Trapped Body and Soul in a Video Game part 5

Chapter 4 – Levels 10,11,12 – Pallet Cleansing

            I wake up the next morning still in bed with Angel. She’s still clinging to me as if I’m going to leave. When she wakes up when I start to move, she still clings on.

            “What’s wrong Angel? I’m not going to leave you.”

            “I know. It’s just that I’m afraid if you do.”

            “Why?”

            “Because I try to be aggressive and tough to everybody to get friends. I haven’t been able to get any so when you treated me like a friend then I knew I couldn’t lose you.”

            “Hey you are tough. You saved my life and you’re the strongest person on the team. Now stop being so sad and be that strong girl I know you are.”

            “Ha. You stop being so nice and be that asshole I know.”

            “I’m trying to be good after what you did for me, but fine, you asked for it.”

            I kick her off the bed.

            “I thought I paid for a sexy whore, but all I got was this ugly bitch!”

            She instantly gets up.

            “Fuck you asshole! You wouldn’t know a good ass if it sat on your face!”

            “Oh that’s a good idea. That’s also the Angel I know.”

            She smiles and punches me in the face. We laugh then go out to the next floor.  I was expecting more horror, but this floor is a beautiful field of roses, wildlife, and vegetation. I look into the lore and it appears that after all the death of the previous horror and war floors, life began again and this is what it looks like. The monsters aren’t even aggressive here even when I go over to pet them.

            “Touch them Angel, they don’t bite.”

            Angel is hesitant to touch the wildlife, but when she does, it takes a liking to her and walks a short distance to dig up a new axe for her.

            “What? Where’s my sword?!”

            “Ha! You don’t get one!”

            The animals here seem to be the ones giving equipment and special items. All we have to do is appease them somehow. We have to ask certain NPC animal researchers to get hints as to what we need to do for certain ones, but it’s worth it for better equipment. Angel and I got brand new armor sets and I even got a shield that can deflect certain types of magic attacks. Since there are no real obstacles, we make it to the boss room and the boss is huge cute bunny, hamster, cat thing. There are multiple fruits and things to use to take care of the boss. Apparently, the lore states that this…thing…chimera…thing I don’t know how to describe it, was born from the peace that came after all the suffering and death and keeps this place the way it is. We literally take care of it as it were a pet. What the fuck? I guess this was just a puzzle floor, but still. I just got all this new stuff and I wanted to test it out. To my surprise, a camera takes a picture of us as we finish taking care of the big cuddly thing so that means we’re the first to get past here. That also means that Kerano must be helping his group get past the lower floors though I don’t think he can help them fight the bosses since you can’t grind them in this game.

            So after that, Angel and I try them out at the training fields back at town and they work wonders especially my new sword and shield. Angel’s axes are also pretty cool as they have extra reach when she uses them. The weapon elongates the blades when she uses them and they can cause bleeding damage as well.

            “You know I never expected to be so powerful in this game especially when I started,” Angel says, “I thought I would need to do some rough physical training, but I did it all naturally.”

            “Well the game lets you do it if your stats match up. If you did anything you did in the beginning in real life, you wouldn’t be able to.”

            “Yeah but-”

            “But this is a video game.”

            “I know but-”

            “But this is a video game.”

            “I get that but I wish-”

            “Butt, this is a video game.”

            “Oh fuck you.”

            “Hahaha. You should know most things in this game are fake.”

            “What about our relationship?”

            “I think it’s pretty real since we’re both assholes. We’ll know for sure when we get out of here.”

            “I can’t wait that long!”

            “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you until then.”

            She hugs me and I hug back. Keeping up with her usual attitude, she knees me in the crouch. Thank God the game doesn’t count it as a hit.

            “You better not be lying!”

            “I promise.”

            We go out to the next floor and it’s similar to the last with the main theme being puzzles, but this time we help people as in help them with chores, finding lost people, solving word puzzles and moving puzzles etc. It’s so weird that the game is like this more than halfway through. Yeah I get that times after such war and violence would usually bring about peacefully times like this, but it’s still so strange to me that I can’t get over it. I would have to say that the game is preparing us to just use our minds to solve problems. I think we might’ve already hit the level cap at forty since I haven’t gained any in a while. The people here gift us with more equipment and items and hints as to how to use more special kinds of equipment like leg armor that help us dodge and run faster and body armor that can lessen the damage of falls.

            With no trouble like the last floor, we make it to the boss room and hey it’s an actual fight! It’s a veteran from the wars and violence that have plagued this mountain. He’s dedicated in training soldiers to ensure that the atrocities of the past never happen again. He fights in variety of build styles including mage, swordsman, thieves, archer, everything basically. We have to put all of our knowledge and skills to defeat him. He’s very skilled at fighting both of us at the same time. He can almost instantly attack from behind him even when he’s attack me when I try to tank his hits as a distraction. It’s a real fight that I’ve been aching for and it is finished when I get to deflect his lightning bolts back at him. He doesn’t die, he just gets brought to one knee or more accurately, kneels to us. We show the same respect as the camera takes our picture.

            Since we’re on a roll, we go straight for the next floor and it’s…different. It’s still the same beautiful floors as the previous ones, but the monsters here fight us and don’t die. The only way to bring them to heel is to fight them as if they were mini bosses. They then kneel like the previous boss then don’t bother us anymore. We fight like five to six of these, which don’t give us any equipment or items to help us fight the boss so we just have to go with experience for it. No never mind that now as the boss uses a completely different fighting style than any other monster or human soldier that we fought before. It’s a warrior angel who supposedly taught man how to fight in the beginning of time. She has an odd way of fighting as she can use both close and long ranged attacks at the same time, which makes it a co-op focused boss fight or in other words pretty fucking cheap, but then again, pretty much everyone in this game fight together. It would be completely suicidal and fucking stupid to solo this game. Good thing I have my shield to deflect most ranged magic attacks and Angel is quick on her feet to dodge most of the attacks. The boss then screeches out and prepares for a big attack after we bring her down past half her health. She absorbs light, earth, and wind while we continue to attack her. The light around her changes from red to blue to black to white.

            “Angel! Get behind me!”

            Angel gets behind me as I think the boss is ready to let loose her attack.

