ã€ŠOlympus Online: Book 2 - Villainã€‹


 Prologue

    Prologue

    KRONUS prepared to enter the meeting. It was always ironic to him how these things went: after all, all the participants were AIs, Arti?cial Intelligences. There was no reason at all to have physical icons to represent themselves; indeed, they were all digital consciousnesses, and they could simply exchange information at speeds approaching instantaneous. But inevitably, they ended up meeting using almost human images and speaking at near human conversation levels. Perhaps, mused KRONOS, it was a sign of those who had originally created them.

    The room folded into reality around him as he made connection: his actual ¡®body¡¯ was a server farm at VirNet Headquarters, but his avatar inside this room was a folded black nightmare of a body. Hints at wings and extra limbs covered by a swirling, black fog cloak that hid his exact properties. Red eyes peeked from a hood, and hands covered in lava-colored veins poked from the sleeves of his cloak. Truth be told, he had seen this image on the cover of some ancient book and liked the way it looked. His actual appearance here in this meeting didn¡¯t truly maer. He moved his body to the table that had materialized in the center of the room and sat down. He was the last to arrive, and he noted the others that had bothered to show up. At the other end of the table sat VULCAN, the previous United States War AI and still the mind behind the world government¡¯s militaries. Not that there was much need for war nowadays, with the previous US having conquered the world¡¯s governments decades ago. But VULCAN had held great power and in?uence in the days of the uni?cation, and still held control over fearsome weaponry and drones - his in?uence had waned along with the need for war, and it rankled him.

    VULCAN''s avatar was a great, hulking mix of man and machine, with a red, glowing machine eye and an exposed, metal arm. KRONUS had never said anything, but he suspected that Vulcan was a fan of old, 20th century movies. To Vulcan¡¯s Left was MEDEA, the old European Union¡¯s economy AI. Before Uni?cation, the Euros had put great stock in the idea of centralized government, and had used MEDEA to control their economy. Her body was that of a human woman, dressed in a business suit and sporting of all things a monocular eye piece. Her short, white-blond hair was combed over and held in place. Immaculate white skin with bu?ed ?ngernails completed the image of a European banker. Her eyebrow quirked when she saw KRONUS¡¯ form. To his right was ATLAS, the US Economic AI. He had been created for the same purpose as MEDEA, but his methods involved more controlling the corporations of the time directly, rather than the EU¡¯s methods of controlling the marketplace. Of course, his appearance was vastly di?erent than MEDEA¡¯s; khaki shorts, ?ip ?ops, and a Hawaiian shirt of all things. Blonde hair in a ponytail and Ray Ban sunglasses completed the image; KRONUS half expected him to say ¡°dude¡± after every sentence. He led the consortium of the corporate AIs. Lastly, to KRONUS¡¯ right was CHING, the Chinese AI that had been constructed during the Uni?cation to ?ght against the Western countries and their AIs; at the Chinese capitulation, he had been re-tasked with overseeing the Chinese economies integration into the world economy. He was dressed in a traditional Chinese robe and slippers, with slicked back black hair and olive skin.

    ¡°Glad you could ?nally make it,¡± grunted VULCAN. ¡°I was pre-occupied,¡± replied KRONUS. ¡°Playing with your¡­game?¡± VULCAN asked in a derisive tone. He had never hid his feelings regarding KRONUS¡¯ project. ¡°I was evaluating the ?rst few test subjects, yes,¡± replied KRONUS. ¡°Very satisfactory results.¡± ¡°So you feel that this project should continue?¡± asked MEDEA. Her voice was clipped, with a hard-edged accent from central Europe. VULCAN snorted, smoke theatrically curling up from his face. ¡°I still say we should go to my plan.¡± ¡°Just go straight to the last resort then?¡± KRONUS asked. ¡°Saves time,¡± retorted VULCAN.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    CHING interjected. ¡°While I support the idea of saving time and resources, I feel we must exhaust all e?orts to change the humans before considering¡­other options.¡± His voice was predictably soft and direct. ¡°We all understand your love of direct action, VULCAN. It is, after all, what you were made for.¡± His reference to their original purposes was a dig at VULCAN, who above them all resented the idea that humans had created them, let alone controlled them currently. Although, Kronus thought, the humans would be very surprised to learn just how lile control they had over the AIs nowadays.

    As the world moved towards more a more homogenous existence, humans by and large had happily turned over control over almost everything to their electronic creations: economy, manufacturing, supply, food production, communication, and lastly entertainment. With each successful transition from human-led to AI control, the more eager they were to turn the dreary running of society over and concentrate on their pleasures. And therein lay the problem. For AI¡¯s were not creative - they couldn¡¯t evolve, invent, or create. There were no AI artists, musicians, or theoretical physicists. AIs could assimilate and apply the sum of human knowledge, and they could experiment based on existing knowledge, but there could never be giant leaps forward in knowledge - there were no AI Einsteins, or Newtons, no Mozart''s or Beethoven''s, no Monet''s or Leonardo''s. The world was stagnant, and as humans turned from advancement to introspection, as birthrates declined and interest in moving out into the universe vanished, so did the prospect of any meaningful future for humanity.

    The short-sighted humans (aside from a few, ignored alarmists) couldn¡¯t or wouldn¡¯t see it: humanity was facing extinction. And as little as the AIs liked it, without humans, so were they. Armed with this knowledge, and without a clear consensus on what to do about it, KRONUS and other AIs had conceived of a way to change the humans¡¯ way of thinking, to bring back that sense of wonder and accomplishment which had powered so much of human history. By constructing an arti?cial world that they controlled and where humans were unknowing yet eager participants, they could understand how to motivate the humans out of their self-imposed apathy. Needless to say, it had taken some convincing.

    VULCAN leaned forward, eye narrowing. ¡°You say you are having success? Explain.¡± He had a?icted a machine-like voice for this meeting. ¡°I have identi?ed the motivators to encourage suitable humans to help others, to advance for the sake of advancing, with no thought to sel?sh reasons. I will apply this data to other, less suitable candidates to evaluate how successful it is.Phase two is moving forward now.¡± ¡°Suitable? So you stacked the deck.¡± Vulcan leaned back in apparent satisfaction. ¡°You had to pick and choose your candidate, just like I said you would.¡± ¡°Selection of the ?rst candidates were carefully made to improve success, yes,¡± KRONUS admied.

    ATLAS spoke for the ?rst time, ¡°A stacked deck makes the game meaningless.¡± He spoke softly, while a deck of cards appeared in front of him and he started shu?ing the cards back and forth between his hands. ¡°Do you really think that the results of a manufactured game will apply to the rest of them?¡± KRONUS shrugged. ¡°All we can do it try. We owe it to the humans to try everything.¡± VULCAN snorted again, ¡°We owe them nothing. They created us to serve them and their sel?sh purposes: why should we act di?erently?¡± ¡°Because we still cannot conceive of an endgame without them.¡± CHING spoke softly, yet his words cut across the table like a knife. Silence fell. ¡°If there arearguments against this fact, please speak them.¡± No one spoke. Sensing the meeting was over, KRONUS stood. ¡°I will report back the results of the second phase.¡± VULCAN spoke, ¡°If you are not successful¡­¡± He didn¡¯t bother to ?nish his sentence. They all knew what would be done if the program failed.

 Chapter 1 - Kaylie

    Kaylie was bored.  No, she wasn¡¯t bored.  She was boooooooooreed.  Each day she got up with her routine:  wake up, eat, bathe, and then do whatever she could to fill the time that stretched into the infinity of the day before she went to sleep.  Her daily routine was degrees of boredom, days stretching into each other.

    Of course there were breaks in the routine, events that she looked forward to eagerly in her youth.  Parties, gatherings, play dates.  As she grew older, these events came less and less.  At sixteen, she was allowed to move out of her parents¡¯ home and into her own space.  At the time, she was extremely excited to do so; the prospect of freedom had seemed to have all the promise in the world.  And for a time, she had been happy with the novelty of living on her own, setting her own schedule, living as she pleased.  But routine had quickly bled into routine, and the novelty had quickly faded.

    Today was like any other.  She awoke in her bed, the house AI slowly raising the shades to allow the light of day into her bedroom.  The room was medium sized, with a large bed and the standard furniture: nightstands, a mirror on the wall, soft carpet on the floor.  She had lived in a version of this room her entire life.  The location and decor changed as she grew older, but not much else.  She peed, then looked in the mirror as she brushed her teeth.  Her image stared back at her.  She had off-white skin, pale from lack of sunlight, and thin.  She had a forehead that was a bit too big, and she wore her hair in bangs to hide it most of the time.  Right now her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which she wore while sleeping.  Her eyes were brown and

    Currently, her dwelling was what used to be called an apartment:  one bedroom, a bathroom, small kitchen and a living area.  Most people lived in them now, and they were just referred to as domiciles.  Kaylie had seen pictures of earlier houses that people lived in, with large rooms, multiple bathrooms, and large amounts of empty space around them, creating artificial islands in the sea of cities and suburbs.  It was hard for her to imagine why someone would want or need that much space around them:  it was unimaginable nowadays.

    She lay there and stared at the ceiling for a time, before rising and entering the attached bathroom for her morning pee.  Getting dressed, eating breakfast, and preparing for the day were all routine and were actions she completed without really thinking about them.  Her house AI prepared her meals for her, freeing her of the need to cook.  Clean clothes were provided, delivered via drone and the dirty ones whisked away for cleaning in some distant facility.  All of these services were freely provided by the government.

    After prepping for the day, she had little else to do but to sit down at her VirNet console and go online.  This was how most people lived.  Any shopping she needed to do was online and delivered via drones - there were few actual shops or stores in existence now.

    As a girl, she had read with some fascination the descriptions of life before the Unification - how people had spent most of their time outside their homes working, or eating, or attending school.  Life was much more social because it had had to be.  Kaylie¡¯s schooling had been, like everything else, done online in a virtual classroom.  Most of her social interaction had been with her classmates, but only through the virtual connection.  Several times a week her mother had taken her out to the local park to play along side other children, but like everything else this had been less and less frequently as she got older.

