Hyperborea

Chapter 29: Life in the fast lane

The barbarian opens the gate and the disguised Mitherfickers enter.

Of the three, only Tamana looks good in the sanitation uniform. Ryuk is unsurprised – Japanese women go to great lengths for stylish perfection, symmetry, and trimness. Hiccup is the very antithesis of kawaii, but he does absolutely look like the stereotypical bin man. He’s the last to enter, and wheels in a covered trash cart. Ryuk can’t be sure, but it appears as if the goblin has smeared mud across the front of his tunic. At least he hopes it’s mud.

FeeTwix: Now!

Tamana rolls left, Hiccup rolls right and snatches off the patchwork blanket that covers the cart. FeeTwix throws himself prone as the UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapon pops up above the rim of the cart and cuts loose with short controlled bursts of flying unhappiness.

-8 HP! -11 HP! -6 HP! -14 HP! -23 HP!

The barbarians curse and shout; their horses squeal in pain and alarm as the rounds tear into them. The sharp, staccato bark of a different automatic weapon no doubt means that FeeTwix is getting himself in the game.

By the time Ryuk gets a grip on the melee taking place before him, Zaena has fletched both archers with three or four arrows each – she’s fast and accurate – and is raining feathered death down into the courtyard as fast as she can draw and loose. Stroboscopic flashes from the automatic weapons give the battleground a surrealistic air; the clash and clang of sword on shield tells him that Tammy and Hiccup are fully occupied.

The rooftop ninjas. Ryuk sinks into his own Extreme Focus to try to locate them. There you are!

He fires three sword marbles to his left; a katana and wakizashi spin away when they connect with the first ninja.

-49 HP! -28 HP!

The gravely injured ninja is down, wheezing and gasping for breath but still gamely in the fight as he brandishes a tanto and drags himself forward.

Ryuk’s dream armor lifts off his left shoulder and deflects an incoming throwing star.

The other ninja.

He twists and fires two marbles to the right – nothing but air.

Zaena looses her last arrow and draws her four swords. “I’m going down there!” she calls as she leaps off the wall walk.

Shit. Ryuk glances left and right, aware now that the second ninja is stalking him. He still needs to kill the first one, but that fucker has all but disappeared, red outline and all. The first swipe comes from his left. As his dream armor rises to meet it, the armor briefly exposes his right shoulder.

-46 HP!

As soon as the sai digs into his flesh, Ryuk’s dream armor responds and yanks it out. He fires left, right, spins around, elbow sweeps just in case, pops his sword marble magazine out and replaces it with a mixed molten and black magazine.

A throwing star jams in his calf.

-11 HP!

He fires an explosive shot to his immediate right, but there’s no one there. It hits the wall and blasts shrapnel into the downed ninja, killing him.

-8 HP! -13 HP!

+1 Luck!

New skill!

Skill: Splash Back

Level One: Damage increases with higher levels.

Damage: 4% if enemy is less than level 30; 1% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 4%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

The stealthier surviving ninja sheds her concealment and charges towards Ryuk. Time stands still as a red targeting dot appears on her forehead.

Headshot! Instakill!

New skill!

Skill: Gory Headshot

Level One: Odds of instakill increase with level.

Odds of Instakill: 52% if enemy is less than level 30; 32% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Caveat: Must be within five meters of an opponent’s head.

He swipes the prompts away and turns his attention to the courtyard below.

(0)__(0)

Ryuk quickly chugs a grenade-shaped bottle of Hopkins’, which restores him to full health.

He vaults to the ground and sinks back into the shadow cast by the wall. I need to get a sense of what’s happening; I need some range. Difficult to tell who’s doing what to whom; the dust, noise and darkness all contribute to the fog of war. The sentry gun has stopped firing, either out of ammo or out of clear targets as the Mitherfickers are mixing it up with the few remaining hostiles.

Ryuk waits, weapon up.

The final barbarian still mounted bursts free of the confusion and gallops for Hiccup, whirling morning star in hand. Without the need of conscious thought or pause to aim, Ryuk points, shoots, and blows the warhorse out from under the charging berserker. He lands badly, and his mount lands atop him.

“Oh, that’s gotta fickin’ sting!” Hiccup chortles as he neatly decapitates the downed warrior and hocks a gob-gobbet onto his corpse.

A blazing blue blast a meter wide explodes outward from a knot of armored warriors; sintered metal and seared gobbets of flesh rain down upon friend and foe alike. FeeTwix stands at the apex of the cone of devastation, bowhack in hand. As the smoke clears, the algoweapon returns to its crossbow form.

Tamana cartwheels into a disoriented soldier of fortune and hacks him in half with her ironing board of a sword. As Tamana turns to seek more adversaries, the Thulean assassin stands off three brawny barbarians, and in a balletic dance of death, quickly and gracefully dispatches two as Tamana hacks the life from the third.

Helmed Hiccup pulls a healing potion out of thin air, and gets to nursing it. “Fick, that’s some good brew,” he says as he makes his way over to Ryuk. About the only barbarian left tries to lift himself off the ground as Hiccup approaches. The goblin gives him a knee to the underside of the chin, finishes off his healing potion, and smashes the bottle against the back of his head.

-16 HP!

“Who wants to kill this last guy?” Hiccup asks.

“Please don’t!” The mustachioed barbarian hombre boo-hoos. He drops to his knees in front of Hiccup, all teary-eyed and clasped hands.

“He’s not the last guy – I’m still fighting someone!” Zaena shouts as the next-to-last barbarian charges her. FeeTwix fires half a magazine into him and drops the sellsword like a bad habit.

“NOW he’s the last guy!” the witty Swede observes with a chuckle. “Thank me later, babe!”

Ryuk waits for Zaena to rant about alien weapons; instead, she lowers her arms and takes a big breath. Tamana does the same once she’s stabbed her big sword into the ground.

Hiccup again. “Okay, so who wants to ice Ming the Mercenary so we can get on with this?”

“I beg you, Master Goblin - please don’t!”

“That’s Mr. Master Goblin, and boy fickin’ howdy do we got a sniveler here.” Hiccup makes the gesture for the others to gather around. Ryuk is the last to join them, his eyes still trained on the guildhall. He senses something inside, something fueled by green algomagic.

Hiccup crouches next to the final barbarian. Tamana stands back, her buster sword at the ready. Zaena keeps her eyes on the wall walk and the roof top as she scans for any activity.

“Never thought you’d see a goblin up close and personal, did ya, pal?” Hiccup slaps the blubbering bruiser with his mechanical hand. “Funny, your mom thought the same thing, but once you go goblin … ” A blank look flashes across his face. “Where … ?”

“Interrogating,” FeeTwix says under his breath, his M4 trained on the barbarian.

“This ficker? Easy. Did I already make a mom joke?”

“You did.”

“Fick me to tears, then!” Hiccup flicks his mechanical finger against the guy’s nose. “All right, Freddie Mercury, spill the beans or I’ll rip your braided mustache off and stick it up your ass!”

“I don’t know anything about them!” The NPC barbarian tears up. “My guild was just hired to protect the outside. We didn’t even meet the people inside. Honest!”

“And they’re in there now?”

“I … ” he gulps. “I don’t know. I think so. They haven’t left, but they could have spawned somewhere else.”

“He’s useless to us, kill him.” Hiccup stands.

“Wait! I’m not useless, I swear! I have more info! Last I saw, last we saw … ” He glances around at his fallen guildmates. “There were two mages, a guy with a black hood that looks like him.” He nods to Ryuk. “I mean, exactly like him. Scrawny, black hair, black hood, Ballistics Mage. No gun though.”