            “Get ready to use party potions and buff items on me. Ready…”

            Everything goes silent and blinding white before we see the boss have seven arms with seven different kinds of weapons in her arms prepared to attack.

            “Now!”

            Angel uses items on me as I tank the boss’s attacks. These attacks hit hard and flow into one another as if the boss is doing a deadly dance of blades and magic. The orchestral soundtrack of the game follows suit and after a twenty-hit combo the boss finishes the dance with a huge crushing attack that calls down light from Heaven above.  Everything stops again even the music as the boss finishes in a bow. Angel walks out from behind me and bows too and I just fall the fuck over with 1 HP just as the camera takes our picture and the boss fight ends.

            “Kaylen!”

            “Haha. So I guess it was a good choice to put points in my luck stat.”

            “You son of a bitch. I’m just going to leave you here.”

            “Please don’t.”

            She starts to walk away.

            “Angel? Don’t do this to me cutie.”

            She keeps walking for a few more seconds before using coming back to pick me up. Whew. Got me worried there for a second. We go back to town to rest and eat. We watch tons of people walking around getting busy with the game or resting as well.

            “There are so many people here now than before,” Angel says.

            “Yeah. What’s the player count now?”

            “Almost a million.”

            “Wow. Do you know if anyone lost all their lives yet?”

            “I think so, but I’d rather not think about that especially since we have so little time.”

            “Oh shit! I just realized we’ve been playing this game for two days and a half!”

            Angel falls completely silent.

            “I don’t know if my body is going to be in any condition to get up by the time we get out of here.”

            She grabs and holds my hands.

            “Then let’s hurry up and finish the last few floors!”

            “But the thing is, I don’t know what the condition of my body is. I might even be dead right now and just a ghost in the system.”

            “Don’t you fucking say that to me! I want to be with you as soon as I get out of here!”

            “So why don’t we spend some time here together in real relaxation? There’s a chance that you’re in the same condition like me and we’re both basically dead.”

            Angel goes quiet for a second again.

            “But what if we still have a chance?”

            “Ok then. Let’s do both. We’ll spend a little time out then we’ll go out to finish the game so we don’t regret it. Deal?”

            “Deal I guess, but where are we going to go?”

            “How about the tenth floor? It was beautiful there and the monsters seem to like you.”

            “That does sound like a nice place. Ok let’s go then.”

            We teleport to the tenth floor, find a nice spot, and sit underneath the trees with the animals and enjoy each other’s company. Suddenly we hear rustling in the bushes and several players that look like they’re from Kerano’s group walk out and approach us.

            One of them says to us, “Do you think we can join you guys?”

            “Sure,” I say.

            “Thanks. We overheard you guys and thought that we should do the same.”

            “It’s fine. You don’t have to explain yourselves.”

            They come over and lay in the grass with us.

            After a while, one says, “You know I wish there was a place where we could just force our way out of the game and log everyone out.”

            I say, “I’d imagine it to be a completely white room with a stone panel in the middle and the whole thing would be guarded by an unbeatable boss monster. But then again, it’s a stupid idea to think a place like this exists in the game.”

            “But what if it did?”

            “Then the creators would only give you a few seconds to play with their source code before kicking you out and deleting the area.”

            “So it could’ve existed?”

            “I would say no. Because you would need some God level intellect and skill to learn and play with their source code especially in a game like this, which is a first of its kind. Even if someone like that existed in this world, most of the gamers here are around thirteen to fifty years of age. No one in that age range could possess such abilities.”

            “It would be cool if it was a person in a fictional story.”

            “Not really, cause a character like would completely break any tension in it.”

            “Oh.”

            “You really like ruining people’s fun imagination don’t you mister knowledgeable man don’t you?” Angel asks.

            “Hey I’m just using common sense. It doesn’t take a genius to realize what’s wrong with the concept if you saw it written down on paper and put more than three seconds of thought into it.”

            “Let’s just go back to relaxing.”

            “Alright.”

            We relax together for hours until sunset where everyone including the animals are sleeping. Angel looks so peaceful right now so I’d rather not wake her up to tell her that we’ve been here for too long. I look at the clock to see that a whole three days have past since we started the game so that means I should be dead by now. I cuddle up closer to Angel and close my eyes for what I think to be my last moments with her.

* As always, The actual published version of the book will have pictures, thoughts when making this book, and other goodies. If you offer your thoughts that are helpful to the book, I will include your name in the back.

Sample of: They Don't Know

Chapter 1-Stranded

It was a normal vacation in space for a family of six who were visiting various planets with their computer driven ship. The family consisted of one mom, dad, grandma, grandfather and two children of the young couple with one teenager and one twelve-year-old boy. They had decided to punch in their own coordinates for their next two destinations to reach a certain side of the planet faster instead of having to arrive and land in a specific area. It works the first time without any problems, but lightning didn’t strike twice for them and instead, struck them with a meteor field that was in their travel path that badly damages their ship and forces them to crash land on small moonlike planet in a deep and dark section of space, light years away from all civilization.

“Well at least the distress signals work”, says the grandfather named Luke as he presses the alarm button.

Isaac then smiles and says, “You see? There’s nothing to worry about as long I’m along with you.” Clark smiles back at his big brother and gives him a hug.

Relieved to see that the children are ok, the mother says, “Aww look at the brave young men.”

“That’s how you know we raised them right Miranda,” said John.

“Oh please”, said his mother named Ellen, “we raised you the same way and you can’t even fix this ship.”

“Well it’s not a basic thing that you learn in school”, said John.

“Why? Do you know how to fix it?”

“Yes!” Luke says with confidence, “We’ll fix it by tomorrow if help doesn’t come by then.”

“Can we help?” Clark asks.

“No, but when we get back home I can show you how to fix ships like these so you can be smarter than your parents!” says Ellen.

“Ok geniuses you can all show off later. Now come on, let’s rest up for tomorrow”, Miranda says, as she sets up the beds for her kids and stepparents with Clark’s favorite plushy on his.

Chapter 2-They thought they knew

The next day was here and no help came, so the grandparents suited up in their space suits to try to fix it from the outside.

“Are you going to be okay?” said Clark.

