Viridian Gate Online: Nomad Soul: A litRPG Adventure (The Illusionist Book 1)

by D. J. Bodden

  I tried to sit up, but the Gore Boar had knocked me down to the last 20% of my Health. Stars danced before my eyes, and I coughed blood onto my forearm. I think I saw Gaius and Tozhug fighting back-to-back. Provus got his hands on a pair of Goblin swords and turned into a human food processor. Everything else was a blur.

  There was one last drawn-out chord from the unseen guitarist, and the music stopped. I laid my head back, looking at the smooth tree trunks and the late-morning light shining down through the branches above, and laughed. It was finally over.

  “Nice job, Alan,” Osmark said.

  “Oh, shit,” I said. “Hi, boss.” I was so screwed.

  CERNUNNOS FOUND THE bear lying in the woods. Its sides, wet with blood, rose and fell weakly. The broken javelin was still in its gut.

  The wounded Kodiak looked up at him and whined.

  “You fought well,” the Overmind said. Then he broke the bear’s neck so it wouldn’t have to suffer.

  TWENTY-THREE

  I WAS STANDING WITH Provus, Fatin, Tozhug, and the warden when Osmark came back on the line.

  “Okay, Alan, it’s just us now. We need to talk.”

  I swallowed. I knew it would come to this, I just thought Jeff and I, and maybe Sandra, would go to Osmark with a preliminary game trailer and smug looks on our faces. I didn’t expect to get caught in the act. “Excuse me, guys.”

  “Everything okay?” Provus said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

  “Yeah. I just need to... pray for a moment.”

  Provus’s face twitched, but he nodded and turned back to the others.

  The area around the Gore Boar’s corpse had turned into a hive of activity. Legion healers had already restored the critical cases, like me, and were working on the lesser wounded. Priests and priestesses of Sophia, Enyo, and Gaia conducted last rites for the dead. Servants in various noblemen’s liveries butchered animal corpses, scraped skins, and removed claws, horns, and antlers with pliers and saws. The Gore Boar itself was like a construction site, with its pelt peeled off and slabs of meat cut and laid out in rows.

  There was blood and offal everywhere. Besides the dirt and blood spatter from the battle, my white cloak had dragged in the muck and acquired a red trim just like the knights’ and senators’. It gave me a window into the origins of Imperial traditions that was both badass and horrifying. The smell was awful, but everyone was pretending they were okay, so I did as well.

  I found an open, mossy spot away from the others. The trees were a little farther apart, so I was in direct sunlight. I took a knee.

  “I could get used to this,” Osmark said.

  “I bet you could. So, am I fired?” I said jokingly, but not joking.

  “I should, shouldn’t I? Fire you,” Osmark said as if he were making up his mind. “The Board killed the project, and even though you didn’t know that officially, you stood with one hundred of your closest friends and heard me kill the project.”

  I chewed my lower lip.

  “A particularly devious mind might claim two employees did this as a personal project, in their own spare time, but I might fire those employees for improper use of company resources.”

  I grinned. “I’d walk my beautiful game-fixing brain over to Bathsheba.”

  “And I’d choke you to death with your non-compete clause and years of copyright infringement cases.”

  “You spoke to Sandra,” I said.

  “Of course I did, Alan. And I’m not going to fire you. What you did was risky, and dangerous, and I admire the hell out of it. I’ve got a wallear to see Wagner’s face when he hears about it, but that’s later. Forget about all that. Gamer to gamer, how does it feel?”

  I thought about that for a moment. The moss and detritus on the forest floor were individually rendered. I saw a couple ants and a bark beetle picking their way through it. The sun felt warm on my back, and the air was moist and loamy. My skin and clothes felt dirty, and I wanted a bath, with a long soak in the hot pool. Behind me, hundreds of NPCs were working and having conversations, and most of them had nothing to do with me, not even counting the millions in New Viridia and beyond. “It feels real,” I told him. “I’ve spent more time in the past three days thinking this was the real world than not. I’ve been scared and angry, I’ve laughed and made friends, I’ve fallen in love a little and in lust a lot. It’s been the most sublime gaming experience of my life.”

