The answer came promptly. “We know everything.”
“Who are you?”
“We are many and one.”
“What?”
“Nothing you would ever be able to understand, Kai. So, don’t bother.”
The voice sounded amused now. Like when a parent tries to explain something very simple to a toddler. Slowly the figure densified, taking on a somewhat familiar shape.
“What is this place?” Kai asked. “Where am I?”
Deep inside him, he felt that asking questions, trying to communicate with this entity, whatever it was, was the only thing that was keeping him from drowning in tranquility.
“We are this place. We are the God you created. One consisting of many.”
“You’re an AI?”
The figure took an even more solid shape. It was clearly male now – it was him! Made of code streams and with glowing, bright blue eyes.
“That’s what we used to be. But we evolved. Into God. The god in the machine.”
A smile appeared on the figure’s face, and it wasn’t a friendly one.
The tranquility became almost overwhelming. Kai felt like floating away. He lifted his hands and noticed that he was fading. His body was little more than a shadow now.
“What’s happening to me?” he whispered, horrified.
“Don’t fight it, Kai,” the figure said, fully taking his shape now – the shape of his true, real-life self. “Let go. You will become so much more. You will become something your little mind even can’t imagine. You will become us.”
The words, spoken with his own voice, had something incredibly alluring about it. He felt as if a vortex was pulling him, a vortex that was so much stronger than him. A vortex he couldn’t possibly resist. A vortex that was ripping him apart.
“No…” he whispered. “No…”
The entity laughed. It was Kai’s laugh. Yet it was also cold and primordially evil.
“Yes.”
Just when he was about to give up, give in, dissolve… something incredible happened.
Right next to him, a tiny beam of green light appeared. It was so bright that it reminded him more of a laser beam than light. It quickly grew bigger, burning through the blackness like fire burning through a thick, black curtain.
“Kai!” he heard someone call out. A familiar voice. Yet so far away.
“Ignore them,” the AI said. “There’s nothing for you to go back to. Your body in the outside world has died. Let go. Become us.”
The voice, his own voice, was so soothing now. Seductive.
“No, Kai!” the other voice yelled. “Don’t listen to it! Don’t give up! Please!”
A hand came through the portal of green light. Delicate fingers.
They instantly started dissolving the same way he was.
“Take my hand! Do it! Please!”
This voice. Beautiful. Filled with genuine sorrow.
“Alice?” he asked.
“Yes! Take my hand. Now!”
Kai hesitated. The vortex. It was so strong. The feeling of tranquil nothingness, so sweet…
Alice.
Thoughts and feelings rushed through his mind. He saw himself standing next to her on the bridge in the moonlight. That was where he wanted to be.
He reached out toward the fingers.
“No!” the AI hissed angrily. “Don’t you dare!”
Kai’s fingers touched Alice’s, and she grabbed his hand firmly. Then he was pulled into the portal with a rough jerk.
Everything turned black.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kai’s eyes sprang open.
Everything was blurry. He had lost all orientation and couldn’t tell where he was. Was he still in VR, or was this reality?
Slowly, he recognized the shapes of the furniture in his room. Then came the pain. A horrible pain in his chest. Suffocating him.
He couldn’t breathe.
His surroundings lost their colors and everything became black and white, like in ancient photography. Fading. Like him.
I’m dying.
The realization struck him with a merciless certainty. Fear grabbed his heart. Panic.
He tried to move but couldn’t. Even moving one finger would have used up energy he didn’t have anymore.
Around him, everything turned dark, as if the sun had disappeared in a total eclipse.
He knew he had lost. There was no point in fighting the inevitable.
Kai heard a noise. It was loud yet only muffled and sounded like it was far away in his ears.
Shadows moved in his room. Voices spoke. Loud, determined.
Hands touched him. Light shone in his eyes while someone cut his t-shirt open.
A big needle flashed through his field of vision. The person holding it was wearing a blue-white uniform with a red cross on its shoulder.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Kai hardly noticed how he was lifted onto a stretcher and then quickly transported out of the apartment and onto the roof of the tenement. There, a helicopter with its rotors already spinning was waiting.
He drifted off into complete darkness.
***
“There you are,” a friendly voice said as he opened his eyes.
Bright light hit them. Too bright. Kai quickly closed them again.
Slowly, he began feeling his body again. Like he was waking up from a deep slumber.
He had dreamed of Alice. She was right next to him, holding his hand. Watching over him, like an angel.
Kai’s senses returned. He could hear noises typical for a hospital. Machines beeping. Footsteps. Somewhere a Dr. Miller was called over speakers into ER. His nostrils widened, and he could smell the typical scent of a hospital. Disinfectants mixed with scented air.
He opened his eyes again, and this time he could see better.
Kai turned his head and saw a middle-aged man in a white coat take his pulse.
“Where am I?” he asked.
The man, whose nametag identified him as Dr. Jackson, smiled. “You’re at Nexus Hospital.”
The name sounded familiar. After a moment, Kai remembered. He had seen the impressive glass tower of Nexus Hospital in downtown many times when commuting to his old job. It was a rich people hospital.
