End Online: Volume 3 (17 page)

In my mind, I have a
sudden flashback of when I was told that my two younger sisters were taken away
from me and custody was given to my distant aunt, who I have no clue of her
location.

“Forgive me.” I say gently
to the lady. “I understand exactly how hard it can be to have someone taken
away from you. But please don’t think that this is that sort of case.”

The female else slowly
lifts her head, her teary eyes filled with distrust and fear.

“There is a small matter
that I need him to come with me for. I promise I will bring him back in a day
or two.” If this mother adamantly refuses to let me take him, I’m not entirely
sure I will be able to follow through anymore with completing this quest.

“H-he has done n-nothing!
Please, I will give you anything!”

I notice that the guards
have drawn nearby, listening to our conversation as they prepare to attack at a
moments notice.

“Unfortunately he has done
something.” The woman’s eyes slightly widen in shock at my words, but still
completely fearing me. Of course, this is the effect of my intimidating aura.

“He has been making
contact with a young girl in the nearby city of Grenton.” I continue, “I have
been asked by her father to find this boy. I promise no harm will come to him,
the girls father is just a little overprotective.”

The boy on my shoulder
suddenly overcoming his fear and in a panic, starts to struggle in my grip
while screaming “Let me go!”. However, he is only a weak child and can’t break
free or cause any damage.

The mother of the child
shows more fear than ever before. Not just at me, but also at her son for some
reason. At the same time one of the guards fearfully steps forward. “H-human,
are you s-saying this boy has been contacting other humans?”

At these words, the kid’s
mother looks between the elf male and me as if her whole world just came
crashing down on top of her.

“That is the case. But
please don’t think I mean to take this child away permanently or harm him.”

“I’m sorry,” The elf bites
his lower lip and tilts his head towards the ground as tears begin to well up
in his eyes, “What happens to this child and the mother are no longer our
responsibility.”

“Hon’ar! Please, no! He is
just a child!” The lady cries out to the male elf with her whole body shaking,
fresh tears streaming down her face

“He is, meaning he is your
responsibility. You both must be punished for breaking our law against
willingly coming into contact with the humans. I really wish there was another
way Shai’en, we have been a couple for six years, but as long as we remain
exiles from humanity we must maintain this law. As by my authority as the
leader of the Eldenweiss Community, I Hon’ar, banish Shai’en and her son
Shai’lan.”

The woman remains on all
fours on the ground, as still and silent as if she was made out of stone. I
catch a glimpse of her face and see her eyes painfully squeezed shut.

“Excuse me,” I speak up
and interrupt the two. “I promise I won’t let other know about you elves if you
are currently hiding, so there should be no need to exile them.”

I honestly feel incredibly
guilty right now. This entire mess is caused by me.

“Human,” Hon’ar speaks,
starting to overcome his fear after realizing I mean no harm. “This is not
about whether you will tell others about us or not. After today we will not be
returning to this place anyway now that it has been discovered. The problem is
that this is a law decided by us all after we were forcefully removed from our
home by the humans.”

“Surely there must be some
way! You said you are a couple so you should do everything you can to stay
together!”

“The only way would be for
me to accomplish that is to accept exile along with Shai’en.”

“NO!” Shai’en calls out,
“You can’t Hon’ar! Your responsibilities are too great, this whole community
depends on you.”

“As you see,” Hon’ar says
to me, “I cannot leave this community. And as long as we have no home and are
on the run from humans, I cannot turn a blind eye to this law. Even if it is
the person I love.”

“Then what if we get back
your home for you. According to what you have said, then it should be fine,
right?!”

All the elves look at me
with wide eyes of shock.

“Yes,” Hon’ar nods
slightly, “That is agreeable. If you can get back our home for us, then we can
take her back. No, I can take her back, and finally get married to her beneath
the reclaimed ‘Tree of Pink Blossoms’. Human, what is your name?”

“M-my name is Lost.” I
stammer out in shock, seeing where this is leading,

“Lost, on behalf of the
leader of the Eldenweiss Community, I Hon’ar, request you to liberate our home
of Eltreant in the northern forest from the vile bandits occupying it.”

