“How’s the new body working out?” Illume asked.
He walked into a private room set up for him and Nari. The room was located inside a research and development facility they’d been working in.
“Fantastic!” Nari replied, sitting on their bed as she inspected her hand. “This new nanotube muscle fiber is very impressive; it’s increased my strength by almost twenty percent.”
“That’s good to hear,” Illume replied as he sat on their hard bed next to her. “Apparently, they’re working with some new tech that’ll give me a semblance of cryomancy out here in the real world.”
Nari raised an eyebrow. She cracked a smile and shook her head.
“I think you may be a little too attached to Valka,” she replied. “It’s been sixty years; don’t you think it’s time to let go?”
A groan of metal warping rang through the hallways as a sparking hammer flew past their open door. Illume reached up and gave Nari’s elf ears a little tap.
“Yeah, I’m the one who needs to let go,” he mused.
Nari reached up and touched her ears. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
“I know we were in the game for decades; out here, it was what, a year, maybe two?” she said, looking up at him. “But being out here and in bodies that literally can’t age; that’s something altogether different.”
Illume nodded. He cleared his throat as he ran his hand over his face.
“You’re not wrong. It’s surreal seeing my brother’s grandkids be my age now,” he replied. “At least we’ve found our niche that’s helping humanity advance beyond what was projected.”
“One of the many perks about being the new and dangerous homocyborous,” Nari replied with a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
“It’s better than the first name the news came up with for us.” Illume chuckled. “What was it, homotechno? Like we’re some kind of living club music.”
“It was homotechnician,” Nari corrected.
“Right, because Ingrid kept making the joke we’d install their TVs,” Illume added.
The groan of metal filled the air again. Ingrid flew into the doorway, her hammer in hand. As she landed, a bright smile spread across her face. Her white lab clothes were tainted by dust and dirt.
“Guys, this new hammer is amazing!” she exclaimed. “They worked out a way to actually let it pull me like back home.”
Illume looked at Nari and raised his eyebrows.
“Because I need to move on,” he mused.
Nari’s pupils flickered from black to red as her spine straightened. Her expression went blank as if someone shut off the power to her body. A split second later, she returned to normal, a frown spreading over her features as she stood up.
“Something’s wrong,” she muttered.
“What just happened?” Illume asked, standing as well.
“Someone just activated the beacon.”
“What beacon?” Ingrid asked.
“I left my coding book back in Valka just in case something happened. If we were needed, they’d just have to touch it and it’d send a message to me,” Nari explained as she headed to the door, pushing past Ingrid and looking back in the room. “Someone just touched it.”
Nari started down the hallway, Ingrid followed, leaving Illume alone in the room.
“Oh yeah, I’m the one that needs to let go, little miss. I’m still tethered directly into the game,” Illume huffed to himself, throwing his hands up before realizing he’d been left behind. “Ah crap!”
Jogging out of his room, he followed Nari and Ingrid, who were already almost a hundred yards ahead of him. With a sigh, he planted his feet, overclocking his internal systems. He sprinted after them. Before he could blink, he’d caught up to both women.
Nari turned right into the lab they used to upload their consciousness into training programs. The same one they’d used to pull all three out of the game so many decades ago. Illume tried to stop, still getting used to his new upgrades. He slid, fell on his side and skidded past the open door Nari and Ingrid entered.
Sparks flew as he came to a stop. Everyone in the room looked at him through the glass wall. Artificial heat filled his cheeks as he gave a bashful smile and wave. Pushing off the ground, he straightened out his plain white long-sleeved shirt and pants before walking into the room.
“You good?” Nari asked.
“Peachy,” Illume replied.
“Clumsy much?” Ingrid teased.
Illume stuck his tongue out at her.
“Wow, that’s mature,” the hammer wielder countered.
“Is everything okay with your operating systems?” one of the technicians asked.
“Just reacclimating to the upgrades,” Illume said with a raised hand.
“I just got an SOS from Valka,” Nari said.
“The game?” the technician asked.
“Yes, the game. We need to be uploaded.”
“I’m not authorized to upload you into Valka. Besides, it’s just a game,” the tech countered.