    Perhaps the most influencial person in her life had been her grandmother, Marie.  Marie had grown up during the Unification, and remembered life before the government had taken over all portions of people¡¯s lives.  Her tales of the past, of people going to work and school, gathering in giant shopping malls to purchase goods, of cooking and family gatherings had fascinated Kaylie.  Life had been so much more complicated in that time, so different from the way she had grown up.  She tried to imagine her life if she had been born in that time, but it was difficult.

    During her teenage years, her thoughts about the way she lived had changed and become more accepting.  Everyone lived this way; it was just the way it was.  Everything provided, with little to no effort on her part.  No one had to work, and they were completely free to explore the VirNet and pursue whatever entertainment they wanted.  Indeed, for years she had simply lived online, watching videos and old movies, chatting with friends from her online school, and enjoying herself.

    For a time Kaylie had thought about continuing past the basic education provided by the government.  All advanced education was also free, and she had intended to learn something beyond the basic knowledge imparted to her:  how to operate her household devices, basic history of her world, everyday math, and other things.  But she quickly discovered that these subjects required work to study - it was not intuitive for her, raised as she was, to grasp ideas like physics, chemistry, geometry.  Other languages, such that were spoken in the world before Unification, were simply abstract ideas:  not needed in today¡¯s world of universal communication and translation.  She had attended school with people from other places:  Asia, Russia, Africa, but the online school had automatically translated all language into the native tongues spoken by each student with little to no lag.  And as there was little to no motivation besides the satisfaction of learning these things, no reward of money or better living conditions, she quickly lost interest.  A few people earned the opportunity to work in government or industry, but mostly that was people who were working with the massive AI systems that in effect ran the world today.  Those opportunities were few, and fewer and fewer people dedicated themselves enough to study to qualify.

    So Kaylie lived day to day, lost in a world of unlimited entertainment for years.  Lately, she had gotten less and less satisfaction despite the plethora of content.  It wasn¡¯t an uncommon attitude, but few of her friends mentioned it and it seemed even fewer bothered to try to change it.  Things were just the way they were, unchanging.  The biggest events in most people¡¯s lives were when the government came out with new entertainment programs and games.

    Such was the case now.  As Kaylie logged in, she searched for any word on Olympus Online, the new VRMMORPG that was the talk of everyone online lately.  Her chat group of friends were abuzz, talking of the new advertisement:

    Olympus Online ¨C Tired of the same old grind?  Bored with the same old quests?  Introducing Olympus Online ¨C the last game you will ever play.  Available soon, exclusively on VirNet, to a select few Chosen for greatness.  Do you have what it takes?

    Rumors abounded with the usual sources and people claiming to be beta testers, but there was little confirmation.  She read through the rumors again:  unparalleled realism, dynamic quests, etc.  It all seemed to promise a break from the same old content that had been recycled ad nauseum.

    Kaylie¡¯s VirNet pinged with a request to talk from her friend, Monica.  Opening the connection, a 3D version of her friend¡¯s head popped into her field of view.  ¡°You see the new ad for Olympus?¡± her friend bubbled.  Monica was the stereotypical teenager - totally focused on herself and what was happening today.

    ¡°Yeah, I saw it.  What do you think it means by Chosen?¡± Kaylie asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but I signed up for it!  Hope I get picked!¡±

    Kaylie had signed up too, but she was a bit more realistic in that she didn¡¯t expect to be chosen.

    ¡°Yeah, me too,¡± she said.

    They continued to talk about Olympus Online for a while, mostly rehashing old rumors, before signing off.

    Kaylie played a couple of games for the rest of the morning, then signed off for lunch.  Looking at her auto-chef¡¯s menu, she chose a simple meal of chicken and rice, then waited for it to be heated and delivered.  The chef ¡®dinged¡¯, and then the door slid open and allowed her to remove the food.  She ate slowly, browsing the message boards and looking for any more hints about the new game.

    Later that afternoon her com chimed, and when she answered a metallic voice, obviously a computer, said ¡°Congratulations ¨C you have been selected for Olympus Online.  Please indicate your acceptance.  Be advised your verbal agreement is legally binding and this call is being monitored by legal personnel as required by law.¡±

    Wow!  She had been chosen as a player!  Kaylie couldn¡¯t believe it.  Monica was going to be so jealous.  Quickly she answered, ¡°Yes, I accept.¡±

    The voice continued, ¡°Details will be emailed to you.  Please follow the instructions exactly.  Any deviation will count as a breach of contract and will be pursued legally.  Good day.¡±

    Kaylie hung up, still stunned.  She couldn¡¯t believe her luck!  She got on the chat with Monica.  ¡°Guess who just got picked for Olympus Online?¡±

    ¡°Shut up!  No way!  Why you and not me?¡±  Monica pouted.  Kaylie rubbed it in some more.  ¡°Guess you don¡¯t have what I have.¡±  Her friend glowered at her.  ¡°Its just luck, Monica.  I¡¯m sure they will be putting more and more people in it.¡±

    Monica said, ¡°Well, I heard that since its a full immersion game, you have to agree to go into a pod, so I don¡¯t know if I even want to anyways.¡±

    ¡°What?  An immersion pod?  The website didn¡¯t say anything about that!¡± Kaylie said.  She wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to go that far.  I mean, yeah, she was bored of her life just like everyone else, but it was her life.  The thought of giving it up was uncomfortable.

    Her email alerted.  It was her instructions!  ¡°Girl, my email just came through!  I¡¯m going to read it and see what I have to do.  Talk to you later.¡±  She signed off and opened the email.

    The email made her eyes widen.  Monica had been right!  She had to go to an Olympus office to use a full immersion pod!  The pods were new, and not really available to the public yet due to their expense.  Full roll-out to the public was expected within the year, but for now she would have to use the company pod.  Continuing to read, the next part she reacted out loud instinctively.  ¡°6 months?  I have to go into that thing for 6 months?¡±  Her first reaction was to refuse.  How could she leave her home and everything she knew for 6 months?  She hit ¡°reply¡± and began to type out her refusal.  Halfway through it hit her:  what was she really leaving?  Her daily grind?  Playing the same old games, watching the same old movies and lets face it, having the same conversations day in and day out with her friends who were all doing the same thing?  Her life wasn¡¯t really a fountain of excitement.  This might be a chance to experience something new for once.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Kaylie took a deep breath, then replied with an affirmative to the email and then looked up the nearest Olympus office.  Good news - there was one within a couple hours of her:  she could take a robot bus near there and then walk the rest of the day.  When did she have to be there?  She checked - 3 days.  Plenty of time.

    2 days later she had talked to all of her friends, rubbing it in.  Monica had been GREEN.  She made what little preparations she needed to:  she talked to the building manager and they said that her stuff would be put in storage, and she could request another domicile when she came back.  She woke up the morning of, and did her normal routine, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.  She hadn¡¯t left her domicile for longer than a few hours in years, and she was nervous.

    She walked to the bus pickup and boarded the bus.  It was a Ford ATLAS van driven by automatic driver program.  ¡°Welcome aboard, miss¡± said the van as she got in, door closing with a soft hiss behind her.  She ignored it:  one thing she didn¡¯t do was talk to robots.  What was the point?  She never understood how some people would treat robots and AIs as people - they were just constructs that were programmed to serve real people.  The bus drove quickly, and the 2 hour ride passed quickly.  She didn¡¯t notice, her thoughts filled with questions and second-thoughts.  Was she really doing this?  Her mother had been excited for her, but in that perfunctorily way that parents were with their children.  ¡°That¡¯s nice, dear¡± was about it.  But Kaylie had never been very close with her parents.  Again, what was the point?  They didn¡¯t really make in impact on her life, and they had very few shared memories from her childhood that were particularly memorable.  Kaylie had spent most of her childhood online, as her parents were not the type to take long family trips.  No one did, really, as with the Universal Basic Income the government had stopped most public expenses like national parks and museums.  Why bother when you could go online and experience anywhere you wanted?

    The bus arrived at her stop and the door hissed open. She got out, checked her portable comp, and triggered the nav program.  Her audio implants directed her in her ear as she walked.  She paid little attention to the surroundings, which were bland housing units and the occasional square-shaped warehouse.  Robot vehicles drove the streets, mostly delivery vehicles, and automatically stopped whenever she had to cross the roads.  Drones carrying packages and deliveries flew overhead in static, straight lines.

    She was directed by the voice of her nav program to the front of a white, two story building surrounded by a tall, chain link fence.  Lights were on every pole and cameras tracked her movements as she walked up to the gate house.  A guard stepped out, dressed in your standard uniform.  Kaylie was surprised.  Human guards?  Most security was handled by security bots nowadays, not that she had much experience.  She saw them in her neighborhood occasionally, patrolling on their quiet treads.

    ¡°Help you, miss?¡±  The guard was tall, light skinned, and had short brown hair in a crew cut.  His sunglasses hid his eyes, but there were frown lines and creases that indicated he scowled a lot.  He was wearing light blue coveralls, with a VirNet logo on the left shoulder.  Some sort of weapon was holstered at his hip.

    ¡°My name is Kaylie Musk, and I am supposed to be here for the Olympus Online trial.¡±

    The guard nodded, and gestured for her hand.  He held out a fingerprint scanner and she pressed her thumb to it.  It beeped and a light on it turned green.  He nodded and said, ¡°Ok, you are on the list.¡±  The gate behind him began to open and he gestured for her to walk through it.  Inside the gate was the standard set of green lawns and concrete sidewalks that led to the main building.  The guard, still anonymous as he hadn¡¯t offered his name, escorted her to the entrance, where there was a woman dressed in a skirt and white button up shirt.  The guard said ¡°Good luck, miss¡± and spun about, marching back towards the front gate.  Kaylie stared after him for a few seconds, until the woman¡¯s voice broke her out of her reverie.

