Dragon Kings of the New World

by Dante Doom

  "Yeah, well, be sick later," Cindy said.

  Van glanced up at her scowling face. The room was still spinning a little. He had been inside of the world creation simulation for several hours, which in his perception had translated into thousands of years. He had been alone for such a long time, he could barely remember how to interact with another person.

  "Man, what the hell happened to you in there?" Cindy asked as she snapped her fingers in front of him. "You look like you're losing your mind."

  "Mind…" Van whispered. Memories of the mission came flooding back to him as he looked at Cindy. He had been trying to manipulate her, to defeat the dragon. The memories of the world that he had been erecting from nothingness began to fade away as concerns of the real world returned to him. He didn't feel well at all.

  "Well, here's the deal, pal," Cindy said as she grabbed Van by the arm and forced him out of his pod. He welcomed the assistance as he climbed out, bending over to catch his breath. "I just poisoned the entire security team and they're on the ground, completely comatose. We have maybe twenty minutes before Draco realizes no one's checking in and sends in the big guns to secure this place."

  "You did all of that?" Van asked.

  "Yeah," Cindy said. "Because I know you're up to something."

  Van glanced over to where the security detail would normally have been standing. There was indeed a man lying on the ground and clutching his stomach. He was completely unconscious. This wasn't some kind of trick, from the looks of it.

  "I don't know what you mean," Van said, just to be safe.

  "Look, jackass," Cindy growled. "You're right on Draco. They keep changing their minds and you've done a good job of showing me just how fickle they are. I know you're hot stuff for a reason, so you've got to work with me here. How do we get out of here?"

  "You really want to know?" Van asked, feeling a little smug that his plan had worked out. His mind was still trying to realize that his plan hadn't been formulated two millennia ago, though, but had instead been made earlier that morning. Despite how exhausting the process was, he was still able to think. "We need to get a USB drive plugged into my pod. The CIA set it up so it can help us engineer a virus that will stop the Draco for good."

  "Really? I knew you were with some kind of government organization!" Cindy exclaimed. "Fine, I'll help you guys for one million dollars and full immunity for my crimes."

  "Deal," Van said. He had no capacity to make such an arrangement, but he didn't mind getting her hopes up only to watch them be crushed later on. After all, she had been willing to sell out the human race, so she deserved a rude awakening.

  They shook hands then, and Cindy was quick to pull the pod down and activate the debugging mode. Van placed his data stick into the port and watched as it clicked and activated. The little light on the side of the stick flashed rapidly as it began to work.

  "What's it doing?" Cindy asked.

  Van shrugged. "I have no idea," he replied. "They just told me to plug it into the system and they'd take care of the rest. Now close it, quick."

  Cindy shut the pod back and deactivated the debug mode. The USB drive was now safe and sound on the inside of the pod. Van hoped that, whatever it was doing, it worked quickly.

  "So what's the plan now?" Cindy asked.

  Van grimaced. The plan for him was to climb back into the pod and get back to work before the Emperor realized that he'd been logged out for a brief period of time. The Draco security team would then show up and promptly kill Cindy, eliminating the only witness to his clever act. Still, was that fair? It might be what she deserved, but she had stuck out her neck to help Van.

  "My suggestion is that you hide in one of these pods before the Draco squad shows up. No one knows it was you, right? That'll give me time to activate this program from the inside, and then you'll be perfectly safe."

  "I was kind of hoping the plan was to escape or call the CIA for help," Cindy asked.

  "Well, that comes later in the plan," Van said. "Just trust me here."

  "Fine," Cindy said as she walked up to one of the pods. "I'll hide in this one, but you better pull me out when you go to escape."

  "Oh, don't worry," Van lied, "you're definitely my first priority." And with that, he logged back into the game in the hopes of being able to smooth things over with the Emperor, who no doubt would be furious with his sudden vanishing.

