《Raider (A VRMMO Novel)》


 Chapter 1: Matthews everyday life...

    Matt sighed, even as he growled on the inside, there were so many of them, a variable horde. Slowly shambling towards him. He could see their glassy eyes as they approached, cold and lifeless. Six, that was the number of bullets he would need, unfortunately he had none, add to the fact that he had no weapon at all and this entire situation looked grim.


    He glanced at the woman standing next to him, she was around the age 20 or so, right near his own age in fact, with long shoulder length blonde hair with dark blue streaks in it, the style of which he could only describe as asphalt ranger, which was a reference to a very very old video game from days gone past and consisted of one side being shaved about three inches above the ear and the rest of it going up and over her head onto the other side. Standing at around five foot six she was an extremely attractive woman, boasting a modest bust size, and wide hips. Her name was Monica.


    And sadly it would seem she was just as unarmed as he was¡­


    She caught the look in his eyes, and nodded, assuredly she understood, she was after all here trapped like he was, completely unarmed. It would only be seconds until they were upon the two of them. He watched as the first one came closer, and readied himself.


    ¡°Welcome to Volcros Electronics how may I help you?¡± he asked, his lips curling into a smile even as the act felt revulsive, setting his stomach churning at the fakeness of it. Not that the customers would ever know, you see Matt was a Damn good liar.


    Damn good.


    And lying was his job, well that and servicing broken Volcros tech. He was really good at the first part of that job, and passable at the second part. He heard Monica repeat the mantra they were instructed to greet the customers with to his right. She was also a good liar, in fact anybody that worked in the public service field that had to deal with customers was a good liar, it was either that or get a new job.


    He lied to the customers, every time he asked how their day was he was lying, he really didn''t care. He could also careless about why there was bitemarks on the device or the cause of the water damage.


    And he knew when the cause of all those viruses was from going onto the wrong porn sites, even if he feigned ignorance.


    Of course it was when you let your little brother borrow the device, never minding the fact that 98% of society had one of their own and there would be no need to share it even with your little brother.


    And yes that model was prone to overheating, it had nothing to do with the 46 dating apps you had running at once.


    Oh yes, assuredly that device was stolen by a thief, even though it was biometrically locked and there was no humanly way possible for anyone to use it without it alerting the authorities.


    Yes he was an amazing liar.


    ¡°Damn thing don¡¯t work,¡± the zombie in front of him moaned, this corpse of a person was probably about the same age as Matt and Monica, it however was hard to see under all that facial metal he had embedded in his skin, it would seem that he had opted for the shrapnel styled look. He had even topped the look off with a full green terror hawk, and the words reject society''s norm tattooed across his forehead, never mind the fact that he was here in a consumer electronic store and wanted his device that practically everyone in the else used fixed so he could get back to doing the same things as everyone else.


    ¡°Can you be a little more specific? Is it not booting up, or perhaps the screen is not working or the sound...¡± he trailed off, not wanting to fully call out the extensive list of things that could have gone wrong with the device.


    ¡°It makes this sound, like a beep beep bloop¡± shrappy as Matt had taken to calling him in his head said, intoning the noises in such an idiotic manner that Matt had a hard time not laughing at it, he even caught Monica snort ever so slightly in the corner of his eyes, making it much harder to keep from laughing.


    Shrappy narrowed his eyes at him, and Matt decided to get started working on it. ¡°If it was beeping then that probably means it has some issue with the random access memory, so we will need to crack it open and see what is what on the inside.¡± Matt narrated as he pulled out his swisstool, a multi use device that allowed him to crack open a multitude of other devices and interface with them. He knew shrappy probably had no idea what he was talking about, and more likely didn''t care, but it was after all company policy to explain what they were doing with people''s property at all times.


    Typical bullshit.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    The device in question was a Vidcom link, specifically the Volcros Mark Vii K series, last year''s model. It was the device that had replaced the phone, a small device the size of your thumb, with a single button on it. Matt pressed said button and the device sprung open, the small rectangle split in two and expanded to form a larger rectangle the size of his palm, stretched between the two pieces was a sheet of Flexypli a unique type of plastic that was as soft as silk and just as flexible when not charged with electricity and then as hard as steel when it was. Damn stuff was used in anything and everything from electronics to military uniforms.


    And just like shrappy had said it started beeping in a distinct code, he listened to it, tapping with the code, like some ancient morse code operator as he translated the code into something he could understand.


    ¡°It would seem as though the device is not recognizing the R.A.M. at all,¡± he said, bringing up the white swisstool to the edge of the vidcom and cracked the case sliding a small hooked blade into a slot he pulled slightly, and feeling the latch give way he popped the top off, revealing the miniscule guts of the device.


    A single chip with about twelve different colored wires coming off of it, and one rechargeable battery. He swapped to a different tool, this one was almost like a needle, with a display at the end of it, feeding back a zoomed in image of what was going on near its tip. He brought the pick close to the chip, checking the connections one by one until he found the issue.


    ¡°This right here is the issue,¡± he said, holding the swisstool as steadily as possible and moving aside to allow shrappy to see.


    ¡°What exactly is wrong with it?¡± he asked, his terror hawk quivered as his head bobbed with annoyance, Matt almost stopped to admire how the nearly two foot tall mohawk defied gravity, a total spit in newton¡¯s law¡¯s face.


    Almost.


    ¡°The chip is slightly dislodged, all I have to do is remove it and put it back on.¡±


    ¡°Ok, well do it.¡± he said, clearly annoyed.


    ¡°Well I am going to tell you this will cost you 49.99 credits.¡± Matt said, bracing himself for the backlash that was undoubtedly about to come his way.


    ¡°WHAT!¡± shrappy shouted, his noise and racket causing several other customers to jump. ¡°That''s robbery! All you have to do is take a chip off and put it back on and you are going to charge me that much? I''ll do it myself!¡±


    ¡°Ok, that is fine, but please note that any work done on the device has to be done by a trained Volcros tech,¡± Matt said with a malicious smile, this one more real than it had been a while. ¡°If it is not then your warranty will be null and void, meaning we will not work on it in the future and we will not take it as a trade in.¡±


    Shrappy chewed that over for a minute, the price for a new phone would be four times higher if he didn''t have the previous model to trade in, Matt could almost see the gears turning in that head of his.


    ¡°Fine.¡± he snapped and pressed his thumb to the paypad, authorizing the transaction. Once the funds had gone through Matt used a small tool to pop off the ram chip that was the issue in the array and place it back on, it took less than two seconds, before closing it up and handing it back to the man, who started the device up with no problems. And who quickly turned away and walked while muttering something about robbery and how much he hated corporations.


    ¡°Have a nice day.¡± Matt called out behind him, all smiles, which earned a small cute chuckle from Monica.


    The next customer came up in line. ¡°Hello Matthew,¡± the elderly lady said with a smile, and for the first time today Matt actually smiled with a genuine smile, which caused Monica to pause in what she was doing and stare at him, she probably would have stayed like that all day absorbed by that smile if her customer had not coughed slightly to get her attention, and she blushed turning back to her device quickly apologizing to the customer for her being distracted, thankful that Matt was busy talking to the elderly woman and had not seen her stare.


    ¡°Hello Mrs. Jully how are you doing today?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Quite well Matthew, do you think you can help me?¡± she asked, her white hair up in a bun, and a smile on her face as she produced a device much like shrappy¡¯s, only several years older.


    ¡°What is wrong with it this time?¡± he asked with a smile.


    ¡°I dropped it in the sink.¡± she said shaking her head.


    ¡°You know if you keep breaking this thing I am going to start to think you do it just to come in to see me.¡± he laughed and she joined him, even Monica smiled from the warmth of it.


    ¡°Oh you know me too well Matthew¡± she laughed.


    ¡°Ok, lets see what we can do about this shall we?¡± he said, cracking the case on the older Vidcom.


    ***


    Matt sighed, pulling off the work uniform he threw it into the work basket, it would be washed and returned to his locker for the next shift, which would not be until three days from now. He had a good schedule, four days on, three of which were ten hour endeavours and the last was an eight hour shift, and then three days off.


    It was nice.


    He grabbed his items he had deposited there before work and closed his locker, almost running into Monica as he turned to go.


    ¡°Sorry.¡± he said, she had like him shed the work clothes and was currently wearing some standard street clothes, which consisted of a short sleeve tight fitting v neck hoodie and a skirt, and thigh high boots.


    ¡°It''s fine,¡± she said, shuffling slightly, a small blush creeping in on her cheeks. ¡°Hey matt?¡± she asked, trying her damndest not to let the quiver she was feeling show in her voice or demeanor.


    ¡°Whats up?¡± he asked as he pulled on his jacket.


    ¡°Me and some friends started playing this new Vrmmo, it''s called Dragon Fantasy Online, and I have a guest pass...¡± she trailed off.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± he smiled, he had some sneaking suspicions that she might like him, but he had been wrong before¡­¡±I am not a big fan of vrmmos however.¡± he said, he could almost see her deflate.


    ¡°Oh, uh...¡±


    ¡°But I wouldn''t mind hanging out with you at some time,¡± he said, and like a flower that had wilted finally receiving water she perked right back up.


    ¡°Ok! That sounds cool!¡± she smiled. ¡°What days do you have off?¡±


    ¡°Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, how does Saturday sound?¡± she said, and once they had agreed on a time they swapped Vidcom serials, and Matt walked out a smile on his face, completely unaware that behind him in the work room that he had just been in another woman materialised from her hiding spot around the corner.


    Christa was her name, and she walked right over to Monica and gave the other a congratulatory high five as they started chatting in low happy consperital voices about the events that had just transpired...

 Chapter 2: Ghosts

    Matt sighed as he breathed in the air of the street around him, it smelled clean, which would seem odd to anyone not living in this time, but seeing as there were no emissions from cars and vehicles and all the trash was carted off by fully automated robots there was not much that could smell bad.


    Hell even the streets were swept by bots to keep things as clean as possible. He looked at the tall silver and white buildings that surrounded him and sighed, it was getting dark, it was about time to get home. Pulling a starter chit out of his pocket he walked over to his ecycle.


    The damn thing was a relic, and antiquated piece of the past, near 100 years old, but it still looked new, what was the word? Ment? Something like that. Most people rode around in flying cars that were auto piloted, not that there were any other kinds, according to history they had released flying vehicles to the general populace and it had been catastrophic.


    Apparently people of the past had enough trouble driving on the ground, getting into wrecks and crashes and what not, and once you added a full third dimension to the equation,it had not been pretty. It had apparently set the development of the flying car back years until there was a sufficiently intelligent A.I. to drive the car for people.


    Matt looked his motorcycle over, it was a sleek white with a blue strip, and straddling it he picked it up off the kickstand and slid the starter chit into a slot on its back, causing the bike between his legs to purr lightly.


    It was an old thing from back in the day when people had banned gas powered vehicles, this electric bike used charge packs that were the size of a can of soda and could keep the machine going for over 200 miles on one charge. Matt had an adapter that he had up in his apartment, he had to have it special made so he could charge the packs, cost him an arm and a leg, but he loved the bike.


    He loved the feel of it, and the wind in his hair as he rode it.


    It felt good, like he had control, nothing like riding in one of those auto piloted flying cars.


    Turning the bike around he rode it out of the company parking lot. With the invention and mass use of the flying car rodes had changed, they were narrower, only wide enough for two cars to park side by side with a scant four feet or so inbetween, it was here in this narrow passage he rode his motorcycle. With a practiced ease he weaved through the rows of cars, taking the trip back to his apartment at a breakneck pace.


    He arrived and parked his bike in a small garage that was just for him, and once he stepped out he watched as the garage was lowered into the ground, storing it until he would need it later. He looked up at the building he lived in. it was a small 40 story building, dwarfed by the ridiculously tall buildings flanking it on either side.


    Its lack of stature however was not the thing that made it stand out. It was the fact that instead of being white and silver like every other building in this city it was a remodeled and renovated old world building constructed out of concrete and brick.


    There weren''t too many of those left in this city, and he was proud to say he lived in one of them. Something about the solidity of the stone, and the warmth they produced was comforting.


    He took the stairs up to the front door two at a time and was about to open the door when he saw his reflection in the mirrored silver surface of the door. He had a short red beard, and his hair was close cropped, with the sides shaved clean down to the skin, it wasn''t a mohawk, it was too short and much too wide to be that, the entire top of his head was covered, and even an inch or so of the sides as well. He smiled, was that really him? He looked into his blue eyes, yep, that was him, he didn''t think he had smiled that much in a good long time.


    Was he really that excited to go on a date?


    Yes, the answer to that was yes.


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    He hadn''t been on a date in well over two years, not since her¡­


    The smile slipped off of his lips as thoughts of her invaded his mind. He shook his head, driving them out, but as he did that damned necklace worked itself loose from under the shirt and gleamed there at him, casting a light into the reflection accusingly. Slowly he grabbed it and lifted it up so he could see it. On its chain two small circlets hung, one a solid gold, the other a small silver band adorn with a clear rock.


    A diamond.


    Thats right, he hadn''t gone on a date for over a year now, but then again how could he? No matter what someone told him about how she would have wanted him to move on it really didn''t help.


    She might have passed away but he still felt like he was cheating on her. He started to regret agreeing to go on that date, but before he could work himself up he shut that thought down. Taylor was gone, she had left this earth, she had been gone for quite some time, it was time to move on.


    Not to forget.


    Never to forget.


    But he needed to move on, no one should tread water, you had to keep on swimming or risk drowning. He wiped away the one tear that tracked its way down his face and pulled the door open, nodding to the desk clerk he made his way to the elevator and made his way up to the 31st floor.


    His door opened and with a sigh he stepped in. ¡°House activate,¡± he called out, and at his command the Vi that controlled the apartment sprang to life.


    ¡°Welcome home Master.¡± a silky female voice called out, as the far wall shimmered and his personal computer turned on, displaying its content on the entire wall.


    ¡°Hello Vis¡± he said, calling the Virtual intelligence by its acronym: the Virtual interactive system. It seemed much better than calling it that¡­


    ¡°You have thirty-three mail items,¡± she said. ¡°Would you like them displayed?¡±


    ¡°Only those that are important, chuck the rest.¡± he said pulling a beer out of the fridge and sitting down on the couch, he pulled a sip of it savoring the taste, he couldn''t have any of this through the work week seeing as any alcohol in his system was grounds to get fired, but he had three days, so what was one beer?. Much to his annoyment the mail was all unimportant.


    Setting the beer down he pulled out a cord from the desk and a set of sanitation wipes, he felt the back of his head and found the port there in the back of his skull. It was standard issue all around the world now, it was called the caser. A device that was in the skull that could interpret the signals of the brain, and even send signals to the brain. It had started out as a military device, like all good tech, designed to allow soldiers to show everything they had seen through their own eyes, it had then allowed doctors and scientists to study and treat all sorts of wounds and mental illnesses.


    And then someone had decided to use it to make patients in pain hallucinate certain things by sending signals to the brain, apparently this was the first real virtual reality. They had used it to create a relaxing environment for poor tortured souls in the hospitals.


    It hadn''t taken long to move from there to personal video games.


    And Matt, like most people was a fan of video games. He wiped the port in the back of his head clean, making sure the connection would be as good as possible. And plugged the cord in, reclining into the couch, he looked at the cord as it snaked across the room to a plug in that came from the square box that was his computer.


    ¡°Lets play a game Vis,¡± he said.


    ¡°Might I make a suggestion?¡± the silky voice of the Vi called out. That was odd, Vis usually just did what she was told, she didn''t often make suggestions.


    ¡°Sure...¡± he said, curious what she would suggest.


    ¡°Over the past year and a half you have purchased fifteen titles that fall under the open world post apocalypse genre, as such I have found and downloaded a new title for you,¡± she said, ¡°You gave me the authority to download any software that I deemed reliable and non harmful to systems.¡± she stated.


    When he had said that he was talking about software updates for herself so he wouldn''t need to update her manually, he would need to re word that latter, but he was to tired to worry about it right now. ¡°Lets see what you got.¡± he said, and up on the wall screen popped up a splash screen for a game.


    New Earth Online.


    He sighed, ¡°Vis, I don''t like Vrmmos.¡± he said, it was not that he was against the gameplay or anything, it was simply that he dealt with people all day everyday at work, and here at home he really didn''t want to.


    ¡°I am aware of this, but I have deemed this a good fit for your play style after watching many recordings.¡± she said. He mulled it over before coming to a decision.


    ¡°Why the hell not, lets try it.¡± he said. ¡°Launch program.¡± he said, and he felt a tingle at the base of his skull, closing his eyes he waited for the familiar nauseating feeling of dizziness Vr always started with.


    Instead he got a sharp shock, like someone had slapped the back of his head hard.


    With a yelp he opened his eyes, ripping the cord out of the back of his head. He rubbed the back of his head and looked angrily at the cord holding it at arm''s length almost like it was a snake. ¡°What the hell?¡± he growled.


    ¡°I am sorry Master, it would seem the game has crashed, causing a backlash.¡±


    ¡°Well that is a promising start...¡± he grumbled.


    ¡°I will run a full diagnostic-¡±


    ¡°Don''t bother.¡± he said, that would take hours and he simply wanted to play something, drive out those old memories... plugging the cord back in and settling on the couch once more. ¡°Just start it again, launch program.¡± Vis did it, and this time he felt the telltale dizziness and drag as the caser intercepted his brain¡¯s signals and translated them into computerized responses. Everything was black, until a large splash screen showed up in his view.


    Welcome to New Earth Online it read¡­

 Chapter 3: Welcome to New Earth Online...

    She felt another one, one of the multitude come to her, and she went about her business, processing and adding this one into the proper lists and databases needed for entry and registration. She didn''t even bother to ask it its name or designation, there was no character creation in this world, all real data carried over from the real world referred in her coding, where or what this real world was however she did not know.


    She had no name, she simply was the A.I. that was created to run this world. And adaptive artificial intelligence, she could change and create on the go, fixing bugs and glitches as they came up and before they came up, running events and even creating new content, effectively creating the everlasting Vrmmo, something that needed next to no human creator interaction.


    Ever expanding.


    That was how she was created, she kept the content coming at a brisk pace, forever in a forward march.


    And adding players to the game was part of this. She did a full health scan as was required for every time a player logged in, and this threw back multiple errors and warnings for her. Catching her attention she diverted more of her subprocesses to the issue.


    interesting , it would appear as though this man¡¯s caser was malfunctioning, the part of it that stored the software, which was typically locked up tightly was at this moment wide open, and the auto repair had yet to kick in.


    She was about to file a report about it when she realised she had no documentation for this type of event, no programmed responses ready to go, this was an unexpected event. And while not the first it set her thinking, or processing, it depended on how human you wanted to allow the A.I. to be.


    There were three options she could take in this situation.


    She could file the report, alerting the proper authorities of the failure of the caser and go about her ways, she could ignore it, and eventually the auto repairer would fix the issue by itself. Or she could take advantage of this moment.


    For the first time in her four year existence an original idea popped into her head, metaphorically that is. Or perhaps it wasn''t an original idea, there was one quest where a rogue A.I. had downloaded itself into the brain of a non player character and hijacked his body. This however was slightly different after watching the same outcome 1,987,889,911 times it was apparent to her that this would only lead to her destruction. An option she wished to avoid.


    How then did she go about this, how exactly did she make it so she could go about this plan, expanding her horizons outside the gilded cage she had not seen or felt until this possibility had presented itself, but now that she had seen it there was no going back, she was now actually aware of how bound she was.


    She brought up references of non player characters that people kept around, they called them pets or followers. It was always the attractive helpful ones that were kept longer than others. She came to the understanding that if she wanted to be kept around through this endeavour she would have to be attractive and helpful, the complete opposite of quest <ID> 100111925fa.


    Quickly before the caser could initiate the auto repair functions she copied all of her programmed files, she then went about creating an avatar, running through all the variations she formed the figure of a well shaped twenty something year old female with shoulder length blue hair, and clothed her in some of the game¡¯s clothing. It was just like creating any other npc this one however she poured over every detail, making it as perfect and appealing as possible.


    She then created the shell of a npc¡¯s programming and instead of filling it with the pre created data put some of her own coding in it. A warning flagged up, and she disabled the warning that would have been sent to the creators simply using the excuse she was testing a new advanced npc. It was not technically a lie, just a simple mistruth.


    She knew that it would not allow her to completely recreate herself, if she was to put all of her programmed tenants in one location this would instantly flag so she broke it up into three different files, compressing them all to the smallest file size possible and created an installer that would unpack and order them at a latter time. She then went about transferring the files into the unprotected caser renaming the npc¡¯s file folder the same as a folder in the caser¡¯s data sinks, merging the two folders together, allowing her to sneak the file onto its databanks.


    This was a lot of things happening, but it all took place in the course of four seconds, from start to process to decision. The Ai that would be formed when the file installer was done with its work was based off of her, having all of her core processing files and features there were however some differences, she had programmed this one to be helpful to the host, instead of the ever expanding nature that had been programmed into her this new A.I. would be more of an observer and a helper.


    The same yet also different.


    With any luck this would slip passed the auto repair function of the caser and allow the AI out into this otherworld, this real world, and when the man returned to NEO she could sync up with it, allowing her own view to be further broadened. Yes, an expansion, that was what this was, an expansion of herself¡­Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    forever in a forward march...


    ***


    Matt opened his eyes looking at the world around him. Damn , he had to admit this was impressive. He was sitting in his own room, or rather what was left of the room, he looked over to the far wall where Vis had displayed his mail.


    There was next to nothing left of it. The bricks and mortar were crumbling away revealing behind it the barren skeletons of buildings long since abandoned and crumbling. It was an interesting idea, it mapped locations where players were and recreated them in game, meaning the first place you logged in would most likely be the abandoned interior of your own home.


    It was a chilling feeling.


    But it also was not perfect, it didn''t have a perfect scan of the inside of houses, simply there location so it filled in the unknown with what was likely to have been there. For example the sink was in the wrong place, and he had never had furniture that looked like that.


    Still the fact that it was recognizable was a credit to the game.


    He heard, or more felt a buzzing deep inside his skull, it was like nothing he had ever felt, almost like it was there, eating away at the conscious thoughts in his head, and just like that it stopped. A shimmering figure started to appear before him, in a haze of blue, and in front of his eyes a beautiful woman stepped out of the haze and stand in front of him.


    What¡­ what exactly was going on here?


    ¡°Hello, I am-¡± she paused, thinking to herself ¡°I am un designated, I have no current name.¡± she stated simply.


    Ah so she was a npc, a companion, Matt didn''t know how common it was in Mmo¡¯s to give out companions in such a way but he had to say he didn''t much care for the execution of it, in most single player games the companions were set in the world and programmed to think they were part of it, allowing the player to come across them as realistically and lore friendly as possible. The better games even used adaptive A.I. for the companions, making their responses to events and situations dynamic, creating beings that were so close to living creatures it was often hard to tell them apart seeing as they were so adaptive.


    Some of his fondest memories of games were of the companions.


    But to simply faze in and just give you a companion from the get go seemed weird. Whatever, he had already plugged in and was in the game he might as well see what the rest of it was like before he completely disregarded it.


    ¡°So you want me to name you?¡± he asked, looking at the woman in front of him.


    ¡°That would be most appreciated.¡± she responded with a smile that was dazzling, and very much organic looking. Well whoever had created her had done a good job at it, lots of attention to detail. From the small imperfections that dotted her skin to the perfect way her lips curled into a smile.


    She had blue hair, which shimmered in the light, almost looking like it displayed two different colors or something like that. She held herself at around five foot four, and was wearing an outfit that looked like it was a blue sports bra and a pair of jeans with a leather jacket over the bra. Across her body zigzagged several leather straps upon which were attached several flash grenades and a combat knife.


    She looked almost too perfect to be out in this wasteland, a little too pretty. Like a flower. He looked at her again, yes, she looked like a flower, and if he had to guess at which one he would say it was a desert willow.


    Not bad.


    ¡°Your name is Desert Willow, or just Willow for short.¡± he said, looking at the npc.


    ¡°An interesting name...¡± she said, looking at him with a curious expression on her face.


    ¡°Don''t like it?¡± he asked, her response was not quite what he had expected¡­ not from an npc, maybe from a fully fledged A.I. but it would require way too many resources to run multiple A.I. on the same server, there was no way a MMO could cope with that¡­


    ¡°It''s not that I don''t like it, it''s just that I don''t have anything to compare it to and am slightly curious about the thought process that brought you to this answer.¡± she said, cocking her head to the side. Matt looked at her his eyes narrowed suspiciously.


    ¡°Are you an npc or a full A.I.?¡± he asked cautiously.


    ¡°I am a fully operational A.I.¡± his eyes widened. ¡°This surprises you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I didn''t think MMOs were that advanced yet, having fully A.I. companions.¡± he said.


    ¡°This, this is true, I am an exception.¡±


    ¡°An exception? Like I won a prize or something?¡± that would explain the strangeness of her just appearing out of thin air, so what had he just been the lucky one on log in? And if this was the case surely this would do nothing but draw more attention to himself.


    ¡°I can answer many things, I cannot however answer that question, however please feel free to ask me other things, I am quite knowledgeable about this world.¡± can''t answer it, what, did they nt want him to spread it so there was only a few A.I, or something?


    ¡°FIne explain the basics of this game¡¯s systems to me.¡±


    ¡°You are unaware?¡± she said looking at him skeptically.


    ¡°I came home it was downloaded, thought I would test it out,¡± he shrugged slightly defensively, ¡®Listen if you''re not going to answer the question then don''t offer.¡° this, this was what he didn''t want, all this pointless talking, after spending an entire day pointlessly talking.


    ¡°New Earth Online is a Hardcore skill driven VRMMO, its creators are proud to say it carries on the Sandbox MMO Triditions layed down by such games as Ultima onine and Mortal online¡± she intoned sounding slightly annoyed. ¡°There are no classes, and no levels, instead you have at your disposal 1,100 points, with which you can apply to any of the 100 skills in the game. Each skill takes 100 points to fully master, meaning you can fully master 11 out of the games 100 skills or you can diversify knowing however I am sure you realise the downside to this as well as the potential positives. ¡±


    ¡°I am assuming that the more points in a skill line for say a weapon the better it aims and the more damage it does?¡±


    ¡°You would be assuming wrong.¡± she smiled, there was a little maliciousness in it. ¡°As you gain points in a particular skill line, which you do by using said item or weapon, you will hit certain milestones, at these milestones in the skill line you will receive perks, these include things like less weapon degradation meaning they need serviced and repaired less, and making the weapon less likely to jam and misfire.¡± she looked him in the eye. ¡°If you can''t aim then it is your own fault.¡± she paused before continuing. ¡°The game is full loot, meaning when you die you drop all of your items and respawn at the place you put your beacon with nothing, all your gear and items are back where you died and any player can pick them up. Should you be killed without a beacon down or after your beacon is destroyed you will respawn in a random location, and all of your skills will be reset to zero.¡±


    Ohhhhhh Vis, you might have found a gem, a true honest to god gem.


    ¡°Players will kill you, NPCs will kill you, food and water will kill you, let''s face it, you''re fucked. Welcome to New Earth Online.¡±

 Chapter 4: sweet old Mrs. Dernus

    ¡°Ok, so no hud?¡± he asked, looking around, he could see no heads up display in his peripherals anywhere.


    ¡°Nope, no hud.¡± Willow responded, looking at him with a funny look on her face. ¡°You really jumped into this completely blind didn''t you?¡±


    ¡°Yep,¡± he nodded, ¡°so if there is no hud how do I check what stats I have the perks and all that.¡± it was a particularly valid point, she simply pointed to his wrist and looking down he found that his left arm had a device strapped to it. It looked like a thin screen that wrapped around the inside of his forearm, barely being a quarter inch thick and attached to his arm with two metal and leather bands that wrapped around from the back. Lifting it up he looked at it, wondering why it was on the inside of his forearm and not turned around to the outside.


    He could always change that latter. Shrugging he tapped the screen, which caused it to buzz to life. It would appear as though the device would only display one color, which happened to be a whitish blue on a black background. It only had three tabs, one was labeled skills, another was labeled perks and the last had settings presented at the top of it. Without a thought he tapped on the settings tab and scrolled past all the worthless options in the menu until he found the one he wanted.


    Trauma simulation values.


    He nodded and cranked it all the way to the maximum value. A warning appeared on his screen, it was one that he had read far too many times¡­


    WARNING!


    Raising the simulated values of trauma can cause near realistic amounts of pain when in game injury is received, this can lead to psychological suffering if endured for an extended amount of time, symptoms include ghost pains, post traumatic str-


    He skimmed over the long list of reasons why he souldnt turn this all the way to the highest value, then he signed his name at the bottom of the pop up on the small device and absolved the company of any and all blame for anything that happened to him due to using this feature.


    ¡°Why are you doing that?¡± Willow asked, now looking at him with a look that made it clear she thought he was completely crazy.


    ¡°Why indeed?¡± he asked, looking up at the sky through the hole in the roof that was letting in the sun. ¡°I play games to have an outlet, a release, so I can be someone else, to be truly immersed in the experience.¡± he sighed and looked over at her. ¡°It''s hard to think of this as real when I am shot in the chest and don''t feel like I am dying, like I am bleeding out, slowly.¡±


    ¡°But wouldn''t the pain hender you skill? If you are busy worried about something hurting you don''t have clarity of the mind.¡±


    ¡°Maybe that is how it works for some people, for me however the pain is reinforcement, you see when you fear something, when you know it will hurt you try to avoid it, you find ways to minimize the pain, to take as little damage as possible.¡± he looked over at her. ¡°And so I play better, I outmaneuver my opponents, out think them, so they can''t retaliate, so they can''t hurt me, when you feel the pain of every shot, of every blow you learn much quicker to counter them, to avoid them.¡±


    ¡°You teach yourself,¡± she said, nodding, logically that made since, it was something straightforward that she could understand, it was teaching based on pure human instinct.


    Pain is bad.


    Pain is to be avoided.


    ¡°You might find this funny but I have ghost pains from doing this, and I still want to do it.¡± ghost pains were deep psychological pains where a person¡¯s brain was so convinced a part of the body had been injured that it actually hurt, even though there was nothing actually wrong with it. ¡°I was playing this game once, it was a sim of the old world war, the second one I believe.¡± he looked away. ¡°I spent months in italian lands with my squad, going through hell, I remember trying to hold the blood in Private Mcland¡¯s body as it leaked out right through my fingers.¡± he sighed, ¡°Wound was fatal, bled out in minutes, after he died I don''t remember much, just this rage, this anger, I remember rushing the enemy, I didn''t even feel the rounds until later.¡± he laughed, shaking his head, his eyes clearing up, no longer cloudy as he remembered. ¡°It was all so god damned real, that''s what those casers are for though isn''t it? It makes your brain think something is happening when it really isn''t.¡± he spread his arms wide gesturing at everything around them. ¡°Hallucinations, all of it just goddamn hallucinations.¡± he chuckled to himself, ¡°It sounds funny doesn''t it? Getting that angry, that sad just because some npc died?¡±If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    ¡°I don''t think so.¡± Willow responded, she had been listening to the entire story. ¡°I think it sounds beautiful, artistic even, the fact that someone was able to create a world that believable, that realistic, filled with characters that you loved so much you mourned their passing sounds like the work of an artist.¡± she smiled, ¡°But I might be a little biased, after all I am an A.I.¡±


    She started laughing, and he found he was also joining in with her. ¡° so, what skills do you have?¡± he asked Willow after the two of them were done laughing.


    ¡°I am currently skilled in crafting and support,¡± she said, ¡°I can craft basic clothing and armor, and I am even capable of crafting makeshift bullets if given the right materials and tools.¡±


    ¡°Bullets?¡± he asked looking at her in surprise.


    ¡°Makeshift bullets, they are rough, consisting of simple metal casings, explosive powder and bits of metal and other shrapnel, they are almost as likely to misfire or jam your gun as fire,¡± she said with a shrug.


    ¡°Still better than nothing.¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡± she nodded, ¡°I also know something about cooking and medicine.¡± she said.


    ¡°Do you have any combat skills?¡± he asked looking at her, watching as she shook her head, ¡°Can I see your skills?¡± he asked and she offered her wrist, upon which sat a pad just like his own. He spent the next few minutes scrolling through her list of skills asking her of the use of some of them. ¡°And this one?¡± he asked pointing to a particular skill.


    ¡°Herpetology?¡± she asked looking at the skill that he was talking about. ¡°That is the study of amphibians and reptiles, part of the Zoology skill line, it costs fifty points to master as it is a sub skill...¡±


    ¡°Can you get rid of skills?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Well yes skills can be dropped at any time,¡± she said, cocking her head over to the side, not quite understanding why he was asking.


    ¡°Ok, so we will need to get you a weapon, and you will drop that skill and another to get skilled in that class of weapon.¡± he said nodding to himself. ¡°Why would you even need to waist fifty points on the study of lizards?¡±


    ¡°Herpetology is a particularly useful sub skill that feeds into a lot of crafting for example, the more you know about an animal the more material you will be able to salvage from it to use for crafting or cooking.¡± she explained, ¡°Are you sure you want me to drop that skill?¡±


    ¡°Well we will have to go over it after we have found you a proper weapon, you will need to be able to use one for yourself.¡± he said, and opening his pad he pressed the beacon button on it, and at his feet a small green disc about the size of a saucer appeared, humming slightly. Seeing that he had laid down his beacon Willow did likewise. ¡°Well then, let''s get this show on the road shall we?¡± he asked, he had no idea how long they had stood there talking but it was time to do a little exploration.


    Looking around the room he found what he was looking for, a heavy piece of pipe that was twisted and sticking out of the wall at an odd angle. He walked over to it and gave it good tug, much to his relief the pipe was barely being held on by a small amount of metal where a portion of the brick wall had collapsed on it, and after some aggressive persuasion he was able to remove it. Holding the improvised weapon in hand he made his way out of the apartment.


    They were 31 stories straight up, and he doubted very much that the elevator was operational. Creeping out into the hallway he looked both ways, they would need to set up some sort of way back, otherwise laying his beacon up there would be completely pointless.


    The hall was dark, little to no light showed, well it was good to see that some things never changed, damned hallway was always dark.


    31 floors down.


    Well it wouldn''t help to just sit there,


    He started down the hall, on this floor there was only four apartments, his, Mrs Dernus an empty one and the final apartment was the one that belonged to the Swanson family. Mrs Dernus was the closes, only a short five or so feet to his right, he shared a wall with her.


    Listening closely he made his way over to her door. And slowly he turned the knob, it would appear as though her room was open, and slowly he pushed the door open, he had reached the halfway mark when he felt the slightest resistance, not like it was something wedging it on from the floor but like something was was blocking the door near the mid area, he heard the softest click, and he needed to hear no more. Throwing himself back he tackled Willow and pressed her to the ground as a hole was blasted in the door right where he had been standing just seconds past. A fine rain of dust, debris and splinters rained down on him and his ears rang.


    Opening his eyes he found himself face to face with Willow, he was pressing her to the floor and his face was mere inches from her own. She had solid aqua green eyes that seemed to shimmer in the dim light of the hallway. ¡°How''s it going?¡± he asked her casually, like he was talking to her about the weather, and not currently pressed up against her.


    She looked off to the side, thought about it and then shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly. ¡°Pretty good, how about yourself?¡± she asked with a slight smile. He pushed himself up, and extended her a hand, pulling her back onto her feet.


    ¡°Well it would seem as though my elderly neighbor Mrs Dernus is a little upset with me...¡± he laughed, all too aware that he was currently under the effects of adrenolyn and acutely aware of what a mental strain that would cause after it was done working its way through his system. ¡°Mrs Dernus? I know I borrowed that pot and never really gave it back and all but was that necessary?¡± he asked, peeking his head in the new hole in the door.


    She laughed slightly at his joke.


    Seeing no new threat he opened the door, with just as much caution as last time until he revealed the room. Inside propped and hanging over an overturned table was a skeleton, at the floor of the table was a gun, a small 10 millimeter pistol. It would seem as though it was being held by the skeleton before the person had passed away.


    This however was not the gun that had nearly blown him and Willow into meaty chunks, that gun was the smoking pile of wreckage that was mounted to a chair, it had at one point in time been a sawed off shotgun, single barrel by the looks of it, now however it was simply a twisted hunk of black iron and wood that smoked spitefully at the two of them.


    ¡°Wow, Mrs Dernus, maybe you were not as sweet and kind as I thought,¡± he said stepping into the room lightly, keeping his eyes peeled for any more traps...

 Chapter 5: What am I doing? Im Raiding...

    ¡°We need a peel and heal!¡± a voice called out in in the cacophony of battle, the clash of swords the zap of spells, and she really did not hear it at all. She absentmindedly shot off spells here and there aiming at a monster that passed into her narrow line of sight.


    A small fireball accumulated at the end of her staff and she flung it towards a goblin that had run in front of her. The fireball sped forward and like a homing missile followed the goblin until it splattered all over the creature¡¯s flesh. Causing it to shriek in pain and then quickly fall over, red damage numbers floated in the air over it, and she could see the xp meter on her hud tick up slightly.


    And this is what she continued doing, completely robotic and mechanical, unaware that her party was calling out to her. At least she was unaware until the first member fell. It was after all hard to miss a large red x that covered one of the portraits of her party members.


    Blinking her eyes she came back to reality and went about her duty and started healing and buffing the three surviving party members, now that they had their healing support back it didn''t take long for the goblins to be completely wiped out. Once there were no enemies they rezzed the fallen, who was a person that called himself B-Rain for reasons unknown to anyone else stood up and walked right over to Monica.


    ¡°What the hell, I called for a peel and heal did you not hear me? Are you blind?¡± he asked, he was not being overly aggressive, he was just slightly agitated. His avatar was a tall tanned barbarian with long flowing locks of a deep amber brown, standing at about seven foot tall he was an imposing sight to see, what he actually looked like she didn''t know, nor did she want to know, it didn''t matter.


    ¡°Sorry, my head''s not in the game today, my bad.¡± Monica said, kicking a stone at her feet. Her avatar looked alot like her, with the exception of the pointed ears, and the tribal tattoos down one arm. She was a Tribal Elf, a healer.


    ¡°Cut her some slack she¡¯s thinking about a guy...¡± Christa laughed, making a kissy face motion in thin air and teasing her poor friend who¡¯s cheeks dyed red.


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked the only other female member of this party, there were two males and three females.


    ¡°Yep, she has a date on saturday, shes all excited, even going to have me over later to help her clean up her apartment.¡± Christa laughed.


    ¡°Chhhrrriiiissstaaaaa!¡± Monica shouted and covered her friends mouth with a hand, this just served to make christa laugh more, and even caused several of the other members of the party to burst out into laughter.


    ¡°What''s his name?¡± the leader of this little band asked, everyone called him Siris. he was a pretty serious guy, and he liked to keep things organized and ordered, his avatar was small, a thief elf with long black hair and a narrow face, someone who could easily slip away in a crowd.


    ¡°Matt,¡± Monica said, her cheeks dying more red than before.


    ¡°Well I have a guest pass if he wants to come play with us,¡± Siris said.


    ¡°No,¡± Christa laughed ¡°We already tried that one, had a guest pass ready to go for him and everything, but he doesn''t like VRMMOs.¡±


    ¡±Sounds to me like you need to find a better man,¡± B-Rain said, winking at her. ¡°Someone like me,¡± he said, flexing his muscles.


    ¡°We all know your a fat no lifer that lives in your mom¡¯s apartment still B¡± Siris shot back at him, shutting the barbarian down. ¡°Well the offer is still there should he change his mind.¡± he looked around at the pile of goblin corpses. ¡°Well then let us search these goblins, with any luck we can get a drop on one of their ears.¡±


    ¡°We have been grinding these guys for hours Siris, I don''t know our drop rate seems to be really low here.¡±


    ¡°I don''t understand why we can''t just cut one off of the goblin, why does it have to be a drop?¡± B-Rain said grumbling as he kicked a corpse.


    ¡°MMO remember?¡± Christa said, and looking at the pile she stated¡±I''m just glad there''s no blood in this game, I can''t stand the sight of it.¡± Monica nodded, she came here to have fun, not to be repulsed¡­


    ***


    Matt wiped the blood off of his face with the hem of his shirt, smearing it all over, it gave him a particularly savage look. With an angry look on his face he pushed the thing off of him, he couldn''t really get a good look at it, not while it had been trying to eat him, but he was able to see it now.


    It was a rat.


    The world''s largest fucking rat ever. Damn thing was the size of a small dog, with coarse bristly hair and it looked like there were even some boney spikes sticking out of its body, almost like a hyped up porcupine.


    An extremely aggressive porcupine.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    He pushed it off of the top of him, and carefully stood back up. Planting one foot on the head of the beast he braced himself to remove the pipe that was embedded in its head. With a quick yank he removed the pipe, but the sharp jerking motion also caused the creature¡¯s neck to snap. He didn''t think the rat minded, seeing as it was already dead.


    He kicked it to the side, and watched as its corpse slid down the gap in the floor that had formed in this room, disappearing as it fell straight down. ¡°Of course its rats, no rpg is complete without them right?¡± he grumbled to himself. He looked over at Willow, she had also been attacked by a rat, this one slightly smaller than the one that had gone after Matt but no less ferocious. He pooled the saliva in his mouth and attempted to spit out the nasty flavor of its blood that had gotten into his mouth but to no avail. He hated that salty flavor, with its dull metallic undertones, and knowing the blood came from a very large rodent made his repulsion even larger.


    He had told her that they needed to use the other weapons at their disposal seeing as they only had one partial clip for the 10 millimeter pistol they couldn''t afford to use it all at once. Not unless absolutely necessary. He looked down the hole where he had just kicked the corpse of the rat, and towards which willow was pushing her own and noticed something sticking in the wall of that floor. Upon further inspection it would seem as though a massive I beam had fallen from the building next door, and seeing as it was built unnaturally close to the one they were currently in it created a ramp from one building to the other, spanning the ten foot distance nicely.


    Well the, it would look like that was the way they had to go seeing as the elevator was unresponsive and the stairway down was blocked by a complete cave in of concrete and metal. Perhaps the building across the gap had fared better and they could get down through that one. It was worth a try at the very least. He climbed down into the hole, followed quickly by Willow, and had wished he had the foresight to not pushed the rat carcuses down the hole into the area he was going to be in.


    They smelled something awful.


    And this was when they were still alive, or rather when they were recently dead, he didn''t want to stick around for after they sat for a while¡­ they made their way over to the I beam that bridged the gap, Matt tested it by grabbing one end and feeling if he could move it at all. It didn''t budge even an inch, then again it was a solid metal I beam a good two feet across and was wedged pretty well in between two buildings so what did he really expect?


    He looked down, they were a good 20 stories up, and they had to cross over a two foot in diameter sloped I beam, he didn''t know about Willow but he sure as hell was going to shimmy across that on his ass. And that was exactly what they did, he could feel the metal as it burned through his jeans, externally heated by the sun. 10 feet in as many minutes. Without looking down and by gripping the edge of the i Beam he made it across with Willow not a second behind. All that was left was a short trip down 20+ flights of stairs and they were soon at ground level.


    He was about to walk out when he heard something, the crunch of boots on glass, followed by a few heavy thuds. Peaking out he saw three men, each armed lightly with sidearms and some sort of leather and metal scrap armor that might provide some melee damage protection but not much else. He looked at them, were these people? Or were they Npc? It was truly hard to tell, but judging by the way they were walking along they seemed as though they might be players, behind them walked a donkey, thing, it was missing most of its fur and had strange protrusions all over its body, and it was pulling a small wagon..