‘A legendary quest!’

“I accept your request. I
honestly do not wish for these two to be exiled. But if I can have them rejoin
your community then I will be truly happy.”

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Mikhail-

“Mikhail, get over here!
Now!” Henry calls out to me who is sitting in my small office with my eyes
staring at the white ceiling.

“Y-yes boss.” I call back
as I hurriedly get out of my seat and rush over. “What is it?”

“We have a serious
problem.” Henry’s brows furrow more than I have ever seen them do so before. “I
just received a call from a very powerful man. Apparently something related to
our game has damaged his daughters mind. Scrambled her memories, or so he
said.”

“Henry, could he be making
this up?”

“People of his calibre
don’t  just “make things up”.”

I feel my face turn ashen,
thinking of what the consequences could be.

“He has demanded we hand
over all server memory footage and data of his daughters in game experiences in
hopes of finding out exactly what happened. Neither he nor I thinks this is a
simple hardware fault.”

“S-sir, could it be-“

“I don’t know!” he cuts me
off, “But it is your job to find out before we hand over any footage. The name
of the person is Verity Lee, so go from that to find her player name and locate
all game footage. You got that?”

“Yes, sir.”

I rush off to the server
room where I plug in my portable computer to access the long term memory data.
The server itself has such a massive memory base that it can store a total of
twelve months worth of data that can be turned into a full scale footage of the
entire continent, allowing us to locate players and find out what they have
been up to and where they have been.

I input the personal
information data of the players real life name. A few seconds later, I receive
her in game information.

“Hrmm. Her in game name is
Verde, level 94, practically a street thief built class.”

I run a query on the game
server to collect her past six months of activity into a video file that I can
export and run through after.

Surprise shows on my face.
This should be technically impossible. Unless…

“Xilbril, are you hiding
something from me?” I whisper while staring at the two hundred cube server
array.

Knowing I am not going to
get anything further from here, I head back to see Henry and let him know the
situation.

“Henry, it appears Xilbril
won’t let me access the video footage in regards to this person for some
reason. It is the same kind of denial I got when trying to find out where that
child AI went.”

“Mikhail, tell me
honestly. Could they be related.”

“I suspect they are, but I
have no proof. I think this girl may have had contact with the child AI. It
could have been that AI itself that caused this mess.”

Henry pulls out a
cigarette and lights it up, inhaling a few deep breaths before speaking again.

“Okay, I got it. Leave
this one to me for now. By the way, have you played End Online much?”

“No, why do you ask.”

“Take the day off, go buy
a copy and study up on playing it. You may need to really go ‘into the field’
shortly.”

“What are you saying?”

“No questions, now go.”

I leave Henry’s office,
and make sure to grab my coat and bag before heading out to buy the game our
company produced and maintains for some odd reason.

***************************************************
***************************************************

-Henry-

“Mr. Lee, sorry for
calling you back so soon. I have something to quickly discuss with you.”

“What would that be?” Mr.
Lee speaks in a rather unfriendly tone right from the start.

“I am truly sorry to say
this, but we are unable to provide you with the footage you requested.”

“Excuse me, are you saying
you lost it? Or you never had it in the first place when you should have?”

He may have been on the
other end of a telephone call, but I still feel the temperature of the room
around me drop a few degrees from him frigid tone.

“N-no, that isn’t it. It
is simply company policy that prevents us from handing it out.”

“How much will it cost?”

“Pardon?”

“I said, how much will it
cost. Give me a number and I will make it happen.”

I am perfectly aware of
how filthy rich this man is. He could probably buy the entire city of Taile if
he wanted to.

“I’m sorry sir, but this
is not a matter that can be solved through money.”

“Well why don’t I buy your
company then. I will even begin a hostile takeover if this is what it is going
to take.”

The man speaks in a tone
even colder than before, sending a full shiver up my spine. I am a fully grown
man who is actually quite tough, but this man is giving me a chilling fear
simply over the phone.

