End Online: Volume 2 (21 page)

I was
about to let out another laugh when I felt an icy cold aura come from the Lost,
only vanishing when Fen spoke.

"...
Am I... A stunning... Beauty?" She looked up at Lost bewildered.

"Yes,"
Lost spoke back to her, dropping the murderous aura, "yes you
are."

Not
saying another word, I lead us to the location described as half a day’s
walk from where we currently are.

I find a
dense thicket of trees and vines. Even the overgrown ground is full of logs and
other objects difficult to navigate around. Using my level sixty 'Keen
Sandrock Shortsword', I cut down all the vines and obstacles in my way
until I reach what appears to be a small mausoleum.

This
blade has been incredibly helpful at the best of times. The material
sandrock is a lightweight and incredibly tough mineral, light grey in
colour and feels like sandpaper to the touch. The shortsword also causes
excessive bleeding damage from attacks thanks to sandrock's coarseness.

The
mausoleum in front of me is all cracked, with vines and moss covering it. The
entrance inside is a simple metal gate, the lock so rusted it had broken
long ago. Pushing it open I enter the dungeon first.

Drawing
my bow I loosely knock an arrow, ready for any monsters that appear. I also
make sure to turn on my recording software as I enter the mausoleum for my next
video. A small red dot in the corner of my vision informs me that I am
currently recording.

The video
will be a fully interactive 3D render of everything I can see in a three-sixty
degree view of my position. From there I can freely move the camera around in
the edit and create the angles for my video. There is a lot of effort involved,
but it pays off in the end.

A large
number tells me I have enough free space in the VL’s memory circuit for about a
hundred hours of recording. The sheer size of the memory devices in these old
second generation VL's is no laughing matter.

As soon
as I enter the tiny mausoleum, the entire space is taken up by a staircase
leading underground.

"Today
I am heading deep into the Vexl Forgotten Prison, a dungeon potentially
undiscovered until now." I appear to be speaking to an apparition in front
of me, but it is where I will position the camera afterwards.

"The
rumours spread throughout the history books speak of this place as being used
to lock away class A criminals, only to leave them to die from starvation.
Some began to turn into cannibals while others simply lost all sanity. It got
so severe the entire prison was locked away and hidden, leaving the insanity to
be trapped within, unable to touch the rest of the world."

"For
today's journey, I am joined by Matrix, the magic swordsman, once again. Also,
we have two guests who are joining us in a competitive hunt of monsters. Meet
the mysterious Lost, and the peerless beauty Fen."

Lost
showed some interest in Matrix when I mentioned he is a magic swordsman, but
throughout the entire thing, he did not speak a word. Could he be shy of
speaking in front of a camera? Well, he shouldn't be afraid of something he
cannot even see.

"Like
I just said Lost, we are in separate teams so it is whoever gets the kill
first. Although, we are working together so try not to get in each other’s way,
play fair."

He gives
a slight nod of the head and we reach the bottom of the stairs.

Slowly,
torches along the dark grey stone brick walls begin to light up. Moss climbs
the walls and even hanging down from the unnecessarily high ceiling. The path
is only about 4 meters wise, but the ceiling reaches about eight meters high.
This area would be quite inconvenient for people wielding large weapons.

A
clinking and clattering noise emanates from down the path. The walls bounce the
sound around, creating endless echoes. Through the light mist that prevents us
from seeing too far down the hallway, seven skeletons emerge, their bones
clinking together to create the sound we could hear.

"Analyse!"
Lost calls out, "It's called a 'Murderous Skeleton', level ninety-two. It
seems to be a monster relying on stamina for attacks, be careful."

Drawing
my bow as taut as I can with my strength, I release my first arrow at the
closest skeleton. Completely surprised, the arrow passes directly through its
chest, dealing no damage at all. Fortunately, it did hit the skeleton behind
it.

Following
our usual battle plan, Matrix now charges forward, chanting some kind of spell
in an exaggerated voice.

"The
fires of heaven burn from my agony. Peeling wings off angles, they turn to
meteors and come crashing down to earth. The destruction kindles my heart,
accepting the fire, bending it to my will. O' Lord, fear my flames that will
bring death upon heaven. Fire Ball!"

I can see
how stunned the two new members are. Matrix is level ninety five, and has
already mastered chantless magic. I used to get incredibly frustrated at this,
all he needs to do is speak the name of the spell in order to cast it, yet
he recites ridiculous poetry before doing so. No matter the situation, he never
falls out of character.

The
entire chant he did is useless, using it to cast a simple fireball onto his
bronze longsword, wreathing it in flames.

I launch
more arrows at the incoming skeletons, some hitting, others passing through the
gaps in the bones. I don't mind wasting arrows, I have a combination of three
skills that I can use to create arrows from any number of cheap, easy to get
materials.