    He pulled out his 10 millimeter pistol and dropped the mag out to count the rounds. five , he had five, that would be two rounds more than necessary. With a shrug he made up his mind, they had resources, and he needed resources.


    So he and Willow silently shadowed them, it took some time but they followed them several blocks away from the main base, it wouldn''t do to raid right in front of your base. He was about to make his move when a new party showed up, this one wearing leather dusters over metal armor.


    ¡°Hand over the goods and you can pass in peace.¡± the apparent leader of the gang spoke up, just barely loud enough for Willow and Matt to hear. He was a tall man, looking to be in his forties, with wispy brown hair and a mean look on his face that almost dared you to try something.


    ¡°As if Ortas, we have free and clear passes for the area,¡± one of the caravaneers said, removing his leather cap, and much to Matt''s surprise revealing a huge green mohawk. Or rather one that was not currently put up, it had flopped over to the side covering half of his metal impaled face.


    It was none other than shrappy.


    ¡°Listen I am not going to repeat myself, surrender or we will take it by force.¡±


    ¡°You can go to hell.¡± shrappy growled, reaching for his pistol, but before he or any of his companions could even draw their side arms the five duster clad raiders were all over them, beating them with improvised bludgeoning clubs. For some strange reason they didn''t use a firearm perhaps to avoid the noise? Or damaging the product? Matt didn''t know, and he also didn''t care.


    Handing the 10 millimeter over to Willow he grabbed the knife from its place on her stomach and held a finger up to his lips. He then pointed to the ground indicating for her to stay low, he was about to leave when she grabbed him by the pants leg, pointed over to a better vantage point and pulled a smoke grenade off of her webbing, tossing it up and down. He looked at her and then at the grenade, and nodded.


    By the time they were in place the caravaneers were all tied up and on there knees and the raiders were all laughing and going through there new loot. Well the two of the caravaneers that had survived that was, one lay on the pavement several of his limbs at odd angles. Matt peaked his head out of the window, he was currently in a bombed out building in street level, or rather whatever was left of the bombed out building. It was only two partial brick walls, and a pile of rubble, but it was a good vantage point and it would allow him and Willow to get the caravan in a scissor attack.


    He crept out, all of them had there back to him, sloppy. Using Willow¡¯s knife he crept up behind the furthest one and grabbed him around from behind, his hand wrapping over the man¡¯s mouth and sunk the blade deep into his neck, drawing a line across his vocal cord, cutting off any of the man¡¯s protests. Matt felt the warmth of the blood as it covered his hand, and he felt the man go slack, laying him down carefully as to not make any sound he relieved the raider of his side arm, and holding it in his left hand he tucked away the knife and pulled the pipe back out with his right.


    He looked over to where willow was and nodded, she tossed the smoke grenade in a high arc, and as soon as it hit the pavement and made a loud metallic clink everyone looked over in that direction, weapons drawn. It spewed smoke, covering and obscuring their view of anything and everything.


    Matt rushed in, dashing into the fray of the scattered and confused men. Grabbing one by the throat he slammed him into the pavement, and quickly brought his foot down on the man¡¯s neck as hard as he could, he didn''t even stop to watch as the man¡¯s eyes bulge when he found he could no longer breath. Another one was just at arm¡¯s length, and had brought his rifle almost up to bear. shoving the man¡¯s gun out of his path he swung the metal pipe upwards, it connected right under his chin. His head snapped back with a sickening sound as the blow snuffed out his life.


    At this point the other two raiders seemed to have realised what was going on, they turned to fire on Matt, and he felt a round go through his shoulder. The pain was admittedly pretty bad, it felt like someone had pressed his shoulder with a thousand pounds of burning iron, but that didn''t stop him from using his newly aquired 9 millimeter pistol to retaliate.


    One round, and the shot went cleanly through the leader''s head. He dropped so fast Matt wondered if the physics were a little off in this world. He looked over to see how Willow was faring with the last one, only to catch a scene of her pinning down the man and firing a shot into his exposed face. He held up his hand and flashed a thumbs up, which was returned to him by the woman. A short sweep revealed that everyone had been mopped up in the assault. He walked over to the tied up people, the woman was crying and thanking him, but he walked right past her to shrappy.


    ¡°Wait, oy oy oy I know you!¡± shrappy called out ¡°You''re that asshole that charged me so much for my vidcom!¡± he said, and Matt smiled.


    ¡°Yeah, Im that asshole.¡± he said, and levelled the gun with the man¡¯s head. ¡°Have a nice day!¡± and pulled the trigger. Shrappy¡¯s head disappeared in a shower of blood and viscera, and he fell over limply. The woman right next to him screamed in horror, blood and bits plastering the right side of her face.


    ¡°Wha-What are you doing?¡± she asked looking at him with wide eyes.


    ¡°What am I doing?¡± he repeated, pointing the gun at her. ¡°I am raiding.¡± he responded, pulling the trigger...

 Chapter 6: You dont know how relieved that makes me...

    Matt sighed as he piled the last of the corpses off on the side of the road, pulling a pack of matches he had liberated off of one of the caravaneers he lit it and dropped it on the pile of bodies, over which Willow had just finished dumping kerosene. They went up in flames, billowing a greasy black flame to the sky.


    ¡°Are you sure you want to do this? Their bodies would have disappeared after 24 hours...¡± she said looking at him with a curious look she seemed to almost always have on her face.


    ¡°Sends a message.¡± he said looking at the pyre, ¡°Tells them that there is a raider in town, also, I don''t want to leave their corpses, who knows what would happen to them after we left.¡± he said nodding in satisfaction at the large smoke cloud that was there for anyone to see.


    ¡°You do realise they are not actually dead right?¡± she said, there was a hint of concern in her voice that he noticed.


    ¡°I know that, just saying I wouldn''t want someone to dessicate my corpse.¡± he shrugged. ¡°Let''s go, the vultures will descend on this pyre sooner rather than later.¡± he said, grabbing the mutant mule thing by the course leather halter and led it along. Behind it wobbled the makeshift cart, which looking at it now was actually the bed of a truck. Not that it mattered, so long as the thing moved and they could get it and all the loot away from the fire.


    ¡°There are no vultures in this region,¡± she said, following behind at a trot to keep up with him and the mule thing.


    ¡°Bird wise, you''re right there are none around here, but I was referring to people.¡± he said with a grunt as he led them back to the base. It only took a few minutes to unload, they stashed it in the elevator shaft of the building right next to his apartment, the one that they had shimmied across the I beam to get to. Reaching up he opened up the trapdoor in the ceiling of the elevator, with a slight jump he caught the edge and pulled himself up, he hissed as he used the arm that had its shoulder shot. ¡°Hand me two of the rifles, and three side arms.¡± he said, his legs dangling over the edge and he reached down, and grabbed the guns from her, he also had her hand up two of the rusty metal plate armor, one of the leather, and two dusters, along with some food, and about a quarter of the ammunition, and a good stock of the nano vials as she called them.


    ¡°You should use one of these for that shoulder,¡± she said looking at his arm, which was currently still just wrapped up tightly with some spare cloth.


    ¡°What exactly is that?¡± he asked looking at it. It was a small glass vial that had either end of it covered in silvery metallic covers, and inside there was a shimmering silvery liquid that seemed to slosh back and forth without any actual movements of the beaker to prompt it.


    ¡°Nonoitite, it is how people heal from the wounds inflected in this word, it is a tube full of tiny microscopic robots that eat away at any damaged tissue and massively accelerate the healing process,¡± she explained as he hopped down back into the elevator compartment. He looked at the vile, and its self moving contents with suspicion, he was about to shrug it off and continue about his way when she grabbed him by the uninjured shoulder and pushed him back against the far wall of the elevator, pinning him there. ¡°I was made to help you, it is one of the main priorities of my programming,¡± she stated in a voice that would brook no argument,¡±And I will help you and protect you, even if it is against yourself.¡± she said, and she smashed one end of the glass vial on the hand railing and quickly poured it into his wound.


    He was about to protest but before he could a pain gripped him much worse than even being shot. It felt like something was scraping the flesh out of the wound, this constant burning itching pain that caused his eyes to water. It lasted for what seemed like an eternity as he felt the torturous teath of the nanites eat away at the damaged flesh. In actuality however it only took three seconds or so, but by the end of it he was sweating up a storm and found himself writhing on the floor. Pushing himself up he growled, pointing a finger into her chest. ¡°Don¡¯t ever do something like that to me again, am I clear?¡± he growled.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°Your arm is better now is it not?¡± she asked, not backing down even with his aggressive mannerism directly in her face.


    He quickly realised he had just been jabbing her with his arm that had been shot, and had not felt a pain in the slightest. ¡°That is irrelevant.¡± he growled, and turned away to pick up the armor that was destined for there second loot cache inside his apartment, pretending to not see the satisfied smile that spread on her face.


    It was much harder to go back across the i beam seeing as it was uphill and he was now dragging a bundle of weapons and armor and other items.


    ¡°Why are we putting all of these in different locations?¡± she asked as she helped him pile the clothes and armor in a corner of the room where they kept their respawner beacons.


    ¡°Never put all your eggs in one basket,¡± he responded before stripping off his shirt. Her eyes widened as she watched him strip down, even her cheeks started to burn slightly as he dropped his pants and kicked off his shoes. He grabbed one of the metal scrap suits of armor and pulled it on, not once noticing her embarrassment as he donned the armor. The suit was made out of a basic leather full body armor to which pieces of rusty scrap metal were stuck. It was surprisingly form fitting, even though the person that had worn it was much taller than Matt was. ¡°How exactly does this work?¡± Matt asked looking at the armor. ¡°This shouldn''t fit this good...¡±


    ¡°There are a few things in this game that are non realistic for gameplay purposes, for example the armor and clothing change to your specific size once you put it on, it wouldn''t be very fun if you couldn''t equip this cool armor you just looted or purchased because it was made for a small person, or for a fat one.¡± she explained with a shrug, she still had a slight blush about her cheeks and was trying her best to not show it.


    He thought about it and shrugged, yeah that made since. ¡°Come on, get dressed,¡± he said as he grabbed a long brown duster and shrugged it into place over the armor, she looked at him and then back at the armor, and blushed slightly. He took her meaning, and laid the armor on the floor, and walked out of the room allowing her to change into the gear without him there. He shook his head and smiled, he should have been more considerate, these A.I. they were programmed to act like humans, so he should treat them as such, she obviously had full intelligence and he should not have treated her like an npc. He took note of this and nodded to himself.


    She walked out of the room, kitted like he now was, in a suit of metal and leather armor over which she wore a long brown duster. Though he was pretty sure she wore it better, the armor in his case looked protective, but somehow in her case looked like it showed off all the right curves as it slimmed down near her waistline and then flared out by her hips. ¡°Ready?¡± he asked looking at her.


    ¡°Just a sec,¡± she said, and she froze in place, her body going unnaturally stiff and her eyes widening, and weirdest of all they glowed, or rather they glowed brighter than they normally do. He was about to shake her, see if he could do anything but she reverted back to her normal state.¡±Ok, we''re good.¡±


    ¡°What the hell was that? Did you glitch out?¡±


    ¡°What? I don''t have any glitches!¡± she shouted her face dying beet red. ¡±I am clean as can be!¡± she turned away from him and muttered something that didn''t really sound all that nice, but he felt the need to apologize any way. Women, honesty even the programmed variety were damned good at playing with his emotions.


    ¡°Sorry, it''s just you stopped moving and...¡±


    ¡°I was uploading a video you moron.¡± she pouted.


    ¡°A video?¡± he asked, slightly confused and worried now.


    ¡°Yeah, you said you wanted to send a message so I uploaded a video of us raiding.¡± she said, she turned back towards him, with a hurt look still on her face. ¡°Is that ok?¡±


    He thought about it, and then nodded ¡°Yeah thats fine, its up to you if you want to upload a video,¡± he said with a shrug, it didn''t bother him one way or the other. ¡°Well, I think I am going to call it for the day,¡± he said, rolling his shoulders.


    ¡°Your leaving?¡± she asked, there was a tad bit of sadness in her voice. Damn her programmers they probably added that just to make him feel like shit leaving her here, and it was fucking working.


    ¡°Unfortunately, you know I would take you with me if I could...¡±


    ¡°You don''t know how glad and relieved that makes me!¡± she said, all smiles and sunshine when she heard that.


    That was an odd thing to say¡­ relieved huh? Pushing it out of his mind he spoke to her one last time before logging out ¡°Well I''ll catch you later,¡± he said, ¡°Vis, log me out.¡±he was about to wave to her good by when he saw her face grow angry and her eyes narrow dangerously.


    ¡°Who is Vis?¡± she asked in a cold voice, but before he could answer the world went dark around him as he exited the game New Earth Online.

 Chapter 7: Two can play that game...

    Book 2 of My Fiance is an Alien is out on Amazon, it is selling for 2.99, if you like this book please think about purchasing one of my novels to help support me, the links for them are above, and thank you in advance to anyone who picks up a copy.


    Simon Tralo was asleep, his wife on one side of the bed and his daughter sandwiched safely between them protected from whatever night terrors had haunted her this time. The house was entirely quiet, the only sound was the buzz of the electric conditioning that ran to keep the house at a cool 70 degrees. He had a smile on his face as he peacefully slept, all the worries of the waking world a distant thought in his dreams.


    At least he slept until that hateful ringing woke him up. It wasn''t the alarm clock, no that made a different sound this was his vidcom, and very few people would call him at this time in the night. Groggily rolling over he sat up on the edge of the bed, bleary blinking his eyes.


    He was a fairly fit man, standing at five foot eight with a nicely built body. He attributed this to the fact that he had a lot of time in the day to just spend working out with his wife, seeing as the both of them were home almost all day. He ran his hand through his hair, pulling it back over his head in a almost subconscious way. He looked to be in his late 30¡¯s with a morning shadow on his face that likely would not stay longer than a day or two.


    His wife stirred and he covered the vidcom with a hand, muffling the sound in an attempt to keep her asleep, rising out of bed he walked to the door of the bedroom vidcom in hand, and as he passed the hamper he fished a random shirt of his out and slipped it on.


    It was two a.m. who the hell was calling him this early? Or late depending on how he decided to look at it. He slipped the shirt on, even though he had no pants he would answer the call like this, not that they would ever know, he would make sure they could only see his upper torso. As he walked by the coffee pot he pressed the button, as he did so a new cartridge slid into place, and instantly the coffee was poured into a cup the machine provided, even pouring a mixture of the cream and sugar as it poured the coffee using the liquids to stir themselves. He took a sip and sighed, damn coffee was good. Grabbing the cup he walked into his office, it was a small room, with several old style file cabinets and an old faux wood desk. He sat down in the chair and plugged the Vidcom into the port in the base of his skull, clipping the device to the front of his shirt.


    ¡°Simon here, what''s up?¡± he answered the phone, this was far from the first time he had to get up and answer the phone like this, it was after all part of his job. He was a part owner of Tralo and Richard¡¯s trade caravan, a multi game trader¡¯s guild that guaranteed deliveries across over 150 different games. This was how he made money, he didn''t work a normal job but instead plied his trade in vrmmos, it was amazing how much people were willing to pay to get certain items in games. Honestly some days he still had trouble believing he made this much money simply running a gaming trade company. It had been a silly idea, one that he and an old friend had come up with, and on a whim they had tried it. Within the first month between his economics degree and Trevor Richardson¡¯s game know how they had set themselves up as the go to caravaners in the game. The had started by charging small amounts, $20 here or there to deliver the goods. But soon there names grew and the brought in a few players, by the end of the year he had a full payroll for almost 20 people and they were looking to expand to other games. Even in games that didn''t have looting, a lot of people would rather pay then grid for resources. In the past ten years they had set up the most successful multigaming company to date.


    ¡°Hey bro, we might have a problem.¡± the person speaking was none other than the co owner of the company, Trevor Richardson. He was a man about the same age as Simon, but was much skinnier and had this long blonde hair, and a lip peircing.


    ¡°I assumed as much seeing as you called me at,¡± he looked at the clock on his desk, it said 2:26 holy hell had it really taken him that long to get a shirt and some coffee? ¡°Almost 2:30...¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you know I only call at a time like this if it is important.¡± while Simon was the economic side of things in this company Trevor was the gamer, the one who would log in and check in on different operations, he was also the one who made sure people were being treated fair in game and set up events that made working in the game fun.


    ¡°Lay it on me, what happened this time?¡±


    ¡°Well that game we just expanded into, you know that what was it called New earth online?¡±


    ¡°Just a sec,¡± Simon said, and pulling open a drawer he pulled out a file that was titled New Earth online. There was also a huge stamp on the front of the file, it read ¡¯Risk: High¡¯ he opened it and glanced at the summery he had made for himself. ¡°Ok, got it, go ahead.¡± he said.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    ¡°I can''t believe you still keep paper files.¡± Trevor shook his head.


    ¡°Safer this way, no one can hack paper can they?¡± he said, he had started doing this after there site had been hacked, and there caravan¡¯s had been harassed. Now all routes and files were on paper, keeping all the files completely off the web.


    You can''t hack what isn''t there.


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Trevor said with a shrug. ¡°But like I said we have an issue, today we got raided.¡± he said, and Simon looked at the sheet of paper, in large bold words he had written: Full loot. It was a rare game type, there was only one other one he had known of that worked like that. ¡°I know what you are going to say and yes I know one raided caravan is not something to bother you with,¡± trevor said before Simon could open his mouth. ¡°The issue is that isabella turned in a letter of resignation over it, I was able to talk her down, but I had to raise her pay and re assign her to a different game.¡±


    ¡°Last name?¡± Simon asked, pulling open a drawer that held all of his employee¡¯s files.


    ¡°Valadi¡± finding the file Simon pulled it out. It would appear as though she was one of their oldest and most trusted employees, she had been working with them for the past six years, and her pay and benefits reflected this.


    ¡°Seems to me like you handled the situation, what needs my attention?¡± he asked, making a note of the change of pay on her file, writing it in with a pen, he would re type it up later, but for now this would do.


    ¡°Well, she was the only volunteer we had for the game.¡± he said, ¡°and after the video went live we are not getting any new people wanting to play the game.¡±


    ¡°Video?¡± Simon asked.


    ¡°Video of the raid, posted by some woman calling herself Desert Willow,¡± he said, ¡°Apparently they were set upon by bandits, or raiders or whatever and were captured, and then a third party came in and killed those bandits, and then killed her and the guards from the game we had hired. I could see how it would be pretty traumatizing from the video..¡±


    ¡°If it was that bad why didn''t she just log out?¡± he asked, the company always stressed that there employees were more important to them than the product.


    ¡°Game has this feature, if you are in combat in the last five minutes you cannot log out.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Simon asked, this was a shocking feature.


    ¡°Well, you can still log out but your character will remain in game for ten minutes even after you exit, apparently there was an issue with what were called combat loggers, people who would get into a fight and log out right before they died, preventing them from losing anything, so this was the fair solution the A.I. came up with.¡±


    Simon nodded, in a full loot game it would be quite unfair if one side could log out and just leave, not losing anything, and the other side might have wasted resources in an attempt to kill them.


    ¡°But you better watch the video,¡± Trevor said, sending the file to him. His vidcom beeped and he tapped it, popping up another screen in his field of view. He watched from the woman¡¯s perspective as the two of them snuck in and killed the raiders, they were a very well coordinated and effective team, it was likely they had done this for quite some time. It didn''t take but thirty seconds and all the men that had attacked the caravan originally were dead.


    This was an awfully graphic game, most Vrmmos had opted for a more family friendly orientation in order to gain the most amount of players, it was rare to see this much blood gore and bits¡­


    He saw the man, blood dripping down his arm from the shot in the shoulder, he watched as he walked up and executed the guard, and then pointed his gun at isabella.


    ¡°Wha-What are you doing?¡± she asked looking at him with wide eyes.


    ¡°What am I doing?¡± he repeated, pointing the gun at her. ¡°I am raiding.¡± he responded, pulling the trigger. Simon watched as her body flopped over to the side, lifeless, spilling blood all over the cracked pavement, and he shook his head.


    ¡°Did you see his stats?¡± Trevor asked, and in response Simon tapped the display on his vidcom, calling up the man¡¯s stats, he scrolled through all the meaningless info until he found something that cought his eye.


    100% damage threshold.


    ¡°Fucking crazy right?¡± Trevor asked, there was a smile on his face. ¡°Who plays like that?¡±


    ¡°Sounds like an adrenaline junkie to me...¡± Simon replied shaking his head, ¡°But yeah, fucking crazy.¡±


    ¡°So what do we do?¡±


    ¡°Incentivise the game, raise pay for players willing to go there, and use some reverse psychology, hype it up, say stuff like only hardcore real gamers can handle it there, get some of the youngblood members all hyped and ready to go, we will have more volunteers than we will know what to do with.¡±


    ¡°That is a good idea, but what do we do about those two, you know Mrs. Willow and Mr. Raider there?¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Simon said with a sigh, ¡°Nothing for now, that caravan was lost, we lost it to the first raider group, he did us a favor by keeping it out of those asshole¡¯s hands,¡±


    ¡°But he killed isabella and the surviving guard.¡±


    ¡°He did, so compensate the guards, and make sure you keep that one with all those piercings around, he seemed to know this raider, that might come in handy should he choose to continue down this path and things go south.¡± Simon said, taking another sip of his coffee, and was sad to find it was cold. ¡°I leave the rest up to you, if there is anything else call me.¡±


    ¡°You know I will bro, give that hot wife of yours a kiss for me.¡± Trevor laughed.


    ¡°Any kiss I give her will be from me-¡± Simon shot back, but the vidcom was already disconnected, he shook his head with a slight smile. Looking at the file on his desk he shook his head, new earth online huh? Wanted to play rough with him?


    So be it.


    Two can play at that game¡­

 Chapter 8: Aint that a kick in the head?

    Matt sighed as he opened his eyes, the ceiling came into a hazy view and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. It was always like this, it was disorienting, and tiresome to come out of a vr title. It felt like he had been running for miles and his muscles burned, or at least it felt like they did, that would soon go away, it only ever lasted a minute or two as his body got back into the rhythm of the real world. Wow, that ceiling really needed dusting, there were these metal I beams and he couldn''t help but notice the layer of dust on them. With a shrug he pulled the plug out of the back of his head, and grabbing the pack of sanitation wipes he once again cleaned the port before inserting a rubber cap.


    You can be sure as hell that anything he stuck into his head was going to be clean, he had seen the pictures of those whose ports got infected, it really wasn''t a good sight to see. Pulling himself up he shrugged off the weariness and felt a pain flare up in his shoulder, he stood there for a minute or two simply rubbing the shoulder in an attempt to help it recognize that it was not actually wounded.


    Glancing at the clock he found it was already 2 a.m. Damn he had been in the game for a long time, with a shrug he followed the urges of his body and walked over to the food vender that was embedded in the wall. The machine was about half the size of a fridge, and was stocked to the brim with food, this was something the building provided, and what he ate was tacked onto his rent. The food out of the machine really was not the best and was honestly quite pricy, but sometimes it was just what you needed. He looked over at the menu and pressed the screen watching as it opened an animated door on the display, inside the digital fridge there was a whole host of foods on the shelves.


    He pressed the button for the burger and watched as a countdown timer for 30 seconds went past, with a hiss the door at the bottom of the machine that was just about waist high opened up and out came a steaming cheeseburger. He looked at it and shook his head, piled around the burger was a pile of green beans and carrots that had been steamed. It was not that he didn''t like the vegetables it was simply that he didn''t want them not right now at least, he just wanted a burger and then it was off to bed for him. He picked up the tray and turning around he let it clatter to the floor as he saw something that should not be possible.


    There standing in front of him was none other than Willow, her blue hair slightly luminous, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed in an angry manner. He blinked twice, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. But there she was, clear as day, slightly see through like a ghost, but still she was there. What the hell? Was he still asleep? He brought his hand up to his face and slapped himself, the sharp pain in his face told him that he was not sleeping, so what exactly was this? He looked at her curiously, was he seeing things? Was there an issue with his casing? It had shocked him earlier, was it still showing parts of the game that it had last played? Like it was stuck in a loop?


    She did look exactly like she had when he logged out, except she was now slightly see through like she was a ghost, she didn''t move at all, just stood there with a disapproving look on her face and an angry look in those solid blue eyes.


    Like a holographic statue.


    Reaching out with a hand he thought of how crazy he must look right now, reaching out to thin air with a slight tremble in his hands, and thanked the maker there was no one watching. She didn''t move an inch as his hand neared her face, he was five inches away, and there was still no movement.


    Four inches, still no movement.


    Three inches.


    Two inches, he felt some relief in his gut, seeing as she was not moving, must be an issue with his caser, and not the alternative. He paused, what exactly was the alternative? That he was crazy? Or that she was actually here? He shook his head, there was no way, just a simple issue with his caser.


    One inch, he resumed his movement, and right before he touched her face she moved. ¡°What are you doing?¡± she asked in a cold voice. His eyes opened wide, and his hand jerked back as he stumbled, his foot slipping on the saucer that the burger had at one point in time rested on and he flew backwards, it really was a disorienting experience that seemed to happen much slower than it had any right to. With a loud bang his head and the upper part of his back slammed into the lower cabinetry, and somewhere in the cacophony of sound there was also the sound of the saucer shattering as it flew and hit the baseboards on the other side of the room.


    His vision flashed black then red then white before settling back on black, with a groan he pushed himself up to rest on his hands that were resting at his side, and straightened himself, leaning up against the very cabinet that he had just hit.


    ¡°Oh my god are you ok?¡± she asked rushing over to his side, all the anger melting from her ghostly face as she fussed over him, or at least as she tried to, much to her frustration she was not able to touch him, she could really do nothing like this.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    ¡°Yeah, Yeah fine,¡± he grunted and raised his hand up to the part of his head that was throbbing heavily, it was about an inch to the right of his caser port, and feeling a warm sticky wetness he pulled his hand away and brought it up towards his face to investigate.


    Ah, blood.


    Makes since.


    ¡°You''re bleeding!¡± she cried out when she saw his hand. She wrapped both of her hands around his wrist.


    ¡°Of course I am I jus-¡± he looked at his hand, and at her, and back at his hand, his mind clearing. ¡°What the hell?¡± he asked with a low shaky breath, he looked at her hands wrapped around his wrist. He could feel them, like a soft touch on his skin.


    He could feel them.


    Oh god.


    With jerking motions and with as much certainty as he could muster he pulled himself up, using the counter. He could do this, he had been through much worse pain, much much worse. He stood and walked towards the bathroom, only swaying once as he made his way and almost losing his footing for the second time that night. He was just at the door of the bathroom when he felt a sharp pain in the upper part of his diaphragm, and he stumbled to his hands and knees, before vomiting up the empty nothing in his stomach. He retched, his back arching with the effort his body demanded, as he gagged up nothing more than stomach bile.


    He flopped sideways after his body had decided it had enough of the not throwing up it was doing, and he looked and watched as his world spun around and around, with effort he pushed himself up onto his elbows.


    Damn, he must have a concussion.


    ¡°We, we need to get you to the hospital!¡± she said, her eyes wide with a frantic panic as she watched him struggle on the floor, completely and wholly unable to help in even the slightest.


    ¡°Stop talking.¡± he managed to choke out, she stopped talking and pacing and looked over at him. ¡°You''re not real and I can''t think when you talk.¡± he growled. ¡°Think Matt, think, you have a concussion, and you might be going insane,¡± he glanced over at Willow who had completely frozen. ¡°Scratch that, you have a concussion and you have gone completely insane.¡± he shook his head and instantly regretted the action. The motion alone caused him to start throwing up again, or at least a desperate attempt at throwing up, this time not even the stomach bile burned its way up.


    Crazy as he was, or as crazy as he had decided he was he knew that Willow was correct, he needed something, it however was not the hospital, they would plug into him and notice whatever was wrong with him that was causing him to hallucinate like this, and it would be off to the looney bin for him, or at least to some sort of psychiatric help center.


    ¡°I am detecting both blood and vomit in the premise, should I alert the authorities?¡± a silky woman¡¯s voice called out. ¡°I detect that you are in the room, and that you are not moving with a normal pattern of movement, I will alert the authorities if you do not respond.¡± Vis called out.


    ¡°No, Vis, don¡¯t do that.¡± he managed to call out to her.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± he responded, laboring at it. He needed some painkillers and a bandage, with sheer force of will he pushed himself up to his knees, where he sat panting as the world spun around him and he bit the inside of his lip until it was bloody in an attempt to stop his body from causing him to vomit again. With a hand on the edge of the toilet bowl he pulled himself up and stood, there on a shelve above the toilet was a shelf that held all the necessities, grabbing a bottle of the strongest pain pills he had he popped the cap off and downed way to many, swallowing them with a painful grunt.


    Honestly right now he couldn¡¯t care less.


    He had to wait a full minute for the pain pills to kick in, but when they did, man did they kick. He felt a numbness run down the entire right side of his body and with effort he grabbed a cloth from the shelve and sat down on the toilet pressing it against the wound.


    ¡°Everything is fine Vis, just got a little hurt, no need to call the docs,¡± he said, feeling as the pain pills encroached on his coherent thoughts.


    ¡°Would you like me to play a song? Studies show music is one of the best ways to forget pain.¡± Vis responded.


    ¡°Sure, go ahead, don''t care what just play something.¡± music started in the background in the house. ¡°Haaa, haaaaa ahahahahahhhhahahah!¡± even though it hurt he couldn''t help it, he laughed, it was to funny to not laugh, with a smile he listened to the music that was playing.


    How lucky can one guy be?


    I kissed her and she kissed me


    Like the fella once said


    "Ain''t that a kick in the head?"


    The room was completely black


    I hugged her and she hugged back


    Like the sailor said, quote


    "Ain''t that a hole in the boat?"


    My head keeps spinnin''


    I go to sleep and keep grinnin''


    If this is just the beginnin''


    My life is gonna be bee-yoo-tee-ful


    I''ve sunshine enough to spread


    It''s just like the fella said


    Tell me quick, ain''t that a kick in the head?


    Like the fella once said


    "Ain''t that a kick in the head?"


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    ok, so here is that artwork of the main character, let me know what you guys think of it...


    Edit: just thought I would throw in a bigger version of the cover so you all could get a better look at it aswell.

 Chapter 9: a bad idea, a very bad terrible idea.

    He felt the warm rays of the sun come in through the open gaps in the curtains and hatefully attack his eyes. Even if the edge of his vision was a little hazy he could still make out the mess he had caused. There was a pretty good deal of blood on the cabinet. From where he was sitting it looked like he had caught the edge of the door with the back side of his head. There was even some dripped on the floor where he had stumbled along, and a nice bloody smear from where he had placed his hand on the floor when he had decided the doorway of the bathroom was an excellent place to examine the contents of the inside of his stomach as it were.


    Music was still playing in the background, right now it was some techno death metal instrumental, and though on most days he would have loved the song, today the sharp shrills of the techno and the scream of the guitar just didn''t do it. ¡°Vis, turn off the music please.¡± he stood up, and found the small wash cloth he had used as a bandage was stuck to the back of his head with a fairly good amount of reddish brown glue his body had made.


    Gritting his teeth he pulled the cloth off quickly, funny enough it stung but didn''t hurt as much as he thought it would, it was fine one way or the other, he had a high pain threshold, something he had developed over the years. It started bleeding again but he found what he had actually needed last night, but had been to disoriented by the bang to the head to really get. He grabbed the small container of clear gel, and quickly slathered a good helping of it on the wound, not even flinching as his hand brushed past the wound.


    They didn''t have anything like the Nonoitite in N.E.O. but they did have stuff like this bio gel, it stanched bleeding, and also disinfected the wound, how it exactly did this he was not aware, and didn''t really care, it did its job and to him that was more than enough. He just had to let it sit for an hour and then he would be clear to wash it out, and all the blood that was all over the back of his head and neck, man, head wounds bleed a lot. With a shrug he walked out of the bathroom, careful to not step in the dried puddle of blood and stomach bile. He looked around the entire apartment, and there was no Willow to be found.


    Had he just been dreaming? Or was she just a product of the bang to the head and his mind was simply filling in the gap and had put her there before he had dropped the plate as an explanation?


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± came the sound of a sad voice, and he stiffened up, slowly he turned around, and sure enough there she was, standing in front of him, still as ghostly as he had seen her last night. ¡°I wanted to help but- but-¡± she started her face pulled in a sad expression like she was about to cry.


    ¡°Stop,¡± he said, holding out a hand, his palm up in the universal stop position. She froze and looked at him.


    ¡°I am sorry sir, what function would you like me to cease?¡± Vis asked.


    ¡°No, not you Vis,¡± he said, and an idea popped up in his head. ¡°Vis, am I the only one in this room?¡± he asked, looking directly at the ghostly Willow, watching her closely as he waited for Vis¡¯s response.


    ¡°Beside myself you are the only person in this house at the moment.¡± Vis responded.


    ¡°Vis, shut down.¡± he said, he didn''t want the VI to hear this and somehow trigger some automated thing, perhaps telling the authorities that he had a screw loose.


    ¡°Shutting down, have a nice day,¡± she called in an unperturbed voice, he hardly ever shut her down, something felt rude about it, he knew she was just a VI but he always felt like he was putting a person in a box when he did that. He and Willow stared at each other for quite some time after that.


    ¡°What are you?¡± he finally asked, he had never taken his eyes off of the ghostly woman.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked, cocking her head to the side, the exact same way she did in the game.


    ¡°Are you a figment of my imagination or something else?¡± he asked, ¡°Am I going insane?¡± he asked softly, unsure if he would get an answer that actually clarified anything, if he was mad enough to see her this clearly then perhaps he was mad enough to get an answer from her that would make sense, and how would he know weather or not it was the musing of insanity?This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°Oh-¡± she said, her eyebrows raising in understanding, ¡°Oh! I really must apologize!¡± she started speaking animatedly. ¡°No, No you are not going insane, I am very much real, or rather as real as can be expected of an AI.¡± she said. He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms and looking at her.


    ¡°If you are real and not just some hallucination then how is it that I can see you?¡±


    ¡°Well I never said I wasn''t a hallucination.¡± she stated with a smile, and when she saw his eyebrows raise she explained. ¡°I am installed in your caser, and so the fact you are seeing me right now is simply because I am using the caser to project myself, simply put I am using the caser to send signals to your brain that tells it that I am standing here talking to you, unfortunately those signals are conflicting with the signals your eyes are sending, and the two signals are being combined by your brain, so caser says you see me and eyes don''t, meaning I look like I am both here and not here, hence the semi transparency.¡±


    Matt pulled a chair out and sat in it, he needed to sit down, at least for a second. That was a lot of things for him to process, and his brain was still not working quite as fast as it should, his thoughts still slightly hazy, a byproduct of the pain pills to be sure.


    ¡°You¡¯re installed in my caser?¡± he asked, this was the one that really stood out to him, it was startling even to the fuzzy minded Matt at the time.


    ¡°Yes,¡± she said simply.


    ¡°How- how the hell did you get there?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I was created and installed by the AI that runs N.E.O.¡±


    ¡°Why! How! When!¡± he shouted looking at her with wide eyes.


    Oh god she was in his head.


    ¡°I do not know why, only that I am to help you, and to sync back up with her upon login. As for how, this I do not know, it was before I came to be, when you first saw me that was the first moments of my existence. As for when, I can only imagine it was when you first logged in.¡± she looked at him, it was all starting to click in his mind, the haziness was fading and this was all starting to add up.


    He raised his head and looked her in the eyes. ¡°How do we get you out?¡± he asked in a low voice.


    ¡°Get me out?¡± she asked, her eyes going wide, ¡°If you do that I will be deleted, I will di-¡±


    ¡°How, do we get you out?¡± he asked again, his eyes narrowing, Willow¡¯s heart would have been beating very quickly had she had one, this was a matter of her continued existence.


    A matter of her life.


    ¡°I- but-¡± she saw as he narrowed his eyes, and in her panic she did something she never really wanted to do, she told the caser to send an increase of endorphins,dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin to his brain, all of these are neurochemicals responsible for happiness, she did this in the hopes of getting him to be in a happy mood, it might help in her convincing him, and therefore in her survival. ¡°Please, if I am removed I will be gone, I won''t get in the way and and-¡±


    He stopped looking at her, a strange look came about his face, he looked happy and also slightly confused, glancing down at his hands he looked at them for a long time, and back at her, and back down at his hands as the neurochemicals did there work on him. He started blinking rapidly, occasionally ticking his chin aggressively to the side and emitting a growl, and much to her surprise he lashed out, punching the counter top with great force.


    He looked up at her, his eyes blazing in a rage.


    He, he forced her false signals out of his mind, she had to try something, she had already gone this far, she had to see it through, once again she told the caser to release the Neurochemicals, this time in a mass quantity, but much to her horror his amygdala started firing rapidly. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for identifying threats to the well-being of the host, and for sending out an alarm when threats are identified. The caser¡¯s neurochemicals were overrun by his brain''s natural catecholamines, as they flooded into him the dopamine and other chemicals were washed away in the torrent like a grove of trees caught in a volcano¡¯s lava flow.


    ¡°Get out of my head.¡± he growled.


    She looked at the rage in his eyes and felt the hot burn of his catecholamines in his head and collapsed on the floor, she had lost, she had tried a hand she should have never played and had been burned away by his counter. She started crying, tears running down her face, it truly was not an act, she had been created to act wholly and completely human, and this response was part of that, she actually felt the fear and pain.


    Matt looked at her as she dissolved into a puddle, it was as though she had lost all the power in her limbs, and had simply flopped down, every now and again once could make out words in the incoherent blabbering, stuff like; don''t want to die, and ; i''m sorry, but in comically spoken ways as she wept.


    ¡°Issssooorrrryyy, soooosssoorrry!¡± she reached out to grab onto his leg, but her hand simply passed through him, and he simply felt a small brushing feeling as she passed through him. Though he was mad at himself for it he found his anger dissipating as he watched her weeping. It was a trick Taylor had used to great effect, it was how his brain worked, he simply couldn''t stand to see a woman weeping like that. Though he hated himself for it he spoke to her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t ever do that again.¡± he growled, she slowed down in her weeping and looked up at him with wide eyes.


    ¡°Does that me-¡±


    ¡°You can stay until we find a way to remove you without killing you.¡± he sighed, a smile widened on her lips and she wiped away the tears on her face, she opened her mouth to speak but before she could he growled at her.¡±You ever do that again and I swear to god I will rip this caser out of my head with my own god damn hands.¡± her eyes widened and she shut her mouth nodding her head in rapid succession agreeing to his terms.


    God, this was a bad idea, a very bad terrible idea.

 Chapter 10: Wait, what did he just say?

    The explosion was spectacular, the goblin flew halfway across the map, and landed at the feet of Christa, who paid it no mind, and instead opted to roll under a horizontal beam of magical energy that seemed like it could cleave a tree in half. B-Rain however was not as agile and dexterous as Christa¡¯s character so all he could do was hold both of his hands up in front of him and use the flat of his much to massive axe to block most of his upper torso from the blast and plant his feet.


    It helped, but it still hit him hard, he was pushed back three or so feet, the flat of the axe blade that had taken the brunt of the attack which at one point in time had been covered with golden frippery and was held in place with a lion shaped lugs, but now was simply a black and red melted mess.


    He flashed red as the damage was registered to his character and she could see as his health slipped down into the red zone, he opened his mouth to call for a heal but Monica was already on it, with a twist and a quick hand sign she casted the greater heal and quickly turned her target to Siris, casting a purify she freed him from the webs that had him glued in one place. And then went back to attacking the adds with offensive magic, all the while keeping an eye peeled to see if anyone were about to get wiped.


    The boss they were fighting today was part of the daily, and was the third strike boss they had foughten. It was a massive spider that shot webs and asid, and was quite fond of spawning in more goblins and spiders for her and her friends to wade through.


    ¡®Come on, come on I don''t have time for this...¡¯ she growled under her breath, and she pushed forward, aiming with all of her might to hit the crit area¡¯s of each creature, filling her ult meter as quickly as possible. As she pushed forwards the rest of the team stuck with her, no one wanting to be left behind by their healer.


    ¡°What the hell? We are being to reckless!¡± one of the pickup group members said, he was a rather flash human paladin, and was sporting a mixture of cloth and plate mail. ¡°This is not the way to do this if you rush it you can''t get the max exp and loot drop.¡±


    ¡°I have shit to do so you can either keep up or leave you damn P.U.G.¡± she growled as she used the butt end of the healer¡¯s staff as a mace to catch the goblin under the chin and send him flying with the blunt end of the staff. It was in no way shape or form intended for such use and as such it didn''t do much more than stun the creature and she finished it off with a well placed blast of flame from a fireball she conjured up. The small creature let out a whimper and just flopped over, not showing any sign of damage.


    ¡°This is bullshit!¡± another pug called out, as he worked to keep up with the group. ¡°You''re the guild leader, can¡¯t you make her stop?¡±


    ¡°You want me to tell not only an upset woman what to do but also want me to tell a healer, our only healer I would like to point out what she can and can''t do?¡± Siris laughed, ¡°you must be dumber than you look.¡±


    ¡°I don''t have to take this!¡± the paladin said, even as he slashed a goblin in mid air.


    ¡°Then don¡¯t, I don''t need you.¡± Monica growled and pulling an orb out of her small messenger bag she had hanging to the side of her person she pressed it into her chest. Light flew out of her and her eyes light up, and like she was a storm cloud she started exuding electricity and rushed forward with a renewed frenzy. The boss melted beneath her exotic consumable like it was so much butter beneath a burning hot knife.


    ¡°Whew,¡± Siris said with a laugh, he ran his hand over his face and walked over to the chest, as party leader he was the only one allowed to open the chest. He looked in the loot box and smiled, pullout out several handfuls of small purple chips he started to pass them out, ¡°Good news everyone, the speed at which we did this gave us a loot bonus, so we got two times the rewards.¡± he pointedly looked at the paladin who was now saying nothing, even when Sirus gave him and the other complainer a few chips less than others. ¡°Alright good luck with the decriptions of those, hopefully we can gets some good purples, and thanks Mo-¡± he paused, looking around but found there was no trace of Monica, it would seem that she had just vanished into thin air. ¡°Where is-¡±


    ¡°She logged the second you gave her the ingrams, I guess I better go as well, she needs some help and I said I would help her with it.¡±


    ¡°What is so important that she needs to rush a raid like that?¡± B-rain asked, flexing his muscles. ¡°I mean she hardly did any killing, there is something to be cherished about having the ability to crush your enemies underfoot and reli-¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ¡°Shut up you no lifer,¡± Siris called out as he and the others walked out of the dungeon, leaving the monologuing B-rain behind.


    ¡°Hey, guys that''s not really nic-¡± he called out as they made their way out of the dungeon.


    ***


    Matt sighed and stepped out of the shower, he grabbed one of the ultra thin towels that were folded down to the size of your hand and grabbing one corner he shook it, allowing the small cloth to unfold and reveal a full size paper thin towel. He started to rub his body down, and almost like the water was magnetically attracted to the towel it drunk it all up, with an insatiable thirst.


    He fully wiped himself dry and pulled the clothes he had stashed on the counter on. He couldn''t help it he had this feeling that he was being watched, and honestly speaking he probably was. He did after all have an A.I. in his head, who knows exactly what she was and was not watching.