Ingrid spun her hammer. Having garnered a reputation for giving people a nasty, yet harmless shock if they upset her caused the technician to turn to his console. He logged into the game’s coding and ran a diagnostic. In two minutes, it came back clean.
“See, there’s nothing going on in the game. Everything’s running correctly.”
“Then it wouldn’t hurt to upload us. With time dilation, we’ll be in there for ten minutes. We’ll be able to make sure everything’s fine and be out before anyone knows better,” Nari negotiated.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I’d have to run it up the chain of command. That could take a while,” the technician replied.
“And by that time, my home could be destroyed,” Ingrid added.
Illume pushed past Ingrid. He sidestepped Nari and approached the technician. Glancing up at the newest server the game had been transferred to, he pointed at it.
“Every single NPC in that server has gained true artificial intelligence, just like Ingrid over here,” Illume said with a raised eyebrow. “The study of them is what allows this facility to keep ahead of the competition and create the most cutting-edge technology. So, if this little startup of Veles Industries wants to keep its most valuable resource, its employees better let the only people who can jump from this world to that world get in there and figure out what’s really going on so that we can fix it.”
The technician fell silent, as did everyone else in the room, their eyes locked on to the battle of wills. Illume frowned and nodded.
“If there’s nothing wrong, we’re back out, we take the heat, nothing comes down on your head. You don’t upload us, there is something wrong your systems can’t detect, the server goes down and the fan that so often gets hit, gets hit… we’re just going to sit back, relax and watch as you get fired so fast, it’ll make the Flash look slow,” Illume added.
The technician closed his eyes. He shook his head and sighed.
“Prep the pods for upload,” he relented.
“There’s a good boy,” Illume mused.
The other technicians moved around three human-sized pods with a glass dome. They interacted with the individual control panels on each pod. As Illume turned back to face Nari and Ingrid, they both smiled widely. The elf extended a hand toward him. He took it, and she gave a gentle squeeze as she mouthed thank you. Illume nodded. The pod lids opened with a hiss.
“Upload is primed and ready for subjects,” another tech announced.
“Subjects?” Ingrid asked. “I’m a person, you know, more than just a piece of meat.”
“Stop torturing them,” Illume cut in. “And you’re more a standing pile of component metallic and ceramic parts; there’s no meat on your bones.”
The technician pointed at Illume.
“He’s right,” he stammered in the hammer wielder’s presence.
“Would you three just get in the pods already?” the first technician asked, frustration trimming his tone.
Illume approached his pod. Climbing in, he lay down.
“I’d like to politely ask that no one mess with the coding while we’re in there this time,” he said as he fidgeted into a comfortable position. “Last time, activating big head mode really terrified the inhabitants.”
“That was actually really funny.” Nari chuckled.
“You don’t know what it feels like, so you don’t get to weigh in,” Illume countered.
The pods closed around them, sealing as a magnetic pull sank him further into the device. Closing his eyes, he felt his consciousness be pulled from his body like going down a water slide. Everything shifted to black as he traveled through the cables and into the server.
Opening his eyes, he found himself standing in a stark white room. Nari and Ingrid materialized next to him from fractals of light. All three were still in their usual garb. Nari now sported the scar across the side of her head with the top of one of her ears missing. Illume reached up to feel his features; his scar had returned as well.
“What are you going to need before we finish the upload?” the annoyed voice of the technician asked.
Illume looked at the void around them.
“Guns,” he said in his best Keanu Reeves impression. “Lots of guns.”
“This is a fantasy game; guns aren’t part of the program,” the tech countered.
“You need to watch more movies!” Illume shouted back.
“We left all our equipment behind when we were pulled out of the game last,” Nari replied. “We’d just need baseline clothes.”
“Copy that, loading in pre-rendered baseline garments.”
Fractals of light danced around them. Illume shook his head in disappointment as they formed into four racks of clothing, two for women, two for men.
“Why can’t they have Costco-sized rows just woosh in with a comically large number of items?” Illume asked as he approached one of the racks. “That’s a lot more dynamic than this rinky-dink setup.”
“Hey, I coded this setup,” Nari countered, shooting him a glance.