Luke puts his hand on his grandson’s shoulder and laughs, “Haha! Of course! Your grandmother and I are experts at this kind of stuff!”

“Don’t worry. We’ll have this thing going in no time!” Ellen says as they both go in the air decompression chamber and out into space.

The parents and older brother are talking to each other on the opposite side of the ship, as Clark is busy playing with his favorite toy. He then waves at his grandparents as they walk past the glass and towards the front of the ship. The next ten or so minutes were filled with dead silence as they waited for the ship to be fixed, but all that happened were the lights that were flickering all of the sudden.

“Did they fix the ship yet?” Clark asks.

“I don’t know. I’ll go check on them and see if they need anything”, John said as he got in his space suit and went out into space.

Still worrying about his grandparents, Clark asks “Are you sure they know how to fix the ship?”

His mother smiles and says, “Of course they know. Even though they’ve worked with older ships, I’m sure they can figure it out.”

The lights stop flickering and five minutes later, John comes back in and Clark rushes to him and asks, “Are they ok?”

“They are. It’s just that they need more time, ok? Now go back to playing with your toy. Mom, your brother, and I need to decide what’s for lunch.”

Clark goes back to playing as he saw his family talking, presumably, about lunch. They all have a weird look on their faces with Clark’s brother having the weirdest look of them all. Maybe it’s because they had Clark’s favorite chicken cutlets for lunch, which his brother absolutely hated.

“Yeah that has to be it”, Clark says to himself.

*This'll be coupled with Dreamless when the physical version of Society's Monsters gets released.

Trapped Body and Soul (in a video game) Part 4

Chapter 3 – Levels 7, 8, 9 – A Horrifying Turn of Events

            We only take a few hours to sleep then head out to the next floor. This one is full of zombies and horrifying monsters. After the in-game war, the violence and hate that it made gave birth to these monstrosities. The monsters are more aggressive and use surprise/jump scare tactics such as having their back turned to us only to have a monster pop out of their back and instantly attack us. These ones are distinguished by bubbling backs so it can be easy to counter the surprise attack if we keep a sharp eye out for the small details. The monsters also have grab attacks that go through our blocks, which are more or less rape attacks that do enough damage for us to be careful of them. There are even mimic (bullshit) chests that attack us when we open them and grow legs and teeth. They do however drop good items. On the other hand, it is funny to see Kerano get tentacle raped by a disgusting looking monster that wants to cuddle with him. I try to get Angel into one of these traps though I can’t manage to. I think she notices this and almost gets me raped by a slime girl. No thank you, I am not into fucking jelly. Kerano however gets grabbed instead of me. He’s such a great friend.

So after Kerano pretty much gets molested by every monster, we make it to the boss room. It’s a big monster with sharp tentacles-

“Ah damn it!” Kerano yells.

            -for a head, arms, and legs. It uses mostly grabs-

            “Fucking Hell!” Kerano yells again.

            -and stab attacks so it can use its deadly close range attacks…and to use tentacle rape attacks (not really rape but it looks like it along with the others).

            “I swear to God I’m going to fucking put the game creators into a virtual hentai game!”

            Speaking about them, they aren’t Japanese so I don’t know why there are so many tentacles on this floor. Maybe it’s for a laugh or they’re inspired by Japanese games.

            “Die! Die you fucking piece of shit!” Kerano yells as he goes full psycho on the boss.

Anyways it’s supposed to be a monster that is born from a mixture of love and hate which were emotions that were high during the war. Thankfully we can parry and/or counterattack its attacks with our own to make this a boss of constant attacks and aggression, perfect for Kerano’s pent up anger. We defeat it and Kerano shows both middle fingers for the Wall of Firsts picture and we do the same.

“That’s right! Fuck this fucking floor dude. Fuck it!” Kerano (you know what tone of voice by now).

After this fun filled floor, we rest, turn in quests, and sell items and equipment we don’t need as always. Before we head out, a group of people who are composed of different builds like the government soldiers approach us.

“Hey Kerano,” one of the guys say.

“Hey guys. Temere, Cazzuto, you know about my little group here don’t you?”

“You whore. You got all these people sucking your dick?” I say.

“Well I need more than you guys to satisfy me.”

“Ohhhhhhh,” his little posy says.

“Wow. Jokes from you?” Angel asks, “Do I need to kick you in the dick again?”

“Let him have his group Temere.”

“Thank you Cazzuto.”

“He needs more than his sword to compensate for his small dick.”

“Ohhhhh,” Angel and I say.

“Wow Kerano. These are the people you play the game with?” one of the girls ask. Man she’s pretty.

“Yeah. I know they can be the worst, but they have their moments that make them worth staying with.”

“Awww.”

I give him a bro hug.

“Hey don’t shower me with all your affection Cazzuto. Temere might get jealous?”

“What?”

“I saw you two last night.”

Angel starts blushing.

“Well we’ve only kind of started we aren’t actually a thing yet you know? You’ve actually got to meet someone irl to do that. Right Temere?”

“I uh, right.”

What? Did she really think that -

“Well whatever. You guys are cute together.”

He pats me on the back.

“Anyways what do you have to report?” he asks his group.

“We’re growing our guild and we’ve been grinding for the best equipment.”

“We’ve also got some new players just playing as blacksmiths and merchants to get us discounts on everything else.”

“A few of our higher-level players are completing floor 6 as we speak and should be catching up to your friends and you.”

Damn it.

“Good. Well continue with your work and good luck.”

“Yes sir!” they say as they salute then walk off.

“Wow Kerano. I didn’t know that you lead an army,” I say.

“I’m actually leading the largest guild in the game. I gathered them at the party and now we’re doing everything we can to beat the game.”

“There isn’t any other guild doing this?” Angel asks.

“Not anymore since we’ve convinced them to join ours to focus everything into one group. Everyone gets paid according to their skills and needs.”

“So you’re a communist group?”

“No not really. Anyways we should probably get going.”

“Yeah. Let’s go. We wouldn’t want your underlings to get ahead of us,” I say.

“Haha right. I’ve got to show them why I’m the boss.”

Wow Kerano. I’ve gotta say I’m impressed with your ability. I just hope your little group won’t get in the way of me winning the prize.