  Osmark chuckled. “That’s great, Alan. I can’t wait to try it myself. Anything I should know in the meantime?”

  I closed my eyes and tried to shift my brain into a user-experience mindset. “The new settings will go a long way, but the main thing I’ve learned is that players need to immerse themselves into the game world. We can do things to help them, like add some welcome messages letting them know a little disorientation is normal, and that food helps anchor you in the moment. I also think we should give them headsets, even if it’s not strictly necessary. The more we can make them comfortable with the transition, the better.”

  Osmark paused—I guess he was taking notes. “Good stuff. Great stuff, actually. I’ll make sure Jeff and his team get to work on that. In the meantime, I’m going to go bulletproof this thing to make sure the rest of us get the chance to try it as well.”

  “Okay, awesome. You want me to log out?”

  “Not yet. Let us run a few more tests, and we’ll pull you out to a hero’s welcome.”

  I grinned at that. If they didn’t before, everyone working on Viridian was going to know my name now, and I had the hardware lead’s parking spot for a month.

  JEFF SWIPED BACK INTO Alpha Testing.

  He’d been sitting in one of the emptied staff lounges with the two security guards, Frank and the dude who was so bad at his job Sandra disarmed him. Or maybe Sandra was abnormally good. It had been like something out of a movie. The young guy talked a lot of trash about her, said he was going to press charges, and Frank told him to keep his face shut if he liked working and living in California.

  Jeff felt like he had more in common with the younger security guard, but he liked Frank’s advice, so he “kept his face shut.” He’d sat there, sweating bullets he was getting fired or going to jail, and then Sandra came back, smiling, to let him know Osmark wanted to see him.

  “Sandra?” Osmark said as the two of them walked in.

  “Yes?”

  “Get Doctor Vila on the line. He’s going to tell you it’s Sunday, and he’s going to try and send his assistant. I want him.”

  “You got it.”

  Jeff walked down the testing bay. Sandra slapped him on the shoulder as she walked past, cellphone out to make the phone call once she was outside the Faraday shield.

  “Jeff!” Osmark said. “Get over here.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jeff said, lengthening his stride.

  “Have a seat,” Osmark said, waving to the empty chair.

  Jeff sat. His heart was hammering, and his right arm felt like it was covered in ants.

  “You did it, Jeff. You saved the project.”

  Jeff frowned. “Alan—”

  “Did an amazing job helping you test your idea.”

  “He didn’t ‘help me.’ He pushed me until I did something against my better judgment, changed settings against medical advice, and it just happened to work.”

  Osmark shook his head. “That’s the story we would have gone with if you failed, Jeff. You won. I need you to make the transition with me. What you’re discussing sounds like luck, and I, the Board, and the investors don’t believe in luck. We believe in process, in hard work, and in the PhD. stamped after your name on your business card. So what happened here?”

  Jeff stiffened. He didn’t like this. “I have my own professional achievements, Mr. Osmark. I don’t need to steal his.”

  Osmark sat back and cocked his head. “Good for you, Jeff. Honest to goodness, I didn’t think you had that in you. This is academically significant work, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”
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  “Did you notice the little pauses in his brain activity on the PET from the nanites? That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Osmark leaned forward, clasping his hands together. “I’m just a layman, Doc, but it almost looks like Alan stole some runtime from the servers. Am I far off?”

  Jeff felt his face heat. “You’re not, sir.”

  “That’s serious stuff. Life-changing. A professor of nanoscience and nanoengineering could hang his hat on that, and tell the whole faculty back at Penn to kiss his ass after they snubbed him for earning his paycheck in the real world.”

  Jeff dug his fingernails into his palms. It had taken him a day to reach the same conclusion, and Osmark had pounced on it in minutes. “Yes, he could, sir.”

