End Online: Volume 6 (16 page)

Leaving early the next
day, it takes us nearly three hours to return to Kano City. Gladox has become
enthralled with my race and decides to accompany us for a while as he plays.
Our party is short a few members and we have already learned to work with him
in battle, so everyone is happy to have him follow along.

In Kano City we head back
to the librarian’s assistant to turn in the quest. I stay back and watch on as
Fen, the one who accepted the quest, goes to speak with the assistant. The difficulty
of the quest was incredibly high compared to the standard, so I hope that the
reward reflects that.

Your quest has been
successfully completed.

A message appears in front
of me, which I quickly dismiss before opening my inventory to check the loot. I
received two items, a set of leg armor and a standard longsword with green
etchings on it.

Both items have a level
requirement of 200, which is where the majority of the game’s main players
currently are. The leg armor itself is only of the ‘Ordinary’ rarity, but its
defence is considerably high for its class. The longsword on the other hand
leaves me speechless. It is of the ‘Epic’ rarity, only below that of the
‘Legendary’ grade. It only has one ability, but that single ability is
incredibly valuable.

I numbly reread the item
information over and fail to notice my other party members trying to get my
attention. I only realize when Sir Laurence shakes my shoulders and asks me,
“What is it?”

“We need to go to the
Auction House!” I hurriedly say, grabbing Fen’s arm and pulling her along as I
rush out of the library.

I notice that the others
are bewildered by my actions, but I don’t have time to worry about that. The
excitement over the weapon makes my heart race and the only thing I can think
about is how much will it sell for.

I push through the crowd
in the streets and ignore all the angry shouts. I soon reach the Auction House
and am about to enter it when I hear the sound of knocking on a door. The noise
feels out of place, so I turn my head to locate the source. Unable to find it,
I decide to ignore it… until it happens again. This time, I realize exactly
what it is.

‘There’s someone at
my front door?’

Hesitating in front of the
Auction House, I quickly decide it would be best to answer it. I send the rest
of the party a quick message saying that there is someone at my front door and
I will be back shortly before logging out of the game.

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

“Coming!” I call out from
my bed as I remove the V-Link from my head.

While pulling myself into
my wheelchair, my stomach growls in desperate need of food. I have noticed
lately that I seem to have lost some weight from the lack of exercise and only
eating a minimal amount. I unlock and open the front door while contemplating
what to eat before logging back in.

Standing on my doorstep
are two men in expensive suits. One is a balding middle-aged man while the
other is extremely handsome and only in his late-twenties. My initial thought
is that they are salesmen and I start to dismiss them, but what the younger man
says makes me apologetic for my rudeness.

“Good afternoon. You must
be Hollis Sylvester. I am Michael and this is Rood. We are employees for
Virtue, the company that manufactured your Virtual Link.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t
realize.”

“It’s not a problem.
Normally we wouldn’t make a house call toward any of our customers, but there
has been a situation.”

“A situation?” I begin to
grow nervous.

“Yes, our company has an
automatic monitor for all the V-Links in circulation. Due to the nature of the
device, it is necessary for us to maintain the safety of our customers. If
there are any anomalies, such as the one we detected with your device, we are
required to come solve the issue.”

“Anomalies? Wait, what do
you mean? There is nothing wrong with my device.”

“Most issues aren’t
detectable by the user. Our failsafe tests will always pick up on any
inconsistencies with the devices before any harm can come to the user, so we
ask that you please do not think of our device as dangerous. However, you may
have noticed some unusual symptoms like a lack of appetite, dizzy spells, or
even mild headaches.”

I rub my temples gently
while thinking about the headaches that have been coming and going since the
last time I used the Sacred Art ‘Perceptual Sight’ in End Online. If it was a
fault with the device that caused it, then it would be understandable. The
headaches have been less frequent lately, so the only known cause of it is
using that Sacred Art. As long as I don’t use it, there is no problems.

“There have been none of
those symptoms,” I blatantly lie. “But would you be able to fix it now? I’m
happy to wait if that’s what you need to do.”

“I apologize Mr.
Sylvester, but such a fault cannot be reliably fixed, and given that there is a
chance it could happen again the device will have to be scrapped. There is no
need for you to worry, we will provide you with a new one free of charge and
all your application and game data will be automatically downloaded onto the
new device.”

“No! You can’t just take
it!”