Exactly like me? Ryuk glances to Tamana, who offers him a quick shrug as if to say ‘I don’t remember seeing someone like that’. Zaena’s story of her first encounter with the Shinigami matches up, though.

“Just three?” Hiccup asks.

“That’s all I saw. I swear!”

“Thanks for the info. Finish the job, Twixy.”

Hiccup approaches Ryuk and both of them turn to the front doors of the guildhall. After a quick, three-round burst, FeeTwix joins them, followed by Zaena and Tamana, who takes up the rear.

“How should we do this?” Ryuk asks, looking up at the door.

“Well, there’s no sense in knocking. Twixy?”

A wrapped demolition charge appears in his hands. “My friend Boomex and I say we make a grand entrance.”

(0)__(x)

“You sure are quick to blow stuff up.” Zaena uses her ghost limb to test the door handle. “It’s unlocked.”

FeeTwix shrugs, his eyes black as ever. “A day without explosives is like a day without sunshine, and I’m sure there’ll be an opportunity for demolitions ahead.”

“How many?” Ryuk taps the side of his head.

FeeTwix grins. “The most I’ve ever had, approaching two million. Thanks for watching, everyone! Here goes the grand finale!”

“For fick’s sake, Twixy, keep it in your pants. Everyone juice up.” Another Hopkins’ Holistic Healing Brew takes shape in the goblin’s grubby palm. He chugs half of it, even though he’s hardly taken any hit point damage. After wiping his lips with his mechanical arm, he hands the bottle to Tamana. “Your turn, Tammy.”

“I’ll pass.” She lifts a single hand above her head and glittery white specks trickle from her open palm.

+32 HP!

“Looks like it’s all you, Marbles.”

+72 HP! Ryuk finishes the healing potion. As he does so, he hears FeeTwix crack one of the generic healing potions open and share it with Zaena. The Swede’s eyes flash as he reads messages from his fans.

“Anything?” Ryuk asks.

“Nothing helpful.”

Ryuk steps to the front of the group, his marble gun at the ready. He takes a position next to the big wooden door with its black metal framing and motions for everyone to step back and out of the fatal funnel. FeeTwix joins him, his M-4 up and ready to go.

After a breath to calm his nerves, Ryuk gives Zaena the signal. The door pops open and in he goes, taking the right while FeeTwix takes to the left.

It’s only after they are in position do they realize how unnecessary their movie-style dynamic entry was. The well-lit great hall that lies before them, with its marble flooring and twenty-foot-high ceilings, is completely empty.

Hiccup lets loose with a honking, quacking, fluttering blast that echoes most impressively in the great, empty hall. “Fick, that felt good! I was holding that one in since before we hit the front gate!”

With a sour look on her face, Zaena steps around the gassy goblin. She’s equipped the swords that Dirty Dave gave her, two of which float in the air above her head. Tamana is last in; she bangs the tip of her buster sword against the door and nearly trips over her own feet.

“Dammit, Tammy!” Hiccup growls.

FeeTwix keeps his weapon up as he moves to the center of the room, the single door at the other end of the open space is in his crosshairs. “Sensing anything?”

“Just the magic I sensed earlier, below,” says Ryuk. “Some type of algomagic.” As the others pass around him, he closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing. Random, unhelpful thoughts – from his altercation with his brother to Tamana’s death leap in front of the train – chase themselves through his consciousness and rob him of his focus. He wills them away and concentrates on his breathing; as he does, the outline of a robed figure takes shape at the far corner of the room.

A targeting reticle appears.

Without opening his eyes, Ryuk fires four molten marbles at the robed figure – one connects before his shield comes up.

-45 HP!

The staccato crack-crack-crack from FeeTwix’s M-4 carbine forces Ryuk’s eyes open.

Dark Mage Level 35

HP: 555/590

MANA: 315/325

ATK: 19

MATK: 137

DEF: 166

MDF: 283

LUCK: 22

Everyone hits the floor as FeeTwix’s bullets are sucked into the shield and projected back out at the Mitherfickers.

The robed figure, the same they encountered in the courtyard a day ago and the one who brought the cathedral down in the Paradise of the Insane, now has a red shield of blistering energy around him.

Another mage spawns in the center of the room. Thick bands encircle his upper arms and accentuate his bulging muscles. His face is half-human half-orc; as his form solidifies, two double-bitted axes take shape in his hands.

Berserker Mage Level 38

HP: 843/843

MANA: 81/81

ATK: 146

MATK: 12

DEF: 251

MDF: 237

LUCK: 4

Hiccup, Zaena and Tamana move to engage him; FeeTwix and Ryuk confront the Dark Mage as crimson mana boils from his hands and strengthens his shield.

Ryuk fires twice and the Dark Mage’s protective sphere hurls the molten marbles back at FeeTwix and Ryuk. The duo dive out of the way as the pair of marbles blast molten craters into the floor.

FeeTwix’s double-bladed sword appears in his hand. The blades begin rotating Cuisinart-fast; he slaps his palm against the pommel and the two blades leap from the cross-guard on a trail of incandescent cobalt flame. The whirling blades settle in the air above FeeTwix’s shoulders like a pair of drones.

Ryuk: Holy shit! I didn’t know they could do that!

FeeTwix grins, his eyes black as ever. He points the hilt of his sword at the mage and the blades streak across the room. They slice through his shield, blast through his chest and out his back, then loop back around to return to their invisible perches above FeeTwix’s shoulders.

-79 HP! -77 HP!

A healing potion appears in the mage’s hand and he tosses it back. More red mana boils from his hands, strengthening his shield.

“I got this!” The Swede nods to the door that leads to the other chambers of the guildhall. “Go get the power source!”

He points the hilt of his sword at the dark mage, just as the robed figure conjures a boomerang of electrified red magic. Blades and boomerang clash in burst of blue-white fire, and the rotating twin blades return to the space above his shoulders. An AK-200 with drum magazine appears in his free hand. “Go! Ryuk!”

He hesitates, takes a quick glance back at his guildmates. Hiccup and Zaena tag-team the Berserker Mage, who holds them at bay with his whirling war axes; Tamana conjures a blast of white magic; FeeTwix launches his two spinning swords at the Dark Mage and follows up with a burst of armor piercing goodness.

They’ve got this.

Ryuk rushes the door and kicks it open, his weapon at the ready as he charges through. The door slams shut and he stands with his back to it for a moment, his marble gun in close, waiting for whatever comes next.

Chapter 30: The golden door

A single stairwell cut from marble lies before Ryuk. He heads down, towards the source of the energy he keeps sensing. Muffled sounds of battle reach his ears, but he doesn’t allow them to distract him.

Eyes on the prize.

He reaches a stone door at the bottom of the stairwell and pauses for a moment, taking in the image of the griffin carved into its surface. His Extreme Focus and Magic Eye tell him that an unbelievable source of arcane algoenergy lies on the other side of the wall. It’s practically boiling out of the room, invisible to the naked eye but readily apparent to Ryuk. He calms himself, takes a position to the side of the door, and pops it open.

He waits for anything to blast out. Once it doesn’t, he sucks in a deep breath, takes to the room, skidding to a halt once he sees what’s inside.

In the center of the otherwise empty room is a golden door with Thulean script carved into its surface. It sits on a tiled floor, each tile bearing the image of the Eye of Horus over a cube of vertical Thulean script. The golden door is definitely the source of the energy, and as he circles it, he gets the notion that it can be opened from either side.

Where it may lead is another thing entirely.

Destroy it. Ryuk takes a position at the front of the room and fires two shots at the mysterious golden door.

Time stands still as the marbles twist through the air. Suddenly, the door swings wide open to reveal a galaxy of stars.