Well, he couldn’t buy this
company even if he wanted to. Idea Imagine is a subsidiary of Virtue, which is
not a publicly listed company. When Virtue wanted to raise capital for its
goals, instead of turning to the share market it started selling the V-Link. Without
shares to sell or buy, nobody can buy this company unless the owners decide to
sell.

“However, Mr. Lee, I do
have a thought that can help. How about we have her rejoin the game and send in
experts to monitor her.”

“Do you expect me to let
my daughter go back into a game that caused her current state?”

“Please understand, this
is the only solution I can think of. We will personally send in some employees
to constantly monitor her. You can have your own bodyguards join her as well
for safety. At least to help her recover her memories. We consider this to be a
very serious incident.”

A period of silence comes
over the phone conversation while sweat trickles down my forehead.

“Very well. You will send
in your moderators and I will send in my bodyguards to protect her. If anything
even looks like it could go wrong, I will personally hold you accountable and
take every penny that you and your company own. You have my word on that.”

“W-we will definitely not
let anything happen.”

“Good. Now, I have
arrangements to make. You have two weeks to arrange things on your side.
Goodbye.”

I make a quick phone call
to Mikhail and let him know the information, and that he is to play the game
for two weeks stopping only for food. He is to focus on raising his level to a sufficient
point where he can play the game as this girl’s helper.

I let out a sigh that
everything had worked out. All I need to do now is track down that rogue AI
before it causes any more damage. That is my number one priority.

-Lost-

I slowly lower the little
boy, Shai’lan, down onto the ground. Rather than running straight to his
mother, he looks at me defiantly with a snot covered face, his whole body
shaking.

“I-it’s all y-your fault!”
He shouts up at me.

“Shai’lan!” Shai’en, his
mother, calls out in an icy voice. “Stop it at once!”

“Shai’lan, was it?” The
voice of Mason sounds from over my shoulder. “I’m not saying that everything is
your fault. But surely you realize we would not be here in the first place if
it were not for you.”

I didn’t have a clue when
the elder of the two brothers got behind me. He must have crept over during the
confusion and overheard the conversation.

The child gives him a
stubborn look, but he immediately stops talking nonetheless.

Shai’en doesn’t move,
still collapsed in a kneeling position with her hands on her knees and head
slumped down. Half her hair is tucked behind one of her pointy ears while the
rest hangs limply down past her face.

“Shai’en,” I speak softly,
the elf slowly looks up at me. “I don’t exactly know what to do now. I honestly
did not mean for things to get this complicated. But, it looks like there is a
way to go back. For now, what will you do until we can get your homeland back?”

“I have nowhere else to go
now that I have no home. But do you truly think you can fight off a group of
bandits large enough to cause the entire elven population to flee from our
capital city?”

“We will get rid of them.”

Truthfully, I have no idea
how to get rid of them. Hopefully they only number in the thousands and can be
slowly picked off in small groups. The elves don’t appear to be that strong
according to what I saw from those town guards earlier. They have extremely
good aim, but with no courage behind them, they can only be seen as weak.

Shai’en remains silent,
looking at me with lifeless eyes full of disbelief.

“I think that about wraps
it up!” Mason clears the air and causes all of us to blink a few times as he
randomly claps his hands together, making a loud sound that echoes throughout
the forest.

I walk over to the elf on
the ground and extend an open hand to help her up. She places a shaking palm
onto mine which I firmly grasp and give a strong pull, hauling her up onto her
feet.

“I think you will need
something to cover your ears at the very least.” Mason says to the elves, “Else
I am afraid it might cause a bigger stir than it is worth.”

The mother nods and leads
her son to a small house nearby. Only earlier, I found it strange how there
were no doors on the houses. Yet, as she closes in on the house, the bramble
wall comes alive and separates into a doorway to let them in.

They emerge from the house
a few minutes later, each carrying a small sack and wearing a piece of headwear
to hide their ears. The boy is wearing a dirty brown beanie, the same one that
I saw in the picture of ‘The Mysterious Boy’. Meanwhile, his mother is wearing
a white scarf on her head, the tails of the fabric falling down over one
shoulder amongst her straight green hair.

