Source Code

Trapped

As Kat walked down the street, a flashing envelope caught her attention. A message from Headcase, or Storm? She opened it.

Friend request from Storm.

Accept
Decline

Kat closed the window. She opened the menu, checking the time display. It was getting late. She should head back to the real world. Kat opened the setting and looked for the Log Out tab. It wasn't there. Feeling silly, she checked the other tabs. Not there either.

"Hey, could you help me out?" Kat asked a passing pair of players. They smiled.

"Sure," one of them said. "What is it?"

"How do you log out?" Kat asked.

"It's in your settings," the player replied.

"No, it isn't," Kat answered, growing uneasy. The player frowned.

"I'll show you," they said. They opened their menu and searched for a moment. After a couple minutes they closed it. Kat noticed they had gone pale.

"What is it?" their friend asked.

"The Log Out tab isn't there."

Kat felt her panic growing. She managed a weak smile.

"Thanks anyway."

As Kat walked down the square, she overheard other players' conversations.

"Where's the Log Out tab?"

"Are we trapped here?"

"What's going on?"

"Forever? Are we going to be here . . . forever?"

"Kat!"

Headcase grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. Behind him were two other players. Kat read their stats. Scarlet, a female player with violet hair and amber eyes, and Kane, a male player with black hair and green eyes. All three were heavily outfitted. Scarlet was a level six rogue, while Kane was a level four barbarian. Both were members of ProSpectrum.

"You realized that the tab is missing too?" Kat asked.

"Yeah," Headcase said, a panicked edge to his voice. "What's going on?"

"You've played this before, right?" Kane grunted. "Is this normal?"

"My mom is going to get worried," Scarlet added in a frightened voice. Suddenly Kat's vision was filled with a projection. A cloaked ring of figures. The plaza fell silent.

"We are the Hackers," one of the cloaked figures said.

"Call us the Gamekeepers," a second one added.

"You are all probably wondering where the Log Out tab is," a third continued. Kat could hear faint muttering all around her. It fell silent when they resumed speaking.

"The answer is this: it's not there," the first figure explained.

"You're all trapped here," a new figure added gleefully.

"And the best part, we've cut into the coding system," a new figure said. "All of your true body types will now be downloaded and added to your character form."

"There is a way out," the first figure interrupted.

"If you can conquer all seven kingdoms and beat the game, you will be free," the third figure offered. Kat calmed down. That wasn't so hard to do. It would take hours at most. Especially with everyone working together.

"But there's a catch," a new figure rumbled. "You only have one life. If you game over, you die. Both here, and in the real world."

"Let the games begin," all of the cloaked figures said. The projection faded. Kat glanced at Headcase, Scarlet, and Kane. Their bodies seemed to melt and blur. Headcase became thinner and shrunk an inch. Scarlet's hair turned blond, her eyes became gray, and she shrank until she was the size of an eleven year old. Kane shrank until he was the same size and height as Kat. Kat could only assume that she had also changed, becoming more like her body in real life. At first there was only silence. Then the screams started.

-+-4 months later-+-

Kat glanced around the tavern. Players were clustered in small groups, talking in low voices as they ate their food or drank from mugs. Kat noticed more than a few eyes watching her. She didn't blame them.

In the four months since everyone had realized they were trapped, a lot had changed. The initial number of players had been cut down to a little under half of its original amount. Guilds became the only form of safety as more and more players turned to hunting others for survival. Magic and healing type classes became increasingly rare as they died out. Only two of the kingdoms had been discovered so far. One in the hills east of Hillton, the other was in a forest southwest of Hillton. The hilly kingdom had been conquered and was under the control of ProSpectrum. The other was still unreachable.

In order to conquer a kingdom, the kingdom boss had to be defeated. No one knew what the boss of the forest kingdom was. Any scouts sent there never returned. It seemed like a useless waste of lives to keep sending them. So ProSpectrum had joined up with several other guilds to find players who would join them in a large scale attack against the kingdom boss.

Kat had survived on her own all of that time. She had gotten herself a new outfit which increased both her agility and armor, as well as collected an electric sword. She had hundreds of spells of all types including elemental, healing, and guiding. She had a few magical items, but that wasn't anybody else's business. Instead of attempting to take out the boss, she hunted players who attacked other players. She was a bounty hunter.

And she had her prey in her sights.

"Should we strike now?" a soft voice asked beside her. The speaker was a girl Kat had met who was her own age. She was the same level as Kat, with long blond hair and blue eyes. Her name was Clarysage, and she was a level twenty barbarian. She was also the only female barbarian Kat had ever met. They had agreed to work together occasionally in order to bring in bounties. Kat was the brains and did the tracking while Clarysage was the muscle and did the attacking. Kat shook her head.

"You hoping she'll lead us to bigger game?" Clarysage asked.

"No," Kat told her. "Safe zone, remember?"

"She's got a bounty on her head. Can't we take her out anyway?"

"No, the rats are smart." Kat pointed to the prey in question. It was a small girl, no older than ten. She was only a level five cleric, small and innocent looking with a green icon. No guild. But Kat knew the truth. She had been tracking that girl for a long time. It was a new tactic players had developed. An innocent looking young low level player was sent to bring a guild or single player with them to some destination far from a safe zone. Then the player or players were ambushed by several high level purple players who would kill them and take their supplies.

"Looks like someone has fallen into her trap," Clarysage said. Kat glanced up. The young girl was leading a group of five guys out the tavern door. There was something about the guy in the lead that reminded Kat of someone . . .

"Come on, let's save their lives," Kat said as she stood up.