I wheel myself to block
the doorway and prevent the businessmen from entering. Replacing a device is
fine, but that device is the one that has Fen residing within. There is no way
I can allow them to just take it.

“Mr. Sylvester,” the
handsome man, Michael, continues to speak without showing any emotion on his
face, “We are required by law to remove the faulty device. We have the
replacement as per our quality control terms here with us. If we leave without
the device, we will lose our jobs and the company will be in a lot of trouble
as well.”

Michael reaches into his
coat and bring out a slip of paper that is some form of legal document. He
hands it over to me and explains its purpose.

“This is an order of law
that we must remove it for the safety of the consumer. Please move aside so we
can do our job.”

I resolutely block the
door and prevent them from entering the house, but the two men just sigh before
forcefully rolling me backwards and into the hallway. They then walk around me
and quickly locate my room where the V-Link is currently sitting on my bed.

As my anxiety becomes
higher than it ever has been before. I arrive at the room to find them
finishing unplugging everything and manually disconnecting it from the local
internet. The middle-aged man, Rood, puts down a box with a new V-Link, the
latest model. I desperately try to grab them and stop them from taking Fen
away, but Michael and Rood easily step aside and dodge me.

Just as they go to leave,
Michael steps in front of me before reaching into his jacket again and this
time removing a thick envelope. He calmly places it down across my knees before
saying.

“Our devices practically
never have any issues associated with them. As you may understand, we would
rather people don’t go talking about this to others. This envelope is our
unofficial apology, and we hope that today’s matters can end with this.”

I open the envelope and to
my shock, find a thick pile of bank notes. There should be about five thousand
dollars in there if my initial judgement isn’t wrong. Perhaps it was due to the
shock, but I have a sudden realization that the Virtue employee Michael seems
familiar.

Unable to put my finger on
why, I can’t help but ask, “Wait! Have we met before!?” to Michael as he is
walking out the door.

I want to keep him back
and wait for an opportunity to take back my old V-Link, but it is Rood who is
holding onto it and he doesn’t take note of my shout.

Michael pauses for a
moment, but he is facing the other direction so I can’t see his expression.

“No, we haven’t,” he
calmly states before walking out the door and shutting it behind him.

My house is quickly filled
by silence and the fading afternoon light. I sit there in a daze, my hands
trembling. My mind is blank, and I don’t know what to do next. I absentmindedly
sit there in the hallway, ignoring the hunger in my stomach. My phone rings
after half an hour, most likely Markus or Verity wondering why I haven’t logged
back in, but I also ignore that.

All I want, right now, is
silence.

– Mikhail –

I hope we never have to
play the part of Michael and Rood again. I can feel the cold sweat dripping
down my forehead as Ralph and I leave Hollis Sylvester’s home. This whole thing
was a first for me, as I’m usually a straightforward person, not inclined to
such dubious acts as pretending to be from a company I’m not.

Technically speaking,
Virtue is an under-the-table affiliate company of ours created solely for the
distribution of the Virtual Link, but that doesn’t make it any better. This was
the plan Ralph and I came up with after discussing what to do. The only other
viable option was to break into the house and steal it; security isn’t very
strict in this outer region of the city anyway.

Regardless of the method,
we achieved our goal. I even gave him some money prepared by the company to discourage
him from following up on the event. We have influence over several sections of
the judiciary system, so it wouldn’t matter, but this is easier for everyone. I
only hope Hollis Sylvester realizes that.

I enter my car after Ralph
and start the engine, still brooding over what he asked as we were leaving.

Have we met?

Indeed, we had met. I
followed him around as Mikhail the Stalwart in End Online for some time, before
his party killed mine and disappeared. I was wearing a helmet and my voice was
muffled by it, so I didn’t think he would actually recognize me. Hollis
Sylvester getting suspicious won’t impact my job, but it will prevent me
chasing him down and following him around in the game like I’ve been planning
to.

As I sigh to myself and
clear my mind, I put the car in gear and start driving back to the office. I
need to run diagnostics on the V-Link as soon as possible, even if it means
working into the night.

“Is it really in here? The
AI?” Ralph asks me in a gruff voice.

“It should be. When it left
the server matrix, this is the only location it could have gone to.”

“I see… You know, my kid
uses one of these. Is it really possible for it to malfunction and damage the
user?”

“Of course, but you’re
looking at a billion to one chance of that happening. Unless there is an
outside influence, the chance of any deviation in the hardware is near
impossible.”