  17

  "I'm calling it," Neil said as he looked at his computer. "He bailed on us. He lied to your face and bailed on us. Right now, as we speak, Van is living the high life and has completely forgotten about saving humanity for good."

  "I'm sure he's just taking his time," Sang said as she looked at her computer. They were sitting in the computer lab where the operators normally worked. With such high-powered computers and a full team of hackers at Sang's disposal, all she needed was the schematics from Van. It was taking a long time, however, and she was starting to grow worried. A few monitors had noticed that his character had been popping on and offline several times within an eight-hour span, but other than that, there'd been no indication of how the mission was going or what he was doing. It might not even be Van who was logging on.

  "Looks like you owe me money!" O'Hara shouted as she leapt up in her chair. "The tracker's going!"

  "What?" Neil asked as he looked over at O'Hara's computer. Sang craned her neck to see that, indeed, the GPS tracker that they had installed into the data stick was working.

  "Looks like he's somewhere in the desert," O'Hara said as she read the coordinates. "Just in the middle of the desert. From the looks of it, I'm not seeing any kind of buildings or anything."

  "Maybe he's in some kind of a mobile lab," Sang offered. "Are we getting the data transmitted to us yet?"

  "It's coming in," O'Hara said as she clicked on a few things on her computer. "From the looks of it, we're getting the entire framework of these pods."

  "Beautiful," Sang said as she got on her own computer and began to access the files that were coming in. The USB system was designed to get as much data as it could and then transmit the information via satellite to the CIA's system. It was working perfectly.

  The schematics were interesting, and they were highly complex. Sang knew the moment that she looked at the way the pods were designed that it would have been a very difficult program to write. Yet, with her team of geniuses and copious amounts of coffee, she knew she could do replicate the technology. She was going to write a virus that would eliminate any Draco who was logged into the game.

  "I think we're going to pull this off," Sang whispered. "I think we're really going to destroy them all."

  "And that means I'm going to win two bets with Neil," O'Hara said as she kicked back in her seat. "Today is going to be a great day, indeed."

  Van stood before the Emperor, who was in his Draco form. The expression upon the scaled eyes of the creature conveyed only rage.

  "I do not understand how you logged out," the Emperor said, "but we are aware that the security team in your compound was poisoned. Fortunately, they have all recovered, but this raises a great many questions."

  "Hey, that raises plenty of questions for me, too," Van said. "My pod just randomly deactivated. I logged back in like five minutes later, soon as I could."

  "That is recorded as true, but I am wondering who forced you out. Is it possible that you have some kind of ally in there? Someone you're not telling me about?" the Emperor asked. The expression on his face indicated that Van was in serious trouble unless he could pull one over on the creature.

  "Hey, I thought you said you wanted to build up trust here," Van said. "I mean, what am I going to do, huh? What could I possibly do in that facility that would allow me to supplant you? You're the one who's got his finger hovering above the "destroy all humanity" button. Do you think I'm dumb enough to risk it all?"

  "That's the problem with you humans," the Emperor said, his expression never changing. "I can never tell whether you are being idiotic or
brave. It's like you are hardwired to do incredibly stupid things in order to prove a point."

  "Well, I'm not trying to prove anything. The only reason it took me so long to log back in was that something weird was going on with my head after I was forced out of the world creator. It's like all of those years faded away and my memory realized it was just a trick."

  "Ah, yes, it's the same way that your brain clears dreams away. You're left with little more than vague memories of what felt like an eternity," the Emperor replied. He got excited for a moment. "I find it interesting that what stands out to me the most in those memories are the times when the monotony was broken up by something. I once created a physics system that used a fourth dimension, but accidentally changed some values and the entire universe collapsed on itself."

  "How did that happen?" Van asked.

  "Well, it was – " the Emperor stopped mid-sentence and looked suspiciously at Van. "You're trying to change the subject, aren't you?"

  "No, I was just being polite. Jeez, you are one paranoid lizard," Van accused him.