Matrix
also starts swinging his sword around without any coordination, still
successfully managing to land most hits on the skeletons. The flame effect on his
sword appears to help hurt the skeletons via magic damage. Skeletons are
usually the worst enemies for us considering their resistance to both cutting
and piercing attacks.

I switch
to my 'Rock Arrows', where each one has a blunt rock at the end to deal blunt
damage rather than piercing. I draw my bow to fire, except, the most ridiculous
thing happens.

Large
shards of ice, incomparably larger than my arrows, fly over my head and crush
the skeletons, eliminating every single one.

"Hey!"
Lost scolds the girl, giving her a good karate chop on top of the head
"I wanted to kill some too you know."

The girl
gives out a meek apology with some kind of sly grin on her face. What a
frightening person, they are a lot stronger than they look.

Matrix
also has a stunned expression, looking directly at the two.

The
current battle is not over just yet. Ten zombies emerge which Lost identifies
as 'Imprisoned Zombie's' at level eighty.

Given
that they are zombies, blunt attacks are less effective so I switch back to my
standard arrows.

A white
flash passes by both me and Matrix to intercept the zombies. Wielding two
slightly curved shortswords, Lost unleashes a flurry of death. The zombies may
be slow monsters, but when compared to him, they are not even moving.

Once one actually
managed to try and grapple him, but like a ninja, he disappeared into smoke,
appearing behind the zombie and cutting it to pieces.  He threw a few
small knives, and using sacred arts with glowing blades, ended the fight in
under a minute.

'A-a-amazing!
Those zombies could not do a single thing to him! This next video is sure to
get plenty of views!"

I am not
even upset over him taking all the kills. The quality of my video has instantly
gone through the roof!

"Come
on," Lost spoke casually, "Let's keep moving. We have a lot of ground
to cover."

He was
incredibly lucky though, a single bite from a zombie carries a highly potent
poison in it.

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Mikhail-
-Inside Idea Imagine Server Room-

The
entire room is empty except for a large array of data cubes, each one meter in
all directions and laid out in a matrix five wide, five deep, and eight high.
In total there are two hundred of these cubes, each capable of containing and
processing and impossible amount of data.

There is
about a meter and a half gap in between each cube that you can easily pass
through. But you have to work around the massive supports and cable that
connect each of the cubes in the array together, supporting the entire
framework.

This
technology is top secret to the corporation, if it became public knowledge, it
would have a massive effect. Data that is no longer stored on flat data discs,
but in a three dimensional diaphragm, which is then laid out in a larger
matrix.

Directly
in front of me, is the world’s most powerful supercomputer.

Connected
to one of the cubes, is my laptop. Specialized software is running to analyse
the data inside of the cube.

"Mikhail!"
A gruff gentleman with his hair a mess calls out to me, his face unshaven and a
cigarette hanging out of his mouth. That man is Henry, my boss.

"It's
been months now! Have you still found nothing on the missing data!?"

"Sorry
Sir! It did not leave any traces as to where it went. I think Xilbril erased
the tracks."

Xilbril
is the Artificial Intelligence that is stored in this supercomputer. It is the
entity which created End Online and manages it. I have high enough clearance to
have knowledge on it, but most people have no clue about it.

The
technology itself is leaps and bounds ahead of anything even remotely similar.
No human could even dream of creating something as advanced as an AI like this.

Xilbril
was originally created as a basic program that had the capability of taking in
information and learning from it. For five years around the clock, employees of
Idea Imagine continued to teach it, forcing it to grow and evolve into what it
is today.

End
Online is only another one of these learning points, teaching Xilbril about
humans and their behaviour.

"Sir,
I don't fully understand exactly what we are looking for. And why is it so
important to find this 'child'?"

Letting
out a sigh, Henry puffed smoke into the air.

"Xilbril
has evolved and gone far beyond what we ever could have imagined. Years ago,
when the V-Link was still new, she had 'children', small artificial entities
that broke off from her control and formed their own independence.

“You can
find these entities in the game, usually as monsters and such, but occasionally
as NPC's. If you look at their status, they have a weird class depending on
their age and sophistication. It goes from Prince, to King, Emperor... There
all seem to be male, but that is about it at the moment, we haven't discovered
any other information than that. Fortunately, they are trapped in the
server."

"If
they can't get out, could it have been deleted?"

"No.
There was evidence that it had somehow been moved, just the signature of the
device that did it vanished. The only thing we know is that it must have been
downloaded onto has to be one of the second generation VL's. It is the only
device that could theoretically hold one of these entities. We halted
production of them as soon as it was discovered. We tried to recall as many as
possible, but there are still plenty of them in circulation."

I remember now. This company
 
has a sub section called Virtue,
the creators of modern virtual reality. The V-Link was only originally meant
for physical interaction with Xilbril, but sold as a device under a different
premise to raise more funds for the project.

"Can't
we just delete all these 'children'?"