Chapter
1 – A Sequel in a Different Genre
It takes me a while, but I let go
of Allen and hand him over to a technician team within the game. They’re supposed
to be the ones who protect the game from hackers, but what’s happening is from
within the game and from someone that can access the game’s system with proper clearance.
At least that’s what they tell me. It’s weird that some of the people who work
on the game genuinely don’t know what’s going on and currently don’t have a way
to get us out of the game. This makes no sense to me.
“Kaylen, I think we should go sit
down, and start cooling off.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing for
the past ten minutes, Kerano!”
Angel hugs me and doesn’t say anything,
but I know what she’s saying.
“Alright. Let’s sit down somewhere
so I can clear my head.”
We go to one of the many shiny bars
in the city run by humans. The game has its own shopkeepers, but they encourage
other people to start their own businesses, which was a mistake for the AI
since the creativity and efforts of people overtook the businesses of the AI.
This was possible because the AI can’t make recipes found the world and they can’t
decorate their businesses. Now the AI businesses are there just for cheap stuff
for beginners.
When we sit down at the bar, people
start to look at us. Before any of them say anything, my two friends take out
their guns. This means “don’t bother us” in this game and everyone backs off.
Angel says to Kerano, “Did you tell
your wife not to come in the game?”
“I did, and she told me people on
the outside are already trying to get us out.”
“I don’t get this,” I say, “They
know we can get out. They even made the game easier for us by giving us a way
to earn and give lives, and by trapping us after we’ve gotten used to the game.
Why?” I slam my hand down on the counter. “Why damn it?!”
Angel puts her hand on my shoulder,
“We’ll find out why, and make them pay for shooting Allen.”
“You’re damn right.” I get up and
head in the direction of the mountain. “Let’s get this done.”
We head out to the mountain that
already has dozens of people going into it, but no one is coming out. The
mountain is a PVE dungeon where players bring in their equipment and try to
beat the challenges inspired by the previous games in one go. This mountain isn’t
as big as the previous one, so I wonder why people are coming in, but aren’t
coming out. We haven’t completed this dungeon because we beat the original
without guns.
As soon as we head in, we see that
it’s just the three of us in the dungeon. This place allows teams and solo
players to enter it, but not everyone at once since that would make it too
easy. The first floor we’re on is full of normal fantasy monsters that we
bypass. It’s not worth fighting them right now. We enter the boss room to find…what
the hell? It’s a combination of two bosses. Half of the boss is a man with wings
while the other half is a snake lady. It flies around spitting poison while
trying to wrap us in its coils.
“Angel!” I call out.
“Don’t you worry guys, I got this!”
“I’ll help!” Kerano says as he sets
down turrets.
Angel’s build consists of light
machine guns and explosives while Kerano’s build is proficient in shotguns,
traps, and buildable defenses. Kerano’s turrets shoot at the flying boss to
keep it busy while Angel locks onto it. Once she gets a lock, she fires a volley
of rockets at it, which knocks it out of the sky. Since bosses never die easy, we
keep firing it once it hits the ground. It lets out a yell before charging at
me.
“I got this!” I say as I switch my assault
rifles to swords.
My build is a gunslinger build upgraded
so I can dual wield assault rifles. I can also dual wield swords as well. It’s
pretty sweet that this game has guns that can turn into sword, hammers, knives,
and spears. It’s useful in situations like this where I’m fighting the boss up
close and personal. Since it’s almost dead, I launch a flurry of slashes that
stagger the boss so I can take it down without having to worry about it fighting
back, and my attack finishes it. We’ve managed to beat the boss without it
scratching us. The game rewards us by replenishing our ammo and opening the way
to the next area. Since we finished it without taking any damage, we are given
a slight boost in health and ammo capacity.
Kerano says, “I don’t remember that
from the first game.”
“Neither do I. The people who
trapped us here must’ve changed it,” I say.
“Maybe they did it so it won’t be
easy for the veterans?” Angel guesses.
“That’s probably the answer, but it
doesn’t matter what the reason really is. We have to keep going,” I say as we move
for the exit.