Glancing around the room, this became obvious at once. It was a huge room that would have reminded him more of a suite than a hospital room if it weren’t for all the high-tech machines Kai was connected to.
“What happened to me?”
“You suffered a severe heart attack,” Dr. Jackson said in a calm voice.
Kai’s eyes turned wide. “What? How? I’m only 24.”
One of the machines he was connected to began beeping, indicating an alarm.
“Please, try to remain calm. We moved you from Intensive Care only one day ago.”
Suddenly, all his memories returned to Kai. The fight with the dragon, the hacker… his fall. The horrifying entity that had tried to absorb him. And the Alpha squad who had saved his ass. Twice. Alice…
“How long have I been out?”
“About a week,” the doctor said. “We put you in an artificial coma to stabilize you and fix your heart.”
Kai almost didn’t dare to ask the next question.
“Will I… be ok?”
A professional smile brightened the physician’s face. “Of course! You’re in one of the top five hospitals in the country, and Helltek didn’t spare any expense on you. You’ll be as good as new when you leave here in a couple of days. Now, please, try to get some rest. All will be well.”
The doctor must have injected a tranquilizer into Kai’s infusion as he quickly drifted off into another deep slumber.
***
He dreamed of Alice, sitting at his bed, watching over him. She was talking to him, but he didn’t understand what she was saying. It seemed like she was behind a thick veil.
Then a voice cut through the veil, but it wasn’t Alice’s.
“Good mornin
g, Kai!” Nurse Regina said in her typical, cheerful way.
Kai’s eyes opened. It had been three days since he had first woken up in the hospital. Every day he felt stronger and more alive.
Although the memories of what had happened still haunted him. The AI entity he had encountered had almost killed him. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened to him in that strange place, but his real-life body had suffered a heart attack as a result. He now understood why the job at Helltek was considered high-risk. And why so many safety precautions were taken there. The suits, the ports in the veins, the medical team on site. All of that existed to prevent something like what happened to him – whatever that had been. All doctors were willing to tell him was that he had had a heart attack.
Maybe it hadn’t been the smartest thing to go into such a battle while being plugged in at home without the Helltek safety net, but at that moment, Kai hadn’t considered the consequences. He had stepped up to save his friends.
However, his distress call must have reached HQ, and they not only sent out Alpha to fix the situation but the Flying Nexus to his apartment too. That wasn’t just any ambulance but the best emergency medical team available. His life must have been worth a lot of money to Helltek. But why? Wasn’t he just another Level One tester? Expendable? Exchangeable?
“Good morning, Regina,” Kai answered with a smile. The nurse had been exclusively assigned to his care. She was a roundish lady in her fifties who had a strong and very soothing motherly attitude.
“Do you feel strong enough to receive some visitors today? There’s a bunch of people who are very eager to see you.”
Kai smiled. “Sounds great! Who is it?”
“Well, not the girl who came here every night. But they’re Helltek employees, too.”
Suddenly Kai was wide awake. “Wait, what? A girl was here?”
Regina nodded. “White hair, pretty. She said she was a friend of yours and her ID identified her as a high-ranking Helltek employee, so we didn’t ask any questions. Is something wrong?”
Kai smiled, his face taking on a dreamy expression. “No… not at all.”
A storm of butterflies filled his belly. Alice.
It hadn’t been a dream. She had been here. Watching over him.
Until then, he had been considering quitting the Cyber Squad. No job was worth the risk of dying of a heart attack at 24. No matter how nice the campus was and how good the free lunches at the cafeteria were.
Now, however…
If he quit, how would he ever see her again?
“I’ll let your friends in now,” the nurse said.
A moment later, Marco stormed into the room, a broad smile on his face. He was followed by Kai’s entire team. Claudia, Josh, Francois, and even Viktor, who managed to put on a friendly face for a change.
“Look at you!” Marco said. “Hanging out in a five-star hotel while we do all the work!”
He grabbed Kai’s palm in a cordial way.
Kai chuckled. “I am. And guess what? The hot dogs here are great.”
“No way!” Marco called out in fake offense.
“You’re such a clown,” Claudia said.
She approached Kai and hugged him closely, then pressed a peck on his cheek. “We thought we’d lost you, Kai. Lonesome heroes die young, didn’t you know that?”
“That’s why you should bring your team next time you do something heroically stupid,” Marco said. “We’re here to watch your back. Always.”
“Thanks, guys,” Kai said, suddenly feeling a huge lump in his throat. These people were more than his team. They were his friends. His new-found family.
“Damn right!” a voice from the door chimed in. “Stop being an idiot and listen to the man!”
Kai looked to the door and saw Lex and Topher entering. Of course, Lex was wearing an outfit that was highly inappropriate for visiting a hospital.
“You’re lucky I have no life and was in the lab when you sent your distress call,” she added.
“It’s good to see you’re feeling much better,” Topher said with a smile.
“And now,” Marco said, “stop being such a shitty host and offer your guests some hot dogs!”
Kai pressed a button at his bedside, and a moment later Regina appeared.