Their hair may be an odd
colour, but it is possible to dye the hair in the game so nobody should think
anything much of it.

I start to lead the way to
the edge of the clearing, where Matrix and Fen are still waiting. I see Matrix
practising his sword swings while having a battle with an imaginary enemy. Fen,
on the other hand, is standing off to the side with a grumpy look on her face.

“It is time for us to head
back now,” I say to the two of them, “We need to head back to town, finish the
current quest, then resupply before heading out to the northern forests to
reclaim the elvish capital. I’m sure you received the quest notification so you
already know.”

“I know.” Matrix says full
of excitement, “That’s why I am, umm, practising for when we get there.”

While leaving the clearing
and entering the forest, the sun finally falls below the horizon and the last
few strands of light dissipate. A few moments later, the moon climbs into the
sky, sending rays of moonlight through small gaps in the foliage and shrouding
the forest in eerie shadows that dance with the wind.

For a while, no one says a
word or even dares to breath too loudly. We all focus on our surroundings
completely spooked, almost as if a creature of nightmares could appear at any
moment. Luckily, The only sounds around us are a few nocturnal birds and the
wind rustling the leaves above us.

“Lost, are you sure
nothing will happen to us?” Shai’en breaks the silence, whispering to me in a
melodic voice quiet enough that I almost missed it.

“As long as no one finds
out you are an elf, there shouldn’t be any problems.” I whisper back just as
quietly, only, my voice doesn’t sound as gentle as hers.

“But… This man that you
are taking my son to. I-I’m scared.”

“There is no need to be,”
I let out a sigh. I have already lost count of how many times I have tried to
tell her that this isn’t something to worry about, “He is just an
overprotective father that doesn’t like boys near his daughter. He doesn’t mean
any harm, just doesn’t want his precious daughter to ‘fall prey to some boy’.
Or something like that.”

“I still feel uneasy.”

Shai’en remains silent
after that. Except, she couldn’t maintain it for long and starts talking again
barely five minutes later.

“Lost. You know, you are
surprisingly a nice person.”

“W-what?” I stammer out,
confused as to what thoughts caused those words.

“I mean, something about
your aura makes me feel absolutely terrified. Almost like at any moment you
could suddenly grab me and throw me to the ground. Then, using your bare hands,
rip my clothes to shreds before you-“

“Stop!” I cut her off mid
thought. “Please don’t go any further than that.”

I can see how crimson her
face is at the moment even in this darkness. As can everybody else who have now
stopped walking to turn their heads at me with their jaws dropped. Even Fen is
staring in complete shock.

“B-but, I have to ask.”
Shai’en’s voice still sounds like a gentle flute on the wind, despite the
stammering. “How e-exactly did you find our community. There should have been a
warding that prevents all humans and any pets of theirs from entering.”

‘Well, I suppose she
technically isn’t human nor my pet.’ 
I
think to myself as I look over at the girl in question.

“Unfortunately, I probably
shouldn’t say any more. What about you? It seems like the city of elves split
up into multiple communities. So where is everyone else?”

“Most of my people got
enslaved by the bandits when they attacked. The rest have fled away and gone
into hiding.” She seems to feel a deep pain while talking about the loss of her
home.

“Surely your village was
protected by the same kind of illusion as you were in this forest. I don’t
understand how it was you were attacked in the first place?”

“It was. Unlike now, there
was also no rule at the time forbidding contact with humans. But our main city,
Entreal, was still protected from outsiders the same as we were in the forest.
The only way for an outsider to get through is for them to possess a ‘Necklace
of the Elves’, or be in the company of someone who does. Fortunately, it is an
item which cannot be forged or stolen, even from a dead body.”

As Shai’en talks, she
pulls up a string necklace from around her neck. Along that necklace are four
odd sized aquamarines shaped like upside down tear drops. Even in the night,
they seem to radiate a faint azure light.

“They also provide a
strong resistance against negative mental statuses and illusions. The strength
of which depends on the necklace, some stronger than others. The strength of
the necklace you carry is usually related to how important you are in the
elvish society.”