“So all that…?”

“No need to worry Ralph.
It was all made up. I threw out some theoretical possibilities, but nothing I
said has actually happened to anyone before.”

“I understand. Sorry for
worrying about it.”

Ralph only has a minor
desk job at Idea Imagine and is a little out of touch with the latest
technology, but he was the easiest to requisition for this job. If I had gone
alone, the young man would have definitely doubted my cover.

An hour later, the sun has
set and the street lamps illuminate the roads. The windscreen of my car also
has an advanced display that brightens my view of the roads, allowing me to see
even clearer. I arrive back at the Idea Imagine offices not long after. Ralph
goes to his own car, leaving me alone in the building aside from the few sparse
employees who are working late into the night.

I take the V-Link helmet
containing the AI and go to a special room where there is an isolated terminal
disconnected from both the internet and company server. With the faraday cage
installed in the walls no wireless signals can enter or exit this room either.
There is no chance of the AI fleeing the device when I turn it on.

I plug the helmet into the
terminal and open up a diagnostic program. Every fragment of data is separated
and read individually.

“Where are you?” I ask
myself while studying the data in front of me to look for the program known in
the game as Fen.

I sit in front of the
massive pile of data for an hour, combing through it from one end to the other.
No matter how I look at it, the AI isn’t there.

“There’s so much data I
must have missed it,” I conclude.

Going back to the start of
the data, I start going through it again. My second attempt also comes up with
nothing. The third is the same. I try a different diagnostic tool and search
for any and all programs or patterns in the data that are unnatural, but still
nothing.

I refuse to believe that
my programs can’t locate the AI in the device and keep searching well past
midnight.

Nothing works. Nothing
comes back with results. As a final desperate measure, I put the helmet on and
enter the virtual space myself. Still nothing.

Logging out and slowly
removing the helmet, my fatigue turns into rage and I hurl the device at the
wall in the room while shouting curses at it.

The AI isn’t on the
device. It either left it long ago, or fled before I had a chance to take it.
The former is more likely, but if that is the case, then where is it?

I sit in the room against
a wall fuming. It isn’t until my anger dissipates and my tiredness returns that
I weakly close my eyes and fall asleep.

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

– Hollis –

It isn’t until late at
night when I finally shake myself from my stupor. No matter how much I replay
the evening’s events in my head, I keep denying it. Telling myself that I’m
wrong and that there is nothing to worry about, I go back to my room where the
box with the new V-Link is sitting on my bed. The game chip for End Online is
placed neatly beside it.

I hesitantly open the box
and remove the new V-Link. The latest design is much more sleek than the one I
had previously, and it has different padding on the inside that is likely an
improvement.

I plug it in and insert
the game chip before placing it on my head and lying down. When the device
starts up my vision slowly fades and is clouded by fog. Once it clears, I find
myself in a blank personal locker about half the size as my previous one. There
is currently nothing inside of it, so I can immediately tell that Fen isn’t
here.

‘I thought they said
everything would return to how it is? My locker is even considerably smaller,’
 I sigh dejectedly before opening up the console to edit my
locker.

There are a lot more
themes and options than what I used to have. It is most likely a feature of the
latest model. The old themes exist too, so I choose the same ‘China3’ that I
used previously. The space is much smaller so I only create a single room,
placing a bed and a few pieces of furniture in it, the rest is default as set
by the theme.

In the time it takes me to
set up the room to something close to what I’m used to, the helmet already
finished installing all necessary End Online data so I start the login process.
I’m anxious, half expecting Fen to be there waiting for me, half knowing that
it isn’t possible.

My vision clears as I
return to Kano City outside of the auction house. I look left and right, scanning
every area I can, but I can’t see Fen anywhere.

I lifelessly walk into the
auction house and order a room to list my items for sale. The receptionist is
the same noisy one as usual, and I shut out her voice without realizing it.
There is also a message that I received a couple points of infamy which I
instantly dismiss.

Inside the private room I
operate the terminal, selecting the only item I plan on selling today: the
‘Severing Breeze’. All I do after that is click submit and the item is removed
from my inventory and placed on the site for a seven day auction.

There’s nothing left to do
here so I close the terminal and leave the room. As I walk out the door from
the private room I run straight into someone standing there. I would normally
apologize to the player but this time I become furious.

“For god’s sake, what the
#@%# are you doing standing… Fen?”

