Total Immersion: Dark World: A LitRPG Adventure Page 3

  “What’s your name? How long have you been playing?”

  And on it goes.

  I’m not feeling it. Didn’t they listen to my story? I let a helpless Nuudle get jumped and took out The Seeker with my big move after Fangs already had him down in HP. Looted, saved by a blessing, warped. It’s not glamorous, but everyone is acting like it is.

  Silvia puts her Love Lily on. It makes her long, blonde waves push back behind her pointed elf ear, and she’s friggin’ adorable.

  “I’m beat, guys,” I say suddenly. Too many people asking the same questions. I want the strangers to go away. I know it would be different if I’d gotten him with pure skill, and it bothers me. I want to get out of Elora and take a nap. “Everyone get screenshots of the bags?”

  They had.

  “Let me know what you guys want, and what the guild wants. I need to sleep for a while.”

  “I understand,” says Silvia.

  Does she? I wonder.

  “Thanks for all your support. You guys are the best,” I tell them, then log out in Lucille’s. The game visuals and audio blip off, and I remove the headband, putting it on top of my keyboard. I rub my eyes.

  My apartment is a mess. I need to clean. I’ve been thinking that for four months, but I always get on Elora Online instead.

  I go to bed and get in dirty sheets. It’s around eleven in the morning. It doesn’t matter. I don’t have a real schedule because I don’t have that high-paying computer programming job anymore. Hated it anyway, but I’d saved, and three years ago I decided I only wanted to play Elora. It is as simple as that.

  I feel myself drifting into a sweet slumber, much needed. All that built-up stress from waiting, planning, and then finally executing what was supposed to be the hardest self-given quest in game eased out of me, and I thought of Silvia with the Love Lily in her hair. I wonder what she really looks like. If I’ll ever get the chance to know. What would she think of my looks? Just saying. I’m not bad, but I’m not Mr. Wonderful. I’m twenty-seven, haven’t worked in three years, and can hardly keep myself bathed and my fridge stocked. What woman in her right mind would…? Then again, she’s been playing Elora Online as long as I have, when the price dropped to get new gamers in. I’d always had the money for it, but Peter, or rather Jacob, really wanted to, and he wanted me to do it with him. I had no idea I’d get so involved.

  And I love it.

  ~

  I sleep for a lifetime, and wake up after dark. I feel better about destroying The Seeker, no matter how it was done. It needed to be, and maybe that was the only way it could have been executed.

  I actually did it.

  I take a hot shower and change into a pair of sweatpants and a tee I’ve only worn a couple times. Then I’m in my gaming recliner, hooking up my headset. It sends its electronic impulses to my temples, where it engages my frontal lobe and puts me in Elora Online. I watch Ananta destroy Elora for the fifty thousandth time. Never gets old. That summon is a badass. I yet again wonder why I never see Mystics in random dungeon runs. Or anywhere, really. Seems like I saw one when I started playing, but not sure. Legend and memory get mixed up after so long.

  Next, I’m in Lucille’s sitting in the booth. Some players I don’t know are at the booth and look shocked that I appeared there. Yeah, it is a weird place to log out, sitting in a popular watering hole’s booth. Every gamer knows you don’t do that.

  “Sorry, sorry,” I say. “I was tired and logged here.” I get up and turn.

  “Wait!” the blue Mylop at the table calls to me.

  I look back at him. “Yeah?”

  “Are you… the Sid Vicious?” he asks. By his gear, I can tell he’s a bard. Mylop Bard, go figure.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  Another in the group, a Siren who’s actually a girl, says, “It is you! I saw the statue!”

  “What statue?” I’m so confused.

  “I put daisies at the base,” she continues. “The Seeker took out my husband over a year ago and he wouldn’t play again for six months. Thank you so much. You have no idea. I can’t wait to tell him I actually met you.”

  “Oh, uh, thanks.” I smile, not sure how these players I don’t know have heard about the fight. And what statue? They keep staring and grinning, and I feel uncomfortable, so I bow, thinking it feels appropriate, and run out of the brewery. I get on guild chat to see if any of my buddies are on.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I say.