We teleport to the next floor and this one is a deserted town with close corridors and a gothic feel to it. The enemies here appear to be monsters created by science and the lore books and items we find supports this. What we find states that humans tried using science to evolve humanity past its current state to try to make itself on the level of or higher than God Himself, but it failed as the materials that exist can’t do that. They weren’t even to be like the angels or demons. So the people of this town were turned into horrible monsters scarier and uglier than anything I’ve seen on the previous floor. Some of them are insane and are crazy aggressive even when they take a lot of damage while others are scared and run away from us. Guess who drop good items and equipment? Right. The guys that become fucking Olympic sprinters when they see a sliver of you around the corner. Thankfully Angel uses her rushing ability and Kerano uses his sword slash to catch these guys. I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have gotten a simpler sword and shield build, but then again, I probably couldn’t have beaten Angel without it.

The boss room is in a cathedral and the boss herself is a nun who turns into a dragon. It is said that she fell in love with the devil and the dragon is his son. So in a way we just saw the most fucked up birth scene this side of the deep web. The dragon attempts to use the stone sword and shield of the cathedral to fight us like a demon solider, but it’s fairly easy to bring him to half health our teamwork. He then drops the weapons and acts like a pissed off dragon while breathing fire and charging all over the place. This is where one of my shield abilities Iron wall comes in as I use it when he charges at me to make him grind to a stop. Angel and Kerano attack him while I act as an impenetrable wall leading us to another glorious victory. We do our little victory photo then head back to town.

Full of energy and the adrenaline of winning, we head out to complete another floor before eating and sleeping. I don’t think we’ll want to eat or sleep after completing this floor since it looks like we’re in an area completely made of flesh. I turn down the sense of smell feature in the menu as do Kerano and Angel. The monsters are like aborted children and other things that are not appropriate for the general audience let’s just say. I also hate that the special items and equipment are hidden behind phallic looking areas that we have to open with our hands. Gesh. I don’t even want to know the lore for this place. Once we reach the end of the area, we slip off and fall onto solid darkness. The area itself then comes to life and is the boss. This monster is said to be of the devil’s first creations that perfectly shows the evils of mankind and man do I believe that! It’s incredibly huge and disgusting – How the fuck are we going to defeat it?! We try to bring it down by cutting its thin ankles and it does bring him down however this is only the first part of the boss fight. What I can only assume to be the butthole opens up and invites us in.

“Well you should be used to this Kerano. This is all you man!” I say to him.

“Uh uh Kaylen we’re fucking this butthole together!” he says.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaay.”

Angel drags me into the butthole (something that would sound better in a different scenario) and we traverse its body while killing smaller creatures in it and destroying its internal organs. This makes the boss melt and gives us a dirty victory. People are really going to love the story as to why we look so disgusting in the Wall of Firsts picture.

We return to town all smelly, but victorious, but still smelly as the shitest of shits. I guess it’s good as time as any to take a bath. We go to the only place in-game to wash off which is a bathhouse/spa. Kerano got his group to get us discounts on special treatment thanks to their merchant status. He brings a few other people from our group to give us company and we get a good wash and massage that give us temporary stamina and health buffs.

A messenger comes up to us after the bath and reports to Kerano, “We found a special area on floor 8 that holds a powerful weapon. The problem is, is that the building that the weapon is held in is said to be difficult and when it kills you, you feel relive the pain of dying forever until a fellow player can you put you back together with a ritual.”

“Hmm I don’t think it would be wise to go after it then if it’s that much trouble,” Kerano the pussy says.

“Kerano,” I say, “We’ve been through many horrors and challenges today. I think we can handle a challenge two floors below us.”

“I don’t know Cazzuto. The consequences do seem severe if they’re true.”

“High risk, high reward. You know how it goes. You can even bring your gang with you if it makes you feel better. More people watching each other’s back means less chances of death right?”

“I guess you’re right. Let’s go for it then.”

“Yes!”

I’ve heard about this weapon in the beta. It’s supposed to be a sword that can leech off the health of enemies and recover your lost health after you take damage. I can also use this opportunity to demoralize Kerano’s little group if the rumors of how the deaths are, are true. It can essentially gift me the victory at the top if everything works out.

Kerano gathers five of his best soldiers and we teleport to the eighth floor and go to the building that supposedly holds the weapon. It’s a…school. Ok. A pretty creepy and odd school at that too though I don’t see any enemies. We all separate and investigate the school in groups of two. Angel suddenly shrieks and clings to me.

“What is it cutie? Afraid of the dark?”

“No! I saw a ghost down that hallway! It was missing its eye and mouth.”

Oh shit son this place just got more interesting.

“Well don’t you worry now. I’ll protect the little princess.”

“Shut up.”

“And how does a ghost scary you and not what we saw during the last floor?”

“Because I didn’t expect it.”

“Oh alright.”

Liar. We walk through the hallways while hearing strange noises echo through the school. It gets louder and louder until we can finally recognize the sounds as screams of help. We run towards the source and several members of Kerano’s group of been brutally smashed, sliced, and disfigured by traps in the floors, ceiling, and walls.

I back up and look for where a trap might be around us and this wall looks weir-

“Watch out!” Angel says as she pulls me behind her and gets hit with the trap which slices her in twos.

Her face, body, arms, everything gets sliced into two pieces then they get spread around the school. Damn it! I didn’t want it to be this way. I turn around to see Kerano on his knees picking up the pieces of his comrades.

“Kerano!”

“Kaylen!” he says in a livid voice.

“Angel got-”

“Yes, I saw what happened. You go after her then come back and help me.”

“Got it.”

I go around the school picking up pieces of Angel’s body while avoiding bullshit traps set by these spirits. They’ve only started to come into effect as I’m assuming that the ghosts are programmed to lure in unsuspecting players in far enough then activate these traps. I can’t believe I’m even doing this. Sure I don’t need to carry her body parts as they’re claimed as special items, but still. Ok. I manage to get all of her body parts so now I need to do that ritual they were talking about. I search the school and find a library that tells me the ingredients and words needed to say to bring back everyone that died. They have to be in the school and hello there. I see the sword hidden behind a secret room covered by a chalk board. I open it and get the sword we’ve been searching for.

Kerano enters the room and asks me, “Did you find Angel’s body parts?”