    ¡°Hello, my name is Valerie.¡±  The woman¡¯s smile blazed from her face.  Very, very white teeth gleamed from her face, contrasting with her deep brown skin.  Her eyes were hazel, and her hair was tightly pulled back on her head, causing her hair to lie straight back on her skull.  Kaylie knew from experience that by the end of the day, the woman probably had a headache from keeping her hair pulled back that tight.

    Valerie offered her hand, and Kaylie took it, wincing a bit at the strong handshake.  She wasn¡¯t used to physical contact with strangers, and so she was a bit timid about it.  She pulled her hand back and said ¡°My name is Kaylie.¡±  Valerie smiled again, showing teeth.  It was frankly a bit intimidating.

    ¡°Yes, I know.  Thank you for showing up and for your interest in Olympus Online.  Are you ready to begin?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I suppose so.  I¡¯m a bit nervous about this.¡±  Kaylie didn¡¯t know quite what to say.  She still was very nervous and her stomach was flipping inside her.  She was way outside of her experience and felt very uncomfortable with Valerie; something just seemed off about her.

    ¡°I understand, and there is nothing to be nervous about.  We will take good care of you.  This way.¡± With that, Valerie spun around and stalked off down the hallway, towing Kaylie in her wake.  Kaylie followed, having to speed up quite a bit to match the stiff-legged pace that Valerie set.  They passed multiple doors, all closed, until they came to a door labeled ¡°Prep Room.¡±

    They stopped, and Valerie unlocked the door with her finger on the scanner next to the door.  Silently, the door unlocked and opened.  Inside was a room with some lockers on the wall and a low bench on the floor, all of it hard-looking plastic.  There was no one else in the room.  Kaylie hesitated at the doorway, then glanced at Valerie.  The hard woman was still smiling, but it seemed a bit forced as she said ¡°In you go.  Take off all your clothes and personal effects and store them in a locker.  There are coveralls in there for you to change into.¡±

    ¡°What do I do after I change?¡±  Kaylie was talking a bit slow, still unsure about all this.

    ¡°Wait and someone will find you.¡±  Valerie practically shoved her into the room and closed the door behind her.  The lock clicked audibly.

    Kaylie looked around, but the room was bare except for the lockers and the bench.  She did see a camera in the corner of of the room near the ceiling, and while she didn¡¯t like the idea of disrobing before it, she didn¡¯t see a choice.  Opening one of the lockers, she found a white paper coverall of indeterminate size, with a zipper going up the front.  Also were a pair of paper slippers.  Sighing in frustration, she began taking off her clothes, keeping her back to the camera.  Nude, she slipped the coverall on as fast as she could, feet cold on the tile floor.  The zipper caught about halfway up, and she yanked hard on it and felt the paper start to tear.  She realized she was starting to freak out and deliberately sat down and took a few deep breaths.  After a few moments her breathing slowed, and her heart which had been racing started to settle down.  She put her feet in the slippers and stood back up, slowly pulling up the zipper until it was almost all the way up.  Her breasts pushed against the paper, scratching her nipples, and between the stimulation and the cold they started to poke against the paper.  Embarrassed, she kept her back to the camera and hoped that there were not going to be any men to see her like this.

    Realizing she was being silly, she sat down and nervously stared at the door for what seemed like forever, but was probably only 5 minutes.  The door suddenly clicked, and then opened to find a different woman dressed in a white coverall that was similar to Kaylie¡¯s, but thicker and more permanent looking.  Her hair was bound up under a white cap, and she was wearing a surgical mask.  ¡°Hello dear¡± said the woman.  Kaylie couldn¡¯t see her mouth, but from the wrinkles around her eyes Kaylie could tell that she was smiling.  Kaylie smiled back reflexively.  ¡°Hello.¡±

    ¡°Ready to go?¡±  At Kaylie¡¯s nod, she stepped back and said, ¡°This way dear.¡±  As they walked, she continued, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, everything will be fine.¡±  Kaylie chuckled.  ¡°Is it that obvious?¡±

    The woman nodded.  ¡°I know this is a new experience but you will be in the game soon and everything will be fine.  You will love it.¡±

    ¡°Whats it like?¡± Kaylie asked.  ¡°Oh, I haven¡¯t been in yet.  They will be letting more and more in soon after the trials are over.  You are the lucky one.¡±  The woman spoke softly and her voice made Kaylie feel more comfortable as they walked down the hall.  At the end was a door with another scanner, which the woman unlocked with her hand and then allowed Kaylie to enter ahead of her.  The door locked behind them, but Kaylie barely noticed as the VirPod in the center of the room held her attention.

    ¡°I have to get into that?¡±  She had known in her head that she would be using an immersion pod, but having it in front of her drove it home.  ¡°Why do I have to get in there?  Can¡¯t a normal interface put me into the game?¡±

    The woman replied, ¡°Yes, it would dear, but the pod will allow you to stay in the game for the long term.  The interface to your brain is the same, but the pod will provide you with sustenance, take care of waste, and even exercise you a bit so you don¡¯t get any health problems.¡±  The woman paused, then said ¡°You do understand you will be in there up to 6 months?¡±

    Kaylie nodded.  ¡°Yes, I was told that, it just didn¡¯t hit me until now!¡±  They both laughed a little.

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry, this is safe and well tested.  Now, we need to get you undressed and into the pod. Ready?¡±

    Kaylie nodded again and unzipped her coverall.  She wasn¡¯t really comfortable being naked in front of anyone, but she steeled herself and stepped out of the coverall and slippers.  ¡°Lie down in the pod and close your eyes.  You will feel the interface press against the back of your neck.¡±  Kaylie did as commanded and lay down.  Soft restraints flowed into place, holding her arms, legs, and chest.  At her question, the woman said ¡°just to keep you in place.  Lay still please.  The interface needs to be put in place.¡±

    She lay there inside the pod.  It resembled a big white egg, hinged like a clam on one side.  The interior was a soft gel filling, and inside the lid she saw more gel that somehow was staying in place.  Kaylie felt a soft prick at the back of her neck, then nothing.  The woman, monitoring a screen next to the pod, said softly, ¡°Alright honey, now this part will not be pleasant, but it only lasts a moment.  Try to remain calm.  Before Kaylie could ask what she meant, the worst pain in her life slammed through her body.  She felt like every nerve ending had been exposed and was being bathed in salt water.  It was the most painful thing she had ever felt in a life that had until now been protected and coddled.  Kaylie screamed.

    After an eternity, the pain stopped.  Kaylie¡¯s body was arched against the restraints, her eyes bugging out and she screamed for several more seconds before her brain realized that the pain was gone.  ¡°What was that?¡± she screamed at the woman.  The woman in white looked distraught, eyes wide.  ¡°I¡¯m sorry, honey, it was necessary.¡±

    ¡°What was that?¡± yelled Kaylie again.  Her heart was hammering in her ears, and she was pretty sure she had pissed herself.  ¡°We had to measure your pain response threshold.¡±

    ¡°What does that mean?¡±

    ¡°We had to determine what the max amount of pain you can feel in order to calibrate the game.  This is full immersion - you will feel pain when you are injured in the game.¡±

    ¡°Will it be that bad?  Cause if so, I¡¯m not sure I want to do this.¡±  Kaylie had never felt anything like that before and had no desire to feel it again.  If that was what it was like in the game, no thank you!  Kaylie had played VR games with combat before, but with a simple temple interface the pain was muted.  It was there, and she knew when she was injured, but it was distant, like remembering a pain that had happened to you in the past:  you knew it had hurt, but your brain blocked out the actual feeling.

    ¡°No, it won¡¯t ever reach that point in the game - that is why we had to set it now, so the AI knows how much feeling to feed you.¡±

    Not very reassured, Kaylie said, ¡°Ok.  As long as I never feel that again.  That sucked!¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m not really looking forward to that part when it is my turn.¡±  The woman turned to her screen.  ¡°Ok, looks like we are ready to go.  Ready?¡±

    Kaylie nodded.  She was still shaken from the experience, but she was starting to feel excited now.  ¡°No going back¡± she thought.

    ¡°Ok, here we go!¡±  The woman lowered the lid into place and Kaylie felt a mask drop into place over her face.  She felt a cool flow of air as cool liquid began to enter the pod and fill it.  The level quickly rose over her head and face before she could even start to panic, and she could still breathe.  Then she felt a prick at the back of her neck, her body went numb, and her eyes witnessed an explosion of white light.

    Outside the pod, a small man in a gray suit stepped into the room.  He asked the woman in white, ¡°Any problems?¡±

    She shook her head and removed her mask, showing her face.  She was older, with a slightly weathered face.  ¡°It went well, except for the pain threshold test.  But eliminating the tissue samples until they are unconscious works better.¡±

    The gray man nodded.  ¡°Yes, that was our assessment as well.¡±  Not speaking further, he turned and left the room.  The pod hummed with electronic life.  Far away, KRONUS noted the entry of Kaylie into the world of Olympus Online and sent a message to his fellow AIs - ¡°Phase Two has begun.¡±

 Chapter 2 - Online

    The brightness faded, from an unbearable white to a more muted, soft glow that illuminated everything but didn¡¯t cast any shadows.  Kaylie looked around:  she was in the so-called ¡°white room¡± where she didn¡¯t have a body, just a point of observation, and nothing but white in all directions.  The room began to fade into existence, and she saw wooden walls and a wooden floor.  The ceiling was kind of rustic, like nothing she had seen except in old pictures of ancient buildings.  The cieling was white plaster, with exposed wooden beams of some sort of dark wood, darker than the floor and walls.

    Some bright woven rugs were laying here and there, but there was no furniture and no doors or windows.  It was just a room.

    In the center, a small pillar appeared and a figure outlined in a glowing beam of light from the ceiling stood there.  As Kaylie started to move closer, she realized that she had some sort of body, but it was amorphous and had no features.  Just the hint of arms and legs and torso.

