A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (19 page)

The man waves his hands in the air and taps a
few digital screens that only he can see.

"25% callout fee charged,” a robotic sounding
woman’s voice says. “Anything more, Mr. Gray?”

“
No thank you.”

He looks back to Harry and the words sink in.
His debt has just gone up 25%, but it also means that he is safe
for now.”

“
I've placed a little meeting
between you and me in my schedule book. You have exactly 24 hours
in real-time to come up with the cash, or me in the boys are going
to break every single bone in your body."

He kicks Harry in the face and a stinging
sensation appears on the left side. The machines inside of him
immediately mitigate the pain, yet don't completely remove it. It's
enough of a reminder to make sure that the man’s intent is
clear.

Harry watches the collector slip out of his
apartment with his two goons in tow.

Twenty-four hours is not a long time. He gets
to his feet. Harry has to get back into the game.

He walks over to his Sleep Tech and finds a
small red light beeping in front of it in his vision. He taps the
red button and a small display opens, which reads out the
information to him. The device requires six hours for purging and
extensive cleaning. It is Harry's fault for not performing the five
minute service before using the machine that he is supposed to do
every time he uses it. His laziness has gotten the better of him
once more and now he is going to be held back from the funds he so
desperately needs for six real world hours. It’s a very long time
for one that is used to spending only one or two hours here and
there in the real world sporadically.

He walks over to the only chair in the room
and sits down at the tiny barren table in the undecorated one room
apartment he calls home. There's a timer ticking down on the front
of the machine, which is pressed up against the wall in the small
space that that the room has created for it. It ticks down much too
slowly and Harry can feel his agitation growing. He’s not used to
having to wait or being in the real world for this length of
time.

He gets up and walks over to the single
cabinet in the room. It is rather small for the things it can
do.

Harry opens it up and pushes a few invisible
buttons. Two small tubes appear on the shelves inside and he picks
them up to look over.

The first he puts to his neck. There is a
small hiss and he drops it to the floor where it is absorbed to go
wherever rubbish goes. The next he presses to his arm. He waits as
several beeps indicate the device is working.

Harry stumbles once as he walks back to the
chair and drops the stim shot to the table, where it disappears
into the wood. Where before he was extremely worried, now he is
extremely calm. The second shot has taken away all feelings that
might interrupt his state and the first has provided him with 24
hours worth of food. He can go a full day without having to rely on
the Sleep Tech’s inbuilt nourishment system.

"Six hours," he says to himself. Whatever
happens, he is going to have to do something drastic in the game.
Six hours is the equivalent of almost a week inside. He’ll come
back into the game with less than a month on the clock. It's not
long to create the sort of income he will need to pay off as bill.
He barely has one quarter worth of it in gold and the contract
bonus isn't anywhere near enough. At most he is going to have half
and that's not enough to satisfy those men. Half may see him a few
less broken bones. However, there's going to be pain and there is
going to be a lot of it if he only pays that much.

He settles back and watches the little red
dot. Six hours to wait and then it’s game on.

*****

Harry comes back into the game in the same
place that he left it. The field is the same as it was before and
the time is nearly the same as well. It reminds him of the battle
that he shared with the others, which to them was a week or more
ago.

He checks his in-game clock and finds it near
to midnight. A significant amount of time has probably passed for
his friends, considering the quick progression that they have made
so far in the game.

He brings his sword out of his inventory and
holds it in his hand for the first time in a game week. It feels
good against his skin and he brings the weapon up in front of him
to look at carefully.

"I wish I could have had you in the real
world," he says. "Things would have been a lot easier."

He looks up and the game icons appear in his
vision. He notes that he has twenty messages. He flips through them
and finds that Axel has left a few worried emails and even Josh has
left one or two saying that he hopes Harry will come back for more
experimentation when he returns. The remainder are from the other
players, who wish him well when he gets back.

Harry focuses on Axel and whispers to
her.

It’s Harry. I’m in serious trouble
and I need your help. Can you meet me in Cat Town?

It’s about time you got back. I’m
at the café. Get Josh to make a portal and I’ll meet you at his
place after I pay my bill.

Harry focuses on Josh and requests his help.
The wizard seems surprised that Harry has returned and opens up a
portal, so that he can step through to where Josh is.

The small room that he enters is strangely
decorated with a variety of expensive looking in-game items. There
is a cat woman, who is a little plump, cooking in a well stocked
kitchen in the corner. She looks up and points towards a small
veranda just outside the main window of the room, where he can see
Josh sipping on a steaming cup of tea in the night air.

Harry thanks the woman and steps outside. He
looks off the side of the veranda and can see Axel rushing across
the central square of the not-so-sleepy town below. They are in the
centre of Cat Town, just across from the mage shop.

"Is everything okay? You disconnected for a
week," Josh says, a hint of concern in his voice.

Harry sits down on the chair opposite him and
watches as Axel enters the front of the building.

"Things aren’t so good," Harry says
honestly.

There is a knock on the door and the cat woman
lets Axel inside. As soon as she is in, she strides up to Harry and
stares down at him with one eyebrow twitching.