  It seems like all of their voices speak at once when they hear me. It’s a garbled mess. I get a text chat from Koolio. “Meet me in Luminar at the Kila Crystal. ASAP.” I turn off the chaos of guild chat.

  I get to Cashmere’s Kila Crystal, seeing other players wave and smile at me. A few thank yous in the air. Am I famous?

  I access the Kila Crystal’s menu of other Kila Crystals I can get to, and choose Luminar, the capital city of Siren Territory. I eat a Breathing Berry so I can breathe underwater for an hour and use the Kila Crystal’s teleportation system.

  White screen with gold-and-silver sparkles, and then I’m in Luminar. I’ve always loved this place. Everything has a sea-blue, almost aqua hue to it. The city is built in a spiral winding upward from the Kila Crystal. The path is made of pebbled sand and shells. The structures are giant seashells, seaweed bundles hiding buildings, sunken items from centuries ago that Sirens transformed into living spaces.

  I see bubbles coming out of my mouth as I look at the ancient-ruins of Siren Territory. Sirens aren’t born; they “become” from the Caves of Eternity in the territory, which is why they’re all female. They are the only race that can breathe under water all the time.

  The Caves of Eternity are also filled with end-game dungeons, but oddly, it’s where you spawn when you enter the game for the first time if you choose to be a Siren.

  “Over here.”

  I swim to the other side of the crystal. Koolio Koolaide swims in place before me, flippers flipping. His green hair floats out all around him. He’s a beauty, but he’s a dude. Gotta remember that sometimes, but when he opens his mouth, it’s easy.

  “We have to talk,” he says. “Ever since you logged out, everybody’s been talking about what you did. It went server-wide. Every player in this game knows your name. No, listen. They built you a shrine in the Player Hall of Fame.”

  I’m stunned. “They did what? Who? How could anyone afford it?”

  “They had a three-hour fundraiser and I’m betting everyone but The Seeker paid tribute to have it built. That guy has screwed up a lot of people’s gaming. I wanted to get to you first. Tell you.”

  “Why?” I plant my feet on the sand and glittering seashells.

  Koolio shakes his head, hair floating everywhere. “I heard how you told the story today. I saw the look on your face. You wanted a big victory battle story that showed off your skills as a player, didn’t you?”

  I look down.

  “Yeah. I wanted to get to you first with all this blowing up to talk sense into you. It doesn’t matter how it was done. Someone almost as bad as the historic Dragonbane Bane was taken out by you today. You did that. Come on. Don’t you see what that means to all these people? Take some pride. Enjoy this. I’m telling you to enjoy all of this. Even if you didn’t get your epic battle, you did an epic thing. Remember the look on that Nuudle’s face when you told him he could have his stuff back?”

  I pause. “Yeah.”

  “Can you imagine if that had been you eleven months ago? You’d think whoever did it was your savior. He’s the one that got the fundraiser going. The statue was up within fifteen minutes of the fundraiser being over. And man, they must’ve made a fortune because wait til you see it. In the Player Hall of Fame.”

  “Oh, wow. Just… wow.” I have no words. I’m dying to see this. It must be the statue the Siren in the brewery mentioned.

  “Yes, wow. That’s what I want to hear. That’s how you should be feeling. Now, come on. Let’s go see your shrine. Get back on
guild chat and we’ll invite the whole guild. It’s like everybody who plays Elora is online right now because of this. I think it’s the biggest thing that’s ever happened since the game went live in 2020.”

  “I don’t want to get in guild chat. It’s… overwhelming right now.”

  “Okay, okay. Who do you want to be there when you go? And you’re going right now.”

  I think about it. I don’t know. “The usuals, I guess. And Silvia.”

  “Well, of course Silvia.” He actually winks at me, looking like a true siren from Greek mythology. “I’ll message them. Give me a min.”