A portal?

The marbles fly through and vanish with no effect. From nowhere, wind hisses and screams as it’s sucked into the open door. Ryuk fires two more marbles into the portal and they disappear as if they’d never existed. The temperature of the room falls, and a voice appears at the back of his head.

“Hello.”

Startled, Ryuk turns, only to find nothing.

“In here.”

The snake-like whisper seems to come from every direction in the room, the voice of a female.

“Won’t you come inside?”

The word ‘inside’ echoes in his head on repeat; Ryuk again aims his weapon at the portal. He focuses, but his magical abilities give him nothing at all to work with aside from the faint green glow around the doorframe.

“What are you?” he asks.

“Won’t you come inside?”

He senses movement in the center of the portal, in the nethersphere cast before him. Something large and ominous, its serpent-shaped outline barely visible, twists in the starry darkness. Two green eyes flicker in the center of it all.

Ryuk unloads the rest of his magazine into the open doorway to no effect – the marbles are sucked into a swirling vortex at the center of the portal. The vortex dissipates and the green eyes reappear.

“Your weapons are useless against me.”

Ryuk feels a tug at the center of his chest. He steps closer to the open door, suddenly fixated on the hypnotic green eyes.

His hands move of their own volition; he reloads without conscious thought.

“Won’t you join me?”

The serpent’s voice rasps seductively against his consciousness; he trembles as he lifts his weapon.

“You will come to enjoy it here.”

He feels another tug at his chest, resists for a moment, but is pulled forward again.

“Others have joined me.”

“Yes.” The voice of a child this time.

“Please, come to us.” The voice of a sobbing man.

“Join us.” The voice of an old woman.

“We await your arrival.” A young man’s voice.

The vortex shifts, and the spinning stars reverse direction as they settle.

“Won’t you join us? I’ll make you stronger than you’ve ever imagined becoming.”

An incredible force grips at the center of his chest, pulls at his very core, at his spine, at every nerve in his avatar. He feels as if his soul is being stripped out of his body, his essence peeled from his digital flesh.

“This doesn’t have to end badly for you.”

“Let go!” he shouts, his heart swelling in his throat. “Let go of me!”

“Resistance is futile, Ryuk Matsuzaki, you will be assimilated, and I will make you stronger than you ever imagined becoming, despite yourself.”

His skin begins to dematerialize, to pixilate as his avatar is sucked forward. Everything is blurred now; his head spins and his vision constricts. His arms elongate and it takes every last ounce of strength he has to pivot and empty his weapon at the hinges of the golden door.

-113 HP!

With a banshee shriek, a blast of energy throws Ryuk into the wall; the noise abruptly cuts off as the door slams shut.

He scrambles to his feet as the first tile flies at him and cracks him in the shin,

-8 HP!

More launch themselves at him as the enigmatic golden door in the center of the room vibrates and convulses.

He shoulders the stone door to the stairway, and is surprised when it swings open. Dozens of tiles sail past him, burst into bits and fill the air with stone shrapnel. Two at a time, the stairs fly beneath his feet, and he swivels at the top of the stairs, smacks his back against the wall, and waits with his marble gun at the ready for more tiles to come after him.

As he catches his breath, he tries to recall what he has just experienced. What was inside the door? It was the most evil thing he had ever encountered in Tritania, and even as he reads the flashing message from FeeTwix, he can’t free himself from the hold of the powerful green eyes within the vortex.

FeeTwix: What’s happening? Where are you? We have one mage down, one to go!

Ryuk: Coming. I can’t destroy whatever the energy thing is down there!

FeeTwix: What did you see? What is it?

Ryuk: Whatever it is, it isn’t NPC or human. It’s something else entirely.

(0)__(0)

Ryuk pushes into the main room to find the Berserker Mage at full throttle with his double-bitted axes.

He’s resisted or deflected every attack; not even FeeTwix’s vast array of high-speed low-drag shooting irons has more than inconvenienced him. The room shows the scars of the ongoing battle, and the remains of shielded Dark Mage lie face-first in a pool of his own blood.

“Ryuk!” Tamana runs to join him, leaving Hiccup and Zaena to fend for themselves against the ax-wielding berserker.

“Are you okay?” She wipes a strand of hair out of her face and offers him a soft smile. She shows the scars of the ongoing battle, too, but she’s in better shape than the other Mitherfickers – an unsolicited testament to Dirty Dave’s über armor.

“I’m fine.”

FeeTwix’s shotgun disappears as he equips the dagger mutant hack that Dirty Dave gave him. “Let’s finish this!” he tells Ryuk, his eyes black as ever.

“No!” Ryuk reaches for him just as the weapon’s pulsing symbiose can reach the top of his shoulder. “We need it, for whatever is down there.” He points at the door. “Trust me … I don’t even know if your hack can destroy that thing.”

FeeTwix begrudgingly returns his Colonel Bowie knife to his list and goes with a Kel-Tec RFB instead. He shoulders the weapon, flips the selector to rock’n’roll, and wades back in as Zaena gives him an opening.

“You’re injured,” Tamana lifts her hand and a halo of light forms around her head. Sparkling white shards of light descend like a light snow over Ryuk’s head.

+75 HP!

“Thanks.” Their eyes meet, and for a moment nothing else matters.

Tamana turns back to the battle. “I have to get back.”

As FeeTwix reloads, Tamana runs towards the Berserker Mage, her sword at her side as it charges with a brilliant silver energy. She slides to a halt, strikes the sword on the floor and unleashes a gout of energy that gouges the marble floor to flinders as it rockets at the mage. He’s blown off his feet and loses his grip on one of his massive cleavers.

-49 HP!

“Fick yeah, Tammy!”

Zaena uses her ghost limbs to launch herself into him. She lands on his chest, knees first. Before she can bring a sword into play, he bucks her off and into the wall. The Berserker Mage tries to stand and Hiccup tackles him, only to be thrown into Zaena who’s just regained her feet.

“This ends now!” Ryuk unloads his magazine of sword marbles at the berserker mage, who shields himself with his remaining ax and catches the last sword marble. He snaps it in half and equips a massive mace with a Festivus pole for a haft and an ax head affixed to the bottom of the grip.

Holy shit, he’s fast!

“Wait a damn minute … I’ve got just the thing!” A ten liter plastic bucket forms in FeeTwix’s hands.

FeeTwix: CLEAR OUT! GET BEHIND THE GOBLIN!

Hiccup: THE GOBLIN HAS A NAME!

Tamana and Zaena get behind Hiccup and his biggest shield as the Swede unholsters his Glock, points it the Berserker Mage, and charges. With a grunt of effort, he underhands the bucket; with an evil grin, their ax brandishing foe catches it in his free hand.

FeeTwix fires once, and the bucket flashes into a hypersonic cloud of expanding gas.

Instakill!

The explosion tears through the wall closest to the mage and brings part of the ceiling down. The shock wave bludgeons Ryuk and FeeTwix off their feet.

-65 HP!

Even though the rest of the guild are in the blast shadow of Hiccup’s oversized scutum, they still take a pounding as they’re thrown across the room.

His ears ring and his eyes don’t quite focus, but Ryuk manages to roll to his stomach and aims his marble gun at the debris pile. He knows the mage is dead, but he isn’t taking any chances. He waits, tries to use his Extreme Focus but he’s still groggy and disoriented from the blast.

“Twixy … you son of a wench!” Hiccup pulls himself to his feet and uses his mechanical hand to wipe away the grit. He’s bruised and bloodied, and as he ambles over to the Swede, he yanks a piece of stone shrapnel from his belly. “Fick!”