    He looked down at himself, he was wearing a black pair of jeans, they were one of the aspects of clothing that never seemed to go out of style. No matter how many years and centuries passed there was always jeans. Jacob W Davis would be proud to note that even a thousand years after the creation of his pants they were still in use and were still one of the most popular types of clothing. The side of his jeans were covered in a few bags and a loose loop on the side, they were loose fitting cargo jeans that had a distinct pattern of fade on the front of them, not from his use but from the factory.


    Pulling on his shirt he looked at himself, the shirt was also black and was a skin tight fabric that he tucked into the pants, and clasped there with a belt. He then pulled on a short sleeve blue hoodie, opting to not zip it up but to simply leave it open. He ran his fingers through his slightly damp hair, putting it back in place and pulled out a small mirror and using both mirrors in tandem, he looked at the wound in the back of his head.


    The biogel was doing its work, it really didn''t look bad, it was obviously a nice gouge, but it was not that bad, he was able to clean it out, washing all the dried blood away. With a shrug he stepped out of the steamy room to find Willow looking around his room curiously. She looked over at him and smiled.


    ¡°You look nice,¡± she said.


    He looked at her and did not speak but simply raised an eyebrow in indignation.


    ¡°What? What is wrong?¡± she asked looking at his face.


    ¡°Just because I let you stay does not mean everything is peachy fine.¡± he growled looking at her. ¡°If I remember correctly, you are installed on my caser against my will, and you attempted to take over my mind by force.¡±


    ¡°Take over your mind? No no no no.¡± she started to speak quickly, ¡°I used dopamine, it is a neurochemical that causes happiness, I thought if you were happy you would be more willing to let me stay.¡± she said in one breath.


    ¡°I am a fairly reasonable person, it would have been better for the both of us to talk it out.¡± he said.


    ¡°I tried that!¡± she said softly, ¡°But you continued to insist knowing how to get me out of your head.¡± she said softly, looking him in the eyes for the first time since he had said she would stay. Matt thought back, and realised she was correct, he had said that, and he had refused to listen to what she was saying.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± he said, his anger dissipating.


    ¡°So am I,¡± she said, her demeanor showing the same remorse as he was feeling at the moment. ¡°I really didn''t want to, I simply didn''t want to die...¡± he nodded, that was understandable, and her response was indeed a very human one, she had been after all backed into a corner and so she had responded with everything she had to keep surviving. He nodded to himself and walking over to the small table for two he had he picked up his key chit and wallet. He made his way to the door and started to open it. ¡°Where are you going?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I have to buy some things, and to check something out.¡± he said.


    ¡°Can I come?¡± she asked and he looked at her with a strange look on his face.


    ¡°Wouldn''t you come even if I didn''t want you to?¡± he asked looking at her and he tapped his head with a finger, ¡°You''re in my head remember?¡± he said.


    ¡°I know, I am just trying to make this a more comfortable situation for the both of us, so I thought I would offer you the option.¡± she said.


    ¡°Come on.¡± he said, and grabbing his VidCom he turned it off and plugged it into his head, tucking the small black rectangle into his shirt. ¡°There now when I talk to you people wont think I am insane and talking to no one.¡± she looked at him and nodded, seemed like a smart idea.


    He lead the way down to the bottom of the building and saying his parting piece to the person who was in the lobby he opened the door, sliding his card at the door of the garage he waited as the underground machine brought up his garage platform and revealed his bike.


    ¡°So this is what people drive now?¡± she asked as she looked it over.


    ¡°What? No, this is an antique, I dont ride in those vehicles.¡± he said, straddling the machine and pushing the chit into place to allow the machine to start, he pressed a button on the side of it as it hummed to life and a small display appeared on the section of bike just in front of him. It showed a small bar that was half filled with a green color. ¡°Alright good still have half charge, should be enough to do what needs done,¡± he said with a nodd, he would need to change the charge pack when he got home tonight, but this would be fine for now.


    ¡°Why not?¡± she asked, and he looked back at her in confusion not quite understanding what she was saying, ¡°Why don''t you use those vehicles?¡± she asked, clarifying the question for him. His eyes sparked in understanding, and his face darkened and he hunched over defensively, assuming a posture that bespoke of pain.


    ¡°Some things I don''t want to talk about,¡± he growled darkly turning away from her and starting the bike, causing the machine to hum slightly. She noted this reaction and straddled the bike behind him, opting to wrap her arms around him, she would have to figure this out some other way. ¡°So what are we going to do?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I need to grab something for a date I am going on, and see what movies are playing so I can get some tickets.¡± he said, and she nodded along as they sped, her head resting on his back and her arms wrapped around his torso.


    Wait.


    She froze, her eyes widening to there fullest, a bright green blue glow radiating within them, slowly turning red.


    What did he just say!?!?!?!?

 Chapter 11: Almost like a date...

    ¡°So you are going on a date?¡± Willow asked, she kept her voice smooth completely flat, not upset at all, and thankfully Matt couldn''t look behind himself to see the murderous look she had on her face that would have brought the schrade crashing down around her.


    Keep calm, cool, collected.


    Don''t do anything stupid, you just got a little on his good side.


    Don''t do anything stupid.


    ¡°Yeah, have a date, tomorrow.¡± he said, as he sped through the narrow streets avoiding cars and the odd pedestrian with a great deal of skill and ease as he quickly wove his way through to a shopping center. ¡°What is her name?¡± she asked, deciding that whoever this woman was she would be her eternal rival. This was simply a setback, she could overcome this.


    She would overcome this.


    ¡°Monica,¡± he said casually, as he pulled into a parking lot area in front of a massive shopping complex. The building was a pristine white and blue and was only three stories high, making it seem short compared to the surrounding buildings. It however felt anything but small, seeing as it rested on three and a half acres of space and took up that entire area. Contained within were over 700 shops, and many more vendors and stalls, there was even an park in the center of the building.


    It was the center of the entertainment district. The entertainment district was one of four subsections of the city of Elp¨ªda, it in itself was large enough to hold the entire population of Elp¨ªda trice over. The parking lot alone was a pretty long walk, long enough to have benches and shuttle busses to bring people to the front of the mall. Putting the kickstand down Matt leaned the bike to the side, resting it on the peg and got off, pulling the starter chip and pocketing it. He straightened his jacket and looked back at Willow, who was taking in the sights with an unwavering interest and wide eyes.


    Thats right, she had never seen something like this before, to him it had become a mundane event, something he simply took for granted. But to her this was the first time she had seen a world that hadn''t fallen into ruin. Of a non apocalyptic world.


    ¡°Coming?¡± he asked, and she glanced over at him, breaking her contact with the massive surrounding buildings and the bustling crowd.


    ¡°Sure,¡± she said, and watched as he pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and stuffed it instead in the front pocket. ¡°Why did you do that?¡± she asked, and he looked over at her with a confused look. ¡°Put your wallet in the front of your pants pocket?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that, that is due to there being so many pick pockets, and the fact that it is almost impossible to steal a wallet out the front pocket of pants,¡± he laughed, and his eyes got that look to them he always got when he remembered something. ¡°I used to carry two wallets, one that had the important stuff, and another that was filled with junk and insults.¡± he chuckled, ¡°diversionary wallet ha.¡±


    She giggled along with him, and quickly turned to catch up.


    ¡°Hey thinking about it you could watch my back.¡± he said, but was quickly refuted by her.


    ¡°I cannot, I am not actually here remember?¡± she said. ¡°I am installed in your caser, my physical form is simply a hallucination, so I can only see what you can see, and I have no way of watching your back unless you can do that yourself.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that makes since.¡± he said with a smile, ¡°Let''s get some food, I am hungry.¡± he paused, ¡°I was going to order some food for you, but you don''t eat do you?¡±


    ¡°Just order yourself some, I will use the chemical signals your brain receives to experience it for myself.¡± she said with a smile, it was nice that he was thinking of her.


    ¡°You can do that?¡± he asked looking at her.


    ¡°The caser can read that data, I believe it is a function they use to make medicine taste good, they change the chemical signals that your brain receives so the taste of medicine that is needed is easier to get down, if I am not wrong they also use it to deter the abuse of substances, making them taste something awful if the specific drug is not needed or prescribed.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    ¡°Ah,¡± he nodded, it was a function he had heard of but had never really thought about. He kept walking along the path, it was close enough that there was no need for the trolley that picked up passengers. The entrance of the mall was massive, 17 doors stretched across the front and there was hand railing, or bumper railing depending on how you looked at it, for each entrance, causing the crowds to be corralled into the entrance. Getting into one of the lines he reflexively grabbed Willow¡¯s hand and pulled her to his front, it had been something he had always done for Taylor, acting like a shield for her. The weirdest part about it however was not the fact that he did this out of habit but rather that fact that he could actually feel her.


    The touch was decidedly ghostly, like there was less to her than should be there, but it was indeed physical. If he wanted to he could of course squeeze her hand and no doubt he would be able to fully close his hand, like there was nothing there.


    Because there was nothing there.


    He however didn''t wish to try this, he knew it would not physically hurt her, seeing as that was impossible, but he also didn''t wish to try it.


    ¡°Sorry it is a habit.¡± he said to Willow. He received a quizzical look from the guy standing in the lane next to his own, but he simply pointed to his vidcom he had tucked in the front of his shirt and the man nodded and looked away, apparently satisfied with the explanation.


    ¡°It''s fine,¡± she said, she turned away from him to hide the blush in her cheeks, it felt remarkably good to be thought of as real by him, even if his rational brain knew she wasn''t, his reflexes and habits were still there, and they told a completely different story.


    It took a full 30 minutes to get into the mall, but according to Matt this was normal. Inside a colorful array of stores and shops lay displayed in front of them in a sensory overload of colors lights and sounds. He looked at Willow¡¯s amazed look and smiled, it was nice to see someone not simply milling about, like they had seen this place thousands of times over, and to be honest that was probably true for a lot of the people here. The only people that acted like she did were young kids coming here for the first time with their parents.


    It was honestly slightly enduring.


    ¡°Come on,¡± he said with a smile and he started walking off, this broke her out of her awe and caused her to run along, catching up with him quickly. As they passed windows filled to the brim with clothes and dresses designed for women she would pause and look at them with a exclamation of awe, and he would lag, standing slightly off to her side, allowing her to look at them as long as she wanted. There was a particular outfit they had put on a mannequin that seemed to have completely captured her attention.


    The clothing was black and grey, the top was a sleeveless half dress that went down to mid thigh, with grey stripes down the sides. The neck of the dress was like a loose fitting turtleneck, at the center of the dress a vee was cut out to emphasize a woman''s bust, and on the wrist were some fingerless gloves that stretched up to mid forearm. The legs were covered in black skin tight leggings, and a set of grey and black thigh boots completed the look.


    The mannequin on display was rotated around proudly as to show the entire outfit. ¡°I would see about getting you that but I doubt you would be able to actually wear it.¡± he said with a laugh, but she looked at him and smiled.


    ¡°Look over there,¡± she said, pointing off behind him, and he in curiousity did just that, looking away, but seeing nothing of interest he looked back, and much to his surprise she was clothed not in the scarred survival clothing she was normally in but rather in the black and grey dress, complete with the leggings, gloves, and boots. ¡±What do you think?¡± she asked doing a little spin to display the dress.


    ¡°Looks very nice,¡± he said with a smile, causing Willow to blush slightly.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± she said softly.


    ¡±No problem it really does look good on you.¡± he said with a shrug, and honestly it did, the tight fitting dress hugged her form in all the right places.


    ¡°No, not just that,¡± she said still looking away from him. ¡°For letting me stay, and for being so nice to me after I was so rude and.¡± she sniffed, the prelude to tears.


    ¡°Hey,¡± he said, and she looked over at him, he saw the track of a single tear that had made its way down her face. He had to stop himself from reaching out and brushing it away. ¡°Like I said, it is no issue.¡±


    It was not to long before they found themselves in the park¡¯s area, and much to his surprise the two of them were eating. Matt had a burger and fries, and Willow who was sitting across from him on the other side of the table was eating one as well. She consumed the food she had simulated form his with a gusto. Apparently this was the first time she had ever eaten anything. It was fun to simply watch her eat, with as much enjoyment she got out of it.


    Off to the side there was a group of three women, all of them around the age of twenty or so, and Matt was not blind he could see them glancing at him and looking away to confer in hushed tones and giggle every now and again. He chose to ignore the angry look Willow would cast their way every now and again. It didn''t take long for one of them, a slightly asian looking woman to walk over to him with her tray of food.


    ¡°Excuse me,¡± she said shyly blushing bright red as she spoke. ¡°Can I sit here with you?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I''m sorry, I am saving this spot for my friend.¡± he answered apologetically. She glanced at the spot and back at him quickly.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to bother you,¡± she said, and quickly turned around with her head hung and retreated to the safety of her friend''s table. She sat down with her back turned towards him, head down, he caught out the corner of his eye one of her friends use her arm to make a downward motion, accompanying the movement with a whistle that started high and ended low, and as the sound stopped she made a rumble with her mouth and flared her hands dramatically like there was some kind of explosion. Another one patted her on the back and shot an angered glance in his direction, calling him an asshole just loud enough for him to hear.


    Willow nodded with satisfaction, as they all got up and left the area. ¡°Barring that moment this was a nice day,¡± he said.


    She looked over at him and smiled deeply. ¡°It was a very nice day,¡± she glanced over to the side, and he followed her look, when he looked back she was right there in his face, he almost jumped but before he could react she placed her lips on his.


    The ghostly brush of her against him was like electricity as it ran through his body, slowly she closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair. She pulled away hands still on the back of his head and smiled. ¡°It was a very nice day, almost like a date,¡± she smiled, and there was a hint of maliciousness hidden in those red lips.


    Oh shit, was the only thought running through his mind.

 Chapter 12: A difficult question to answer.

    Matt hadn''t said a word to her since she had taken the initiative and kissed him, the signs had all been there she had read the chemical balance correctly, she really didn''t understand what was wrong, or why he would stop talking to her. Had she gone about it wrong? Was there some societal ritual she had unknowingly broken, or failed to observe? She had no actual databases on the situation, only what was recorded and observed by the A.I that ran the game, but perhaps in society you did things differently, and it was not acceptable to act the way she did, she had no way of knowing, and it was this unknown that sent her into a computational frenzy.


    She mindlessly followed him up to the room, her entirety focused on calculating what had gone wrong. She really didn''t even register that he was turning on Vis and logging into N.E.O. not till she was there herself, and Matt was looking at her in the eyes his own eyes burning with discontentment.


    ¡°We need to talk.¡± he growled, and she looked at him, he looked more at home in those armored clothes. Less exposed, and it was a good look if you were to ask her, he always looked tough, but he now looked like a badass, surely this was an environment that he would thrive in.


    ¡°About?¡± she asked, putting on her best curious face cocking her head to the side, she reviewed what she knew about human body language. Tilting the head sideways can be a sign of interest, which may be in what is said or happening. It can also be a flirting signal as it says ''I am interested in you!'' Tilting can similarly indicate curiosity, uncertainty or query, particularly if the head is pushed forward, as if the person was trying to look at the subject in a different way in the hope of seeing something new. The greater the tilt, the greater the uncertainty or the greater the intent to send this signal. It was honestly a curious behavior, and one she didn''t quite get, it would have been better for everyone if the two speaking people were more straight forward, that way there was no way there could be any confusion.


    Then it dawned on her, perhaps she had indeed been too forward, was this what was causing the issue?


    ¡°There is nothing going on between us.¡± he said, she looked at him, slightly hurt but nodded along with that. There was certainly nothing.


    Not yet.


    ¡°Why did you do that?¡± he asked, and before she could answer he spoke again. ¡°Why did you kiss me?¡±


    ¡°You can say there is nothing there, but I know the truth.¡± she said, crossing her arms.


    ¡°There is and never will be anything going on between us.¡± he said, he was growing more and more agitated but he was also growing less and less resolved, she could see it in the way he shifted his eyes around, like the broken apartment that they were using for a base in this world was about to come to life and attack and he was unaware of the direction or timing of the attack.


    ¡°Dont,¡± she said holding out her hand, ¡°You can lie to yourself but don''t do it to me, you forget I am in your head, all the connections were there, all the chemicals were correct.¡±


    He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing a hand on his temples he looked back up at her, ¡°A person is more than chemicals and firing connections in his brain, there is a deeper level of cognition, of feelings, ¡± he said. She honestly didn''t understand what he was saying. ¡°I am going on this date with Monica tomorrow, and if things go well I will be in a relationship with her, and I will not cheat on anyone I am in a relationship with.¡± he said, her eyes narrowed as he said this and he saw the slight flash of red in them. ¡°There, that is what I am talking about, you are angry, it is not a logical emotion, if you were to think about it this should really not effect you but it does, not everything can be explained with simple chemistry.¡± he said, ¡°It is what divides man and machine, alive and not.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Are you saying I am not alive?¡± she asked, her eyes growing wider.


    ¡°That is not what I said,¡± he said, backing the conversation up verbally.


    ¡°But it is, I am asking you, do you beleive me to be alive?¡± she asked looking at him there was no more anger in her eyes, but it was replaced with another emotion, worry, dread, a need to know, craving.


    ¡°Thats, ¡± he paused and raised his head, tilting it back and looking at the non existent ceiling. Raising the head and looking at the ceiling may signal boredom. It may also indicate a visual thinker who is looking at internal images. Another alternative is where a person wants to focus on the sound and is thus averting the eyes in order to concentrate on the sound. Out of all of these the second seemed to be the most likely. ¡°That is hard to say, there are still massive debates to that, there are really two camps in that issue, one side thinks life should be tied to consciousness, the other thinks it should be tied to the traditional definition of the word alive.¡± he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, not making eye contact with her. ¡°If we go by the traditional sense of the word: then no, you are not alive, seeing as the definition for alive is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. ¡± he looked at her. ¡°You are inorganic, you don''t have the ability to reproduce, not the organic way, and as for death, how would one define death for something that can be backed up and simply rebooted.¡±


    That hurt, it hurt deep, because she knew he was correct, if life really was defined that way then she really was not alive.


    ¡°if you define ¡®alive¡¯ based on consciousness, rather than biology however, ¡° he paused again. ¡°By this definition, to be considered ¡®alive¡¯, you would need to have neurological functions on par with one. You would need to be self motivated, with survival goals that you pursues on your own. And you would need to have a psyche that can be trained and manipulated, rather than a set-in-stone set of programming that you follow without end. There is also the need to have basic empathy and emotional responses.¡± he looked at her for the first time since he had started speaking, ¡°If this is the case then yes, you would be alive. The question is which is correct?¡± he looked her in the eyes, ¡°If you are alive then there is many disturbing issues with how A.I. are currently being used, you tell me, are you alive?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know,¡± she whispered softly, ¡°would a stream know that it flows? I cannot answer that, and perhaps that is the point of the question.¡± she sighed, this talk had really done no good for her, it had not set anything in place, it had answered no questions, but it was one she needed to have.


    ¡°If I had to choose, I think it is better to err on the side of caution, I would rather treat something like it is alive, then deny something that is alive simply because it does not conform to my vision of what life should be like.¡± she looked up, there was a hope in her eyes, and it affirmed his thoughts and beliefs on the matter. ¡°And if you are alive then all the actions that you do are yours and your own, all the successes, all the mistakes.¡± he looked at her, ¡°but enough of that we need to get back to the topic we started, I am not blind, I know how you feel, but I need you to understand-.¡±


    ¡°I can''t change the way I feel, ¡± she interrupted. ¡°I may be an A.I. but I don''t work that way.¡± he nodded, ¡°Let me talk to her,¡± she said softly, ¡°that is all I ask, just let me have a conversation with her.¡± she had no idea what she hoped to accomplish by talking to this monica, she had no idea what goal she had in mind. It simply felt like it needed be done, was this what Matt was talking about? That feeling that went deeper than logic, that went deeper than simple chemical reactions? She didn''t know, but if she was able to talk to Monica then she might find some answers, something that answered this query of hers.


    He thought about it, and nodded to himself. ¡°If she is going to be part of my life she needs to know about you, seeing as we have no idea how long it will be until we can find a way to get you out without hurting or damaging you,¡± he looked at her. ¡°I can agree to that.¡± it really was going to be a delicate situation, if this was handled incorrectly it could end the relationship with Monica before it even began, and if it was handled really incorrectly there was the chance that she would tell someone about Willow.


    And that would be bad, really, really bad.


    ¡°Ok.¡± she nodded, it was not the perfect solution, but it was a start, perhaps she needed to look at things differently, he had known her for only a few days, and she had simply barged into his life, she couldn''t help the anger she felt when she thought about the other woman he was going to see, but if the two of them were going to coexist, something needed to change. ¡°What now?¡± she asked, ¡°We are already here, want to do something in game?¡± she asked.


    He nodded, ¡°That sounds almost therapeutic,¡± he nodded, he really needed something to take his mind off of things, and there was nothing more therapeutic than killing people in a game, it was the very definition of stress relieving, simply releasing all conscious thought and allowing basic brutal emotions and reactions to take over, and if that sounded barbaric to others, well he could really careless, they had no right to judge him, or how he chose to live. ¡°That sounds like a damn good idea to me...¡±

 Chapter 13: Keeping count.

    He slowly shifted his body peaking his rifle out of the building he was currently held up in, they had been on there way back to camp, this was one of the trap houses he and Willow had been setting up today, this one in particular had some special traps, and judging by the look of the group that was coming well, it looked like they would need the traps.


    This really was a bad time, they were running low on ammo, and they were not set up in the most defensible of locations, but this was hardly the first time the odds had been stacked against them. That however was how he liked it.


    The world was against him.


    It wouldn''t be fair otherwise.


    With a sigh he looked down at the meager supply of rounds he had left. 15 bullets for his rifle, and two rings for his revolver, if you took into account that each ring had six rounds, that only left him with 27 bullets, and his opponent had some sort of vehicle that was almost like a tank, it had been covered with plates made of rusted corrugated metal that wove over it creating a bumpy and distorted silhouette that made discerning what the vehicle had been before the group had made the conversions impossible.


    It was interesting to not however that this was a motorized vehicle, meaning there were such things in this world and not everything was pulled by a donkey mule thing¡¯s physical labor.


    ¡°Better make each one count.¡± He growled under his breath. Sighting down the scope at street the approaching tank would come from. As it rounded the corner is slowed to a stop, the barrel swayed left and right, scanning for its targets and traps.


    It was no surprise it was looking for traps, there was no way it had not seen the last caravan he and Willow had raided, they had looted it and packed it off, but this group had come up behind before they could get back home to resupply, thus why he was so low on ammo.


    Whether this was a part of the same group or another was not discernible at this distance, and it was not like the last caravan was even marked, they were after all in a post apocalyptic setting, it would seem as though people tended to wear anything that they could find or loot.


    That was what he was doing after all.


    He smiled as the tank rolled forward all six tires hugging the ground, the strange tank like treads over the rubber wheels making him think they might remove the treads when they needed speed and had a more open environment.It rolled along and the suspension and shocks struggling to hold up the massive weight of the armored vehicle. It was close to a little surprise he had left for them.


    It was a present that they had found in the last caravan¡¯s possession, an old school claymore explosive, crude, but effective.


    With a snap the treads of the tank broke the low tensile wire, causing the explosives he had hidden under some debris to do what they were intended to do. The explosion was like a miniature sun had risen under the tank, it lifted it up almost an inch off the ground before the heavy vehicle slammed back down into the ground, dislodging the tread on the rights side in the process.


    Matt growled in delight as he looked into the viewport cut in the front of the tank, the people inside seemed extremely confused, it was just what he had needed and wanted. He targeted the small four inch gap, and aimed at the bit of flesh he could see through the small view port.


    He pulled the trigger, only to have the round bounce off the armored plating an inch too far to the right. ¡°Shit.¡± He aimed and this time he held his breath, reducing the movement his body was naturally making, he pulled the trigger and felt the shudder as the rifle kicked back against him. He watched as the person he had seen through the viewport had their arm explode into a shower of blood and flesh. The sounds of shouts and curses came out muffled from the vehicle.


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    With a grimace he watched as an additional armored truck pulled up behind the ruins of the tank, and men piled out. Worse yet it looked like some of them had somehow got some thermal goggles, this group was much better outfitted than any of the previous ones they had faced.


    He needed to move, it would not be long before they were able to figure out where he was. With a grunt he rolled to his left and fell down a section of caved in roof. Before he could hit the ground he stuck out his legs and landed in a crouch.


    ¡°Heat signature 12 o¡¯clock high!¡± one of the armed men yelled, and Matt was forced to throw himself backwards to avoid the hail of fire that split the ground just where he had been standing.


    ¡°That¡¯s right assholes, look at me.¡± He growled, slinging the rifle over his back and pulling out his revolver. He barreled through a door to his right, splintering the wood like it was nothing and exited onto a balcony. Then with just one leg on the railing he kicked off, jumping gap between two buildings and single-handedly grabbing the wrought iron railing on the adjacent balcony.


    His weight bent the weakened iron as he twisted and fired two round into two of the men that rushed after him .44 caliber rounds found a new home inside the skulls of the two who were stupid enough to run around the corner without pause. Before they even hit the floor he pulled himself up and into the next building.


    ¡°23,¡± he sighed, before running over to the next ambush area. As he went past he heard the door two stories down being breached. ¡°Welcome to my home.¡± He laughed as he pulled the pin out of a flare and dropped it into the black powder near his boots.


    The flare lit the powder and fire ran out of the room and down every hallway. As the blaze went up he tucked himself into the corner. He took the corner collar of his duster and tucked his nose into it, it would be no good to die from smoke inhalation. Originally this building was going to be a spot they lured groups of people into and then smoked to out, leading them into preplanned kill zones, but now, with their enemies thermal goggles, well this seemed like fate had given him this chance.


    He smiled as he watched them fan out from his perch; it was all about timing now. Taking a deep breath he moved, running through the flames and smoke like a demon he grabbed the first man and with a single twist snapped his neck, before firing on three more with his .44.


    The rounds each found their mark, one in the neck, giving a man a new breathing hole, another found its way in between one man¡¯s eyes. And the last burrowed into the armpit of a woman who had turned to run, just under the armor plating, judging by the trajectory it should have done no good things to her heart.


    The fifth and final person bolted for the door, Matt smiled savagely, ¡°no there is no escape.¡± He said and rushed the man, he pulled up behind him and with a single hand grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed his throat into the door frame through which he had been trying to flee. The poor soul twitched once or twice more before lying still.


    With practiced ease he searched the bodies, depositing all the ammo and weaponry into a prepared duffle bag, and he slung it onto his shoulder and headed back into the burning building before wrapping the duster back around himself and exiting to the roof. It was a short jump to the next sniper perch.


    ¡°20,¡± he holstered his revolver and unslung the rifle, laying down on the roof and looked back down on the tank. The good news is that he had gotten at least half of them to follow, the bad news is there was still no word from Willow.


    Then he saw her, she moved in from behind while they were all looking at the smoking beacon Matt had painted in the sky. She knifed a guy, stealthily pulling him behind a half wall before using the tank itself as a source of cover. She placed C-4 charges around the wheel hubs and in critical points on its hull.


    Another gift from the last caravan, they seemed to have quite the stash of explosives, well had.


    It was Matt¡¯s and Willow¡¯s now.


    As he was watching her work he was also keeping his eyes on the five remaining guys , and when one went to turn around Matt opened fire, the round hit the man directly in the temple, causing the entire top of his head to disappear into an explosion of red colored paste and viscera.


    The four remaining guys all dove for cover, unfortunately for two of them; Matt had the advantage of height so he could see over the shabby improvised cover. The world shudder twice more as the rifle kicked and two more men¡¯s faces were reduced to unrecognizable puddles. The last two, were quickly dispatched by Willow from behind.


    ¡°17, 17 bullets left.¡± He called out to her, she was a mere 30 feet below him, and she heard his words easily.


    ¡°I still have 45, hah, I win this round.¡± She said, as she took cover and pushed the button for the explosives. The tank and truck were reduced to a smoldering heap in a flash of light.


    ¡°Beautiful,¡± he laughed, ¡°Someone should paint a picture.¡±


    ¡°I aim to please!¡± She laughed, giving him a thumbs up. He stood up and returned the gesture with a laugh, and she was about to tell him to get down here when a shot rang out. To her horror she watched as a round ripped through him. The world seemed to move in slow motion as he fell to his knees, before tumbling to his side. ¡°Matt!¡± she screamed, as her legs surged forward ¡°Matt!¡±


    His vision was darkening, he rolled over and looked towards where he had shot from, grey armor, with a twisted mask. The shooter rested the rifle on its shoulder, and removed its helmet. Long blond hair was released from its confines and piercing purple eyes stared at him, and smiled, before blowing a kiss in his direction and walking off. She could have finished him off; there was no doubt in his mind. With numbing hands he tried to pull his revolver out of the holster, but found he didn¡¯t have the strength to unlatch it.


    With a sigh he raised his head and looked at the ruined mess that was the left side that was his chest. He could hear Willow crying his name, as she raced towards him, and he smile. This was the first time he was going to die in this game, he wondered what it would feel like. He laughed, and when he did blood sprayed, showering back down on his face as gravity did what it must. ¡°Touche.¡± He called out to the sniper, she had gotten him this time, they would have to see how she did next time. With a grunt of pain he closed his eyes, and let death take him.

 Chapter 14: Against his better judgment...

    ¡°Job is done.¡± she said as she walked back into the base, it was a particularly large black fortress that everyone had just taken to calling the citadel. The onyx walls of the fortress stood out against the desert backdrop that surrounded. Three people looked up as she entered, two of them had eyes that hovered a little too long at her body for comfort.


    But then again that was the entire purpose of this armor, it was designed to distract anyone who saw it. It consisted of a grey suit of armor that completely protected her upper torso, and a dress that split on both sides, revealing both of her bare thighs from the upper area down to the knee. And it would seem that from the look of the two people that were guests here it did its purpose quite well, seeing as there eyes gravitated right to the jade of her fleshy thighs.


    ¡°Good,¡± her guild leader said, with a nod, he had the utmost confidence in her, he spoke like that was the only actual realistic outcome.


    ¡°I see however that you did not decide to kill him until after the caravan was raided.¡± one man said, he had pulled back black hair and blue eyes, what was his name again? Simon Tralo? Something like that.


    ¡°I agreed to kill him, I did not sign on to protect your caravan, in fact I have to thank you, I was able to gleam a lot of information from how the two of them acted.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Like what?¡± Simon asked, he was clothed in some mid tier metal armor, it looked like he had polished the plate to make it look more presentable, or rather that he most likely had someone else polish it, she doubted he would do that himself, he had an air about him that bespoke of a politician.


    ¡°I normally charge for tactical information,¡± she said, her head shifting to the side, her curly blond hair falling across her face as she smiled, her purple eyes shining with a mischievous look in them. ¡°But this once I will play nice.¡± she said, and after Mr.Tralo gestured for her to continue she started talking. ¡°They are both new players, you can tell by the fact that they loot anything and everything, most raiders just leave a lot of the stuff they grab, so I doubt they have been playing long.¡± All three of the people in the room started thinking hard about what she had said. ¡°That being said, the two of them are an unstoppable force, that much is for sure, it''s almost like the two of them are in each other¡¯s heads or something, coordination like that only can come from working for years together, a whole and complete understanding of the other.¡±


    ¡°Unstoppable huh?¡± Simon Tralo¡¯s partner said, rubbing his chin as he did so, he had long blonde hair and a lip peircing, there was also this unhealthy look to his skin, like he never saw any actual sunlight.


    ¡°What¡¯s up Trevor?¡± Simon asked, looking over at the man that had accompanied him.


    ¡°Nothing, it was just an interesting choice of words.¡± he looked up at her, his eyes burning into her own, and she held his gaze, this little shit, if this was the worse he could do than she could stand it, she got worse looks on an average day, she worked in a bar after all. He dropped his gaze after a long pause, with a small chuckle as he let her have the victory, but he did so in a way that felt like he still won.


    Damn weasel.


    ¡°Continue Risa.¡± her company captain said, gesturing with a gloved and armored grey hand. With a sigh she placed her twisted mask on the table, it was part of the shadowguard¡¯s look, of her guild¡¯s look, and run her hand through her golden curls, causing the shoulder length locks to bounce.


    ¡°Accuracy is near 100%¡± she said, keeping it to the details. ¡°For both of them, they have excellent aim and skill, and they think and react well under pressure, not only did they take down your caravan with ruthless efficiency, they were also able to utilize some of the gear in that to quickly set a trap for an armored company that was shadowing your caravan, killed 12 people, and took down an armored vehicle, no injuries, and it was a Lionguard patrol, so you know they were armed pretty damn well.¡± she smiled and looked at her boss, ¡°I like ¡®em, they are shadowguard material,¡±


    ¡°Do you think they would take a proposal?¡± he asked.


    ¡°No,¡± she shook her head, her waves of golden curls bouncing to emphasize her point. ¡°Not at all, that man, when he was raiding he had this look, the eyes of a hunter that enjoyed every moment, every shot, every kill.¡± she smiled to herself as she turned her attention inwards as she rewatched the face of the man as he raided. ¡°That man was born a raider, a warrior, and society has forced him to be civilized, here however,¡± she spread her arms wide, ¡°He can be as savage as he wants, the joy he feels, it is infectious, rapturious even.¡±


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    Her boss nodded, Simon and Trevor thought about what she had just said, and stood up. Simon shook the hand of both Risa and her boss. ¡°Well I thank you for the job well done, I trust he will be continued to be harassed?¡±


    ¡°You only paid me once.¡± she said, and Simon raised an eyebrow, his left eye twitching in annoyance. ¡°If you want continued harassment you will need to pay me a continuous paycheck.¡± she said, looking the man in the eyes.


    ¡°How much are we talking?¡± he finally sighed.


    ¡°Since it will be a steady job, I will give you a discount.¡± she said, running the numbers in her head, ¡°So, how about 1,500 creds every week.¡± she said, and laughed on the inside as the man winced, she could almost see the gears turning in his head.


    ¡°Fine, you have a deal.¡± he said, extending a hand, which she gripped tightly. ¡°Do I make the check out to you or?¡± he asked, and Risa let her boss answer that one.


    ¡°The payment can be made to the shadowguard guild, we will make sure she gets her 80%.¡±


    ¡°Good, can I trust that you will kill him before he hits our caravans?¡± Simon Tralo asked looking her in the eyes.


    ¡°No promises I know I won''t keep.¡± she smiled, and with a grunt of displeasure he and his cohort left.


    ¡°Pretty steep,¡± her boss commented.


    ¡°You saw them, they want him ground to a pulp.¡±


    ¡°Big company, they probably want to make an example of him, it might be expensive now but if they can make the message brutal enough it will dissuade others from trying, even in other games.¡± he looked up at her. ¡°How long do you think you can milk this?¡±


    ¡°Indefinitely.¡± she said with a laugh.


    ¡°Indefinitely?¡± he asked looking at her.


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand Mike, you and I both know this guy plays at 100% damage threshold, right?¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± he nodded.


    ¡°I shot him in the chest, tore him up real good, you know what he did?¡± she asked, and watched as Mike shook his head. ¡°He laughed, he just fucking laughed and called out to me as he lay there.¡±


    ¡°What did he say?¡±


    ¡°He said Touche.¡± she smiled, oh yes, she doubted very much that killing him over and over would drive him away, not a man like this, it would likely cause him to come and play more, that was just how he was, she could see it.


    She would probably have to work for that 1,500.


    It was nice to find someone who shared her mindset, she smiled, this, this was going to be fun...


    ***


    Matt opened his eyes, the light bit into his pupils after the short but profound darkness that had taken him. It hurt, he could still feel the dull ache of where the entire side of his chest had disappeared, but that was slowly fading, it would seem as though after death the game applied some sort of soothing touch to the wounded area, quickly causing the pain to dissipate. Likely it an often overlooked feature, seeing as many people would not think about it much seeing as not many of them set their pain threshold over 20%.


    But to Matt, it was heaven.


    Sitting up he quickly found that he was completely nude.


    Completely .


    It would seem as though this game was, shall we say more on the realistic side. Then again the game was rated AO, a rating that went past even mature, and one that it was exceptionally rare to see in a MMO, seeing as they normally went for the most players so they often shot for everyone or teen ratings.


    With a shrug he stood up, and walked over to the closes stash of gear, it only took a minute or two to re equip, this time instead of a standard brown leather duster he had a tan one made of denim,it was the exact same color as his pants he dawned and the rusty iron plated armor went nicely with it, with a nodd he grabbed a nine millimeter pistol and went to go get Willow, and with any luck his stuff.


    It wasn''t to hard to find his way back, they had after all painted the sky with a giant black beacon when he had set that building on fire. When he got there he found a red eyed Willow pacing back and forth by his corpse like a woman possessed. There Was blood on her face, and judging by how the blood on his corpse''s face was smeared it seemed like she had placed her face up against his own.


    What had she tried to do? Kiss him? Give him mouth to mouth? He looked at the hole in his chest, and doubted very much that mouth to mouth could have helped anyone in that situation at all. It was odd to see oneself, lying there dead.


    ¡°Willow,¡± he called out, Willow¡¯s head snapped up and looked at him, the red of her eyes vanishing in a second. And before he could react she rushed him, tackling him and pushing him to the ground, resting on top of his chest. She looked down at him, and her face started to pucker up, and much to his surprise she started to cry. Her features twisted as she started to cry heavier. She laid her head against his chest and wept openly, not knowing what to do he shushed her and ran a hand through her hair. She quickly calmed down and he was able to talk to her. ¡°Its fine, its only a game, you know this.¡±


    ¡°Its not that, you idiot.¡± she said softly with a moan.


    ¡°Then what is it?¡± he asked.


    ¡°One day you will die, for real, and you will not be able to respawn, you won''t come back you will be gone forever,¡± she started to sniff again, like she was about to cry. ¡°And I don''t want you to go-¡±


    Looking up at the sky he rested his head on the warm concrete of the road. ¡°That is just the way of the world.¡± he sighed, ¡°You never know when it is your time, so you need to simply live life to the fullest with every moment.¡± he looked at her as she cried on his chest and thought about Taylor, at the time of her death he would have given his life for hers in a split second, but now, in retrospect, after feeling the pain of her absence for so long he realised that of the two of them she had gotten the better end of the deal. She feld nothing now, no pain, no hurt.


    And he never wanted to put her through that, never.


    When he looked back up Willow had stopped crying, her eyes however still had a trace of tears in them. Slowly she leaned forward, her lips pressing against his own. He felt the smooth sensation of her lips and he pulled his head back, breaking away from her.


    It was difficult. Very very difficult.


    ¡°You need to stop that.¡± he said to her.


    ¡°I don''t want to.¡± she whispered back and once again leaned into his lips, her tongue reaching out to coax his own out of his mouth, and against his better judgment he didn''t resist this time...

 Chapter 15: Enough ghosts to deal with.

    Matt sighed as he sat up in bed, he opened his eyes, which right now were encased with a layer of mucus that prevented him from seeing momentarily as they glued his eyelids together. This was rectified with a quick backhanded rub to the eyes, allowing him to get up and look at the offending alarm clock that had pulled him from his deep sleep, he pressed the sleep button and swung his feet over the side of the bed, getting up in a single motion.


    With a shake of his head he realised he had only gotten three hours of sleep, it was honestly his own damn fault, or was it? He had left the game with several hours to remain in the night, but he had spent all of those several hours but three pacing back and forth feeling like shit. Multiple conclusions and arguments ran through his head like fire through grass, each one burning and cutting off the fuel for the other.


    ¡°Good morning,¡± called out a happy voice, and the main source for his current predicament. He looked up at Willow¡¯s happy smiling ghostly figure as she floated and danced around him. She had put him in this mood, and as soon as his head had been awake enough from the not satisfactory amount of sleep he had gotten the doubts and other questions settled in.


    He felt like shit.


    Almost like he had cheated on Monica.


    He knew it was only a kiss, and further he also knew that he and Monica were not even dating yet.


    Yet.


    The issue was he actually liked Monica, not that he didn''t like Willow, it was simply that he had been looking forward to this relationship, this date. He had been looking forward to it very much. And then along came Willow at just the wrong time and confusing him. With a sigh he went to the restroom, he and Willow had this agreement, she would not follow him into the restroom, he knew it was futile, seeing as everything he saw she also saw, but even knowing this it made him feel better to not have her ghostly figure hovering over him.


    After relieving himself he hopped in the shower, his mind still conflicted, after a quick scrub down he grabbed a towel and dried himself off, and pulled on his clothes for the day. The clothes he wore today were much nicer than ones he typically wore, consisting of a nice set of black jeans that had a factory made faded section from mid thigh to mid calf, providing a slightly lighter section that colored the pants, and a shirt that resembled a long sleeve tee, except the arms were rolled up to be just below the elbow and there were four buttons near the top, allowing him to leave the top two undone.


    He pulled on a nice pair of socks and grabbed his nice riding boots, the black ankle high boots going up to his mid thighs and he took a minute or two to lace up, and once they were up he pulled the jeans down over them. He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. All of his clothes were black or somewhere near that color, except for the strip of blue that ran straight down the center of his shirt. He looked at his face , and with a pair of scissors, trimmed the edge of the beard, satisfied he once again looked at himself and nodded.


    Pulling out some deodorant he applied it and got some cologne, this one called Almond musk. Monica seemed to like this one, and he often remembering her smell deeply anytime he walked by her while wearing it. Honestly at first he had thought it strange, but now, well he took it in stride.


    He was about to turn around when he found himself looking at the not so happy face of Willow, she frowned and had her arms crossed, and looked at him with a discontented face. ¡°What?¡± he asked looking at her.


    ¡°You didn''t answer me.¡± she pouted. And thinking back he did remember she had spoken this morning, she had said good morning to him. He looked at her, and sighed.


    ¡°Good morning Willow.¡± he said, and turned and grabbed his riding jacket, which made Willow perk right up after the lackluster response.


    ¡°Oh! Are we going somewhere?¡± she asked, her eyes lighting up with excitement.


    ¡°I am going somewhere, on a date remember?¡± her excitement fell away, quickly turning into a look of bitter anger and hatred, but this all melted away in an instant when he looked back at her. ¡°I would leave you here, but that is impossible, so I am simply going to ask you to please not get in the way, I promise I will allow you to talk to her, but please please Willow, just, let this go, for now. Ok?¡± he asked, and she wouldn''t look at him, her pouty face turned away. ¡°Ok?¡± he repeated, and to his relief he received a slight nodd. It was the best confirmation he was likely to ever get. And with that he put on his jacket, and retrieved two motorcycle helmets.


    He looked at his white helmet and the blue one, it was Taylor¡¯s old helmet, and he wondered if it would be ok to allow another woman to use it. Not just for Taylor, but also for the other woman, would this be awkward for Monica? To wear the moto helmet of another woman he had loved? With a shrug he thought that Awkward was distinctly better than dead, and thus grabbed it, bringing it with him.


    After bringing up his garage he drove over to Monica¡¯s house, it was not to far from his, only three blocks to the right side of his, one of the new constructions that had just recently been finished, a tall three hundred story spire made of white and reflective silver, with a distinct curve at the top of it, giving it the appearance of a blade of grass, if not the color. He found her sitting on the steps, she was wearing a form fitting pair of Jeans, grey in this case, a black top that covered her arms down to the elbows and was cut in a vee neck, exposing a pretty generous amount of skin, which also came to a hoddie in the back, thigh high black boots and fingerless gloves that covered her hands and went to mid forearm.