My anger passes as quick
as it came, and in its place is disbelief. I just walked into Fen while walking
out of the private room. She must have been standing there waiting for me. No,
how can she be here?

“Fen, is that you?” I ask
her again.

“Yes,” she blandly
replies.

“But, how?”

“I don’t understand your
question.”

“Didn’t you reside in my
V-Link? Didn’t the company take it away?”

“I felt danger and returned
here, then I couldn’t get back.”

“I’m so glad to hear it!”

I step forward and hug
Fen, her icy personality and body warmth washing over me simultaneously. It
isn’t until she doesn’t return my hug that I discover her attitude has suddenly
changed. She stands there like an ice sculpture as I hug her. I pull away and
look into her eyes, finding the affection I had come to know so well has nearly
vanished.

“Fen… are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Fen’s words are what I
would call the worst response she could give. Every alarm in my head is ringing
and telling me that something is wrong, but I don’t know what it is. I ask her
several more questions, but she only responds to me with empty answers. If I
was to describe it, I would say it is like she has become an ordinary
‘Companion’.

Sir Laurence, Verde, the
two brothers, and even CaptainGordon, the strange pirate who created a gun in
the game, are currently offline. The only person online that I feel I may be
able to talk to about the situation is Gladox. I contemplate logging off and
calling Sir Laurence or Verde, but I don’t want to leave Fen alone.

“Gladox. Hi, are you
busy?”

“Lost! Where were you? We
thought you were coming back, but only Fen returned. Isn’t she a ‘Companion’?
How was she here when you were offline?”

“Too many questions! Can
you meet me in Kano City? I’ll explain about her, I really need some advice.”

“Sure! I’m not too far
from the city. It will take me a couple of hours to return, is that fine?”

“How is that close!? Okay,
I will wait for you. Let me know when you get here.”

Saying our farewells I
then say to Fen, “Let’s go,” before exiting the auction house. My inventory is
full of random materials and equipment from all the monsters we killed, so my
next destination is a few stores.

Selling small items like
what is in my inventory is much easier to do at NPC stores, so I give Fen a bag
full of items and ask her to go sell them for me.

“I’m sorry, that action is
not possible,” The wolf girl says while refusing the bag.

“But you’ve done it before.
What do you mean it’s not possible? Are you sure you’re okay Fen?”

“I’m fine.”

She is completely like a
standard ‘Companion’, so much so that is pains my heart. To keep myself from
going crazy I treat it as a joke for now, that she is the same as always. She
is just mad at me right now.

Fen refuses to help me
sell my items to an NPC and I want to avoid gaining infamy points for such a
small thing, so instead I go to a nearby player bazaar and find some stores
that aren’t run by NPCs.

Surprisingly, the first
player I approach with the goods ends up buying them all. He pays a massive 200
gold coins for everything. I don’t know what the NPC stores would have paid,
but that seems to be an excellent price in comparison to how long it took to
collect them. My current wallet is now nearly 300 gold coins, but I spend fifty
on rare herbs and some quality ores to craft stronger throwing knives.

I find a couple pieces of
armor amongst the player stalls that I really want, but the cheapest piece is
twice the amount of gold I have. I still want to invest in my guild, so I
decide to veto the idea of saving up to buy it and hope to find something of
equal value from a boss.

Two hours later, Gladox
sends me a private message letting me know that he has just arrived at the
city. I choose an inn nearby that only has a few players in it and respond to
him with the location. After another half an hour the recognizable four-eared
wolf man enters the building.

It is now well into the
night in the game, so the amount of players in the inn has multiplied several
times. Gladox stands at the doorway and scans the room. When his eyes meet with
mine, he smiles and weaves his way around the tables to sit down with Fen and
myself. Our seating arrangement puts Fen in the middle with us on either side.

“So, what do you need
advice on?” Gladox asks me while constantly shifting his eyes over to look at
Fen.

I want to ask Fen to leave
so we can talk privately, but she is currently refusing to go to my new V-Link.
I can only talk with her beside me as I explain the situation of Fen. I tell
Gladox how she used to actually reside in my personal locker and come to End
Online with me, and all the other quirks she has.

“That’s how it is. She is
more than a conventional ‘Companion’. Fen is closer to a true AI, at least that
is my conclusion,” I explain to Gladox while Fen sits beside me as if this
conversation has nothing to do with her.