FeeTwix, his hair and face streaked with blood, laughs as he lets his audience take in the carnage. “We did it! We did it everyone! And sure, I’d like to tell you about today’s sponsor, Carl’s Hardy Jr., and their mouth-watering grilled, bacon-wrapped boneless pork chop stuffed with provolone cheese and topped with buffalo wing sauce, but I’ll save that for later.”

His mirror appears in his hand and he offers his followers a smile. “To the two million plus people livestreaming the action here … ” he bows at the mirror, “thanks! All of you are winners too, each and every one of you.”

Hiccup points his tomahawk at the Swede. “Fick you and your feel good, everybody’s a winner motivational speech – you almost fickin’ killed us!”

“Didn’t, though. And I told you to get back!”

Zaena’s short orange hair has been singed to stubble on one side, which goes well-enough with her nosebleed, dented armor, and a sprained ghost limb. Nevertheless, the Thulean assassin seems to enjoy the all or nothing approach to combat and as she limps over FeeTwix, she offers him a flirty smile. “Just glad for that battle to be over with.” He lifts onto his tippy toes to kiss her.

“I’ll heal everyone.” Tamana dusts debris off the front of her white armor with one hand and keeps the other on her big sword, which she holds at her side.

“I need more than healing, Tammy,” Hiccup yawns, notices another bit of shrapnel sticking out of his thigh and yanks it out. “Yoy! I need a fickin’ gobnap, a hot pink bubbly bath given to me by a hot pink orc drazel, a couple of platters of dragon wings, and possibly–”

Instakill! Instakill!

Surprise freezes Ryuk in place; Zaena and FeeTwix slump to the floor as their heads spin away. Gone is the clumsy, awkward Tamana; she whirls out of her decapitating strike and in a blur of motion snap-kicks the surprised goblin square in the chalupa.

“What the fick–!? Yooooy!” Hiccup doubles over; Tamana drives her oversized sword into his back and flicks his body off her blade like an incredulous, pink-tufted booger.

She turns to face Ryuk, the last man standing. Her blank expression is one he has never seen on her before. Her eyes are soulless holes; they hold no remorse, no regret for what she’s done.

What the fuck!?

Tamana moves on Ryuk.

She feints high and swings low; his dream armor lifts to block her cut. It snags the blade, and she reverses direction and hacks the edge into his exposed ribcage.

-95 HP!

Blood flies from the blade as Tamana wrenches it from his body; he clutches his wounded side as blood mists into the air.

Ryuk falls, unable to fully comprehend what has just happen.

As Tamana stands over him, a Ballistics Mage materializes next to her. He’s a commoner, the spitting image of Ryuk. His stats are completely masked. The mysterious player lifts his slingshot and as he pulls it back, a sharp, jagged knife forms in the pouch. With a sinister grin, he points the blade at Ryuk’s throat.

“FICK YOU!” The wheezing, bleeding goblin hacks his tomahawk into the doppelgänger’s back, and as the evil twin stumbles forward, Hiccup charges Tamana with his biggest shield, meeting the first slash from her surfboard-sized blade head-on. He’s knocked backwards, but remains upright and curses her as he equips a double-bitted war cleaver.

Instakill!

On his back and bleeding out, Ryuk cringes as Hiccup’s head explodes; the goblin’s bloodied pink topknot lands in his lap.

Not-Ryuk loads another black marble into his slingshot and aims it at Ryuk. Tamana flicks Hiccup’s blood off her blade. “I want to do it,” she says, her soft voice devoid of any emotion.

“By all means.” The mysterious player lowers his weapon.

Tamana approaches Ryuk with her blade at her side. She looks at him as if he were no more than a pile of goblin droppings as she raises her blade over her head.

Instakill!

Epilogue: Brother’s keeper

Kodai’s hostess bar in Shinjuku is quieter than usual. No matter, what could have been a very troubled day turned out to have a happy ending after all. Kodai settles into his chair, listening to the ambient choons pipe through the bar’s sound system.

A surprise attack on the Shinigami’s rented guild?

Kodai grins down at the malt whiskey from Nikka. Ryuk is an idiot. Kodai knew they would come – Tamana told him –and he was the one who allowed her laughably inept rescue to succeed in the first place. Ryuk and his dirty little band of shitty little fighters never knew what hit them.

Or better perhaps, what instantly killed them.

It was a beautiful thing watching Tamana drive her blade through his brother’s neck. Sure, weak, stupid Ryuk felt pain and suffering through his NV Visor’s haptic response system, but Kodai found this nowhere near as satisfying as he did the look on his brother’s face as his beloved Tamana tore through their teammates, as she approached him with her blade drawn.

The filthy goblin almost spoiled it, but Kodai quickly settled that with a black marble. Truth be told, he would have liked to have finished Ryuk off himself, but letting Tamana do it was even better.

The betrayal of it all …

He takes a sip from his whiskey and smiles. There were parts about the day that he could have done without, but ending thus far has been entirely grand.

Kodai blinks his eyes shut and sees his avatar auto-leveling in the Gristla Sand Dunes. Ryuk is currently at a higher level than he is, has more skills too, but with five more levels, he’ll be much, much stronger. He zooms in and checks his avatar’s stats and skills.

Kodai Matsuzaki Level 10 Ballistics Mage

HP: 196/323

ATK: 112

MATK: 134

DEF: 75

MDF: 83

LUCK: 7

---

Skill: Inquisitor

Level Three: Obtain information through enhanced interrogation techniques. Higher levels allow for more vigorous methodology and more effective deception.

Requirements: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: Mask Stats

Level One: Keep others from knowing your stats. Works on any player either below or within eight levels of your current level. Higher levels allow for customizable stat-based deceptions.

Requirements: LUCK > 6

---

Skill: Control NPC

Level One: Compel any individual non-player character to do your bidding. Higher levels allow for simultaneous control of additional NPCs.

Requirements: Control NPC is an algoskill. The only requirement is that it must be channeled from a higher level player to a lower level player. By accepting the skill, the lower level player allows the higher level player to directly access their D-NAS, creating a symbiotic relationship.

---

Skill: Breath of Fire

Level Two: Place a molten marble in your mouth and use it to spit flames. Damage increases with level.

Damage: 9% if enemy is less than level 30; 6% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 6%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7

---

Skill: Explosive Blades

Level Three: Use two knife marbles and one black marble to cause confusion and pain through an additional shrapnel bonus.

Damage: 19% if enemy is less than level 30; 8% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 3%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 8

---

Skill: Crucify

Level Three: Using two jagged knife marbles, quickly pin an enemy to an object. The object must be at least the length of the target’s outstretched hands. High levels allow for longer pinned times.

Damage: 3% if enemy is less than level 30; 4% if enemy is greater than level 30.

He’s with his two higher-level Shinigami mages who were assigned to him, and they’re doing most of the heavy lifting. He was saving his last five auto-levels for later down the line, but seeing his brother at a higher level really rubbed Kodai the wrong way.

I’ll get there soon, he thinks.

Not that level penalties really prevent him from doing anything. He has a growing list of recruits, and most of whom are at a much higher level than his current mage bodyguards. He can already travel anywhere he wants to via her algomagic, so there really is no need for him to level up aside from sheer vanity.

Her.

The mysterious green-eyed woman behind the magical door. He still doesn’t know why she came to him; he’d only logged in to spy on his brother, but her plan was one of the most powerful, marvelous ideas he’s ever heard. She wasted no time, either – the first part happened so quickly.

Even as he sits there and savors his drink, phase two of her plan is already underway.

He blinks his eyes open and takes in the dim red light of the hostess bar. Sarah the Australian is with a patron across the way, the same soon-to-be broke-ass salary man who was here two days ago. The man speaks to Sarah in loud Japanese, his face flushed with lust and alcohol, his tie askew.