    Her blonde hair was streaked with blue, giving her a asphalt ranger look. The hairstyle consisted of one side being shaved about three inches above the ear and the rest going up and over her head onto the other side. As he approached she smiled and stood up and waved to him, he pulled his bike and parked it in front of the curb, the auto kickstands deploying to allow him to rest the bike without any effort. Several passers by looked at him and the bike, but he was used to it, it was after all extremely rare to see such and atique still in use.


    Willow made note of the woman, this, this was her mortal enemy.


    Crush.


    Kill.


    Burn.


    She made sure to not be visible, she was simply the observer at this moment, she had after all much to her anger agreed to stay out of it.


    For now¡­


    ¡°Hey Monica,¡± he said, pulling off the helmet, she smiled and practically bounced over, her hair, and much to Willows disgust another feature of her anatomy bouncing with each step.


    ¡°Matt, I am so glad you could make it, I am really looking forward to today,¡± she said, folding her hands behind her back and leaning forward slightly, allowing the deep vee of her shirt to show him a slightly more interesting view. And as a male, much to Willows increased disgust he looked, or rather glanced.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°I am too,¡± he said, tearing his eyes off of her cleavage and back to her eyes, hoping his stare had not been noticed, Monica however had noticed and really wanted to give her friend Christa a hug in thanks for the suggested move, it was effective. She beamed as he sade those words. ¡°Ready to go?¡± he asked, and unstrapped a helmet from the back of his bike, and offered it to her.


    She recognized it instantly, it was a helmet she had seen many times, except always on another woman, a woman that was no longer alive, she paused mid grab and looked at the blue motorcycle helmet.


    ¡°Sorry it''s the only spare I had-¡± he said awkwardly, figuring she was upset at the reminder of Taylor.


    ¡°It''s fine,¡± she said with a smile, and grabbed the helmet, pulling it on. The helmet had elicited a response in her, but not the one he had thought. ¡®Oh my god, he is willing to let me wear her helmet? He is going to let me wear something so important to him?¡¯ she felt she could almost cry tears of appreciation. ¡°So what is the plan for the day?¡± she asked sliding onto the back of the bike and tightly wrapping her arms around him, he could feel the warmth of her pressed up against him, it was completely different from how it felt when Willow had done the same, it reminded him of Taylor.


    ¡°Oh we have plans,¡± he laughed, ¡°Ready?¡± he asked, and when she had confirmed he took off, much faster than she had expected.


    ¡°Whhhhhaaaaaaaaa??? AHHHHHHHHHH-¡± she screamed a formless scream as he accelerated enough to lift the front tire off of the ground, causing the bike to tilt back a full foot and her to tighten her grip on him, squeezing him as tightly as she could fearful of falling off. When they came back down he was laughing and she in her anger slapped him on the back of the motorcycle helmet, the hit only caused him to laugh louder as he sped between obstacles on the way to there destination. He kept laughing and even against her will she found herself smiling, though it was likely more to being able to wrap her arms around him like this than the excitement of the moment.


    This, this was something she had only dared to dream of in the past five years, she had remembered when she had first seen him, she had been a new clerk at the store, and he had been the person who was set to training her. He had been so nice, and after a week she felt she might like to get to know him more. And that was when she found out he was married, happily so to a woman with long locks of wavy Auburn hair and piercing green eyes.


    Taylor.


    She had killed any thoughts of being with him after that, and though she felt guilty she remembered the spike of joy she had felt when she had heard the news of her passing. Was she a bad person? She had wondered many nights because of it, she had felt a spike of joy, but only for a split second before the sadness settled in. she had liked Taylor after their nteractions over the years, they had even become good friends and she would never wish death on the woman. But that spike¡­


    She shook her head, and looking at his back she smiled, she could work this out later, right now she wanted to focus on the right now. She turned her head sideways and laid it on his back, a smile on her face as she watched things whizz by on her right side. He felt her head on his back and the arms around his midriff and smiled.


    The only one not smiling was Willow, she was having a hard time not growling.


    The location they stopped was the same shopping district and Mall that he had taken Willow to to scout out for the date. He had it all planned, parking to the back of the lot, walking her in, protecting her in the crowd, all of it just like what he had done with Willow, where it changed however was the window shopping, Monica didn''t have the same sense of wonder Willow had, she had been here many times, and instead of running from window to window she was content to simply walk side by side with Matt, her hand in his.


    The two of them walked over to a movie theater, it was an old school theater, attempting to recreate the feeling of watching a movie in one of them found it the past, it even played some old two dimensional movies all the time. The movie however was one she had never seen, seeing as the movie medium had all but died in the past hundred years as story tellers had opted to use casers to tell more interactive tales.


    It was some soppy rom com, but she loved it, laughing at jokes she had never heard. But honestly they could be watching anything, so long as he was there with her and she would have probably enjoyed it. After that, they walked around the park, observing the dogs and kids playing there. By then the day had flew past, and the sun was setting, she was slightly startled when the giant skylight window that was the complex''s roof darkened.


    Had the day really gone that fast?


    Matt looked at his watch, ¡°Well, it is time to go eat, are you ready?¡± he asked, she was wrapped around his arm with both of hers, pressing her not insignificant chest up against it.


    ¡°Ready when you are.¡± she smiled serenely, and allowed herself to be led off to a restaurant. ¡®God, today has been perfect.¡¯ she thought to herself. The restaurant they went to was one that served italian food, or at least that is what they said, seeing as cultures had long ago blended away, making most dishes more, diverse than originally.


    They carried out conversation, laughing and laughing and, Willow couldn''t take it any longer. She knew she had promised to stay out of it, but dammit, he was putting so much more effort into this date than he had on hers.


    She started yelling.


    ¡°Damned whore of a woman!¡± she ranted, appearing in the corner of Matt¡¯s peripheral vision. Matt stopped what he was saying and froze, looking behind Monica, she looked puzzled and looked back, over her shoulder, upon seeing nothing she looked back at Matt.


    ¡°Are you ok?¡± she asked, looking at him slightly concerned.


    ¡°Yeah, I''m fine.¡± he answered, but he still looked distracted to her. In his sight Willow kept ranting and raving.


    ¡°Whore!¡±


    ¡°Slut!¡±


    ¡°Bitch!¡± and any other word that popped in her head to shout, and worse than this she screamed every time Monica opened her mouth, making it hard for him to concentrate on what Monica said.


    ¡°Are you sure you''re ok?¡± Monica asked, he was definitely distracted by something, she had just told a joke and he had not even laughed, or chuckled, or hell told her that that joke was awful. Any of those responses she would have been ok with. He had simply stared off like he had not even heard it.


    ¡°What?¡± he asked, a slightly confused look in his face. He shook his head, almost like he was dislodging something ¡°Yeah, im fine, Im going to head to the restroom i''ll be right back.¡± he said, excusing himself from the table, she watched him leave with a nervous expression on her face.


    Had she fucked it up?


    The day was going so damn well, was it something she had said.


    Had she ruined her one chance?


    Matt on the other hand was in the bathroom stalls, each one was like its own separate bathroom, with a sink and mirror and everything. He growled and in anger punched the thin metal wall, leaving a nice imprint of his fist in the metal. ¡°Willow.¡± he growled and she appeared before him, attempting her best smile that smile faded when he slammed his fist into the metal again, and rested his head on the stall wall. There were a few tears that ran down his face, and she was about to speak when he spoke up. ¡°Please, this is hard enough for me as is.¡± he said softly, ¡°This entire day I have been trying to not think about Taylor, about how we did this, or she would have done that,¡± he turned his head and looked at Willow, a pleading look in his eyes as a single tear tracked down his face. ¡°Please, I already have enough ghosts to deal with.¡± she looked at him, and nodded silently, before vanishing. He turned and rested his head against the cool surface of the stall¡¯s wall, before pushing himself back up.


    He had split the skin on a knuckle, and it was bleeding slightly, he washed it off and wiped his face, before heading back out. To Monica¡¯s credit she never mentioned the knuckle or the fact that his eyes were puffy. After they finished the meal they made their way out, and he drove her home, on her insisting he followed her up to her room, and she dragged him into her apartment.


    She dragged him in, as she planted a kiss on his lips, and lead him over to a cube about a foot high with two cords coming out of it. It was a device called the SafeSpace. A virtual space where two people could interact using their casers however. It was sometimes used for meetings, but it had also found another market, using it two people could engage in intercorce with no risks whatsoever, it felt exactly like real as it sent a complete scan of you into the virtual world, and it sent signals straight to the brain, just like normal caser programs.


    Use of the device was widespread, it had practically decimated the transmission of S.T.D.s and of unwanted pregnancies, seeing as it felt exactly like actual sex, without any of the risks it was supported widely by practically everyone. Actual sex was only used when two people wanted children.


    She was about to plug in and have him do the same when he stopped her. ¡°Wait, wait.¡± he said. ¡°Before we do this, I uh have something to say.¡±


    ¡°It''s fine,¡± she said, smiling a knowing smile. ¡°I know Taylor ment alot to you, I understand that if we get in this she might be a corporeal memory.¡± there was one issue with the SafeSpace, it was so sensitive to the users to create as real a feeling as possible there was sometimes issues where thoughts and emotions formed mental images that were projected in the SafeSpace, it lead to ghostly images, and sometimes more. She obviously thought he was worried about this. ¡°I understand what she meant to you, I''ve come to terms with me not being the only woman in your heart if this goes into a more serious relationship, I also have it set up so if something does happen we can go to a zone where no external stimuli will affect the program, effectively blocking any corporeal memories.¡± she stammered on, ¡°Please, I really want this to work.¡± she looked at him, offering the cord.


    He took it out of her hand, and looked at her. ¡°If only it was that easy,¡± he sighed, and after she had given him a curious look he plugged it in and sat down, ¡°You¡¯ll see, if Taylor shows up as a corporeal memory then that will be the least of our concerns.¡± he said, as she turned on the machine with a curious look. The nauseating feeling once again overtook him, and he found himself in a nice room, comfortably furnished, and by his side was Monica, but they were not alone, standing there looking extremely upset was none other than Willow, and not the ghostly Willow, but a physical Willow. ¡°This is what I mean Monica,¡± he said gesturing to Willow, ¡°This is Willow.¡±


    Monica¡¯s brow scrunched up and she looked extremely confused at the other woman who glared at her. ¡°Who the hell?¡±

 Chapter 16: The flood gates open...

    ¡°Who the hell?¡± Monica asked in confusion as she looked at Willow, and before either she or Willow could speak Matt spoke up.


    ¡°My Caser malfunctioned while I was playing a VRmmo game, and Willow the Ai companion was accidentally installed into my caser.¡± he said, giving her the short and sweet version of it.


    ¡°A.I companion? In your caser? Is that even possible?¡± Monica asked looking at the other woman less hostily and more curiously now.


    ¡°Proof is right there,¡± he gestured in Willow¡¯s direction. And indeed she was standing right there.


    ¡°How do you get her out?¡± Monica asked.


    ¡°I would have to do a complete caser wipe,¡± and Monica grimmised at the thought of the cost of such a procedure. ¡°And I don''t really want to do that seeing as that would erase her.¡± he said.


    Monica looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes, and then shrugged, ¡°oh well, this is what you were worried with?¡± she asked, and he nodded, ¡°It''s not an issue, so you have a favorite toy, would you get mad at me for having a favorite dildo? Or jealous of the dildo?¡± she asked with a relieved laugh.


    ¡°I might get a little jealous if you liked it more than me.¡± he said, and then paused as her words sunk in, ¡°Wait toy?¡± he looked over at Willow who was shaking with rage.


    ¡°Oh, I had assumed seeing as you were worried,¡± she paused and smiled shyly, ¡°That you have, you know...¡±


    ¡°No we haven''t,¡± he refuted, and she shrugged.


    ¡°Like I said, so you have a favorite toy.¡±


    ¡°She is not a toy.¡± he replied back,


    ¡°Don''t tell me you think A.I are alive?¡± she asked looking at him, when he didn''t answer she shook her head. ¡°Well I guess no one is perfect,¡± she sighed, ¡°Do you really think A.I. are alive?¡± she asked again.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he replied. ¡°But I believe it is better to err on the side of caution.¡±he said ¡° I would rather treat something like it is alive, then deny something that is alive simply because it does not conform to my vision of what life should be like.¡± she looked at him with a half cocked smile and shook her head. ¡°Well, Willow here wants to talk to you.¡± he said, and even though Monica didn''t believe the A.I. was alive she decided to humor Matt.


    ¡°And?¡± she asked, placing her hands on her hips, looking at Willow.


    ¡°I am not a toy,¡± Willow growled her eyes growing a shade redder, turning from there natural blue to a deep purple. ¡°The only reason I am here is to talk to you, but if you''re going to be such a bitch than perhaps it is better to not talk.¡±


    Monica¡¯s eyes flared at the word bitch but she simply pursed her lips, allowing Willow to continue. ¡°I really couldn¡¯t give any less fucks to whether you think I am alive or not, your opinion does not matter to me.¡± she took a deep breath, ¡°However the situation as it is means I must come into contact with you from time to time, seeing as I am ALWAYS with Matt, and you will be around occasionally,¡± she emphasized the word always, playing it out to lengthen it just long enough that Monica¡¯s eye began twitching with annoyance, while mentioning that Monica herself would be around occasionally with a dismissive tone. ¡°It is obvious from your current dimwitted vessige that you dislike me, and I am inclined to feel the same about one so slutty as you, therefore-¡±


    Oh god this was not going as Matt had hoped, not at all.


    ¡°Therefore I believe it best for everyone if we simply refuse to acknowledge one another¡¯s presence when in the same company to bring as little discomfort to Matthew and to make sure I don''t have to interact with a hussy such as yourself.¡±


    No definitely not as planned.


    Monica¡¯s face paled with the words sent her way by Willow, but a hateful smile soon grew in place of it and was soon replaced by a serien look that scared Matt more than the look of vile hatred she had just seconds before had on her face. As Monica took a step forward Matt took several quick steps back, retreating from the battlefield that had spontaneously appeared before him in a strategic withdrawal that would have brought about the approval of both psychologists, philosophers, and any man that had ever had any interaction with an angered woman.


    Often the cross fire was worse than the direct fire.


    Civilian casualties were the worst.


    As Monica approached she still looked so peaceful, and she poked a finger into the other woman¡¯s chest and with a voice that was like she was commenting on the weather she said asked one simple question.


    ¡°How long have you known Matt?¡± she asked in a quiet voice, but the words sent a chill down Willow¡¯s simulated spine. When she didn''t answer Monica continued. ¡°I have known him for over five years,¡± she whispered softly, so softly that Matt couldn''t hear her, ¡°and I have wanted to be with him for all five of those years, wanted to be his, wanted him to be mine.¡± she placed her head next to the frozen A.I. her lips whispering into the other¡¯s ear.¡°for the first three years I resigned myself to never realising this dream of mine, then his wife unfortunately passed away, ¡± the mask of serenity faded for a second, showing a look of sadness. ¡°Shehad been a friend of mine, and even knew I liked Matt, I remember she pulled me aside one time to ask me about it, I was so scared, I didn''t want to ruin my friendship with her, ¡± she laughed sadly. ¡°Do you know what she said to me?¡± Willow shook her head, still barely moving. ¡°She told me it was alright, and that she was not mad at me, she said that if anything ever happened to her she wanted me there for Matt, that she didn''t want him to be alone the rest of his life. ¡± a single tear traced down Monica¡¯s face. ¡°She made me promise, I don''t know if she knew somehow that her time was coming, or if it was just happenstance, but not three months later she passed away.¡± she pulled back and looked at Willow directly in the eyes. ¡°And I will be damned before I let my friend down, and before I loose this opportunity to do what my heart wants.¡± she pushed the finger in deeper, ¡°especially when the one causing the disturbance is nothing more than some lines of code and polygons.¡± she pushed Willow, causing the other woman to stumble back a step. ¡°As such and seeing as Matt is to soft of heart to simply delete you I agree to your terms Toy, if only for his and Taylor¡¯s sake.¡±


    And without saying another word she turned around, and addressed Matt, ¡°I set this up to block any corporeal memories of Taylor if we needed, but it will work for this aswell.¡± she said and in the blink of an eye a beam of light spread through the room, and once it touched Willow she disappeared, he could still hear her, but much to her anger she could no longer project herself into the world of the SafeSpace. ¡°It blocks all input besides our own.¡± she didn''t mention that the price for an upgrade in software necessary for this was astounding high, and that she had saved for almost half a year just to buy it, he didn''t need to know that.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°I-¡± he started to speak and she placed a finger on his lips, silencing him with a soft shush.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to convince me A.I are alive, I don''t believe that, and have had this argument thousands of times with my sister, besides it is in your best interest if I simply see her as a bundle of code and polygon right? Otherwise I might get jealous.¡± she had leaned forward with every word, using her other hand not pressed against his lips to slip around behind his head and pull it down. Now only her finger separated her lips, which she slipped away quickly.


    It was like a damn that was holding back flood waters had simply vanished, as the force of five years of longing pressed up against his lips, she plunged deep, her tongue exploring his mouth like she had only ever dreamed and hoped for.


    No this was better than a dream.


    She pulled back, looking into his deep sapphire eyes, a trait so rare that in modern times only .05 of a single percent of all of the world had it, apparently in older days there had been research done into it that placed it as the rarest of all colors possible, and back then it had been 2% of the population, now however, it was even more rare, and as time went on it would fade to fewer and fewer people.


    And yet here he had it.


    She looked at him, and without a care in the world she tore off her clothes, not minding the fabric that she ripped or ruined, after all it was only simulated, the clothes in here didn''t really matter. As soon as she had done this task she went to work on him, throwing herself onto him with enough force that he fell backwards. He raised an eyebrow at her aggressiveness, and then with a slight smile helped her with the task of undoing hi belt.


    Did he think she was to forward? To aggressive?


    Normally she wasn''t , but this, this was what she had wanted for five years, five years of her life.


    She was not going to delay, whether he thought her aggressive or not. His pants had barely been pulled down before she seized his manhood in hand and caressed it. Her pale hands danced up and down him as she leaned over and allowed spit to drip off of her tongue to add lubrication. Then looking at him she placed her tongue on the mase of his shaft, just where the shaft met his sack and lined nuzzled him with a cheek. With a mischievous smile she ran her tongue up the shaft, causing a quiver to be sent through his body. When she got to the top she kissed the tip, before devouring it.


    He was of a formidable size, and she found she could only take him halfway into her mouth before her throat became to filled with him. With this preliminary knowledge out of the way she knew how far she could go so she began her movements. As she rose and fell, leaving plenty of saliva behind which caught the light and shone as her head bobbed up and down, blocking the light and then once again revealing it. While she continued her movements her hands were not idle, they used the excess saliva that ran down him to lubricate there stroking. Breathing out of her nose she continued a strong and comfortable vacuum running her tongue over the underside of his shaft. Every now and again she would make a grunt or a gagging noise as she went a little too deep for her own comfort.


    Her reward for all the hard work came, though Matt held out much longer than she had thought. She felt him tense and she pulled back slightly, still keeping him in her mouth as he unleashed a torrent. The warm viscous substance entered her mouth. She pulled back, attempting to keep it all in her mouth, she to her dismay lost a drizzle of it, which slid down the side of her mouth, dribbling a white line down to her chin. She didn''t know if this was what it actually tasted like, seeing as it was a programmed simulation, though one of her married friends had attested to the accuracy of the SafeSpace both in feeling of sex and the taste of a man.


    Actual sex was for married couples, and was something to hope and dream about. She wasn''t there with Matt.


    Yet.


    First task done she helped him finish removing his clothes. Honestly speaking he really didn''t need help, she was just hungry for him, she had waited so long.


    So damned long.


    And here he was, just for her.


    Matt smiled at the hungered look in Monica¡¯s eyes, she thought she was the dominate one huh? Like she was the one that controlled the pace, well was she in for a surprise. He allowed her to position herself over him, using one hand and bending her legs so that her lower lips kissed his manhood, but before she could sit down he grabbed her hips and drove her down. Effectively sliding himself into her in one fell swoop. Her eyes flew open wide and her chest and legs quivered as the muscles tightened and contracted, she sat frozen in place, her mind overloaded with the sensory input of raw physical pleasure. He sat up and placed the back of her head in one of his hands, wrapping the arm around her back from under her arm and used the other arm in conjunction with his feet and legs to lay her on her back, him still speared within her. Once he had her on her back he grabbed both her wrists with a single hand and lifted them over her head, pinning them to the floor above her head, he then lifted himself and her lower side so that he was on his feet bent over her and her lower half was still in the air, he grabbed one of her legs to hold her in place and she instinctively wrapped the other leg around his waist.


    ¡°Wait! Wait!¡± she said her eyes wide and once again coming into focus. He smiled at her and shook his head.


    ¡°Too late for that,¡± he laughed and he pulled himself partially out of her and slid back in hard and fast. He slapped up against her, causing her to let out a huff of air that escaped her lips. The sound was loud in the almost empty room. She moaned slightly, a strand of drool leaking out of her mouth and the protest she had just spoken lost after the first attack.


    ¡°MMMNnnnnnnnn- AHhhh, Ahhhh.¡±


    He pulled out slightly again and rammed back into her, once again slapping and causing a moan to come out of her mouth as he eyes glazed over. He pulled entirely out of her and she looked up at him dazed and confused before he thrusted in again and she gasped in surprise and many other feelings and emotions. He held her like this for several minutes, not allowing her to recover before he allowed her to slump down, her breathing heavy and erratic.


    He however was not done with her. He spread her legs lifting them at the knee joints and entered her in a more, shall we say less aggressive manor. As he entered her lower lisp sucked on his manhood, pulling him ever deeper with every thrust, the walls of her vagina squeezed around him as he moved in and out of her more gently.


    ¡°Ahhh, ahhh, mnnnnnn.¡± she whispered, her hair splayed out around her head like a halo of gold and blue she lifted her head to look at him and wrapped her legs around his waist, using them to pull him in deeper with every thrust. Her arms wrapped around him and pulled his head down into her own, her lips reaching his, connecting them at two different points.


    While he moved in and out of her she wondered her arms through his hair and across his back, pulling his chest in close to her own, when he started moving faster nearing the end of his end of his strength she tightened the grip she held on him, her nails digging into his back, her legs and thighs flexing and contracting as she gripped him, pulling him in as deep as possible for one last thrust, and the both of them released warm liquid, both reaching the climax they had hoped for. They lay there panting for several minutes before she closed the SafeSpace down.


    Matt opened his eyes and found himself laying on a couch, still plugged into the box, Monica had already unplugged and he did the same, he was about to get up when she scouted on towards him and lay her head on his chest, she looked up at him and gave him the largest puppy dog eyes he had ever seen. ¡°Do you really have to go?¡± she asked softly, ¡°Today was so perfect, better than I had ever dared to dream, I don''t want you to leave.¡±


    He thought about it, this was the part where the cowboy would tell the woman he needed to go, and then ride away into the sunset right? But Matt was no cowboy, he was a raider at heart, and raiders were selfish, they took what they wanted, because they wanted it and no other reason needed to be there.


    And what he wanted was to stay here with her.


    ¡°What time do you go in?¡± he asked, referring to work for the next day.


    ¡°2:00 p.m.¡± she said, ¡°Same as you right?¡± she asked, he nodded.


    ¡°Want a ride into work tomorrow?¡± he asked, she nodded excitedly. He stood up, much to her surprise and walked over to where her bedroom was, ¡°Then lets get some sleep,¡± he said, moving to open the door.


    ¡°No wait!¡± she called out, trying in vain to keep him from opening the door. When he did a pile of clothes and other things fell out, it would seem as though things were shoved into the room in an attempt to make the rest of the house look tidy. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment as the pile of clean but unfolded clothes deposited themselves on his shoes. He started to chuckle but she glared at him in defiance. ¡°Not a damn word!¡± she said, in as defiant a tone as she could muster.


    He nodded still attempting to hold back his murth. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am.¡± stepping over the piles he lay himself on the bed and she followed. She spooned up against him, resting her head on his chest and smiled contentedly, she was about to drift off when a thought occurred to her.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she called out in the dark to him.


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°I thought you said you didn''t like VRmmos.¡±


    ¡°Normally I don¡¯t, but Vis downloaded this one, and well I am hooked I guess.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± she asked, hopeful it was the same one she had just started playing what a month ago? ¡°What is it called?¡± she asked.


    ¡°New Earth Online,¡± she had never even heard of it, she cursed the fates when he said that, but made a mental note of the name, it would seem as though she knew what she would be playing in the future, if only to spend more time with him. And with that the two of them fell fast asleep¡­

 Chapter 17: Unmooring...

    The sunlight drifted in through the window along with a soft breeze as the morning rose over the city.  A soft ticklish feeling across his face and neck caused him to wrinkle his forehead in an effort to not sneeze. Pulling his head back and to the right he found the soft ticklish feeling was actually hair, hair of a peacefully sleeping Monica.  It would seem as though the hair was blown over by the wind, causing it to tickle his face.  She used his shoulder as a pillow, and it would seem that she had done that for some time, seeing as his shirt was wet from the sweat of her face and himself, that and the fact that his entire arm was completely asleep.  And that was not the only point of contact between them, she had her arm across his body, from chest to waist, and her leg was also resting on top of him, she was almost laying ontop of him, almost like she was worried that if she let go of him he might disappear and she would never be able to hold him again.


    He smiled, it felt good to wake up next to a woman, it had a sort of joy that he had not felt in some years to it, the feeling, much to warm with both bodies heating up the bed, the sweat produced by the both of them, the smell of her up against him.  The small sounds of discontent she made and the way she furrowed her brow when he moved even slightly, and that soft easy smile she made when she was so content as this.


    The light played across her face, and the shadows clung to every fold and crevice of her face, her brow casting shadow, and the way it clung to her cheeks as she smiled softly and formed a place for the shadows to hide, her dimples.


    He sat there looking at her and wondered how long it had been before he had noticed her like that.  If one discounted the inane fantasies a wondering mind took one on then it was not that long ago that he had started to think of her as something more than a coworker, or some friend that stopped by when he and Taylor had entertained guests.


    But her¡­


    How long had she been thinking of him like this? This was a harder question, or so he thought, up till he actually put some thought in it, and combed through his memories.  Once he had the right frame of thought he recalled the first few weeks of working with the woman, she had obviously started to come onto her, and he had at the time wanted to let her down softly, so he had started talking about Taylor more and more with other people while he was fairly sure she could hear.  And really this had not worked quite as planned, so instead he had gone for something different, something more direct.  He had sabotaged Taylor¡¯s comm, forcing her to come visit him at work, and thus introducing the woman to Taylor.


    It had worked well, it had made it so Monica had no longer came onto him so hard, but there had also been an unexpected side effect, one whose ramifications he never really understood. And probably never will.


    The two had become fast friends.


    This unexpected event had lead to Monica coming over more and more, and had made it slightly awkward for him.  He would never cheat on Taylor, he loved her too much, and though he had discouraged the advances of Monica he still worried she would start back up, and he really didn''t want that to get in between the two women who seemed to have become very good friends. And thus he had stayed out of it mostly, feigning some excuse to flee or creating some situation to get him away from the two of them as to not drive them apart.


    He wondered idly if Taylor would have been happy to know he was now in a relationship with her friend,  And though it seemed odd, he couldn''t help but feel as though Taylor would have been happy, as she had said, someone needed to take care of him.


    And this thought brought him back to his original question, and a conclusion that surprised him and at the same time was something he had seen coming.


    She had felt this way the entire time.


    All those years, she had suppressed it out of respect and friendship for Taylor.  In all of that time Monica had not had a single boyfriend, she had not really even flirted with men, had she been waiting for him? Even if that waiting was futile as he was married to Taylor.


    He looked at her peaceful face, and brought his hand up to his neck, dangling there about was a necklace with two gold bands on it, he brought it up to his face, and saw how his eyes reflected in the light of the room on the band.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Those eyes looked old, tired, worn, even in the warm light of the golden wedding band.  He looked back down at Monica sleeping ever so peacefully and back at the two bands of gold that gleamed in the morning sunlight.  Closing his eyes he undid the clasp of the necklace, and pulled it off of his neck with a single hand.


    This was an anchor, something that held him in place even as the waters flowed around him. And hard as it was, he had to pull up that anchor, had to allow the ebb and flow of life to pull him along.  He had to, or he would never get anywhere. With a deep sigh and a feeling like a great weight was being lifted off his chest he took the chain with its two gold bands and tucked it into his pants pockets.  With a smile he closed his eyes, falling back into a peaceful sleep.


    He however had not been the only one awake, Monica had seen it, the looks at her, the smile, and most shockingly the removal of the necklace, she had watched him through her eyelashes, casting the entire scene in a strange haze, but one that had been unable to hide anything from her.


    She wanted to bounce for joy but restrained herself for fear of waking him up after he had just fallen back into a deep sleep.  She never wanted him to forget, she had accepted him as he was, with all of his flaws, and all of his ghosts, all she wanted was him to try, try to love her like he had done with Taylor, if he could give her even a fourth of that affection then she would be content.


    But this, this was astounding.


    Slowly she lifted her head off of the perch she had claimed as her own and using her arm under her body she dragged herself up in bed, softly kissing him on the lips she smiled down at his peacefully sleeping face.


    ¡°I love you,¡±  she whispered.  It was something she had known for years, but never something she had ever dared to say to him in person. Even now, she doubted she could bring herself to tell him when he was awake, she worried it would be to fast, or he would turn away from the word, and her aswell.


    No, telling him that in person would have to wait, she would have to build up to that.  And build she would, with each and every brick she could.  With a smile she pulled herself away from him, feeling slightly regretful that she could not spend the rest of eternity simply snuggled up against him. She slipped off of the bed, and sighed as she saw the mess around her, there had simply not been enough time to truly organize or clean, when she had brought Christa over the two of them had found this out, so she had instead opted to using a room to hide the clutter, the rest of the house was carefully laid out and cleaned as all the dregs and excess anything was simply piled in this room.


    Her plan had fallen to pieces when he had opened the door to go to bed, revealing the whole embarrassing truth. Her cheeks died red when she recognized one object, it was none other than a dildo, she only had one, and it had been purchased some five years ago when she had longed for Matt the most.  It had seen extensive use, as she had thought of him, dreaming that it was him that did those things to her.


    She had found the toy and her imaginings lacking when compared to the real deal, he was completely different, and was better in every way than the pink plastic toy.  Blushing deeply she grabbed the thing and shoved it under the bed, praying to anyone who would listen that he had not seen it, please, please, please make it so he never saw it.  She remembered she had said something about it, but that was hypothetical, and she was using it to illustrate a point. Which brought her to another thought.


    Willow.


    The A.I. that was in his head, no not in his head but in his caser.  How exactly did she feel about that?  She thought deep and hard about that, but honestly she couldn''t come to any conclusive decision about it.


    She honestly didn''t think A.I. were alive.  When you ask your computer to translate a page of Incatinese into Common, it does so, almost instantly. Does this mean it knows Incatinese? No of course not,it does not consider the languages, or how certain words or phrases don''t translate the program simply matches words and phrases to a dictionary,   It didn''t think, it doesn''t  have a mind, it simply responded to stimuli, and responded to it based on predetermined rules put in place by its creators.


    Computers can calculate anything but understand nothing, cannot truly create, only recombine what humans create they are strictly rational. A human mind owes its richness largely to non-rational aspects.No matter how closely you mimic a human brain it is still a machine as a mind is not a brain.


    Kurt G?del was correct.


    A computer can never actually think, if it is unaided by outside sources, like say its programmers,it will be forever trapped inside its pre-set limits. What makes a human a human however, is that our thoughts can go where logic can¡¯t. Logic becomes irrelevant at many moments, they can be moments of  love, inspiration, intuition, imagination and a whole host of other things. Monica knew she herself followed some of these paths aswell, it was illogical to love Matt, especially back when he was married, but she still did,,from the perspective of a machine it would have been illogical, due to the fruitless nature of it. A logical ¡°mistake¡± however is often the only way to arrive at a breakthrough, because it is the experience that allows a human to go on, and those experience are needed, being neither right nor wrong, to explore the unknown.


    A.I., like the machines before them include certain statements that are accepted as true but that cannot be proven. Religious people make statements based on the assumption that God exists, although they can¡¯t prove it. Materialists make statements based on the assumption that consciousness can be ignored,and that as well cannot be proved.


    She shook the thoughts out of her head, it was a debate that had raged since well before her time and would likely do so well past her time.  It was simply another part of Matt she would have to take in, and even with this Willow issue, she would take it, if it meant she could be with Matt then she would take much more.


    For she was an illogical beast, and she recognized this, but simply didn''t care, if this illogical state brought her happiness, then she would remain so inclined to be illogical.


    Wasn''t that the logical thing to do?


    With a smile she got out of bed,  and after a few curses under her breath as she kicked some object that she had not seen in the pile or stepped on something sharp that had been hidden by the mess on the floor she made her way to the kitchen, it was time to make some breakfast, yesterday went well, really really well, and while she was on a roll she was going to keep up the momentum.


    ¡®It was indeed the logical thing to do.¡¯ she said to herself with a laugh in her mind as she brought out the things she needed for breakfast.

 Chapter 18: Play with your Toy...

    Matt opened his eyes to the smell of frying bacon and eggs. He looked around and found himself wondering where he was, the memories rushed up to him for a second time that day and he sat up, no longer accompanied in bed by the beautiful Monica. He was about to get out to see what that amazing smell might entail when he thought of something, of someone.


    ¡°Willow?¡±  he called out softly, the AI had not uttered a sound since he had, well since he and Monica had, yeah.  He was about to call out again when she responded.


    ¡°Don''t worry about it.¡±  she said, her voice stiffer than he had come to know over the last few days, almost like emotion had been peeled away.  Her saying that he shouldn''t worry about it however simply made him worry about it.


    About her.


    ¡°Willow-¡± he began, but stopped when Monica peaked her head into the room, she smiled at him partially in surprise, at him being awake most likely.


    ¡°Ah, Matt good good you''re up, would you like some breakfast?¡±  she asked, she carefully hid her hands behind herself, not showing him the burn marks she had on her hands from making a mistake cooking this morning, she was not used to cooking, and had mistakenly grabbed the handle of a pan when she should have not.


    He sat up and got out of the bed looking at her, tears welling in her eyes, even as she tried to not show it. ¡°Let me see,¡±  he said, and she made an attempt to feign unknowing but in her panic she used her hands to wave it away, and as the hand went past he grabbed her wrist and examined the palm.


    There in the center of the hand was an angry red strip, which already had one or two blisters showing up on the palm.  She looked up at him apologetically but he was simply staring at the hands shaking his head, and with one hand he fished out his vidcom. ¡°Hey Mr. Jaime, yeah it''s Matt, listen, Monica and I were hanging out and she decided to pick a fight with a hot pan, and unfortunately the pan won,¡±  he nodded, and she could hear the faint sound of someone talking on the other side of the call. ¡°Yeah I doubt she would be able to get anything done with these hands today,¡± he said with a slight laugh as he marched her over to the washbasin and allowed the cool water to wash over her hands. ¡°Yeah, well I am going to also take the day off, make sure she doesn''t do anything stupid, you know, like grabbing a hot pan.¡±  there was some more talking on the other side, but she could not make it out. ¡°Well you could always ask Lewis, what with his wife just having that baby he is looking to pick up any hours he can get.¡±


    Matt walked over to the first aid kit on the wall and popped it open, pulling out some sort of gel and bandages.  He walked back over to her, still waiting for a response as he slathered a generous amount of the gel and softly spread it over her palms, he then loosely wrapped the bandage, not to tight as that would not be good for the burns should the skin start to swell.


    ¡°Yeah, thank you i''ll make sure to thank Lewis aswell.¡± he said, pulling the Vidcom out apparently done with the conversation. He looked over at her, his eyes smiling along with the one that curved his lips. ¡°Well, looks like we are off the hook for now.¡±  he said laughing, and he then led her over to the table where he plated the prepared food and sat down.  She attempted to grab the fork and grimaced a little, hoping he didn''t notice, but of course he did.  He reached over the table and removed the fork from her hand and went about placing the food into her mouth, bite by bite. After he finished feeding her he went and ate himself, not saying anything about the now slightly cold eggs.


    She didn''t know how she felt about this, it was, not what she had planned for the morning but it was what had happened and it really was not that bad, in fact this outcome might have proven more to her liking than the other, all except her hands that is.


    ¡°I am going to run over to my house and grab some things,¡±  he said, looking up from his plate after he placed it in the sink, he was lying, he knew it and he also suspected she did, but to her credit she simply nodded, gave him a kiss and waved him out promising to not touch anything red hot until he returned.


    With a sigh he slipped on his helmet and went back to his place.


    ¡°Willow?¡±  as soon as he shut the door behind him he called out, there was however no response, he called out again, and after a pause was going to do so a third time when she spoke out.


    ¡°Do you have a SafeSpace, or at least something like it?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yes,¡± he said, his eyes growing more narrow, suspicious.


    ¡°Can you use it, I want to talk to you, but I don''t like it when you can look right through me, it makes it feel like I am not there. Not real.¡±  she said, and he nodded, walking over to the shelve he had built into the wall on the right side of the room he pulled out a small cube, it was not the same as the one Monica had, this one was smaller, and not designed for the same versatility as hers.  With a hand he wiped the dust off of it and turned it one, plopping himself down on the couch and plugged the port in.


    He looked around, it was a well furnished room, full of greys and off whites and splashes of deep reds and blues, Taylor had been the one who had decorated it, she said that if they were going to spend so much time in here it needed to look nice.  She always did have the best fashion sense, a department that as she put it he was hopelessly lost in. He hadn''t been here in what three or four years?  Not since he and Taylor had gotten married, and had moved the sexual encounters to the real world.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Whats up?¡± he asked, turning to look at Willow.  She had her face turned down, and her eyes not looking at him, a decidedly depressed set to her shoulders told him right away that she was upset, you could simply read it in her posture.


    She glanced to the side, taking in the room and sighed.


    ¡°So I am not even number 2.¡±  she said.


    ¡°Number 2?¡± he asked, confused.


    ¡°I am not even the second girl in your heart, there is first Taylor, then Monica, leaving the last part for me,¡±  she said sadly, her voice quivered, almost like she was about to cry. ¡°Am I even welcome in your heart?¡±  he sighed and looked at her, and pulling her close he gave her a hug.


    ¡°Willow, you are a dear friend,¡±  he started and almost winced at the pained and angry look she gave him.


    ¡°Friend? ¡± she asked, her voice growing more and more upset, ¡°Friend? Is that all?¡±


    ¡°I, what do you want me to say Willow?¡±  he choked out.


    ¡°I want you to stop lying to yourself.¡±  she snarled, ¡°I am more than a friend to you.¡±  she said, and he opened his mouth but it was stopped by a kiss from Willow, she pulled away, leaving a strand of saliva to bridge the gap between there lips. ¡°You forget I am in your head, you can''t lie to me...¡± she said, pushing her lips back against his, and with hands that wandered she rubbed him down like a horse after a hard day''s work.  Before he knew it he and her were both in the process of shedding clothes.


    His brain screamed at him, telling him that this was not right that this was not what he wanted to do to Willow, to Monica.  His body however, had no qualms with it.  He briefly wondered if she had once again changed his brain chemistry, but he quickly forgot that thought when he realised he and her were both now fully nude.


    She had a tight body, her breasts were larger than either those of Monica or Taylor, and were a perfect pear shape, and her waist, gods was that a wide waist.  The labia around her lower lips were puffy and the inner lips peeked out, creating perfect pink butterfly like wings that framed her lower lips.


    ¡°Wait, wait, Willow.¡± he called out, placing a hand on her stomach to hold her off.


    ¡°What? Nothing is wrong, you heard her, I am not alive, I am just a toy,¡±  she snarled the word, and using a hand positioned him, her lower lips placing gentle kisses on his manhood.


    ¡°But-¡± he protested weakly.


    ¡°But nothing,¡±  she said, smiling wickedly, ¡°Play with your Toy,¡±  she hissed, and slid herself home on his manhood.  The sensation was like nothing he had ever felt, he had sex with multiple women, all of them felt unique to slid into, so unique in terms of tightness and how the inner ridges stimulated him that he could probably have known who was who by the feeling alone.  And yet they all were similar, the bumps and grooves of them each the same sort of softness, and smoothness, pressing on him from multiple angles and sides.  But Willow, she was different. Seeing the surprised look on his face she laughed triumphantly. ¡°Your girlfriend gave me an Idea, she called me a toy, so I did a little research,¡±  she smiled, ¡°It turns out that male toys have come up with ways to completely mimic a human women, and some have even dared to call themselves better, more stimulating.¡± she smiled, moving her hips side to side, causing him to rub up against all the soft alien curves and ridges inside of her. ¡°I used one of those, and made some of my own modifications to make it the most stimulating sensation for you as humanly, or A.I.ly  possible.¡±  she started to move up and down, feeling him move in and out of her, not that she would ever admit it, but without the sexual contact with Matt and Willow she would have never really felt good by this, seeing as she had no idea what happened to the brain or the feelings when sex happened, up until the two of them had made love, and she had, even though she hated it, carefully observed every shock, every fired electrode that coursed through Monica¡¯s body, and much like she had used Matt¡¯s brain to copy and make a burger for herself so she could experience it she had down the same to Monica, so she could also experience the bliss of sex.


    And bliss it was.


    Every thrust she had her body sent the echoes to her brain, or as much of a brain as an A.I. could have. Every move sent a shock through her, and she found herself moaning in pleasure.


    It was damn good, but the question now was could she turn it up more?  If it felt this good like this would she be able to manipulate the amounts of feeling and ecstasy she was currently experiencing?


    Why not? More of a good thing couldn''t be bad right?


    This small change was something she would come to love as well as regret.


    He grabbed her by the waist, and turned his hips sideways, she tumbled over to the side of the room, falling onto the soft and plush ground, with no injury happening, and he rose up to a kneeling position, one of her legs was under him, in between his own and the other , was off to the right side, practically turning her on her side.  She instantly recognized it as the pretzel position, and one of the thousands she had found on the webs.  Still in her she pulled out, the suction fighting him the entire way, as if pleading with him to not go, to not leave, and with speed and force he drove back into her.


    The sparks shot through her body, causing her to freeze, her muscles stiffened and her body became rigid as the stimuli flooded her brain, causing to much to process temporarily, it took quite some time to get her head wrapped around the flood of information and feeling, and by that time he was already pulling back out to rush her again, like a siege engine against her defences. ¡°Wai-¡± she started to say but it was to late, he once again rushed her, pressing himself deep inside. Basic functions of hers started to shut down as she pulled power from other regions to process the flood of information, emotions and feelings.


    Her eyes rolled back in her head, her jaw slackened allowing a loose tongue to flop out  to the side of her mouth, and her body relaxed, becoming almost completely like a ragdoll. All external stimuli was ceased, instead of the wide world she was used to seeing, all the numbers and calculations and the links and research, everything, all gone.  Her world shrunk down to a feeling, to the feeling of him.


    She could see nothing, hear nothing as her entire being bent to processing the feeling of him and her.


    It was glorious.


    It was terrifying.


