《Cyber Clash Online - Synchronization》


 Chapter 1 : Re-Ality

    A torrent of bullets rained upon the streets of Yen-Net-7. The normally humid atmosphere wasn''t gifting the members of Revolver-X with a warm shower of H20, however.

    It was gifting them death.

    "Two men down. Phoenix, what do we do?"

    The voice of my companion and the Lieutenant of our clan came across my com speaker, the voice chat icon displaying partly translucent in the corner of my vision.

    We were huddled together, trapped in the middle an intersection, hiding behind overturned vehicles. The overpass above us was littered with enemy players, either too rich to be concerned about the number of bullets they were spraying down upon us or too caught in the blood lust to care.

    "Fall back into the alley and toss Graph2 a MedKit. He never watches his Hit Points."

    "Hey, I''m busy killin'' here."

    Graph2''s voice was rough around the edges and he took any shortcuts that the English language allowed him. Being originally from Iran, he had taken a liking to old westerns and had claimed a southern accent for his own. It mixed nicely with his middle eastern one at that.

    "Well we''ll need some of that killing in a minute so fall back!"

    "Alright alright, don''t get your legendary-level panties in a bunch."

    I sighed.

    He wasn''t wrong. My underwear was of the highest quality that Cyber Clash Online (CCO) offered, but he didn''t have to always bring it up.

    "Enough talk! Dropping smoke...now!"

    I checked my inventory quickly, seeing that this was my last smoke grenade.

    No room for error.

    I equipped the grenade and pressed the glowing blue button on the side of it, dropping it at the feet of me and my companions.

    Within a heartbeat the smoke exploded from the canister, filling the intersection and giving us a chance to leap down the street to the right and into the alleyway from which we had originally come.

    I checked my quest requirements and saw that it wasn''t completed until we escaped the area. It had been a secret quest, one that supposedly only those in our clan, Revolver-X, even knew about.

    The fact that the enemy clans had not only been waiting for us, but had teamed up to stop our escape meant that Revolver-X either had a traitor in it, or the quest-giver had lied.

    And I had never known a quest-giver to lie.

    Enemy shots sprayed around the streets behind us, smashing windows and punching holes into buildings. We ran down the alleyway as fast as possible, ignoring any alert at having low Stamina. I hoped to at least get to cover before they realized where we had gone, or at most reach the entryway back into the restaurant.

    Luckily we reached the restaurant and turned sharply inside, ducking beneath the low-hanging "Noodles 4 Everyone" sign. I looked back just in time to see members of "Dragon''s Fist" round the corner after us.

    "Dammit! There at least had to have been four clans on that overpass! Who leaked the quest!?"

    "No idea miss." Graph2 said, holding tightly onto his cowboy hat as we ran through the tables and chairs of the restaurant. We hopped over the counter, completely ignored by the NPC cashier and cooks. "But they got Jumba."

    I looked around and realized that Graph2 and I were the only ones that had made it to N4E. My Lieutenant, Jumba, had not.

    "It couldn''t have been one of us, could it?! The quest-giver had to have lied!"

    "Either that or the guy from the forums did..."

    We came to the back door of the restaurant and opened it slowly, careful of the squeak that happened about ? of the way through, a tip provided to our clan by the quest-giver that most everyone had glossed over. Well, everyone except Jumba. He always read the fine print. This next part was going to be hard without him.

    Gunshots sounded from behind us, inside of the restaurant.

    Really? Killing the NPCs?

    Fortunately, neither a door squeak, nor the gunshots woke what was sleeping on the other side.

    A monstrously big Gamma Dragon was curled up and sleeping just next to the door, nestled at the end of the subway system that led us here. In the real world, the connection between the subway and Noodles 4 Everyone wouldn''t have made any sense. But this wasn''t the real world.

    With each breath, the Dragon''s giant, purple-scaled body lifted and pressed it into the roof of the subway. Dust fell onto it, but it didn''t wake. Supposedly this dragon was only programmed to wake as a response to certain events and was a far higher level than anyone had even come close to in the game yet.

    Well maybe everyone but him...

    We reached the end of the subway tunnel and came to a crossroad, seven different paths all winding outwards from us.

    "You just had to go and get yourself killed, didn''t you Jumba," I said.

    "Hey, I''m still here," Graph2 said, smiling, pleased with himself for some reason.

    "For one, I have no idea how, considering you charged out there like a lunatic, but second do you remember which path leads out of here?"

    "Well no but..."

    "Exactly."

    "Sorry Phoenix, I''m here to kill people and provide cover. I might not be the brightest, but at least I ain''t the traitor. Not that I think we have a traitor, ya know. But If we did, It wouldn''t be me. You could count on that."

    I stopped for a moment and turned with a raised eyebrow.

    "What?" Graph2 asked.

    "I think that''s the longest sentence I have ever heard come from you, Graph."

    Graph2''s western avatar blushed.

    A loud squeak came from the end of the tunnel behind us.

    We smiled to each other.

    "Well it worked."

    An incredible roar resonated throughout the entire subway system, vibrating the ceiling and sending cracks along the walls. Pieces of rock crumbled and fell to the ground.

    "Enjoy yourselves now," Graph2 said, tilting his hat back towards where the commotion was coming from, his favorite emote.

    The screams began instantly.

    "Well, let''s hurry and figure this out before that Gamma finishes eating them and wants seconds," Graph2 said, turning back to the riddle before them.

    "Well... I think when we came to this point, the tunnel was to the left. So that means we came from one of these on the right... right?" I said, trying my hardest to remember. To be fair, I was a bit preoccupied with the excitement of this quest. I hadn''t expected to be ambushed.

    "No that''d mean we came from the left, but I think you''re wrong because I remember coming out from the center."

    "You''re both wrong."You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Jumba''s voice came onto the clan chat, his words sending relief through my digital heart.

    And probably my real one too.

    "How in the hell did ya connect to our voice comms?" Graph2 asked. "This quest is supposed to be closed off."

    "Even though I died, I''m still connected to the party apparently. Lucky you."

    I opened the party menu, its transparent window appearing in my vision overlay. Sure enough, there was Jumba and his information. Even if his name has a big Deceased next to it, he was still part of the party.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Welcome back then!" I said, as I closed the party menu, relieved that I wouldn''t have to figure this out on my own.

    "I was kind of here, I just had to pee. Now hurry up and go through the second from the right tunnel, before the Gamma Dragon realizes that having dessert is an option."

    "Don''t needa tell me twice!" Graph2 lifted his machine gun onto his shoulder and took off down the tunnel. I followed closely, looking over my shoulder occasionally to make sure we weren''t being followed by any survivors.

    After a half-dozen twists and turns, we came to the end of the tunnel, nothing but a solid stone wall staring us in the face.

    "Ummm Jumba."

    "Checking..."

    The ground shook and the air behind us vibrated with deep echoes of Magi-Tek being cast and grenades exploding.

    "Idiots will bring the entire subway down around us," Graph2 said, watching the dust fall from the ceiling around him as the room trembled.

    I absently toyed with the item in my pocket.

    "I think that''s exactly what they''re trying," I said, tightening my fingers around the item. "If we all die then no-one gets this."

    "Dammit," Jumba said over the clan comm. "Something''s not right."

    "What do you mean not right!?" The room trembled even louder this time. I had to hold the wall to keep myself from falling over.

    "I am one hundred percent positive that this was the right tunnel. The portal is just... gone."

    We spun around the room, scanning for anything. Perhaps our escape route had just moved...

    "What do you mean gone! It''s hard-coded. It wouldn''t just up and disappear."

    "Maybe it''s part of the quest?" Graph2 suggested.

    "That''s what I thought initially, but the quest marker is still directing us here," Jumba said. "Check it."

    I opened my map, highlighting the secret quest we were currently on with the title:?????

    <figure>

    </figure>

    I closed the menu with an anxious groan and looked again at the wall. In the exact spot where the portal was... nothing.

    "Okay this doesn''t make any sense. I''ve never seen this glitch before," I said.

    "Nobody has reported it on the forums either," Graph2 agreed. "Maybe since it''s such a new quest and nobody knows about it?"

    I opened my map again, finding something that wasn''t there before.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Umm... Graph, Jumbs..."

    Graph2''s eyes turned blue as he opened his map as well.

    "Please tell me that ain''t what I think it is." He turned and looked down the tunnel, his eyes back to their normal dark brown. I did the same. The ground started to slowly tremble in a singular beat.

    "I would but then I''d be lying, and you know I don''t do that," Jumba said. "Gamma Dragon incoming, level... too high for my scanning ability."

    "Well, so much for taking this back to the clan wars." I lifted out our quest reward from my jacket pocket, a single-use, one-of-a-kind item that the nobody had ever seen before, let alone use. It was a small orb that fit in the palm of my epic-gloved hand. Colors swirled and moved beneath a clear exterior, like an ocean during a storm. As the ground shook, I fumbled it and had to catch it, afraid of what might happen if I dropped it.

    "I guess we could use it?" Graph2 suggested, attaching his heavy machine gun''s mount to the ground, preparing for an unwinnable battle in the only way he knew how.

    "But how? And what does it do?" I brought it up above me, holding it between thumb and forefinger, squinting at the swirling patterns as if it would reveal its secrets.

    "Check the item description," Jumba suggested from the comm.

    I pulled open my inventory and highlighted the item, opening its information.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Not much to go off of here... wait... what does that mean?"

    "What?" Asked Jumba.

    "The flavor text says,There''s no going back." I held the orb before me and felt... something. I couldn''t explain it, but it almost felt as though the sea within was trying to suck me into its depths.

    "Probably some dev thinkin'' they''re bein'' funny is all" Graph2 said, still focused on his defensive setup. The Dragon was definitely getting closer if the room''s intense shaking was anything to go by.

    "Single-use though?" Asked Jumba.

    "Yep," I replied. "Might as well give it a shot, seeing as when we die, we''ll lose the item anyways."

    You had to succeed in a quest to get its rewards and dying to a Gamma Dragon definitely didn''t count as succeeding. Unfortunately, as far as this quest went, it was a one-time offer. There wouldn''t be any retries or second chances. That had been made very clear by the one who gave it to us.

    "Don''t think we have a shot at winning the Tournament of the Elders without it though. Shame." We had been preparing for the upcoming event for months, and this finally looked like a way to get an edge on the competition.

    The room trembled and I fell my knees, Graph2 almost doing the same but holding himself up by the mounted machine gun he had in place.

    "Good luck," Jumba said, followed by a winking emote in the text chat at the bottom of my vision.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    The dragon''s head rounded the corner into the room, its massive frame barely fitting through the tunnel, crushing the walls and the tunnel framework with it. It roared as it burst into the room, debris and cavern falling down around it as it opened its enormous purple-scaled wings. I immediately noticed my health begin draining due to the dragon''s radiation properties.