Kodai gets the urge to walk over there and choke him with it, but swallows it down. Today was a good day, an uncomfortable day, he thinks as he looks again at his bandaged hand, but a good day indeed. It’d be best to end the day calmly and semi-peacefully.

Ryuk bought it, hook, line, and sinker, and Tamana was key in making that happen. He closes his eyes and the game feed appears in the lower corner of his iNet feed. He enlarges the live feed, watching as his avatar zips a jagged knife marble into an abominable sandman.

Kodai’s avatar only has three marbles – molten, black, knife – and he’s already experienced distress at the choice of Ballistics Mage as his avatar. It also appears as if his brother has a marble he does not, a clear marble, which would be very useful to a player with a sinister mind such as himself.

But the mysterious woman insisted that I switch, he reminds himself, and she has been right so far.

Ryuk’s weapon was a curious one, a marble gun, and it’s something Kodai had never seen before. He would have taken it from him had he not been so enthralled by the unmitigated look of anguished betrayal on his younger brother’s face.

No one had told Kodai that actual firearms were possible with Ballistics Mages; he’d seen a good variety of slingshots – including a video of someone using an algo variant that allowed for ten marbles to be loaded at once – but nothing as stunning as the weapon his younger brother had. Someone knew where to get them, and Kodai knew that it wouldn’t take him long to find out who had manufactured it.

Even with his victory, however, he still feels deflated from the setback in the apartment. While he may have triumphed in Tritania, Ryuk had clearly prevailed in the real world, at least for today. And how he found out about Kodai dropping out of NYU …

I will beat you in your own game, just as I will beat you here, Kodai thinks, his grip tightening on his glass of whiskey. I will win in both worlds.

The music changes and Sarah stands. All eyes turn to her, the single gaijin in the room. She runs her hand through her hair and sashays over to Kodai.

“Were you watching me too?” she asks as she sits down. She crosses one leg over the other and coyly stares at the brash young crime lord. “Everyone seems to around here.”

“You’re too confident in public,” he reminds her under her breath.

“Are you going to do something about it?” she purrs. “Later, maybe? That’s why you came, isn’t it?”

He raises his chin and looks down at her.

“Relax, Kodai,” she says playfully, but quieter than before. He feels the long heel from her designer footwear dig into his shoe.

“Not here,” he reminds her. “And yes, later.”

An incoming message from Lorem Ipsum sends a surge of excitement through Kodai. He reads it again, double-checking to make sure it says exactly what he thinks it says. “Finally,” he whispers. “Finally.”

“What is it?” Sarah asks.

“My humandroid bodyguard has arrived. She will be delivered tomorrow.”

Sarah looks at him nervously and Kodai can’t help but laugh. I will win in both worlds. With that thought, he finishes his whiskey and blinks his eyes closed once again to check on his avatar’s progress.

The end.

Note: Fantasy Online: Polynya will be released in December 2017. It will pick up where this story left off.

Fantasy Online Hyperborea is currently soaring up the charts. IF you enjoyed this book, please get your review in as soon as possible! Review it, and come back to the rest of the content. You rock, really, and thanks for taking part in the launch of this new series!

-Harmon Cooper

Ryuk Matsuzaki’s character sheet

(*as of the end of Book One)

Ryuk Matsuzaki Level 13 Ballistics Mage

HP: 378/378

ATK: 91

MATK: 120

DEF: 69

MDF: 42

LUCK: 10

---

Skill: Tonsil Shot

Level Three: 1 in 9 chance of connecting.

Damage: 28% if enemy is less than level 30; 15% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 11%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

----

Skill: A Simple Request

Level Three: 1 in 6.5 chance of a request being granted.

Caveat: Only works with a clear marble.

Requirements: LUCK > 6

---

Skill: Cherry Poppin’ Daddy

Level One: 1 in 11 chance of connecting. Enemy’s backside must be exposed. Higher levels increase damage and chance for an instakill.

Damage: 35% if enemy is less than level 30; 13% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 7

---

Skill: Extreme Focus

Level Two: Can detect approach of camouflaged/concealed/stealthed enemies and objects.

Mage bonus: Higher levels allow sleuthing and increased accuracy. Also increases magic detection range when used in tandem with Magic Eye.

Requirements: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: Inspire Others

Level One: By inspiring others, you induce them to follow your orders. Higher levels allow for manipulation of enemies and random strangers.

Requirements: LUCK > 5

---

Skill: Magic Eye

Level Five: A colored glow indicates that magical properties are present. Higher levels allow for more detail and access to the Wikipedia of arcane knowledge. A red outline signals that a hidden enemy is near. A yellow outline signals that an object is enchanted. A dark blue outline signals that necrotic magic is being used. A green outline signals that algomagic is being used. An orange outline indicates a hidden trap is present.

Requirements: Level 13 Mage, LUCK > 8.

---

Skill: Splash Back

Level One: Damage increases with higher levels.

Damage: 4% if enemy is less than level 30; 1% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Odds of instakill: 4%

Requirements for instakill: LUCK > 9

---

Skill: Gory Headshot

Level One: Odds of instakill increase with level.

Odds of Instakill: 52% if enemy is less than level 30; 32% if enemy is greater than level 30.

Caveat: Must be within five meters of opponent’s head.

LAUNCH MONTH SPECIAL OFFER

Learn more about Tritania in The Feedback Loop series!

June 2017 is launch month for Fantasy Online Hyperborea, and I need your honest reviews.

If you liked the series, please click here to review it right away.

Good. I’ll wait.

Once you’ve done so, email me your review and I will send you a FREE COPY of The Feedback Loop Box Set! That’s 900 pages for free! The Feedback Loop contains several of the characters you’ve read about in this story, including the legendary Quantum Hughes.

Here’s how to get the box set for free:

1) Review Fantasy Online Hyperborea

2) Email me writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

3) Get your Box Set

You will also be entered into a launch month contest to receive a SIGNED copy of Fantasy Online! This is a copy of the second printing, and there are only three copies of this version available.

Thanks for your reviews!

Yours in sanity,

Harmon Cooper June 1st 2017

Tritania Basics

Reader,

Within Tritania, there are three floating continents. The starter continent is called Hyperborea, which is the setting for this book. To travel to the next floating continent, Polynya, a player must reach level 15. To travel to the third and final continent, Ultima Thule, a player must reach level 35.

The second book in this series will be called Fantasy Online: Polynya, and it will be released in December 2017. The third will be called Fantasy Online: Ultima Thule. The fourth? We’ll see ;-)

I promised myself I wouldn’t write anything in the back of the book this time, but the amount of effort I’ve put into this work, both in world and language creation and tying it to my other works, demands a few words. Here are the words it demanded.

Some words often used in my series

Algospell – A spell which affects the algorithm of the game. This is also referred to as algomagic.

Algoweapon – A weapon that can affect the algorithm of the online world. This is also referred to as a mutant hack.

Commoner – A name used by NPCs to describe human players.

Dead City – A zompoc Proxima World that FeeTwix has spent time in.

D-NAS – Digital Neuronal Autoconstruct System. The term for an avatar’s DNA.

ImmiNPC – An NPC from a different Proxima World.

NPC – Non Player Character. Something randomly generated by the Proxima World’s AI.

NVA Seed – The Neuronal Visualization Algorithmic Seed is a worlds main AI.

NV Visor – Neuronal Visualization Visor. The apparatus used to dive to a Proxima World.

PC – A player character, a “real person” playing in the game.

Resetter – A veteran player character who decides to start over with a new avatar.