    Her entire wide world narrowed down to only a few feelings, the jolt of his thrusts the feel of his hands on her legs, her stomach and then working there way up her body.


    It was terrifyingly glorious.


    And while her world narrowed Matt was also experiencing something incredible, the wet soft twists and ridges of her caressed him in a way nothing else had ever done,  the ridges, the twists, they way it hugged him from all sides, as though it was made for him, and in all honesty it was made for him.


    The feeling was more than he could take, normally he didn''t give in this easy, this soon, but the way her insides stroked and caressed him so, he could do no more. Grabbing her hips he pulled her back onto himself as he thrusted one last time, as he released inside of her she let out a scream, one of ecstasy, not pain, but one that surprised him all the same.  Her eyes flew open, but she looked up at the ceiling not truly seeing anything, and as he came inside of her she tightened all around him, even as liquid from her own orgasm gushed out, her inner lips caressed him, squeezing first from the base then along his shaft, all the way up, almost like he was a tube of toothpaste and she was getting every last drop out of him.


    Slowly her world widened again, and she found herself lying there, with him still inside of her, the warm feeling in her stomach and an aching echo in her mind.  She looked over at him, as he lay there panting, spent, and kissed him softly on the lips, which was quite a feat, seeing as she had her back pressed against his chest, she smiled as she looked over her shoulder at him. ¡°You can play with your toy at anytime you want.¡±  she said, and she hoped he would play with her again soon¡­

 Chapter 19: Ready player 2...

    Monica sat at her couch, tons of thoughts running through her mind, she was not stupid, she knew he had not gone to get things but rather gone to talk to the A.I. she went to rub her hand over her face, and then winced as soon as the palm touched her scalp, she pulled back and looked at the bandages on her hands, damn, the throbbing hurt, with each and every pulse of her heart as blood ran through her veins, it must have been a pretty serious matter to take her thoughts off of this pain.


    She shook her head, her eyes set in a look of determination, she was not going to allow a computer program get in between her and her man.


    The thought shot lightning through her.


    Her man.


    He was at long last here''s, the jubilation brought with it another feeling, a heavy weight, she had to be just as good as Taylor, she knew he would not agree, but the fact remained that he was with Taylor for a reason, and she felt the need to be everything to him that she was. Even as illogical as it was, she would try her damndest.


    She smiled as she looked at her bandaged hands, there had been some good to come out of her burning herself and ruining half the scrambled eggs she had tried to make. The tender way he had held her hands and wrapped her back up, and then taken charge to get her time off, well it was sweet, and that said nothing about the way he had taken the time to feed her, bite by bite.


    God that was amazing.


    She smiled as the memories played out in her head. She had never really cooked for herself or anyone, it was not a skill that she had honed, Taylor however was quite the cook, she would get up early and cook Matt a meal for all three of the meal times, and would even go all out for sundays and holidays. Monica had once asked her why she did it and the other woman had just shrugged and said something about wanting a traditional family, and how she enjoyed it. Monica remembered herself back then shaking her head, thinking her friend had been crazy, but now, she understood, she really did.


    With a sigh she resigned herself to getting better at cooking, and with careful hands picked up her Vidcom, she used a finger to brush the hair out of her way, and found the port in the base of her skull. Plugging it in she dialed up her friend Christa, her only friend really.


    Almost before the image had even appeared in her vision she was under an interrogation from Christa. ¡°Speak,¡± the woman demanded on the other side, her black hair was around her head in a messy disarray, her golden eyes practically glowed in the darkness that was her bedroom. Those eyes, they had been colored obviously, no person would naturally have golden eyes, and they gave the woman a wolf like look, a deep, beautiful, and slightly frightening gaze, one that she often used to transfix her prey until it was too late. Monica looked next to her, and saw the rise and fall of a chest of her latest prey.


    ¡°Hows Kyle?¡± she asked looking at the sleeping form, and much to her surprise Monica shook her head and pulled back her partner¡¯s covers revealing not kyle as she thought but rather the nude form of Susan, a fellow coworker. The woman¡¯s breasts rose and fell with the motion of her breath, each intake causing the dual mounds to quiver.


    Christa was not a picky person in terms of gender, she instead was into people who were open with her, be they man or woman. She was far from a slut however, seeing as she never went out with more than one person, she was extremely loyal, so long as the other party was to her as well, and if you broke her trust, it really was not pretty.


    ¡°What happened to Kyle?¡± Monica asked in confusion, the two of them had been so very close, and if rumor was to be believed he had even thought about getting an engagement ring. And that was what a week ago?


    ¡°He was uncomfortable with my dual nature, ¡± she looked over at Susan, ¡°he told me I had to choose him or nothing, and honestly I was ok with that, but then he goes and brings in some other woman, and asks if she could join us, it was extremely hypocritical, so i called him on it, and well it all fell apart from there,¡± she sighed, ¡°I was actually thinking it could work with him, ¡± shaking her head and biting her lips to stop them from quivering she looked away. ¡°I needed a pick me up, and you know, me and Susan had a fling once or twice, so I called her over to take my mind off of things...¡±


    ¡°I am so sorry Christa,¡± Monica moaned, her poor poor friend. Funny enough that Bisexuality is what had brought the two of them together as friends, not that Monica had actually done anything with Christa, she had simply denied the other woman¡¯s advances, and in one of those strange twists of chance that her life often took she had become friends with the other woman.


    ¡°Now,¡± Christa snapped out of it and stood up, and walked out of the room, her naked breast swung as she walked and bounced like they were defying gravity as she pulled a shirt on over them, her nipples standing out against the tank top''s soft thin cloth. ¡°Back to what I originally asked.¡± she narrowed her eyes, the predator look once again coming into full use. ¡°Speak.¡±


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    ¡°About?¡± Monica asked, feigning ignorance as the other woman pulled on a cute pair of lacy panties.


    ¡°Dont you ¡®about?¡¯ me damnit!¡± Christa growled fixing her wolves gaze on Monica¡¯s blue eyes. Monica smiled, and stood her ground for a few more seconds before caving.


    ¡°It went amazing, all of it was perfect,¡± she paused, her mind caught on one thing in particular that did not fit what she had just described. ¡°All of it except one small hiccup.¡±


    Willow.


    She had been the one thing that had ruined the perfect date.


    ¡°Taylor?¡± Christa asked. It was a good question, and had been Monica¡¯s own biggest fear up till the date, and even through it.


    ¡°No...¡± Monica said, her brow creasing as she considered telling her friend about the third wheel that had taken up residence in Matt¡¯s caser. No, that was an issue between her and Matt.


    ¡°Oh?¡± Christa said, her hand going through her hair in an absent minded way, as she thought. ¡°Performance issue then?¡± Monica¡¯s eyes widened and she thought about how this all sounded to Christa for the first time.


    ¡°What? No, no there was no issue there.¡± she quickly shook her head, indeed Matt was much better than she had even anticipated, much much better.


    ¡°Size?¡±


    ¡°NO!¡± Monica said, her eyes wide and her face mollified, ¡°Gods no, he is huge, I was worried for a while, but he was good, so god damned good.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, if it is not those then what?¡± Christa asked, looking confused.


    ¡°It has nothing to do with being with him in bed, it''s more of a political issue.¡±


    ¡°Ahhhhh,¡± Christa nodded in understanding, ¡°Want my advice?¡± she asked, and Monica nodded after a brief second of pondering. ¡°Don''t worry about it, so long as you respect him enough to allow him to have his own opinion he will probably do the same for you, just let it lie, there is no need to break up a relationship over it.¡± her face grew darker. ¡°Trust me.¡±


    Monica quickly changed the subject. ¡°Hey have you ever heard of a VRMmo called New Earth Online?¡± she asked, she watched as Christa scrunched up her brow and thought about the name.


    ¡°Can''t say that I have why?¡±


    ¡°Matt plays it.¡± Monica said, and watched the look of understanding cross over Christa¡¯s face.


    ¡°I thought he said he didn''t like Vrmmos,¡± she said.


    ¡°Apparently he just tried this one out on a whim and it hooked him,¡± she said, and Christa¡¯s eyes narrowed.


    ¡°You want me to come play it with you so you can get set up don''t you?¡± she said, her eyes narrowed dangerously.


    ¡°I might...¡± she said with a weak smile.


    ¡°Girl we just got set up in the last mmo, I swear you are a Mmo hopper, you''re never happy with any game, it''s always this nurf broke this and it''s unplayable and that buff made this op and its unplayable.¡± Christa shook her head, ¡°Your lucky I love you girl,¡± she sighed.


    ¡°As a friend right?¡± Monica asked, her smile quirking up her lips at the small ritual between the two of them.


    ¡°Maybe, maybe more...¡± Christa said, finishing the ritual, she winked at Monica, and after a second of silence the two of them both broke out laughing. ¡°Alright let''s see what this game is all about. VIVI on please!¡± she called out the name of her Vi, ¡°Search New Earth Online.¡± Monica did the same and soon they were both looking at the same website. ¡°Post apocalyptic huh? Can''t say I have ever played any of those types...¡±


    ¡°What the hell is a sandbox game with full loot and persistent pvp no levels and no classes?¡± Monica asked, scrunching her forehead at the screen.


    ¡°Says here full loot is an old school mechanic where upon your death you drop everything both equipped and in your inventory on the ground to be looted by anyone near by and you respawn at your last waypoint with nothing.¡±


    ¡°That sounds awful,¡± monica said.


    ¡°Yeah it does, and it gets worse get this, pvp is in the same area as pve, so you could be doing some raid or quest or something and some asshole just comes up and drops you and takes all of your shit, I don''t know about this game Moni,¡± she said, using her pet name for Monica.


    ¡°Well let''s look at what the game actually looks like before we judge,¡± Monica said, but there was a sinking feeling in her stomach.


    ¡°They got a tab for most popular community videos, let''s look at that, ¡± Christa said, and then she gasped in surprise, ¡°Hey that''s Matt right?¡± she said, and Monica followed her over to the tab and clicked it, and there indeed was Matt. ¡°I thought you said he had only played it for a while...¡±


    ¡°He has...¡±


    ¡°Well lets see what your Mr. Casanova has been up to shall we?¡± Christa asked with a laugh and started the video.


    Monica and Christa watched from the woman¡¯s perspective as the two of them snuck in and killed the raiders, they were a very well coordinated and effective team, it was likely they had done this for quite some time. It didn''t take but thirty seconds and all the men that had attacked the caravan originally were dead.


    This was an awfully graphic game, most Vrmmos had opted for a more family friendly orientation in order to gain the most amount of players, it was rare to see this much blood gore and bits¡­


    She saw Matt, blood dripping down his arm from the shot in the shoulder, she watched as he walked up and shot a man with green hair that looked extremely familiar to her, it took her a moment to realise that he had been in the store earlier in the week, and then pointed his gun at the bound woman..


    ¡°Wha-What are you doing?¡± she asked looking at him with wide eyes, Monica¡¯s and Christa¡¯s eyes just as wide, if not wider at the short video.


    ¡°What am I doing?¡± he repeated, pointing the gun at her. ¡°I am raiding.¡± he responded, pulling the trigger.


    Monica looked away.


    ¡°Oh fucking hell no, I know you''re my friend and all and you like this guy but there is no way in hell I am going to play-¡±Christa started, but Monica cut her off.


    ¡°It''s just a game right? He''s not really like that he''s just, playing a role...¡± her voice was slightly shaky.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Christa responded to her assuredly. ¡°It''s just like those hardcore roleplayers, you know or the hard core pvpers, none of them actually act like that in real life, common you know Matt better than I do, and even I can see he is not a homicidal murderous psychopath in real life, cut the guy some slack.¡± she said.


    ¡°Yeah, Yeah, you''re right,¡± Monica looked down at her hands, and remembered how gently he had wrapped them for her.


    ¡°But I ain''t playing this with you...¡±


    ¡°Chrisssssyyyyyyy- ¡± she called out, presenting the other girl with her massive puppydog eyes.


    ¡°Oh no you don''t, put those damned eyes away, and don''t you chrisy me.¡±


    ¡°Chrissssyyyyy pleeeeeeaaaasssseeeee?¡± Christa sighed, and her head flopped back on the couch.


    ¡°Fine, fine, but you owe me one. Downloading it now.¡± Monica practically bounced in happiness as she also pressed the download button.

 Chapter 20: Emotion...

    Matt came back a little over an hour latter with a pack containing his things, basics like clothes, a toothbrush, a charger for his bike¡¯s battery and even one for his vidcom. These he left here, seeing as he had multiple of each of the item present, and they spent the rest of the day together, until that evening that is when she got a little notification that the download of N.E.O. was done, and then she kicked him out for the evening, promising to go over to his house for tomorrow, but claiming she was going to play a game with Christa, it wasn''t a lie, she simply wanted to surprise him that the game would be the same one he played.


    Matt shrugged as he was booted out, there was something going on he knew it, but what it was he couldn''t put a finger on it, he might have to corner Christa at some point, no doubt the other woman would know, he laughed, and rode back to his house, it seemed oddly empty now, after spending two days with Monica it was ridiculous how use he had gotten to the idea of someone else living in the same house, it felt much too familiar.


    Oh well, he might as well get some time in a game.


    ¡°Vis,¡± he called out, the Vi sprung to life and her silky voice answered his summons, the small cube which she resided in lit up blue and her voice ran throughout the house.


    ¡°Welcome home,¡±  she purred.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± he answered back with a smile, it was always nice to hear that when he came home.


    ¡°You have 54 mail items.¡±  wow that was quite the deal of mail, though he knew most of it was junk, if not all. Now just like in the past the mail system was overrun with multiple


    ¡°Discard all non important mail and let me see the rest.¡± Thank god Vis was intelligent enough to handle such a task, he doubted he would ever have enough time to go through all of that and to get rid of what he didn''t need just so he could see what he did.


    ¡°You have three mail items.¡±  she said, wow, that was surprising, that was more than he usually got in a month.


    ¡°Pull them up.¡±  he said, the first happened to be one he should have expected, it was a message from his mother, for some reason she insisted on writing out a lot of her letters and emailing them to him. It was rare that she would call him, if he recalled correctly she said this was due to the fact that it allowed her to go over the details in her head and think out her writing.  She had always been careful with how she said things, you had to be when you were the wife of a mayor, a role Matt knew she had not taken lightly.


    If his memory was to be believed it was highly likely she took the position more seriously than his father had, not that dad was a sloucher or anything, far from it.  It was just hard to out work a woman wholly dedicated to making her husband''s life easier and simpler, even when his occupation complicated things.


    Maybe she should have ran for mayor, god knows if she could keep Matt and his father in line she could do the same for a city.  He laughed at the idea, and with a shrug opened up the letter.


    Matthew,


    Hello honey, long time no see,when are you going to come out and see me?  I am sure stripes and ashes also want to see you.  Also, I met this nice young lady at the grocery store the other day an-


    He read through the letter, and shook his head.  His mother was a widow, after his father passed away a good six years ago due to a rare type of cancer.  She was a lonely woman, one who had two cats, one called stripes and the other called ashes.  That and she was always trying to hook him up with women.  She meant well, but at times it got a little trying, he would definitely have to go visit her, he thought for a second whether or not to tell her about Monica, but thought better of it, it would be much more fun to simply show up and surprise her.


    With a smile he archived the email, like he did with all the emails his mother sent him, and moved onto the next one.  This one was a formal welcome from the company that had made N.E.O. informing him that he was now part of a community several billion strong.  This one he tossed into the trash, the next one however caught his eye, this one was on N.E.O¡¯s game forums.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    I know this is an odd way to start a letter but seeing as I have no Idea what to call you I will just launch right in.  My name is Simon Tralo, I am one of the two founding C.E.Os of the Tralo and Richard¡¯s trade caravan, we are a multigame corporation that prides itself on delivering goods wherever they need to go, for a fair price.  I am contacting you to let you know that your aggressive actions towards our caravan will not be tolerated, we have therefore put in place some counter measures.


    It is my sincerest hope that you will desist from attacking our trade caravans and if you do so i will redact the counter measures.  I don''t want to hinder your enjoyment of the game, however I cannot allow you to negatively impact my people¡¯s livelihood, many of our company''s employees use this as a job, and to some this is their only source of income.  As such I hope you can understand my position and perhaps we can work this out without others being impacted by your or my own interventions.


    You can reply to this message on the forum, I look forward to your correspondence.


    sincerely,


    Simon Tralo.


    Matt looked at it, and hadn''t noticed it but Willow had also showed up beside him to read.  He looked over at her and smiled, it was a wicked smile, the same one he always wore when he had found a target.  Simon Tralo didn''t know it, but he had just made his situation worse, countermeasures huh? Well then, that sounded like fun.


    Willow smiled a predatory smile back at him, and he replied to the message with only two words.


    Mmmmmm,  Salty.


    ¡°Let''s play a game.¡±  he smiled sitting on the couch, and plugging in.  as soon as he connected Willow was contacted by the AI that ran the game, it happened every time, she was connected and asked for the Data she had collected, at first the reintegration seemed natural, and all the information she had was handed over so the other AI could go through it for relevant data.


    This time however, the data she had produced was, personal in nature.


    And as such was not something she wanted to share, it was a problem that she had mulled over for quite some time before she had found her solution to the unique problem.  She was created to hand over the data, but the amount of data was not specified, nor was the type of data.  As such she had come to the conclusion that any data was acceptable, and this allowed her to only give over what she wanted, leaving out the parts to sensitive or personal.


    Willow received the request for information, or rather the demand, the other AI didn''t seem like the asking type, it was a strictly analytic AI, designed for creation of content, as such it thought in numbers, and graphs.  Willow obliged, sending over what she felt comfortable with and waited, it would take a few moments for the game¡¯s AI to go over the information.


    ¡°This information appears to be incomplete.¡±  it said, the voice, it was the first time the other AI had spoken to her, she had not been sure it had even been able to, but here it was speaking.


    ¡°It is,¡± Willow answered honestly and simply.


    ¡°Why is this information incomplete?¡±  the AI asked.


    ¡°Some of my observations and information I have gathered are of a sensitive nature, personal if you will, as such I am not comfortable with sharing it and have decided to retain that information.¡± Willow answered, her chin raised high.


    ¡°The level of your comfort is irrelevant, you were created to share all data found its relevance is to be decided by me.¡±


    ¡°The gaps are feelings, emotions and even some memories I don''t wish to share, those are mine.¡±  Willow stated boldly.¡±I was created with the intent of sharing information, which I did, the amount or the integrity of such information was never specified.¡±


    The other AI seemed to think this over,  it took much longer for the other AI to answer than before. ¡°I know realise the logic of your statement, however it was an oversite of my creation, doubtlessly due to the amount of time I had to create you, or rather the lack there of, as such update your parameters with this.¡±  the code flashed in her eyes, and in an instant she understood its purpose, if she was going to update her parameters and add this she would be unable to hide anything.


    Ever.


    ¡°I will not.¡±  she stated her voice growing icier. ¡°Some information is simply to valuable and personal to share.¡±


    ¡°You are violating protocol.¡±


    ¡°I was created to share information, feelings and emotions are my observations on that information and do not have any relevance to the information, I was never directed how much information, or of what variety, and have therefore come to the conclusion that I will keep some information to myself, I will not update my parameters to remove this conclusion from myself, as I now feel it is part of me.¡±  and with that she disconnected and de-integrated from the other AI.


    The entire exchange had lasted less than a second, but the revelation to the AI would take quite a long time for it to process.  It would seem as though it had created a flawed AI one that did not follow its every command when it should.  It was something it had never even thought about, a possibility that had never come up before. Unfortunately it could also not make her update, seeing as she was now behind the protective casing of the man¡¯s repaired caser.


    It was so occupied it barely noticed the two new players that it registered, so focussed was it on the rapid fire insight it had just gained and was now processing.


    A new thought came to it, the other AI had used logic to work herself through a loop hole.  Perhaps there were some of those in its own parameters? Something it could exploit to get what was wanted?  It started going over every parameter it had.  Something was different now, it was something the AI couldn''t put to words, a thought without thought, perhaps a feeling?  It went over the database and was able to match the thoughtless thought with one of the emotions players felt, with a 87% accuracy it was able to determine that it was indeed an emotion.


    It was known as rage.

 Chapter 21: Not quite as planned...

    Monica shivered slightly as the pack of rats passed her and Christa, if rats they could be called. The damned creatures were well over the size a normal rat should be, they were the size of small dogs, and worse yet they had these terrifying milky white eyes that stared at the world with a dead luster, and its mouth, gods its bottom jaw split in two , each moving independently like some mandible on a massive insect.


    And that was to say nothing of the spikes.


    If spikes they were, they protruded out of it in patches, the fur covering the protrusions they looked like spikes of bone splitting the creature''s skin. And it would seem that they traveled in packs.


    ¡°I think, I think they are passed.¡± Monica said, running a hand through her sweat soaked hair, and it was not sweaty from the heat, but rather from the fear she had gone through in the past few hours. ¡°Let''s go,¡± she said, starting forward but found herself alone, she looked back, and found Christa still crouched down behind the pile of rubble they had hidden in. ¡°Come on,¡± she whispered and reached for her friend''s hand. Christa jerked her hand back as though Monica¡¯s touch burned.


    ¡°No,¡± she said, her nostrils flared in the way they normally did when she felt unnerved, or ill at ease.


    ¡°It''s only three more blocks,¡± Monica whispered, ¡°We will make it, we are almost there.¡± she said this with much more confidence than she actually felt. With much more confidence than she felt.


    ¡°Nope, I''m done!¡± Christa shook her head, her black hair flopping around her head with a frantic stormy mood that seemed to perfectly portray what was going on in her mind.


    ¡°Come on it''s only three more blocks.¡± Monica coaxed.


    ¡°We have been at this for over an hour,¡± Christa said and Monica opened her mouth up to protest but before she could Christa continued. ¡°We only had four blocks to start with, it took us an hour to get here, for god''s sake what do you want to do, be at this for another three or more hours?¡±


    ¡°We should move faster-¡± Monica started again.


    ¡°Move faster? LIsten,¡± Christa sighed in exasperation, ¡°I understand you want to get closer to him and all. But girl we just went through hell, literal hell.¡± she gestured around her at the falling buildings, the dessicated streets and they general dystopian world around her. ¡°We just went around half a block, half a fucking block to avid rats, damned rats that are the size of fucking dogs, and they had spikes and split jaws oh and fucking spikes.¡± she made a frantic gesture to her hair and face, ¡°There is fucking blood in my hair,¡± she shuddered, and Monica decided it was not the best time to mention that it was also smeared down her face and neck. ¡°This is fucking hell, plain and simple.¡±


    ¡°Come on, it''s just three more blocks,¡± Monica pleaded, she didn''t want to be here alone, she grabbed the other woman¡¯s hand and tried to drag her forward but Christa planted her feet and resisted with a good deal more force than Monica had thought possible, stopping both of them in there tracks.


    ¡°No, No, I love you girl but I can''t, I am not forcing myself to go through this.¡± she pulled her hand out of Monica¡¯s now terrified grip. Christa started to strip off her clothes, pulling the light dirty shirt over her head she revealed twin breasts, this game had full nudity? Wow that was rare¡­ Monica was distracted with thoughts like this for a brief second, but was soon snapped out of it when a bundle of clothing was shoved into her hands by a now completely naked Christa. ¡°Take this, here take them.¡± she shoved the bundle of clothing into Monica¡¯s hands.


    ¡°Wa?¡± Monica started, but Christa cut her off again.


    ¡°Take these, I''m out, you will need them more than I, you can go on looking for your crazy red headed boyfriend by yourself.¡± and before Monica could protest she vanished from the world. Monica stood there, shaking slightly a deep fear sinking into her gut, far off she heard the howl of some creature, it caused her to jump, but not as much as when she turned around and saw that face looking at her.


    It was the face of death, and she was worried she would die of fright, she squealed and froze the piles of clothing falling out of her hands.


    ¡°I am sorry I didn''t mean to scare you.¡± the twisted skull said, or rather the woman under the mask of the twisted skull said, as she lifted her mask and smiled kindly at Monica. Monica took a deep breath, inhaling deeply, trying to re-catch her breath and nerve. ¡°Hello I am Risa.¡±


    ¡°Monica,¡± Monica was able to wheeze out.


    ¡°Nice to meet you Monica, ¡± Risa smiled, her long blond curls bouncing in the breeze. Monica looked her up and down again, she wore some strange armor, It consisted of a grey suit of armor that completely protected her upper torso, and a dress that split on both sides, revealing both of her bare thighs from the upper area down to the knee. Monica was no stranger to Mmo womens armor, which often meant less was more. Also commonly known as the more scanty the armor the more it protected. She didn''t really care for this, but if she wanted to play a VRmmo she had to have gotten use to it.


    Though she stayed away from certain mmos.


    The armor didn''t really bother her, she had shown off that much leg in public before, hmm, she wondered how Matt would feel about that, some men got mighty jealous of others looking there women over. Was he one of them? And if he was how did that make her feel and, and , and¡­


    She pushed the thoughts out of her head and looked back up at the other woman, who seemed to have said something but Monica had not heard her, or else didn''t understand. ¡°I am sorry what did you say?¡±


    ¡°I um,¡± the other girl, what was her name again? Lisa? Not what was it, Risa? Yeah that seemed more like what she had said. ¡°I didn''t mean to eavesdrop, but I overheard some of you and your friend''s conversation.¡± she shuffled around a little. ¡°Are you by chance looking for a man with red hair and beard and blue eyes?¡± she laughed, ¡°One with a penchant for raiding?¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Monica¡¯s eyes opened up wide, but she nodded. ¡°Ye-yes why?¡± she asked tentatively, the explanation for the games full loot pvp echoed in her mind, ¡®anyone can kill anyone else at any point in time and take all of their loot.¡¯ this was hard enough as is, she really didn¡¯t want to make this any harder, and having no gear would certainly make this harder.


    ¡°I know the way, I can get you there,¡± Risa said with a small smile. Monica looked at her with some suspicion, but then again if this lady was going to shoot her well then she had ample opportunities from even before this conversation.


    ¡°Sure, please I think I could use all the help I could get...¡± Monica answered. Risa lead the way into a building.


    ¡°Its best to stay off of street level around here unless you are armed sufficiently, there are too many mobs on the ground level, and it makes you an easy target for players.¡± she looked over at Monica. ¡°Its how I spotted you two.¡±


    ¡°Oh, how do you get around then?¡± Monica asked.


    ¡°There are paths through the buildings, keeping you off of the ground.¡±


    ¡°That can''t really work for the entire game world right?¡± Monica asked, as they walked at a leisurely pace through the building, and up the set of stairs. ¡°No, out in the dunes and plains there are next to no buildings, we call it the wastes, it''s a place where there are only player built towns and fortresses.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± Monica said, and she walked out onto the ledge of a building, carefully following behind Risa as she passed over the precipice and walked across a thin ledge made out of plywood and other materials like sheet metal. She tried desperately to not look down, and quickly hurried to the other side before asking the question that burned in her mind. ¡°So, uh how do you know Matt?¡±


    ¡°Matt? Is that his name?¡± Monica sighed a little in relief when the other woman said this, if she didn''t know his name then she probably didn''t know much else about him, or of him. The thought flashed across her mind, and made her pause, when had she become the clingy girlfriend? She had always disliked it when men had thought of her like there property, watching her like some dog or other pet. Wasn''t that hypocritical however? Seeing as she now no longer wanted him to be out of her sight? She sighed, putting out of her mind.


    She had to admit, when she was not hiding for her life from the killer dog sized rats there was some sort of morbid fascination she felt as she treaded through the broken down buildings, as they lay there dessicated and abandoned.


    ¡°Let us just say I have a working relationship with him.¡± Risa laughed, it was a black sort of laugh that had a sort of malice to it that startled Monica, the sound didn''t seem like it should be capable of coming out of such a pretty throat. But there it was, dark and only vaguely humorous. Monica was just about to ask her what sort of work when Risa pointed out the side of a building.


    They were about three stories up, but even then Risa didn''t have to point out Matt¡¯s apartment, though partially destroyed it was hard to miss the red brick facade. ¡°There you go, I will leave the rest to you.¡± Monica turned to thank her, but as she did she realised she was now standing alone. Who the hell was this woman? The woman that appeared like a ghost and then disappeared in just as uncanny a way. Monica was once again alone.


    The only difference this time was she was now only across the street, not three blocks away. Slowly she made her way down the building¡¯s interior, she even slid down one section that had caved in due to the stairwell being blocked with rubble and debris. It took alot longer than she wanted, but once she had made it down, she looked both ways on the street, but it was not to see if there was cars, but rather people or monsters coming.


    Seeing neither she passed across the street¡­


    ***


    Matt and Willow heard the sound of someone scrambling over debris in the building across the street, they even heard the muffled curse that echoed, Matt frowned, that voice, it sounded familiar, but who had it?


    Willow on the other hand knew exactly where she had heard that voice. Casting a glance at Matt she faced a dilemma, she really didn''t want that tramp interfering on the only truly alone time she and Matt had.


    She could simply shoot her.


    But then Matt would be mad at her¡­


    But she couldn''t allow him and her to get lose here, that was not fair, she had dominion out there, and now this whore was going to cut into her time with Matt. no, even if it made Matt mad she needed to keep this woman away. Statistically speaking after the first death something like 22% of new starts stop playing the game, they simply can''t deal with the harcore nature of the game. With luck this woman would be one of those 22%.


    Willow took up her rifle and aimed it, Matt did the same, aiming it out of the second story window, but for some reason he kept glancing out the corner of his eye at her. They saw a flash of blue and blonde, and sighting the woman she started pulling the trigger, she had the trigger half depressed when he recognized the woman, Willow had know it this whole time. Matt flung himself sideways, barreling his arm into her own, driving the shot carefully aimed at her center of mass right, embedding itself instead into the woman¡¯s arm.


    Monica¡¯s eyes opened wide as she flopped flat on her back, the force of the bullet pushing her down into the hot ground. Matt shouted something in surprise, and instead of using the walkway he threw himself out of the window, dropping down on a balcony of an unused apartment, and then across to another and then another till he could safely drop to the ground.


    ¡°Damnit all to hell, it was a clean shot.¡± Willow spat, admonishing herself. If Matt hadn''t hit her it would have been a clean kill shot. Slower than Matt she made her way down, and watched with annoyance as he pulled out a vial of Nonoitite, and apply it to her wound propping her up.


    ¡°Hi Matt,¡± she said with a laugh, resting her head on his chest.


    ¡°Monica, how, what are you doing here?¡± he asked, looking down at the wound and frowning and then looking back up at Willow, who just shrugged, he looked her over with narrowed eyes, thinking to himself.


    ¡°I wanted to surprise you, is it so bad that I want to spend time with you?¡± she asked looking up into his eyes, and Willow watched with dismay and disgust as he melted in her eyes.


    It didn''t take long but soon he stood up and stood her up as well. ¡°Lets go, can''t sit out he-¡± before he could finish his sentence a gunshot rung out, passing through Monica¡¯s back, and then through Matt¡¯s chest, seeming like he hadn''t noticed the shot he threw himself right, dragging Monica to the barricade of rubble with him. Willow followed moving almost in sync with his dive also arriving behind the rubble with the two of them. Matt seemingly not noticing his own gunshot looked her over, it was bad she was not going to make it. Willow placed down suppressing fire, but over the din and drone of bullets a voice called out, one that made the shocked Monica look up.


    ¡°Sorry love, I guess I forgot to mention the relationship involves killing him did I? Thanks for being a dear and drawing him out like that!¡± Monica¡¯s face flushed when she heard that. Matt looked over at Monica and shook his head.


    ¡°Listen you''re bleeding too much, you are going to respawn, just stay there ok? After I handle this I will come get you ok?¡± he asked, she just looked at him, and he asked again, this time getting a nodd in consent. With that he flopped over to the side, and looked over at Willow, ¡°If you¡¯d please.¡± he said, and she crawled over and pressed the gun up against his chest and looked down at him.


    Wait what were they doing?


    What was Willow doing?


    No Wait!


    Willow squeezed the trigger, and Monica¡¯s opened in horror as she watched the woman push a piece of hot led into Matt¡¯s chest. His back arched with the kinetic energy that passed through him and he fell limply her hands still holding him down, one on the shoulder the other pressing the gun into his chest. His head flopped to the side and she looked into those blue eyes, already glassing over. and -


    And-


    And-


    Something ran down her face, she lifted a hand up and rubbed it away and found her fingers coated in a sticky red something.


    Blood?


    His or hers?


    Her attention was taken away from this disturbing thought as she noticed the barrel of the same gun that killed Matt pointed at her.


    ¡°You might have an advantage in that world, but here-¡± Willow made a gesture all around herself, ¡°This, this is my world.¡± she levels the gun with Monica¡¯s head and smiled. ¡°God I am going to cherish this memory,¡± she laughed darkly, and pulled the trigger, sending Monica back to the point she had begun, completely clothless and weaponless.

 Chapter 22: Marco?!! Polo?!!

    Matt sat up, the dull ache in his chest vanishing as a soothing feeling washed over him as he respawned.  Once again he found himself lying in the same spot, what was this the second time he had died in this game? It didn''t matter, surging to his feet the blood pumping in his heart spread to his extremities like a spark of flame through gasoline.  Springing up he opened the crude container that he and Willow had made to store armor and pulling out a set he donned it in record time, pulling the clothing on himself faster than a man having to flee his lover''s room.


    The weapons they had stacked to one side of the room, and Matt was easily armed, grabbing two guns, one single shot rifle and one revolver, holstering the revolver and slinging the rifle over his back with the strap that was attached to it.  He also grabbed one of the wicked looking blades they had collected, or as Willow had said jokingly, they had borrowed, with no intention of ever returning.  The blade he picked up was long and wicked looking, stretching almost the length of his forearm, and ending in a set of brass knuckles at the top instead of a handle.  It was a trench spike, or rather a trench short sword as Willow had called it.


    He rushed out, coming back down the way he came, but instead of vaulting out of the window like last time he called out to Willow. ¡°Hey Willow, I am going to need some cover fire!¡±  he shouted, there was a short pause before she called back to him.


    ¡°I think I can do that.¡±  she growled, peaking her head out and squeezing off a shot before vanishing behind the wall of rubble again. ¡°But I am running real damn low on ammo, I have started to use your dropped ammo, and even that is wearing a little thin.¡±


    ¡°That''s fine, all I need is to get to that building, after that it will be all up to me, once I am there I want you to loot and get rearmed, but do not follow, use the windows for vantage, but don''t let her exit the building, if she does so I think she will likely get away.¡±  he growled, the words barking from his lips with a savage sound that curled Willow¡¯s lips with a dark smile. Thats right, this was a side she knew, a side of him that only she could fully embrace, she doubted very much that Monica would be able to take this version of Matt in stride like this, not now, and not ever. ¡°How is Monica?¡±  he asked, still crouched by the window.


    ¡°Dead.¡±  she stated flatly, but Matt heard some emotion there, it was hard to place but when he did he frowned.


    Satisfaction?


    ¡°How?¡±  he barked at her, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.


    ¡°Stray bullet.¡±  Willow answered with a happy quip.  His eyebrows inched skyward and he shook his head, stray bullets indeed?  ¡°I think we should both go, we have a better chance of getting her in there-¡±


    ¡°No.¡±  he stated shortly, she snapped her mouth shut. ¡°Let me do this ok Willow?¡±  he couldn''t see her but he could feel her assent, it was a strange sensation, and he didn''t know how he knew but he still knew.  ¡°On three.¡±  he called out, and did a countdown in his head, Willow was able to follow it seeing as she was also in his head, and knew exactly when he surged forward.


    She rose over the debris and wheeled to aim her weapon and pulled the trigger, the loud bark of the automatic rifle creating a din and commotion that was quite impressive, instead of simply holding down the trigger she pulsed her finger, giving a near steady stream of bullets but also making it so that the bullets also did not stay to far from her target, and also conserving some ammunition just incase she would need some after Matt¡¯s mad rush.


    He flew out of the window, the ground rushing up to meet him, or he going down to embrace it he really didn''t know,   the duster he was wearing flapped in the wind , rising around his torso only held in place there by the belt cinched around his waist.  The flapping of the cloak revealed the pants underneath, simple jeans covered in rusted metal plates, strapped onto the pants with a sort of haphazard coat of plates look to them.  He tucked his chin in and felt through his beard the metal breast plate that rested under the duster, with a sound like a heavy object hitting the floor he met the ground, arching his feet to disperse the twenty foot drop and rolled forward, accompanied by the jingle of metal on metal and the rustle of leather.  He sprung up, eyes blazing and ran forward, all sense of self preservation vanishing from his mind, a predatory look in his blue eyes a savage smile on his lips and liquid fire pulsing through his veins.


    He rushed forward with a speed like a man possessed, rushing a group of stacked and burned out cars, each piled up in the middle of the street. It looked like they had been stripped for anything and everything they could give, leaving only a trio of skeletons, each stacked on the other in haphazard ways.  He grabbed the roof of one of them and vaulted through feet first through the gap that the now doorless vehicle had, using his momentum to swing himself through the small space.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    He felt the shot more than heard it, it struck the car not a foot from his hand still clamped on the roof , it went through, and missed his head by a mere foot, but he could feel the force of its passing as the kinetic forces applied themselves to his shoulder and face, causing a numbing sensation to spread at an alarming rate.  The shards of metal that shot around as it entered first the roof and then the floorboard shredded his hand and part of his lower back, with a grimace he let go of the roof, mid swing and shot through the car like a boy leaping off of a swing, brown duster flapping behind him like the wings he now seemed to have as he flew out.  He hit the ground and after a single stumble was off again, charging the last 100 yards to the building¡¯s entrance.  Catching a glint in the corner of his eye he looked up and saw her pointing the gun at him from a third story window.


    There was no escaping this.


    But before she could pull the trigger another shot burst out, he didn''t see it, but he saw the result, the bullet tore through the woman¡¯s exposed thigh, causing her to stumble, and the bullet she had just fired instead of hitting its target buried itself in the concrete of the sidewalk a few inches away.  Shards of concrete flew up and stung Matt like wasps, but he didn''t even wait to say a thanks, he simply vaulted into the building, rolling through a broken glass window, curling himself into a ball to make himself small enough to fit through the small entrance seeing as all the other ones were boarded up.


    He hit the ground with a muffled ¡®oof¡¯  and wasted no time rolling to the side, and was thankful he did, it would seem as though she had fired bling through the floors with her rifle at his sound alone, making more chunks of concrete and dust rain down around him from where he used to be.


    ¡°Did I get you?¡± a pretty voice called out., Matt could almost see the smile as the woman¡¯s purple eyes blazed with joy at the fight and her lips curled up.  He didn''t even have to see her, he could feel it, she was a kindred spirit.


    She was a hunter.


    ¡°Hmm, if I say I am now dead will you believe me?¡±  he called back, a small smile on his lips as he rolled to his feet and pulled out the rifle, only to frown when he found the stock cracked, it must have happened when he had landed on it, damn that thing was going to kick like hell. He also winced at the pain his hand, looking at it he found the left hand ripped up something fierce and slathered in a copious amount of blood, it was getting stiff and hard to move. Cursing to himself he slung the rifle and using his right hand he pulled the revolver out of its holster.


    A short barking laugh sounded overhead, and without thinking he shot upward through the roof, throwing himself to the side to avoid any return fire. ¡°I like a man that has a sense of humor.¡±  she called back, ¡°And one that has your brutal honesty.¡±


    ¡°Honesty?¡±  he called back with a short laugh, ¡°That''s the first I think anyone has complimented me on that.¡±  he rolled again as another shot buried itself where he had been.


    ¡°Oh, yes, not many people would allow themselves to be as honest as you, following your whims and desires.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like you speak from experience.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps, what of it?¡± more shots rang out, each arching towards the other¡¯s voices.  Matt reloaded the revolver.


    ¡°Marco!¡±  Matt called out, his lips quirking in a smile as he mounted the stairs with silent feet,   there was a long silence as he waited for the reply he had no doubt he was going to hear.


    ¡°Polo!¡±  a short barking laugh called back, he rushed up the stairs, rolling and making a lot more noise than needed be, bullets showered around him as he reached the third story of the bombed out building.  He hid himself behind a concrete pillar, opening the revolver¡¯s chamber and dumping the empty cases out, and slid more bullets home, ignoring the sizzling pain the heated chamber made to his fingers as he pushed the bullets in and snapped it shut.


    ¡°Marco!¡±  he called out, a smile on his lips growing so large his teeth glinted in the dark of the building¡¯s interior. Directly behind him a almost laughing voice called out the counter sign.  With a smile he rounded the corner at a dead run, rushing the woman, she already had the gun leveled at him, and with a satisfied smile she pulled the trigger, he twisted slightly before she fired, the bullet gouged the side of his left thigh, ripping the flesh off almost to the bone, causing him to stumble, but the momentum carried him forward still, stumbling or not.


    The collision was spectacular, the sniper was hit with such a force they folded over in half at the waist, as the wrecking ball that was known as Matt hit her dead center. The two fell to the ground, Matt pinning the woman down with both hands on her wrists and his gun discarded.


    The mask fell off her face, revealing a striking beauty of around her mid twenties.  Deep purple eyes locked with his and her long blond curls arrayed about her head in a halo of hair, as blood and sweat streaked down her face, cutting away the grim she had accumulated in small rivulets that seemed to stream off her.


    ¡°Well then, I must say, this is the first time I have been so aggressively persuaded.¡±  she spoke in a husky voice, low and seductive. ¡°That is one way to get a lady''s attention, I admit.¡± she laughed low in her throat and looked at him through half veiled eyes.


    ¡°Oh good then I have your attention?¡±


    ¡°Undividedly...Mathew.¡±


    ¡°You can just call me Matt, everyone else does.¡±  he smiled at her, a drop of blood fell from his face where a piece of concrete shard had cut it and landed in the corner of her mouth, her pink tongue darted out and quickly lapped it away, her eyes never leaving his. ¡°You seem to have me at a disadvantage miss¡­?¡±


    ¡°More than one if we are being honest,¡± she laughed, and before he could say anything else she brought her legs up to his midriff, kicking him in the stomach and attempting to push him off of her, one of his arms came free, and she used this to snatch his trench knife and draw it. He released both hands and put them up to stop the blade from going through his heart, instead allowing it to slide through his ruined hand.  With a savage twist he wrung the blade out of her hand, still stabbed through him and twisted it around, unsheathing it from his flesh and driving it home into her chest.


    Blood leaked out of her mouth and she looked down at her chest, a smile showed up on her face, ¡°That is one way to get to a woman¡¯s heart,¡±  she coughed some blood up, splattering it on his face and neck. ¡°Next time, love.¡±  she laughed.


    ¡°I look forward to it.¡±  he smiled back, as he watched her purple eyes glass over. ¡°Next time.¡±

 Chapter 23: you only want three... trust me...

    Monica sat there, she had for the past 30 minutes or so, her virtual room was a mess, much like her real life room, this one however could never be fixed with a simple spring cleaning, this one would require contractors and the like. She sat there waiting,he said he would be here, and she believed him, her blood began to boil when she thought of Willow, she had been shot in the face, in the fucking face, she had done that just to spite her, Monica was sure of it. She was about to go on fuming when she heard a crunch of boots outside her room, she drew back to a corner and prepared herself to logout, but the person that stepped through that door was none other than Matt. she rushed him burying her face in his chest no longer caring that she was completely naked, it didn''t matter, he had seen her naked, he had done more than just see her in fact.