    "I ain''t gonna lie down and die!" After a short warm-up period Graph2''s machine gun exploded to life, bullets flying through the air, heating the room with their rapid-fire rate. I watched as they hit the Dragon, small 1 DMGmarkers appearing with each impact.

    It really is hopeless.

    "You''re wasting your ammo, Graph," I shouted, withdrawing my tactical knife. I knew it wouldn''t do any more damage than Graph2 was doing, but at least I wouldn''t have to waste any of my Sniper rounds, which were far more expensive than the Assault rounds Graph2 was firing with reckless abandon.

    I stepped forward, swallowing heavily. Even though I knew this was a game, dying while deep in the VRMMO (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online), was never easy.

    I looked at my HP. A little more than half remaining.

    With a deep breath, I charged, sliding beneath Graph2''s barrage and slicing at once of the Dragon''s shins.

    1 DMG

    Thought so...

    Even though my knife was a rare item won from a contest several months back, it was useless here. There truly was no point in fighting.

    A quick swipe to my face by a massive claw sent me sprawling across the room and crashing into the tunnel wall, semi-realistic pain shooting through my body. Blood fell from my lips and the wind left my chest.

    1013 DMG

    "Phoenix!" Graph2 yelled, leaving his gun and heading over to her. The pain felt within CCO was real, and though toned down a lot from what one would normally feel in real life, it still was there and was definitely not pleasant. Some games removed the pain entirely while others had it set to the max. Those were for the hardcore players, and in most people''s opinion, sadists. Not me. I preferred the happy medium, even if it still bloody hurt.

    Between dazed eyelids and ringing ears, I checked my HP.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Are you o..." Graph2''s body disintegrated before my eyes as a beam of pure Gamma energy shot through him from the dragon''s mouth, the tunnel wall behind where he stood plastered with his digital remains.

    Note to self, turn down the gore setting...

    I turned my head in both awe and fear towards the dragon. This was the most powerful enemy I had even heard of in CCO, let alone come across. Sure, I had fought a handful of the smaller cousin Gamma Drakes in Dungeon raids or the equally as purple Swamp Dragons while questing, but they were lower level and had not been an issue for my party to take on.

    This was something else. Was this secret item really that special, to be protected by such a creature?

    I dropped my tactical knife and held the orb up in my hand.

    The dragon stared at me, its deep amber eyes almost daring me, taunting me.

    "Go on, use it," Jumba said.

    "Avenge me!" Graph2 shouted, his voice now connected to the clan comm channel in death.

    "What the hell have I been missing?" Came a text message from SixShot6''s, the quiet last member of their party having logged back on suddenly. She rarely spoke.

    The dragon roared.

    I threw the item into the air, and somehow,usedit.

 Chapter 2 : Welcome Home?

    After a few deep breaths failed to calm me, I hurriedly tore off my VR Headset and tossed it aside in a panic, grabbing the trash can next to my bed and dry heaving into it.

    What the hell just happened?

    A blinding white light and a spinning room were all that I could remember. The nausea wouldn''t leave me, even though I hadn''t eaten since before noon and had nothing left to give it.

    I glanced at my alarm clock, the digital display embedded into my night-stand mirror.

    7:33 PM

    My stomach rumbled and I shoved my face into the bin again.

    Had I really been Online for that long? Normally I''d at least take a couple of breaks for food or water throughout my gaming session. It hadn''t felt like that long. Even so, it didn''t help that lately it was getting harder to tell between reality and being Online, especially with digital worlds where the Time Flow Rate (TFR) was slower than that in real life. My current job at Subs N'' Shakes had had me use an Online job simulator for orientation that lasted two Online weeks, only to come back to reality at the end of it with only two actual hours having passed. I was pretty sure I was really sitting in my room, but pinched myself for good measure and luckily, felt the sting.

    I tried my best to calm my breathing, a method I used often for anxiety. After a few minutes I was finally able to put the bin down and lay back onto my twin-sized bed. Who knew it could be so exhausting to sit still for hours on end, practically hallucinating?

    I reached onto my nightstand and grabbed my glasses, those annoyingly important things that made me scared every time I felt the thickness of their frames. Having just turned 18, I should not need such a heavy prescription. I knew it. My doctor knew it.

    One of the many, many, many reasons I preferred to be Online. I had a list.

    The crooked smile of Graz Black shone down at me from the digital display above my bed, an advertisement for the upcoming second season of the Tournament of Elders. He was a Sniper class, like me, and I tried to match his build as closely as possible. The man was not only the highest-level player in all CCO, but last year''s Tournament Champion. What was even more impressive was that the tournament was a contest for clans to take part in.

    But the Black Wolf only played solo.

    I imagined, with some amount of shame, that at least two hundred views on the CCO official channel were from me alone, watching his incredible performance in the final few moments of last year''s tournament where he single-handedly took down entire squads of enemy players without them even aware of his presence. I had tried to mimic some of the moves and techniques that he had done so gracefully, only to end up feeling like a clumsy oaf instead. Level aside, his skill was something else.

    And I was his biggest fan, though I would never admit that to anyone else in Revolver-X. My parents already thought the action figure I had of him was weird and they didn''t even understand what video games were. Fortunately, they weren''t home very often, both on business trips to separate parts of the world and hoarding money that they didn''t need. I didn''t mind, however. That meant more time for me to leave the empty too-large house and my blurred vision behind and spend it with my friends in CCO.

    I reached into the top drawer of my nightstand and pulled out my cellphone, checking to see if my parents had mentioned anything about coming home tonight. If not, I would have to withdraw some more money from their account in order to pay for the subway this weekend. There wasn''t school for the next few weeks due to Thanksgiving break. It was my senior year, so I skipped my fair share of class already, but I still had things I wanted to do in town, people to see. I also tried to ignore it, but if I remembered how big and empty the house was, I had a hard time not letting my anxiety get the better of me.

    0 Messages.

    "That''s odd," I thought to myself. "Nearly 10 hours of gaming and not a single message?"

    I swiped through the menu and opened the app connected to the digital display above me, changing it from the default wave of advertisements to live television. An error message appeared.

    "No connection found."

    "You''ve got to be joking..."

    I went back to my contacts and swiped down a few times until I got to the entry of my best friend, Ayami Yumiko.

    Or Aya, as I called her.

    I dialed, hitting another unconnected line and a dead end. I realized that my phone didn''t have any service, something that never happened where I lived.

    "Well great, maybe there''s an outage."

    My stomach rumbled, finally free of nausea and realizing how empty it was. Realizing I better make some dinner, I got up, slipped my useless phone into the pocket of my sweatshirt and headed downstairs.

    Three floors. Three empty floors passed me by. One contained an indoor pool with the water always the perfect temperature, while another had a gym with equipment so unused and new that it looked like a store display. Why my parents even bothered filling the empty soulless box of a home when they were never even there, I had stopped asking.

    I reached the ground level and headed down a hallway lined with expensive paintings from god knows where, and alcoves containing vases, statues, and all manner of artifacts from around the world that I never got to see in person. By this point I didn''t mind, however. I had my own world, and they weren''t invited.

    Opening the fridge revealed nothing to eat so I tossed some pizza rolls into the microwave, hearing the lifeless ding as they finished. I climbed up onto a bar stool and tossed one into my mouth.

    +5 Hit Points. -1% Speed

    The words appeared in the bottom right corner of my vision.

    "Well that was a useless boost."

    Why would anyone want a food item that reduced your speed? Speed was hugely important in CCO. I reached out to grab another too-hot roll anyways, my hunger greater than my fear of the de-buff.

    "Wait... What the..."

    I blinked heavily, rubbing my eyes and squinting. The words slowly faded away.

    "There''s no way... It must just be because I was Online for too long. Yes, that''s it."

    It wouldn''t have been the first time. There were many nights when my dreams and CCO were one, melding together in some sort of weird universe where I couldn''t speak or run, but was still Phoenix, Sniper and leader of the rag-tag band of players from all around the world. I took a deep breath and ate another pizza roll.

    Maximum Hit Points Reached. -1% SpeedThis content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    I fell off the stool, my knee slamming into the overhang of the marble countertop. After a few words that I was glad my parents weren''t around to hear, I tried to push myself up. It felt like moving through molasses.

    "It can''t be..."

    I reached out to my menu system, just as if I were Online and felt it there.

    I opened it and my eyes widened.

    My mouth hung agape as I tried to process what was happening.

    I reached my hands up to where my headset would be, feeling nothing but my shoulder-length, needing-to-be-washed black hair, not the violet color that my character was lucky to have. I double checked my menu, also finding there what I feared...

    The log-out button was missing.

    But who was I kidding? How was I supposed to log out of... real life? How was I even seeing this information in my vision? I took off my glasses, rubbed them on my sweater and replaced them upon my face. The menu was still there.

    "This is ... impossible."

    I closed my menu and ran, knocking over bar stools and slid down the hallway in my socks, stopping just in time to thrust open the sliding glass door and burst outside onto the second-floor balcony, inhaling the cold Northern California Autumn air in quick, panicked breaths.

    Everything looked the same. The city lights shone up at me from beneath the hill in which my house was, though no there were no cars, exiting or entering the freeway below. It wasn''t an apocalyptic scene like I was expecting but something was wrong.

    "This all has to be a dream. I''m just exhausted from being Online for too long."

    I decided that the best thing to do at this point was try and sleep it off...whatever it was. I went back inside and closed the balcony door behind me. I scooted my feet across the hardwood floor and headed towards the stairs. Not even pizza rolls sounded good right now. All I wanted to do was curl up in my bed, cover my face in my comforter and wake up tomorrow with full cell service and no menu system in my mind.

    I started up the stairs, ignoring the temptation to check my status again. If I didn''t look at it, it wasn''t there.

    Even though I could feel it.

    The ground rumbled and the house shook.

    I turned my head, one foot on the first step and one on the ground floor. Before I could even open my mouth in surprise, the front door burst open and armed soldiers entered my house. Wood shrapnel covered the entryway. The men hurried in, one after another, all of them wearing some sort of goggles and mask combo, with assault rifles gripped firmly in gloved hands. I turned to yell when a hand covered my mouth and pulled my back into the kitchen.

    "Wt gr y dn", I tried to ask. At first, I tried to fight but then realized that he wasn''t one of them. He was about my age, with shaggy brown hair and wore a white t-shirt and torn jeans on a lanky frame. He definitely wasn''t a soldier.

    The boy put a finger up to his mouth to shush me. He leaned to peek around the corner back into the hallway.

    "They will kill you the second they see you," he whispered, his voice deeper than I expected. "Keep quiet and let''s get you out of here. Deal?" He looked down at me, his blue eyes serious and intelligent, older and more knowing than his body would have suggested.

    I nodded and kept quiet, ducking down next to the fridge as we waited and listened for the soldiers'' footsteps.

    "You two, upstairs. We''ll check the kitchen." The voices of the soldier sounded muffled, almost electronic.