"Twenty-five percent! How are you supposed to
get that sort of cash?"

Harry glances at Josh, who shrugs. Axel has
always been quite well-informed about his situation. It doesn’t
surprise him she knows the details.

"You checked up on me?"

Axel rolls her eyes and sits down in her gaudy
golden armor at the table. She has a new bow with her that has some
glowing pink tattoo-like circles on it.

"I have been watching your situation unfold on
the internet. Your credit rating took a nose dive last week and I
sent an email to a friend, who checked the details,” she explains.
“You are in seriously big trouble if you think you can come up with
that sort of cash from this game alone.”

Harry sighs and Josh looks amused.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I was
thinking that maybe we could do another one of those grinding stone
runs. If I do ten or twenty in a row, I might just make
it.

Josh shakes his head.

"It’s impossible. There is a restriction on
how many I can make in-game. I can only produce one at a time and
they take three days each to create. Even with a month left on our
contracts, it would require massive amounts of resources to produce
that many grinding stones.”

There is silence for a moment and Harry starts
feeling a sense of hopelessness to his situation.

Josh taps his lips.

"How much is your debt?"

Harry tells him and Josh whistles.

"What did you do to owe that sort of
sum?"

"Let’s just say that I like gambling just a
little bit too much. It has always been a bit of a problem in my
family.”

Josh nods in understanding. It's not too
uncommon in a life where everything is instant and most things are
extremely safe to engage in illicit activities that sometimes break
the law and are other times supported by it. Harry is just one of
many among a generation of people who do things that aren't always
quite right

"There is one way. However, it is very
dangerous."

Axel looks to Josh and shakes her head
slightly, but Josh ignores her and continues.

"Do you know what a dungeon is?"

"A place where people get beaten for
pleasure?"

"Not that sort of dungeon. This is a place in
the game where one can fight high-level monsters and gain even
higher-level rewards. It is a throwback to the old world of gaming
that has survived the centuries and still continues to thrive, even
today with the advanced questing systems, battle systems and more.
It’s an antique, but one that might be just what you
need."

"So I go to this dungeon and I can get a lot
of gold?"

Josh is about to explain, but Axel puts her
hand up to interrupt him.

"Harry, I don't think you should do this. What
he is about to suggest to you is just as bad as what got you into
this trouble. Are you sure you want to go down that road
again?"

Harry looks to the two of them and shakes his
head.

"If I don't know the road ahead of me then how
can I be sure I shouldn’t take it?” he says. “Tell me the rest,
Josh"

Josh clears his throat and
continues.

"One of the features of the dungeons in this
game is that you can bet gold and other things of value on a
variety of different parameters. Time, number of kills, completion
rate, stealth levels - almost anything that you can imagine,” he
says. “It's gambling, but if you win then the odds can be pretty
decent."

"So all I need to do is bet on my skill and I
can receive the gold I need?"

"Pretty much."

"And where is this dungeon?"

Josh opens up a small map and spreads it out
on the table.

"There are a huge number of different dungeons
in this game and I have mapped out a few of them from reports from
people who have at least entered them, if not gotten very far
within them.”

He circles one point on the map.

“
There is only one out of all of
these that any of us are the appropriate level for and it is this
one."

Harry looks down at the map and sees that it's
named
Dragon's Lair
.

"When can we go?"

Josh looks to Axel and something quietly is
communicated between them.

“
I’m happy to support you in this.
I pretty much owe you for the success of my grinding stones, which
are financing her…” he gestures to the cat woman, “… spending
habits. I also need a few items from this dungeon, so I’m
in.”

Harry looks to Axel.

She glances to the map with a small look of
excitement on her face.

"It would be an incredible experience to go
inside a dungeon -absolutely thrilling, actually. I could get by on
the rush alone for a few days," she says in a tone that Harry
hasn’t heard from her before. “I’m in too.”

"So we can go now?”

Josh shakes his head.

“
No, we need five players minimum.
For this dungeon one of them has to be a thief and we need a
healer."

"A thief?"

"Yes,” Josh says.

His expression goes blank for a
moment.

“
Erica says
hi
and that she
can come. We just need a thief and none of the ones that I know are
a high enough level to enter into the dungeon."

They both look to Axel.

“
I don’t know any
thieves.”

“
Alright, so our number one
priority is finding a thief so we can enter.”

Harry looks from Axel to Josh.

"I might just know somebody.

He thinks back to his early days in the game.
He wonders if Shady Thief is going to try and rip him off this time
too.

*****

“
You know there are no hard
feelings for what happened, right?”

Harry doesn’t smile. He just carefully checks
the contract that Shady has offered and hands it to Josh, who casts
a few spells on it, who then passes it to Erica and Axel, who both
scrutinize it carefully.

“
These terms seem a little bit
generous, Shady. Do you want to tell us why you have decided to
come with us today?” Josh asks suspiciously.

Shady goes a little red and reaches into his
pocket. He pulls out his quest book and opens it to a certain
page.

“
Ew, yuk,” Erica says.

Both Harry and Josh stare at the
page.

“
You are going to have to share
that quest with me,” Harry says with great certainty.