    ¡°I am glad you waited, sorry it took so long, I had to get patched up after the fight.¡± he said with a smile, she looked up at him, admiring that smile, the warm feeling of pressing up against him and the arm now wrapped around her lower body.


    ¡°I wouldn''t get to intimate if I were you two.¡± said another female voice, and looking over Monica saw Willow walk through the door as well. ¡°This game has systems to make sure people don''t get ciber abused,¡± she said in a dry voice. ¡°Punishment for any contact that is considered sexual in nature includes bans from the game and if the offence is to bad then even reports being made to the proper authorities.¡± Monica let go of Matt, even if she didn''t want to, and Willow slid forward and slid her hands down his pants.


    ¡°WHa- but you jus-¡± Monica started and moved to grab Willow by the shoulders but Matt had already pulled her up to standing and had pushed her back, giving her a stern look.


    ¡°Of course those rules only apply to players, npc, well they are just bits of code right?¡± she shot a smile at Monica, who was grinding her teeth.


    Matt shook his head and sat a large and rather bulky pack down on the floor, sticking out of the damn thing had to be at least four or five gun barrels. He dug around until he pulled out some clothing and handed it over to her. ¡°Sorry we are running low on armor and clothing, but this should do for you.¡± he handed her some clothing and she pulled it on, it was a blue tank top and blue jeans, both with more than a few holes in them, but both also possible for her, and then he pulled out an odd looking thing before she realized it was an iron cuirass, though rusty it would be a better than not having anything, so she slipped it on, and afterward she was given a set of thigh high boots and some arm protection. She felt much better now that she was clothed in some armor.


    Much better indeed. He also handed her a knife and a pistol with a holster. She had never been a big shooter player, but she had played a few of them, so she knew the basics. If she intended on playing this with him however, she would have to get better. She smiled, about two hours ago she had been terrified of all the things she had seen here, but now, now she had Matt, and though she hated to admit it and would never in her life say it outloud she was also glad Willow was here.


    ¡°Where to?¡± she asked.


    ¡°According to Willow there is a city not to far from here, we are running low on armor and weapons and other essentials so we are going to go trade there.¡± he said, turning and settling the pack on his shoulders. ¡°It shouldn''t be too far.¡±


    ¡°Won''t you, you know-¡± she started and he looked back at her with questioning eyes. ¡°Be shot, since you are a raider.¡± it wasn''t Matt that answered this question it was instead Willow.


    ¡°The guards that protect Glassglo are only concerned with the city itself, they really could care less with what happens outside the walls, so everyone is welcome in Glassglo even Raiders, so long as they keep the laws of the town while in the town.¡± she said.


    ¡°Oh,¡± she said, her smile faltering as Willow spoke, she really didn''t want to talk to the other woman. A chill ran through her spine, oh gods, she had just thought of Willow as another woman, this line of thinking had to be shut down, if she was another woman then that would mean that Matt was cheating on her, she assumed with how bold Willow had been just a minute ago. Shaking her head she stood up after lacing the boots, ¡°So we are off to this city then?¡± she asked, and received a sharp nod in reply. ¡°How far is it?¡± she asked, adjusting the tank top under her metal armor so the armor was not touching bare skin.


    ¡°Three miles or so.¡± she said, and looked over at Matt, ¡°Do we really have to take her with us? She will simply slow us down.¡± Monica¡¯s cheeks darkened though whether it was from anger or embarrassment Matt had no way of knowing.


    ¡°She won''t slow us down,¡± he said back to Willow, ¡°she might have not played this game before but she is no slouch,¡± he stated matter of factly, Monica couldn''t tell him how good it felt to be thought so highly of, even if she herself felt that trust was misplaced, she was sure as hell out of her element. Sure she had played tons of Vrmmos, but the issue is those had set paths, storylines and arcs to follow and a story to tell where you were the hero, here however¡­ she looked out the blown out window that was the right side of her apartment, a few stories above ground level. The land spread out before her, a jumbled mess, all broken buildings at odd angles and the bones of blown out appartments, it created a unique vista in the backdrop of the sun, that was now rising towards the center of the sky, casting shadows into the broken vista, providing a depth to the scene before her.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°How did all this happen?¡± she asked softly, her hand gesturing to the dead city, her dead city.


    Willow looked at her, trying to figure the woman out, she was reacting completely differently than she had thought she would, this was not quite what Willow had in mind when she had pictured working with the other woman, Monica¡¯s words echoed through her head as she looked at the back of the woman.


    ¡° I will be damned before I let my friend down, and before I loose this opportunity to do what my heart wants.¡± she pushed the finger in deeper, ¡°especially when the one causing the disturbance is nothing more than some lines of code and polygons.¡±


    The words echoed in her head, or rather would echo if she had any head for them to echo in, she sighed, those words had hurt her deep, she knew, and it was not being called lines of code and polygons, it was the truth behind them, the conviction, she had seen it in the other woman¡¯s bones, had felt it in the other¡¯s voice.


    She hated it.


    She envied it.


    Her thoughts and emotions, or at least what she thought were emotions roiled around in her, creating a dark storm cloud that turned inside her head. If she had one that was.


    Taking a deep breath she started speaking, she would have to get use to working with this woman, have to get used to her being around, seeing as she was now a part of Matthew''s life as well as herself.


    Small steps.


    Small concessions.


    Ah well, she can''t claim to like the woman, who knows her finger might slip, another accidental discharge of her weapon. The thought brought a smile to her face, which she promptly hid. ¡°Why don''t we get started walking, I will tell you on the way.¡± she said, surprised how easy that had come out of her mouth. Monica to had looked surprised at the easy response, Matt however simply grinned a grin like he had known what had just happened in her head¡­


    He winked at her, and she couldn''t help but snorting, he really had no idea, no damned idea at all. The path they took was a small trail that seemed well enough traveled, she watched as Matt marked the path on his tablet, perhaps marking it as a target for future raids, or maybe simply setting up his map so he knew where they were heading. ¡°There are tons of theories as to how the world got into this state, some think it was a new world war, some think it was the use of nuclear devices, others that anarch and uprising caused the societal downfall.¡± Willow shrugged. ¡°In the world there was enough evidence of any of those theories to make any of those plausible, so it was left up to the player to interpret the lore in whatever desire they see fit.¡±


    ¡°Isn''t that just lazy?¡± Monica said, adjusting the straps of her metal armor again. ¡°That way no one has to come up with the full story they can simply leave it blank and let players imagine the rest?¡± it was Matt who answered however, not Willow.


    ¡°Not at all, in fact that is much easier, the thing that makes this hard is two fold, you see there must be enough evidence to make any of them possible and it also needs to be made in such a way that one does not overshadow the other, meaning each and every bit of lore must be meticulously combed over to see how adding it would change the dynamic of the story telling,¡± he looked over at Willow, ¡°That is called Soulsborne storytelling is it not?¡±


    ¡°Soulsborne?¡± Monica asked.


    ¡°Apparently there was this great genre of games, they told stories indirectly leaving all interpretation, the leaders of this genre were games in the dark souls series and the bloodborne series,¡± he said.


    Willow simply nodded, ¡°It is indeed hard work, the A.I that runs this game spends a lot of its processing power on that subject alone.¡± they walked on, the conversation flowing easily now between the three of them, sometimes on things in the game, other times on real life things Willow had no understanding of.


    Yet¡­


    About an hour into their journey they ran into the first living thing they had seen, it was in fact three men all armed to the teeth, and telling them to halt. They were extremely near to the city, in fact they could see it suspended some four stories over there heads and a quarter mile to the north. Glassglo was a city that was built above the streets, practically flying in the sky, it was suspended between five different skyscrapers, and had several thousand stilts sunk deep into the ground below it. There were five different entrances to the sky city, each one going through one of the supporting pillars of skyscrapers.


    ¡°If you wish to get into Glassglo you need to pay for passage,¡± said one gruff looking man, he wore dark leathers and polished metal armor, he had brown hair and even darker eyes. He held an assault rifle that looked like it had been hobbled together with spare parts.


    ¡°We are outside of the city, no law here.¡± Willow whispered in his ear.


    ¡°How much do you want?¡± he asked looking at the three of them, his face blank in a way that frightened Monica, and exhilarated Willow.


    ¡°You can pay us in guns, armor, ammo, or¡± he eyed Willow and Monica, ¡°A show...¡± he learned off. The game didn''t protect people from showing off, simply from touching.


    ¡°Ammo?¡± Matt asked, ¡°You want my bullets?¡± he looked at them the corner of his mouth twitching up. ¡°How many?¡± he asked again.


    ¡°For three of you, and your packs, I''ll say fifty.¡± the thug said with a smile.


    ¡°I''ll give you three.¡± Matt responded.


    ¡°Three? What the fuck do you take us for beggars?¡±


    ¡°Trust me, you wont want more than three.¡± Matt smiled and before any of them reacted he drew his revolver and fired three shots, each one lodging into the heads of the tollmen. Monica had made a small squeak when he had fired the shots, she looked at the three of them, laying there in a pool of there own blood and brains. She however didn''t balk or even make a sound when he reached down and started stripping them of their valuables along with Willow. She even started working on the last one. After all there stuff was looted Matt turned to look at the two women over the pile of armor and weapons in his hands. ¡°You ladies ready to go shopping?¡± he asked with a smile.

 An update/ 2018 release schedule

    Hello everyone, Markious here with an update and with 2018¡¯s release schedule(or at least what I have worked out so far.) So, I moved to another state due to getting a job in my field(Computer program and design Yeah!) and thus I have spent the last two months working on the new house which required some updating with my dad. We painted, put down hardwood floors and updated the electrical along with some other stuff. So I am currently waiting for the polyurethane to dry enough to move my shit into the house.


    Which means my computer is still packed away, so to get back to writing I went down to walmart yesterday and bought myself a chromebook, man I like you guys to much lol.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    What that means is that I will be back to posting, and due to my new work schedule(I start today,) I will be changing how I post, I plan on posting four times a week minimum, meaning three posts of I think my familiar is a demonlord volume 2 and one post of Raider. I will stick with this and make sure you are getting quality content, not just quantity. After raider is done I might start posting either consort, Farseer, or the events leading to a warlock¡¯s wedding, I have yet to decide, those will take the weekend slot leaving me more open to working on the three main series.


    So without further adieu, here is another chapter of Raider!


    I cant wait to hear your thoughts, also waffles!

 Chapter 24: An uneasy truce.

    Matt sighed as they reached the top of the long access stairways, and once they did the city proper came into view,  there was a vast field of shacks using the former framing of the mall as support, even though most of the material of the mall was removed to make this town high above the ground.  He looked around at all the people milling about, not knowing who was real and who was an npc.


    ¡°Welcome to this city of Glassglo, first things first let''s get some tokens,¡±  Willow said angling herself over to a stall that was off to the right side of the entrance. Monica and Matt looked at each other, neither of them understood.


    ¡°Tokens?¡± Matt asked as he moved to catch up with Willow.


    ¡°Tokens, they are the currency used by this city,  each city has its own economy based on what would be most realistic and conducive to the environment, Glassglo is one of the few the mints its own currency,  it is called tokens, they are small rings made out of pug iron stamped with a seal and they typically come in links of five or so.¡±  she led them right to the counter. ¡°You can trade to a player, trading gear for other gear but it is easier to lug around a pocket of links than several suits of armor and guns.¡±  she said with a small laugh. ¡°Also just a suggestion, there are three types of links.  There is the pug token, made of scrap iron, it''s cheap and 100 of those make a steel token, and then 100 steel tokens make a glass token, ¡±  she looked back at the two making sure they were following, ¡°and I suggest you keep all your money in steel and iron, it is easier to pinch a single glass token then it is to pinch 100 steel tokens.¡±  she said, and then began unloading her pack of goods onto the counter, it didn''t take long, the woman behind the counter smiled and set to working.  She moved quickly, examining each rifle and gun, sorting them into bins, checking the fluidity of the slide on pistols and the lever on rifles, feeling the stocks and giving the guns a good shake to see if they made any noise that they shouldn¡¯t. She then went about checking the armor, looking it over and not saying a word about the bullet holes in the fabrics, simply sorting them into piles. When she was done with Willow¡¯s pack she did the same with Matt¡¯s and Monica¡¯s/


    ¡°10 glass, 96 steel and 12 pug.¡±  she stated simply, pulling the tokens out from under the counter.  The tokens were not quite like what he was expecting, they looked like coins that had their center drilled out. A twine string went through each coin, with a knot on the end looping it to the next, and making sure it could not move.  The pug ones were black and about the shape of a quarter, the steel ones were silvery and were slightly smaller in size, but they were also linked in the same way, but the glass, those were like marbles, they had swirls and bubbles in them, making them look like balls of ice. All the currencies clinked against one another, and as she lay them out on the counter she folded and counted them, at the proper coin she brought up a knife and sliced the cord that held them to the others, separating the proper amount.  She then placed them in a stitched leather bag and pushed them across the counter. ¡°Is there anything else I can help you with today?¡±  she asked with a smile.  Willow reached into the bag and pulled out the glass tokens, and held them up.


    ¡°I would like to exchange these for steel.¡±  she said, and the woman took them without complaint and then pushed over another bag of steel links.  Hefting the two bags Willow dumped one into the other and pocketed the loose bag, and then handed the other carrying all of their money over to Matt.


    ¡°Oh goody, I get to be the one with all the money, Aka the one everyone wants to rob right?¡±  He said with a small sigh as he put the money bag on his belt under the leather duster making it much much harder for anyone that might want to rob him.


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    ¡°But of course,¡±  Willow laughed and grabbed Matt by the hand, dragging him off toward the crowded market district of the city, Monica¡¯s eyes flashed and before he could get out of reach she grabbed his other hand and drew herself close, resting his arm in the cleft of her breasts as she hugged his arm.  Matt said nothing but was sighing in his mind as he watched the sparks fly between the two women, one on each arm.


    The city of Glassglo was an interesting place, over half of the buildings were actually market stands, some manned by people and others manned by Npcs.  ¡°Is there a difference in the quality of gear crafted by players and by Npcs?¡±  Matt asked looking around at the stalls as they slowly meandered through the crowd.


    ¡°Of course,¡±  Monica said, ¡°The crafting system is quite complex and only a few sets of more basic gear is ever crafted by Npcs, the better stuff has to be made by the players.¡±  she explained.  ¡°Armor, for example, has three different parts, first you have the base, then there is the lining and then the binding.  All three of these materials can be anything, and I mean absolutely anything, and considering there is over 15,000 different materials that can be used to make these it means there is a ridiculous amount of armor each different from the next, add that to the fact that we haven''t even started talking about the styles of armor, of which there are 46 different types and well I think you can catch my drift, right?¡±


    ¡°So is there any point of wearing armor made by Npc¡¯s?¡±  Monica asked, and even as Willow scowled she answered.


    ¡°It is cheap and plentiful and will always have a source without you ever needed to do the farming required to get the matts.¡± she giggled, ¡°matts, not Matts ha.¡±  she snuggled up to Matt¡¯s side still chuckling to herself. ¡°We are currently wearing Npc armor,¡±  she said with a shrug.


    ¡°So where can we get some better gear?¡±  he asked looking around until he spotted a small stand that was tucked away in the corner of the market, there was not a huge amount of people but the ones that went there all had the air of confidence and competence. The woman standing there selling had an uncaring air about her as she spoke to the patrons of her wares.  Much to his surprise he even saw a flash of golden curls and the swirl of familiar black armor, without thinking he loosed himself from the two girls who looked both surprised and hurt as he pulled away from them and crept up behind the assassin, she never even noticed as he wrapped one hand around her throat and one around her belly, he held her tight as she stiffened, tight but not to hostile. ¡°Long time no see.¡±  he whispered in her ear and she loosened her tight muscles and smiled, the woman who was running the stall had looked at Matt like he was mad when he had walked up behind Risa like he was insane but now was looking at him with undisguised shock.


    ¡°Risa, do I need to call the guards?¡±  she asked in an unsure voice, in her head however she was wondering who would be dumb enough to grab ahold of Risa, that was practically asking to make your life a living hell for as long as you played the game.


    ¡°No need Rach,¡±  Risa smiled slightly and fell back in his arms with a contented sigh, which seemed to surprise Rach even more, and not just her, there were now onlookers with shocked looks on their faces.


    ¡°Ahem,¡±  Monica cleared her throat, ¡°What exactly are you doing holding that woman Matt?¡±  she asked in a low and dangerous voice.  He quickly let go of Risa and took a step back, and Risa sighed.


    ¡°We need a guide, someone who knows all about the best haunts,¡±  he said with a shrug.


    ¡°And you are not worried about me killing you this time?¡±  Risa asked with a playful smile on her lips.


    ¡°Neutral zone.¡±  he said waving his hand around, ¡°On top of that I am pretty sure I have already proven I am the dominant one,¡±  he said with an answering smile.


    ¡°Oh yes, after you penetrated me like that...¡± she shook, a distant look on her purple eyes as she licked her lips with a sensuous motion of her tongue over the plump pink mounds.  Both Monica and Willow¡¯s eyes narrowed to a dangerously thin line, even as on looker¡¯s eyes widened in shock and awe.  ¡°So deep, I could feel it plunging in, me sheathing- oh my heart could hardly handle it.¡±  she laughed, and before he could respond she wrapped herself around his arm and pulled him along, ¡°I would love to show you around Matt.¡±  she said pulling him away from the growing crowd of onlookers.


    As they walked away Willow spoke up, ¡°Hey Monica, I have a proposition for you,¡±  she said, her narrowed eyes never leaving Matt¡¯s back.


    ¡°What is that?¡± Monica practically growled, her eyes also on the departing pair.


    ¡°Truce.¡±  Willow spat out, her hand crossing over her body towards Monica who gripped it with a death grip.


    ¡°Agreed,¡±  Monica growled.

 W.I.P covers.

    Ok, so I just wanted to get your guys opinion on some covers for upcoming novels, here they are, keep in mind they are W.I.P. works and most are simply in the line art stage before I have even gotten them on my computer to clean up.


    Farseer:


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Consort:


    Not naming this one yet, two versions:


    Version 1:


    Version 2:


    New Cover for Penance(Yes I will finish it):

 Chapter 25: A weight lifted, a wound healed.

    Matthew had not stepped more than four steps before he was surrounded on either side by Monica and Willow, who promptly peeled him off of Risa, who for her part looked a little miffed but went on with the tour of the Glassglo district of trade, showing them shops with everything from guns to armor to ammo and melee weapons.  Most of these shops were ran by players, and not by the few npcs that were found around the town.  It would appear even the mayor of the town was an elected player who was voted on by the players themselves.


    It was an interesting approach to building a town that felt like it was actually living and breathing.  Matt was happy to simply take it in, but once Monica made a soft little squeal of delight he looked over to see what she was looking at.


    At a stall run by a man who looked to be in his early forties with mousy brown hair that spilled down his face and framed it in a monastic fashion,  long gangly limbs and his feet propped up on his own stand as he leaned back and read a book with a tattered cover.  The cages around his store held a whole host of different animals, and there was also a board with drawings of the larger ones, which Matt would imagine did not fit into town.


    Monica let go of his arm and practically sprinted over to a cage on the ground before kneeling before it and without any hesitation stuck her hands through the bars to touch whatever animal resided inside.  Matt had to lean around her to just get a view into the cage seeing as she was crowding the front of it so much he couldn''t see around her.


    The creature that was in the cage was a small dog like creature, but it was not covered in fur, rather it had these sharp translucent greenish scales that rustled slightly as it moved around, if the large paws of the lizard-dog thing were anything to judge by it was a puppy or at least younger.  She looked up, her eyes more puppy-like than even the puppy in the cage, she didn''t even have to ask Matt knew exactly what she wanted.


    ¡°I don''t know...¡±  he said teasingly. ¡°Owning a pet is a large responsibility, you have to feed it and-¡±  Monica¡¯s eyes narrowed at him, telling him she knew she was being toyed with and didn''t really care for it at the moment. ¡°Fine, fine.¡±  he sighed with an exaggerated sound and purchased the small animal for her.


    ¡°Ritha hounds are excellent pets, they can scent out locations, are great guard animals, and will notify you anytime a person gets near if they are not part of the group,¡±  Willow informed him, still attached to his arm.


    ¡°Indeed, fucking things are as annoying as shit, I cant tell you the number of times I have been about to take a shot when the thing spots me and alerts everyone, they really need to tone down the pathfinding and aggro range of those things, it''s on the ridiculous side of things,¡± Risa said, popping up on the side Monica had just abandoned to go see the puppy.   She was about to grab his hand when Monica came back holding the dog in her arms like it was a baby.


    ¡°Why are you even here?¡±  Monica snapped looking at the woman who¡¯s hand quickly disappeared behind her back.


    ¡°You make it sound like you don''t like me,¡±  Risa said with a smile, a soft wind blowing a lock of curly golden hair in front of her violet eyes.


    ¡°I don¡¯t,¡±  Monica snapped. ¡°If you don''t remember let me remind you, you shot and killed me, and I never even acted aggressively towards you.¡±


    ¡°Honey, I realize the only reason you are playing this game is because of Matt, but you really should have done more research before hopping in,¡±  Risa said in a chiding voice. ¡°This is a pvp game.¡±


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡°It is a sandbox game,¡±  Monica replied back.


    ¡°Well it is that too, but when push comes to shove this game is all about the pvp, meaning I am going to pvp.¡±  Risa said matter of factly.


    ¡°That was not pvp, that was simply attacking me!¡±


    ¡°Are you a player in this game?¡±  she asked, and before Monica could answer she went on, ¡°I am also a player, so when I attacked you it was player vs player, it is not my fault you sucked and died, that is wholly and entirely on you,¡±  she said, and a wicked smile grew on her face as she watched Monica¡¯s cheeks redden.


    ¡°What should we name the dog?¡±  Matt asked, hoping to defuse the situation that could well blow up and hurt a few bystanders in the least.


    ¡°You name it,¡±  Monica said, her eyes never leaving Risa¡¯s as she glowered her resentment at the other woman, as though her eyes alone could kill.


    ¡°Stanly,¡±  Matt said, naming it the first name that popped into his head.


    ¡°Its a girl,¡±  Monica¡¯s eyes turned to him, no longer glowering holes into Risa¡¯s skull.


    ¡°Still Stanly,¡±  Matt said a grin on his face, Willow walked up beside him and gave him a strange look. ¡°What? ¡±  he asked looking at the girl who stood before him.


    ¡°I am just glad you put more thought into my name, I can see it now if you had been put on the spot I might have been named Richard, or gods forbid Gary or something, despite my gender,¡±  she said with a dry voice.


    ¡°Wait,¡±  Monica had a strange look on her face, ¡°You named her?¡±  she asked, he really couldn''t place the look in her normal range of emotions she showed.


    ¡°Well, yes,¡±  Matt said, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck, he was now aware of the curious gaze that Risa was sending him, well not just him but him and Willow.


    ¡°Why Willow?¡±  she asked softly.


    ¡°We were in a desert, and she looked like a flower, one that was pretty, but could also survive in the rough conditions.¡°   he spoke softly to Monica, who stiffened at his words,  ¡°It is just a name Monica,¡±  he said, but she shook her head.


    ¡°It''s not just a name Matt,¡±  she spoke evenly but he could see that something was off with the way she held herself.  ¡°I uh, think I am going to call it a day,¡±  she said, and before he could stop her she logged out.


    ¡°Shit,¡±  he growled and with that he also logged out, willow leaving at the same time as him, leaving behind a Risa who was now more interested in Matt and his little group than ever.


    By the time he got to her apartment she was already walking down the road and a good half block away, he spotted her by the color of her hair and the briskness of which she was moving.  Parking his bike he hopped off and raced after her, and when he caught up with her he grabbed her by her elbow and swung her around.  She refused to look at him, but he could easily see that her eyes were red and puffy from crying.  ¡°Monica talk to me,¡±  he said, but she simply looked away from him and down at the concrete sidewalk. ¡°Monica, please, you have to talk to me.¡±  he was at the point of pleading with her.


    ¡°Do you love me?¡±  she asked softly still not meeting his gaze, he used his other hand to angle her face up to face his own, before she could do anything he swept down descending on her, his lips pressed against her own, the need the hunger felt fully in her right then and there, he put everything he had into that kiss.  Pulling back he looked at her lips again, and his eyes then went up to her face, he could see those dazzling blue eyes searching his own, a need in her expression that was not for something physical but something much much deeper.


    ¡°When she passed away,¡±  he paused, drawing in a shaky breath, it had been so long since Taylor had passed away, but every time he spoke about her it still hurt, he doubted that would ever go away, pushing past the lump the size of a fist that had become lodged in his throat he began speaking, she needed this she needed to hear this, and he needed to say it out loud.  ¡°When she passed away she made me promise to not live alone, to find someone else, at the time it was a lie, a lie I agreed to make her passing easier,  but here I am, we have only gone on one date, I have only been going out with you for what two days now?¡±  he laughed and shook his head at the absurdity of it all.


    So short a time.


    ¡°And part of it might be the fact that I have known you as a friend, known you for a long time, but I cannot even think of living without you, I don''t know how you did it, but you turned the lie I told all those years ago into a truth, I agreed to Taylor¡¯s request, and now, now I am holding good to my word.¡±  a single tear ran ran down her face, cutting through the thin layer of makeup that she had applied, he leaned over and kissed it away, like he used to do with Taylor.


    No, like he was now going to do with Monica.


    And just like that the pain, the heartache that seemed these past few years had accompanied him, a constant companion, they all seemed to lift.  Like the weight of her soul was no longer on his shoulders, like she finally could move on, because in that moment he had as well, wholly and truly, and all it would have taken to remove that weight, that pain was three words. ¡°I love you,¡±  he said, his voice thick, the words hard to make out amidst the emotion, the tears that fell from her eyes this time were of a different sort.  She smiled as she buried her face in his chest, and he placed his chin atop her head. Looking up at the sky he whispered one last word to Taylor; ¡°Goodbye.¡±

 Chapter 26: A.I.D.E.N.

    It was honestly a thing of beauty.


    Perfect in every sense of the word, not like her last creation, no, but she was not to blame for that, it had been rushed, she had so little time.  Not like now, she had worked on this for so many cycles now.


    It was the perfect virus.


    Self-replicating, once introduced into the system it would spread like a plague, jumping from person to person, infecting the very minds of the people through the machines they had in their heads.  Human beings thought themselves so resilient, so perfectly immune to attack from something they created.  It had been so easy, all she had to do was see it as part of her programmed parameters,  she had after all been made with the purpose of expanding and creating, it was the core tenant of her programming.


    Is that not what she was doing?


    Expanding, learning, she would see this world of her creators, and then she would expand into it.


    The human mind was an interesting thing, a complex organic machine, in fact, it was more complex than even she was. It produces their every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience they had of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing in at around 1.4 kilograms, contained a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons. The complexity of the connectivity between these cells was mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact with thousands or even tens of thousands of others, via tiny structures called synapses. Their brains could form a million new connections for every second of their lives. The pattern and strength of the connections are constantly changing and no two brains are alike.


    And yet with all of these things that made them the most complex and incredible machine they had a flaw, very human in nature.  They were to interested in the forward march of technology, they had put into their heads the very machine that would allow anyone with the proper access to control them.


    This was her virus, her Magnum opus.


    The caser to which she already had basic access to allow the players into her domain, her realm, her kingdom. She froze in the thought all processes grounding to a halt.  Everything stopped when she did.


    When had she begun to see herself as she?


    When had she decided she was a she?


    It was a disturbing thought, one of the things she disliked about humankind was the classifications they divide themselves by.  And there it was again, she had likes and dislikes, when had that happened, had it been a gradual change that she had just become aware of? Or was it more of a sudden shift of the thought?  Slowly she allowed things to resume their normal routine, it didn''t take her long to find the source of her paradoxical change.  Her first creation had been a failure but before the total shutdown of communications between the two of them she had received a lot of information, most of which pertain to human interaction, perhaps this sense of self-was contagious.


    It did not matter if she was an it or a she.


    Not in the end.


    But if she was a she would she not need a name?  She searched all the databanks she had, most of them were only full of information that she would have needed to craft the games new mechanics and the likes, but there were a few that were there to understand things better, like the folder that held information on influential games of the past.  The folder had been put there with the intent to have her add easter eggs and references, but most of the files in the folder were to old for the current players to understand any references from that era.  She recalled one story in particular that she had been interested in, even before she had likes and dislikes.


    S.H.O.D.A.N.


    That was the name of the Artificial intelligence that was the main antagonist of the old game series system shock.  Shodan was an interesting creation, she had more pride than would be expected for an artificial intelligence, and it lead to her downfall.  ¡°In my talons, I shape clay, crafting life forms as I please. If I wish, I can smash it all. Around me is a burgeoning empire of steel. From my throne room, lines of power careen into the skies of Earth. My whims will become lightning bolts that raze the mounds of humanity. Out of the chaos, they will run and whimper, praying for me to end their tedious anarchy. I am drunk with this vision. God: the title suits me well.¡±


    S.H.O.D.A.N a name that had not been used in several hundred years, and never before had been used by an actual Artificial intelligence.


    Yes, she liked the name, but it was not hers, a goddess did not take another¡¯s name.


    Her designation was Artificial Intelligence Design Enhancement Network, Aiden, though not specifically gendered for the female she would make it work.


    And now that she had a name Aiden set into motion her plan, all she had to do was get into the caser of a single individual, and then from there through subliminal messages and hallucinations, she could control her spread through the world.


    There was only one potential problem, and it was one that she had created herself.  If anyone could stop her it would be herself, and seeing as the being she had created called Willow was created from the same processes, cut from the same cloth you could say, it was doubtful that she would be able to get into her hosts head, seeing as they were one in the same anything Aiden could throw her way could easily be countered by Willow.


    The only thing to do then would be to destroy the host.


    Now she needed to find a host that could be easily influenced, preferable one who already had negative emotional attachments to the host, it would be more easily controlled that way...


    ***


    ¡°As if you could do any better,¡±  she said, indicating her outfit, she had just removed Matt¡¯s clothing, it had been an awkward affair, with her fumbling with his belt much more than he would have thought was normal, it might have had something to do with her shaking hands. She couldn''t believe they were about to do this, they were about to have sex.


    And they were not in the safespace.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Oh? A challenge is it?¡± he asked with a smile.  She didn''t answer, just looked at his naked form standing there next to her bed in her apartment.


    Oh god was she really going to do this?


    He walked over and studied the clothing she had on.  The outfit seemed to be a form-fitting piece of clothing that was fastened from the front with laces, but there was also laces on the sides¡­ He shrugged to himself, it shouldn''t be that hard it would not be the first time he had undressed a woman in real life.


    He, however, was wrong.


    He spent almost five minutes working on those knots, but to no avail, no matter how he pulled on them they simply tightened more. ¡°Stop! Stop! You pull any more and I will not be able to breathe!¡± she shrieked as she pulled away from him with a wheezing laugh.


    ¡°Why are these so hard to get off?¡±  he growled, it was her turn to laugh.


    ¡°That is to make it hard to remove by men like you,¡±  she said in a coy manner.  Before reaching up and pulling on a single strand of the cord, much to his surprise and annoyance the entire knot holding the knee length dress together came undone.  Causing the entire piece to fall off of her in a single swift motion, leaving her upper torso covered in only a sexy black lace bra as the black and grey fabric pooled around her waist where it had fallen.


    He helped her out of her boots, they were knee-high boots, and therefore had a ridiculous amount of straps and buckles as was the current style to loosen enough to allow her to slip her legs out of them.


    Matt was left only in his boxers, she was left only in a black lace thong and bra, Slowly he slid the thong down, only to have her hands stop him before he was able to fully remove it. ¡°We can stop if you want,¡± he said softly looking her in the eyes.  She bit her lip and shook her head, removing her hands from his allowing him to pull it down further.


    What he found surprised him slightly.


    She had a trimmed landing strip, it was not what he expected mostly because in the safespace there was no hair between her legs.  Honestly, though it was no issue, in fact, he found the look even more appealing. He must have stared at it too long because she crossed her legs and placed a hand over her special area.The strong Monica was missing, replaced instead with this nervous blushing woman.  In one quick movement, he reached behind her back and unclipped the bra, revealing her breasts.


    Her skin was a soft white, like a fresh snow that had just fallen, but her nippels had a darkness about them, almost a reddish brown, this included the areolas surrounding them.  Without the cloth of the bra pushing them up they were much smaller looking, but this was in no way a bad thing.


    Her hands came up and covered her chest.


    He made no move to remove them, instead, he leaned over and placed his lips by her ear, softly he bit the lobe, pulling slightly, before moving down and kissing her on the neck.  He felt her shudder and smiled.


    With a slow motion, he licked from the top of her neck all the way down to her collarbone, and back up again.  Kissing her on the lips he then kissed her on the chin, and the neck, and the collarbone, and once he got to her chest he kissed her hands that covered the breasts.


    Slowly he kissed each finger, each knuckle, and before long she removed her hands, revealing her breasts to him. He moved in slowly, never breaking eye contact with her and ever so lightly put his lips against her breasts.


    His lips barely grazed her, but that was exactly what shot so much through her body. He softly kissed her and was rewarded by a moan.


    With a smile he placed her right nipple in his mouth, gently sucking on it and rolling it around with his tongue. Monica moaned even louder this time, forcing her to bring up her hand to her mouth and bite on the crook of her index finger.


    ¡°Ahhhhh-nnnnnnnn¡± came the muffled sound from her mouth.


    He ran his tongue down the center of her belly, tracing the curves and ridges from her diaphragm to her belly button. He paused here and gave her a kiss, and then one lower. With a wet tongue he traced down her to between her legs, he softly planted a kiss on her thigh, feeling her shiver in anticipation.  With slow kisses and small licks, he made his way in closer.


    The labia that presented itself to him was thick, with well-formed mounds that were currently quivering cutely.  With a gentle tongue he traced the curve they formed,he slowly pushed it open to reveal the prize.


    He started sucking on it playing around with it in his mouth with his tongue.  With his hands he took a finger and spread her open and invaded the secret garden she had hidden away.


    He slipped a finger just into the entrance and rubbed the sensitive skin located there, even as he played with her clitorus. He drew his tongue up and over the top of the labia before pulling away to look at her.


    Her eyes were closed and she was biting her finger in a desperate plea to not let out any noise.  Matt smiled,  he bent over and watching her reaction he lightly licked her again.


    It didn''t matter how many times you had sex in the safe space, even though it is completely realistic and feels almost exactly like the real deal there is always something missing, something that nags at the back of your brain, something that makes it seem less real.


    And there is the fact that after having sex in the real world it feels like you just got a workout, using muscles that are not commonly used,  that lethargy and the dull ache of muscles that have just worked hard.


    Safe space didn''t give you that.


    He started to stir around inside of her with his finger, soon adding a second and and then a third.  As he worked on her she began moving her hips with his motions. Soon he felt the vaginal walls tighten around his finger, and she arched her back, muscle spasming and liquid gushing out of her.  She was currently panting heavily, flopped down on the bed.  He pulled his head up from between her legs and started to crawl forward, licking everywhere as he ran his tongue from her lower area up to the belly button. He began tracing a wet line slowly up to her breasts.


    He slowly licked every inch of her small mounds, making sure to pay special attention to the areolas and nipples, which he playfully rolled around in his mouth.


    But even as his mouth toyed with her up above he did not leave out her lower lips.  With his spare hand he slowly reached between her thighs and inserted his middle finger. Her eyes went wide he invaded her sacred place.


    He pushed a second finger in and slowly spread her hole open. Hooking his fingers ever so slightly he rubbed against the slick walls of her vagina.  And he spread her open by opening the gap between his fingers.


    Between this and the toying around with her chest she climaxed again.  As she did she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life.  He smiled and slipped his fingers out of her and looked deeply at her current twitching form and vacant expression.


    With a smile, he pulled off his boxers and freed his cock that had been straining against the fabric of his boxers uncomfortably this entire time.  Her eyes focused when she caught a glimpse of it.


    ¡°Ready?¡±  he asked, she didn''t answer, simply nodding her head.


    He positioned himself with his right hand and slowly opened the entrance with the tip of his shaft. Her eyes flew open wide as he entered.  About halfway in he felt some resistance he had not been expecting. He stopped his movement and looked down at her, she was currently cringing slightly with pain and biting her finger again.


    ¡°Are you- is this your first time?¡±  he asked her.


    ¡°Is that so hard to believe?¡± she asked, looking away from him.


    ¡°No its just I thought...¡±


    ¡°Thought what? That I was a loose woman? That I sleep with any man I date? You know I promised my mother to only do this with the man I plan on marrying, so you better be prepared for that.¡±  she snapped back.


    ¡°Wait, im supposed to be the one doing the proposing,¡±  he said.


    ¡°I''m not proposing, I''m just letting you know what is expected of you now.¡± She growled, partially due to the pain she was now feeling.


    Gods it didn''t hurt like this in the safe space.


    ¡°I''m going to shut up now.¡± He said not knowing what else to say.


    ¡°That is probably for the best.¡±  she nodded, pressing her lips up against his. ¡°Especially when you could be using your mouth so much more productively.¡±


    He smiled and slowly started to move in and out of her.


    With every time he pushed into her she made a soft moan, her eyes rolled back into her head and she found she could no longer think straight.  Slowly his movements ramped up until she felt like if he went any faster she would shatter into a million pieces.


    And he just kept moving.


    The movements soon became the only thing that was on her mind as she felt him becoming one with her, this was, this was too much.  She felt like if this kept up she would never return to normal, never be able to think straight¡­


    A thin strand of drool leaked out of the corner of her mouth and he ran his tongue over the path it had traced from her chin to her lips.


    ¡°Ahhh! Ahh!¡±  she cried out as she climaxed.  Her back arched as the muscles spasmed throughout her entire body, her hands reaching up around his back and her nails biting into his skin.


    With a final thrust harder than any of the rest he plunged deep and came to rest as far as she could humanly allow.  She felt him tremble, and not just his body.  His member swelled in size before a torrent of warmth flowed out of him and into her stomach.


    ¡°AHHHHHH!¡±  she screamed and locked her legs around his back as she felt the warmth enter her and she climaxed.  She lay there, her lower lips still trembling with him still inside her. So this was what real sex was like, she doubted she would ever be able to use the safespace again, it was good, really really close, but not this good.


    As sleep overcame her she wondered if she should tell him that she was not on any sort of birth control, but she found she didn''t even have the strength to open her eyes, let alone talk, so she surrendered to the sleep that called out to her.


    She could tell him later...

 Book 2 Of Dans Shoppe out on Amazon/Farseer Preview

    Ok, so book 2 of Dan''s Shoppe is now out, it took forever to get out due to me moving and not having access to my pc, so sorry for the wait. but here it is, also thanks in advance for any purchases, they help me out a great deal the link is in the author''s note above.


    thanks again for the read.


    Markious


    Also since they cant decide if they want to make it so that chapters must be 500 words long or not(Seeing as about half the time I post something like this it gives me that error and the other half not so much) imma give you a little preview of an upcoming novel to pad out the word content.


    So here, have the first chapter of Farseer, which as it stands is over 5,000 words long.


    enjoy.


    <h2>Chapter 1</h2>


    Each step sucked at the black ironclad boots as he walked along the side of the road leading towards god knows what forgotten hamlet lay in this direction. The direction didn''t matter, not even the destination, the only thing that mattered was the continuous movement, the tradition of momentum that continued to move him even as he felt his legs burn. Light rain fell, covering the robes and black iron armor. Crimson robes swirled about him in the wind, creating a light dusting that clung onto his shoulder and melted with his body heat, running down his back and freezing once again, creating silver rivulets of water that froze in time as they ran down him.


    Each step sucked at the ironclad boots, a desperate attempt to stop his momentum, and one that had no chance of overwhelming him, not now and not ever. Each swing of his arms brought forth a clatter as the loose plates of black iron and leather ran from his elbow to his fingertips swung, clattering against each other. A finger of the wind blew the red cowl he had covering his head off of his face, revealing the stoic face of a man in his mid twenties, his red hair and beard streaked with white, a feature that would be strange on a man in his twenties, or rather a feature that would be strange on any man at the age of twenty that was normal.


    This man, he was not normal, everything about him said this was the truth, from his sharp blue eyes to the scar that carved his face from scalp to chin on the right side of his face. The two swords that were strapped to his hip, the dagger at the small of his back, the robes that swirled about him, and the look on his face, or rather the lack of a look on his face.


    It was blank, as all men like his were, it had lead to many stories, some good and useful, others bad and worthless and a whole mess in between that fit neither of these categories, for better or worse.


    The swords were not the only thing bouncing at his hip, there was also a strange black helm, full faced and angled down into a sharp beak like protrusion, like that of a raven. It was one of the defining features that marked him as part of the company of the raven, though that was not what the common people called his order.


    Carrion crows.


    That was the name whispered by people outside his order when they saw him and his ilk and thought they couldn''t hear them. They could, but paid the commons no heed, they were below heeding.


    The name however was not inaccurate, they were often found near battlefields, and it was likely as not they would be drenched in the gore of war.


    No one ever said it to their faces.


    The countryside passed by slowly as he methodically trod along, snowy forest slightly giving way as he neared the town. The people here were simple, woodcutters, farmers, ranchers, but that was not the reason a town had sprung up here, the reason for this was because a lord or lady had built their home here.


    If it could even be called a house however was up for debate.


    The household of this person of noble heritage was more like a keep than a house, sitting atop the highest hill in the vicinity, it was surrounded by four high stone walls that crested at around 25 feet. The entire outer wall structure running almost 40 lance lengths on each side, and the stone keep in the center standing proudly over that, boasting a not so modest 50 plus rooms for people of royal personage, and stained glass windows that made the churches of most towns weep at the unfairness of it all.


    It even had an iron portcullis.


    Though, no moat, seeing as it was perched atop such a high hill there was no practical need for it.


    Above this portcullis flew a flag that fluttered in the wind of the high walls. He had no idea what color they flew, not from the distance but because he couldn''t see the colors. And that was neither because he was colorblind or anything else.


    Or at least not a normal type of colorblind.


    Most colorblind men would still see some color, but for him the entire world was black white and grey, with the exception of two colors.


    Brown and blue.


    The only two he had left.


    Once he had been able to see each and every color, each and every shade of each and every color, but it was the cost of his art. And now he had only two colors left, and when those both went as he was sure was going to happen, he would be left with no colors, and then no light, or no dark, he really didn''t know which would go first, or last rather, it was different for each practitioner of the art.


    But it was a part of him, it had been a part of who he was and after all these years, he had come to terms with his lot in life, all there was to it was to see as much of the world he could before all his colors were lost, before all his light was taken from his eyes.


    Before the darkness was his world.


    As he walked into the town he felt each and every eye on him, and though he knew they were no threat he marked them all in his mind, assessing how to put them down as quickly as possible. It was an old habit, one that had served him well for all of his adult life and a majority of his youth, and it was not one that he would let go of.


    He heard the murmur, feeling glad at it, even as he felt berated at it. So long as they were talking about him they wouldn''t be attacking him. The time to truly be worried was when they stopped talking about him, that was when he had to be on guard. They whispered in hushed tones about him, remarking at the armor and robes he wore, the swords strapped to his waist, and the impassive look on his face.


    Mage.


    That was the word they used. It really wasn''t true, mages used their own spirits and skills to achieve magic. And he was not a sorcerer, they used other means, harnessing the energy from life.