  Osmark sat back and took his glasses off, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I don’t give a shit about the Penn faculty, Jeff. I care about the people who can take my company away from me feeling safe and secure with me at the helm, because I’m in control. Me. Not you, or Alan, or Sandra, bless her heart. Me. And that’s why you get to write as many papers about this as you want as long as we’re all on the same page. Are we on the same page, Jeff?”

  “We are, sir.”

  “Great. And don’t lose sleep over it. Alan is going to get a promotion, a ridiculous bonus, and a shot at some more complex projects. He’s a smart guy; he’ll drop the win now for the win later.”

  GAIUS CLEARED HIS THROAT. “Sorry to intrude, Alan, but they’re waiting for you.”

  I opened my eyes. I’d just closed them for a second after talking to Rob.

  “Are you all right?” Gaius asked. He was standing at the edge of my patch of sunlight.

  “Yeah,” I said, standing up. “I don’t know. I feel like a great weight was lifted from my shoulders, and at the same time I’m wiped out and a little sad.”

  Gaius smiled. “Combat stress,” he said.

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  He shrugged. “Used to get it lot as a young commander. You spend all this time preparing for the fight, training your people, doing the thousand little things required to make a body of soldiers work together for that chaotic mess historians will call a battle. It winds you tight, and then it’s over, and your brain has to swing the other way to cope.”

  I nodded. I guess that was it. Osmark was in charge, now. I just needed to let go.

  “Of course, most people get that after months of campaigning, not a single skirmish with wild pigs, but you’re a civilian, so I’ll let it slide,” he said, grinning.

  “You looked like you were having fun out there,” I said.

  Gaius smiled. “I suppose I was.”

  “Provus was amazing.”

  Gaius gave me a look, and my breath caught. I’d reached the edge of where our relationship would carry me. Then he looked back toward the others and said, “He does his family proud.”

  I breathed out. “You said people were waiting on me?”

  “I did. We’re about to head back to the city, but there’s a small matter to attend to first.”

  We walked back together. Provus had formed the surviving young nobles into ranks eight across and four deep. The legionaries who’d come to our rescue were formed up to their left, my right. The senators formed the base of the L. The foreigners, like Fatin and Tozhug, stood off to the side. They were all waiting for me.

  “Stand here,” Gaius said, pointing to his left.

  I got into the position I’d learned from Provus, hands clasped behind my back, like the soldiers across from us.

  “Century! Attention!” Gaius barked, and all two hundred or so people snapped their heels together and their hands to their sides. I did the same. “Merit!” Gaius said. “Self-interest bent to the common good for personal profit. These are the promises of the Empire, where a common man can rise through the sweat of his brow to become a soldier, a knight, and one day a senator. Though of common blood and not a native of our city, Alan Campbell stood with weapon in hand for the good of all on this day. Senators! What say you?”

  The oldest among them, from the front of the formation, walked forward in front of all those soldiers and stood in front of me. He reached for my hand, but instead of shaking it, he pressed a gold coin in my palm. “Citizen,” he said, dipping his head, then he returned to his peers.

  “Citizen,” said a woman with a nasty gash on her forehead.

  “Citizen,” said a third man, with an easy grin.

  One by one, they all came up to me and placed a gold coin into my hand. They didn’t all smile. They didn’t all look like they wanted to be there. I could recognize a political necessity when I was one, but they did it all the same.

  “Citizen,” said the last of the senators, a man only ten years older than me, and he handed me a coin.

  “Senator Flavus!” Gaius shouted. “Has the Senate confirmed the decision to include Alan Campbell into the census?”

  “They have, General Considia! Unanimously! Provided he meets the requirements, he may be considered a citizen of New Viridia!”

  Fifteen gold sat in my open hand. I was a citizen.

  I’m not sure if I can properly explain how I felt in that moment. There was the elation of surviving a brush with death, for sure, and a kind of weak-kneed adrenaline-fueled shakiness. But there was something else, like everything I’d done had built up to that moment. The spear still jutted from the Gore Boar’s carcass. I’d put myself in harm’s way, trusting in my training as best I could, and it had worked. Somewhere in there was the glory I’d felt was missing before. It made my heart ache.

