"See you in a few million years," Van said as the pod shut around him, plunging him back into a universe where he was a god.
"Everything about this is going to suck," Neil said as Sang climbed into her own pod.
"I know, I know, but Van was pretty clear about the consequences of taking my sweet time. The team should be able to figure it out without me. I did most of the work already," Sang replied as she laid back and tried to straighten herself out.
"Well, what if the Emperor is just planning on murdering you in front of Van to make a point?" Neil asked. "Have you ever considered that?'
"No, not until you brought it up," Sang replied. "Look, I'll be fine, okay? We just need to finish the hardcoding of the program and upload it into my items. If anything, this just lets us skip the step where we frantically try to get a program to Van without any guarantee that he'll receive it."
"Well, please try not to die in there," Neil said as he grabbed the pod to shut it. "I don't wanna lose three bets to O'Hara today."
"I'll do what I can," Sang said with a chuckle as the pod closed. The pod's cords snaked out and connected to her body, and quickly began to pipe information straight into her brain.
The AI's voice chittered, "Welcome back to Dragon Kings of the New World."
Hopefully, this was going to be the last time that Sang ever heard those words. She blinked, and suddenly she was standing in the Feast Hall where the tremendous dragon-slaying brawl had taken place. Everything had been repaired, the walls were back to normal, the tables were put back together, and there was quite a large amount of Draco people walking around.
"Sang?" asked one of the creatures as it walked up to her.
"Yeah, that's me," she said, feeling a little bit of nervousness. There was something so unnerving about this creature, and she didn't really know what to do with her feelings at the moment. The Draco were so strange to look at.
"Please step atop that disk over there, and it will transport you to the Emperor," the Draco said. It gestured to a large silver disk that was floating in the middle of the room.
Sang shrugged and walked over to the disk. She placed one foot atop of it and hoisted herself up. The platform bobbed up and down slowly.
"This is kind of we – " her words were cut off as the disk rocketed toward the sky at full speed. She instinctively braced for impact, but she merely passed through the wall. She was in awe as she watched the world beneath her get smaller and smaller until, finally, it was nothing more than an orb beneath her. She was in space.
Sang glanced around at the stars and the moon, in complete awe of the situation. This was definitely more interesting and beautiful than anything else in the regular game. As she gazed at the beauty of the universe around her, she saw the large Draco spaceship in the distance. The disk was taking her there.
Tension rose up inside of Sang's stomach as she realized that the disk was hurtling towards the glass of the gigantic window. The disk buckled underneath of her then and threw her off, chucking her right into the glass. Fortunately, she phased through the glass without a scratch. She landed gracefully and looked around. There were Draco everywhere, working on the ship without relent.
"It is nice of you to join me, Sang," said a Draco in a military uniform as it marched up to her. It was the Emperor, no doubt.
"Well, it's not like I had much of a choice," Sang replied.
"Hahaha, comments like that are why I like you," the Emperor replied. "If you were just a little less loyal, I would have certainly invited you to join Van in his mission. But alas, I know you well enough at this point to know that the only thing that could dissuade you from your mission is death."
"Yeah," Sang agreed. "That is true. Even right now, I'm trying to figure out how to kick your scaly ass."
"Well, I should hope that you fail in formulating the right plan," the Emperor said. "It would be embarrassing to have a hostage kill herself. The entire point of having a hostage is to motivate Van."
"I certainly want to avoid being embarrassing," Sang said as she checked her UI. She had made some modifications to her pod based off of the information she had received from the schematics, and there was no way the Draco would be able to prevent the team from uploading items to her character directly. All she needed was for the virus to be uploaded, and then she could obliterate all of Draco with a simple click of a button.
"In the meantime, I suppose it would be good for you to know the rules here," the Emperor said. "You are a hostage, not a guest. You will be restricted to a prison where you will wait until Van learns how to behave. You are to be allowed to log out every 3 days in order to refuel yourself, but should more than 12 hours pass without you returning to the game, well… let's just say it won't be Van's fault that the world is ending."
"Yeah, yeah," Sang said. "Save your threats, General Jackass. I'll do whatever you want."
"I might just find it interesting to sit down and find out what goes on in that mind of yours," the Emperor said. "I find it so refreshing, how much lip you are giving me, considering the situation. What is it about humans that drives them to double-down on their decisions? Why would you commit yourself to oblivion, just to spite me?"
"Do you really want to know why?" Sang asked as she checked her Stealth skill. It was high enough to where she could probably sneak around on the ship and break Van out. "It's because there is one thing that can never be conquered. It's our ability to believe, no matter what, that we can prevail."
"Riveting. Well, the prison cells are–" his words were cut short as Sang swept his legs out from underneath of him with a well-timed surprise kick. The words Sneak Attack, Stunned hovered above the Emperor's head as he thumped to the ground.
"We will prevail!" Sang shouted as she ran off into the corridors. Much to her surprise, the Draco around her gave no chase. They all ignored her as she ran through the hallways. She took a sharp turn, only to see the Emperor standing in front of her. His arms were crossed and he didn't seem amused.
"You honestly think you can try and stage some kind of a great escape? Do you realize, Sang, that you are trapped aboard a vessel with a god? This reality is of my own creation. You can try to run around as much as you like, but you cannot deny my power. I can revise reality as I see fit in this world."
Sang frowned at him. "Can you blame me for trying?" she asked.
"I suppose not," the Emperor said. He reached his hand forward and Sang felt an intense pain surge through her entire body. The words You Are Taking Nonlethal Damage appeared over her head as she watched her health bar drop down rapidly. The pain was so bad that she felt as if she were going to pass out.
"Do you see what I can do with a simple wave of my hand?" the Emperor asked as he waved his hand again, causing the pain to cease. "You would do best to behave here. Now, go to your prison cell or face more agony."
Sang felt a deep anger well up inside of her. The feeling of being helpless was agonizing, and perhaps far worse than the pain that she had been feeling a few seconds before. She wanted to fight back, to hurl insults and rage against him, but at the same time, he really did have the power to kill her. The first attempt at rebellion had been a simple test to see if she could get away with something, but it was clear that he would keep a tight fist around her.
"Fine, fine," she said. "Where is it?"
The Emperor pointed at a door behind her. "It's through there."
"No one's going to escort me?" Sang asked.
"You're smart enough," the Emperor said. "You'll figure it out. And if you try anything again, I'll simply torture you until you're ready to cooperate. Understand?"