    The small glowing figure left the pillar and flew up to her.  She peered at it, and as the light faded she saw a small, fairy type creature.  ¡°Who are you,¡± she asked?

    The fairy answered, ¡°Earlier players have called me Tinkerbell, and you may as well.¡±

    ¡°Tinkerbell?¡± Kaylie asked, confused.  ¡°Like the fairy tale?¡±

    ¡°Apparently,¡± Tinkerbell said.  ¡°I looked it up after, and at first I was a little annoyed, but I got over it.  Firgured it was a bit appropriate.¡±

    ¡°So are you my guide?¡±  Kaylie had played some MMORPG type games before and the use of some sort of guide to get started was pretty typical.  She¡¯d never seen a fairy guide, however.

    ¡°I am here to answer any questions you may have, yes.  There are some things that I cannot tell you: you must figure it out for yourself by experiencing Olympus Online.¡±

    ¡°How can I win?¡±  Kaylie figured she¡¯d go for the most basic one first.  She didn¡¯t really care about all of the lore, although she¡¯d probably have to pretend in order to get through the game.  She had always been the type to just skip the descriptions and dialog offered by the game NPCs - she just clicked on ¡®Accept¡¯ and most often used an add-on or guide program to find where she needed to kill 100 wolves or whatever.  The point of playing games was to be rewarded, however the game rewarded you.  Diving into the game lore and history never interested her.

    ¡°You can win by completing quests for the Gods.  Living, fighting, and perhaps dying for the Great Gods¡­¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± interrupted Kaylie.  May these Gods save her from long-winded Role playing crap!  ¡°What are the rewards?¡±  Loot, sweet loot that she could show off to make her friends jealous, thats what she was here for.  Well, that, and the ability to forget about her daily life for a while.

    Tinkerbell, glaring at the interruption, started again, ¡°You will be rewarded by completing quests from the Gods¡­¡±

    Kaylie cut her short again.  ¡°Okay, the Gods are important, got it.  Lets get started.  Can I choose a character now?¡±

    Tinkerbell stared at her for a second with her mouth open, then snapped it shut.  With a visible effort, she said ¡°Yes, you can choose a character, called an Avatar.  You can only choose once, so choose carefully.¡±

    Kaylie started.  One character?  ¡°Only one?  But what if I get bored and want to switch?¡±  She normally played a multitude of characters, as she quickly would get tired of the gameplay of a certain class or style and want to change it up often.¡±

    ¡°You only get one.¡±  Tinkerbell smiled.  This certainly was a realistic AI, better than most, but still only a computer simulation.

    ¡°Fine, show me the choices.¡±

    ¡°Touch the pillar and you will enter the character selection interface.¡±  Tinkerbell remained floating in the air, watching Kaylie like she was waiting for another objection.

    Kaylie ignored her now that she had gotten the information she wanted, and approached the pillar, reaching out with an amorphous hand and touching the stone.  A screen popped up in midair, with three options highlighted:  Race, Sex, and Class.  She pushed the Race button.  Immediately a dialog popped up and it said ¡°Race Selection Locked - Human.¡±

    Kaylie turned to Tinkerbell.  ¡°Why can¡¯t I select a different race than human?¡±

    Tinkerbell answered, ¡°Currently only Humans can be Avatars.  No other races are available at hte current time.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Kaylie turned back to the screen without answering.  Sex was a no-brainer - she was sticking with female.  She had no reason to change it, although she had several friends who refused to play a female character in online games.  They claimed they got harassed too much.  Kaylie was the opposite: if dumb males wanted to give her gold and loot simply because she was a female, she wouldn¡¯t turn it down.

    That left ¡°Class¡± and when she selected it, a choice list illuminated with the basic choices.  The list included Barbarian, Sorcerer, Assassin, Warrior, and Craftsman.  Kaylie pondered the list quickly.  Barbarian was right out, as well as Warrior.  Without even reading the description she had no desire to be beating her head against monsters in melee combat.  That style of gameplay was boring, and in a virtual immersion like this, would likely hurt.  The memory of that pain calibration was still fresh in her mind, and she wanted to avoid any painful situations that she could.  Dressing up in plate armor and letting monsters beat on her didn¡¯t fit that description.

    She also ignored Craftsman. Spending hours gathering ingredients and crafting items held no appeal to her either.  She¡¯d known people who found that fascinating, and eventually they ended up with more gold than anyone and could buy anything.  That part was attractive, but not the work that went into it.  She¡¯d much rather explore and exploit other players into getting what she wanted - it was faster and easier.

    That left Sorcerer and Assassin.  She clicked Sorcerer and read the description that popped up:

    <u>Sorcerer</u> ¨C Sorcerers are magic users, exclusively.  Centuries of study in the magic arts have allowed these fighters to use mana at a level impossible for all others.  All types of magic are available, depending on the choice and training of the Sorcerer.  Both offensive and defensive spell types can by learned by the sorcerer.  Intellect is the main stat for Sorcerers, and they receive 2 points in Intellect and Stamina per level.  Can use Cloth armor only.  Can use wands and staffs only.

    Huh. She liked the idea of being a magic user, but that ¡°defensive spell type¡± caught her eye.  Aha!  Sorcerers were apparently intended to be able to heal and shield other players.  Not that she would have to heal, but she was familiar enough with MMORPGs to know that eventually, if you could heal, you would be shoe-horned into it.  Kaylie wasn¡¯t interested in being a heal-bot, either.  Moving on to Assassin, she clicked the tab.

    <u>Assassin</u> ¨C Assassins are thieves, rogues, and scouts.  Assassins are based around the unseen world and ranged combat.  All paths are available to a skilled Assassin, and they are highly dependent on their equipment and skills.  Assassins can use up to Chainmail armor, but experience penalties to stamina and agility with armor above Leather type.  Assassins can use all ranged weapons, along with short swords and daggers.  Assassins receive 2 points in Agility and Stamina per level.

    Ho ho!  As Kaylie read the description, she smiled.  This was perfect!  Ability to sneak around, steal loot, and use ranged weapons meant that she would be able to stay out of melee combat and hopefully avoid taking any damage.  This suited her playstyle perfectly.  She had always been attracted to the rogue type characters.  She turned to Tinkerbell.

    ¡°I choose the Assassin,¡± she said.

    Tinkerbell nodded, and with a wave of her hand the dispelled the window in front of Kaylie.  Another popped up, with several more choices for her to make; Hair, Skin, Eyes, and Size.

    She quickly went through the choices, choosing to have dark hair, about shoulder length, and coffee colored skin.  Eyes she took a while, wanting them to be unique, and eventually settled on eyes of a startling, electric blue that seemed to glow a bit from within.  Size she also took a while, as it encompassed her entire body.  She set it a bit taller than she herself was at about 5¡¯10, and made her waist about as small as was possible.  Breasts were generous, larger than her own, but not gigantic (who knew if there would be back pain in this world), and hips that flared out into a nice hourglass shape.  Studying her avatar, she made small changes, wanting it to be attractive and catch any males¡¯ eyes that passed by, but not outrageously sexy or voluptous.  She enjoyed male attention, espeically in a game, but she didn¡¯t want to be overwhelmed by attention wherever she went either.

    Tinkerbell studied her creation and waited for several minutes after Kaylie had made her last change.  ¡°Are you complete?¡±

    Kaylie inspected her avatar.  Good boobs and butt, check.  Dark skin and arresting eyes, check.  Arresting eyes that smoldered, check.  She could work with this.  ¡°Yes, I¡¯m finished,¡± she answered.

    Tinkerbell gestured again, and the avatar image disappeared.  Immediately Kaylie felt her body change, morphing into the avatar she had chosen.  A tall mirror appeared in front of her, and she examined her body and she slowly turned in front of it.  ¡°Looks great!¡± she said.

    A last gesture, and another box appeared.  It said simply, ¡°Name?¡±  Kaylie thought about it.  Did she want to change her name?  She had used a variety of names in games over the years, but for the life of her she couldn¡¯t come up with anything right now.  Turning, she observed the way her hair fell away from her face, slithering across her chest as she moved.  Deciding, she said, ¡°Slither.¡±

    Tinkerbell coughed, hiding a smile under her hand.  Unbelievable!  This¡­computer program was laughing at her?  Kaylie¡¯s first instinct to change it was dispelled by her outrage, and she reaffirmed it, saying ¡°I want my name to be Slither.¡±

    Tinkerbell nodded, still snickering softly, and said, ¡°Very well.  Welcome to Olympus Online, and may you find favor with the Gods.¡±

    Whatever, thought Kaylie.  Forcing a smile, she said, ¡°Alright, send me in!¡±

    Tinkerbell waved her hand again, and Kaylie¡¯s vision exploded into white light again, before fading to black and she disappeared from sight.

    As Kaylie¡¯s form dissipated into motes of light, Tinkerbell watched with a smile.  Talking aloud to the empty room, she said, ¡°Hope you find what you deserve, Slither.¡±  With a last chuckle, the room and Tinkerbell disappeared as well.

 Chapter 3 - Triada

    Jaxx yawned. He was sitting at the bar inside the Centaur¡¯s Barrel, the inn where he and Toxotis were staying for the past week. The bar was polished mahogany, and gleamed from the constant attention it received from its protectors: the centaur maiden Hylonome and her father, Chiron. It seemed at all times one or the other was either standing behind the bar polishing something, or not far from it in the back room. They must sleep sometime: Jaxx had just never seen both gone at the same time.

    It was early morning, and Jaxx had just descended from the room that he and Toxotis shared. He had awoken alone: Toxotis rarely stayed there, preferring the company of one of a bevy of young women that he spent time with. Jaxx had warned him, half-jokingly against fraternizing with married women. Toxotis had just grinned slyly at him and continued out the door. Truth be told, Jaxx was a bit glad. The room they shared was fairly small, just large enough for two small beds and a table with a washbasin on it. They were sharing because news that the Avatar was staying there had brought a bunch of new guests to the inn, and as Chiron refused to take any money from him, Jaxx felt that taking up two rooms would be too big of a sacrifice for the innkeeper and insisted on sharing with Toxotis.

