UNINVITEDSYNNER: I’m telling you, there was someone there.
GONE_ROGUE_13: How did they look like?
UNINVITEDSYNNER: Couldn’t tell. They were covered by shadows.
GONE_ROGUE_13: Righto. Sounds like you have a phantom stalker.
Rahel’s avatar jogged by the myriad of shopfronts as crowds of other avatars milled around the central trade area. On occasion, a user jumped up on the roof of a shop and performed a virtual striptease, removing all their clothes until they were clad in nothing but default and bland underwear. What started off as a joke to accumulate petty coins had turned into something which was all the norm. No one even batted an eyelid, and it became part of the background of the valley.
Reaching a particularly dainty shop with a peeling painting of an anvil hanging from the facade, Rahel stepped through the doorway and found the shopkeeper. He was shuffled to and fro along the floor, and his boots clunked with each move.
The creators of ORACLE had given the character a typical look, keeping true to the fantasy lore.
He was a dumpy little man with a shaggy grey beard which covered half of his apron. Faded patches of oil stained the heavy material and wrenches lined the wall and benches behind him. A pair of soldering goggles poked out from a pocket. He reached up to Rahel’s waist and his muscles glistened from sweat as he hefted a massive axe onto the counter.
“Can I help ye’?” he grunted.
She cycled through the options until she found repair and her inventory automatically opened in front of her. As she clicked on the previous days’ items which had sustained heavy damage, her gaze fell on the key.
It remained in her satchel in the exact same slot where it had fallen into the day earlier. She did not know what she expected – as if it would have disappeared over the hours from which she was absent from the universe.
Her gut flipped and she reluctantly handed over the chunk of coins to the blacksmith and paused. Rahel quickly asked a question before the dwarf disappeared from view.
UNINVITEDSYNNER: Do you know anything about this?
Rahel shifted her hand towards the key and selected it.
The dwarf all of two seconds as it considered the item.
His face betrayed nothing.
His lips remained in a tight line and his eyebrows remained unmoving.
“Sorry, I couldn’t tell ye’ anythin’,” he grunted. Motes of dust swirled in the air as he shuffled away.
She was left to stand alone.
A million questions surged through her mind, a state of confusion taking hold of her consciousness.
There were so many things – so many pieces – that did not make sense.
The blacksmith was a non-playable character; an avatar generated by the company of the simulation itself. How was it that it knew nothing, not a single thing, when it was designed by the same people and was coded with the same coding of the world which it existed in. The dwarf was part of the same fabric!
Suddenly, she found that the mystery in which she was thrown so unknowingly in to was only getting thicker. Much to her chagrin, she also found that she was getting no closer to finding what the key actually did.
Rahel curled her fists in frustration before running the palm of her hands on her face.
Her avatar did the same as it emitted a low, albeit audible, huff of frustration. And then her fingers ran through the hot-pink strands of her hair.
EX1LED_WAND3RER: Can I help you, Miss?
Rahel spun around, her back hitting the corner of the workbench.
Barely visible from the backlight of the alleyway, a stooped mass stood still in the doorway.
UNINVITEDSYNNER: Who are you?
Whatever it was, it took a few ambled steps towards her. As it shifted closer to her and stepped beneath the levitating globes overhead, the shadow shrouding the newly-arrived visitor began to lift.
The avatar was draped in a robe, its face obscured by a loose hood. A hardened, green hand reached out from beneath the swatches of cloth and its feeble fingers clenched tightly onto the knots of an intricately carve cane. Equally green and battered looking ears protruded from its head cover, shaped almost like crescents of a moon.
EX1LED_WAND3RER: You shouldn’t be so much concerned about who I am than what is sitting in your inventory. [TK1]
Rahel took a deep breath in as a jolt passed through her.
How did this stranger know? There was no way anyone from the raiding group would have let their lips go loose. They had not made a pact but they rarely joined forces with others beyond their own little group. They worked well together and had the character classes that were considered critical in their journeys.
She took a moment to recompose herself and stared pan-faced at whatever, or whoever, the thing was. The avatar stood mere centimetres away from her now. Two almond-shaped sockets glowed hauntingly from beneath the darkness of the hood and smouldered as the avatar took her in. Green whisps floated in silence from the avatars eyes.
UNINVITEDSYNNER: I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
There was a moment of silence between them and a new message appeared in the corner of her vision.
EX1LED_WAND3RER: Oh, but I think you do.
The two avatars stared at each other in silence as the rumblings of the alleyway drifted through the door.
Even though it was just a simulation, she could feel the air fraught with tension.
UNINVITEDSYNNER: What do you want from me?
EX1LED_WAND3RER: I don’t want anything from you. But for the good of mankind, just be careful and calculating of your next moves. There are people out there. Bad people. And they would do whatever it would take to get their hands on that thing.
UNINVITEDSYNNER: Do you know what it does?
EX1LED_WAND3RER: The key is the source of all ev-
The message was cut abruptly short.
The avatar vanished from view, the space which it had occupied just a second ago now lifeless and empty.
Rahel slammed her hand against the wooden top of the bench and felt the haptics of the suit vibrate in response. The one soul who seemingly knew something had disappeared into the expanse.
She had to do something to find answers.
Fumbling with the message box, she commanded it to open and was fast to spit out a few words.
In response, glaring words leered back at her: USER NOT FOUND.
Her pulse quickened and her temples throbbed.
Every time she read – reread – those words, they burned themselves more and more into her skull. It was as if someone was playing a cruel joke, pulling the strings of her life and relishing in her spiralling demise.
She hit the logout button and the bustling alleyway started to disappear, but not before she saw a friend request screen pop up in the fading universe. The elaborate scroll interface presented itself in the centre of the screen and commanded her fleeting attention.
ORACLE_1 HAS REQUESTED TO BECOME FRIENDS. DO YOU ACCEPT?
Rahel grabbed at the headset, her lifeline to the place she loved the most, and ripped it from her eyes. She tore at the straps of the ORACLE suit and shrugged free of the shackles which bound her to the world.
And then the world went dark as the last ties to the portal were severed.
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