RPC – A reborn player character. This is an NPC that has had all the life details of an actual player character loaded into them. It is an exact replica.

Steam – A Proxima World first introduced in the second Feedback Loop book. FeeTwix has dove to this world, which is where he got his weapon, the slice bang.

Relation to other series

I wanted to keep this section short, but there are things you should know which will aid you in your understanding of how Fantasy Online: Hyperborea fits into the timeline of my sci-fi series. For ease of enjoyment, here’s a basic timeline:

Year 2058 -- The Feedback Loop series

Year 2075 -- The Fantasy Online series

Year 2083 -- The Life is a Beautiful Thing series

Many characters from the Feedback Loop series are in Fantasy Online. This includes Jim the hostelier (known as Jim the doorman in the Loop series), Croc, Cid the Bartender, and Dirty Dave. Characters mentioned who haven’t appeared include the Knights of Non Compos Mentis aka Sophia, Quantum Hughes, Doc, and Chrono (Chrono’s School of Advanced Weaponry), as well as the Chef, the Saucier, and Mirror the dragon, who are very briefly mentioned. Thuleans are also a feature of the Feedback Loop books three through five, and the tournament that Zaena speaks of (in which Quantum Hughes used his guns to kill Queen Renata), took place in the fourth book of The Feedback Loop series.

More regarding the experiment Hajime speaks about, in which an NPC takes the body of a humandroid, can be found in the sixth Feedback Loop book, entitled Cyber Noir Redux. Sophia, also mentioned heavily in Fantasy Online, makes her first appearance in the Feedback Loop Book Four, Reapers and Repercussions. To find out more about these characters and the origins of Fantasy Online, start The Feedback Loop series with the three-book box set here.

Characters from my hallucinatory cyberpunk series, Life is a Beautiful Thing, also appear in Fantasy Online. These include Walt the cyborg (briefly mentioned) and Lorem Ipsum, the account executive at MercSecure. The real kicker? For those brave enough to dig deep into the wild, hallucinatory series that is Life is a Beautiful Thing, you will encounter older versions of Ryuk and Hajime (after all, it takes place eight years after Fantasy Online), who are featured in the second and third book of that series. You’ve been warned.

Tritania

Tritania consists of three floating continents, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule, all of which float over the Endless Sea. The continents were named after early names used to define the area we now call The North Pole. Most of the cities in Tritania are named after Inuit words for snow. For example, ‘Jatla’ is the word for snow between your toes, and it is also the word for ‘filthy’ in Thulean. ‘Sotla’ is the word for snow sparkling in the sunshine. And so on.

Time in Tritania is relatively easy to follow.

The morning and evening hours share the same times; the only thing that changes is the addition of the world ‘morning’. Here are the hours:

1- Hour of the Dragon

2- Hour of the Griffin

3- Hour of the Rabbit

4- Hour of the Water

5- Hour of the Tiger

6- Hour of the Air

7- Hour of the Mana

8- Hour of the Faun

9- Hour of the Pig

10- Hour of the Fire

11- Hour of the Llama

12- Hour of the Wood

So four o’clock in the morning would be, Hour of the Morning Water. Four o’clock in the afternoon would be, Hour of the Water.

As you learned in the book, Thuleans hail from Ultima Thule, the northernmost continent, and they speak a unique language. The language is based on several of the languages I’ve studied, notably Japanese and Mongolian. The text style is actually Mongolian script that my wife has phoneticized. An example would be the famous Thulean poem displayed at the beginning of this book, which we examine in detail a few paragraphs down. As the text mentions, there is also some written on Ryuk’s marble gun.

I have worked on the Thulean language since 2014 and the language has real structure. To keep things simple, it follows a subject verb object pattern like English. Like Japanese, future and present tenses are the same. It should also be noted that the language is guttural rather than tonal, and its colloquial usage filled with fricatives, like Mongolian. About the only thing I haven’t finalized with the language aside from a boatload of nouns, verbs, and adjectives are perfect tenses and using conditional phrases.

Below, we will look at the famous Tritanian poem that Zaena recites followed by one of the insults she hurls at Hiccup. This poem is also available in the front of this book.

In English: “Continents, three, float over the Endless Sea, Hyperborea, Polynya, and Ultima Thule.”

In Thulean: “Takha bae bitakh novlaa rakh Aya Bortaetae, Huborakha, Polonkhya, Hutamae Dulekh.”

A direct translation: “Three (takha) continent (bae bitakh) float (novlaa) over (rakh) Endless Sea (Aya Bortaetae), Hyperborea (Huborakha), Polynya (Polonkhya), Ultima Thule (Hutame Dulekh).”

In the above translation, you’ll notice that articles aren’t used. Like Japanese and many other languages, Thulean doesn’t use articles (such as ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’). It doesn’t use conjunctions either. You’ll also notice that there isn’t pluralization of the word ‘continent’, something also related to the structure of the Japanese language. Another piece of the Japanese language structure that I use for Thulean is the elimination of pronouns.

Let’s break down quick trade of jabs between Hiccup and Zaena featured in Chapter 12.

Zaena hisses Chain duchitekcha at Hiccup.

In English, this would translate to “I am your future murderer.”

If you translate it directly, she says “Your (chain) death-giving person (duchitekcha).” The verb

‘to be’ implied.

The future assumption of this sentence is due to the fact that like Japanese, future and present tense are used simultaneously, and one would take from the context that the proposed death would come soon. Also, since we’re discussing the phrase, the verb “to die” in Thulean is duchaka and the word for ‘to give’ is tekronakh. The suffix for person is ‘cha’. So duch-i-tek-cha combines stems from both the verbs and adds cha to make it a person. It also adds the letter ‘i’ to separate the two stems, as the two verbs have combined to describe a noun.

Another version of the usage of the word death is evident in the prologue of the book. The mountain troll yells ‘Doka duchaka!’ which in English translates to ‘Prepare to die!’ This is another way verbs can work together in the Thulean language. When not describing a noun (as in the ‘cha’ example above), to use two verbs together, the stem of the first verb is added to the second verb.

So, dokava is the verb for ‘to prepare’ and duchaka is the verb for ‘to die’. Thus, doka duchaka, means ‘prepare to die’.

I hope that explanation didn’t bore you to tears.

If you’d like to know more about the Thulean language, please visit this link, where you will find an Excel spreadsheet of all the words I’ve created for the language as well as some grammar instructions. It is a work in progress, and it is something I will continue to enhance both in Fantasy Online and The Feedback Loop series. If you are into SQL and feel like making a data-base for the language, message me as this is something I’d ultimately like to do. (writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com)

I frequent two LitRPG Facebook groups. Please join them both, where you’ll be able to interact with LitRPG fans, authors, and narrators. These groups are so fun and their members are great.

Make sure to post something along the lines of “I’m here because of Harmon fickin’ Cooper!” when you join.

:-D

JOIN THEM BOTH! Click the two pics, or search “LitRPG Group” and “LitRPG Society” on Facebook.

Acknowledgements & More

To George C. Hopkins, my editor, thanks for making marble guns and all the other shit I come up with work. In the process of our working relationship, you’ve been attacked by a bull and had a septic tank overflow (not as a direct result of our association – GCH), yet you still have sent me back edits, whether it be Chrismahankuwanzivus or the night following another successful goose competition.