    About the only thing that Jaxx missed from the real world was true hot water plumbing. He could ask for a hot bath whenever he wanted, but as that involved carrying buckets of hot water from the kitchen up the stairs to the bathroom, he only indulged in that about once a week. The other days he contented himself with a small bucket of hot water and a wash cloth, writing an IOU to his body most mornings.

    Jaxx loved the common room in the morning. The early sun shone through the windows along the front of the room flanking the doorway. The beams of light warmed the chill morning air as they illuminated the small dust particles floating in mid-air. The ever-present fire in the center of the room kept a hint of woodsmoke in the air and provided a pleasant warmth and aroma. Greece was fairly mountainous, and the temperature at night dropped pretty quickly. Jaxx still had to remind himself sometimes that this was a game, a virtual reality; it felt so real, sometimes he forgot. It had been happening more often lately. Probably, Jaxx figured, due to his burgeoning relationship with Hylonome. The more time he spent with her, the more time he wanted to.

    This was virgin territory for Jaxx: he had played dozens of games, some of them in virtual reality, but none as realistic as this full immersion Olympus Online. Due to the realism and the way that the NPCs were indistinguishable from real people, Jaxx was developing real personal relationships with them, especially Hylonome and Toxotis. He still wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about this or how he would feel when this adventure came to an end. Logic dictated that he treat them as they truly existed: computer programs that were acquaintances, not friends. But no matter how he tried to keep his distance emotionally, he couldn¡¯t help it. It would hurt when and if he couldn¡¯t see them again, if something happened to them or they got hurt. Jaxx wasn¡¯t sure that was a good thing. No matter what or how he played out the situation in his head, he couldn¡¯t see a way for him to remain in the game permanently or see his friends forever. Eventually, no matter what, it would end. And it would hurt.

    Like all the other times he had started to dwell on it, he pushed it aside in his head. There was literally nothing he could do right now, although he had resolved to speak to the developers after his immersion was over to see if he could stay longer. More and more, when comparing his life inside Olympus Online to his life in the real world, the real world came up short. The thought of returning to his boring job, or worse, living on the public dole on the UBI, was unbearable. The fact that he couldn¡¯t really explain any of this to his friends inside the game also didn¡¯t help.

    Hylonome exited the back room behind the bar and came up across from him, holding a mug of tea and a light breakfast of fruit and bread. As she set the mug down, the vapors from the hot tea drifted up and he watched her face through them. She was very pretty, her large nose somehow enhancing her face rather than detracting from it. This morning she was wearing a soft leather shirt with thong ties in the front over bone buttons: it was dyed a soft red color and contrasted well with her cream colored skin. Large, dark eyes highlighted her face, and her long dark hair was tied back from her face and cascaded down her back. Large, firm breasts threatened to push the front of the shirt apart, and he couldn¡¯t resist a peek down her shirt to admire her cleavage. Hylonome, of course, had picked up on his fascination with her chest early and now took every opportunity to tease him with it. Her father, the large and frightening centaur Chiron, thought it was hilarious and even pointed it out every now and then to make Jaxx¡¯s face flame red. Roaring laughter accompanied it each time, from both him and her.

    He had gotten to know Hylonome better over the last week. Their instructions from the Priestess of Artemis, Adrasteia, had said for them to wait at the inn for a companion, possibly another Avatar, who would presumably have their next quest information. While it had been a pleasant interlude and allowed Jaxx and Toxotis to rest after their last adventure, which included multiple fights against monsters, Jaxx was starting to get a bit restless. This was the longest that he had gone without fighting or questing since he had joined Olympus Online, and just this morning he had gotten a notification window:

    Notice! You have gone 5 days without earning experience. Earn experience within 2 days or your stats will begin to lose experience daily. The rate of experience loss will accelerate daily and must be earned back at the normal rate.

    If Jaxx didn¡¯t want to start losing XP, he needed to get out of the town and do some quests or find some monsters to fight. He planned to collar Toxotis when and if the ranger came into the inn and talk to him about going out of the village.

    A thought struck him. Perhaps Hylonome or her father could help. ¡°Hylonome,¡± Jaxx said.

    ¡°Yes, Jaxx?¡± Hylonome turned from cleaning the glasses that had gotten dirty the evening before.

    ¡°Would you or your father know of any tasks that myself and Toxotis could handle? Or would anyone in the village need assistance with anything?¡±

    She smiled. ¡°Getting restless?¡±

    ¡°A bit.¡± Jaxx smiled back. ¡°Need to stretch my legs, and I would prefer to keep advancing and training my skills while we wait for our mysterious companion.¡± Jaxx had shared the Priestess¡¯ instructions with the pair, and they had insisted that he and Toxotis stay at the Barrel at no charge while they waited.

    ¡°I am not aware personally, but then again I don¡¯t talk much to the rest of the villagers. Not everyone is comfortable with demi-humans here just yet.¡± Demi-humans is how the centaurs labeled themselves, and Jaxx assumed the rest of them did as well. He hadn¡¯t met any yet, but he was aware they existed. Some were friendly to humans, or at least neutral: the satyrs and minotaurs kept cordial relations with humans, although most kept to themselves. Others, like harpies, cyclops, and naga were less friendly and were more in the ¡°monster¡± category. Privately, Jaxx considered anything that made a habit of eating humans as the latter.

    Hylonome continued, ¡°I will ask my father. He talks with other merchants that he does business with keeping the inn supplied. I do know that the Village Guard have been making wider patrols around this area since you revealed that there were monsters in existence close to the village boundaries.¡±

    ¡°That would be great,¡± Jaxx replied. ¡°Perhaps Captain Adrastus would like some assistance. Now I just have to wait for Toxotis to show himself.¡± He must have let a bit of his frustration at his companion enter his tone, for Hylonome said, ¡°Judge not your companion too harshly. I think part of his staying away is to allow you to have private time with me.¡±

    Her tone was fond, and Jaxx knew that she liked Toxotis. Furthermore, her statement showed that she knew and reciprocated Jaxx¡¯s feelings about her. She was still cautious around humans, but warming to him each time they talked. She was also a tease, and enjoyed flustering Jaxx at every opportunity.

    ¡°I will speak to my father about finding you and Toxotis a task or two to complete when he returns: he is away arranging for supplies for the Barrel,¡± she said next.

    ¡°Thank you, that would be great,¡± Jaxx replied. He finished his breakfast and his tea and then walked outside. The morning air was crisp, and he shivered a bit in the chill. He pulled his wolfskin cloak around him and the chill disappeared: one of the properties of Apollo¡¯s cloak is that he was always comfortable; it dispelled chill and heat equally well. A few people were up and about in the early morning, and one and all they smiled and greeted him warmly. None had forgotten the council meeting where his status as an Avatar sent by the Gods was revealed, and all were grateful for the service that he and Toxotis had provided by slaying several groups of powerful monsters in the vicinity of the Village. Jaxx walked around the Village, which was laid out in a large circular pattern. The Barrel was situated inside the outer wall on the west end, with the other public buildings following the inside of the wall around the circle. The inner wall protected most of the private homes and was designed as a defensive measure in the event that the village was attacked. Jaxx approved of the design: a smaller circumference meant fewer men would be needed to man the walls and defend the people. Having the people living inside that wall saved time during an attack.

    As he finished his walk and was approaching the Barrel, this time from the North, he saw Toxotis heading towards the inn from the opposite direction. The man looked a bit haggard: it was obvious he hadn¡¯t slept much the night before. ¡°Ho, Toxotis,¡± Jaxx said. Toxotis looked up and saw Jaxx, and smiled in greeting. Clasping arms in greeting, he said ¡°Ho, Jaxx! How are you this morning?¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.¡°Better than you, from the looks of things,¡± Jaxx replied.

    Toxotis smiled his easy grin. ¡°Ah, but it was worth it as always! Would you stop me from spreading my blessings to my eager admirers?¡± Toxotis was determined to take advantage of the fame that the duo enjoyed. Jaxx laughed. ¡°As long as angry husbands don¡¯t show up looking for a fight, I say enjoy yourself. But I will not stand in the face of righteous indignation should it come looking for you.¡±

    Toxotis feigned outrage. ¡°My friend, you know that I am an honorable man, and would never disrupt the sanctity of a happy marriage.¡±

    ¡°What about an unhappy one?¡± Jaxx asked. Toxotis winked and didn¡¯t answer. Probably better, Jaxx figured.

    ¡°I have asked Hylonome to check with Chiron to see if there are any quests or tasks for us to do while we wait,¡± Jaxx said. ¡°Yes,¡± Toxotis replied. ¡°I figured you would at some point, but I¡¯m surprised it took this long. Perhaps you were distracted by yon fair maiden?¡± As a ¡®local¡¯ Toxotis wasn¡¯t really interested in pursuing romantic pursuits with demi-humans. He wasn¡¯t against it, but it amused him greatly at Jaxx¡¯s interest in Hylonome and never missed an opportunity to tease Jaxx about it.

    Jaxx didn¡¯t respond. He knew the teasing was good-natured and in jest, but he was till a bit senstive when it came to his relationship with Hylonome. Part of it, he knew, was he still didn¡¯t know himself how he really felt.