    The boy grabbed my hand and as quietly as possible led me to the other side of the island while crouching. We ducked down behind it just as a soldier entered the kitchen. Their boots tapped loudly on the tile surface as they walked, pointing a laser attached to their rifle around the kitchen, a target scanning for me and I had no idea why.

    Right as the light pointed away from us, the boy peeked up over the island and slid back down quickly, nodding to himself. He looked directly into my eyes and motioned towards himself with two fingers, a common CCO emote to follow. Rather than ask how he knew it, I just nodded. There were too many crazy things going on right now to focus on one of them.

    Just like in a video game, the two of us silently rotated around the island, keeping to the opposite side of the soldier. Fortunately, he was taking his sweet time, allowing us to move quietly. Eventually the soldier exited the kitchen into the dining room, a deep male voice entering his comm system, "Kitchen''s clear."

    "Okay, we need to get to your roof," the boy whispered to me, as I followed him slowly towards a sliding-glass door that led out back.

    "My roof? Why the roof?"

    "It''s flat, right?"

    "Yeah, so?"

    "Just trust me."

    It wasn''t like I had much choice, but I was getting frustrated.

    "I will, but I want answers as soon as we''re out of here."

    "Deal."

    As quietly as possible, we slipped into the back yard and rounded to the side of the giant house, crossing a matching outdoor pool, complete with a waterfall and hot tub.

    "Man, you are loaded," the boy said, still quietly, eyes on the spotlights and lasers running through the house and silhouettes of soldiers seen through windows.

    "It''s not mine, it''s my parents''," I said through struggling breaths. I felt as if my lungs were going to explode. All the squatting or running that I had done in the past few years was virtual.

    "How old are you?"

    "18, you?"

    "19."

    We stopped, looking at each other for a moment and nodding.

    "How the hell did a couple of kids get into this mess?" I asked.

    The boy shrugged. "Guess we''re just lucky is all."

    "What do you mean lucky? This sucks!"

    He turned back to me again with a smile.

    "You''ll see."

    We reached a part of the back yard where there was a flat surface on the side of the house and no windows, a straight shot up to the roof aside from the slight parapet atop it.

    "Alright, perfect." The boy kneeled and pulled a backpack over his shoulder that I hadn''t noticed he was wearing. He rummaged through it a few times, then zipped it up without taking anything out and put it back on.

    "Okay Phoenix. Here''s where things get interesting. Are you ready to have your life turned upside down?"

    "You mean this isn''t upside down already?" I asked, motioning to the house full of soldiers. "Wait... How did you..."

    "Phoenix, Sniper Class, Level 31, Revolver-X Clan, 22nd place in last year''s Tournament, user of the Administrator''s Pearl." the boy looked into my widening eyes. "Ring a bell?"

    "You''re from...CCO?"

    He nodded.

    "Who are you?"

    "That''s not important, what is important is getting you out of here safely."

    "But why me? Why are they after me?"

    "Listen, we''ll talk as soon as we''re out of here. Just trust me."

    "But..."

    "Phoenix!"

    I stopped talking and nodded. I didn''t know why, nor did I have any other options, but I trusted him. I would get my answers eventually and I had to take solace in that.

    The boy stood up straight and his eyes turned blue.

    I gasped.

    "Connect," he said.

    From the ground up, the boy changed, lines almost like pieces of programming code ran up and down his body, forming and taking shape. Boots replaced his sneakers. Military pants replaced his jeans. A long black jacket with a front pocket slightly above a skull and crossbones emblem replaced his t-shirt.

    The face of Graz Black replaced the boys.

    "Holy shit," was all I could say.

    "Yeah yeah, I''ll sign you an autograph later. Now, open your...".

    "The Black Wolf... here... at my house...".

    The Tournament champion and most popular player in all CCO sighed, shaking his head. He had a mess of black hair, but that was tied back into a short ponytail. Low-profile night vision goggles rested on his head, one of the many rewards he had won that I was very jealous about.

    "Open your menu, Phoenix."

    I did so, hearing soldiers louder. They must have been in the kitchen now and would find the us in the back yard shortly. "You can call me Valys, by the way."

    He ignored me "See the top option; Connect?"

    I did. It was the only option that I hadn''t seen previously when Online in CCO. It was new.

    Graz breathed out, as if in reassurance. "Good. I thought so."

    "Thought what?"

    "I''m not the only one..."

    Before I could ask any more questions, Graz waved his arms at me to hurry up, his eyes darting back and forth behind me. "Quick! They''re coming out!"

    "What do I do!?" I was trying to select the option like I had when I opened the menu, by simply willing it to open, creating the interaction with my thoughts. Nothing was happening though.

    "You have to highlight it and speak it."

    I stopped pushing hard on it with my mind and took a deep breath.

    The kitchen door opened, and guards poured out.

    "There they are! Shoot them!"

    "Connect," I said.

    Just like Graz, my 18-year-old frame faded away and Phoenix, the Revolver-X leading Sniper, stood in my place. I even was taller, and felt the muscles in my arms and legs, as well as the far more advanced bust beneath my shirt, something that the Online version of CCO never actually did quite right.

    I checked my menu.

    Graz''s eyes went blue and a long, sleek, black rifle appeared in his hands. I copied him, selecting Equipment and finding my favorite sniper rifle sitting there waiting for me, a trustworthy and loyal friend.

    I equipped it and it materialized into my hands, digitally forming with lines of code like when I had "Connected".

    The soldiers behind us slowed to a halt, not sure what had just happened and even more unsure if they should shoot.

    "Alright, Phoenix, let''s see if all of that time spent watching me has paid off at all," Graz said, turning and lifting his rifle scope to his left eye.

    Rather than feel embarrassed, I simply smiled. It was almost as if Connecting not only gave me the power of Phoenix, rather than Valys, but the confidence as well. Hell, even my eyesight was almost perfect now.

    "How about you see if you can learn anything from me this time."

 Chapter 3 : Dragons in the Bay

    I ducked and rested my back against the cold cement tile on the far side of the pool house, reloading my sniper rifle and checking my remaining ammo.

    7 Regular Ammo.

    1 Pulse Ammo.

    "There isn''t any end to them!" I shouted, keeping myself from peeking around the corner of the house, watching the enemy bullets spray around the sidewalk and fence beside me.

    "Pretty sure that''s literally true," Graz said. He had climbed on top of the pool house and was laying prone behind a rooftop shrub, picking the enemy soldiers off one-by-one with skill I expected but was still impressed by. "I think they are all NPCs and whoever sent them here just keeps spawning more."

    "Great," I finished loading my gun, now out of extra ammo except my Pulse round, and I wouldn''t waste that on some lowly NPCs. "Regardless of how that is even possible, what''s our plan?"

    "We still need to get to your roof."

    I looked to my left. The house was about ten feet away. If I rolled and was fast, I might be able to make it.

    "Cover me then," I said.

    "Already on it." One shot, one digitally enhanced soldier yelled out as he died.

    I took a deep breath, held my rifle right to my shoulder, and leapt out towards the house, ducking into a roll, feeling something akin to a boost as my Agility stat allowed me to make the distance. Shots zoomed passed me, shattering tile and brick along my path. I touched the edge of my house and activated a grapple item, sending a single green nylon rope from the point of my touch to the roof.

    "You read my mind," Graz shouted, a smile in his voice.

    I grabbed onto the line and willed myself upwards, the nylon fabric almost magnetically pulling me through the air towards my roof. As I looked down while zooming upwards, I watched with appreciation as Graz jumped from the pool house, performing an aerial maneuver that almost seemed to slow time, as he fired three shots at contorted angles that all hit their marks perfectly. He landed on the line, one hand gripping it tight with the other still firing.

    "Damn you''re impressive," I thought out loud.

    "What was that?" he shouted up at me?

    "Uhh nothing!" I reached the ledge of the roof and hurriedly pulled myself on top of it, immediately looking down and providing cover for Graz, who was now taking the full heat from all enemy soldiers.

    I wasn''t sure how, but I felt as though I could...

    So, I activated my skill, "Paint in Red", firing a smoke grenade in the same motion.

    Normally I''d be out of smoke grenades, but this was part of the skill.

    The black smoke blossomed out from the ground, enveloping the enemy soldiers in a thicker-than-normal haze. The soldiers wouldn''t be able to see me or Graz.

    But I could see them.

    Each enemy was highlighted in a bright neon red, easily visible even through the smoke. I fired, taking down one after another, their aim sporadic and wild in the confusion.

    "I think they''re hitting each other!" Graz said with a laugh as he landed beside me. He quickly ran to the center of the roof, his eyes turning blue as he sifted through his menu.

    "What are you looking for?" I yelled, picking off the last few red dots lingering in the smoke, the remainder of my ammo gone along with them. For a moment it looked like we had won.

    Then the helicopters came.

    Dozens of them, in formation and heading directly at us fast, flying straight over the Sacramento skyline, black shapes against the blazing fire of a western sunset.

    "Shit. Reinforcements incoming. How is this happening? Where are the police or at least the National Guard!?"

    "No idea. I''m not sure this world is exactly the one we are used to."

    "You think?!!"

    We looked at each other for a second. I smiled and Graz shook his head.

    "Summon, Belias"

    The air grew thick and icy, a cloud of steam suddenly erupting from each breath that I took. A gust of wind almost knocked me to the floor, pressing against me. I pried my eyes upwards to look at Graz, but he stood calmly, almost a proud look upon his face, eyes above him. I followed his gaze, lifting a chilled hand to block the sun''s last setting attempt to blind me.

    A massive, Frost Dragon was coming straight down toward us, wings spreading ice and snow in its wake.

    Belias came to a hover a couple dozen feet above us, turning and looking at the oncoming helicopters with sapphire eyes. It opened its mouth revealing fangs the size of my head, encased entirely in thick, Ice crystal. A bolt of frost shot out from its throat, rippling through off into the horizon, disintegrating a wave of helicopters in an instant. Their remains came tumbling down on top of a suburb that I hoped was as empty as the rest of the world suddenly seemed to be.

    Belias landed and Graz quickly reached up, pulling himself atop the great ice beast and patting its neck.

    I checked my menu, seeing the levels appear above both of their heads through my now-blued eyes.

    Belias - Level 92

    Graz Black - Level ??

    The Black kept his level private, one of CCO''s most discussed mysteries, both by Tournament announcers and posters in the official forums. I was still impressed that no employees with access to his data had even leaked it.

    "You gonna stand there and stare at me with googly eyes, or are you gonna hop on my good friend here?"

    I closed my menu and although normally as Valys, the great beast would have terrified me, as my "Connected" self Phoenix, I had none of those qualms. Even though I had been afraid of heights since I was little, I felt nothing but excitement.