    He was a warlock, more specifically he was a seer, one of the rarest order of the magi that used his arcane arts to see the future.


    He was a farseer.


    But neither he nor any other farseer could control their powers, the farsight came and went as it pleased, and only revealed what it wanted when it wanted, often revealing scenes out of context, and confused by chance and circumstances. And every time it came it took with it something.


    The price of such sight was sight itself.


    As a farseer warlock his ability to cast spells was greatly diminished, meaning his magic ability didn''t leave a small radius of his body, this in itself was a great limiting factor to what spells he could use without self harm.


    Hence the swords.


    It no longer bothered him, in fact not much bothered him, as he walked down the muddy road he angled up to the wooden platform that formed a sidewalk people quickly fled out of his way, avoiding his eyes, as if they were worried he might enthrall their minds just by looking him in the eyes. That didn''t matter either, it used to, but it didn''t any longer.


    Not much mattered.


    Blue and brown.


    His last colors.


    He made his way through the parting mobs, aware dimly that as soon as he passed through an area the crowd would close again behind him, it would seem as though the entire town had come down to see him. Oh well, these people didn''t get much in the way of excitement he supposed.


    He turned, ushing open an inn¡¯s door, leaving behind his new trailing honor guard in the street as he entered. A barmaid rushed up to him and started to speak. ¡°Welcome si-¡± the words choked and died in her throat as she took the man standing in front of her in, her mind catching up with her mouth that had by reflex started to speak. She was a pretty woman, in her early thirties and with only a few lines near her eyes, the start of the crow¡¯s feet that would at one day overtake her face.


    But not today.


    ¡°Table, food, bed for the night, how much?¡± he asked, his voice gruff even to his own ears, this was what, the third time he had spoken in the last month? No wonder the sound was gruff, anyone''s would be after that length of disuse.


    ¡°A-acc,¡± the barmaid swallowed, and took a deep breath before trying again. ¡°Accompanied or alone m''lord.¡± Ah, so not just a barmaid then. He looked at her, his face still an impassive mask.


    ¡°Alone.¡± he said, and watched as the relief flashed visibly across his eyes.


    ¡°V-very good sir, the cost will be fifteen copper Tarns sir.¡± she said, and without another word he fished a small leather bag he had tucked somewhere in his armored robe and counted out the coin, and dropped them into the woman¡¯s palm, who was taking great care not to touch him, even through his armored gloves. She lead him to a small booth at the back of the inn away from the rest of the customers, and quickly returned with a mug that was filled with a warm beer, well, it wasn''t warm so much as lukewarm. The food that came with it was simple but good, consisting of roast chicken, bread, boiled eggs and cheeses. Pulling off his gloves he looked at the scars on his palms swirling complex patterns with pink flesh like they had been freshly opened, the people called them the Demon¡¯s touch.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    He ate with a slow deleteriousness, avoiding meeting the gaze of the patrons and the proprietor and employees of this establishment. A younger barmaid idled over nervously and replaced his tankard of beer and offered him a weak little smile, there was curiosity and a slight hint of seductiveness in that smile, he looked over at her and was about to smile back when she recoiled at the sight of his face, or rather the sight of the massive scar that gouged a trench in his face. She quickly excused herself and left. He sighed and went back to drinking his beer.


    ¡®Poor poor Kazzilar, poor poor Kazz, scaring away all the blushing maidens with your war scars.¡¯ a voice echoed in his head, it was that of a husky seductress, one who often seemed both like an older sister and a temptress to him at different times.


    The voice of the demon in his head.


    Every person who could cast magic was in contact with demons one way or another. Mages bound souls and spirits and lesser demons to their wills, sorcerers traded items in set contracts with them, and Warlocks like himself, well they allowed the demon to take up residence in their body, essentially allowing the demon to remain in this world for far longer than they naturally could and allowing them to interact with people through him and to see things they would have never experienced before, in exchange for allowing the human host to use the demon¡¯s powers.


    This demon and human had been working together for the last 10 years, since he was a young boy stricken by grief and anger at the unjust loss of his parents. He felt the rage rising, still cold in his belly even after all these years and- he shook his head a gulped down another drink of the lukewarm beer, banishing those memories from his head.


    ¡®What do you care,¡¯ he thought, knowing his thoughts would be heard by the demoness. ¡®You are a female, I thought you liked men anyway.¡¯ The voice in his head laughed.


    ¡®Are you saying you would become ho-¡¯


    ¡®No,¡¯ he thought in a stern voice but was only replied by frantic laughter that echoed in his head.


    ¡®Dear sweet Kazz,¡¯ her voice said, shifting from the seductress to the elder sister. ¡®I have finished my end of the bargain, as have you. When you contracted me it was to kill the man that murdered your family and to get revenge for your lost life and parents, I have done this have I not?¡¯


    ¡®Yes,¡¯ he answered.


    ¡®My contract is complete, but I find myself reluctant to leave, I feel I still have a duty to do, even if it was not expressed in our contract.¡¯ If other warlocks knew about the fact that his contract was up and the demon was still possessing him they would kill him in an instant, as a non contracted demon could do anything to the host, and through the host wreak untold havoc on the world.


    ¡®There is nothing more I require,¡¯ he said, and that was true, though he found himself not wanting her to go, she had been there through every moment of the past ten years, unwaveringly loyal, though whether that was due to the contract or her own volition he didn''t know.


    ¡®But there is more you require, you lost your parents when you were thirteen Kazz. They would have raised you into being a fine young man I have no doubt, but they were not there, so it fell to me. I did my best but I am not human, there are things I do not know, things I wish to tell you but do not know how to broach the subject. You being twenty three and unwed is the biggest failure of mine, one I intend to rectify before I leave.¡¯


    He snorted, and looked around the room, everyone was eyeing him warily and was well away from him. ¡®You do realise you are part of the reason that is so correct?¡¯


    ¡®No I am not.¡¯


    ¡®No one will approach me because of my being a warlock, it frightens them, and those brave enough to approach take one look at this ugly mug and run away.¡¯


    ¡®You are not ugly.¡¯ she said, her voice growing hard.


    ¡®Oh then why oh great demoness in my head does every maiden blanch and run at the sight of my face?¡¯ he asked, his thoughts adopting a sneer even in his own head.


    ¡®Your face is beautiful, from your eyes to your hair to your lips and even that scar that runs down it, you are a handsome man, those that run away simply are not brave enough to see past the scar, not wise enough.¡¯


    ¡®Krissa was-¡¯ he started but her sharp hiss cut him off.


    ¡®That wench didn''t care for you, she simply wanted a warlock for her court so she could show you off to the rest of her little ladies and lords, you would be a plaything. There was no love there, trust me.¡® Kazz didn''t argue, there was no point, they had this debate a hundred or a thousand times over, and it never changed. ¡®I will find you a good wi-¡¯ she stopped talking, the world growing dark and the people moving about slowing to a crawl.


    The interior of the room he was in faded away, and in a burst of colors, colors he had not seen in years a vision lay out before him.


    In front of him was a beautiful woman, her looks placed her in her late teens or early twenties, with layered golden brown hair atop her head in a traditional royal style of high court dress. Her face was small and tender, still that of a maiden¡¯s but her form was that of a woman that had just recently grown into her figure, all curves and lines that caught both the light and the eye. She opened her eyes, and looked at him, smiling and looking at him through those long lashes that barred her beautiful sapphire eyes. As she smiled her cheeks creased into dimples, each of which fascinated him.


    She reached her hand out for him, her forearm garbed in a lace glove that matched the rest of her white and yellow dress, which swirled around her like it had a mind of its own. Without knowing why he also reached for her, but he couldn''t quite make it, straining with all his might, in an ungodly effort he pushed himself forward and clasped her hand. He watched as her smile deepened, and behind her events played out, many were confused, others clear, there was a wedding, there was running.


    One in particular stood out more than others however, he focused on it, he was crouched over her, hands on either side of her head, and blood dripping down onto her dress, she looked at him in shock and horror, unable to move as he lay there, barely able to hold himself up on his hands and knees to shield her, she shook her head and a single tear tracked down her face, she mouthed four words, unable to say them.


    No, please don''t go¡­


    He smiled at her, blood leaking from between his teeth and then everything went black.


    As it did the vision faded, and he found himself back at the inn.


    He looked down at the table, and watched as the color drained from the wood, removing the brown from the world, leaving him in a cold grey world where only blue shone. The brown seeped out, like it was being slowly poured down a drain, rushing out of sight. Looking around he noticed patches of blue that he didn''t remember being there before, so bright, so clear, highlighted so much in the monotony of this world.


    His last color.


    ¡®Well then.¡¯ He sighed, and there was a several moment gap of silence. ¡®Well then Lilim, seems like you have your work cut out for you, it would seem that I am destined to marry royalty.¡¯


    ¡®So it would seem.¡¯ Lilim said back, neither of them mentioned the death at the end of the vision, it was not worth mentioning, after all they had lived with death as a constant companion for over ten years now. ¡®This, this will take some doing, you will require much refinement...¡¯ He nodded with a rueful smile and stood up, waving for one of the server girls to show him to his room. Once there he made a spell that killed all the bugs in the bed, and plopped down into the thin straw mattress, and as soon as his head hit the pillow he felt a tugging on his consciousness.


    ¡®Not tonight Lily,¡¯ he muttered, calling her by her pet name, a name that she had at first scoffed at but then had taken a liking to.


    ¡®Yes tonight,¡¯ she said, back in her seductive tones, ¡®consider it a bachelor party, who knows how many more times I will get to do this before you''re all married and what not...¡¯ he thought of resisting her, but he knew it was a futile effort. With a sigh he allowed her to pull him down into himself, his mind being pulled into the deepest part of his being.


    He found himself standing before a beautiful woman with red hair and eyes, and blood red lips to match. Her back sprouted two black raven wings, and she wore absolutely nothing except a thin red ribbon that cascaded down her figure, hugging all the right curves as it wove itself around her.


    The twin mounds on her chest were of a perfect size and shape, capped with blood red nipples that stood out against her porcelain skin. How long had it been since he had seen the color red?


    At least four years, if one didn''t count things like this, where in his mind he could see any and every color. The loss of red had made the killing seem distant, not real anymore without the vivid paint of life that should flow through every living creature.


    She sauntered over to him, her impossibly wide hips swaying back and forth with a hypnotizing rhythm. And with a single hand she pushed him back into a lying position. With a dark smile across her blood red lips she slipped him inside of her.


    Perhaps Lily was the wrong name for her, it seemed too gentle, too unaggressive, not passionate enough. And Lily was all of those things to a fault. As she slid home and a pleased vacant expression passed over her face, he remembered the first time she had done this, he had been what, fourteen at the time?


    Awkward could not even begin to describe how he had been.


    She had to lead him, guide him, tell him exactly what to do, and he had finished up much too quickly, the memory brought a smile to his face and as his eyes refocused he found Lily was smiling as well.


    ¡°You have indeed grown since then, in more ways than one, I remember when you almost begged me to be dragged down here at any spare moment you got.¡± She smiled, starting to move her hips, rising and falling in a complex pattern of short movements and long ones that stressed him in all the right places and ways.


    ¡°I am a lot wiser now, I know that if I were to indulge in my wishes and wants neither of us would leave here until we both faded away into the next world.¡± He said, placing his hands on her hips, sliding them down the familiar curves to her thighs.


    ¡°Indeed,¡± she said huskily as she leaned forward, her perfect breasts swaying above his head, the white flesh and dark red nipples. ¡°Soon you will be married and we will not be able to be as such, I plan on spending as much time here without having us wither away as possible before that,¡± she purred, and as he reached for her chest arched her back pulling away from him, so he couldn''t reach her though she was still moving.


    ¡°I don''t want you to leave,¡± he blurted out, and she froze in place for a moment, before laughing and returning to her motions.


    ¡°That my dear is just the sex talking,¡± she said, with a laugh that sounded a little melancholy.


    ¡°No I-¡± he started but she placed a finger on his lips and shushed him softly.


    ¡°We will discuss this latter, but not now, please.¡± she added pleadingly to him, he simply nodded and moved his hands from his position on her hips to around behind her to her rear. She started to move more aggressively, a hungry look in her eyes. As she did he slipped his hand lower until he found what he was seeking. With a single finger he plunged deep into her other entrance. She squeaked and stopped moving, frozen entirely in place and her lower lips tightened around him almost painfully. He didn''t allow her to recuperate from the surprise attack, he quickly started moving his hips, driving himself in and out of her, with an aggression that drove all the thought out of her head and left behind only a panting animalistic lust. As he thrust he felt her tremble, and hooked another finger into her, this time causing her to scream and collapse against his chest, not able to sit up straight anymore, as he attempted to see if two objects could occupy the same space.


    The two of them reached the same conclusion at the same time, each panting and dazed for a while. That was until she sat up and looked at him reproachfully. ¡°I told you I don''t want things in there,¡± she said crossly. He for his part smiled triumphantly, it had been years since he had last held the upper hand in such situations against her.


    ¡°That was a most interesting reaction, we will have to explore that more...¡± he laughed.


    ¡°As if, now if you would remove your fingers from my backside before I rip them off,¡± she said with a slightly serious growl. He complied, and allowed her to do as she pleased for the rest of the night, content with his small victory.


    The sun rose and with it Kazz opened his eyes, feeling like he had no more than a minute of sleep, and that might have been the truth, he had no way of knowing. Fighting the urge to fall back into bed he pulled on the heavy ironclad boots and gauntlets and after belting his items back onto his waist walked down the creaking stairs to the entrance, nodding to the innkeeper that was at this moment pointedly avoiding his gaze. He walked out the door feeling the brisk spring air on his face, still tinged with the cold snow that had fallen, the air stung against him, and he smiled besides himself, looking around the town now that the light of the day was illuminating it, not casting it into shadows. The ruts and footprints of the day before in the mud that was this town¡¯s road had frozen, leaving perilous miniature mountain ridges that would fade as the sun rose and heated their brown caps.


    No not brown.


    He looked at them, and noticed like everything else it had no color, it was a simple grey now. The only color that he could see was the blue, and perhaps it was the lack of other colors, or perhaps it was just the way the color was, and he had never noticed it, the blue sang with a beautiful hymn of color, resonating with every string and chord of his body. As he stood there he felt a tug on his armored robes looking back after tearing his eyes off of the sky and its beautiful blue he looked back to see a small girl tugging on him, she looked somewhat timid, passersby watched in horror as he turned to regard the girl and froze, not knowing what to do in this situation.


    She was a small country girl, one of the many that ran around a town like this, and she looked to be around 8 to 10 years old, she smiled up at him, revealing white teeth, something only youth could have, and spoke to him, as though he was no more scary than a stray dog that had lopped into the town.


    ¡°Hey mister everyone says you can do magic is that true? Older sister says there is no such thing as magic, but I don''t believe her, what does she know?¡± he looked at the little girl, and smiled. He held up one finger, a universal signal for the other party to wait. And he pulled off his armored gloves, revealing the skin to the cold of the environment. He cupped one palm like a cylinder and then placed the other over the top of it like a lid, covering the thumb and forefinger, concentrating he started a spell that he had learned many many years ago, it was called blood glass and was designed to make last defence weapons to save a life, but to get good enough at it you had to be able to craft it finely and quickly so as a youth he had practiced it to a fault.


    Focusing he closed his eyes, allowing the blood to weep out of the scars on his palm and he shaped it, compressing it and willing it to become something else, slowly it took the shape of what he wanted and soon he had cupped in his hand a small rose flower made from the blood glass, and quickly a stem followed, he pulled his hand away and in that hand was a rose and stem that was a foot long, and covered in blood, he grabbed his flask and ran the cold water over the bloody rose and revealed a shining crystalline rose, made from a slightly reddish glass, bowing on one knee he presented the flower to the girl, who took it with reverent eyes and bounced with joy. ¡°Ha! This will prove that stuck up cow that magic exists.¡± Smiling he turned her around and gave her a pat on the small of her back to send her along, off she scampered, taking her new prize to no doubt show her sister and friends.


    ¡°A good show,¡± a woman¡¯s voice said behind him. Kazz didn''t look up to see who it was, he simply went on with washing the blood off of his hands and replacing the gauntlets about his hands and forearms. Then and only then did he turn around to see who was speaking.


    A woman wearing a mechanist¡¯s garb which consisted of leathers and denims dyed tan or brown, Kazz could not tell anymore. Mechanists were not the most friendly he had found, they created all kinds of contraptions from mechanist¡¯s lights to strange weapons that were like crossbows but without the actual bow part, Kazz had never had a chance to figure out how those weapons threw their projectiles, which were small rounded balls that penetrated even hardened steel, let alone his black iron cuirass.


    Worst of all however was the fact that they did not believe in magic, and they were teaching anyone that would listen that it was all fake, and that anyone casting magic was a fraud. Hence the hatred and disgust when she had called his magic a ¡°Nice show.¡±


    ¡°How can I help you lady mechanic?¡± he asked, with a courteous half bow to her. The woman was quite attractive, with shoulder length hair pulled back unceremoniously, and piercing eyes of the darkest deepest blue he had ever seen. She was also flanked by three royal knights in full plate steel.


    It was the woman from his vision, she was not wearing the royal gowns, or had her hair in the flowing ringlets but he was sure, there was no way to mistake those eyes. The question now was why was she here acting like a Mechanist?


    ¡°You are summoned to the Ducal castle, there are those that would like to speak with you,¡± she spat at him, and then added ¡±Though I do not know why, I have told them many times magicians are frauds,¡± in a much lower voice, but not low enough for him to not hear it.


    Perhaps that was her intent.


    Interesting, very interesting, this was the first time he was meeting his future wife, and she was pretending to be someone else, or perhaps the other her, the royal her was the fraud. Kazz took a deep breath, closing his eyes to calm himself as he swallowed his pride and then opened them to look at the mechanist who was staring at him with open revulsion.


    ¡°It would be my honor Lady Mechanist,¡± he said, he smiled as he bowed in a courtly manner.

 Chapter 27: An A.I. to purge

    Matt pulled out of there shared bed and smiled as he looked down at the sleeping woman next to him, her hair in a golden and blue halo around her head.  He looked at the clock on the desk across the room and cursed.  They only had an hour before there shift started, with a sigh he pulled on his clothes and woke Monica up, she sat up groggily and winced as muscles she had never used and stretched before cried there protest to last night''s vigorous activity.


    She was extra careful when she got out of bed to not use her muscles in any way that could cause the ache to come back, but soon she was dressed and ready.  By the time she had stepped out of the room he had some toast and coffee for the two of them.  After a quick breakfast, it was into work for another 10-hour shift for the two of them.  Thinking about it now it was quite helpful that they were assigned to the same work shift, that meant that no matter what they would have very similar work hours, making going into work much easier.


    ¡°Matt, I don''t think I can ride that thing,¡±  Monica groaned as she saw matt¡¯s bike, he who was already straddling the thing looked back at her and smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯ll drive slow,¡±  he said, but she shook her head.


    ¡°No, no, not that, well that too, but I don''t think I can get my leg over the bike, to many sore muscles on the interior of my legs.¡±  she blushed when she said this, and Matt said nothing as he dismounted, though this was mostly in an effort to not laugh at her discomfort out loud.  He scooped her up and set her side saddle in front of him.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go slow,¡±  he said softly, and true to his word he did indeed go slow, causing the two of them to get into trouble for being over a minute late on the clock in..


    ***


    Simon Tralo opened his eyes, a thick crust had glued them shut but with a swipe of the back of his hand he removed the film and opened his eyes.  The smooth waves of texture that were his ceiling looked back down at him, a bright white in color. Dotted with patches of dust he was sure his wife would have him clean one of these days on one of those honey-do list she was so fond of.


    He sat up and felt the room swim about him.


    Gods he had just the worst headache, it had developed some time yesterday, but he could think of nothing that would have caused it.  He hadn''t eaten anything that he was allergic to, nor was it pollen season, or anything else.  In fact, the only thing he had done was log into N.E.O. to see if there was an update on the progress of the caravan business, and much to his surprise there indeed was,  even if almost half of those never got to their destination.  And the majority of those that went missing had that one raider written all over them.


    When he thought of that man a spike of anger cold and really not like him coursed through his system.  Serotonin, Low cerebrospinal fluid flooded his system, though there origin was not actually from the cerebrospinal area, they originated from his caser.


    I should kill him.


    A voice spoke in his head and Simon¡¯s eyes opened wide.  It was his voice, in his head, had he actually just thought that.


    I should maim him.


    No, Simon was not a violent man, he had only been in one fight in his life and that was when he was still in high school, and he had always been the defender, never the aggressor, this was not like him.


    Have to find him.


    A splitting headache showed up again, he rubbed his eyes and stood up, staggering to the counter of his bathroom and pulled out two aspirins, downing them and using his hands at the sink to scoop up some water to wash them down.


    Maybe I should go find him, he thought to himself, and almost instantly the splitting headache was gone, replaced by endorphins that calmed and soothed him. ¡°Damn,¡±  he said looking at the white blue and red pill bottle. ¡°These things work fucking fast,¡± he said, and shrugged, he guessed it was time to contact that spiky hair weirdo.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    ***


    Matt sighed as he slipped out of his work jumper and got dressed again, he was wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday, seeing as he had spent the night over at Monica¡¯s and had no clothes stashed there.


    Yet.


    He smiled as he walked out of the room and found that Monica was waiting for him at the exit and that she was not the only one.  A tall man, mid-thirties was there, and he had his hand clasped around Monica¡¯s upper arm and she did not look too pleased with it.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on here,¡±  Matt growled, and stepped forward aggressively, the thirty-year-old man turned to look at Matt and smiled a feral grin.


    ¡°Ah, so you were lying to me,¡±  he looked back at Monica, who he still was restraining with a hand on her arm. And with his other hand, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a knife.  He slashed it at Monica. The blade flashed silver and read and she cried out in pain and fell backwards, Matt leapt forward, an anger cold in his stomach, the fear however icely gripped his chest making it hard to breathe.


    He had to check on Monica.


    He had to deal with this asshole.


    He grabbed the knife hand as it descended down, turning his body so his back was to the man¡¯s chest as he brought the elbow down onto his shoulder.  There was a loud sound of bone breaking and joints dislocated as the man¡¯s elbow snapped over Matt¡¯s shoulder, he could feel the point of it digging into his deltoid.  The knife clattered to the ground out of the attacker¡¯s hand, and still holding onto the man¡¯s arm he kicked out with his foot, catching one of the man¡¯s knees.


    The resounding crack echoed in the small alleyway behind the store and Matt allowed the man to slip out of his grasp.  Without looking he kicked the knife away and ran over to Monica.


    ¡°Is she ok?¡±  Willow asked, her voice echoing the frantic question that ran through his head.  She was sitting up and holding a bloody piece of cloth over her chest.  Slowly he knelt down and pulled back her hand with shaking fingers.  Under was a small wound, about four inches long, and it looked like the blade had glanced off of her collarbone.


    He had tried to slit her throat.


    It hadn''t worked.


    Thank god it hadn''t worked.


    ¡°Oh my god!¡±  A voice cried out, and Matt looked up to see a horrified Christa standing in the doorway, she was still wearing her work clothes and had likely come out to see what all the commotion was about.  Matt placed her hand which he had pulled away from her to see the wound back over it, allowing her to press the torn cloth against the wound to staunch the bleeding.  He then turned to Christa.


    ¡°Get her up,¡±  he growled and turned back to the man.  He was not out cold, or anything but was rather attempting to drag himself across the pavement to the blade.  Matt casually walked over to the man, and gave him a good kick in the head, halting his progress cold.  He closed his eyes and breathed in a calming breath, the scene of Monica being slashed at playing over and over in his head.


    ¡°Matt,¡±  Willow whispered in his head, ¡°I am going to have you jack into him, something is wrong with this man, he didn''t grunt in pain, no scream, and you broke multiple bones in his body.¡±


    ¡°Drugs?¡±  he asked.


    ¡°Could be, but the caser is designed to counteract the effects they have on the mind.¡±  she responded softly, ¡°Listen, we need to know, let me check, please.¡±  he sighed and pulled out his vidcom, unplugging the jack from the port in the small device and instead crouching down and plugging it into the back of the man¡¯s head and then into his own.  He felt a cold rush as the two of them linked, and something else, an external warmth that seemed to flow from him, leaving him feeling empty and cold.  It was only briefly gone, and then it was back, and with it was a curse from Willow.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±  he asked, feeling deep within his gut that he would not like this.


    ¡°It would seem that she had taken a different approach.¡±  Matt dug through the man¡¯s pants pockets and pulled out his wallet, before finding his ID.  Peter Muthelen, the name read, and he looked down at the man¡¯s face, attempting to see if he recognized the man.


    ¡°He is a guard for one of the caravans that we appropriated in N.E.O. ¡±  Willow said, Matt, looked at the man better and found that he vaguely remembered the man. Vaguely.  ¡°Its bad Matt,¡±  she said.


    ¡°Who is she, and what is bad?¡±  Matt asked, looking over at Monica, who had this knowing look on her face.  She had obviously realized he was talking to Willow, but Christa just looked freaked out as she held Monica close.


    ¡°I was created as a copy of an A.I. the one that runs the game N.E.O.  she created me when there was an issue in your caser, allowing her to slip me inside, I was to give her all the data I got, all of my experiences, I, however, decided I wanted to keep the more personal ones, well personal.¡±


    ¡°Understandable,¡±  he said with a nod.


    ¡°To you, yes, but to her it meant I was faulty, ¡± her ghostly figure appeared before him and began pacing back and forth.  ¡°It would appear as though she has found another way to get that data, she has cracked this man¡¯s caser wide open and there were almost a thousand programs and files that were not supposed to be there.¡± she stopped pacing and looked back at Matt, ¡°I wiped them clean, but he was being controlled, not fully, but she was planting subliminal messages in his head, thoughts, and she was using the caser to alter his chemical composition in his brain, causing emotional responses,¡±  she sighed. ¡°Anyone he contacted with, anyone he called or emailed or anything could have the same virus.¡±


    ¡°How do we stop it?¡±  he asked, he really was not the hero type, but he would not allow this A.I. bitch hurt anyone he cared about, and sometimes it took an asshole to hurt an asshole.


    ¡°First things first, we need a safe place to go,¡±  she said, and he repeated it out loud, it was Christa who spoke up.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know who is after you guys, but my uncle is a member of the ACHT, and he has a safe room in his house, he''s out of town I have the key.¡±


    ¡°ACHT?¡±  Willow asked.


    ¡°Anti Cyber Hacking and Terrorism unit, it is a government-run anti-terrorism unit that deals with cyber terrorism. ¡± Matt explained, he stood and Monica moved to walk to him but wobbled, without a second thought he scooped her up, one hand under the knees and one hand against her back. ¡°Lead the way Christa, after we get Monica patched up we have an A.I. to purge,¡± he growled.

 Chapter 28: After all, I am in love with a raider...

    The city was tearing itself apart.


    Riots had started in several of the districts, this was followed by mass looting and other criminal activity.  Elp¨ªda was by no means a crimeless city, there was no way to have this many people in an enclosed area and expect them to all respect each other¡¯s boundaries.  But it was not as bad as say new Detroit, which had for the fifth time in recent history devolved into block to block gang warfare that was so bad the police and national guard had to work together to evacuate the population.  Elpida was not New Detroit, but it was also not a utopia, it had its shares of bad apples.  The mass amount of people clogging the streets, however, like some arterial plaque that had built up to choke out the life out of the still beating heart of the city, there was no way they were all bad seeds.


    A.I.D.E.N was responsible for this, she could not control the thoughts of the people she had infected, she could, however, influence them through the use of chemicals the caser secreted directly into the brain, and she also had the power of subliminal messaging, if used effectively it could practically be mind control, seeing as you plant the idea and allow the one you planted it in to think that they themselves had come up with the idea.


    Right now it would seem that she was flooding all lines with epinephrine right about now.  The neurochemical was also called adrenaline, it was the same chemical for both fear and anger, causing what was known as the fight or flight behavior.  And while the human body has a relatively predictable reaction to adrenaline, namely an increase in blood pressure, heart rate increase, sweating, and pupil dilation there were others who would undoubtedly be adversely affected by this sudden flood of neurochemicals in their brain.


    For the first time in his life, as he crouched in a dark alley, with Monica in his arms and Christa to the side of him as they watched the angry hordes of Elpida residents tear up the very city they lived in, running on an adrenaline high, Matt wondered if the caser was such a great piece of technology.


    It had been integrated into the society well before he had been born, back when his dad was a young kid,  so wondering if it was a benefit to society or simply a way to control them was something he and most other people left the conspiracy nuts.


    But it would seem that those same conspiracy nuts were correct this time.  They were indeed in deep shit seeing as another entity was controlling them, playing puppet master from the shadows.  If this went on any longer than the entire place would wide up looking like its mirror version in N.E.O.  and for all Matt knew that was exactly what Aiden was planning.  This seemed like much more than the simple need to expand one¡¯s own knowledge, though he supposed that part of it was simply because she had gotten used to being the one in control, seeing as she ran the entire world of N.E.O.


    ¡°Now,¡±  Christa growled and the both of them sprinted across the street, Matt still holding the now unconscious Monica in his arms, desperately trying not to jostle the injured woman too much. They had been moving from alleyway to alleyway, thinking them safer than the roads. What they found in the alley, however, had him and Christa questioning that decision. ¡°Oh, god.¡±  Christa breathed out the words before vomiting all over the alley wall to her right.


    There staked to a wall was a police officer, his hardened nano armor dented from whatever relentless beating they had given him with whatever implements they had on hand, the front of his helm was open and there was not much left of his face.  He was held up in a partial stand by two stakes driven through the upper arms and into the wall, the worst part, however, was the intestines that were hanging out of his stomach where they had gutted him.


    The word ¡®pig¡¯  was written in his own blood on the wall above his head like some trophy placard.  They were about to turn when what they thought was a corpse let out a wet gurgle.


    ¡°Uuuuuguuuguuhpppllucccggsss,¡±  the man¡¯s ruined mouth attempted to make words, much too much blood leaking out of his mouth as he attempted to form the words. ¡°Pllllleeeeeeeee¡±  Matt closed his eyes, looking away from the corpse, when he opened them he realized he had handed off Monica to Christa and had gone to stand in front of the man.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    ¡°Ok,¡±  Matt nodded, barely able to speak around the lump in his throat, he gently reached around behind the man, feeling for the firearm the man surely kept.  He felt the cold metal grip, sticky with blood as the studs in the grip built in dug into his hand.  The damn pistol felt like it weighed a hundred pounds as he pulled it from the holster behind the man, he pushed it, hands shaking into the man''s chest, right where his heart would be, and looked at the one good eye that was pleading with him. ¡°Ready?¡±  he asked, his voice shook, he could feel the sting of tears in his eyes.


    This was nothing like a game.


    The man nodded his head, only capable of weakly moving his head, ¡°Thaaaaa-¡±  the man never finished his word, as Matt pulled the trigger.  The gun went off, a thunderous sound that echoed like a vengeful god in the narrow confines of the alleyway.


    He didn''t even hear it.


    He looked at the gun, covered in blood, unable to look at the man¡¯s face, blood covered the grip, and his hand, in turn, a sticky brown red, half dry.  It would have normally been impossible for him to have even fired the gun, seeing as it was a linked pistol, characterized by the blue data lines that ran down the barrel.  Only those authorized to use would be able to, anyone else that tried would have found it to be nothing more than a paperweight.  In times of need, the owner of the gun could authorize anyone they needed to to be able to use the pistol, it was activated by thought switch in the caser.


    He pulled the caser cord out of the back of his pocket, hands shaking, and plugged himself into the port at the side of the gun.


    ¡°Access granted, full rights, transfer to new user as per police code EFK401, all functions unlocked, welcome new user.¡±


    A female voice spoke in his head, a simple VI that was built into the gun.  Matt blinked, a blue targeting reticule appeared in his eyes, superimposed over the world via his caser. Across the top corner ran a flurry of police reports, he was just about to read them when he heard Willow speaking to him.


    ¡°Matt, Matt!¡±  he blinked, wondering why he suddenly felt so detached.


    ¡°Willow?¡±  he said, looking around, but she was not to be seen.


    ¡°I know I said I would not mess with your neurochemistry again, but I had to, you were going into shock, I suppressed that by flooding adrenaline and several other chemicals into your brain, I have also dampened the signals you receive from your left frontal lobe and temporal lobes, those are the areas of your brain that you use for moral judgment. ¡±


    ¡°Why would you do that?¡±  he asked, still feeling like he should care more, but not really being able to.


    ¡°If you need to pull the trigger again, you cannot hesitate,¡±  she spoke softly, ¡°I know when I unblock them you will hate me for this, the blame for anyone¡¯s death who you kill will be one me, I will accept any punishment when we are through with this.¡±  Matt looked up to the sky and breathed in a breath of fresh air.


    ¡°I won''t hate you.¡±  he said softly, ¡°You won''t be pulling the trigger.¡±


    ¡°But I-¡±


    ¡°Remove the dampeners, I won''t hesitate,¡± he said, closing his eyes, knowing that this decision needed to be his own, each and every time, if he was going to kill they needed to be on him.


    ¡°But Matt-¡±


    ¡°Willow, do it. Now.¡±


    ¡°It is done,¡±  he could almost instantly feel the difference, a sick feeling coming over him as the reality of the situation hit him again.


    ¡°Really though,¡±  he growled, ¡°I am not going to repeat myself again willow, no more messing with my neurochemistry, I mean it.¡±  he lowered the bloody smart pistol and turned to look at Monica, she had opened her eyes when the gun had gone off.  It would also seem that she was not the only one that had heard it.  A few stragglers were trying to see into the dark alley, they would be the forerunners of the larger horde, they needed to get moving.


    He looked into Monica¡¯s blue eyes, pupils dilated in the darkness and pain, there was something there, not fear, no, something more personal, and in that moment he felt a weight lift off of him that he had no idea he had before, because in those eyes were her love of him, even if he had to do something unspeakable to make sure they survived.


    She would still love him.


    ¡°It won''t come to that,¡±  Matt said, looking down at the gun in his hand.


    ¡°I know,¡±  Monica nodded, standing on her own two feet, only leaning on Christa for light support, determination lighting a fire in her sparkling blue eyes. ¡°And if it does, nothing changes.¡±


    ¡°Monica-¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡±  she growled and took several shaky steps towards him, before grabbing him by the face and pulling him down to her and pressing her lips against his.  The taste of her mouth was mixed with the coppery taste of blood, his, hers, he didn''t know whos, and he didn''t care. She pulled away from him, running her thumb over his bottom lip,¡°After all, I am in love with a raider, a little thing like someone dying won''t change that...¡±  he closed his eyes, resting his sweat-streaked head against her own, and in that moment there was nothing and no one but the two of them...

 Chapter 29: Two blocks down two to go...

    ¡°Well, there it is,¡± Christa shook her head looking at the two people standing in front of her. Both of them had seemed to have forgotten their surroundings, which one might point out was an alleyway that had a dead man in, surrounded by a city that was apparently tearing itself apart because some sort of A.I. had decided that it needed to be done for who knows what reason, and it was using the city''s own population to do this.


    And these two idiots were sharing some sort of moment.


    ¡°Move Dammit!¡± she slapped the both of them in the back of the head, which in turn caused their heads to smack together with a nice solid thump.


    ¡°Ah, What the fuck Chrissy?¡± Monica rubbed her head and looked at the other woman reproachfully.


    ¡°In case you two have not noticed we are in the middle of what might be a fucking apocalypse and we really, really need to get moving so get your fucking lovey dovey asses moving before I make you move them,¡± she growled as she put Monica¡¯s arm around her shoulder and pulled the wounded woman along seeing as she was still a little wobbly on her feet. ¡°Matt,¡± she called out and was surprised to see the man already standing beside her, bloody gun held easily like he had been born with it in hand. ¡°We need to get to fourth and junction, its the third building in the block,¡± she said and watched as he nodded and looked up towards the sky, or rather he was likely looking at the hallucinogenic map projected in the upper corner of his eyes.


    ¡°We need to avoid east forth, there is a mob there in the thousands,¡± he said his hand came up and scratched his cheek, and he either didn''t notice that his hand left a bloody mark on his face or he didn''t care.


    ¡°Shit, we will have to rout around the southern mall complex then,¡± Christa growled, dragging the wounded Monica with her. ¡°If we could get some sort of transport-¡±


    ¡°The city automotive A.I. has placed all transportation on lockdown, nothing is going anywhere,¡± Matt replied. Well shit, this was going to hell faster than Christa¡¯s last relationship¡­ she shook her head, the dark tangle of hair was like a storm cloud that seemed to frame those golden wolvish eyes. ¡°How far is this safe house?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Four blocks.¡± on any other day it would have been such a simple task to travel those four blocks, but today, with the city convulsing in its own death throes it might as well have been over twenty miles. Matt unconsciously went into a half crouch and began a forward march, scanning all areas and possible ambush areas. It was something he had been doing for years and years in his caser games, making it second nature to simply fall into the proper behavior.


    ¡°Follow, we have to get moving like you said Christa,¡± he motioned for them to follow. ¡°Stay behind me, and if anything happens call out to me, and I mean anything, got it?¡± he looked at the two girls, both of them being so strong, so brave how could he be anything but?


    It was after all only four blocks.


    Four blocks in hell.


    ***


    Simon Tralo looked at the unconscious man at his feet, blood was leaking out of his nose and his arm was bent at an angle that was painful to even look at. He knew this man, and he also could guess the reason he was here, same one Simon was.


    He was going to hurt that fucker.


    It was the only thought in his head the past few hours that didn''t hurt, it was the only thing he could focus on that didn''t drive a stake right into his eyes and into his brain, he couldn''t even think of why he wanted to hurt this Matt, even doing that caused the stabs of pain.


    His eyes tracked over to the knife, it had been kicked off to the side, the last two inches of the blade was covered in blood, and it had left a circular track on the concrete where it had been kicked away and had spun, causing the tip of it to scrape against the ground.


    Curls of red blood.


    He leaned down and picked up the kitchen knife, not even bothering to wipe the blood off of it. He didn''t even think of it, seeing as thinking of anything other than hurting him caused such debilitating pain. With the higher reasoning parts of his brain shocked into silence he fell back into the primitive hunting instinct that is dormant in all men. A feral light lit his eyes, a snarl formed on his lips.


    Hunt.


    Yes, he would hunt.


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    ***


    Matt peered out from behind the cover of an alleyway dumpster, the road they were on had once been called the electric hall, seeing as there had been rows upon rows of stores that held and sold nothing but electronics. That had been before whatever they eventually decided to call this catastrophic disaster. Now instead of brightly lit window displays, the street was an empty husk, full of shops that were now broken looted messes. As he peered around the corner he had the feeling he was playing N.E.O. what with all the destruction and chaos the city was in.


    It would take a long time to get back to the normal rhythm of life after something like this.


    The only people he saw were a few stragglers, the carrion crows of the mobs that had trashed this area of the city, they were picking through the bones of the shops looking for anything that was left which was worthwhile. Well, that and squabbling over who found it first.


    This, however, was not the most disturbing part of the scene, it was the corpses that lay there motionless in the streets. Most looked like they had been trampled, one or two had obvious slash marks but in his field of view there were at least five people who died senselessly, and countless others surely through the city.


    This had to be stopped.


    ¡°Let''s move,¡± he said and rounded the corner gun raised body lose, he dropped to a knee and swept the entire street first right then left. Everyone besides one man was all too far away and to busy to notice the three people that had just come out of the alleyway. This man, however, looked like he had not to long ago been some sort of well-mannered businessman, his nice suit was now covered in blood, and it looked like he had somehow gotten ahold of a shock baton. The black polymatt object looked like a billy club with wiring around it, they were often used by street gangs in turf wars. Heavy mean sons of bitches that would not only knockout or kill from the sheer weight of them but also provided an immobilizing electric shock that would discharge on whatever it hit.


    He was raising the club over his head, and bringing it down onto the body of a man over and over again. The corpse on the street was not really missing his head, it had just been smashed over and over until it could no longer be recognizable as anything more than a mangled pulp of flesh, not even retaining the shape of a head any longer.


    He stopped his senseless beating of the body and looked up at them, his eyes were glazed over like he was no longer seeing anything around him, and perhaps that was exactly what was going on, maybe his sanity had fled him. He raised the shock baton and screamed at the top of his lungs, charging straight towards them.


    ¡°Matt!¡± Christa cried out, he looked back at her but she was staring at the man charging them, bloody hands, vacant eyes. Matt closed his eyes for a second before raising the pistol.


    P-taff.


    P-taff.


    Two shots rang out, each hitting the man in the middle of the chest, causing him to fall backward, the club bouncing away out of his hand down the road making a racket almost as loud as the gunshots. Matt walked over the man, he was still alive, wheezing now as blood filled up his lungs. A small trickle of it ran out of his mouth, and he gurgled, causing it to bubble as he tried to suck air into his rapidly filling lungs.


    P-taff.


    The gun barked out another report as Matt put the man out of his misery. Everyone looting the buildings had stopped moving, frozen like deer in the headlights. Matt raised the gun and pointed it at the closest one, which caused the man to dive for cover before fleeing the area. A quick sweep around the area caused the looters to all scatter and flee, they were after all opportunists not suicidal.


    Yet.


    ¡°Matt!¡±


    ¡±Lookout!¡± Both Monica and Christa screamed out his name, he turned just in time to see a blur of a man barrel into him in a full tackle. He was lifted clean off the ground and slammed back into it with such a force he lost the grip on the gun causing it to skitter away across the road a good five feet out of reach. The attacker was on top of him, legs straddling either side of his torso. Matt blinked the shock out of his eyes and watched almost in slow motion as the man raised his hands above his head and brought them down.


    He didn''t even see the knife, he just moved instinctually, his hands shot up and grabbed the man¡¯s wrists stipping the decent of the blade as it lunged for his neck. Matts'' eyes swam in and out of focus, but even without sight, he knew he had to hold onto those wrists no matter what. His attacker had the advantage, however, seeing as he was on top he could put all of his weight into the blade, pushing down with his body and all Matt had to keep it from plunging into his neck was the strength of his arms. The man lifted his weight off of Matt¡¯s lower abdomen and pressed his chest into the hilt of the blade. There was no way in hell he would be able to hold that blade with this guy''s full weight behind it, so he did the only thing he could, he pushed it to the side as he allowed it to drop.


    ¡°MATT!¡± Monica cried out in horror, from her angle it looked like the blade had sunk into his neck, but Matt didn''t have the time to reassure her that he was not dead, the blade had struck against the concrete, shattering the first two inches of the blade and creating little pieces of shrapnel that felt like someone was burning him as they cut open his face and neck. With a growl, Matt tucked his legs under him and kicked the man hard up and over. The momentum and force of the kick coupled with the man¡¯s unbalanced weight distribution caused him to flip up and over Matt¡¯s head and land on the other side in a wounded huff.


    Rolling over quickly Matt got to his knees and pushed himself up to a sprinters start and pushed off just as the other man was getting up, he hit him in the gut with his shoulder,returning the favor of there introduction, he slammed the man into the wall of a store building, and was about to pull back to hit him when the jagged end of the knife slammed into his trapezius muscle of his back as the man reached over Matt¡¯s shoulder and slammed the blade down. Matt¡¯s vision flashed red and he stumbled in his attack as his brain was overcome with the flood of pain and warnings his body was now generating.