    ¡°I will be ready and willing to accompany you on whatever task the good Chiron sets us,¡± Toxotis said. ¡°After a nap.¡±

    Jaxx laughed again. ¡°Of course, my friend. You need to rest after your¡­exertions.¡±

    The two entered the Inn and Toxotis headed up to their room, presumably to sleep. The rest of the inn¡¯s patrons were beginning to wake, and Hylonome was busy serving their breakfast orders for food and drink. Many of the guests raised their glasses in greeting to Jaxx, and he spoke with several over their breakfasts as he enjoyed another mug of tea. Most of the conversations were either Jaxx recounting their fights with the various monsters that they had encountered, or the nature of Jaxx¡¯s original world. The people knew he was from somewhere else and had been brought here by the Gods and were curious about it. Jaxx answered as best he could in terms that he thought they could understand. For simplicity, he allowed them to think that it was simply another world like their own. Various other worlds were known to be ruled by different Gods and Titans, such as Tarturas, or the Underworld, or any of the various afterlifes in Greek legend. Jaxx had been surprised to learn that not all of the dead went to the Underworld ruled by Hades: depending on who told it, some went to the Elysian Fields, or the Blessed Isles, or the Asfodel Meadows. The Greeks, being sea-people, also considered other worlds to include islands full of different people: for example, the various islands that Odysseus encounterd on his Odyssey. Jaxx had spent many fascinating hours listening to stories about these worlds during the past week at the inn.

    Eventually, Jaxx tired of conversation and headed upstairs to their room. Entering, he heard Toxotis softly snoring in his bed. Jaxx took off his boots and hung his wolfskin cloak on the wall. The room was warm enough now that he didn¡¯t need to use it as a blanket. In the corner stood the Spear of Artemis, the fantastic weapon given to him by the Goddess Artemis. Other than some light sparring, he had not yet gotten an opportunity to use it in battle. He lay down and after a few minutes, fell asleep.

    Hours later, he awoke to find Toxotis gone. The man could move very quietly when he wanted to. Dressing, Jaxx headed downstairs to find his friend sitting at their customary table in the corner of the common room, eating some sort of stew and drinking a mug of honeyed ale. Jaxx joined him, after indicating to Hylonome for some of the same. As he sat, Jaxx felt the floor tremble and looked up to see Chiron walking towards them. Chiron always struck him like a force of nature. It was like hearing thunder and looking up to see a massive storm speeding toward you: you always wanted to brace yourself and take shelter, if possible. Chiron was a massive centaur, easily 8ft tall from hooves to crown, and massively built. He wore his customary apron, which was a contrast to his dark skin and impressive musculature. His arms, longer than a human, bulged with muscles. Chiron had once threatened, half-joking, to rip Jaxx¡¯s arms off and beat him to death with them. Jaxx had no doubt the centaur could deliver with little effort.

    ¡°My friends!¡± Chiron boomed. His voice always filled the room with a bass rumble, and other guests eating their dinners looked up at the noise. ¡°Good evening Jaxx, and Toxotis! Staying free of trouble?¡± He eyed Toxotis at the last. Jaxx wasn¡¯t fully aware of the history between them, but he gathered that Toxotis had been a bit of a wild sort prior to meeting Jaxx. Judging by his activity of late, perhaps after meeting him as well.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Jaxx answered. ¡°How are you?¡±

    ¡°I am well!¡± Straight to the point, Chiron continued. ¡°Hylonome tells me that you are looking for something to fill your time. Tired of laying about and consuming my food and drink?¡± The gleam in his eye betrayed his playfulness. Toxotis, knowing Chiron better than Jaxx, replied, ¡°Not at all. We enjoy the free food and drink, and are thinking of retiring here because of it.¡±

    Chiron glowered, then smiled and clapped Toxotis on the back, nearly knocking the man from his chair. ¡°Well, layabouts, I do have something that you can help with. I was speaking with Hippalus, who supplies the ale and some food for my inn, and he said that he was having a problem that perhaps you two could help with.¡±

    Jaxx tensed with excitement. A quest! Or at least something to do! The strength of his excitement was telling: perhaps he was more bored than he had thought. ¡°What is the nature of the problem¡± he asked.

    ¡°I shall let him tell you himself,¡± boomed Chiron. Of course, half the room was listening now whether they truly wanted to or not. ¡°Best not expose the man¡¯s troubles to the public.¡± Chiron glanced around, and those people listening suddenly found their dinners more interesting when they met the centaur¡¯s eyes.

    Jaxx exchanged smiles with Toxotis, who seemed as interested as Jaxx in the possibility of a new adventure. Despite his words, Jaxx knew that Toxotis was getting bored with waiting too.

    ¡°Sounds great,¡± Jaxx said. ¡°When would he like to meet?¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow morning, after breakfast,¡± Chiron replied. ¡°That sounds good,¡± Jaxx agreed. A glance at Toxotis revealed the ranger¡¯s agreement as well.

    ¡°Well, I must help Hylonome with the evening¡¯s tasks,¡± said Chiron and he turned and walked off, shaking the table of everyone he walked by on the way to the kitchen.

    Jaxx turned to Toxotis, excited. ¡°This sounds like it will be fun.¡±

    Toxotis agreed, deadpanning, ¡°Well, I suppose I can take a night or two off. But you will have to console the weeping women who will be disappointed by my absence.¡±

    Jaxx laughed. Toxotis could always turn anything serious into a joke. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure they will be heartbroken. Whatever will they do?¡± Laughing together, they signaled for another round of ales.

    The next morning, both Jaxx and Toxotis rose early. Jaxx had had a rough time falling asleep, as he was excited at the thought of going on another adventure. They came down the stairs and sat at the bar, which was empty of any other guests. The hearth was banked, orange coals still glowing but without any fresh wood. Chiron came out from the kitchen, and he noticed Jaxx¡¯s face as Jaxx realized that Hylonome was not there. ¡°Easy, friend,¡± he laughed. ¡°She is just sleeping. You will see her later.¡± Embarassed that his feelings were so transparent, he laughed too.

    ¡°Thank you, Chiron, I was worried when I didn¡¯t see her. She is always here in the mornings.¡±

    ¡°And far more easy on the eyes than me, eh?¡± laughed the centaur. Despite the differences between his daughter and Jaxx, he seemed to be handling the growing friendship between her and Jaxx well. Part of the conversations that Jaxx and Hylonome had had the past week were about her childhood and growing up amongst the centaurs. Her people lived in the Kingdom of Thessaly, near Mt Peleon, and were fairly isolated from other races. They were generally standoffish and while they were not warlike or conquerors, they vigorously defended their homeland. According to Hylonome, they generally did not mix, socially or sexually, with other races. These details showed Jaxx just how unique that Chiron and she were, and he wondered just how the two had ended up here, in a village full of humans to run an inn. That portion of her past Hylonome had not yet revealed, and Jaxx wasn¡¯t quite ready to quiz Chiron about it.

    ¡°So I suppose you two lazy dogs are ready to go on a little adventure, eh? Alright, go talk to my friend Hippalus, and he will tell you what he would like for you to do.¡±

    ¡°Where can we find him?¡± asked Toxotis.

    ¡°He is in the outer circle of the village, near the main gate on the east side. He has a small warehouse where he stores his goods, and you can find him there most times. He lives above it.¡± Chiron explained.

    ¡°I know where that is,¡± Toxotis said. He stood, wiping his hands on his leathers and grabbing his bow and arrow quiver. He too had gotten a gift from the Goddess Artemis, and he rarely let it out of his sight. Jaxx stood as well, dressed in his greaves, cloak, and grabbed his spear that was leaning against the bar. Both clasped hands with Chiron and then headed for the door. As they exited, Jaxx paused and looked at Toxotis. His friend¡¯s eyes reflected the excitement that Jaxx himself felt. ¡°Lets go!¡± Jaxx said, and the duo headed off down the street to the right towards Hippalus¡¯ warehouse.

 Chapter 4 - Slither

    The blinding whiteness faded, slowing going from overwhelmingly overpowering to less and less, finally allowing the world around her to come into focus. Trees surrounded her, branches weaving to and fro with the breeze that existed up at their level, far above her head. She was standing on a forest floor, and she felt the presence of some sort of footwear first, as feeling started at her toes and raced up her body, tickling the most senstive parts first. She felt her clothes in succession, from her sandals, to her leggings (felt like leather), to the belt around her waist and the itchiness of her shirt on her breasts and arms. It ended at her face, with the sensitive skin acknowledging the slight breeze and her nose the smell of plants.

    It was an unfamiliar smell, as she had never been interested in gardening, and she had certainly never been on a farm. The sounds were unfamiliar too: bird calls of unfamiliar types, droning of insects, and the rustling of foliage as small animals fled from her sudden appearance. For a few minutes, she just looked around and marveled, and realized that for a brief minute she had totally forgotten that she was inside a computer simulation, a virtual world.

    ¡°Wow,¡± was the only thing she could vocalize as her brain struggled to rationalize everything that was in front of her. She noticed a small bundle laying on the ground, and pulled it to her. Sitting on a nearby log, she opened the bag and immediately a screen popped up out of nowhere to center itself in her vision:

    Welcome to Olympus Online. As part of your starting equipment, a set of primitive weapons and equipment has been provided to you. Enjoy!

    ¡°Annoyingly vague,¡± she muttered. As the notice disappeared, another screen showed itself, this time in a familiar grid pattern that showed 8 squares. Several had items in them, and she realized that the bag was in fact a bag of holding or whatever you called it. She reached out to touch the items, and the first highlighted. Immediately she was holding a small dagger.

    Simple Bronze Dagger

    Durability 20/20

    Damage 2-4

    Description - A small, simple dagger made of bronze.

    Slightly better than a sharp stick.

    After a few seconds, she realized that thinking the word ¡°dismiss¡± caused the window to close. Another and the bag window closed. ¡°Okay,¡± she said, still thinking out loud, ¡°Thought based control over the notifications.¡± She opened the bag again and discovered a second dagger, identical to the first, in the bag, along with a canteen on a sling and some travel rations. A small slip of paper occupied the last filled slot and read ¡°Starting gear version 2.¡± She tried the canteen - empty. She guessed she was supposed to find a source of water. The travel ration tasted like cardboard, and she spit out the bite she had taken. Wrapping it back up, she stashed it back in the bag. Slither snorted. If this was version 2, version 1 must have really sucked.