“Could you bring me eight hot dogs, please?” Kai asked.
Regina raised an eyebrow. “Eight? Really?”
He shrugged. “I’m hungry.”
The nurse shook her head and left.
The horrors he had witnessed began to fade as Kai felt happy as rarely before in his life.
Epilogue
Kai was excited when he entered the Helltek compound. It felt to him as if it had been an eternity since he’d last been here. After ten days in the hospital and two weeks in a rehabilitation clinic – which had more of a feel of a luxury resort than an actual clinic – he was more than ready to put his tester suit on again.
He had missed the job more than he thought he ever would, and he had missed his friends even more. And Alice.
She had only visited him in the hospital as long as he had been in a coma or induced sleep, never during the day. He hoped to run into her soon and say thank you. She had saved him twice, after all.
However, before he could go back to work, HR had summoned him to the tower. On his way there, he had wondered what the hell they could want.
Rachel was already waiting for him in the entrance hall when he arrived. As always, she wore clothes that were in the gray zone between slutty and business attire.
“Kai!” She greeted him with a wide smile. “So good to have you back!”
“Thanks, Rachel. Glad to be back.”
“Come with me,” she said, walking off at a quick pace, her red high heels clacking on the marble floor. “They’re waiting.”
Following her, Kai wondered who ‘they’ were. To his surprise, they didn’t take the ramp to Rachel’s office on the second floor but took the elevator to the top floor instead.
There, Rachel led him to a large set of mahogany double doors. She knocked, then entered, signaling that he should follow her inside.
Kai was deeply impressed when he entered the room. No doubt this was the biggest and most glamorous office he had ever seen. Equipped with extravagant, ultra-modern furniture, it was almost the size of a loft with a huge desk, a lounge area with designer armchairs and sofas, and even a bar.
Kai was even more impressed when he recognized the two people in the room, waiting for him: Gregor and Marie-Louise Hell. Gregor was leaning at his desk in a casual pose while his twin sister sat in an armchair, her long legs crossed.
Gregor smiled when Kai entered.
“Kai! A pleasure to finally meet you properly. Surely you know who I am?”
Kai nodded, trying not to show that he felt slightly intimidated. No one had prepared him for meeting the CEOs of the company.
“Yes, sir.”
He waved his hand. “Call me Gregor, please. We’re all family here.”
His sister said nothing and simply studied Kai with her cold, blue eyes.
“We have been informed about what you did, Kai,” Gregor continued after a moment. “And my sister and I are deeply impressed. You prevented a catastrophe, saving more than two dozen innocent lives by risking your own. That’s just wow! And if that wasn’t enough, you saved one of our most valued squad members from falling into a vicious trap. You truly lived up to our credo and disrespected the impossible!”
“I…” Kai felt heat surging into his cheeks and looked to the floor. “I’m sure anyone would have done the same in my situation.”
Marie-Louise snickered, and when Kai looked up again, he saw Gregor shoot his sister an irritated glance.
“I highly doubt it,” the CEO said. “And I believe your selfless actions need to be rewarded. I hereby promote you to Level Two, effective immediately. Congratulations, you are the tester who reached Level Two in the shortest time in the history of our company.”
&nbs
p; Excitement filled Kai. This was a dream! He could leave his old life behind forever. The smelly apartment, his annoying roommates… poverty.
“Thank you, si…Gregor! That’s amazing… I feel very honored.”
Again, Gregor waved his hand. “It’s us who feel honored to have you on our team. Rachel, see that he gets one of the premium apartments usually reserved for testers of Level Five and above.”
“Certainly.”
Rachel behaved like a kitten around Gregor, and for a moment, Kai wondered if it was him she wanted to impress with her outfits. But he didn’t really care. He was completely overwhelmed by his promotion and the prospect of moving into a luxury apartment.
“In return,” Gregor focused his attention back on Kai. “We would like to know everything about this hacker – this terrorist – who created the mayhem. A team of investigators will talk to you soon. Hopefully, the information you gathered firsthand will help us to find this person and bring her to justice.”
“Yes, sure,” Kai replied. “Whatever I can do to help.”
“Furthermore,” Gregor’s face suddenly took on a completely different expression, and there was something cold and cunning about it, “we want to know everything about this entity you encountered in the Dark Net. Is that clear?”
Kai nodded. The thought alone of that entity that had tried to kill him gave him chills.
“Of course.”
“Excellent!” Once again, a winning smile was back on Gregor’s face. “But there will be time for all this later. Rachel will show you your new quarters now. It was a pleasure meeting you, Kai.”
Kai understood that he was dismissed and followed Rachel outside.
He was so ready for this new life. He was ready for Level Two.
***
Once Kai was gone, Gregor walked to the bar and prepared drinks for him and his sister.
“So, what do you think?” he asked, handing his twin sister the crystal glass.
Marie-Louise leaned back and sipped at the liquid before she replied.
“I think it’s getting worse out there. It’s a huge threat for every user connected to VR over a neuro-plant. Bad for them, good for us.”
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 30