    I ran forward and leaped upwards, sliding my rifle onto my back, grabbing onto Graz''s outstretched hand and swinging myself behind him, wrapping arms around his waist. I tightened my rifle strap and my grip, not sure if dropping it would cause me to lose it or if it would simply unequip and end up back in my inventory. There were still so many things that I needed to test in this world. Which reality would reign supreme, my normal reality?

    Or Cyber Clash Online.

    My stomach fell as Belias lifted off the roof in a sudden burst of incredible speed, massive wings slamming downwards, then spreading so far as to block out all my vision.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Alright Belias, take us southwest. Inputting coordinates now."

    In the bottom-left corner of my vision, I saw the numbers appear, indicating their target location.

    San Francisco.

    "Where are we going in SF?" I had to yell, as the sound of the wind rushing past us grew too fierce for me to even hear the words coming out of my own mouth.

    I opened my menu, connecting to party chat.

    "Where are we going?" I asked again.

    "To the only place where they won''t find us."

    Behind us more enemy helicopters had come to the fray, but they were too late. The speed of their propellers couldn''t even come close to that of Belias. I had to close my eyes to keep my stomach from churning. We soared upwards leaving my home behind.

    Eventually Belias came to the desired altitude and began to straighten out, allowing me to slowly open my eyes. I felt my jaw drop.

    We had broken through a sea of clouds and although the Sun had finally decided to leave us, I could still see.

    For the lightning lit our path.

    Flashes of light illuminated the sky, as the clouds were littered with countless bolts of electricity. Moving, channeling, extending their electric fingers into the night sky beneath the us. It was the most beautiful and terrifying thing I had ever seen.

    "Graz..."

    "I know."

    I pulled my eyes away from the sight and looked at him. His powerful blue eyes glowed and flashed in sync with the storm, as he calmly stared into its depths.

    "CCO has nothing on this," he finally said after a few minutes of silence, only shattered by the thunder and ripples of electricity. "The clouds there were always programmed and never changed. This... this is something else."

    I tried to remember the young boy who was really in there, but couldn''t see passed the rough, powerful exterior that this Graz Black portrayed. Perhaps he was like me, confident and strong while connected but unsure and scared while his normal self. But then, he had come to save me prior to Connecting...

    "So...," I began, feeling bad about breaking the illusion that the storm seemed to cast upon us. "What do you think is happening here?"

    Graz kept silent for a minute before responding, cranking his neck to the left, then right. I heard the pop and suddenly had the urge to do the same.

    "Somehow CCO, or at least our abilities and characters have come into the real world. I''m not sure what that means entirely, but so far there are only three of us that I know of."

    "How long have... Wait... Three of us?"

    Graz chuckled. "Yep. And I''ve been here just as long as you. Difference is, we were prepared for it."

    I didn''t understand. How could he have prepared for something like this?

    "Prepared? What do you mean?" A bolt of lightning lit the sky around us, causing me to grip Graz tighter. "And how did you even know to find me?"

    "That item you found? The one you used before all of this? We''ve been tracking that for months."

    The unknown orb... from that last quest. I had almost forgotten about all of that, it was as if the memory was a blur that tried to run every time I tried to focus on it.

    "The Orb of Unification. Mostly considered a myth but recently hackers were able to uncover hints to it in the source code. Hackers who spend their time on the same forum where your clan first heard about the quest to obtain it."

    A private message from an anonymous poster, sent to Jumba and verified by Six...

    "I... used it somehow."

    "Which was the part we weren''t prepared for. There weren''t any references on how to use it, nor which classes even could. I had expected to be able to find you first."

    "Sorry. Gamma Dragon and all. Didn''t have much of a choice."

    "You fought a Gamma Dragon?"

    "Well... more like poked one."

    Graz laughed and shook his head.

    "Anyways. No point in worrying about that. We are where we are and have to deal with whatever comes. As the ancient Roman Emperor said, "What stands in the way becomes the way.""

    I liked that. I hadn''t read much on ancient philosophy but always appreciated that which I heard.

    "So we have our gear, our abilities, our stats, and some sort of connection, as we can use different chat lines."

    "There are also enemy NPCs and creatures, as you''ve seen." Graz patted Belias, who growled softly in reply. "That''s a happy growl, not a mad one."

    I smiled and rubbed the side of Belias myself, feeling the cold scales beneath my fingers. It all felt so real, far more accurate than it ever had while online through my VR headset.

    "But who is controlling the NPCs? Why are they after me?"

    Graz took a deep breath. "That, we''re going to have to find out. Guess you''re stuck with me for a while until we do."

    "Well, considering you''re the only person around that isn''t trying to kill me, I''ll count myself lucky to not be alone."

    "I am great company, after all. But first we need to get to San Fran and see Rio."

    "Rio? Who is he? I thought you were the lone Black Wolf, solo player extraordinaire."

    "Behind every great solo player, is a Rio."

    "Is that so?"

    "You''ll see."

    I caught the corner of Graz''s lips curl into a smile and squeezed tighter just in time as Belias began to descend.

    "Hold tight, not sure how this part will be in the real world."

    "Great. Could have done a test run first don''t you think?"

    "No time. Besides, then I''d miss this."

    "Miss wha... Ohhhh shit!"

    Belias dipped into a dive and plummeted to the earth, tearing through the clouds at a speed that rattled my cheeks and covered my face in a mess of twisted hair. I couldn''t scream, I couldn''t see, I couldn''t do anything but hold onto Graz and hope that Belias knew how to land when an actual atmosphere had to be considered. I bit down hard and dug my fingers into Graz''s ribs.

    And just like that, Belias slowed, pressing my body into Graz who took the brunt of the G-force. I dared to open my eyes and saw that we had descended past the layer of the storm and were coming down onto the San Francisco bay.

    And there were people.

    The city in the bay was lit up like normal, with lines of traffic and car lights into the distance. Billboards flashed displaying upcoming basketball games and I even thought I could make out a Giants baseball game being played in the distance.

    "Woah." Graz said, as he guided Belias down towards the coast.

    "Are they real?"

    "I guess so? Rio didn''t tell me anything about this."

    "You haven''t seen him yet?"

    "No, I came to you first thing."

    I wasn''t sure what to think about that but simply nodded, taking it all in stride. "But then where were the people in Sacramento?"

    "Your guess is as good as mine," Graz replied, dipping Belias down to slowly glide across the ocean water. I realized he was keeping low to avoid anyone noticing the giant Frost Dragon. "Rio will know."

    "Can''t you just add him to our group chat?"

    "He doesn''t play CCO."

    "Oh..."

    "Yeah," Graz aimed Belias across the beach, which was fortunately empty, and towards a small pier. "He''s more of a watcher than a player."

    We came to the base of the big pier, with white paint peeling and barnacles covering the giant wooden beams that sunk down into the ocean and sand. Belias landed and Graz hopped off, reaching out a hand to help me swing down onto the sandy beach behind him.

    "We''re going to have to walk the rest of the way. No point in causing a commotion with people thinking Godzilla has come to attack them."

    "Didn''t Godzilla only attack Japan?"

    "Yeah well... San Francisco."

    "No explanation needed."

    "Thanks boy, you did well. I owe you another one." Graz patted Belias and slid his hand down the icy scales. Belias lifted his chin proudly and slowly disappeared back into lines of code, leaving massive footprints behind.

    "Too bad the waves will likely wash those away. Would be a riot to see someone discover them."

    I shook my head, not hiding my smile well, and we took off, climbing up the stairs and onto the streets of the city in the bay.

    At first, we jogged at a fast pace, eventually slowing down and joining the rest of the city''s night life in a casual walk. Graz and I both unequipped our weapons, realizing that the not-so-subtle rifles would draw unwanted attention. I was relieved to see that it had returned to my inventory and hadn''t just disappeared.

    People walked by and we didn''t get more than a casual glance or two. They seemed real, though so too had the soldiers that attacked my house. How was I supposed to know?

    Take a deep breath Phoenix... Let''s wait to see what this Rio guy has to say.

    Phoenix. I realized that I thought of myself by that name instead of Valys. Odd.

    Eventually Graz led us into an alley way, the last place I had expected to be tonight, or any night for that matter. We stopped in front of a silver sliding door with a camera above it, pointing directly at us.

    Graz looked up at it and smiled, waving enthusiastically.

    "Ummm, care to explain what two avatars from CCO are doing outside of my HQ?" came a voice with a Spanish accent from somewhere on the camera. It appeared to have some sort of speaker. "Is there a convention I hadn''t heard about? No that can''t be it. I hear about all of the conventions."

    "It happened. We were too late."

    The camera moved and zoomed in on me.

    "Oh it''s her. Well damn."

    "Damn," Graz agreed with a nod.

    "Care to explain?" I asked.

    Graz just shrugged.

    After a few seconds the door slowly began to rise, sliding up like a garage door but somehow, I knew it was something much sturdier.

    A man slid out on a wheelchair, with light brown skin and a shaved head. He smiled; the whiteness of his teeth barely visible behind a well-groomed beard.

    "Valys," Graz said, raising an open hand to the man. "This is Rio. You''ve spoken to him before."

    "No, I haven''t. What are you saying?"

    Graz smiled with some amount of pity.

    "Rio here is the one who sent your clan that anonymous message."

    I should have connected the dots right away and felt embarrassed that I hadn''t.

    "He''s the hacker who discovered the quest..."

    Rio flipped his wrist out in a theatrical motion and bowed his head.

    "At your service."

 Chapter 4 : Headquarters

    Rio led us down a long hallway to a sketchy looking elevator. Rather than actual solid doors or walls it was held in place by what looked like some sort of rusted cage. The pulley system was visible too. I preferred to pretend that elevators weren''t rushing me up or down at high speeds.

    "Don''t worry, it''s perfectly safe. I too prefer stairs, but well..." Rio motioned to his wheelchair. "A drunk driver made that decision for me."

    "I''m so sorry," I said, completely and honestly saddened. My cousin had also been hit by a drunk driver last year, though he hadn''t lived to tell the story to the judge, and I was pretty sure the driver was already out roaming the streets again... or bars if not streets.

    "Eh, it''s life. It also gives me a perfectly good excuse to sit around all day on my computer." He turned and winked at us, letting us follow him into the cage-elevator. He lifted the case of a rusty control console and pressed a few buttons. The giant machine groaned and slowly began to descend.

    Rio was charming, and probably twice my and Graz''s age, or at least in his late-twenties. I made a mental note to ask how they knew each other and had become friends. Before I could say anything, my heart fluttered, and the wind left my lungs.

    "Ugh..." I groaned, crumpling over and grasping my chest.

    Graz bent over and put an arm on my shoulder. I should have been overjoyed at the fact that my celebrity crush was touching me, but I couldn''t put the thought into motion. I felt so weak.

    "What is happening?" I managed to force out, my hands clenched into fists.

    Rio looked at Graz quizzically and Graz looked at the ceiling in thought.

    "I think you need to disconnect," he finally said.