“Yeah. I also got a list of items and words we need to have to resurrect everyone. I got the sword we were searching for as well.”

“What?! It’s only a single-handed sword?! Did you know about this?!”

“I uh, heard about it in the beta.”

“So you knew we were getting a weapon that only you could use.”

“Not really. Other people in your group can do it too and-”

“Whatever let’s just save our friends. Now tell me what we need.”

Kerano and I search the school and thankfully find all the items we need in the school. We resurrect everyone outside the school and they appear to think that they’re still feeling the pain they felt before. After a few minutes of trying to get them to calm down, we bring them to town where they can fully relax after we get a few casters to use a calming spell on them. Now they just appear to be dea- really tired now especially Angel who just leans her head against me.

“You too are on your own now,” says Kerano.

“What are you talking about Kerano? We’re supposed to be the leading group. Best friends too.”

I hold out my hand, but he smacks it away.

“You cost us the lives of my group and your girlfriend for your own gain. I told you I would do something like this you would never have a say in a major decision again. Well I’m going to clear the way with my own group. You can thank us later.”

“Are you really going to take that big prize at the top for yourselves?”

“I don’t give a fuck about that. Is that really what you’re worried about? The money?”

“Not really I just-”

“I don’t even want to hear your explanations anymore. Come on Angel.”

Kerano tries to pull Angel up, but she clings to me.

“Come on Angel. You only have one life left and this dickhead costed you the first two!”

He tries again and fails.

“You know what, you’re right Angel. Even though I hate you right now Kaylen, you need someone to protect you. Goodbye.”

Kerano and his groups leave us to go to another hotel to rest. Angel and I go to the same one we always go to, but she still won’t let go. I guess I got someone to sleep with me tonight. Weirdly enough the game allows us to sleep together as if the creators expected this which I don’t doubt. I actually prefer it to be this way and not for the obvious reason but for the fact that protected me and died in my place. I’ll repay what you did for me Angel. I swear it on my life.

* As always, The actual published version of the book will have pictures, thoughts when making this book, and other goodies. If you offer your thoughts that are helpful to the book, I will include your name in the back.

Trapped Body and Soul part 3 (Trapped in a game story)

Chapter 2 – Levels 4,5,6 – Help in Times of War

            A knock at the door wakes me up. I look at the clock and it’s eight thirty in the morning. In any other scenario, I would’ve gone back to sleep until eleven so I get up, get changed back into my armor, and answer the door. It’s Angel who’s in a purple nightgown.

            “Ooooh this must be a dream,” I say.

            “This isn’t what you’re thinking it is! A squad of ten people came into the game and they said they were with the government.”

            “Really?”

            “They already beat the bottom floor and the first three floors.”

            “Damn. How’d they do that so easily?”

            “A part of their group is going to be in each city soon to explain themselves. So let’s go.”

            “Right, but why didn’t you change before you came here?”

            “Because as soon as learned about it as soon as I woke up and you aren’t too far from my room.”

            “But it only takes a few thoughts of the menu. What? Do you have trouble thinking?”

            She takes out her axes and hits me on the head.

            “Feel better?”

            “No.”

            “Good. Let’s go then.”

            We go to the town square with Kerano and see the group of supposed people from the government. Their group is composed of many different kinds of combination classes like knight mages, tank thieves, archer healers, etc.

            One of them step forward and says, “We are military soldiers and professional cops hired from the combined efforts of your and our countries.”

            Oh really?

            “At first, we were sent here to see if you were all were really going to complete this game in one go. After seeing that wasn’t true, we’ve been dedicated to helping you beat this game and give you the freedom you deserve. We were given permanent XP and currency boosts thanks to our connections to the creators of this game who unknowingly sealed their fate. You can rest assured that you will see reality again.”

            The crowd cheers, but I still want that prize at the top. They might take it if they’re going to be speed running the game at this rate.

            “Kerano, Temere. Let’s go.”

            “What is it Cazzuto?” Kerano says, “We can just lay back and relax now that we have real soldiers fighting for us.”

            “Do you really think the creators of this game will actually let them get away with this after they publicly announced their intentions?”

            “What?”

            “The creators of the game probably thought these guys just wanted to play the game.”

            “But they aren’t listening in, are they?” Angel asks.

            “I think they are and they’re probably going to find a way to get rid of them. We shouldn’t get too comfortable and keep going up.”

            “But what if they aren’t and we just get killed again?” asks Kerano.

            “It’s just to be certain Kerano. Trust me.”

            Kerano sighs.

            “Alright, but don’t forget that we’re going to be extra careful to avoid any unneeded challenges.”

            “I didn’t forget.”

            Ok so they still trust me. That’s great. Maybe I’ll split the money with them.

            We teleport to the next floor and it appears to be war torn with NPC humans against each other. The lore states that people couldn’t stand being this close to each other (no big surprise) and starting fighting each other because they disagreed on too many different things like distribution of power, continued worship of God, and the magical arts. It appears that some of those government soldiers are already fighting and exploring the area. I can’t let them get ahead of me and yet I can’t make Kerano and Angel speed up. Having them trust me is more important I know, but still. We kill enemies as usual and find as many items and secrets as we can. Kerano’s ability to read Latin also helps us find hidden secrets in the world which leads me to a new armor and weapon set in one of the many castles. You can pay to have these translated by the way though you’re given an extra XP and money if you find the secrets and solve the puzzles without the translation.

            We finally make it to the boss room and manage to see a few government soldiers enter the room. Damn. We’re going to have to wait a bit. The player limit to each boss fight is three, but in the beta, certain boss fights can be fought with four people. In the meantime, we watch the boss fight through the fog, watching how the boss moves and what attacks it uses. These soldiers are pretty well trained in this game despite being here for only a short while. I guess they saw how other people played it and/or the government or the creators told them certain tricks to the game. Either way, they beat the boss and let us have a go.

            This boss is one of the warlords who started the in-game war because he believed violence was the only way to counter the violence others started. As such, he switches from an aggressive mode with two axes when we attack him enough and a more subdued katana and shield when left alone. We take advantage of the moments when he switches between attitudes to get hits in or heal and defeat him without too much trouble. I swear this game is meant for more aggressive players since the last few boss fights were pretty easy for us. We should just speed along, but again, I don’t think I can convince Kerano and Angel that.