They follow me into the next area,
which is…what the hell? Literally. This place looks like Hell. It’s a battlefield
with lake flowing down the cracks in the ground like rivers with the grass
turned red because of the red rain falling down that smells like blood. We can
see other players here fighting against demons and monsters of all kinds alongside
AI soldiers that decide from helicopters in the sky. I can see three bosses
that are molten monsters in metal armor protecting a large castle that is launching
out fireballs onto the battlefield. That must be our destination.
“Get down!” someone yells as a mortar
almost hits us.
We go to cover with some other players
who are in a hole.
“What’s going on here?” I ask one
of the players.
“This is how this floor is now for
some reason. A lot of people are stuck here. It wasn’t like this before when my
friends and I used to grind this dungeon. Hey, aren’t you, Kaylen?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“You can get to the end like last
time, right? We all have family and friends who are worried about us.”
I look at him and his friends.
“Of course I can. I am going to
need your help though.”
“Just tell us what to do.”
“First, I’m going to need more people.”
“I can message people, but they’re
afraid to lose another life.”
“I’m only going to need one shot at
this.”
“Okay, I’ll tell them that. We can
also get more of our AI allies to spawn if we make it to those flare guns.”
“Alright. All you need to do is get
my friends and I passed those three bosses then you can back off.”
“Okay…okay, we can do that.”
“We’re going to show those people
who trapped us in here that they made the biggest mistake of their life. Are
you ready?”
“We’re ready!” the group yells out.
“Then let’s get some!”
We run out of the holes and into the
madness. I’m not sure if the screaming and dying are coming from the people
behind us, but I ignore it and press forward. Because there is so much debris and
hiding holes everywhere, my team and I take advantage of them for a second before going
to the next one when we think it’s safe. Before we know it, we’re halfway there. The
people behind us have gotten to the flare and pop them off to send in several helicopters
full of soldiers to help us. The AI and the other players distract the molten
armored bosses while we pass by them and enter the castle.
This castle is a dark place with
blood dripping from the stones. There’s rusted treasure everywhere with
skeletons everyone that are wearing clothes from the ages long past. We enter a
throne room to find a wounded human-like dragon with four serpent arms. It
takes the large swords out of its body, lets out a yell that shatters the glass
windows in the castle, and starts to fight. We dodge its attacks while firing all
of our heavy and armor piercing ammo at it, but its health is barely
decreasing.
“I hope we don’t have to go inside
it to kill it,” I mention before it opens its mouth at us to release several lizard
knights.
Kerano and I take care of the
smaller lizards while Angel launches explosives into the dragon’s still open
mouth for massive damage. The dragon’s mouth now lays open and we can see inside
it too, which means we can enter it in unsaid video game hints. The makers of
this game can’t be just dedicated enough to design the dragon’s insides.
“Get in his mouth so we can end
this quickly, Kaylen!” Kerano says.
“What?! Why me?! I can’t swing my
swords in there! You do it with your shotguns!”
“Uh uh! I ain’t going in that putrid
place!”
“This is a video game! You aren’t
going to catch a disease, be dirty, or smell after you come out!”
“Can one of you just do it?!” Angel
yells.
“Fine.”
I go into the dragon’s mouth and
drag my blades through the inside of his throat. This seems to wake it back up.
Big mistake pal as my blades cut deeper into his throat. I take my blades out of
the inside of his throat so I can land deeper inside him so I can cut him up
more. I never want to think that thought again. With my smaller blades from my
submachine guns, I tear out the dragon’s chest until I break through its skin
and cut a hole through its stomach where a bullet almost hits me.
“Hey, watch it! I’m still in here!”
After a little bit more cutting,
the dragon falls over. Great. Why can’t its body just disappear? I cut my way
out of its stomach and step out of it with my body drenched in its blood. Angel
and Kerano give me a weird look.
To ease the weirdness, I dance a
little while singing, “Hello my baby, hello my honey!”
“No, don’t even do that,” Angel
says while shaking her head at me.
“I get the joke, but…I can’t feel
comfortable about this,” Kerano says.
“Hey, I stepped up like a real man
and did what you couldn’t!”
“Urgh. I think the game makers
really did add in smells and make you dirty.”
“It happens in some parts of the
game but do I really-UCKK! I really do.”