  "So you were up to something," the Emperor said. "Of course, you were. You're the hero of your people. How could you not? Well, it's not like I didn't anticipate you trying something. Perhaps a hostage will do more for the situation." The Emperor waved his hands, causing a cellphone to appear in his hands.

  "You are to call up your friend Sang and instruct her to log into the game," the Emperor said. "If she delays, I will obliterate this world, and you may tell her so. Now, I wanted to be civil with you, but you are forcing my hand. Your handiwork inside of the world creation system is unmistakable, Van. You are quite the asset, but by refusing to be honest, you are forcing me to bring in a hostage. Sang will be brought aboard this vessel and, should you suddenly log out again, she will be killed. Once I run out of people you love who I can execute, I will be forced to destroy this planet. Do not test my patience again."

  "Uhhh," Van said, "I really wasn't doing anything."

  "I don't believe you."

  "Fine, fine, but please don't destroy earth," Van said as he took the phone. He desperately hoped that Sang had the program figured out by now. If not, things were going to get really, really messy.

  The phone dialed for a minute before Neil answered. "Hello?"

  "Oh, hi, Neil," Van said. "I'm not really sure why it called you, but I need to talk to Sang."

  "She's busy," Neil replied. "Van, is that you?"

  "Yeah, it's me. Listen, I really need to talk to her," Van said, hoping against hope that Neil wouldn't mention anything that could be damning.

  "Sure, here, let me get her for you," Neil said. There was some rustling in the background and Van could hear them whispering to each other.

  "Hi there," Sang said, "good to hear from you, Van."

  "Yeah… hey, listen, I'm in a bit of a bind here. The Emperor has decided that he wants you to, uh, hang out with us for a while."

  "What?" Sang asked. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, you need to log into the game as soon as possible or everything goes to hell," Van said. "He's really not playing around."

  "You've got to be kidding me," Sang said. "Fine, I'll be right in."

  "Thanks," Van said as he hung up. He looked at the Emperor and shook his head. "She'll be in any moment now."

  "Good," the Emperor said. "Now, you weren't done building that world yet. Get back in there and finish it up. I really want to admire your handiwork when it is finished."

  Van sighed as he returned to the pod. Going back in there meant his brain would have to handle perceiving thousands of years going by. If Sang needed him quickly, his mind wouldn't be in the best shape to handle awakening from the pod suddenly. There was only one solution: he'd need to think about escape for as many decades as possible. That was the only way to ensure he'd be able to act when he was needed. Van climbed into the pod and looked at the Emperor.

  "See you in a few million years," Van said as the pod shut around him, plunging him back into a universe where he was a god.

  "Everything about this is going to suck," Neil said as Sang climbed into her own pod.

  "I know, I know, but Van was pretty clear about the consequences of taking my sweet time. The team should be able to figure it out without me. I did most of the work already," Sang replied as she laid back and tried to straighten herself out.

  "Well, what if the Emperor is just planning on murdering you in front of Van to make a point?" Neil asked. "Have you ever considered that?'

  "No, not until you brought it up," Sang replied. "Look, I'll be fine, okay? We just need to finish the hardcoding of the program and upload it into my items. If anything, this just lets us skip the step where we frantically try to get a program to Van without any guarantee that he'll receive it."

  "Well, please try not to die in there," Neil said as he grabbed the pod to shut it. "I don't wanna lose three bets to O'Hara today."

  "I'll do what I can," Sang said with a chuckle as the pod closed. The pod's cords snaked out and connected to her body, and quickly began to pipe information straight into her brain.

  The AI's voice chittered, "Welcome back to Dragon Kings of the New World."

  Hopefully, this was going to be the last time that Sang ever heard those words. She blinked, and suddenly she was standing in the Feast Hall where the tremendous dragon-slaying brawl had taken place. Everything had been repaired, the walls were back to normal, the tables were put back together, and there was quite a large amount of Draco people walking around.

  "Sang?" asked one of the creatures as it walked up to her.

