Chapter 11 – To Make Things Relevant
A chime from the PA system is heard and James can be heard speaking through the system, “Good afternoon, this is the owner speaking. Just wanting to let everyone know that the new Virtual Reality Room’s system is on the fritz. So, enemies from the games will be appearing inside the building. Don’t worry though, because you have the option to either be evacuated until the issue is resolved, or, because of the bugs, you can fight the enemies as any of your characters in the games currently available in this building by using the goggles that are used in VR Rooms from any location.”
The sound of something burning can be heard in the background, “Unfortunately, the injuries received will apply to you in this way as well. I found this out the hard way… Good news is now I can’t flip people off anymore,” James laughs weakly, “One more thing, I lowered the power-disabling field slightly, so now offensive powers will work on the enemies.”
“He’s joking right?” asked Carol.
Her question was answered when everyone nearby teleported elsewhere. Damian also takes the time to put on the goggles. He a screen materializes to select which game mode and he tries Shooter. Damian gets a belt with two pistols holstered, a utility vest, and some basic padding on the knees and elbows. “I don’t get to pick what I start with?”
Marvin does the same, but he gets Riot Gear and a gas mask. His armaments betray his appearance with a light machine gun at hand and an automatic shotgun on his back. Marvin also has a couple of combat knives and an assortment of throwing items. “Nope, you have to find or buy better stuff.”
Alex and Carol reach for their goggles, but a thief from the Fantasy-RPG steals both goggles and runs off. Both Damian and Marvin shoot the thief in places that would normally kill or at least cripple, but the thief continues running unharmed. The PA system turns on again and James makes another announcement, “I almost forgot: enemies can only be defeated by powers or weapons and abilities from their corresponding games.”
Damian facepalms himself then changes to his RPG character and chases the thief. In the meantime, Marvin blinks twice and keeps his eyes shut after the second blink. A thin stream of red electricity darts out from his visible eye muscle and continuously shocks the thief to the point of paralysis. Damian makes a grab for the thief, but a soldier from the Shooter takes a shot at his leg from opposite side of the building. Damian trips from the shot and slides across the floor, but he transitions to his Shooter character on the way down to take several shots at the soldier. The shots make contact and kill the soldier quickly. A couple dozen more soldiers show up, but Marvin quickly dispatches them with a couple of well-thrown grenades.
Damn he’s good at this game… thought Damian as he limped to the thief. He loots the thief of all of his items and promptly goes to his RPG character to kill him.
The_L0ST_w0n:
+5 EXP
+1000 Gold
+1 Thief’s Outfit
+10 Smoke Bombs
+2 Goggles
Kills: 1
Cash: +$20
Dead_aye
Kills: 30
Cash: +$400
Damian tosses the goggles to Alex and Carol as they run over to him. Alex changes to her character first then Carol does the same. Alex’s stats and appearance are the same as they were Chapter 9 (remember, Alex is bad at shooting games in general). Surprisingly, Carol’s character is the same as her human appearance and is wearing a pure white robe with a purple sash that hangs from the neck and wraps around the torso all the way to the waist. The sash has runic symbols, embroidered in gold thread. And out comes the stats screen:
S3XXY_beAST:
Class: Bishop (Monk: Class 3) Level: 70
Current Gear: Ceremonial
Strength: 16
Speed: 32
Endurance: 44
Will Power: 135
Special Notice: Guild Master to Save the Innocent (Guild Rank: 7)
Everyone else’s’ jaw drops (figuratively) at the improbably high level and stats of Carol’s character and her leading one of the highest ranking guilds in the game. Carol tries to justify the level by saying, “The clinic I run also doubles as a daycare center. Sometimes there are kids that play this game while waiting, so I asked if I could party with them. Most of the kids get lost while playing and run into boss characters often, which explain the level and class choice. At some point one of the kids made a guild with everyone else at the daycare and appointed me Guild Master.”