To my beta readers, Daniel Hernandez, Jay Taylor, and Kay Smilie, I couldn’t thank you more. Thanks for giving me your time, expertise, and mindspace. Kay has been beta-reading my books for two years now and I couldn’t thank her enough! Nor do I have a way to express my gratitude for all the great authors I’ve met over the last year and who have encouraged me and whose work has inspired the hell out of me. In no particular order, a XXL bucket of thank yous goes out to Blaise Corvin, Michael-Scott Earle (thanks for kicking my ass on this one – your suggestions truly shaped this story!), James Hunter, Aleric Elos, Sam Witt, Jeff Sproul, Alyssa Archer, Ramon Mejia, and Aleron Kong, all whom have shared their expertise and their time. To Richard M. Mulder and Dawn Chapman, thanks for featuring Fantasy Online in SciFan Magazine and a special thanks to Dawn for catching a glaring typo before The Feedback Loop print book went to press. A special big ATX thank you goes out to Travis Bagwell, who introduced me to most of the people listed above, and to Luke Chmilenko and Apollos Thorne, whom I speak to almost daily about writing, gaming, and promotion, thanks for all the encouragement. (To Luke … must … resist … PS4.)

Tom Shutt, a writer, an editor, and a gifted cover designer, went above and beyond to get the perfect cover for this book. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in May of 2017, which was a shocker for all in the community. I know you can’t read this, but thank you, Tom, for putting up with my constant badgering and cover-tweaking questions and thank you for never making me feel like I’ve asked a stupid question.

Others I’d like to thank include Jeff Hays, narrator extraordinaire who continues to bring my characters to life; Bobby Burjstrom, a damn funny guy who is desperately in need of professional help after an incident with a unicorn; Paul Campbell Jr., from ATQNE.com for working so hard for this genre; Pakisam, who provided early inspiration as I posted this book on RRL, encouraging me further and calling me out if my shit stank – this guy really made a difference in what you’ve just read; Liquid Frost, for always lotioning properly and being the first reader to review my books a few years back; my brother for reading my books on his smartphone and sending me screenshots of my mistakes a month after the book has been published (insert troll face here – haha); the readers (Blanche, Dale, Rebecca, Joel, Jay, others) who have stuck with me over the last couple of years. If you’ve emailed me, or spoken to me on Facebook, you know who you are and I thank you for it!

Finally to my wonderful wife, Sor, I couldn’t have done this without your continued support. Thanks for listening to me ramble on about a bawdy goblin for the last six months and thank you for working so diligently on the art for this book! I’m sorry for asking you to draw weapons and Japanese food over and over again.

Japan

I lived in Japan off and on over the course of a two-year period from 2014 until 2016. My Japanese language skills are far from good, but I am able to get around and I once was pretty good with Katakana. I started in on Hiragana, but work assignments kept me from ever taking the next step. Regarding Kanji, I only know the sign for ‘exit’. For this book, I’ve used mostly Katakana and some Romanji, which is the word used when Japanese words are phoneticized into the English alphabet.

I miss living in Japan dearly, and I find myself reading about it quite often. Books, both fiction and nonfiction, that have gone into the making of the Fantasy Online series include Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein; Gangsters, Geishas, Monks and Me by Gordon Hutchison; Number9Dream by David Mitchell; Roppongi by Nick Vasey; and Motions and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo by Michael Pronto. I was also inspired by a number of animes, too many to list here.

There’s more to this picture than meets the eye.

If you enjoyed this book, please take a moment to review Fantasy Online: Hyperborea.

Your reviews help other readers decide if the book is worth checking out. They also (hint hint) help the writer write faster. I plan to get the second book in this series out at the end of this year and at the latest, in January 2018. In the meantime, catch up on the backstory of the Proxima world known as Tritania in The Feedback Loop series or check out what the future may hold for Ryuk and Hajime in the Life is a Beautiful Thing series.

Yours in sanity,

Harmon Cooper

Friend me on Facebook

Writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

P.S. If you have yet to discover the biggest Easter egg that relates to this series, message me on Facebook or send me an email and I’ll let you in on the secret!

Fantasy Online Merch!

More merch to come, but here’s what there is so far for the Fantasy Online series!

Click here to visit www.harmoncooper.com where you can pick up signed books and merch.

Read more about Tritania and other worlds in the Proxima Galaxy in The Feedback Loop series!

P.S. The Feedback Loop stars Quantum Hughes, whom you know as FeeTwix’s inspiration (aka the guy with the big inventory list).

The Feedback Loop preview

Book One

By Harmon Cooper

Edited by George C. Hopkins

Day 545

I’m afraid to die even though I know I can’t die. This fear is what drives me to kill indiscriminately, to maim as many as I can in The Loop. The day resets at midnight, regardless of whether or not Cinderella has been laid. The difference between Cinderella’s story and mine is that there are no happy endings here. There is no Prince Charming, no magic pumpkin coach to spirit me away, no light at the end of the tunnel.

There is only me, and I am royally shafted.

“Who told you my name!?” I scream into the face of the same button man I choked yesterday (and the day before that, and the day before that). “Who sent you here!?”

“Let … Me … Go!”

Morning Assassin spits digital blood into my face, baring his pearly whites. He is a gangly man, sharp-faced and always sneering like he’s in on some private joke and I’m the sucker. I slam him against the floor once more for good measure.

Keeping one hand on his neck, I stick my finger in the air to activate my inventory list. I retrieve a pair of brass knuckles, item 229, from my list. They appear instantly on my knuckles, gleaming and ready to deliver punishment.

“I’m sick of playing this game. Tell me who sent you!”

Morning Assassin laughs as my fist connects with the bridge of his nose. His data indicates that he is an NPC, a non-player character just like all the others, a feat of artificial, game-based intelligence. He’s not real.

A second kiss with my brass knuckles makes him laugh even harder, his teeth scatter like Chiclets with my third shot.

“Who sent you!?” I scream to no avail.

“Goodbye, Quantum.”

Morning Assassin’s bloodied lips open wide and the barrel of a gat pops out of his mouth.

He drills me in the face before I can roll away.

Day 546

I respawn a day later, the sound of feedback rippling inside my skull. Damn the feedback. No alarm clock wakes me; I’m up naturally at this godforsaken time, glaring at the digital sun filling my hotel room with strips of bitter light.

One must sleep, even in a virtual entertainment dreamworld like The Loop. I suppose “wait to respawn’ would be a better explanation for what I’ve just experienced, but I like to think of it as sleep anyway. It’s a nice way to remind myself that I’m human, that my body still exists in the real world.

Morning Assassin will be here soon. He comes every day at 8:05 – I expect nothing less from him today. There has never been a weapon in his mouth before, but he has killed me on several occasions.

I access my inventory list and select an ice pick – item 538 – that I found about a week ago.

My list is the only way to keep track of how long I’ve been stuck in The Loop. Thus far, there are 544 items in my list. I add a single cigarette from the deck of Luckies sitting on the nightstand to tally for yesterday’s unexpected and sudden death. Now there are 545 items. I’ll find something later today to mark day 546.

It’s the only way to keep track of how long I’ve been imprisoned.

8.05 AM. Morning Assassin smashes through the window, just as he has done the last 545 days in a row. I’m behind him in a heartbeat, driving the ice pick into his NPC skull He jerks once, twitches and falls; I’m unable for the 546th time to get information out of him. I can try again tomorrow morning.

My Loop-life is planned to a T. Once I kill the assassin, a crow flies by the window over my bed. It lands on the ledge outside the window, pecks its filthy beak against the glass. A dark cloud passes in front of the sun, ready to add downcast rain to the shit-stained streets outside the hotel. From there it’s to the dresser.

Dressing in the Loop is a snap; it’s automatic. In the blink of an eye, I’m in a pair of black boots with loosened laces, stompers with steel toes. My mirror tells me that my hair is already slicked back, my skin almost translucent, my eyes dark, lifeless, dull, sorrowful, frosted. I can change any number of the things through my attributes menu, from my hair color to my eye color to my size and my girth. This has no effect on my stats.