  And I knew none of it was real. None of it. These were just NPCs, both the living and the dead, and my body was safely lying in a hospital bed in California, but a role-playing gamer can’t think of it that way. I’d stopped New Viridia’s Senate, its military leadership, and its future from dying in these woods. The fate of the world had hung in the balance.

  My eyes teared up.

  “Do you want to say something before I dismiss them?” Gaius said.

  I thought about all I’d experienced in the past days and nodded.

  He took a step back.

  “This ceremony isn’t about me,” I said to the soldiers and senators, Vocalizing so I could speak in a normal tone. “I’m just a normal person. I don’t have your training, I don’t have Tozhug’s strength or Prince Fatin’s speed, or the Imperial warden’s skill. Men and women like you, like the senators and General Considia, or Tribune Considia, they were born to this life. I feel privileged to have been allowed into their company.

  “We came to this forest because blood was shed in the city. It doesn’t matter if we faced Cernunnos or just the beasts of the woods,” I said, catching Provus’s eye. “We did it together! And people died, but not once did we give up or run. We stood side by side against certain death with a smile on our lips and proved that nothing can stand against the might of the Empire, united, and its allies!”

  The soldiers and foreigners cheered. Some of the nobles were less enthusiastic, but screw them; if you give me a politically convenient soapbox, I’m going to use it.

  Gaius clamped his hand down on my shoulder and muttered, “You’re either impossibly clever or the dumbest son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”

  <<<>>>

  Quest Alert: Smoke and Mirrors

  You have successfully taken command and not died. In return, as your reward, you have received 3,000 EXP. You have also been awarded 50 renown—in-world fame—for completing this quest. Greater renown elevates you within the ranks of Eldgard and can affect merchant prices when selling or buying. Enter the Halls of Illusion, and the Illusionist character class is yours.

  Quest Class: Rare, Class-Based

  Quest Difficulty: Hard

  Success 1: Swindled a Swindler

  Success 2: Second Date with a One-Night Stand

  Success 3: Herded Aristocrats

  Failure: Fail to complete any of the objectives.

  Reward: Class Change; 1,000 EXP
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  <<<>>>

  Level Up!

  You have (10) undistributed stat points! Stat points can be allocated at any time.

  You have (2) unassigned proficiency point! Proficiency points can be allocated at any time.

  <<<>>>

  “Legionaries! Dismissed!” Gaius shouted.

  Eighty fists hit eighty breastplates, and the legionaries broke ranks.

  “Does this mean I have to join the Legion?” I asked Gaius.

  “We’d take you,” the general said. “But I think we can find a better use for your ‘talents.’ You’re as bad as Titus.” He shot me a dirty look and headed for the cluster of senators, likely to do damage control.

  I smiled. I wasn’t a fighter—didn’t want to be a fighter—but the grudging and conditional respect of men like Gaius meant a lot, even if it probably meant trouble in the long run.

  Fatin and Tozhug walked over, now that the ceremony was done.

  “Citizen Alan Campbell of New Viridia,” Fatin said with a grin.

  I blew a raspberry at him, then turned to Tozhug. “Listen, man. We both know you did most of the work out there. I wouldn’t be alive without you.”

  Tozhug shrugged. “I’m keeping the spear,” he announced.

  “I... yeah. Cultural differences, I get that. But I owe you a beer and some Glorp, sometime.”

  Tozhug broke into a full on, ear-to-ear smile. “You know Glorp?”

  “I know Glorp.”

  He nodded solemnly. “We will have Glorp together.” Then he stomped off to retrieve his prize.

  “I hope you’re ready for the night of heavy drinking you just signed up for, friend,” Fatin said.

  I frowned. “I thought it was just peanut butter.”

  He shook his wings in amusement. “The Risi are a succinct people. Peanut butter is only consumed after falling unconscious from battle fatigue or home brewed liquor. Peanut butter is peanut butter, but all of those things in one are Glorp.”

  “And today doesn’t count?”

  “Not unless you have a cup of peanut butter handy,” Fatin said.