“I see, I see.” Nodding my
head, I suddenly have a thought. “Wait, while I get how desirable these
necklaces are. If it can’t be stolen, then how did this person get one of those
necklaces?”

“What happened is told of
a lone travelling elf, who met a human and fell in love with him. They were
together for six months and had already promised a long and plentiful future
together.”

“One night, the man was
taking a bath with the woman when he fooled her into taking the necklace off so
he could have a proper look at it. The moment she took it off and handed it to
him however, he stabbed her in the back and murdered her in cold blood. I hear
that the blood soaked into his skin, permanently staining him of his sin.”

“This man then used the
necklace to lead an army of bandits into the heart of the northern forest,
raiding the capital of the elves. I was only a child when it happened, but I
will never forget that night…” Her voice trails off as she begins to recall her
memories of the past, a few tears forming under her eyes.

A foreboding silence once
again takes over the group and lasts the entire journey through the moonlit
forest. After hearing the story of what happened to the elf, no one knew
exactly what to say next.

At one point, Matrix
raised the point that we should stop and rest for the night. But that planned
ended up being pointless as we were two sleeping bags short.

Shai’en naturally started
up a few menial conversations, curious about us and where we are from. She
almost seemed like a curious child at some points. Never running out of
questions.

With the moon directly in
the middle of the sky, we finally emerge from the forest and into the open
plains around Grenton. There are quite a few new players still battling wild
boars and other beginner level creatures, even in the dead of night.

‘They must be trying
to level up as fast as possible. To be hunting during the night as well.’

Without giving it any more
thought, I lead the way past them and towards Grenton. I can see the light of
countless lanterns throughout the city, almost like hundreds of thousands of
fireflies flying about as their flames flickered back and forth. The entire
city gives off a gentle, golden radiance that truly matched its splendour.

That soft light is projecting
itself onto the ground just outside the eastern exit, almost like an open door
beaconing me in.

Most of the NPCs have
vanished into their residences for the night, yet the streets inside the city
are still bustling with players. It isn’t just young people playing as well.
There are many middle aged men and woman dressed as warriors, magicians, and
even some who have chosen their equipment based off of a fashion sense. The
elderly community seems to be rather lacking in the game, but there is definitely
a few old couples that seem to be enjoying vigorously strong bodies.

All along the street I am
currently on, players are running stalls with large varieties of food that they
have made. Ever since the Christmas update that introduced the satiety system
to the game, there has been a massive increase in not just the quantity but
quality of food products being sold.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”
Mason says beside me. “I even heard there are some players who have taken up a
farming profession. It is mostly the older people who no longer have bodies
strong enough to do it in real life. Most of the bigger guilds purchased land
or let them use theirs to produce food products in return for providing free
materials for cooking for them.”

Inside, I feel utter amazement
at this. It has only been three months since Christmas, yet such a system has
already not only been thought of, but even spread around the guilds on a large
scale.

“To think, you could just
purchase land.” I think about how simple it should be.

“Not quite,” Mason laughs
at my surprise, “If you want to farm on it or start any form of production, you
will naturally have to defend it from monsters. They won’t spawn in the farm or
even around it all that much. But they will enter the farm and start eating the
product unless you can keep them out. It is quite a lot of work for the
supervising guilds.”

We continue our
conversation on food and also how guilds run their economics all the way until
we reach the Gold Run Inn. Once inside, I go straight to the innkeeper, not
bothering with anything else.

Glancing behind me, I
notice Shai’en looking at me nervously while Shai’lan is hiding behind her
legs.

“Can you please give me
three rooms. Two beds each.” I say to Rix, not mentioning anything about the
quest.

“No problem. That will be
four gold and fifty silver.” He says with a smile that fails to reach his eyes,
giving me an unnerving foreboding. As soon as I hand the payment over, he
whispers towards me in a cold voice.

“Say, you haven’t tracked
down that young boy just yet, have you?” He glances over at Shai’lan, almost as
if he already knows that that is the boy he is waiting for.