  His face goes into automode while he accesses menus. The way the game interface works is that you look at different areas of the virtual interface to make things happen. It’s weird at first, but you get used to it fast. You don’t even notice if someone is accessing menus or making notes because the game is smooth at covering up the RL eye motions. If you’re going to lower your vision setting to see RL or you’re going to be doing a lot of things, like Koolio is now, your face does the automode. Still animated and blinking and breathing, but no real expression on his face.

  “Alright, they are on their way. We’ve been waiting and waiting for you to come back.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Hell, yeah. Now, let’s use the Kila to get to Sheala.”

  Sheala is the other capital of White Elf Territory and holds the Player Hall of Fame at the top of an Elven tower on a cliff overlooking the Marana Sea.

  “Alright.” I’m excited. Really excited. I’m glad Koolio got to me first. He has a way of making things right, good.

  We warp through the Kila Crystal to Sheala. This Elven city is enormous. Lots of white marble and wildflower-lined walkways. The path we take up to the Player Hall of Fame is a wide, white marble spiraling path upward around a tower. Round and round we go. My anticipation grows the closer we get, and then we’re at the top. The ceiling is domed and painted with a mystical mural of Elven artistry. Huge marble columns hold it all together.

  I peer inside, wondering where my statue is, what it looks like. What it says.

  “Sid!” I turn to my right. Silvia runs up to me, still wearing her lily. I hope she never takes it off. “Thanks for inviting me. I can imagine how overwhelming all this is to log in to. The story is everywhere, spread to every message board and chat room and guild chat in game within an hour.”

  “Damn,” I say.

  “Good Deeds, Raging, Peter, and Nottingham are already looking at the shrine, waiting for you. They’ve been here since it was erected. It’s so funny. Peter keeps telling all the visitors leaving gifts that you two are best friends. He’s so proud of you.”

  “We are best friends. He’s trying to make me look good.”

  “That’s what good best friends do.” She grins and takes my hand, the one now wearing my old knuckles. “Let’s go!” She pulls me into the shrine. I glance back at Koolio. He’s smirking and nodding, arms folded like he knows all about it.

  He probably does.

  There are lots of shrines in the Player Hall of Fame. I’ve been here a bunch of times to read the stories of what these players did. The statues are gold, and can be as small as the player himself, or as large as three times the size of the player. Elora has been online for fifteen years, and I used to like to come here and wonder about its beginnings, who these first epic players were so long ago to be made the first of the Player Hall of Fame. The stories were great, but I didn’t know a lot of what they referred to, especially if it involved other players.

  “This way,” Silvia calls back to me, glancing at me with a grin, tugging me along.

  I toe the edge of the magic circle in front of the entrance. It’s like a mirror, but your hand or foot passes through it. Sometimes players jump in it, and they hover at mid-waist, saying they feel like they’re in space. The inscription circling above it reads, “A Link to the Past.” It’s a homage to Zelda and just a cool thing that makes you more excited to go inside. You’re about to see history, a link to the past, inside. Stupid, I know, but I’m feeling pretty high.

  The three of us go through a few halls of shrines, moonlight shining in from the open archways of the marble tower, glinting on the golden figures, making them gods.

  We get to a large room on the western-most side, and Silvia leads me to the farthest arch overlooking the water.

  That can’t be… no. That can’t be my shrine. I see ahead of me just the one, and it’s enormous. Easily the biggest in the Hall of Fame. It reaches all the way to the painted, domed ceiling. Once upon it, I can’t even acknowledge my friends congratulating me, nor the other players giving blessed flowers and other offerings to the shrine.

  I see me, standing five times bigger than I am in game, with the pose I make just as I use Going Feral. But there’s another figure. It’s The Seeker, and he’s face down on the ground before my figure, tail high in the air. He’s only regular player-sized. Fangs isn’t in the shrine. I move through the crowd to read the shrine’s inscription, done on a golden block.

  It tells the story exactly how it happened, but it demonizes The Seeker—and, well, he was a demon—and makes me a hero. A goddamn savior and legend.

  The players in the crowded hall of my shrine recognize me soon enough. They thank me, tell me their personal stories of what The Seeker had done to them or someone they cared about. I am so brave, they say. I am so determined, they say. What a good heart I must have, they say.