            We teleport to town to rest and recover and that’s when one of the government soldiers approach us.

            She says to us, “I’ve seen that you kids were the ones leading the charge to beat this game.”

            “We were and now you’re stealing our title,” I say.

            “Is that what you’re worried about? Being recognized as heroes?”

            “This dumbass doesn’t always think before he speaks. Forgive him, please,” Angel says.

            Thanks for the save Angel. She was about to figure me out.

            “Alright, but don’t try so hard. We’ve got this.”

            “Yes ma’am.”

            Tch. Calling me a try hard. Ha! I’ll show them. Though my chances aren’t looking too well at this rate. Maybe I should just hang back and - oh yeah! Ten million dollars and what I said to Angel and Kerano earlier move me forward so we teleport to the next floor.

            This floor is war torn like the previous, but this is between demons and corrupted humans. I guess evil can’t exist with itself. There are canons and the castles are more heavily defended than the previous, which gives this place a real war experience. I probably would’ve loved this if my actual life wasn’t a stake. Those real soldiers are probably more relaxed than the rest of us when it comes to this floor. Despite that disadvantage on our part we make it to the boss room. I swear they really put more Latin riddles here. Don’t they know Latin is a dead language? Thank God we have Kerano.

            Like the previous floor, this boss is one of the original warlords except he’s a large demon who supposedly tempted humans to fight each other. He spawns replicas of us that fight him some of the time and go after us most of the time. They look exactly like us, use the same skills, and even talk too. We have to actively talk to each other to make sure we’re who we say we are especially since we can do damage to each other.

            “I’m always the one that doesn’t crack jokes like you guys do,” Kerano will say.

            “I’m the asshole,” I say.

            “I’m the bitch in the group that isn’t Kaylen,” Angel the cagna will say.

            This constant communication helps us defeat the boss who only uses long range bows as his weapons while only moving around on occasion while he lets his mirrors of us fight for him. After achieving victory, we head back to town to do the usual, but for some reason, the government soldiers get paralyzed then fall over and disappear into embers as if they died.

            A loud voice, which is probably the one of the creators, says that, “We apologize for this inconvenience. The government soldiers that have entered the game will no longer help you.”

            I’m partly distressed but mostly pleased by this as I don’t need to worry about them getting in my way.

            “These soldiers are not dead and are in comas. They will be released when someone or people defeat the game like the rest of you when that happens. We will not allow further government associated players in the game anymore, but be rest assured as you can see, there are thousands of players here who can help you get through this. Ut felix sit in te.”

            I see Kerano begin to freak out, but I grab his shoulders.

            “Calm down Kerano! This isn’t over yet. Remember what I told you before? We planned for this so this shouldn’t affect us that much,” I say to him.

            “Thanks man. I was going to have a panic attack.”

            “You alright Temere?”

            “I’m good. Let’s just defeat this last boss then eat and sleep.”

            “You got that right.”

            Now there’s almost nothing stopping us from reaching the top. We were one of the only groups heading to the top while the others rested and relaxed so we have a two floor head start on everyone.

            This next war torn floor is the aftermath of all the battles we’ve been through on the two lower floors with bodies littering the fields with destroyed castles and scorched land.

            “I wonder if anyone is as far as us,” Kerano says.

            I say to him what I already thought.

            “But what about all those new players that joined?” Angel asks.

            “So? There’s like fifty-three thousand new players.”

            “That’s just more people who are at risk here,” Kerano says while clenching his fists in anger.

            “And it should motivate us to keep moving so let’s go.”

            “Right!” they say in unison.

            Now there two have a pep in their step so we move faster through this floor. Though we don’t really need it as most of the enemies are basically half dead and most of the secrets and items are barren as if people took them during the battle and fled with them. We make it to the boss room in no time and this boss is multiple enemies. They’re supposed to be soldiers who have grown too used to fighting that they couldn’t go a day without fighting after the war. They’re aggressive and can be dangerous in packs, but Angel’s and Kerano’s builds are well equipped to deal with this situation. They defeat the boss for me so without them I probably would’ve been gang raped by this boss. They seemed really determined leading up to and during the fight, probably because of what happened to those soldiers and the unaware players that come into the game.

            We’re actually the first people to beat this boss so we actually are ahead of everyone. Good. So good in fact that a few groups of fellow players congratulate us when we return back to town and hold a small party for the party that’s “full of courage and fearless”. Maybe I can use that as our group tagline. People crowd around us to ask us about our strategies and how we’re able to keep moving forward. Kerano tries to impress a few chicks with his sword skills and tales of how he’s one of the key members of the group. Angel shows off her skills and duels some people, who she wins against, though she doesn’t get any male admirers. Figures. I try to do both with a little style and succeed in getting people to know that I’m the leader of the group. As the party starts to settle down, I see Angel sitting on a bench by herself away from everyone.

            I sit next to her and say, “What’s up? Done showing off to the crowds of men you couldn’t attract?”

            “Yes.”

            “Well that was an unexpected answer.”

            “I thought being strong and cool would get people to like me.”

            “This is a video game. You can’t get real relationships from it unless you talk to them enough and meet them irl where you see that they’re just assholes when they aren’t playing.”

            “But you’re just an asshole. So does that mean you’re nic- no that can’t be.”

            We both laugh at the idea of me being nice.

            “Yeah I’m an asshole everywhere so I’m always honest.”

            Angel looks at the sky.

            “Even though it’s fake, the setting sun here looks nice.”

            “Well that’s what millions of dollars can do in a game.”

            “Can we just enjoy this together?”

            “Sure.”

            Attempting to make a move…I move closer to her and put my hand on hers. She jolts a bit in surprise, but lays her hand back down.

            “What? You said you wanted to enjoy it.”

            “I uh…yeah.”

            She lays her head on my shoulder. Attempt successful!

            “Wait, I think the game is glitching,” she says.

            “What? What’s happening?” I say with concern.

            “You’re actually being nice.”

            “Well I am good with the ladies if you haven’t noticed cutie.”

