"Oh, my God, I think I'm going to die. Come on, that… oh, this isn't fair at all. I didn't even get to shoot back," Neil gasped. He began to convulse a little.
"Relax, Neil, relax!" Sang said as she began to put pressure on the wound. Blood was pouring out fast. "It's not nearly as bad as it looks. You're gonna be just fine."
"Sure I am," Neil wheezed. "Sure I am. I mean, people get shot at point blank range by guns and walk away all the time."
Sang pressed down on the wound hard. The doors swung open as O'Hara entered.
"The hell?" the redheaded agent demanded once she realized what had happened. "Neil, you ass, why'd you get shot?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Neil wheezed. He was hyperventilating hard. "Oh, I don't think I'm gonna make it."
"Ah crap, you better not die on me!" O'Hara said as she pulled out her phone. "I need a full medical team in the command center right now – an agent has been shot."
"Sang," Neil wheezed, "no matter what happens, you need to remember the mission. Whatever that nerd is fussing about, it doesn’t matter. You've got to make sure he finishes the mission, regardless of the cost."
Sang looked down at him. He was terribly pale, and she could see the pallor of death upon his face. He grabbed her neck hard, pulling her close. She could feel the warm blood on his hands dripping down her throat.
"All men can be corrupted, Sang. Van is… he's no different. If he cracks, it's not going to be a… a mental breakdown. He's not gonna start screaming and crying…" Neil paused for a moment to cough. "He'll betray us. If he does, don't hesitate to kill him."
"Right there!" O'Hara shouted in the background. A team of paramedics arrived and quickly began to work on Neil, pushing Sang aside.
"Don't hesitate, don't feel bad – if he goes down the wrong road, just pull the trigger before… before he can do the same to you," Neil wheezed as the medics shoved an oxygen mask over his mouth.
"Damn it, Neil!" O'Hara shouted as she began to pull on her hair. "If you die, I will not forgive you! You owe me too much money to die! Come on, man, come on!"
The paramedics were quick to put Neil on a gurney and rush him from the room. O'Hara went running after him.
Sang stayed on the ground, staring at the blood on her hands. Neil was a resilient bastard, and she felt sure he'd pull through. He had to. She slowly glanced over at Van next, who had been unconscious for the entire thing. Sure, he was stressed, overloaded and terrified, but he'd never betray them. What the hell was Neil talking about?
CHAPTER TWO
Van stretched his arms as he walked toward the rendezvous point. The Forlorn Valley seemed extra ominous today. No birds were chirping and the overcast sky made him feel like it was about to start raining at any minute. The reddish grass swayed gently in the breeze, but as quiet and serene as the scene was, he felt far from serene.
Van had slept for nearly twenty-four hours straight, which was a personal record for him. And he was feeling somewhat refreshed, although his dreams had been tumultuous and terrifying. Although he couldn't remember exactly what had been happening in his dreams, he knew that everything had been going to hell around him. No matter how hard he'd tried to stop a disaster from happening, he'd known it would occur anyway.
Van glanced over at Sang. She seemed preoccupied with something, but refused to tell Van about it. It was probably for the best – if it was another major attack by Draco, it would probably just distract him even more. He didn't understand how she could be so calm and collected during this time period. Nothing in the world had prepared him for what he was undertaking, and it was baffling to see her hold herself together.
"There!" Sang said as she pointed to a large stone circle in the center of the valley. The large stones looked similar to Stonehenge, with the exception that they were covered in glowing white runes. They glowed and pulsed gently, indicating that they were fully powered up. If the right quest was completed in this area, a player could receive a very high experience point boost.
Sitting atop one of the stones was a gigantic black dragon. Jet had grown rapidly over the last few weeks, and was now fully mature. He watched them patiently.
"Hey," Van said as he walked up to greet Jet. The dragon bowed his head and snorted a puff of flames out of his nostrils.
"Greetings, Van," Jet replied. "I am glad that you are here. Sang informed me that you were indisposed yesterday. Are you well?"
"Hah, no, no, I'm not," Van said with a chuckle. "I am far from well. But I am functional, so that's good."
"Functional?" Jet repeated. "I do not understand."
While the alien had obtained an excellent understanding of the human language, it didn't particularly understand idioms or expressions.
"It's an expression. I can work. So, what do you have for us?" Van asked. Sang had walked past the both of them and was examining the rest of the area.
"My people have finally managed to connect with me," Jet replied. "They have important data to convey."
"Finally," Van said with a sigh as he sat on a nearby rock, "a break. What's the data?"
"The technology that Draco utilizes is very powerful, as you know. The bio-feedback systems are strong enough to kill anyone using their pods. Yet, the lethality is only restricted to certain areas, or to whenever a pro enables it for another player. Draco is in total control of the settings."
"Tell me something I don't know," Van said.
"Very well. In our study of these haptic systems and how they interact with biology, our side has been able to discern that there is an exploitation that can be used against Draco."
Van stood abruptly. "What?"
Jet nodded and puffed out some more fire from his nostrils as he lowered his head down to get closer to Van. "Indeed. We have found a jumbled code – some kind of kill switch. When activated, it enables total lethality across the entire game."
"That doesn't sound good," Van said.
"Total lethality means all. This includes members of the Draco race."
Van chewed on that for a moment. As he thought, Sang emerged from behind one of the stones and spoke. "And so, you're suggesting that we activate this universal kill switch and attack Draco itself?"
"With some work, there is a way to localize this switch. That means we can activate it in a single region. Of course, the moment we turn it on, Draco will have all of their operators working furiously to disengage it," Jet replied.
"That leaves us with two problems," Van said. "Identifying members of Draco and figuring out how to kill them."
"They are not hard to identify," Jet said. "For they are the dragons of this land."
"What?" Sang asked. "That doesn’t make any sense. Dragons are just NPCs."
Van didn't respond immediately, thinking about Jet's response. "No… wait… that does make sense. Dragons have the most advanced AI in the game. I've seen them respond to things contextually when no AI should be able to. I mean, one even made a wry comment to me once."
"So, you're meaning to tell me that those big dragon NPCs who are always running quests are actually members of Draco?" Sang asked as she crossed her arms. "That doesn't make a lick of sense."
"King Lemuel…" Van said. "He wasn't a dragon."
"Perhaps that was what a Draco truly looks like," Jet said. "For those Designated Reality Zones were designed to be more realistic, right?"
"True," Van said. "If this really is true… then we have a real chance of turning the tables on these guys. Think about it! I believe there's around 300 dragons total in the game. Each dragon has a different kind of status and rank. We don't need to kill them all – we just need to kill the highest-ranking ones. The ones who are in charge."
"But don't they operate as a collective?" Sang asked. "What good is killing a few members when they're all united toward the same goal?"