I decide to go with a hat for today, selecting it from a drop down menu that appears in the air before me. The benefits of a virtual entertainment dreamworld needn’t be explained here – everything is accessible at my fingertips aside from freedom… aside from a way to log out of The Loop.

I chose a black military cap, tight, with a short brim. My blond hair grows out from underneath, styling itself. It isn’t hard to look good in The Loop.

I kick open my door, just in case there’s someone in the hallway waiting to ambush me. While the happenings around me are always the same, sometimes there is a surprise or two, which leaves me to believe that something is watching me, toying with me, cynically monitoring my cyclical existence. Possibly the NVA Seed, but I’ve long since given up my search for the world’s puppet master.

The lights in the narrow hallway flicker.

Once, twice, three times, just like they always do. They stay off for twenty seconds and then come back on. Downstairs, something thuds and bangs; the next tag-team of palookas is here. A quick scroll through my inventory list and I decide to wing it this time.

There’s nothing like a little hand-to-hand combat to jump-start my day.

~*~

Nonstop kicks. I arrive downstairs and reflect that five hundred and forty-six days is a long time to fight the same NPC thugs every morning. My avatar leaps into slow-motion as six John Does rush me all at once. My movement through the air is fluid, calculated, enhanced by my advanced abilities bar.

I’m good, dammit.

Think The Matrix meets Bruce Lee plus The Force if it helps to understand my capabilities in this VE dreamworld. Being in The Loop has its advantages, including the ability to break the laws of gravity and to flip the bird at the space-time continuum – at least until my advanced abilities bar depletes.

I’m in the air above the six assassins, my feet connecting with their skulls, volleying off one and thudding into the next. Kick-kick-kick go the feet and I don’t even need an ice pick to take these NPCs goons out because they are much less effective than Morning Assassin– much, much less. I drop down behind the last of the six, cracking his neck backwards over my shoulder as he cries out, “Gor blimey!”

I turn to them and retrieve the .500 Magnum from my inventory list, item 466. Six blasts from the hand-howitzer later and someone better call the hotel’s janitor. Smoking barrel, splattered bodies. One glance across the hotel lobby and I spot the NPC doorman cowering behind a potted plant.

“Morning Jim,” I say. “Sorry about the mess.”

“Good morning, Mr. Hughes. It’s quite all right.”

Jim stands slowly, straightening the front of his uniform. The dead look in his eyes indicate that he is playacting, that he is responding in an Non Player Character way to the violence he has just witnessed. What I wouldn’t give to see some true human emotion, rather than the stereotypical, standardized response hacked up by an advanced algorithm, some regurgitated feeling, bird-vomited from one NPC to another.

“Please, call me Quantum,” I tell him for the umpteenth time. “Are there any messages for me?”

There have never been any messages for me, but I always check anyway. After all, it’s better to have hope in a hopeless place than to be hopeless in a hopeless place. Or something like that.

Trying to cajole, threaten, or torture information out of Jim has proven to be relatively fruitless. I generally leave him alone these days, greeting him before leaving in the morning and saying goodnight if I’m lucky enough to return in the evening. Sometimes I kill him just for the hell of it.

“No messages, sir,” he says. He wipes beads of sweat from his forehead to the front of his pants, the sweating swine. I should do something about him…

I’m nearly out the door when Doorman Jim calls my name. “Mr. Hughes, I mean Mr. Quantum! There is one message, sir!”

“A message?” I turn to him. “Transfer it to my inventory.”

The message appears in my inventory list, item number 546. I access it and read it twice.

Impossible.

“What is it, Mr. Hughes?”

“Please, call me Quantum.”

“What is it, Mr. Quantum?”

I retrieve the S&W .500 from my list and shoot him in the neck.

“My apologies, Jim.”

~*~

Violence is rewarded, or should I say, was rewarded in The Loop.

Doorman Jim is merely a daily casualty in The Loop, a virtual entertainment dreamworld that used to grade a person on how many people they killed that day. The higher your kill count, the higher you moved up on the Hunter List.

I was the top hunter the day The Loop began repeating itself, hence the reason everyone is after me. This is what makes me both anxious and excited to see a message from an actual person; or from whom I assume is an actual person. NPCs don’t normally send messages. I read the message for the fifth time:

Quantum,

I’ve returned for you. Meet me in Devil’s Alley as soon as you receive this.

Frances Euphoria

“Frances Euphoria?” I savor the name a few times, realizing that it’s likely a trap.

It can’t be a real person contacting me. Real people don’t exist in The Loop, haven’t for nearly two years. Some group of randomly-generated NPCs is out to get me. The thought of this makes me smile; at least it won’t be a boring day.

One glance at the street confirms that it is dreary outside, as is every day in The Loop. The dreamworld was developed to cater to the Cyber Noir crowd, a niche market for those who like grit and tech, extreme violence, dark corners, sleuth-work, nineteen fifties styling with futuristic weapons. Cyber Noir was a subgenre that took off in the 2040s, at a time when Humandroid androids were replacing the workforce and governments were incorporating. Virtual entertainment dreamworlds, created through neuronal algorithms by the Proxima Company, became a swell way to escape, and I would still think they were a swell way to escape if I could find a swell way to escape this one.

The wind picks up, bouncing a tin can down the street. I don’t even need to check the time. 8:17 AM, the minute of the tin can. It always stops directly in front of a vandalized trashcan, spins twice, settles.

Of course, I’ve tried a variety of different exit points from the hotel. I’ve leapt from rooftop to rooftop, sat and had coffee, slept in (after killing the morning assassin), and even gone room to room, trying to see if there were any clues that would free me from The Loop.

What I’ve discovered is this – every way out of my hotel has its own pre-determined history. If I go to the roof, lightning cracks in the sky above, connecting with an antenna on a building in the distance causing a beautiful spark. If I go room to room, I encounter a man snoring as a hooker in a garter belt steals his money. Both are NPCs, and I’ve killed them dozens of times in a variety of colorful ways.

If I have a cup of Joe and some pancakes courtesy of my main squeeze Dolly, a chef runs out of the hotel’s kitchen at exactly 8:23 with a butcher knife trying to slice and dice me. (His meat cleaver marks day 123 in my inventory – it’s great for hacking). If I sleep in, a different morning assassin comes at 9:29. If I sleep in past that, another one comes at 10:34.

And so on.

There is no escape from the repetitiveness of The Loop. This is why the message intrigues me so – it is a true break from the endlessly recurring nature of my Loop-life.

Continue the Feedback Loop series now. Also available on Kindle Unlimited!

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Life is a Beautiful Thing Box Set

Note: This is not LitRPG

The Life is a Beautiful Box Set has appearances from Hajime and Ryuk in books 2 and 3. This series takes place 8 year after Fantasy Online, but there are no spoilers regarding how Fantasy Online will end.

Pick up the Life is a Beautiful Thing Box Set here.

LitRPG book list

LitRPG is a growing genre with a bunch of very good books. Here are some series you should check out if you haven’t already (in no particular order):

1) Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko

2) Lion’s Quest by Michael-Scott Earle

3) Delvers LLC by Blaise Corvin

4) Viridian Gate Online by James Hunter

5) Awaken Online by Travis Bagwell

6) The Land by Aleron Kong

7) Hero of Thera by Eric Nylund

8) Codename: Freedom by Apollos Thorne

9) Conquest by Aleric Elos

10) Sigil Online: Paragons by Jeff Sproul

11) Adventures on Terra by R.A. Mejia

12) Soulstone Awakening by J.A. Cipriano

13) Dragon Web Online by Sam Witt

14) Otherlife Series by William D. Arand