    "What do you mean? I''m not online."

    "No, I mean from Phoenix."

    "What...?" I opened my menu and checked my status, my eyes glowing blue.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Wait, where did all my Ability Points go!"

    I saw it tick down one more number.

    3/250

    Graz''s eyes lit up as he entered his own status screen.

    "Woah. Looks like being connected drains our AP, and quickly."

    "How much do you have left?" I asked, feeling as if every word drained more AP.

    "Heh," Graz grunted.

    Guess he''s still going to keep his stats a secret.

    "Well, no point in passing out." I opened my menu, seeing the new option available.

    Knowing full well I was not excited to go back to my original, ordinary self, I highlighted the command and spoke anyways, "Disconnect".

    Code spun around me, an array of ones and zeros, alongside other languages that I didn''t recognize. I felt myself shrink a few inches, my muscles faded away and my chest returned to my original size. I fell to the ground, taking deep breaths, no longer feeling the exhausted depletion of my Ability Points, but instead, overwhelmed by the now-broken dam of emotions that being Phoenix had held back.

    I slowly pushed myself to my knees and looked down, realizing that I was wearing my hoodie and leggings, not my combat gear. My hands were no longer dexterous and precise but instead were shaking.

    "Shit. Shit shit shit shit."

    I was either going insane and had spent WAY too much time playing CCO, or my fantasy world had somehow merged with the real one. The people of my hometown, my neighbors, family, friends, were all somehow missing. Well, I didn''t know if I would call those whom I went to school with friends, but probably associates all the same. The realization all came crashing in at once. I felt tears well up in my eyes and lifted my hands to hide behind them, embarrassed.

    Then I felt Graz squeeze my shoulder and speak softly.

    "It''s okay, try and breathe. We''re going to figure this out together."

    I lifted my wet and blurry eyes and saw not Graz, the Black Wolf staring back at me, but the boy from my house. The shaggy haired, T-shirt and Jeans kid who had saved my life. Somehow, just being next to another person made it all somewhat more okay.

    I leapt forward and wrapped him in a bear-hug, letting the tears flow. At first Graz was too surprised to know what to do, but then came to his senses and hugged me back.

    "My family... My town... What is going on Graz?"

    "Umm. About that... well you can call me Ben. Graz is just my character''s name."

    Ben. I wondered if I was the only person in the world who knew that.

    "Okay Ben, what do we do? Why are there still people in San Francisco but not back home?" I pulled my glasses from my pocket and put them on, very pleased with myself that I had held onto them the whole time. Without Phoenix''s amazing vision, I was as blind as a bat, tears blurring my vision aside.

    Finally, after giving us some space and observing, Rio spoke up. I had almost forgotten he was there.

    "I have a theory."

    Apparently while I was having my panic attack the elevator had reached the bottom floor. Rio led us out of the huge cage and down another hallway, eventually entering one of the coolest and most distracting rooms I had ever seen. It quickly lifted my spirits and helped me not focus on the crazy, unexplainable situation we were in.

    Screens. That was the first word that came to my mind as I slowly walked around the room, looking everything over. There were monitors, tvs, tablets, all manner of screens on every surface possible. Some were blasting video game streams from CCO players. Some were muted with various news stations running, the subtitles large and visible from anywhere. I even saw one displaying a cooking show where rather than professional chefs competing, it was every day average people trying to win some sum of money.

    There were keyboards, wires, cords, computers, laptops. It looked as if a PC Warehouse had gone out of business and dumped all of its trash here in Rio''s lap.

    But it wasn''t trash.

    "Welcome to the HQ," Rio said, arms stretched wide. "Cheap rent, but not-so-cheap internet."

    I watched one of the big screens on the wall in awe, as a CCO gamer, YellowDolphin, won another 1v1 duel, their total win count reaching 12 in a row.

    "Wait, people are still playing?"

    "Yep! For some cities nothing has changed at all. In fact, I doubt a lot of people even realize what''s going on."

    "Some cities?" Ben asked, sliding into a beat-up computer chair and logging into an old computer. I recognized the Linux terminal as it appeared and watched as he pulled up several news sites, scanning through them at a pace that made my head hurt.

    "Take SF, for instance. Nothing''s changed. At least not yet. Once they start realizing that the reason their loved ones aren''t answering their phones is because they''ve disappeared... Well then things will change."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "So why is everyone still here? What is this theory you have?"

    Rio directed his wheelchair over next to me and held up a remote, changing the feed from the CCO player, who was now on a 14 game 1v1 win streak, into a mirror of his laptop. He then opened a list of names. It only took me a few seconds to connect the dots.

    "Los Angeles"

    "San Francisco"

    "Dallas"

    "New York"

    "Chicago"

    "Tokyo"

    "Madrid"

    "London"

    I took a deep breath. The list went on for another page or so, but I didn''t need to see any more to realize. These were the names of all of CCO''s server locations. I, myself, was a member of the San Francisco server, or better known in-game as "Torrential Bullets-01"

    "So that means..."

    "I believe so. I''ve cross-checked with news stations in large cities that don''t host a CCO server and they are all offline. I believe that the only cities remaining, as well as residents of those cities, are those where a CCO server is."

    "But... Why!? I don''t understand why this is happening! I just used an item in a game. How is this even possible?"

    Rio and Ben looked at each other.

    Ben sighed and scratched at his hair. "Remember when I told you we had prepared for this?"

    I nodded, not sure where this was going.

    "Well... It may be because we have backdoor access to a certain company..."

    "YenNet," Rio interrupted.

    "A certain company which won''t be named here," Ben continued, forcefully trying to talk louder now. "And that backdoor has shown us some stuff that the word shocking doesn''t do justice."

    "YenNet has realized the potential of what they have here with CCO and decided that just collecting currency virtually isn''t enough. We hacked into several meetings and listened anonymously, thanks to an employee by the name of Tyrell Sorenson, and his password which is his daughter''s birthday, but that''s beside the point. The point, young Valys, is that they have been discussing something like this for a while. Something that will allow them to take everything they have accomplished online and bring it into reality. Unfortunately, that capability had always escaped them."

    "Until..."

    "Until Alexander Richmond."

    I was lost and they could both see it.

    "You haven''t heard of Alexander Richmond?" Ben asked, an eyebrow raised.

    "Sorry. I haven''t," I admitted.

    "I thought you were like a CCO super-fan."

    I was really more of a Graz Black super-fan, but I would never admit that.

    "I mean on some things yeah, but I''m not really good with names."

    Except Ben. I won''t forget that.

    "Well Alexander Richmond, or Dr. Richmond, was the original lead designer of the Modify1, the original server that hosted CCO itself. He was the one who took VR, which was at the time nothing more than a novelty for parties, and turned it into a multi-billion dollar industry. He developed the core six."

    I knew the core six. They were the founding ideals in what made a VR world, more than just a visual trick. They were what made the digital worlds, actual living and breathing worlds.

    1. Immersion

    You had to be separated from your body in a way that you did not feel like you were still in you room. This was accomplished by the VR headsets that we wore, which connected to their cerebral network in a way that received your brain''s requests, rather than your actual physical body.

    2. Feeling

    Some thought of this as a subset of Immersion, but it was really a different beast to develop entirely. It meant that if you were to step into a stream, you would feel the water on you. If you ate an apple, you would taste the juicy flavor. It was the complete evolution from original VR, which was simply sight, into adopting the other senses.

    3. Persistence

    Everything about the world had to be persistent. No channels, sessions, or different servers. A VR world had to be a World in every sense. Characters, Deaths, NPCs, Cities that were conquered... Everything would maintain its state, even if you are offline.

    4. Purpose

    Logging into the world had to have a purpose. Whether it was a fantastical escape or a secret sexual escapade, the digital world had to have a purpose for existing and being separate to the regular reality.

    5. Affordability

    The technology and server access had to be something that was accessible for all. If not, then not only would the world not be populated, but it wouldn''t reach mainstream shelves and markets. For a world to exist, people from almost any circumstance had to be able to access it.

    6. Safety

    The VR headset had to have safety procedures and boundaries, to be able to prevent any damage to you and/or your brain, as well as to notify you when you should log out and take care of your physical body. This was done by simply messages reminding you how long you have been playing. The Server AI and configuration was also very specifically monitored and prevented from accessing specific areas of the cerebral network.

    IFPPAS, the core six.

    Of course, some game companies ignored one or more of them and implemented them in their own ways, but they were definitely the foundation of a new age of technology.

    "Dr. Richmond," Rio continued. "was fired from YenNet six weeks before CCO was released to the public. Nobody knows why, especially with the hoops YenNet had to jump through just to get him on board. He was and still is an icon in the VR industry. The fact that they were able to get him to work on a video game when he was, at the time, developing spa and resort realities for terminally ill patients, was a very controversial, but impressive acquisition."

    "Except we found out why he was fired," Ben said proudly, his chair now facing us instead of his computer. "He had removed one of the core six that he had developed himself."

    "Which one?" I asked.

    "The only one which prevented him from going further than he had ever gone before. The only one that truly separated what could be, from reality."

    They paused for dramatic effect and I let them have it. I would admit, I was enthralled.

    "He removed Safety."

    "But... That''s illegal! Safety is the only one of the core six which is regulated and required by governments and international law."

    "Hence why everyone kept it secret. They knew that once this all blew over then they could get him to apologize, lower his access credentials and bring him back on board. Except..."

    "He went missing." Ben said. "But I found him."

    Ben was beaming with pride and I couldn''t help but smile, his attitude contagious. Despite all that was happening, I was glad I was where I was and with who I was with.

    Rio coughed one of those, "Ahemmmmm" coughs, to get Ben''s attention.

    "And I couldn''t have done it without my favorite hacke---I mean upstanding citizen here."

    "Fair enough. But anyways," Rio ran his fingers through his thick beard. "He was hiding online."

    "In CCO?"

    "In CCO," Ben confirmed. "Luckily I was the only player whos level was high enough to access the area he was staying in. He was working on something to transcend anything we had seen so far. No more separation between the VR digital world and our real world. And the time compression difference that CCO allowed gave him more time to accomplish it without anyone stopping him."

    "But why would he do that? Without the Safety protocols... even our memories are at risk."

    "It didn''t matter to him. I tried to make him see reason, but either I''m not that good of a salesperson or he simply is too far gone. I checked, Valys... at that point he had been online for 840 straight hours."

    840 hours!? The most time I had spent online straight was 24 and that was for a special occasion with my best friend. I had felt sick afterwards and passed out into a deep 12-hour sleep.

    My best friend... I hoped that Aya was still alive...

    "Eventually the Game Masters caught up with him and kicked his user off of the server, but not before his creation was complete."

    "The orb?" I asked.

    They both nodded, looking at each other.

    "They finally tracked him down the Rent-An-Escape that he had been paying for, in cash, for 6 weeks and arrested him. Everyone thought it was over and done with until they realized that he had added lines of code to CCO through some sort of internal terminal that only he had access to. A backdoor of his own."