            After laughing and enjoying our time together, we go to the hotel to rest for a few hours before going out again. I wonder if Angel actually likes me now. We’re probably not the first ones to fall in love because of this situation, but what I said earlier makes me worry about how she is irl. I’ll just take this one step at a time. We’ll get out of this game and she’ll definitely love me when I get the prize money. Two of the best prizes a man could get in one go. Love and money to set us for life. This game is better than I thought.

* As always, The actual published version of the book will have pictures, thoughts when making this book, and other goodies. If you offer your thoughts that are helpful to the book, I will include your name in the back.

Trapped Body and Soul part 2 (SAO / Trapped in a game inspired book)

Chapter 1 – Levels 1,2,3 - Fantasy only in appearance

            We teleport to the next floor after picking up new quests. You get the privilege to do so if you beat the boss and/or if you were in a party that did and it’s activated through the menu. This floor and the two floors above it I heard are supposed to be fantasy oriented and it looks to be that way with dragons in the sky and weird creatures that roam that landscape. Speaking about the sky, I can actually see the sky even though we’re in the mountain. It’s like there’s nothing there at all.

            “You ready?” I ask my friends.

            “Yeah,” Angel says.

            “Kaylen, how can you be this ready to face this game after what happened?” Kerano asks.

            “Standing around frozen in fear accomplishes nothing. Thinking about it too much accomplishes nothing. I’d rather do something to get us out of this situation than do either of those things that would just do more than nothing now that I think about it. It would make things worse.”

            There are also probably more people speed running the game now so I’ve got to get to the top to get the reward, but these two don’t need to know that motive.

            “You’re right, Kaylen. Sorry I was stuck on the situation.”

            “I understand.”

            “Where did you learn to be like this?” Angel asks.

            “I read old stories of survival-”

            “Oh.”

            “And played horror games. I could never get past the ones with cute scary things until I got this mindset.”

            “…Of course.”

            We go through the dungeon like valley, leveling up, picking up items, completing new quests, and picking up as many as secret items and equipment though most of it isn’t for my kind of build.

            “Let’s hurry this up. I want to have a feast of all kinds of chicken wings when I get back,” I say.

            “Oh come on Kaylen, you’re going to make me starve to death faster if you make me think of that,” says Kerano.

            “Damn it you’re going to kill us Kaylen! Now you owe me that feast when we get back,” says Angel.

            “That goes for me too!” Kerano bandwagons.

            “That’s if I tell you where I live.”

            “Asshole.”

            “Nah I’m just kidding.”

            We make it to the boss room door.

            “I’ll give you guys anything if you keep helping me out,” I promise.

            “Anything?” Angel asks with a smile on her face.

            “Yeah I’ll even give you a lap dance if you want.”

            “I’ll pass being the one to receive it,” Kerano asks, “Though I will record it just to embarrass you.”

            “Me too.”

            You guys.

            The boss for this floor is a man bird demon that wields two swords. The game’s lore that we found states that it used to be another man who tried to escape this mountain by growing wings and this is what happened to him. He flies around the room at high speeds while slashing at us when he passes by that are hard to dodge and parry. The attacks also do piercing damage which the damage for is mediocre, though there is so much of it that it’s growing to be a real problem.

            “I can use my new sword slash ability that allows me to throw a slash at an enemy from a distance,” says Kerano.

            “Do it,” I say.

            Kerano’s sword lights up and he unleashes a horizontal sword slash that hits both of the boss’s wings and brings him down. The three of us hit him with everything we got until his wings grow back and flaps us away from him. He’s now more aggressive and Kerano can’t manage to hit him with his skill…I got an idea.

            “Angel! Kerano! Stand back and let me take his aggro!”

            They nod at me and go behind me. I activate my shield’s special ability when the boss heads for me. This stops him almost in front of me and so I leap to cover the distance and use a sword skill which makes me do a front flip vertical sword smash to bring him down. Kerano and Angel finish him when he reaches the ground. ‘VICTORY’ is again us for the taking. I high five them both at the same time.

            “That was amazing!” says Kerano.

            Angel agrees then says, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have beaten him if I went out on my own.”

            “So what do you say?” I ask.

            “…Thank you Kaylen.”

            Holy shit! She gives me a hug out of nowhere! Just in time for the picture too!

            “Wait what?!” she says in surprise.

            “Ha! What were you expecting? We were the first ones to beat this boss,” I say.

            “Can I get a hug too?” Kerano awkwardly asks.

            Angels tries to kick him in the nuts again, but the game won’t allow it.

            “I’ll take that as a no.”

            We return to town to rest and we find that people are eating at the in-game restaurants. When we talk fellow players about it, they say that they felt filled as if they were eating actual food. Before, food just gave to timed buffs, but now they trick your mind into feeling full? Alright then.

            “Let’s eat!” I say to my friends.

            “You’re buying right?” Angel asks.

            “What?”

            “Yeah. You sold most of your equipment since it isn’t for your build so I’m pretty sure that you have the most money,” says Kerano.

            “Do I really have to?”

            “Yes! And I want that feast now since you made me hungry thinking about it!” Angel says.

            “Yeah! You owe us one!” Kerano bandwagoning on Angel’s dick again.

            “Ugh. Fine.”

            They cheer and we go have a feast consisting of meats, fatty foods, and desserts.

            “Your in-game character could get fat from this you know,” I bluff.

            “No it can’t,” Angel says, “And if it can, you’ll have to carry me for the rest of the game.”

            “Like I’d carry your fat ass. Even if you still looked cute.”

            “My fat ass would still look cute. Right Kerano?”

            “No comment.”

            “See? He agrees with me.”

            “He’s just a good ass kisser. Me? I wouldn’t kiss your nasty ass.”

            Angel tries to kick me repeatedly underneath the table, but she forgets about the game rules.

            “You know I can’t be hurt right now, right?”

            “I know. I just get off on doing this.”

            “You’re into some weird shit.”

            “I was joking!”

            After dinner, we actually feel like we’re full. It’s probably a mind trick, but it’s weird cause the food tasted real. Anyway, we go up to the next floor, which is a sort of puzzle floor with rivers being blocked which blocks certain paths we need to go to. We direct and close off certain waterways to make path to where we need to go to. Once we make it to near the boss door, a group of three players approaches us. One dual wielding knight in edge lord dark purple armor, one who’s a mage maybe attack and debuff focused, and a thief looking guy with a small shield and a knife.