Damian says, “If it wasn’t her saying this, I wouldn’t believe…” missed sniper shot grazes Damian by the eyebrow, “…it…”
He faints from fright. “He’s a really honest with his emotions, isn’t he?” Alex remarked. She and Carol drag Damian behind a planter to take cover. Marvin catches up and notices the sniper. He shuts his eyes and shoots the sniper right between the eyes in one shot. Carol proceeded to heal Damian while witnessing Marvin’s shot. Electric Eyes and Blind Sight!!! Damn, hate to be his enemy when he’s thirty…
A large thud can be heard on the far side of the mall. Then another thud, this time a little louder. Followed by even more thuds, each one louder than the last. Alex peeked from her cover to look, regardless of her hand shaking. The thing causing the noise was a giant, stone… tablet (?). Rather than a tablet, it looks more like a really smooth and blank 30-foot tall domino tile. Regardless of appearance it is still registered as a boss
Tablet of a Thousand Souls
Level: 55
Strength: 62
Speed: 10
Endurance: 94
Will Power: 83
Alex sighs in relief, “Thank goodness, I thought it would be something more threatening.”
The Tablet apparently doesn’t take the comment very well and starts to glow with a dull violet light. A dozen glowing white balls of smoke (‘souls’ to save time) revolve around the Tablet and are absorbed by it. Screams are followed by the absorption and the upper halves of twelve skeletons form where the “souls” were absorbed. Each skeleton has an old rifle, musket, or some type of old gun. They all aim at Alex and fire one after, without having to reload no less.
Her cover blown, literally, Alex runs in desperation to find cover and dodge the bullets. She is also screaming, “What the hell is with this boss!?!?!? This game is supposed to be medieval, not steampunk!!!”
The Tablet seems to be getting angrier, since it changes from violet to a blue and more skeletons appear with better guns.
“Help!!!” She puts up several stone walls as she runs, each one demolished by the bullets after being built.
“A little busy with trying to wake up Damian,” Carol said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“My eyes hurt from the lightning, shit…” Marvin said while leaning against a sign and rubbing his temples with one hand.
“You suck!!!” yelled Alex. Once again, the Tablet took offence to this (even though it wasn’t directed at it), and changes the glow to a green. Another set of skeletons come out, this time in pairs with cannons. Alex is even more frantic at this point, “Oh, come on!!! How is this thing just at level 50!?!?”
Carol is right now trying to slap Damian awake, muttering, “Come on! Wake up! I want to be able to get you without killing off the competition.” She gets an idea, which as it turns out to be something a little more ‘delicate’ than slapping Damian. Carol kisses him… with tongue... Damian subconsciously reacts to this and hits Carol in the back of the head before standing up.
“We agreed for you to stop trying to do stuff like that!!!” Damian chastises.
“We have bigger problems right now!!!”
“Holy—“
Damian takes off his goggles, changing back to his regular clothes, and leaps into a nearby fountain. Glad coins survived the universal monetary conversion. He grabs as many small copper coins he can find and puts the silver ring in his pocket on his thumb. Damian places a coin in between his thumb and middle finger. With a flick of the wrist, Damian snaps his fingers and the coin whizzes across the air at high speeds. The coin lodges itself into the Tablet, but it isn’t even phased by the hit. Damian continues this process while moving closer to the Tablet, the amount of coins being shot increases proportionately to the decrease in distance. Eventually the Tablet loses a chunk of itself from the bottom and starts to tip over. The skeletons are reabsorbed and move to the bottom in a failed attempt to support the Tablet.
Alex is too tired to get away from the fall area, so Damian rushes over to help her. The two of them manage to get a few feet away from the safe area, but the Tablet is falling too fast for both of them to get away. In a last ditch effort, Damian throws Alex to safety and tries to run away from the Tablet. He makes a leap for it but is abruptly stopped by the Tablet falling flat on him, not even one part of him in sight.
The ground around the Tablet starts to crack from the sudden impact. Carol takes Damian’s form and does the same move that Damian did earlier to break apart the Tablet. Marvin uses his Electric Eyes to do the same. Alex summons her golems to clear the pieces and puts up stone walls to try and slowly lift the Tablet, but those fail from the sheer weight.
The effort was in vain however, as the ground underneath the Tablet collapses and the Tablet hits the first floor, but even then the ground on the first floor collapses as well. An abyss is created; the trio manages to avoid the fall, but Carol takes the form of a hummingbird to fly down after Damian. Alex was about to jump in as well, but the floors repair themselves after Carol passes through.
“No!!!” Alex screamed as she got on her knees and starts to cry, “No!!! No… no…”
To be continued…