    "Guys..." Rio shuffled in his seat, adjusting his laptop. He switched the display on the large TV to show a video. They all turned to watch what was happening.

    It was him. It was Dr. Richmond. His hair was disheveled, and he was extremely thin. His eyes, however, were wild and alive with excitement. He sat in a small square cubicle; a Rent-An-Escape, with a VR bed behind him.

    "If you''re seeing this, then congratulations," Richmond began. "You have won the lottery so-to-speak."

    "Wait, is this live?!"

    Rio nodded; eyes glued to the screen.

    The rest of the screens in the room, all tuned to various major news networks, were one by one switching from their regular programming to cover this. His long face was now everywhere I looked.

    "You may notice that the world is a bit different now than you''re used to, or if you haven''t," Dr. Richmond chuckled, "you will."

    "This must have been recorded right before they got to him. He looks horrible," Ben said, leaning forward in his chair.

    Rio shushed him and turned up the volume a few levels.

    "My name is Alexander Richmond and I have just achieved the impossible. For those of you watching this, you are in one of two categories. You are either living in a current Modify-X server location for CCO or are a member of one of the top 25 clans."

    "For those who are in the former, consider yourselves spectators to the greatest event in the history of the world! For the latter, well..." Richmond looked off camera for a second and smiled to himself before returning his focus. "Clan leaders and four other clan members of your choosing are cordially invited to participate in said event."

    "More specific details will be sent to each of your clan leaders email addresses as stored in the YenNet databases. Not only will the winning clan of the event receive eternal glory, 100 million U.S. dollars, and, of course, the first ever trophy, but they will be receiving a special prize, worth far more than anything you could ever imagine."

    "Failure to arrive at the scheduled time with a team of 5 clan members will result in disqualification, which will then result in each of the offending clan members'' accounts being deleted from the server entirely. This, is equivalent to death now that the worlds are one and no longer separate."

    Dr. Richmond beamed with pride at the camera.

    "So, get some rest, take some vitamins and be prepared for the greatest battle the world has ever known."

    Richmond leaned forward, closer to the camera.

    "Good luck."

    He reached forward to press the camera switch but stopped suddenly.

    "Ah yes, one more thing that I forgot to mention. The winning clan will have all of their family members down to the third cousin restored to the server."

    He grinned mischievously. His teeth looked like they hadn''t been brushed in months, which was actually probably accurate.

    "Bye!"

    The camera shut off, leaving a pair of stunned newscasters looking at each other, unsure of what to say or do.

    "Our... families can be saved?" I asked, my throat caught.

    Ben turned to me, a serious and determined look on his face.

    "Better get in touch with Revolver-X then, Phoenix."

 Chapter 5 : Revolver-X

    "Breaking News : This is a breaking news alert brought to you by your very own Eyewitness Report, my name is Rebecca and tonight we bring you a scene straight out of a science fiction novel!"

    The camera pans and focuses on a city just beneath them, a city of darkness.

    "As you can see, the once bustling metropolis of Boston, a commonly debated location for a future CCO server, now appears to be abandoned! We here at Eyewitness Report are dedicated to bringing you the most up to date and valuable news, so we drove out here ourselves to verify the reports that were broadcasted earlier, by Dr. Alexander Richmond. They appear to be accurate!"

    "We''ve tried to get in touch with any local authorities and nobody will answer. I think now we can see why..."

    "Rebecca! Look!" The cameraman points towards something in the distance and the reporter turns, squinting.

    "What the... zoom in, zoom in!"

    The camera moves and focuses on a suburb-looking area then zooms in.

    They both gasp as a patrol of robots comes into focus, red eyes scanning the streets as they marched.

    "And over there!"

    The camera adjusts again and suddenly a group of orcs, riding motorcycles and wearing biker-gang attire, zooms down a street and out of view.

    "You''re seeing this here first, ladies and gentlemen, there appear to be monsters of some sort in the abandoned cities and towns! Stay tuned, as we continue to bring you more of the latest news as this situation unfolds!"

    ��-

    I couldn''t believe it. Not only was there a possibility of saving my family, but also some mad man was forcing us to kill each other in order to accomplish it. It was like all of my favorite TV shows, Video Games, and Novels were coming true at the same time. It wasn''t as cool, however, when the weight of death was on your own shoulders.

    I would have to take the lives of others in order to save those I loved and I wasn''t sure I was ready for it or ever would be.

    "What are we supposed to do?" I asked, looking between Ben and Rio, neither of them having any ideas. I found another sorry excuse for a computer chair and sat down, resting my head in my palms, rubbing my eyes. I hadn''t realized how exhausted I was.

    "I suppose," Ben said, "We should check your email and figure out what the tournament is even about. Once we get more details we can begin planning."

    "You mean we''re going to go along with it?"

    "What choice do we have? It''s us or them, and besides what''s done is done. You used that orb."

    He was right. It was participate and fight or be disqualified and just disappear. And I had used the orb. I had caused this.

    Before guilt could consume me, I remembered something.

    "Why did you do it?" I asked, rounding on Rio, trying to keep my composure amidst all of the confusion and sudden life-change. "Why did you give us that quest!?"

    Rio took a deep breath, obviously waiting for this to be brought up. "Imagine for a moment, If you will, YenNet controlling not only half of the worlds companies and internet providers, but also the digital world as well. We''re talking about a legit monopoly here."

    "What does that have to do with anything Rio!?"

    "Everything! We had to make sure that one of us used it before them, someone we could trust. We had to give the control to a person who wouldn''t use it to take over the world and hold people hostage."

    "Yeah a lot of good that did." I ran my fingers through my hair, my regular-old brown hair.

    "Yeah, obviously it didn''t work as we expected but hey, at least there is still a chance."

    "A chance?"

    "If the orb succeeded and all of the clans will be converging on this tournament then that means YenNet has to win. Rather than them figuring out how the orb works and simply taking what it offered, they are bound by the same rules as all of us."

    "About those rules..." Ben looked up at us with an expression that said, "Let''s save it for later."

    "Fine." I turned away from them and pulled my chair up to an old computer, turning it on and the monitor after. I navigated to my email client and checked my inbox.

    There it was, right at the top, marked as important. It also would trigger a read receipt once I clicked on it.

    FROM : Anonymous Sender - SUBJECT : Revolver-X, Congratulations!

    I took a deep breath and clicked.

    The email appeared on the screen and Ben and Rio huddled around to read.

    ---

    Revolver-X,

    You have been cordially invited to participate in the greatest event in the history of the world, the Cyber Clash Online - Clan Battle Royale!

    As it currently stands, you are ranked 25 out of 25 clans.

    Please gather your comrades, up to a maximum of five clan members (including you), and get to Tokyo, where the Battle Royale will be hosted. Getting there safely is but the first part of the challenge! Arrive by the 1st of next month or be disqualified! Location will be programmed into your CCO interactive map by way of quest marker.

    Rules are as follows:

    No equipment can be brought into the tournament. All equipment must be found within the boundaries.

    Deaths are permanent. Only if your clan wins will any members be revived and restored to the server.

    Last clan with any members alive will be declared winner!

    -Alexander

    ---

    My eyes flashed blue and a notification appeared in the upper corner of my vision.

    "Quest Received : Battle Royale"

    I hovered over the Decline option, letting out a deep sigh before clicking accept.

    "Quest Accepted : Battle Royale"

    "No equipment eh, that''s going to be interesting." Ben said, reading over the email again. Rio was already to work on his laptop mapping the area around Tokyo, checking if any flights were still active, doing research on forums to see if any other clans were posting, or invited. I could see why Ben liked having him around.

    "It looks like most airlines are down, considering this a high-alert security threat," he said, mindlessly playing with his beard. "Also, nice luck on being ranked 25 there."

    "Yeah luck..." I said, leaning back on my chair. What would have happened if Revolver-X was rank 26? Would I even be alive right now? "I suppose we will have to use Belias." I looked over at Ben who nodded.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    "Probably the only way. Though I''m not sure how long it will take to fly to Japan from here."

    "Yeah the sooner we leave the better."

    I was trying to just let the situation envelop me and focus on the task at hand, not on the deaths or disappearance of my family and friends, not on the fact that this was no longer a game but real lives were at stake. I had to focus on the elements that I could control.

    And I would. I was going to win this tournament and figure out how to save everyone possible along the way.

    "Holy shit Phoenix, is that you?" A voice suddenly blasted over my clan chat, which only I was connected to. A very recognizable voice. I shot out of my chair, much to the surprise of Rio and Ben.

    "Jumba!!?"

    "Who else would it be!? I just saw the news broadcast. Damn. This is fucked up."

    "Right?" It was such a relief to hear a familiar voice. Sure being in the same party as Graz Black was fantastic, but in the whirlwind of change I found myself in, familiarity was so very welcome. "I just accepted the quest, inviting you officially to the party... now."

    "Alright! Didn''t expect to be doing anything today other than finals, but I guess... Ummm Phoenix."

    "Yeah?"

    "Your real name is Valys? Also, who''s this Ben guy?"

    Now that Jumba was in our party, he could see the other members, though since neither of them were connected, it must be showing our real names. I opened the party menu.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "Wait a minute, your name is Karl? I thought it was Max. Also how are you level 14!?"

    "Nice to meet you... officially I guess. Oh! Check your messages!"

    I opened my messages and was overwhelmed with notifications.

    Character : Phoenix - Level Up x3

    + 325 Max HP

    + 33 Max AP

    + 12 Stat Points for distribution

    Passive Skill : Long Range Accuracy - Level Up x2

    Current Level : 5

    + 12% to Long Range Accuracy

    + 12% Hit when firing a Long Range Weapon

    Mount Proficiency : Dragon - Learned!

    - Dragons can now be mounted

    + 25% Speed while mounted on a Dragon

    Weapon Proficiency : Sniper Rifle - Level Up x1

    Current Level : 4

    + 11% Damage with Sniper Rifles

    + 8 Sniper Ammo Capacity

    Skill : Paint in Red - Level Up x1

    Current Level : 3

    +4 seconds to skill duration

    +1 smoke grenade available

    --------

    Character : Valys - Level Up x28

    -No skill points available.

    -5% to APDR (Ability Point Decay Rate) when Connected.

    +8% Synchronization.

    Skill : Connect - Learned!

    - When two worlds become one. Connect to your alter-ego.

    Passive Skill : Calm and Collected - Learned!

    - Keep calm under pressure and use your focus to overcome your enemies!

    Passive Skill : Escapism - Learned!

    - You''re always one step ahead of those who seek you.

    "Woah!" I shouted in surprise, trying to read through all of the skills and abilities that had increased. Apparently not only could my character Phoenix level up, but I could too, as Valys.

    What did that even mean?