            The edge lord says, “We see that you’re the lead group beating the floors. How about you give someone else a try?”

            “Nah,” I say, “We’re going to the top as fast as we can before anyone dies.”

            “What about that reward at the top?”

            “It’s a nice bonus. And having our names on the Wall of First to let people know we were the ones to save them does sound like boner worthy material.”

            “He doesn’t speak for all of us,” says Kerano.

            “How about we duel to see who will fight the boss first?”

            “You got a deal edge lord. 3 v 3 or 1 v 1?”

            “It’ll be a team duel.”

            “Nice.”

            Three DPS builds versus what looks to be the same. This should be easy. We set the duel to half health and begin the duel. Angel rushes ahead as usual and goes for the thief, but he dodges her attacks. Kerano uses his sword slash ability at the mage to stop him from casting and almost brings him to half health. I go for the edge lord while using the same strategy I used against Angel which works perfectly on him to I easily defeat him. The thief gets distracted by this, leading to a double hit K.O. by Angel then it finishes with Kerano knocking back one of the mages spells back at him. ‘VICTORY to CAZZUTO SALVATORI’s group’.

            “Cazzuto Salvatori’s group?” Angel asks.

            “Yeah. You guys joined me so that’s the group name. We should probably rename it to something like…Swords of Darkness or…Blades of the Darkmoon? Knights of the Blood Oath…”

            “How about something original?” Kerano asks.

            “Nome gilda originale.”

            “Not literally asshole,” says Angel.

            We shake hands with the other group and make our way into the boss room. Her story is that she tried to seduce God and the angels to try to lower the mountain back down to the ground, but they didn’t take too kindly to this so they turned her into a snake. This one is mostly aggressive, focusing on one player at a time with unrelenting attacks with only two seconds to breath. Thankfully we get her to keep giving her aggro to someone else so the other two can do damage. Overall easy fight thanks to our numbers and skill.

As always, we rest at town and everything and go back out again. If the game is going to be like this, there’s going to be nothing to worry about. Hmmm we’ve almost spent about six hours here and we’ve only completed two floors out of fifteen not counting the third. I’m not sure about our or at least my survival odds so how about we speed things up. I mean we’re pretty tired right now though we aren’t actually physically doing anything. Kerano is going in and out (not a sex joke) and is trying to stay awake and Angel is trying to keep a straight face despite being the most tired out of us. We need to rest soon, but that’ll cost us time.

After we teleport to the next floor, which is a floor composed of lava and demons, I turn to my friends and say to them, “How about we skip some of the small stuff on this floor and go a little faster?”

“Why? We’ve been doing fine the way we’ve been doing it,” says Kerano.

“No, he’s right. By the time we beat the game it would’ve been close to three days. We still don’t know if our bodies will last until then,” says Angel.

“Right. We still need to rest for a few hours since we’re all pretty tired.”

“Oh that’s right. Why don’t we rest now?”

“I think we’re good enough to beat this boss. I mean we beat the other boss easily so let’s just do this one before we rest up.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah, besides the other floors are going to be differently themed so this one is like the others.”

“…Alright.”

Yes! Though the lava and enemy placement are kind of bullshit on this floor, we make it to the boss in no time. This boss is said to have tried making a deal with demons and the devil himself to lower the mountain, but it ended in the boss being turned into a huge demon and the rest of the demons and the devil being sent to Hell. The boss room is full of pools of lava and the boss throws up lava which creates more lava pools that take a while to disappear. It has a spear that it uses to try to push us in the lava with swipes and stabs. Damn, this boss fight is harder than I thought. Shit! I can barely get close to it as it spits lava close to it. This isn’t going to end wel – No! ... And it just fucking ended with our first life gone. We spawn back at our town and Kerano falls to his knees.

“Fuck!” Kerano yells.

Angel paces back and forth while angrily mumbling to herself.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Sorry?!” they both yell at me.

“You just cost us our first life Kaylen! We only have two more chances and we don’t even know if the next floors are going to be as bullshit as this one or if we’ll waste another on it,” says Kerano.

“Hey losing the first life usually means we should be more careful so let’s never rush through the game again.”

“And never listen to you,” says Angel.

“Don’t be so harsh on him Angel, he’s just an idiot, remember?”

“Yeah.”

“But,” Kerano says as he gets in my face, “If make us fuck up like this again, you aren’t going to have a say in major decisions.”

“I understand.”

Holy shit they’re pissed. I better be more careful to keep their trust to get through this game otherwise I won’t have any help getting to the top.

We go back to the floor and we be more careful this time while looking for better equipment or something to help us with the boss. There’s a little hidden space around the boss room with demons there that oversee the boss room that controls the lava pools. We kill them and use an item on the cauldrons which should get rid of the boss’s lava ability.

“It was only a few steps away from us! We could’ve saved one of our lives!” Kerano says.

“I’m sorry Kerano. I’ll make it up to you guys I swear! I’ll buy you guys breakfast, the hotel rooms, anything.”

“Will you stop calling me cutie?” says the cutie.

“Now that’s asking too much.”

“Haha. I don’t think I’ll ever understand you guys’ ability to crack jokes in a life or death situation like this.”

“I was going to say it’s what makes us special, but after hanging around Kaylen, I’m starting to think it’s a mental illness.”

“So you’re saying you’re retarded?”

“No! I didn’t say that!”

“Yes, you did.”

Angel pushes me and hangs me over the edge while holding my chest. Kerano lets me hang there for a little while having a laugh with her before making Angel pull me back so we can have another go at the boss. This time it’s way easier since there isn’t any lava and the boss doesn’t even have the ability to create lava pools now since we used the item on the cauldron which pours water on it. We defeat it in no time, do a quick pose for the Wall of Firsts, and head back to town to rest. I pay for the rooms as promised and go to sleep, hoping that tomorrow will be somehow be better than today.

* The rest of the story is going to be here for free as soon as I write it.

* The published version of the book will have pictures, thoughts when making this book, and other goodies.

* If you offer your thoughts that are helpful to the book, I will include your name in the back.