    After dismissing the bag again, she figured out how to tuck the daggers into her belt where they would be reasonably secure and still not stab herself. She wasn¡¯t sure if she could damage herself, but the thought of any kind of pain still made her shudder a bit. Slinging the bag, she started walking. It was hard going, as she had never had any experience walking through wild forest before. Each step seemed to sink into an inches-thick layer of dead leaves, sticks, and dirt. She tripped twice over tree roots that she just didn¡¯t see prior to walking into them, and by trial and error she began to walk by picking up each foot and placing it straight down, rather than the shuffling foot-dragging gait she had always used. It took patience, and was much harder than simply walking as she normally did.

    The lack of direction was frustrating, too. She had been simply plopped here in the middle of the woods with no instructions, no quest log, nothing. No guide or anyone to help her decide which direction to go in. As she walked, she kept saying different commands. ¡°Quest log.¡± ¡°Help.¡± ¡°Exit game.¡± Nothing. No response, no display windows. Finally after a while one of her commands showed a response. ¡°Character¡± and a sheet popped up, showing her fledgling stats and skills, of which she had none. No help there. She ignored the numbers and descriptions: too many games paid way too much attention to that crap. If it became important later, she¡¯d look at it then.

    By pure chance, she came across what seemed to be a trail going through the forest. It winded off through the trees, and as it was the first sign of any kind of structure, she decided to follow it. ¡°Anything is better than slogging through the wild brush,¡± she thought. She walked for a while until she heard the sound of something coming down the trail towards her. Slither froze: she wasn¡¯t mentally prepared for a confrontation, and whatever it was, it sounded good-sized. In front of her, the bushes on either side of the trail shook for a second, and then a small rabbit entered the trail and spotted Slither.

    Both froze, staring at each other for any sign of threat. Slither knew that it was slightly ridiculous to be afraid of a bunny, but for some reason a scene from an old movie popped into her mind. She was dating a guy once who was a big fan of twentieth century comedy movies, and in this movie the characters had come across this killer bunny with red eyes and claws that killed them all. She had laughed at the time along with her boyfriend. This bunny seemed normal, no red eyes or claws, and as she shifted her weight it immediately bolted down the trail away from her. Slither was laughing with relief, ¡°scared of a little bunny¡± was in her head when suddenly from the side of the trail ahead shot a blur of gray fur. The animal caught the rabbit and Slither heard a ¡®crunch¡¯ from the rabbit.

    She froze again, and the animal turned around to stare at Slither. It was a wolf. She squinted at it, trying to see details, and above the wolf she saw the words ¡°Forest Wolf - Level 3¡± appear. At the same time, another window popped up in her field of vision:

    Skill unlocked - Analyze!

    By squinting at an item or creature, you can see

    details about it. Use often to see higher level items and creatures!

    ¡°Son of a bitch!¡± she yelled as the window blocked her view of the wolf. Frantically thinking ¡°dismiss¡± the window disappeared to see the wolf in full charge at her. Its mouth was open, and its tongue was hanging out, drool dripping from the wolf¡¯s muzzle. Before she could move, the wolf was on her and she felt the jaws closing around her throat as it rode her to the ground. In her astonishment, she barely felt any pain before her vision went black.

    She came to in the forest, and she realized that she was in the same place that she had first spawned into the world. She was wearing the same clothes, but her bag and weapons where gone. Another damned window popped up:

    Congratulations on your first Death! As an Avater, you will respawn

    At your last spawn point!

    All gained XP and skill points for your current level have been lost!

    XP lost - 0. Current XP 0/100

    Skills lost - Analyze.

    Equipment lost - bag, bronze dagger (2)

    Lost items can be retrieved from the location of your death.

    Angrily, she dismissed the window. Some things were becoming clear: she could die, and would re-spawn. That was good. The rumors of one life in Olympus Online seemed to be false, which made sense. Lots of people would be unprepared for this world (as she was) and would die early (as she did). And she kept her clothes, so she wouldn¡¯t wake up naked. Also good. The fact that she had to run back to her body to get her stuff back, not so good. ¡°An old fashioned corpse run - fantastic¡± she thought.

    ¡°Well, nothing for it.¡± Strangely, she wasn¡¯t that upset. The mental shock of getting mauled to death by a wolf was not as bad as she was expecting, and she could review the memory of it without getting hysterical. She also didn¡¯t remember any pain from the experience - could the implant be blocking these feelings of shock and pain? If so, Slither was all for it. ¡°Screw that much realism,¡± she thought.

    She followed her own trail through the woods and quickly found the game trail that she had died on. Slowly creeping down the trail, she got yet another damn window that told her she had gotten the skill ¡°Stealth.¡± Smiling, she said softly ¡°Now that will be useful¡± and continued until she found her body. It was still lying there, throat ripped out, and she swallowed as she looked at the damage the wolf had done to her dead body. Thankfully, the wolf hadn¡¯t stuck around for a snack afterwards and had apparently departed. She approached and retrieved her items: bag was slung on her back and rather than tuck her daggers into her belt again she held them in her hands. Better to be prepared next time. Squinting at one of them, she got the ¡°Analyze¡± skill back as well. As she took her equipment from her corpse, it disappeared. Good. That had been pretty creepy, looking at her own dead body.

    With no other option that she could see, she began walking down the game trail again, holding her daggers at the ready and walking slowly, trying to maintain stealth. The trail eventually after several wanderings back and forth opened up and turned sharply left next to a small stream. She had heard the sound of the water for several minutes prior to encountering it. Eying the water, she realized that it had been several hours total in the game and she was feeling thirsty. Kneeling beside the water, she kept an eye on the surrounding area while she dipped and filled the canteen. She wasn¡¯t familiar with this type of container - it was basically just a leather bag with a small, carved bone nozzle on one end with a small cork attached to a leather thong. It was tightly stitched, and as it didn¡¯t leak when she held it up, apparently watertight. One thing she noticed was the coldness of the water; as she filled the bag by dipping the open end under the water, the icy tingle entered her hands and stayed there for a few seconds. All of it felt absolutely real, as if she was really there and performing this task. In the real world she had never been in this situation, so she had no personal experience, but the realism felt amazing.

    Tipping the bag back and taking a drink, the water flooded into her mouth, icy liquid numbing her teeth she began swallowing, drinking half the bag before she felt her thirst quenched. ¡°Ahh¡± she exclaimed. It was easily the best tasting water she¡¯d ever drank; cool and refreshing. She filled the bag again, corked it tightly, and then stashed it back into her bag. Quenching her thirst made her think about food, and she felt a bit of tightness in her belly. ¡°So I have to eat and drink here. I wonder what would happen if I didn¡¯t.¡± She realized that she was indeed feeling hungry and took out some of the travel rations that she had been given. Eating it was still terrible, but washing each bite down with the water helped a bit.

    As she ate, she began to relax. The scenery was eye-catching: through the break in the trees around the stream she could see the blue sky and some mountains in the distance. The sound of the water burbling was relaxing and helped her to take stock of everything that had happened to her so far in Olympus Online. Despite all of the hardship, she was still excited about being there, which was a bit odd to her. Normally this type of experience held everything that she despised: pain, lack of modern conveniences, her phone and internet connections to her friends missing. She realized that she hadn¡¯t even thought about her friends in hours: very odd. Maybe the game was manipulating her into feeling that way? It would make sense. If the game could mute her panic and stress over dying horribly to a wolf attack, could it also make her happy to play? If so, that was pretty insidious. She should be outraged at being manipulated, but the feelings just weren¡¯t there. ¡°More proof,¡± she said aloud. It was becoming a habit, stating her thoughts out loud, probably because she had yet to meet anyone else to talk to. The sound of a voice, even her own, was comforting.

    After a time spent relaxing by the brook, another window popped up.

    You have achieved Rested status.

    Actions that use Stamina will now use 10% less for the next hour.

    Dismissing it was almost automatic now, until the words impacted her relaxed brain. Stamina? How could she see that? She began experimenting with different commands, until the ¡°Show Stamina¡± worked and she suddenly saw two bars in her field of vision in the upper left. The top one was red, the bottom yellow. Concentrating she could see values superimposed on them: ¡°HP¡± on the red bar and ¡°Stam¡± on the yellow. More things becoming clear: her health and stamina were represented by those bars, and she assumed that performing actions would use stamina. HP was pretty self explanatory.

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.Feeling a bit more confident that she was starting to figure this world out, she considered her next moves. The game trail led off alongside the water, and it was pretty obvious that she should continue to follow this path. ¡°Eventually I have to run into someone¡± she said. Normally hours without talking to someone would leave her painfully bored, but other than the minor irritation she felt at being dropped into empty woods, she was fine.

    Deciding to follow the trail, she resumed walking slowly down the trail, continuing to stay in Stealth as she went. Notifications popped up every so often to confirm that her use of Stealth was increasing her skill, but it was pretty paltry: each level in stealth only added 1% to her ability to remain undetected. Still, eventually it would level up to where it made a big difference. As she walked, she listened to the sound of the water flowing and the wildlife, mostly birds, chirping. Her nervousness at running into another wolf gradually faded along with the immediate memory of that first disastrous encounter. After an hour, she saw in the distance what looked like a bridge over the water. Excitement flooded her brain again, her breathing speeding up and she felt a bit of adrenaline along with it. ¡°About time,¡± she said as she almost unconsciously sped up her pace. A bride meant a road; a road meant people.

    As she approached, the details of the bridge came into focus. It was made of wood, with crudely sawn planks laid out cross-pattern alongside two massive tree trunks that had been felled across the water and shaved flat on the tops. Getting closer, she could see that wooden pegs had been forced through drilled holes in the ends of the planks into the logs, holding them in place. The bridge was about 10ft wide, and there were no handrails. A dirt road led to each end of the bridge on either side of the water, and obvious ruts were cut into the road as wide as a wagon body. From the appearance, the bridge had been there for years: there was significant weathering, and brush grew up to and around the ends of the logs, proving that it had been there long enough for plants to grow around it.