“You’re going to have to sleep by
yourself tonight,” Angel says while she heads for the exit of the castle.
“Hey, I’ll shower and use plenty of
soap and have my gear cleaned, I promise! Don’t you laugh at me, Kerano!”
“Ha, I’m sorry bro. You did a good
job.”
We head into the next area to find
a bridge that leads to a giant castle that’s supposed to be at the top of the
mountain. Kerano and I look at it each and Angel notices.
She asks, “What is it?”
“It’s nothing. We’re just surprised
to be here already,” I say.
“Yeah, me too. At least we get to
finish this quicker.”
She seems to have bought the explanation.
I’m not sure what will happen once we enter the castle, but I’m feeling uneasy because
I feel like I know what or who the final boss is going to be. We enter the
castle and into the throne room. It’s just as nice as it was in the first game,
but it has a cherry-rose color to it for some reason. On the throne, is a man
with a cloak and red and black armor. He gets up with his buster sword and takes
off his cloak to reveal his face. It’s a mix between Kerano and I. I can even
see my old sword and shield on the boss’s back.
I can see that Angel is more surprised
than Kerano and I. I’ll have to explain everything to her later. The boss charges
at us with his buster sword coming down to separate us. We fire at it while
avoiding his swiping attacks that hit the walls around us. Debris starts to fall
on us that we take turns shooting down, so it doesn’t land on us. After taking
down the bosses to half, it smashes its buster sword into the wall to bring
down the ceiling on us. We avoid the debris by getting out of the room. When
the dust settles in the room, we see that the boss is holding a shield so that
the debris doesn’t crush it. This move has cost it some of its health, but it
did almost kill us.
It then flings the debris that is
on its shield at us before going back to swinging and slashing at us. We try
strafing around the boss while taking turns having its attention, which makes it
put its shield on its back to deflect our bullets. Kerano tries putting down
multiple turrets to make the boss put up its shield and put it in a difficult
position, but it just throws its shield at the turrets to ricochet it off them
and destroy them all. This was a dangerous way to get it to drop its guard, but
we manage to deplete its health before its shield comes back to it resulting in
the shield cutting off the boss’s head.
“We did it!” we yell out in
victory.
A cloaked figure forms itself out
of the shadow. It looks like the same bastard who shot my son.
“Congratulations on winning. I knew
you three would be the first to beat the new challenges on this mountain,” the
figure says in a male/female mixed voice.
“You better explain what we need to
do next,” I say as I approach the figure with my guns pointed at it.
“Or what? What’s shooting me in a
video game going to do to me? You might as well say mean words at me for all its
worth.”
“Just tell us!”
“You’ll see as soon as you step
outside.”
“I want to know more before you go.
Tell me why you’re doing this-He disappeared. What an ass.”
“Is it a good time to ask why that
boss had both of your faces on it?” Angel says as she stops me from passing by
her.
Kerano and I look at each other
before I explain that, “Back in RHO, Kerano finished the game before I did, but
he decided not to free us because the developers convinced him not to.”
I can she’s stunned and pissed at
the same time.
“…why didn’t you free us when you won
the game first, Kerano?”
“Because I thought life would be
better if we just spent the rest of it in the game. The developers promised me
that everyone was being moved to hospitals so we could live full lives within the
game! I don’t think that anymore and regret my decision, of course!”
“And why did you two lied to me
about this?!”
I say, “We didn’t, kind of. The first
person to beat the top of the tower in the game’s lore is like Kerano so we didn’t
technically lie to you when we said that the final boss was a person who beat
the mountain already.”
“Tch.”
“Angel…”
“I’m not mad. It’s been too long
for me to care about what you did, Kerano. I just need some time to rest.”
Kerano and I give Angel some space
as we exit the castle. In the distance, we see the survival warzone alive with
danger as the ground breaks apart. I guess that’s where we’re headed next after
we rest. If this was difficult for us, then I hope our experience can carry us
through the next challenge and the ones after that. What am I thinking about? I
have to have more faith in my wife, my best friend, and myself. When I look in
their faces, I see that I can trust them. Angel softly smiles at me and Kerano
smiles with a wink and a thumbs up. Yeah, we can all make it through this and beat
the game.
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