“Ha, witty. Sang, are you breathing air right now?”
“What?” Sang asked.
“Each time you draw in oxygen, what is happening? Your actual body is being sent electric pulses that convince your brain that you’re actually breathing. The pods send waves to your brain that allow you to interpret each event around you as if it were real. Each twitch of the muscle, each movement of your hand. And who is in control of this? Is it you? No, not at all. Draco owns everything that you are experiencing. They’ve been playing nice with you and Van. Why? I have no idea. They think very differently from you and me. I couldn’t begin to guess the motivation behind why they just wouldn’t deactivate the oxygen around you. But they could if they wanted to. You are playing with fire here.”
Sang frowned. “You’re bluffing.”
Draumed shrugged. “Are you willing to take that risk? Let me be clear here—you are not in your own world. You are in a world controlled by programmers, directed by Draco. You are trying to spit in the eye of a god. Eventually, this god is going to grow weary of you and remove you.”
“In the Greek times, you used to be able to kill a god,” Sang replied. “And that is what I intend to do.”
Draumed sighed. “Well, don’t say I didn’t try to warn you. Just know that, at some point, you’re simply going to stop breathing. You will gasp and choke, trying to figure out what’s wrong. You’ll rapidly click the logout button, but… nothing will happen. Then, my friend, you will die within three minutes. No dagger, no arrow, no blade piercing your heart, but you will die.”
“Sucks to be me, I guess,” Sang replied. In truth, she had no idea what to do with that information. On some level, she had wondered how much control Draco really had, but she didn’t have time to worry about it now. “I want more information on this ship.”
“Ask away,” Draumed said. “I’m not the type who wants to die for the cause.”
“Why join it at all?” Sang asked.
Draumed shrugged. “My wife was murdered two years ago, taking what was left of my soul with her. I’m so past the point of caring at this point, when Draco told me all about their grand plan to clean up mankind, I jumped at the chance to make a real difference. It sucks that we have to cleanse all of humanity, save for the choicest few, but let’s be really honest here: humanity is sick, and Draco’s the cure.”
Sang gritted her teeth. She could tell by the confidence in his voice that there was zero chance of converting him. Would she have to kill him at the end of this conversation?
“I want the truth: how can I access the data for the Inciting Division?”
“If you want to access the data, you’ll need to check the central console; it’s where all of the records and files are located.”
“Any passwords?”
“Don’t ask me—I wouldn’t know. I’m just in charge of watching the area and escorting players who wander in out of this place.”
“And this area… it’s lethal, isn’t it?”
Draumed sighed. “I’m afraid it is. These areas are what are known as Designated Reality Zones. Anything game-related is disabled here. Logout functions, telecommunications, even private messaging. These areas are used for training or keeping the Draco operatives safe from some jackass who thinks he can use his broadsword to save the world.”
“These Draco operatives: what kind of powers do they have? Are they like the Messengers?”
“Now that, I can’t say. I don’t even know if these lizard guys are Draco or not. They just hiss and scream at us to do things. Not particularly civil.”
“Why are you answering me so honestly?”
“Because, Sang, none of it matters. No matter how much intel you collect, you are going to die. Once Draco realizes that you aren’t at that big battle, they’ll set up a tracer program to find you. It will have some trouble locating you since you’re in the DRZ, but once it locks on, they’ll simply edit a line of code that allows you to breathe and… goodbye. So, why not tell you the whole truth? Why risk my own life for a threat that’s too minor to even worry about? Draco will solve this problem, one way or another.”
“What about Bidane and Dolly?” Sang asked. “Are they okay?”
“They’re fine,” Draumed replied. “For now. If Van pisses Draco off, they’re liable to see to it that the girls are murdered.”
“My last question,” Sang said. “How much time do we have left? How much time before everything starts?”
Draumed was silent for a few moments. She could hear his labored breathing grow more intense. “Not much time,” he admitted. “I wouldn’t plan any vacations for the end of the year.”
“Well, that’s just great,” Sang said. “Anything else I need to know?”
“Just that you still have time to log out. You still have time to go home and never come back to this place.”
Sang growled in response to the offer. She was not going to let this man intimidate her into surrendering.
“Well,” Draumed said. “I suppose you’re going to want to tie me up now. I won’t put up a fuss, of course. You’d probably be better off leaving me somewhere here in this forest, since I won’t be able to log out.”
Sang sighed deeply, pressed the blade to the man’s throat, and with one swift motion, brought it across his neck, slicing it open. The words Coupe De Grace appeared above him. Draumed began to flail and gasp as his throat was filled with blood; he fell to his knees, choking and gasping. He clutched his neck in vain, trying desperately to breathe, but he couldn’t do anything. He fell onto his side, writhing and gasping until eventually he stopped moving.
“God,” Sang said as she felt the urge to vomit rise up inside of her. She suppressed the urge and instead tried to focus on the task at hand. She had to bury his corpse. She found some shallow dirt and began to dig with her hands.
Why had she had to do this? she thought as she dug, her fingers tearing through the earth. Why kill him? She shook her head. Draumed had been a threat; even if he’d been tied up, he would have tried to escape. She couldn’t have risked him coming after her again. He had already proven that he was willing to watch humanity end. It was a horrible thing to do, killing him, but at the same time, she hadn’t had much of a choice. This was war. He wouldn’t be the last person on Draco’s side to die, so she might as well get used to it. She sighed heavily as she realized that at some point she’d have to tell this to Van. How would he react?
Chapter Fourteen
Van stood by impatiently as he waited for his team to log in. He had sent a message to everyone to be there as soon as possible, but no one had logged on yet. It would be just his luck if they weren’t interested in joining a big raid.
“Man, we are making the biggest mistake of our lives,” Kenwar said.
“Can it,” Van replied. “I told you to keep your mouth shut.”
“How can I keep my mouth shut when you’re committing to suicide here? We can’t beat Draco! We don’t have a chance!” Kenwar said. “Say the word, man; say the word and we’re free from this stuff.”
“What about the poison?” Van asked. “There’s no getting away from that.”
“I can call for a Draco Sleeper unit to pick us up. They’ll show up armed, take down Neil and O’Hara. They’ll free us and then we’ll be extracted to a safe location.”
“Ha!” Van chuckled. “If you could do that, you would have already. Let’s face it, Kenwar. For some reason, Draco really wants their hands on me. I don’t know why they want me so badly, but I know that, without me as a bargaining chip, you’ve got nothing. We’re sticking to the plan. We’ll get out of this alive. You just need to calm the hell down.”
“Calm down? How are you not freaking out right now?” Kenwar asked as he paced back and forth.