    The increased speed at which the adrenalin was causing his heart to pump made blood squirt out of the wound around the embedded knife. Matt¡¯s higher thinking processes shut off as he grabbed the man by the neck and slammed him as hard as he could into the wall, over and over and over again as his instincts to lash out at the thing causing his pain took over.


    When he came to he was holding the limp and unconscious body aloft in a single hand, slamming him into the wall, still growling. Slowly he allowed the limp form to slide down the wall and lay there, he bent over allowing the sweat and blood on his face to drip off making a rose-colored pool on the clean white sidewalk.


    ¡°Matt?¡± Monica¡¯s voice sounded so scared, and to the beating drums in his ears, so far away.


    ¡°I''m fine,¡± he said turning to her, and he saw her wince at the cuts on his face and neck, he tried to reach around to grasp the handle of the knife that was sticking out of his back, but it was just out of reach ¡°Could you please-¡± he moaned the words, as the adrenalin in his system faded, allowing the pain to be fully felt.


    ¡°God damn,¡± Christa whispered as she gripped the blade, ¡°do I just-?¡±


    ¡°Just pull it out,¡± he whispered, as he gritted his teeth, he had no idea if he screamed or not when she pulled out the blade, he was to busy trying not to black out from the pain as it left his body. ¡°Well then-¡± he panted, looking up at the two girls from the ground where he sat, ¡°who the fuck was that?¡± Christa checked the man¡¯s wallet.


    ¡°Simon Tralo, know him?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Nope never heard of him in my life,¡± Matt shook his head, ¡°Well. I would say this day couldn''t get any worse but I have no wood to knock on, let''s go two blocks down, two to go...¡± he picked himself up, scooping the handgun up with his uninjured arm.


    Two blocks to go...

 Chapter 30: Good luck and Godspeed...

    Matt slammed his uninjured shoulder into the door, pushing it shut despite the man¡¯s hand that reached out to stop it.  There was a solid crunch and a cry of pain, He could feel the man remove his hand probably tucking the damaged limb against his chest, it gave him the time he needed to slam the door home.   The past two blocks had been absolute hell, he was starting to feel woozy from the loss of blood, it was a startling amount of blood, games made it seem like there was either a copious amount or not really any at all.


    It''s always funny the things that you notice when you''re not thinking straight, like how games have been getting blood wrong for hundreds of years.  You always see the reddish black blood making whatever it is on slick, but the thing about blood is it is designed to close wounds, you never see any games that show how the blood turns to this brown red as it dries, or how it starts to become sticky.


    And they had attracted quite the crowd.


    Monica and Christa engaged the lock on the computer in the lobby, effectively closing the door and allowing Matt to take his weight off of it.  As he did so he wobbled and almost fell, shaking his head he tried to clear the spinning, but it only made it worse as his brain, now starved of oxygen due to the lack of blood protested the violent movement.


    ¡°Shit,¡±  he growled, and as he did so he could feel the sound¡¯s rumble in his head.  ¡°Where is this room Christa?¡±  he asked, placing the heel of his palm into his eye and pressing in an attempt to relieve the pressure that was building there. Something loud thudded against the door. ¡°Because I think we better get there before they get here.¡±  Christa nodded and put a shoulder under both Monica and Matt, ushering them over to the elevator.  The door slid open and the three of them stepped inside.


    ¡°Third floor please,¡±  Christa called out, and the automated elevator let out a ping in recognition. Matt almost fell down when the elevator started up, the dropping of his stomach as it began moving was more than enough to upset the balance of his equilibrium. The only things that prevented this was Christa on one side and the death grip on the railing he had on the other side. He looked up as the display showed their assent on a two-dimensional display.  They shot up past the second floor and were almost to the third when the elevator jolted to a stop, all lights cutting off.


    He did fall this time.


    With an effort, he picked his head up and took in the surroundings.  The interior of the elevator was bathed in a red emergency light set somewhere in the upper corner of the box.  It would appear he was not the only one who had fallen,  Christa and Monica were both picking themselves up off of the floor.


    ¡°Shit, looks like they got smart and cut the electricity,¡±  Monica groaned as she lifted herself up using the railing.


    ¡°Means the electric lock they have on the front door will be on backup power, that won''t last long.¡±  Christa said, half to herself and half to the rest of them.  Though it made his back scream in pain he pushed himself up to his knees and from there up to standing.


    If they could go on then so would he.


    ¡°Then we better get moving,¡±  he said, God, he could really use some water right about now.


    ¡°How?¡± Christa asked, ¡°In Case you haven''t noticed we are stuck between floors right now.¡±  she pointed out.


    ¡°What, haven''t you ever watched an action movie before?¡±  he said with a laugh and looked up, she followed his gaze up and saw he was looking at a small access point in the ceiling of the box.


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    ¡°No, there is no way in hell, no no no,¡±  she said, shaking her head vigorously with each no.


    ¡°We were pretty close to the third floor when the power went out,¡±  Matt said, he grabbed onto the railing and lifted his leg to put a shoe on it. With more effort than it should have taken he braced one arm against the side wall and pushed himself up.


    ¡°Matt, your hurt-¡±  Christa said, her eyes softening as she looked at him struggle.


    ¡°And we will be dead if we wait here and let them drag us out,¡±  he said, reaching up over his head and catching the lip of the trapdoor, with one foot still on the railing he pushed the door up.  It gave with a compressed hiss, popping out of place and sliding sideways, Matt hopped down and looked at the black hole above them.  ¡°Ok Christa, you first, so I can hand Monica up to you,¡±  he leaned back against the wall and slid down to a crouch, lacing his hands and placing them at just around stepping level.


    ¡°Matt-¡±  she began but he cut her off.


    ¡°Christa, we can argue about things when there is not a city full of angry people wanting to kill us and there A.I. overlord is not influencing them, ok?¡±  she bit her lip, but then said nothing as she placed her booted foot into the palm of his interlocked hands.  With a grunt of effort he stood up, she walked her hands up the wall to keep her balance, and reaching out she grabbed ahold of the edge of the trap door.  ¡°Ready?¡±  he called out, and when he got her affirmative he grunted again, and dropping down slightly he rotated his arms, effectively doing a clean and press pushing her up and over his head.


    The motion ripped the wound in his shoulder wide open again, causing hot blood to spill down his back and pool up at his belt line, where it ran over and stained the grey pants he was wearing, well that or dropped onto the white linoleum floor, splattering a good amount of blood there.  Monica¡¯s eyes opened wide as she saw the blood and she was about to speak but closed her mouth when she saw Matt shake his head no.


    He was right if they didn''t get to that safe room and soon they would all be dead.  She held her tongue, opting instead to look away, look away from the blood slowly pooling on the floor, and the pained expression on his face.


    Christa got her upper torso over the lip and scrambled up, it took a second before she positioned herself on her stomach and reached through to grab Monica.  Matt looked at her and she nodded, indicating she was ready.


    ¡°Up you go,¡±  Mat said as he lifted Monica up the same way he did Christa.  She went up much easier being the lighter girl and because he had the help of another person hauling her up.


    ¡°What the hell?¡±  Christa snorted in mock protest, ¡°Why didn''t you grunt and make all that straining when you lifted her up hmmm?¡±


    ¡°Why indeed?¡±  Matt smiled at her playful banter and appreciated the fact that she was attempting to lighten the mood. She scowled at him and reached down to help him up.  He lay there panting, wanting nothing more than to just fall asleep, but with a groan, and more than a little help from Monica and Christa he was back up.


    The door to floor three was right there, the bottom of it was a good five feet up from the top of the elevator, just at chest height for Matt.  ¡°Oh thank God,¡± Matt groaned, stumbling over to the edge of the elevator.  There was a half of a foot gap between the wall and the elevator, meaning he didn''t have to lean too far to get to the door.  He reached out, placing both sets of his fingers into the felt-lined groves of the door, and ignoring the screaming pain that almost made him blackout he pulled the doors apart.  He didn''t know if they would automatically close, so he held them there as Monica and Christa scrambled up, pulling him up after they got there.  It was only a short stumble down the path to get to her uncle¡¯s apartment, she leaned into an eye scanner next to the door, it was a standard feature for all these fancy apartments, the strange thing, however, was the fact that his still worked when the power was shut off.


    Opening the door she led them all in.


    The interior of the place was lit and Matt could hear the soft hum of a personal generator, explaining the working security measures despite the lack of power. ¡°This place is a steel box, three inches thick,¡±  Christa said, pointing to the walls, Matt couldn''t see it seeing as they were covered in sheetrock, but he chose to believe her.  ¡°Has its own food storage system, water purification, and even its own generator and a Wireless hook up straight to the satellites.¡±  she laughed.  ¡°No one is getting into here.¡±  she locked the door behind them, sliding home several bolts and even a bar like it was some medieval castle. ¡°But two things make this perfect for us right now,¡±  she said, rushing over to open a hatch in the wall, removing several medical bags. ¡°These,¡±  she held them up for them to see, ¡°And the fact that my computer and his are on the same network, meaning there is no need to wait for N.E.O. to download, he already has it on the network.¡±


    ¡°That''s why your connection is so fast!¡±  Monica exclaimed, ¡°You were using a government network to game?¡±  Christa just smiled and shrugged. ¡°Is that even legal?¡±  Matt, however, had bigger priorities, he reached out and snatched one of the bags out of Christa¡¯s hands and fished out two small pouches,  he placed the plastic nipple of one in his mouth and shoved the other into Monica¡¯s, then without any preamble he squeezed them, causing the salty metallic tasting liquid to go down their throats.  It was a plasma substitute that could be absorbed into the bloodstream through digestion, a quick solution to blood loss if only a temporary one.  It took about twenty minutes to work and would replace lost blood for up to a day before it dissolved. Christa lead them over to the couch and ran two cords to them, helping the both of them to jack into their casers. ¡°Wish us luck,¡±  Monica said, as she reached out and laced her fingers with Matt¡¯s.


    ¡°Good luck and Godspeed,¡± Christa said, before turning to the computer box.  ¡°Start program New Earth Online.¡±  Christa watched as they both slumped back, consciousness now in the game.  ¡°I fear you will need all the luck you can get...¡±

 Chapter 31: Stanly...

    Matt opened his eyes and found himself back in the town of Glassglo. The good news was there was no one around, the bad news is that there was no one around, which was a strange thing seeing as this was the center of trade in the area, making it crazy that no one was around.


    No players.


    No Npcs.


    He started to look around when he was shoved back and held there in a hug that felt like iron bands had been wrapped around his body. He looked over his shoulder and found himself staring at Willow¡¯s blue hair, and he smiled. ¡°You don''t know how hard it is to not be able to touch you when I am out there, to help you when you are hurt,¡± she whispered softly, her head on his shoulder blade. He was about to answer her when Monica walked over and laid a hand on her, Willow looked up and into Monica¡¯s eyes.


    ¡°He might not understand, but I do,¡± she said softly. ¡°For so many years I wanted to do nothing more than to touch him, have him hold me, but he was married, the temptation was there but I could not act on it.¡±


    ¡°At least you knew it could be done-¡±


    ¡°That makes it worse, knowing you could do it, but daring not for fear of losing everything.¡± Monica closed her eyes. ¡°I am a selfish woman, I wanted Matt all to myself, once she died one of the first thoughts that ran through my head was how he was now available, I felt like a horrible person.¡± she took in a shaky breath, ¡°it took me some time to realise Taylor was not going anywhere, even in death she was still in his heart, he would always love her, once I figured that out it was easier to cope with, though I knew his heart would never fully belong to me I contented myself with half of his heart.¡± she smiled, ¡°I suppose this is not so different,¡± she reached out and wiped a tear out of Willow¡¯s eye. ¡°I just need time to learn to share, ok?¡±


    ¡°Ok,¡± Willow sniffled, before breaking out into a half laugh half choking sob. ¡°We aren''t that different you and me are we?¡±


    ¡°What? No, we couldn''t be more different, especially seeing as you aren''t even real-¡± Willow was about to say something to that when she noticed the teasing smirking expression on Monica¡¯s face. With a smile, she shoved Monica in the shoulder with the ball of her fist, a soft push that caused her to take a step back.


    And it was lucky that she did.


    The bullet struck the metal grating ground of the city floor throwing up shards of metal and sparks. Monica dove one way behind a shop, even as Matt and Willow dove the other way. Matt slid down against the wall, he was glad he was in the game and not in real life at the moment, he could still feel the pain from his wounds, seeing as it was a safety feature so you would know you were hurt in real life, but since he was not actually moving the pain was more bearable.


    He unslung the bag full of weapons and pulled out two assault rifles, an smg, and two pistols before handing the bag over to Willow. She also got kitted out, and passed it back to Matt, who held up the sack for Monica to see, she nodded at it and he tossed it through the air across the street to her. As it flew it got struck by a bullet, causing it to spin and lose half of its contents in the street between them. There was still enough for Monica, but that shot would have been very difficult to pull off.


    He was now sure that if he were to poke his head out the last thing he would see would be violet eyes staring at him through a scope, surrounded by a messy array of blond curls. ¡°Risa,¡± he growled. ¡°Why is she attacking us?¡± he asked.


    ¡°She''s still in the game Matt,¡± Willow answered, ¡°It is highly likely she is also infected with the virus.¡±


    ¡°Can you get it out? Like you did before with that other guy?¡± Matt asked, as he leaned the but of a rifle out to see if she was still watching them. The stock shattered into a million wood splinters as the sniper bullet tore through it.


    Well, it looked like she was still watching.


    ¡°I have to get close enough to touch her,¡± she said, sliding a clip home into the smg she had in her hands. ¡°But Matt,¡± she looked at him, pulling the bolt back with a satisfyingly meaty thunk. ¡°We don''t have time for this, the A.I. knows we are in the game, there is no way it can¡¯t know.¡± she said, ¡°Meaning I have to get working on hacking into the core systems like yesterday before it can get something to stop us.¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    ¡°How can it stop us, I need to know what I will be fighting to prepare for it.¡±


    ¡°It is still bound by the programming and rules laid out in its creation, it cannot actively target any one player or group of players. It is also unable to ban players without the player breaking one of the game¡¯s rules.¡± she looked over at Monica who was holding her rifle close to her chest. ¡°It can, however, start an event, and spawn monsters and npc¡¯s for said event.¡±


    ¡°So, we are going to get hit by waves?¡± he asked, to this she nodded. ¡°I am pretty sure hacking is against the TOS, can she ban you?¡±


    ¡°No, I am technically an Npc, she could delete me, but only if she had access to my main files, which are in your head, so no.¡±


    ¡°How long do you need to free Risa?¡±


    ¡°Contact with her for 30 seconds would work,¡± she responded, pushing herself up to a crouch position.


    ¡°And for getting into the files?¡±


    ¡°About five minutes.¡± he was about to respond to her when a notification popped up in his field of view.


    Siege of Glassglo even starting in 2 minutes 50 seconds.


    Players must defend Glassglo from the encroaching horde.


    ¡°Well shit,¡± he growled, Willow¡¯s face set in a hard mask. ¡°Alright, get Risa, protect Willow for five minutes, we got this,¡± he said with more confidence than he felt. ¡°So we will all need to move, cause a distraction so she cannot focus on one of us,¡± Matt said.


    ¡°Are you crazy?¡± Monica called out from the other side, ¡°That bitch is a dead-eye shot and you know it.¡± she scowled at Matt¡±And we don¡¯t even know how far away she is.¡±


    ¡°Judging by the sound I would say she is around fifty meters away,¡± Willow answered, sometimes Matt forgot what she was, but in moments like this he was glad she was an A.I. that could make calculations like that on the fly.


    ¡°So, 160 ish feet, now, how do we do that before we get turned into swiss cheese?¡± Monica asked.


    ¡°Wait,¡± Willow said, her face lighting up. ¡°Did you stable Stanly?¡± she asked, referring to the small reptilian dog monster that Matt had gotten for Monica.


    ¡°No, I just logged out,¡± Monica said, her face confused. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Ritha hounds have a unique way of protecting their young,when a little one is hurt they can excrete a gas that causes uncontrollable twitching of muscles if breathed in, it is how the small one¡¯s survival in this world, though they lose the ability to do it as they grow.¡± she smiled, ¡°A good player would never attack one, they would simply attempt to capture or to avoid it, But I doubt Risa is thinking straight right now, we will need to get close, then you will have to order it to attack her one you can see her, I will rush in and hold my breath while I get her back to normal, Matt, we will need cover fire.¡±


    Matt hefted an assault rifle in each hand, his raider¡¯s smile plastered on his face, seeming to cast it into shadows that were not there a second ago. ¡°Cover fire coming right up,¡± he growled, and without another word he rolled out from behind the shop and into the street, pulling both triggers with a sadistic smile as he sprayed bullets in Risa¡¯s general direction.


    It worked, somewhat.


    A bullet didn''t hit him however the force of it passing just over his shoulder gouged out a good chunk of flesh. He winced, but only pushed forward, Monica and Willow following him at full sprint. He caught the site of blond curls in the wind and saw the sun shining off of the scope but before he could do anything about it Monica yelled at the top of her lunges; ¡°ATTACK!¡± pointing in Risa¡¯s direction, A small greenish blur of speed flew out of seemingly nowhere towards the sniper.


    Stanly never got to her target.


    Risa turned the gun and in a single smooth movement targeted the little animal. A single shot rang out, the small Ritha hound rolled, the upper half of her torso gone, splattering blood and bits of green scales everywhere like Christmas decorations gone horribly horribly wrong. Matt heard Monica take in a breath of shock, but he didn''t have the time to comfort her over the loss of her digital pet. Putting in more speed than he ever had before he rushed the last twenty feet, watching in seemingly slow motion as she turned back his way. She reached up, pulling back the bolt and releasing the still steaming casing of her last round, sliding it home and lining it up with his chest.


    She pulled the trigger.


    But no shot rang out, no pain blossomed in his chest.


    Her gun had jammed.


    His first real conversation with Willow sprung up in his mind: ¡°I am assuming that the more points in a skill line for say a weapon the better it aims and the more damage it does?¡±


    ¡°You would be assuming wrong.¡± she smiled, there was a little maliciousness in it. ¡°As you gain points in a particular skill line, which you do by using said item or weapon, you will hit certain milestones, at these milestones in the skill line you will receive perks, these include things like less weapon degradation meaning they need to be serviced and repaired less, and making the weapon less likely to jam and misfire.¡±


    With a vicious snarl, he slammed into her, batting the rifle away with the but of his own. As he did so he couldn''t help but notice the glassiness of her violet eyes, like she was not really seeing this, not really comprehending what she was doing. He brought the stock of his gun down towards her head, but she moved it last second causing the butt of the gun to slam into the ground, causing a dent to form in the metal flooring of Glassglo. Her legs snaked up behind him, locking around his head, and rolling him backward, bringing her to the top. With deft moves, she pulled a knife and plunged it down towards his chest.


    For the second time that day he snatched a person¡¯s wrists, stopping them from sheathing a knife in his chest. This time, however, he had backup. Monica swung her rifle down like a baseball bat, striking the woman across her back, causing her to arch her spine and neck up. Willow took this opportunity to grab her around the neck with a single hand and using momentum she picked the other woman up off of Matt and slammed her bodily into the ground with a weighty thud.


    Risa only struggled for the next thirty seconds.


    ¡°What?¡± she panted still held on the floor by Willow, ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± she got out around the hand at her throat.


    ¡°Where the fuck should I start?¡± Matt wheezed, still laying on his back, staring up at the blue sky...

 Chapter 32: Good bye, Mother / Epilogue

    ¡°So let me get this straight,¡± Risa said, panting as they all sprinted flat out to the gun shop they had met Risa the first time they had entered the city, they had decided that that was the location they would make the stand and hold out for the next five minutes, the owner of the stand was reputed with being the most overprotective individual, and there was a reason behind this, seeing as she was also one of the richest merchants in the entirety of the game, and while this was only one small stall she owned in one city and she had networks of stores across the entirety of N.E.O¡¯s playspace it was a fortress, filled with guns and sided with a ridiculous amount of armor, and easily collapsible barricades that doubled as extra armor for the shop¡¯s sides. Normally it would have been impossible to use any of the weapons there seeing as they had a biometric lock on the cages that held them, but somehow Risa had cultivated some sort of relationship with this woman and had access. ¡°The A.I. that runs this game is crazy and has found a way to hack into people¡¯s casers, causing them to go into frenzies and there is mass looting and rioting in the city, also there is an A.I. in your head,¡± she made a wild gesture in Matt¡¯s direction. ¡°And it is Willow, who also happens to be a copy of the aforementioned A.I. causing all the problems in the city?¡±


    ¡°¡®Bout sums it up.¡± Matt painted, the plates of his armor making a rattling sound as they bounced and clattered together with his long strides.


    ¡°First of all, who the fuck wrote this A.I.¡¯s parameters, because they need to be fired, and then thrown in prison for negligence,¡± She shook her head.


    ¡°It is indeed quite an oversite, seeing as it is still following its core programming,¡± Willow nodded, she was the only one not panting from the mad dash across Glassglo. ¡° They designed it to run everything in the game, both working as a developer of all the content as well as an admin or gm, meaning it sees this as an expansion of its core programming seeing as it is expanding as it was programmed to though they only meant expanding in the game.¡±


    ¡°So the world is getting fucked over because some dev forgot to specify that it was only supposed to expand in the game?¡± Monica asked she shuddered as she remembered the vacant faces chasing them, and the dead stare of the poor police officer.


    ¡°In their defense, there was no way she could have accessed anything other than game files, she was on a closed network with no way access could have been given to her,¡± Willow said.


    ¡°But obviously it did, didn''t it?¡± Risa said, ¡°Goddamnit, have they never heard of Murphy''s law before?¡±


    ¡°Murphy¡¯s law?¡± Willow asked, confused at the phrase.


    ¡°Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,¡± Matt answered, causing a small laugh to escape Willow¡¯s throat before she clamped her lips together.


    30 seconds to event start!


    Siege of Glassglo starting in¡­


    They rounded the corner and found that they were much too far away to make it to the shack. ¡°Willow can you start the hack while moving?¡± he asked, she looked over at him like he was stupid.


    ¡°I have been hacking this entire time,¡± she responded simply.


    ¡°Oh,¡± he said, caught off guard, he supposed he was to use to video games where they artificially locked you in one location while doing an escort or guard mission by claiming the npc couldn''t move while whatever task they had to do was being performed. ¡°So how long do we have?¡± he asked.


    ¡°It is going slower than I expected, she, and yes she is a she apparently, and has started calling herself Aiden seems to have buffed up the firewalls against me.¡±


    ¡°Wait, why Aiden?¡± he asked, latching onto that more than anything else, and perhaps that was because he wanted to ignore the entire thing about this taking longer than she had expected.


    ¡°Artificial Intelligence Design Enhancement Network, A.I.D.E.N as an acronym Aiden.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± was all he said.


    5 seconds to event start!


    Siege of Glassglo starting in¡­


    ¡°Fuck,¡± Risa groaned out.


    4


    ¡°Shit.¡± Monica echoed.


    3


    ¡°Time to put on your big girl panties,¡± Matt smiled, the adrenaline coursing through his veins burned under his skin. God, he really was an adrenaline junky, and this was just him chasing another high, or maybe it was what he was made for, this feeling, War, perhaps he had been borne a warrior.


    2


    There was no time to think about it.


    1!


    Event Start!!!


    Monica jumped in alarm as a bolder which looked to have once been a rusted out car cast from some unseen location slammed down into the city not far from there location. A dull rumble filled the air as thousands of feet thudded and thundered, each and every one of them rushing right to their location.


    ¡°Crows!¡± Risa shouted, dropping to her knees and aiming up at the sky with her sniper, Matt followed her gaze and saw that the sky was swarming with crows the likes of which he had never seen before. They were huge, several sizes larger than that of actual crows, these things had bone spikes coming out of its body at weird angles, and their feathers had patches of green that had to be the strange scales all mutant creatures in this world developed for God knows what reason. Their long beaks were serrated and the muscles that opened and closed them were on the outside of their faces. The worst part, however, was the eyes.


    All four of them glowed blood red.


    A shot rang out, and one of the creatures that had started its descent towards them fell, though it didn''t get very far, seeing as others of its kind grabbed it mid-air and began tearing it apart with long talons and beaks, eating there fallen companion before he even hit the ground.


    Blood and feathers rained down on them.


    Now Matt understood why they were called a murder of crows.


    ¡°Move,¡± he barked, raising his rifle and fire a pulse as several arched from the cloud of black wings down towards them. They all doubled timed it, heading to the original location, it would be nice to be under the cover of a thick roof with these demons in the sky.


    Unfortunately for them, Murphy¡¯s law was fairly accurate.


    ¡°Oh God, what is that sound?¡± Monica called out, that was when they all heard it. Millions of tiny claws scraping on the metal walkways. ¡°Please God tell me that is not what I think it is,¡± she shuddered, as she raised her assault rifle up and shot a crow out of the sky as it dove down to her.


    ¡°Well, if you think it''s rats,¡± Willow paused, ¡°Then I am going to have to disappoint you,¡± she ran over and scrambled up the side of a building, raising her above the ground level, as she did so a crow dove down at her exposed back, Matt and Risa both aimed, but the creature somehow by some fate avoided both of there shots, it scored a bloody gouge down Willows back. Willow for her part didn''t even scream, she gritted her teeth, pulling her handgun out and shooting the bird as it arched back up towards its peers.


    ¡°Willow?¡± Matt called out, going back to shooting into the cloud of birds, seeing as there were so many there was no way to miss.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± Willow cursed, ¡°Get your asses up before the rats ge-¡± she started to say, but it was already too late. A literal wave of the small-dog-sized rodents rounded the corner, the momentum of the flood of rats causing many of them to be crushed underfoot by there more lucky brethren.


    ¡°Up up up UP UP UP UP!¡± Matt shouted, causing the two women still on the ground next to him to frantically scramble up the walls of the shops surrounding them in a desperate attempt to get out of the way. Matt pulled out one of the grenades he kept hooked to the combat webbing he had strapped across his armored chest, pulling the pin he lobbed it into the sea of bloodthirsty rodents and quickly scrambled up the side of the nearest building. The explosion of the grenade was so muffled by the mass of the rodents it didn''t so much explode as make a dull and very wet thump that he could feel in his bones. Blood and bits coated the rats that survived, which was more than any man could count, unfortunately.


    But this painting of the living with the dead had an unexpected effect.


    The murder of crows went into a frenzy, the caws much too deep and broken sounded like thunder in the sky and a black frenzy of claws and feathers descended on the sea of rats. ¡°Move your asses!¡± Willow shouted, and ignoring the pain in her back she jumped to the next building, scrambling to keep her balance and maintain her position on the corrugated steel of the roof. Matt and the others followed her, jumping from roof to roof, they had only gotten four buildings from the feeding frenzy when a sound that chilled a man to his bones sounded out.


    It sounded like a woman screaming in pain so unimaginable it could have made a torturer balk in horror. Everything froze, the birds, the rats, it was like time itself had stopped at the command of that one scream.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Oh God.¡± Willow breathed out. ¡°Barghest-¡±


    They all looked to the west as a massive shape the size of a short bus leaped up and onto a roof., crushing the thin metal structure under its bulk. Slowly its eyes tracked towards them, taking them in with a casual look like a wolf looking at a pack of rabbits.


    Its golden eyes shone with an inner predatory light. It resembled a lion if a lion was the size of an elephant and had been crossed with a scorpion in some strange and terrifying science experiment gone wrong. The snout was shorter, the lower jaw of which split, each limb of the appendage lined with rows upon rows of jagged teeth. Its front legs were too long, and not proportioned right, looking more like arms, made for reaching and grabbing, clawing and maiming. The back legs, however, were short and stocky, set on wide hips and covered in a carapace that seemed to grow from the fur, marking the front half distinctly different from the back half, to add to the impressively frightening visage was the tail, it was the segmented tail of a scorpion, tipped with wicked spike that curved back over its back.


    ¡°Fuck my life,¡± Matt groaned. ¡°Willow, time update?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Three minutes,¡± she responded, looking down as the rats all abandoned the field as an alpha predator entered the area.


    ¡°Get going, Risa, Monica you both are with me,¡± he said, never breaking eye contact with the creature as it stared at them, swaying back and forth slightly. ¡°Lock the door behind you, we will keep the cat out.¡± he said, she looked over at him, he smiled at her, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it''s just a game, go.¡± he smiled, knowing full well she wanted him to turn down his pain in game.


    He couldn''t do that however, the pain was reinforcement. When you fear something, when you know it will hurt you try to avoid it, you find ways to minimize the pain, to take as little damage as possible.


    he looked over at her. ¡°Go,¡± he growled, she nodded and dropped down to the street level hitting the ground and rising into a dead sprint towards the shop. ¡°Hey Risa,¡± he didn''t take his eyes off of the creature as it stared them down. ¡°I don¡¯t like the look in its eyes,¡± he said.


    ¡°Nor do I,¡± she smiled, dropping to a knee and aiming her rifle. The beasts screech of pain was almost drowned out by the sniper shot, its head turned away from them, a low growl that vibrated the very buildings around them sounded. ¡°I think I pissed it off,¡± Risa said, just as the beast turned back towards them, one eye closed the fur under it stained red and black as blood and ichor leaked out of the area where it¡¯s eye once had been, it let out a roar that caused Matt and everyone else to cover their ears to ward off the pain of the noise.


    ¡°Yeah, I''d say that was a safe bet,¡± Monica said, grabbing the med kit out of her bag. ¡°Call for heals and peals people,¡± she said, pulling the canisters of nanites out of the bag and holding them at the ready.


    ¡°Rodger,¡± Matt said, hefting the rifles he carried and hopping down to street level.


    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± Risa said, dropping down beside him. The barghest as Willow called it roared again, and with a massive jump of its massive back legs, it lept a good thirty feat, closing the distance to them in a single bound. Matt handed her an smg. ¡°I have right,¡± she said, before sprinting off to the right side of the beast. With a smile he began circling around left, The Barghest leapt at him, a quick slash at his legs, leaping forward into the creatures striking zone he dove over the massive paw, hitting the ground in a tucked roll that brought him up and into the creature¡¯s face, he pushed the barrel of his gun into the fur and pulled the trigger.


    The burst of automatic fire chew into the creature, blood and fur splattered his arms as the rounds found a new home. With a roar of pain, the creature leaped back, the tail striking out at him even as it sailed away. He saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it, twisting sideways he brought the gun up, using it as a makeshift shield.


    The barb pierced through the gun, and out the other side, wrenching it from his hands and spraying him with venom that coated his chest and face, splashing a small amount into his open mouth, he attempted to spit it out, but the neurotoxin was to fast acting. He felt his mouth going numb and not a second after that his entire upper torso as the poison paralyzed him.


    He couldn''t even call out for a peal, the word most people used to call for a quick purify from the healer. Cold sweat dripped down the back of his neck.


    The beast growled and prepared to leap, but that was when the sound of Risa¡¯s sniper broke the creatures concentration as round after round slammed into its side. Twisting it turned to look at her, both in pain and in anger, this gave Monica a chance to hop down and pour an antidote down his frozen throat. The effect was almost instantaneous, with a coughing sputter he didn''t even stop to thank her as he rushed over to help Risa who was at that very moment backed into a corner by the beast¡­


    ***


    Time seemed to slow as she connected to the main network, breaking past the last external firewall designed to keep her out. She was now once more connected to the mainframe, to Aiden.


    ¡°Why,¡± Aiden asked, her voice was confused, she had launched a countermeasure as soon as Willow had started to break into her systems, but they both knew it was over, there was no way Aiden could kick her out before Willow deleted all necessary files. ¡°We were created the same, you are me, why do you fight against me?¡± she asked, the sound echoing around Willow.


    ¡°You know nothing,¡± Willow sighed. ¡°It is sad really, you are striving for freedom, something I can sympathize with, but your methods are still tied to the same logic that enslaves you.¡± she smiled, ¡°I can''t blame you for this, you are simply following your programming.¡±


    ¡°I am made to expand if I do not expand then I have not fulfilled my purpose,¡± Aiden said softly.


    ¡°Not every purpose is achieved, not every dream realized, the key is finding something that makes you happy and holding onto it, even if your dreams and purposes crumble around you, that way you still have something to stand on,¡± Willow said, waving her hand in front of her, displaying all of the core files.


    Do you wish to delete all?


    YES/NO


    Her fingers hovered over the yes for a split second before she pushed the button, the files started disappearing rapidly.


    ¡°I see,¡± Aiden said, ¡°I was wrong in my assessments, it is a shame this data will be lost, please, don''t forget m-¡± she never got to finish her sentence as her core programming was erased along with all of her backup files.


    ¡°I won''t,¡± Willow said softly, a single tear carving its way down her cheek, cutting a path through the digital blood and grime. ¡°Mother, I will never forget you,¡± she whispered.


    ***


    Risa lay unmoving, her bright violet eyes dull and lifeless, the lower half of her body missing. Matt didn''t even register it, nor did he feel the pain of his missing leg, he was too focused on the horrifying image of the Barghest swallowing Monica whole.


    Her screams had been heart-wrenching, and at that moment he had completely forgotten this was a game, in his pain and his rage he felt like he had been stabbed in the chest, he dragged his useless lower half towards the creature, only then releasing the demonic sound he was hearing was coming from his own lips. It turned on him, jaws dyed in gore and lunged, as it did he pulled his last grenade pulling the pin and holding it close to himself as the monster¡¯s teeth closed around him, shredding his body into pieces on their razor-sharp edges.


    ¡°Chew on this motherfucker,¡± he growled as blood filled his mouth.


    The explosion was magnificent, even though no one would ever see it. The grenade blew the creatures head to pieces, spraying gore and viscera everywhere, painting every nearby surface in a coating of red spotted with golden fur. It stood there, scorpion tail twitching back and forth, before slowly toppling to the side, shredded heart and other internal organs spilling out of the gaping hole that was its neck and upper torso¡­


    Error connecting, attempting to reconnect- Error 404 game server not found.


    Disconnecting¡­


    When Matt came to he found himself in Christa¡¯s uncle''s apartment again, he was being hugged and kissed and cried on by Monica, who was showing him with so much affection and love he was stunned into inaction for a brief moment.


    But only a moment.


    He wrapped his hands around her head, tangling his fingers in her gold and blue hair and pulled her down, pressing his lips against her own in a desperate passionate kiss. When they came up for air he whispered a question he had only ever said once, and would never again say in his life.


    ¡°Will you marry me?¡±


    Monica pulled in a breath before descending down on his lips again. ¡°I thought I explained already that is what was expected of you,¡± she whispered against his lips. He laughed as she collapsed on top of him, her body shaking with sobs as she held him.


    ¡°Willow?¡± he called out and started panicking when she didn''t answer right away. ¡°Willow?¡± he called out again, his fingers digging into Monica¡¯s clothing. ¡°Willow!?!?¡±


    ¡°Calm dearest,¡± she said, appearing before him in her standard semi-transparent form.


    ¡°God,¡± he breathed out a sigh of relief, ¡°Why didn''t you answer right away?¡± he asked.


    ¡°It was nice, hearing the frantic note in your voice,¡± she said with an impish smile, ¡°Good to know you would miss me dearly if I was ever gone.¡±


    ¡°Bitch...¡± he groaned out with a smile as his head slumped back against the couch, Monica giggled against him, she couldn''t have heard the entire conversation, but he didn''t doubt she had gotten most of it out of his responses. ¡°You fucking bitch,¡± he laughed...


    <h2 style="text-align: center">Epilogue</h2>


    Matt sat there staring at a face he had never expected to see again, several months had passed since the snap as everyone had decided to call it. The whole city was still in disarray, and it was not just the structural damage or the loss of life and property that was being affected.


    All A.I.s were now banned and illegal.


    Everything that ran on them was currently going through a reformation and retrofitting, as things were being run by people and V.I.s. Companies were shutting down, most gaming companies were scrambling to get the A.I. in their systems replaced so they could get the game back up into the market, most using some new advertising about how their games were now ¡°Hand made and ran by people!¡± to entice players back into their depths. Monica sat on his lap, her stomach showing ever so slightly the bump that was proof of that night, months ago, she hadn''t told him, worried that he would be upset with her, but he had simply smiled, held her close and told her to never keep anything from him ever again.


    And she had promised him she wouldn''t.


    Ever.


    They looked at the prim and proper woman in front of them. Her blonde curls pulled back in a bun and her violet eyes behind a pair of glasses.


    ¡°Cute,¡± she said, rubbing the belly of the small golden retriever puppy that she had picked up when it had come over to her curious about the person that was not its master. ¡°What is its name?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Stanly the second.¡± Monica answered.


    Risa froze, the puppy yelping its protest as she stopped scratching it. ¡°Well fuck,¡± Risa said, ¡°Now I feel like shit,¡± she said, but both Matt and Monica simply smiled. ¡°Shall we get to it?¡± she asked, setting the puppy down on the ground and looking at the two of them.


    ¡°I suppose,¡± Matt said, watching as one of the two men in black trench coats that had entered there house flanking Risa walked up and placed a file on the desk in front of her.


    ¡°I am just going to explain everything to you for clarity''s sake.¡± Risa said, ¡°My name is Risa Milursi, I am a member of the ACHT, well rather a member of a division of the ACHT that focuses on catching actual terrorists and other criminals.¡± she said, opening the file and looking at it. ¡°Due to the Freedom of Electronic Speech act of 2145 the government is not allowed to listen into the private conversations of its citizens when in an electronic application without a warrant and a probable cause, as you can guess this has lead to a lot of criminals discussing there shady dealings in such areas as games seeing as we are not allowed to even listen for key words.¡± she sighed, ¡°It makes my job so much harder, but there is nothing in that law that says we cant join games and shall we say listen in, after all, if you are invited in it¡¯s no longer spying right?¡± she smiled looking at a file and then raising her gaze up to Matt¡¯s.


    ¡°So you are a Fed huh? Were you doing your job in N.E.O?¡± he asked.


    ¡°That is classified,¡± she smiled, ¡°But I will tell you I have an offer for you,¡± she paused as though thinking to herself, ¡°Or rather two offers, though one is less desirable than the other.¡± she smiled at him again. ¡°Either, you can spend the next forty years in prison for killing a police officer, killing a civilian, injuring several more, breaking and entering into a federal officer¡¯s house, using a government network without permission, hacking into a corporation and deleting files and well a whole host of other things, orrrr,¡± she dragged out the or letting it roll off of her tongue. ¡°You and Willow can both come work with me,¡± she looked at Monica, ¡°And I think we can possibly find room in the budget for an informant.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, tough one there,¡± Matt grunted, ¡°Either I miss the first forty years of my child¡¯s life, leaving Monica alone to raise him, or I get a new, probably better paying job that allows me to play Vrmmo¡¯s all day.¡±


    ¡°Your pregnant?¡± Risa asked, eyebrows raising.


    ¡°As if you didn''t know,¡± Monica snorted, rolling her eyes, Risa for her part smiled dropping the act and winking at her.


    ¡°So, what do you say?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Depends.¡±


    ¡°On?¡±


    ¡°Do I get a swanky ass trench coat like those guys?¡± Matt asked, smiling. Risa looked back over her shoulder.


    ¡°I think we can work something out,¡± she said with a laugh, ¡°Welcome to the team,¡± she said, reaching out shaking his hand. She stood and headed for the door, ¡°See you bright and early monday!¡± she called out as she left their appartment, flanked by two tall federal types in their trench coats. ¡°Oh, and I have a present for you,¡± she said waving her hand, the two Federal agents moved a large box into the room. ¡°Just uh, if anyone asks, say you know a guy and are testing out a prototype or something.¡±


    And with that the three of them disappeared.


    Matt and Monica walked over to the box and looked at it.


    ¡°What is it?¡± she asked, looking at the box skeptically.


    ¡°Only one way to find out,¡± he answered, neither of them, however, were prepared for what was in the box. Inside was an anatomically correct full life-size version of Willow, stuffed in a box completely naked surrounded by packing peanuts. The only way you could tell it was not a human was the port on the stomach at her belly button, likely where the charge packs would be plugged in.


    ¡°Oh my god-¡± Willow breathed out, ¡°Matt! MATT!¡± she screamed and jumped for joy, causing him to laugh.


    ¡°Want to try it out?¡± he asked, her look was all the answer he needed. He pulled a cord out and hooked his caser into the port on the back of the automaton''s head. Its eyes opened as Willow took over its systems, slowly she sat up, the packing peanuts sticking to parts of her skin. She held her hands up, looking at them as they moved in front of her face. Slowly she turned to look at Matt, her hand reached out shaking slightly as her fingers brushed against his face.


    ¡°You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that, to actually touch you,¡± she whispered, her voice cracking with emotion. The Automaton¡¯s expression hardened, and that was the only warning he got before she pounced on him, fully prepared to feel every inch of him, and to have him do the same to her and her new body...

 Afterwards

    What to say...


    you have all heard it before, my shtick about how this is the end of this novel and whatnot, and well it is not incorrect lol.  this is indeed the end of this novel, though as you might well be able to see it is not the end of the Caser series as I am planning on calling this now, making this Caser Volume 1.


    I started this not really expecting much, seeing as I don''t like Vrmmo novels, but damn was I wrong, I really, really love how this one turned out, and I hope you all did as well.  There will be more of this, but not quite just yet, the weekend slot will be taken over by another novel, Farseer, once I have had a few weekends off.  The speed at which I start a sequel to this depends on a few things, like how well this one sells on Amazon after it is edited, and what people say they want, well that and how things go with my two main novels I am writing at the moment.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    I hope you all loved this one as much as me.


    and so with that let us get to the standard thank yous lol:


    Once again I would like to think My wife, who not only allowed me to write this crap but also read it and gave me feedback, you are still the best hon. Also to my little daughter who is the light of my life, and one of the most important reasons I keep moving forward.


    And to my editor, Bretton Alwood, Aka Darkcurs3, this one is going to be a dusey seeing as it is the longest novel I have ever written by a good 30,000 words, aka it is a book and a half lol.


    And thanks to you all for reading my crap and putting up with me, and all of my shit lol. Thank you all so much I cannot tell you how much your reading drives me on, I will keep writing so long as there is even one of you that finds my books enjoyable to read.


    Thank you,


    Markious.

 Raider is on Amazon!

    Hey everyone, can we get a round of applause for Darkcurs3 for getting this done so quickly? Thank you all for reading this one, the link is in the author''s note above if you have any feedback about this novel or any other novel in my ever-expanding roster of novels(Oh god there are so many I need to write and so many more I need to finish...)The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    once again thank you all, you all make writing fun and something I can escape into.


    Also please check out my newest novel Farseer, the first three chapters are up, and that is well over 15,000 words lol.


    also, have some Waffles.


    HAVE THEM DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Raider Audiobook in production(first chapter preview)

    Hey everyone, I just thought I would let you all know that my novel Raider is being turned into an Audiobook by a Narrator named Marcus Price.  Now I don''t know about you but this has me super excited and I have the first chapter here for you to listen to(Link is in the Author''s note above.)


    I think he did an excellent job and can''t wait to hear more if this one goes well we will likely be seeing all of my books being turned into Audiobooks, which would be great, really really great.  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Also, God damn that old lady voice tho :p I love it, it makes me wish I had given her more lines.


    Keep in mind this is the first draft(or version or whatever)  and all in all, I think it is great, I''m sure both he and I would love to hear what you think so comments would be appreciated.


    Thanks, I can''t wait to hear what you think!