“I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m just saying it’s not very theatrical,” Illume replied.
“I think he’s saying it’s bad,” Ingrid chimed in. “Actually, I think he’s saying it’s terrible.”
“Would you put down the stick and stop stirring?” Illume asked as he flipped through the clothes.
Level 1 Forging Garp
+1 to all forged items
“Eh,” Illume huffed to himself before moving on.
Level 1 Farming Garp
+1 to all sewn and reaped crops
“This ain’t a boring farming simulator,” he added.
Level 1 Mason Garb
+1 to all stone-based work
“Not sure they have the ganja in Valka.”
Level 1 Hunter’s Garb
+1 to quality of all hunted animals
As Illume moved to the second rack, he heard a clearing of two throats behind him. Turning, he saw Nari in a forger’s outfit and Ingrid in hunter’s clothing.
“Will you just pick one?” Ingrid asked.
“I’m planning for min-maxing my stats,” Illume replied.
“You’re worse than a girl. Your stats are already pretty much maxed out, even the ones you don’t use,” Nari chimed in, motioning to the clothing. “Would you just pick one?”
“Pretty much, but not maxed out yet. There’s always room for improvement,” he said.
“Gamers,” Nari huffed with a shake of her head.
“I don’t think you get to complain. You’re the one who actively chooses to sleep with him,” Ingrid cut in.
Illume motioned at the Scandinavian and nodded before turning back to the clothes. Refusing to be pressured, he continued to look over the outfits. Eventually, he stopped at the last one.
Warrior’s Garb
+1 to all non-magical attacks
“And here we go,” Illume said, pulling it off the rack. As he did, a familiar option appeared in the air in front of him.
Would you like to equip this item?
YES/NO
He looked at YES for a few seconds. It blinked before the question disappeared. As it did, the clothing appeared on him like magic.
“About freaking time,” Nari teased.
“Now you know how I feel when you take me to the mall,” Illume countered.
“Buurrrrnnnn,” Ingrid whispered.
“Coming from the one who spent a literal full week in a department store not that long ago?” Nari asked.
“Cut me some slack. It was the first time I’d ever seen anything like it,” Ingrid replied.
“And the fact that you managed to evade the night guards for that long was just impressive,” Illume added.
“Can we cut the chitchat and upload you into Valka already?” the annoyed technician asked. “I’d rather not risk my job any longer than I have to.”
“Keep it in your pants,” Illume replied.
“By the gods, please do,” Ingrid mumbled.
“Yes… We’re equipped, upload us into the Cryo’s Quarry HUB,” Nari replied.
“Copy that… hold on to your butts,” the tech said.
“There we go!” Illume shouted. “That’s a good one!”
The clothing racks shattered into millions of pieces and swirled around them. Gradually, the room started to break away and join the vortex. A void was revealed between upload and server. Illume, Nari and Ingrid approached each other. Standing in a circle, they faced one another as the world swirled even more violently around them while they were untouched.
“I always hate this part,” Illume said.
“You’re not the only one,” Ingrid added.
“Initiating upload,” the technician said before his voice cut out.
The fractals turned into a tunnel around them. They moved as if the group was travelling downward. There was no wind or sensation of motion physically acting on Illume. A queasiness overtook his stomach as his mind tried to reconcile the sight of movement with its physical absence.
The storm around them stopped moving as sounds of glass shattering in reverse filled the air. The tunnel expanded outward, taking the form of pillars in a marble room. Statues of Nari, Ingrid and himself filled in shape as a pedestal emerged from the ground in front of them with the coding book on it.
One by one, people in vampiric armor appeared in the rooms outer edges followed by Cordillia, Corizon and Urtan, standing side by side between them and the doorway. As the last of the pieces fell into place, the NPCs started to move.
“It’s good to be back,” Illume whispered.
“FROSTY MAN!” Urtan shouted.
“Urtan, Corizon!” Illume said, breaking the circle. Ingrid staggered back from motion sickness. “How are you doing, my friends?”
Nari grabbed her book and tucked it under her arm.
“Not good,” the pirate said as he approached the Cryomancer. “That’s why we called you.”
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