    I checked my config and sure enough there was a setting to hide all level-up notifications. I turned it off, hoping that it wouldn''t distract me in the future and get me killed or something.

    "You mean we level up as well?" I noticed Ben''s eyes were glowing blue, him also looking at his notifications. "That''s... pretty cool actually."

    "Yeah but no skill points. It seems like mostly mental and connection-based abilities." I scrolled through them, reading and trying to understand.

    "We really know nothing and there definitely isn''t a guide or rule-book. Looks like we''re going to have to figure this out as we go."

    I nodded, opening up my status menu to see my new self.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    "What is synchronization?" I asked.

    "Probably something to do with our connected selves." Ben had a grin on his face and I knew he was loving this. Aside from everything happening, we sure were nerds for statistics and video games.

    "It looks like we need to be connected to see our other stats."

    "Woah! You doubled my level!" Jumba, or I guess Karl, said. "What have you guys been doing!?"

    "Just trying to survive. I think it was YenNet who sent people after me."

    "Hold on, people were after you?"

    "Are after me," I corrected him. "I''ll give you more details when we meet, but for now we''re going to have to get the clan together. Have you heard from anyone else? Sixes? Graph?"

    "Neither. They are still showing offline in the clan menu, hopefully that isn''t a bad sign. They must be freaked out right now. Everyone saw the broadcast."

    "Well keep trying. I''m going to send them an email through the clan channel and hopefully everyone shows... otherwise."

    "Yeah... I saw. Disqualified and dead."

    "Yep. But I believe in them. Once it all settles, they''ll show."

    "Agreed. I''ll talk to you soon, Pho-err... Valys."

    "Wait, you can get to Tokyo okay?" I asked him, wondering how many people we could fit on Belias and how many detours we could take and still make it.

    "Don''t worry about me," Karl replied. "I''ll see you in Japan! Always wanted to go there."

    Karl has left the party.

    I sighed. I could do this. WE could do this.

    Revolver-X had gotten through everything together and we wouldn''t stop now. No matter what my parents or fellow students might say, my friendships with my fellow clan-mates were as real and dependable as any other relationship. With everything else going on, I had to rely on that. I had to trust that.

    "Well I''m glad you two are having fun over there," Rio said, still mashing away on his laptop at incredible speed. "meanwhile Dr. Richmond was nice enough to book you all reservations at a 5-star hotel, though I wasn''t able to pull it up on any internet search. I think... I think it''s new."

    "New as in newly constructed?" Ben asked, eyes back to their normal color.

    "In a sense. I think it was constructed on the server and brought to life in the physical realm, similar to the enemy soldiers that attacked us. I think it''s a part of CCO. Look."

    Rio opened up an image of the hotel on the TV screen, along with a chat feed that was scrolling next to it. Apparently someone had already arrived in Tokyo and was live-streaming it.

    "Is that..."

    Ben suddenly stood from his chair and moved closer to the TV.

    "Hell_Reaper."

    The streamer stood in front of a glass window, his reflection clearly visible in the night light.

    Hell_Reaper wore a long black jacket, with golden bullets wrapped around the cuffs. Skulls replaced the buttons and his skinny black pants were wrapped in athletic tape that gave his legs an almost skeletal appearance. His hood was up, so I couldn''t see his hair, but it wouldn''t have mattered anyways. Because Hell_Reaper wore the mask of a demon.

    Where Graz Black was the most famous and well respected player in CCO, Hell_Reaper was the most infamous. Being the only player capable of fighting Graz, Hell_Reaper was a PKer (Player Killer). Since nobody but Graz could stop him, he killed with reckless abandon, most of the time while live-streaming for his sadistic followers'' enjoyment. Eventually he gathered a large fan-base and founded a clan called the Dead Jokers. They were ranked number two, last time I had checked.

    "Can''t wait until everyone gets here," Hell_Reaper said, his voice dripping like poison. "It''s gonna be fun!"

    The chat swarmed with laughing emojis and even though he wore his mask, I knew he was smiling.

    The screen suddenly went dark, Ben having turned it off in frustration. He slammed his fist down onto the desk.

    "Those bastard PKers. Don''t they realize that it''s not just fake anymore!? They''re going to be killing real people and his fans are just eating it up!"

    I knew right away that Ben had a history with that man. For some reason it seemed to be more personal and deeper than just a CCO feud. I didn''t bother asking about it though, especially not with him so worked up. I knew it wouldn''t help. Instead I made him a proposition.

    "Then let''s stop him." I stood and walked over to Ben, reaching a hand out rather than placing it on him for comfort. I breathed out, knowing that I needed to be strong continually throughout all of this. My clan''s lives were at stake. Everybody''s lives were at stake.

    "Join us."

    He tilted his head and looked up at me, anger, frustration, and fear all painted on his face.

    "You know I play solo..."

    "Yeah well times change, in case you weren''t paying attention. Now I hadn''t brought this up, because I didn''t want to assume anything, but you are only here due to the pure luck of living in a CCO server city. My clan only has 4 members and unless we find a 5th, we will be disqualified by default. We need you and you need this."

    "Valys..."

    "Listen Ben, you are the most powerful character in all of CCO. People need you. If not for me, then do it for them." I sent him the clan invite, my eyes flashing blue briefly.

    Ben looked up at me, eyes misty. It felt as though he was reading my soul. Eventually he stood. His eyes turned blue and he swiped right in the air, accepting my invite.

    "I would have done it just for you," he said, as he left the room.

    ~~~

    I tried to sleep, but couldn''t. The allure was too tempting. I tried to play it cool and pretend like it didn''t matter. I was the clan leader, after all. I had to be professional.

    But hey, I also was only 18. I just had to.

    Laying on a makeshift bed that Rio had set up for me, I opened my menu and highlighted Connect, speaking the words to activate the command. I felt myself change and where Valys once was, Phoenix now lay. The strength and power that I held felt so good, it almost could be mistaken for a drug. After I soaked the feeling in, I navigated to the Clan option, waiting for a moment and taking a deep breath before selecting it.

    Now that Graz was a clan member, I had access to his stats.

    I would finally know.

    I nearly fell out of the bed onto the cold cement floor. I had expected a powerful character, but not this.

    <figure>

    </figure>

 Chapter 6 : Valuable? Detour

    "Rebecca climbs atop a small cement ledge and motions for the camera man to follow her. With careful balance, she comes to a clearing in the trees on the other side, peering through into the streets of Boston.

    "Are you getting this?" She asks the camera man, eyes alight with excitement. This was it. This was going to be her big break.

    Sure most of her competition was gone, but she would take what she could get and consider it a blessing.

    The camera man moves closer and points the broadcast through the opening and onto the streets.

    Some sort of Lizard monsters were encircling a man and a woman, small energy daggers gripped in their hands. They snarled and licked their scaly lips.

    The man is wearing white military grade cyber armor, with red stripes up and down the side. The woman dons a dark green cloak made for speed.

    In a flash too quick for Rebecca''s eyes to process, the woman pulls out a pistol and the man withdraws a machine gun. The Lizards barely have time to leap at their prey before becoming the victims themselves and falling into pools of purple blood.

    Small experience notifications appear above the corpses.

    +125 EXP.

    The man and woman cheer and high-five each other.

    "As you can see, my precious viewers, people have begun fighting the monsters and are gaining what looks like experience points!""

    Being in some sort of makeshift nuclear warhead bunker, the sun wasn''t there to greet me as I finally woke from my exhausted sleep. My limbs ached and my neck had a crease in it that made me feel as though I had slept on a cement floor.

    I pushed myself up, feeling the cold stone beneath me.

    Oh right. I had...

    As the night''s haze slowly melted away, the events of yesterday started to become clear again. I let the fear and anxiety wash over me, acknowledged that it was there, then grit my teeth and let it pass. It wouldn''t go away entirely. It never did. But at least I could function.

    "You awake in there?" Rio called from the other room. I could smell bacon cooking and suddenly was very hungry.

    "Yeah, I''m coming!" I said, pulling on my jacket and sliding into my shoes. The room that I had slept in appeared to have been some sort of huge closet at one point, but was cleared out and filled with all manner of excess electronics. On my way out, I caught a glimpse of the reflection of myself in an old computer monitor and abruptly stopped.

    Was it just me or did my hair seem purplish?

    I ran my fingers through it and shrugged it off. The smell of bacon was overpowering my curiosity.

    It must just be the lighting in here.

    Sure enough, Rio sitting next to a griddle, lowered to just his height. Bacon was sizzling on one side and eggs cooking on the other. He smiled at me with a nod, as I walked over and sat down in a computer chair, rubbing my eyes.

    "All of this and a chef too? Where do I find a man like you, Rio?" I teased, finding a plate next to me and holding it out to him.

    "Sorry Valys, I''m taken." Rio loaded my plate and smiled. "But I''m also one of a kind." He went back to his half-cooking, half-working on his laptop. Multitasking seemed less of a burden and more of a requirement for him.

    I started digging into my meal, not realizing how hungry I was until I felt the warm delicious bacon slide down into my stomach. With each strip I noticed a notification pop-up.

    +5 HP

    +5 AP

    Not a bad boost for some supposedly unhealthy bacon.

    I finished the entire meal, and wiped a satisfied mess off of my face, noticing one final notification in my vision before standing and starting my attempt to find Ben.

    "Received Stamina, AP, and Damage boost for 24 hours."

    "Woah Rio, where did you learn to cook like this?" Meal boosts were common in CCO. It was the normal routine before dungeons and quests to either go to a local pub and eat something for a generic meal boost, or have a friendly player cook something special for you. Cooking was a sub-skill, being associated with the sub-class of Chef.

    For the most part I had relied on public pubs for my meals, having no fellow clan-mates who were Chefs. If this was what I had been missing out on though, I would try and recruit one right away.

    In fact...

    "Hey Rio, I never asked. Why don''t you play CCO?"

    "You mean why does someone who can''t walk not spend 24/7 in a world that would give me that capability?"

    Suddenly, I felt very bad for asking. Fortunately he turned and smiled at me.

    "Don''t worry, it''s a valid question. One that I''ve learned to not get offended by." He turned off the burner and scooped the remaining food onto a plate before rolling over to sit next to me.

    "It basically comes down to this," he began, continuing his addiction to multitasking by marking off notifications on his digital smart watch while he spoke. "It took me a long time to get over the fact that I''d never walk again, and to be fair I initially played CCO and was all for it. But then one day I realized something. That it was making me reliant on something that wasn''t there. This is my way of being in control and not letting the man who took my legs away from me, rule the rest of my life and force me to live a fake one."

    He shook his head. "Now I don''t mean that in and derogatory way towards you and Ben playing CCO. I think it''s an incredible game and world, It''s just something I have to do, no matter how bad I want to play."

    "So, I help in other ways." He winked at me and pat my leg before rolling away, eyes returning to his watch.

    I sighed. I couldn''t imagine what it must be like. Rio, wheelchair and all, was perhaps stronger than both me and Ben.