  I have to admit, in those moments, my attitude changes. I did do something good. Yes, I did. I mean, look at the shrine! For all of time while Elora Online is online, players throughout gameplay will see this and I won’t be forgotten.

  I have a nagging doubt I don’t want to think about, but I’m not one to shy away from facing truths. The Seeker won’t let this go.

  He’ll do something. I’ll have to start tracking him on message boards and through hearsay again, just to be ready… in case. Who knows what he has saved in his vaults in his hidden mansions?

  I think, though, that I can beat him in a real, fair match. That’s the truth. Otherwise, I never would have even considered my revenge mission.

  CHAPTER 4: GAME OVER

  My new attitude on my kill feels good, and I do keep a check on rumors of The Seeker, read message boards, check with players in-the-know about these sorts of things. The Seeker hasn’t been seen or heard from since the defeat.

  It makes me uneasy, but at the same time, I’m having too much fun. I’m so rich it’s stupid. Whatever the guild and friends couldn’t use, I put on the AH and made forty billion. I have a mansion in every territory with stat boosters on tap in every one for my friends and guildies to use.

  I play with the best dungeon runners in game now, and bring along my buddies who want to come. Silvia is a great dungeon healer, selfless to a fault sometimes from healing everybody before herself to keep from getting hate, and often runs them with me.

  Nothing new has happened there. You know what I mean. We hang out a lot and did have a nice time talking at the Sheala Shipwreck in Siren Territory a week after the big fight. She opened up to me, telling me that her older sister used to play Elora Online with her when the game first launched fifteen years ago, but committed suicide while in game soon after starting to play, leaving a cryptic note. She’d taken a bunch of prescription sleeping pills, logged in, and just did it. Silvia said she herself had been fifteen at the time.

  Her voice had cracked as she talked about it, and I had put my arm around her shoulders even though she couldn’t feel it. Just was natural. In RL, she’s just a few years older than me. I never knew that.

  I can’t imagine what that must have been like for her. I wonder if she keeps playing Elora Online as a way to somehow feel close to her sister. She had said to me twice they were like twins, even had a secret language being one year apart, as she spilled her most personal feelings about it. I was surprised she felt comfortable enough to talk so openly about it wit
h me. I didn’t know what to do, but I don’t think she wanted me to do anything but listen and understand, which I did and try my best to do. Since then, Silvia has been on my mind more than ever.

  Back to the meat. Now I have incredible gear. My STR is 413 from the help I get with missions and quests to boost the stat. I have items that enhance all my moves, and the confidence in fights to be a wicked force of destruction. I do serious damage. Like I always wanted.

  I’ll keep this short, because I still don’t understand what happened to me. I was happy, I was a beloved player. I gave gifts to everyone. I played the AH like Nottingham taught me now that I had money. Made more money. Loved being a Maniac more than ever. Built another mansion in the black volcanos of Dragonbane Territory. And Silvia and I worked great together. It was a slow build, but there was magic.

  It was all so good for a few months. So very good.

  Then it happened. The thing I’m still trying to understand.

  I’m in my gaming recliner playing late one night, running Kakalanee, an end-game dungeon in Dragonbane Territory. With Silvia, no less. I’m on fire. I destroy everything. I save other players. I own this game.

  In RL, late this night, I have a physical sensation. Like I said before, there are no physical sensations in Elora Online. I feel something cold press against my forehead. I reach up out of instinct, not even adjusting my visual, but before my fingers can touch whatever is on my forehead, I hear a booming sound so loud my eardrums must be bleeding, and at the same time feel incredible pain in my head… and then Kakalanee Dungeon goes away, fades to black.

  The pain leaves. Stops abruptly.

  Blackness, just blackness is all I can see. It’s all I can hear, too, if that makes sense. My interface is gone.

  Then, in the distance, glowing red. It comes closer until I make out letters, and finally, they are close enough to read. Red letters on never-ending black. “Game Over.” They get so close that they fill my vision. I swear I can taste them, feel their shapes, have empathy for their color. Blood red, glowing. Game Over.