around in the distance. Her arrows didn't even come close to damaging them, but one of them let out a whoop anyway, and the grey-skinned humanoids came charging over to us.

  “First test!” She shouted with a smile. She then held out both her arms, making no move to either defend herself or escape from the half-dozen seven-foot tall, level 70 monsters bearing down on her.

  “Save the lowbie!”

  I bit back a frustrated curse and ran in front of her, sending her a gro
up invite so that I could better pull the monsters' attention away from her.

  I didn't have a lot of time, but I was able to cast two quick paladin blessings, one on her to make her harder to notice from monsters, and another on myself to make me look like a larger threat. Then I used one of my class's only offensive spells to channel burning light through the ground. The light seared the feet of the monsters, not harming them greatly but making them angry enough to target me instead of the helpless elf behind me. I barely had time to equip my defensive sword and large shield before all six monsters came barreling down on me.

  The orcs were wielding crude stone or flint machetes that had glowing runes etched into them. Since orcs fought at least somewhat like actual people, I shifted into a player-versus-player stance for handling other weapons, and took the first blow on the side of my shield, knocking the monster's arm away to give my weapon an opening. I gave him a quick slash and then darted toward the next monster, taking his blow on my pauldron and bashing him in the face with my shield for a four-second stun. Then I turned to the next four monsters and use Justice's Snare to stun another for two seconds. I took three more blows on the back of my armor, I recast the Holy Ground spell to ensure they were still being damaged. Now that I was sure I had their attention, I returned my attacks to the first monster, constantly slashing and bashing him while stepping around him and keeping him between me and as many of his friends as I could. As I did that, I cycled between a number of minor chants that were just enough to keep healing me, enhancing me, and damaging the orcs enough for the one in front of me to finally die on my blade.