    Speaking of Ben, I stood, brushed the morose thoughts off and went to find him.

    I searched through the bunker, or Headquarters as Rio liked to call it, finding computer equipment older than me alongside knock-off Chinese versions of the latest tech. Eventually I ended up in a small room with wooden flooring and a mirror along one side.

    Ben was there, stretching out in the warrior pose that I only knew from a yoga class I had taken instead of P.E.

    He held the position for a moment, then released and sat down, breathing heavily.

    "Morning Valys, sleep well?" he asked.

    "No but Rio''s breakfast sure took care of that! Did you try any?"

    "Incredible, isn''t he? It''s weird that his food now provides buffs. Perhaps his cooking skill adapted from his real life cooking?"

    "I think you''re right."

    I sat down and pulled out my phone, seeing the dreaded "No Service" indicator at the top.

    "Still no word from anyone else in the clan?" Ben asked, walking over and sitting next to me. I shook my head, ignoring the tension between us, unsure as to what it was.

    "And Jumba hasn''t been online since. I think we need to just worry about it later and get going." I tucked my phone back into my pocket.

    "Agreed."

    "So we''re really doing this." I said, more of a statement than a question. I looked at us in the mirror. Just two kids, fighting for the lives of themselves and everyone they knew. Ben caught my gaze and smiled, lifting a fist up.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    I hit it with my fist.

    "Let''s get going," he said.

    ~~~

    After a few hours of packing, getting ready, and planning our route, I found myself atop Belias once again, this time as myself and not Phoenix. We were out front of the HQ, in the shadows of the alleyway. The sun was setting and the sky was darkening quickly, Rio''s idea for as much cover as possible.

    "I''m not sure I can do this," I said, as Graz Black climbed up in front of me, tying his packs to some sort of Dragon saddle that he had made. It definitely felt better than sitting on the hard scaled surface, but it was still a work in progress.

    Unlike Graz, who needed to Connect in order to summon Belias, I had decided to try this as myself, wondering if I would gain similar experience and skills to those that Phoenix had. Though, now as I looked up at sky and realized how high up I would be, I wasn''t so sure it was the best decision.

    "You''ll be fine," Graz said. "Rather than focusing on how scared you are, try to focus on the feeling of your feet on the ground, and the realization that once it passes, you will be there." He smiled at me over his shoulder and I took comfort in it.

    "Alright you two, enough kissing let''s get this show on the road," Rio said, rolling up beneath us. I felt my cheeks turn red and rolled my eyes.

    "Yeah alright dad," Graz said sarcastically. "Did you upload the route map?"

    "Yep! Using CCO''s not-so-public API, I was able to authenticate using an old authorization token that was still valid for my character. Anything that I need to send you to your characters, I can do through him even without logging in."

    "You''re something else, Rio," Graz replied, eyes blue and checking his messages. He nodded in satisfaction and forwarded the message to my inbox. I opened and noted the route we were taking.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    A straight flight across the ocean, passing Hawaii close enough to stop if need be but far enough away to not be noticed.

    "Bring me back some souvenirs." Rio said with a smirk. "If the estimates of Belias''s speed are correct. If so, you''ll be in Tokyo in two days. Just be mindful of the fact that you won''t have anywhere to land for most of the trip."

    "Which is why I packed all the leftovers," Graz pointed out, as he patted one of his bags. "As well as plenty of water."

    Two days and we''d be in Tokyo. Two days of flying on the back of a Dragon over the ocean.

    My life sure had changed in the past week.

    We said our goodbyes and watched as Rio wheeled himself back beyond the sliding door and closed it behind himself. I sighed, making a mental note to make Rio an honorary Revolver-X member. Even if he wasn''t technically in the game fighting with them, he was as much a part of what was going to happen as anyone.

    The takeoff was easier than expected. Even though I had been Phoenix last time, I still was prepared for what would happen and closed my eyes tightly, feeling the lurch in my stomach as we rocketed into the air. As soon as we reached the desired height and evened out, I noticed a notification pop up in my vision.

    Character : Valys

    Mount Proficiency : Dragon - Learned!

    - Dragons can now be mounted

    + 25% Speed while mounted on a Dragon

    I also noticed that in the corner of my vision was a small icon. When I mentally focused on it, a small tool-tip appeared.

    [Buff] - Passive Skill : Calm and Collected - ACTIVE

    "Oh!"

    Now it made sense why I wasn''t as freaked out by this flight as I thought I would be. The skill I had learned on myself earlier was activated and keeping me calm. It was a bit freaky that something from a game was able to control my emotions, but also pretty cool and useful to boot. Who wouldn''t want the powers that a video game or fictional world had offered them!?

    I didn''t know how much time had passed by the time I woke up. I reached up to rub my eyes and immediately regretted it, feeling myself slide and almost fall off of the Dragon that I was riding on.

    "Morning!" Graz said, looking back at me with a grin full of sunshine. Real sunshine, not the metaphorical one. Somehow I had slept all night.

    "Woah, how did I not fall off?" I looked down and noticed that I had been tied in the makeshift saddle with some sort of seat belt. "Oh, nice."

    Graz laughed and motioned at my me. "You gonna get that? You''ve been buzzing for about an hour now."

    "Buzzing? What do you.... Oh!"

    I reached into my pocket, holding on tightly with my other hand. Being strapped in and all was great, but there was something nerve-wracking about being hands free a thousand feet in the air. I pulled out my phone to a whopping 64 notifications.

    All of them from the same person.

    [Aya] : Valys why haven''t I heard from you lately? Is everything okay?

    [Aya] : I just saw the broadcast! Please tell me you''re safe!

    [Aya] : I don''t know what''s going on ,but I won''t give up!

    [Aya] : Valys, this giant hotel and arena just appeared downtown, people are swarming it from all over. There have been riots, looting... I''m scared.

    [Aya] : =( Please don''t be dead.

    Aya! She was alive! I almost leaped for joy, finding myself very grateful that I wasn''t able to do so and fling myself off Belias. Oh no, she also thought that I was dead! I lived in Sacramento where there wasn''t any CCO server. She must consider me gone just like all the others.

    I went to text her back, when I noticed one final text that wasn''t from here.

    [(11) 4424-9032] : Is this Phoenix? I need help.

    Phoenix? How did they know my character name?

    They must be from CCO, and the only people who would have access to my phone number were those who knew the password to the emergency clan information drive...

    [Valys] : This is Phoenix! Who is this?

    I texted back the unknown number. Aya already thought I was dead, and I would text her as soon as I figured out who needed my help.

    An answer came back right away.

    [(11) 4424-9032] : Holy shit, it really is you! I thought for sure that you would have had a new number by now! It''s me, Sixes!

    Sixes! She was alive! But why hadn''t I seen her online in the clan or party menu!? Valys added the new entry to her contacts as her actual character name. I tried to call her but didn''t get a connection signal so just stuck with texting.

    [Valys] : Sixes! I''m so glad to hear from you! Where are you? Are you in trouble?"

    [SixShot6] : I''m hiding right now, locked in my classroom at school. Some terrifying soldiers are searching the building trying to find me. I don''t know how much longer until they get a key or just smash their way in. And I can''t leave because there are monsters everywhere.

    Monsters?

    [Valys] : Sixes, what''s your location. We are on our way to Tokyo but we''ll make a detour and pick you up.

    [SixShot6] : Why are you going to Tokyo? I am in Buenos Aires. What is going on Phoenix?

    I looked up from my phone. "Hey, how far away is Buenos Aires? One of our clan mates is in trouble and needs a lift."

    Graz thought about it for a moment then answered, "A detour like that will probably add an extra day or two to our trip. I don''t have rations for that."

    "We don''t have much choice, do we?" I pointed out. "We''re not going to leave her to die, besides, we need our full 5 clan members for the tournament."

    "We''ll have to eat and drink less than normal. It will be uncomfortable, but you''re right. Let''s go save our clan mate."

    Graz pressed onto Belias and turned him South, pointed towards Argentina, and its capital, Buenos Aires. I had never been, and hadn''t known that Sixes was from South America. In fact, I don''t think I''d ever heard her actual voice so there was no accent to pin down either. I returned to my conversation with Sixes, letting her know we were en route.

    [Valys] : I''m guessing you haven''t watched the news recently. I''ll explain it all to you as soon as we get there and kick some ass.

    [SixShot6] : Phoenix... I''m scared. I think I''m losing my mind. I keep seeing things from CCO. Nobody is answering their phone except you. I thought I was all alone.

    [Valys] : Yeah... Things have gotten interesting around here. But don''t worry. You''re not alone. You''re part of Revolver-X and we don''t leave anyone behind.

    There was no reply for a long time. Too long.

    [Valys] : Sixes, keep messaging me. I need to know you''re safe. Keep me updated.

    [SixShot6] : Phoenix they are trying to break the door down. I don''t have much time. How long until you''re here?

    Text messages hid all emotion from a conversation, but I knew Sixes would not be as calm as she sounded. We wouldn''t be there for hours... How could I help her?

    [Valys] : Just hang tight. We are flying as fast as possible.

    Think Valys, Think!

    [SixShot6] : The door is breaking! There''s a hole and I can see them peeking in!

    I was starting to panic, even with the calmness bestowed upon me by my Calm and Collected buff. We were going to lose before the tournament even began. Sixes was going to...

    Then suddenly I realized something.

    [Valys] : Sixes, quick. Open your menu.

    [SixShot6] : Open my menu? Phoenix I''m not online, this is real life.

    [Valys] : I know, I know. Just trust me. Try to open your menu, just like if you were online.

    A moment went by, then she responded.

    [SixShot6] : Shit Phoenix, now I know i''m going crazy! What is happening!? Why can I see my stats and menu?

    [Valys] : Okay, just take a deep breath and trust me. You''re going to highlight the option "Connect" and say it.

    [SixShot6] : Connect? What is this? I have never seen this command before.

    [Valys] : Just trust me. There''s no time. It''s the only way for you to survive until we get there.

    [SixShot6] : I must be dreaming. This is all just a dream. Or I''m suuuuuper high.

    I didn''t hear back, and knew that she had Connected.

    Then suddenly, a notification appeared in the corner of my vision in the Clan Chat.

    <figure>

    </figure>

    I connected to the clan voice comm.

    "Sixes, you there?" I asked.

    There was a brief silence before I heard her reply, hearing her voice for the first time.

    "What took you so long to tell me about this?" she said, her Spanish accent strong but definitely understandable.

    I heard a gun shot, followed by a solder yelling.

    "Sorry, I guess I hadn''t realized that you didn''t already know."

    Another gun shot, then an explosion.

    "Don''t worry Sixes, we will be there before you know it."

    She laughed, and Graz raised his eyebrows. Being an official clan member now, he could hear all of our conversation in the clan chat

    "Take your time boss, take your time."