Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (22 page)

"Your
turn."

"Oh."
I wandered over and looked at the table. He managed to sink another
few and retain the lead. This time, there was no good shot. He had
effectively boxed me behind the
[Black Dragon Egg]
.

I
sighed and pondered how to do this.

Trick
shot time. I lined up the stick and ball, angled my shot sharply and
managed to hop the ball over his into mine. The bouncing tap had
managed to sink one of mine hanging near a pocket. My teeth clenched
as the cue ball rolled backward and gave the
[Black Dragon Egg]
a tap.

“
Whew.”
I fired another shot at the far end of the table to return the favor.

All
of my remaining balls were lined up near the
[Black
Dragon Egg]
.
Any shot he did from here would have to be carefully placed. Of
course, any real attempt at thwarting the machine was mostly useless.
An artificial intelligence that specialized in gambling and chance
could easily make this shot. The man in the duster sank another one
and managed to leave the
[Black
Dragon Egg]
untouched.

My
head hung. The hatted Voice cleared his last few cues. He called the
shot and sank the
[Black Dragon Egg]
easily.

“
Oh
well,” I said.

“
You
tried.” He nodded like the outcome had been inevitable.

“
Did
you want to talk about the casino thing?”

“
Sure.
The least I could do for a loser is hear him out.” He braced
both arms over the cue tip and waited for me to explain. That spawned
another twenty minutes of conversation where I tried to tell him how
a casino worked. Winners were few, odds were in The House's favor.
Places designed to be as much a distraction as anything else. Kind of
like this entire game. I had lost the coin toss and the round of
Pool.

Finally,
satisfied, the man in his Duster tipped his hat and faded out. I was
left with a pop-up window.

“
Well.”
I flicked off the notification and looked around. Nearby was the coin
still showing tails up. This little thing had been the main reason
for those negative bonuses. Still, divine attention had to be worth
something.

The
proceeds portion seemed absurdly low but after a year in the game it
might be an insane goldmine. Not that I cared about gold in a game.
Especially recently. If it was the same as how I treated money, I
would probably end up giving most of it away. My niece might enjoy
it. Maybe my parents played and could use something.

“
What’s
next, James?” The room of chance still existed. Things tended
to fade back to basics quickly after the event notice popped up.

A
cage nearby started rattling. I turned to see the drunk bird and
something else crawling around hissing.

“
Alright,
little guy.” It looked like the
[Messenger's
Pet]
had
found his way back into our event room. Now he was trying to get at
the bird inside and failing to elicit any response. In fact, the
drunken bird almost seemed to be unaware of the dragon tearing around
on the outside of its cage.

“
Whoa
now. Don’t do that!” And over they went.

That
got the bird's attention. One of its extra-large eyes on a fluffy
head had tried to zero in on the dragon. Comprehension was slowly
coming to life as it fumbled both legs around and tried to sit up
straight. I ran over and began to pry the miniature dragon off the
cage. Even as feisty as it was, the thing only had claws the size of
a tiny cat.

I
regretted trying to pick it up almost instantly. The tiny thing
nipped and clawed at my arms. A red bar that had to be my health
flashed onto the screen and went lower with each line of blood drawn.

“
What
is wrong with you?” I didn’t know what would happen if he
did manage to get to the bird who was still trying to figure out how
to stand up. The thing would sway and half squawk in confusion.

“
Identification.”
I didn’t have the mental focus to try and trigger my identify
skill so I went vocal.

“
Why
are you trying to piss off the drugged bird?” I lost my grip on
the tiny dragon and things went downhill from there. The
[Messenger's
Pet]
leapt
onto the bird cage and sent it rolling around the floor.

The
ensuing show was like a hamster that lost all traction on the wheel.
Spinning resulted in feathers, squawking and clanking. Nails tried to
find purchase on the metal cage bars which only resulted in more
screeches. Their comedy act collided with a table causing the cage
door to pop open. An escape route only served to enrage the
[Lorlell
Cova Bird]
. Feathers puffed up to almost double their prior size.
The tiny dragon huffed and hissed. His jaw worked to spit fire but
failed due to an empty tank.

I
flipped a table and held it awkwardly like a shield between the
outraged bird and me. The puffball fighting bird was huge now and
from the violent sounds considered the tiny dragon to be an enemy. My
dragon buddy seemed to be losing. I scanned the games and tried to
find anything useful.

Oh,
right, I had access to tons of makeshift weapons. This was one step
away from a barroom brawl movie. First up was the pool cue. I grabbed
it with a free hand and jabbed one end towards the fighting
creatures. Between my table shield and pool cue spear, I felt as if I
was a Spartan.

“
Hey.
Hey.” I thrust one end at them. It was hard to feel super
worried for myself since they were both shorter than my knee.

“
Stop
that.” I poked at the large ball of feathers. My makeshift
staff hit nothing and sank deep without visual effect.

The
[Messenger's
Pet]
was
torn up and had gashes in his wings from where the
[Lorlell
Cova Bird]
had
refused to let go.

“
Knock
it off!” I swung the pool cue down and bonked the
[Lorlell
Cova Bird]
on
the head. Which was a bad, bad, bad idea.

“
Hurrr.”
If anything it got bigger. I flinched in panic and threw a table at
the puffball bird. That worked against me. The
[Lorlell
Cova Bird]
made
a noise and its beady eyes crossed, two seconds later it was up and
diving at me. My calf was bitten as I ran around kicking like a
scared schoolgirl.

I
tipped another table, then another, and finally arrived at the table
near the dartboards. Everything in range became a projectile or
obstacle against the bird until the bird stopped moving and laid
there. The tiny dragon proceeded to huff and growl until our
situation became clear. Our bird enemy was down for the count and
completely out of it.
[Messenger's
Pet]
stood
up on top of the smaller creature and puffed a smoke ring into its
face.

“
Yeah,
all you, beating up a drugged bird. Good job.”

The
small dragon nodded and rolled the bird over with his claws.

“
Well
done
,”
I muttered, looking at the scattered remains.

“
Why
do that?” James was back and seemed amused.

“
Which
part?” Had we really fought off an angry bird? The idea had me
laughing.

“
All
of it.”

“
With
Ray I wanted to see what would happen. With the bird, it was to keep
the little guy from being torn up.” The
[Messenger's
Pet]
was
looking smug and licking his wounds. Every so often he chirped a
pleased tone.

Slowly
an absolute wreck of dozens of games faded away.

I
huffed.
“
Next?”

Session Seven
- Wrapped up

“
Can
we skip this one?” I muttered. My mouth was presently
unwrapped, but the rest of me was bound and tied up in who knows
what.

“
Not
yet, Grant Legate.”

“
But
we can chat.” I gave it my best dry sarcastic tone. If only
James could see my rolling eyes. Maybe he could with all his computer
program powers.

“
Of
course, if you’re not too tied up right now.”

“
I
am, a little.” The Voice could deliver a deadpan line and
seemed indifferent to my attempt to return the favor.