  "Yeah, that's me," she said, feeling a little bit of nervousness. There was something so unnerving about this creature, and she didn't really know what to do with her feelings at the moment. The Draco were so strange to look at.

  "Please step atop that disk over there, and it will transport you to the Emperor," the Draco said. It gestured to a large silver disk that was floating in the middle of the room.

  Sang shrugged and walked over to the disk. She placed one foot atop of it and hoisted herself up. The platform bobbed up and down slowly.

  "This is kind of we – " her words were cut off as the disk rocketed toward the sky at full speed. She instinctively braced for impact, but she merely passed through the wall. She was in awe as she watched the world beneath her get smaller and smaller until, finally, it was nothing more than an orb beneath her. She was in space.

  Sang glanced around at the stars and the moon, in complete awe of the situation. This was definitely more interesting and beautiful than anything else in the regular game. As she gazed at the beauty of the universe around her, she saw the large Draco spaceship in the distance. The disk was taking her there.

  Tension rose up inside of Sang's stomach as she realized that the disk was hurtling towards the glass of the gigantic window. The disk buckled underneath of her then and threw her off, chucking her right into the glass. Fortunately, she phased through the glass without a scratch. She landed gracefully and looked around. There were Draco everywhere, working on the ship without relent.

  "It is nice of you to join me, Sang," said a Draco in a military uniform as it marched up to her. It was the Emperor, no doubt.

  "Well, it's not like I had much of a choice," Sang replied.

  "Hahaha, comments like that are why I like you," the Emperor replied. "If you were just a little less loyal, I would have certainly invited you to join Van in his mission. But alas, I know you well enough at this point to know that the only thing that could dissuade you from your mission is death."

  "Yeah," Sang agreed. "That is true. Even right now, I'm trying to figure out how to kick your scaly ass."

  "Well, I should hope that you fail in formulating the right plan," the Emperor said. "It would be embarrassing to have a hostage kill herself. The entire point of having a hostage is to motivate Van."

  "I certainly want to avoid being embarrassing," Sang said as she checked her UI. She had made some modificat
ions to her pod based off of the information she had received from the schematics, and there was no way the Draco would be able to prevent the team from uploading items to her character directly. All she needed was for the virus to be uploaded, and then she could obliterate all of Draco with a simple click of a button.

  "In the meantime, I suppose it would be good for you to know the rules here," the Emperor said. "You are a hostage, not a guest. You will be restricted to a prison where you will wait until Van learns how to behave. You are to be allowed to log out every 3 days in order to refuel yourself, but should more than 12 hours pass without you returning to the game, well… let's just say it won't be Van's fault that the world is ending."

  "Yeah, yeah," Sang said. "Save your threats, General Jackass. I'll do whatever you want."

  "I might just find it interesting to sit down and find out what goes on in that mind of yours," the Emperor said. "I find it so refreshing, how much lip you are giving me, considering the situation. What is it about humans that drives them to double-down on their decisions? Why would you commit yourself to oblivion, just to spite me?"

  "Do you really want to know why?" Sang asked as she checked her Stealth skill. It was high enough to where she could probably sneak around on the ship and break Van out. "It's because there is one thing that can never be conquered. It's our ability to believe, no matter what, that we can prevail."

  "Riveting. Well, the prison cells are–" his words were cut short as Sang swept his legs out from underneath of him with a well-timed surprise kick. The words Sneak Attack, Stunned hovered above the Emperor's head as he thumped to the ground.

  "We will prevail!" Sang shouted as she ran off into the corridors. Much to her surprise, the Draco around her gave no chase. They all ignored her as she ran through the hallways. She took a sharp turn, only to see the Emperor standing in front of her. His arms were crossed and he didn't seem amused.

  "You honestly think you can try and stage some kind of a great escape? Do you realize, Sang, that you are trapped aboard a vessel with a god? This reality is of my own creation. You can try to run around as much as you like, but you cannot deny my power. I can revise reality as I see fit in this world."