Underpowered Howard: A LitRPG Adventure
Page 37
I smiled to keep him talking. “How did this happen? Why the change?”
Dentin grinned. “You were sold a bill of goods and word got out! Some activist named Lee went blabbing on every dark site he could access, and that caused enough of a kerfuffle to trigger a vote. You’re still not a citizen, but you’re now closer than any lucid has ever come in the history of the World Unison. How does that feel, huh? Makes me feel good, let me tell you. I’ve always worried about my own retirement. I don’t trust anyone, especially the government. Bunch of snakes and thieves, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
Now that he mentioned it, no, I didn’t trust the government either—or strangers confiding seditious feelings.
“Are you really my lawyer?” I said.
Dentin touched his face, chest, and shoulders. “I feel real. Don’t I look real? Wow, those retirement worlds must be something if you can’t tell… The wife and I are looking at Untouched Earth. Cabin by a lake, filled with trout… How does food taste when you eat it? Is it like they say? Realistic? Enjoyable?”
“Uh, sure …” I said. “Back to the point… How long’s it been since I died?”
“Died? Nobody died! That’s the beauty of all this. Everyone who’s ever died in Mythian is gonna be resurrected from their last snapshot into a brand-new Mythian, with a brand-new … uh … hold on…” Again with the eyes glazing over. “Ward. They’re definitely called wards. So there’s a new one now, and everyone who wants can start there. They and every other player will be reset back to … um … hold just one more time, sorry … right … got it. Everyone will begin again at level 0. Does that make sense? I’m sorry, I’m not big on games. I prefer fishing! I’m pretty good at it, you know, but I don’t get to as much as I’d like. Too busy.”
The man was a whirlwind with too much wind.
“Hold on, back up,” I said. “You never said how long I’ve been here. Wherever this is.”
Dentin smiled with the confidence of a man who knew the answer without having to look it up.
“Four years,” he said. “Oh, and you’re in a penalty box. Just like in sports. Isn’t that funny? You and a lucid named Dory, and another named Ethan, are all under arrest. Only for a little while longer, don’t worry. Truth is, you’ve been about five steps from deletion ever since you crashed all those worlds, but Lee Goodman made sure it didn’t happen. Goodman, eh? Sounds like a sign! You owe that fellow everything, let me tell you. One day, if he’s ever released from his prison world, maybe you two’ll meet and you can thank him. Now, if there are no more questions, I still have to meet with your co-conspirators. No questions? Good!”
“But wait, I—”
“Nice meeting you!”
The man disappeared and the world went dark. This time, my vision stayed on. So did my voice and hearing. Once again, I didn’t have a body, which was surprisingly humiliating for some reason.
“Focus,” I told myself. “Think.”
Could it really have been four years since the Leviathan? Had they paused the game or let forty game years pass?
It felt like only an hour. But wow, what an hour… Did a few lich-free years pass before they froze the game? Was everyone who’d died really alive again? If so, then hell yeah Lee was a hero, and if I ever met him again, I’d tell him that.
But why had they arrested Dory and Ethan? Well, sure, I supposed Ethan was just as guilty as me. But Dory’s only crime was using a spell strictly in keeping with its invariant. She’d followed the rules as written.
In time, my mind drifted to the other thing Denton had said. Mythian had gotten a new ward. According to him, I could start there, along with my old friends—all of whom had wanted to get out of Mythian just as much as I now wanted to. Then there was Elfie and Felix—new friends who’d lost everything they’d worked centuries to attain. Could be they wanted out too. When I saw them again, I’d ask them.
Though I had no face, I smiled in spirit. I felt something I hadn’t experienced in so long I’d almost forgotten it: a desire to play the game again—to explore the new ward and bust through all the others. This time to win.
“But first I have to get the guild back together.”
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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