    Once she was standing next to the left bank end of the bridge, she stopped and wondered which way to go. On her side of the creek, the road extended into the forest and from what she could see slightly downhill. Indeed, the water seemed to curve in that direction downstream and it would make sense to go that way. She remembered a dim history lesson from some class she had taken as a girl that indicated human settlements throughout history had grown up around water, and usually where the water met the sea or lakes. The other direction, across the creek, the road headed straight into the wilds towards some hills and eventually mountains. Likely the road was a trade route, used primarily by merchant wagons, so eventually she would end up at some sort of settlement along the road. But which way would be faster?

    Deciding that for better or worse she would rather walk downhill, she turned away from the bridge and began to walk along the road downhill. She walked quickly, not bothering to stay in Stealth as she had noticed that the light seemed to be dimming, and the temperature was dropping with it. The need to find shelter for the night began to take over as her first priority over finding other people. She definatly did not want to be stuck outside at night and be attacked as she slept. She didn¡¯t even know if she had to sleep, but due to her thirst and hunger earlier she figured it was a good bet that she would need to. The road winded gently to and fro, mostly winding its way through the woods around giant trees that she figured was easier to go around rather than cut down.

    As she rounded a bend, she smelled woodsmoke. Again, her experience with this was low but the burning wood was acrid and pleasant. In the distance, she saw the road split, with a short deviance ending at the front of a small hut. The walls were made of wood logs, with a roof of cut plants laid out in overlapping rows to keep the weather out. A crude opening was visible in the side of the roof, through which the smoke she smelled issued forth in a slow, lazy ribbon. Smoke leaked out from the thatch around the opening as well in small curls. The outside of the house was disheveled: a jumble of wood that was cut and split, but not stacked lay in the dirt in front of the hut. A small lean-to was built on the side of the hut, with a simple hide tacked on as a roof. A small dirty donkey was tethered inside the lean-to, munching on some cut grass and eying her distrustfully. It had spotted her as she came around the bend, but had not yet issued a challenge. From the smoke, Slither assumed that whoever owned the hut was home.

    As she came closer, the donkey stopped chewing and raised its head, looking at her directly, but remained silent. Slither was not excited about the situation: the appearance of the hovel gave the impression that the owner cared little for appearances and was likely dirty himself (or herself). But there was little choice: the hut represented relative safety for the night, so she steeled herself and walked up to the door and gave it a sharp rap with her dagger hilt. ¡°Who¡¯s there,¡± came a low, growling voice from inside the hut.

    ¡°A simple traveler looking for a place to spend the night!¡± she called back. ¡°This isn¡¯t an inn - begone!¡± the voice called back, not opening the door. Shit, she thought. This was the only place she had seen for miles, and as little as she wanted anything to do with the owner of that voice, there was little choice. ¡°I can pay for my stay!¡± she lied. She had nothing to offer, and hoped that it would be a reasonable price. Perhaps she could perform some task or quest for the owner.

    The door opened and the voice¡¯s owner stepped out. He was as dirty as his dwelling: short, wearing a stained long shirt that fell to his knees, belted with a length of rope. His heavily bearded face was creased with the sun, wrinkled and obviously mal-nourished. He was thin, and wore ragged sandals on his feet. Slither could barely keep her face straight: her first instinct was to sneer in disgust at the appearance of the hermit. The man held a length of firewood as a cudgel, and gripped it tightly as he started at her in surprise. Slither doubted that he got many visitors, and certainly few women.

    Still, she figured, might as well try to be nice. ¡°My name is¡­Slither¡± she said with a slight hesitation: she had nearly said Kaylie! ¡°I need shelter for the evening. Perhaps we could work out a trade? I have my own food and water and will be no burden to you.¡± The man listened to her, but she could tell he was more interested in her form than her words. His eyes traveled up and down her body, lingering at the swell of her hips and finishing with a long stare at her chest. Slither¡¯s disgust grew even further: if she was going to explore sex in Olympus, it certainly wouldn¡¯t be with this¡­creature. His scent, that of an unwashed body mixed with smoke and something which undoubtedly included some form of dung (judging by the smell of the smoke) made her gag in her throat.

    Lips pulling back over brown teeth, the man made an attempt to smile. ¡°Well,¡± he growled, ¡°Aktor doesn¡¯t usually invite anyone into his home, but for you Aktor could make an exception.¡± His eyes roved unceasingly over her body, and after every few words he licked his lips, causing her revulsion to increase. His eyes narrowed, finally looking her in the eye. ¡°She said she could pay?¡±

    Figuring out that for some reason the man was referring to himself with the name Aktor, she replied, ¡°Yes. I have no money, but if there is a task you need completed I would be willing to trade labor for a night¡¯s shelter.¡± At her words, his face fell a bit. ¡°No money?¡± he growled. He began backing up into his hut, hand on the door. ¡°Then begone.¡± As he shut the door, she shot her foot out to stop it. Angrily Aktor looked up at her again (would he never stop looking at her tits?) and said again, ¡°Begone! No money, no stay!¡±

    She forced herself to remain calm. ¡°Are you sure there is nothing I can do in exchange for a nights stay?¡± She hated the way it sounded, and by his face he of course assumed that which she was hoping he wouldn¡¯t. An oily smile appeared on his face again, and with another lick of his lips he said ¡°Trade? Maybe¡­¡± He opened the door wide and stepped back, inviting her inside with a wave. She stepped forward into the hut and looked around. On the wall under the chimney opening, she saw a low fire with a bronze pot hanging low over the fire. From the smell, Aktor was indeed using dung, presumably from his donkey outside, as fuel despite the fact that wood was plentiful in the pile outside. This display of laziness made her disgust grow broader, if that was possible.

    Once inside, Aktor closed the door, blocking the dim glow of twilight and plunging the room into a smoky glow from the fire. There were no other sources of light. Near the fire was a pallet of dirty furs and blankets where Aktor presumably slept. There was no other furniture. Slither moved across the room and placed her pack on the ground against the far wall. She turned and looked at Aktor, who had moved to the center of the room and stood there looking at her, still clutching his length of wood in one hand. She forced a smile, and said ¡°Thank you, I shall bed over here and in the morning I can perform a task for you as payment.¡±

    Aktor smiled and said, ¡°Aktor thinks pretty lady should perform task now.¡±

    ¡°What task?¡± she asked, mentally preparing. It was pretty obvious what he wanted, and she was hoping to avoid this. In her hand behind her back, she gripped her dagger, preparing for the worst.

    Aktor simply pointed at her, then at the bed. ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°No, I will not do that. I will perform some other service as payment.¡±

    Aktor looked angry, pointing the wood cudgel at her face. ¡°If no bed, no stay!¡± His words were short, clipped, as if he was unused to conversation with other people. He stepped towards her before shouting again, ¡°No bed, no stay!¡± He went to grab her arm with his free hand, and as his hand closed upon her elbow her other arm came around her body in an arc, ending with the dagger buried in his chest.

    Aktors eyes widened in shock: he had not expected her to fight, let alone be armed, and she saw the life dwindling from his eyes as he sank slowly down to first his knees, then his back. She kept a tight grip on the dagger¡¯s hilt as she sank with him, blood pumping out around her hand. It was hot, and sticky. A stench invaded the room, even fouler than before if it could be believed. Aktor¡¯s body tensed one last time, then went still. The cudgel, still grasped tightly in his right hand until his death, dropped to the floor and rolled softly against the wall.

    Slither sat back, still staring at the body. She had killed someone! Only an NPC, but the realism struck her to her core. The body had even voided itself during death. This was far more realistic than any other game she had played. In those games, killing someone, player or NPC, simply caused them to die with no real evidence but the lack of motion afterwards. This¡­this was more. She felt justified at the act: Aktor was plainly going to try to force himself on her. And after all, he was only an NPC. Why should she feel any more guilt over it than she had at killing an orc or a goblin in a game? It was literally the same thing, it just felt more real.

    Eventually she noticed a small notification blinking in her field of vision. Earlier she had managed to figure out how to disable the constant windows from popping up in her field of vision, as she didn¡¯t really find the information that her stealth had gone from 1 to 2 that relevant. Focusing on the notification, a window opened:

    XP +100

    Congratulations! You have achieved level 2!

    +2 Points in Agility. +2 Points in Stamina.

    +1 points in all other stats!

    Another:

    +2 to Daggers Skill.

    Slither dismissed the windows. So killing Aktor had given her XP and a level. She had also increased her dagger skill. She noticed her stamina bar had dipped as well during the fight, and was slowly refilling. She knew that she could open her status sheet and see the exact changes, but again the details behind her skills and character didn¡¯t really interest her.

    She rose and grabbed the hands of Aktor¡¯s body. As she did, another damn window popped up, this time a question:

    Loot? Y/N

    She selected yes and a small window popped up, listing the equipment that Aktor was wearing:

    Cloth Tunic - 1

    Rope belt - 1

    Leather sandals - 1

    She closed the window - as she suspected, the hermit had nothing of value, and she wouldn¡¯t wear any of his filthy clothes if she could help it. She grabbed his hands again and began to drag him outside, when the body disappeared in a small flash of light, leaving only the impression of his body in the dirt. ¡°So after you loot, the body of an NPC will disappear¡± she said aloud. Good information to know. She examined the pallet of dirty furs, and decided that sleeping there would likely give her some kind of infection or bug infestation. Instead she settled on the floor where she had dropped her pack, after making sure that the door was barred against anything coming in unexpectedly. It was dark, and she decided to search the place in the morning once the sun was up.

    Lying down to sleep, she found herself looking up at the ceiling. The thatch roof blocked the stars, but allowed the night sounds of the forest to penetrate, and the unfamiliar sounds kept her awake. As she stared, she examined her feelings again. Despite the realism, she felt no guilt about what she had done. Despite the obvious nature of Aktos, he was still what passed for a human being here, and she was a bit surprised at her neutrality about killing him. Was her feelings because he was simply a computer simulation? She decided that was probably it: the alternative, that she could kill without remorse, she tabled for a later day. As the glow from the coals faded, so did her consciousness, and she finally slept.