"I must protest!" the janitor said. "The Leader instructed all of us to keep the humans restricted to their holding areas."
The armed one waved his hand dismissively. "It is for the good of all that I take her away for a while. You must recognize that and aid us, as well."
Sang could see confusion come across the janitor's face. It didn't seem to know what to say back. Free choice was probably a new thing for the Draco, and it probably had no idea what to do with two conflicting pieces of data from its own race.
"I must ponder this," the janitor said. "I will not stop you."
Sang grinned as the armed one motioned for her to get moving. Once she found Van, everything would be over for these evil monsters. They wouldn't stand a chance.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Van floated before the crashing tides of water, watching as the islands began to rise above the ocean. With a simple motion of his hand, the islands began to curve into a shape that he found most fitting. His eyes darted over to the gigantic statues that were standing tall above the land he was creating. Those statues resembled the figures of Sang and the Emperor. They were there to remind Van of what his true mission was. Sang would free him someday, and he would be required to act quickly. No matter how many hundreds of years passed in his mind, he knew that he could not forget what the mission was. So, for thousands of years, he had looked at the statues each day in order to practice what he would do as soon as he was free.
The island continued shifting and writhing as it began to grow trees. This would be the area where players of the new game would be able to create their own ships and sail across the seas. Van had decided that his fantasy world would be one of piracy and trade. Despite how much he despised being locked away and forced to build a universe all by his lonesome, he was growing to enjoy the process of creation more and more with each passing day. The loneliness had faded a long time ago, and instead been replaced by obsession. He would carve the world in an image fitting for all players, from the most casual to the most hardcore – there would be something for everyone in the game.
As Van moved his fingers to populate the land with NPCs, his eyes felt a sting and he was suddenly laying on his back inside of a pod. Standing above him was a Draco and Sang.
"Van!" Sang said as she grabbed him by the arm and began to pull him out from his pod.
"Wah?" Van muttered, trying to speak. He felt extremely woozy, and all of his plans for action melted away as he felt his brain turning into mush.
"Let's do this thing!" Sang said as she helped him up. She reached into her bag then and pulled out the silver sphere meant to destroy all of the Draco. "You can log out, right?"
"We must question him!" the Draco standing next to her said.
"Right, we will," Sang said.
Van glanced at his UI display and saw that the log-out function was disabled. "I… I can't log out," Van said.
"Well, I really hope this doesn't affect your pod then," Sang whispered, "because we don't have a lot of options."
"Trickery!" the Draco hissed as it reached for the gun hanging at its side. "You fooled me with lies!"
"Not lies!" Sang said as she grabbed the Draco's arms before it could pull its weapon free. The word Grapple hovered above the both of them and Van watched as the two wrestled with one another. The wrestle meter was quickly moving in the Draco's favor.
Van didn't have any weapons on him, as they had all been confiscated by the guards as soon as he'd been brought aboard the ship. Without the ability to log out, he'd be susceptible to the virus that Sang was carrying. His mind began to reacclimate to reality and he could feel the thousands of years of vivid memories washing away as if they were nothing more than dreams.
"A little help!" Sang shouted as she fell to the ground, still refusing to let go of the gun. The Draco was holding onto the weapon with one hand and was punching her in the face with the other. Van could see her health dropping down from 1,700 to 1,400 quickly. That wasn't good at all.
Van noticed that while his character's ability to log out of the game was hindered, his abilities list was still activated. That meant he had access to some high level powers which might help them escape the ship. An idea flashed to his mind, and it was the perfect plan. He activated his Fierce Rage power and watched as his already boosted stats went up even higher. His strength score said MAX and he grinned as he felt his muscles grow even larger.
Van reached down and effortlessly ripped the Draco off of Sang, throwing the creature hard into the wall. The steel wall gave off a clonk sound as the alien flattened against it. Lethal Damage hovered above the Draco as it slid to the ground.
"Aw man!" Sang said as she held the rifle in her hand. "It says I’m not proficient with this weapon and can't use it."
"Yeah, well, we're not gonna be here long, Sang," Van said as he walked over to the Draco and picked up a short knife that was hanging from the creature's belt. "Can you set the virus to go off after a certain amount of time?"
"Yeah," Sang said, "of course."
"Good. Set it for seven minutes and follow me – we're going back to Oirthear."
"The game world? Why?" Sang asked.
"No time to explain!" Van said as he pointed at a large light that was resting above the door leading out of the room. The light was beginning to flash rapidly and Van could hear shouts. "We gotta go!"
"Alright, as long as you know what you're doing!" Sang said as she followed after Van as he ran out of the room.
"I think I do!" Van replied as he made his way through the empty hallways of the ship. Despite the alert going on around them and the sounds of an alarm screaming as loud as it could, there were no forces to oppose the two escapees.
"Alright, it's set," Sang said. "When should I activate it?"
"Right now!" Van replied as he rushed up to the door leading to the bridge. He had no idea how to escape from the ship using those platforms, so his plan was far less elegant. He was gonna smash a window and jump back to the planet. Hopefully, the programmers hadn't put in realistic re-entry physics.
"Okay, seven minutes until it all goes to hell," Sang said. "And you think you can log out in such a short amount of time?"
"Yeah," Van said as he tried to push the steel door open. Normally, they would just slide open when someone got close, but this door didn't want to move. He took a deep breath and activated his Doorkicker ability. Power surged through his legs as he reared back and kicked with one foot, causing the steel door to shatter upon impact. Shards of metal splintered everywhere and Van was forced to close his eyes for a second to protect his vision from the shrapnel.
"Nice work," Sang said as she rushed past him and onto the bridge of the ship. Thirty Draco were all lined up in a row, their rifles trained on the both of them as Van and Sang came to a halt.
"Ah, crap," Van said. He tensed up, waiting for the laser fire… but they didn't shoot.
"Are you two serious?" the Emperor asked as he strolled out from behind the line of soldiers. He was shaking his head, and Van could see there was a look of mild amusement on his face. "You really thought you could escape this place? Whatever was your plan? There's nothing in this room for you to use to escape."
"Screw you!" Van shouted back.
"That's really all you have to say?" the Emperor laughed.
"Van, the clock is ticking," Sang hissed. "We gotta get you out of here."
"You stand there laughing," Van replied, "but you have no idea what's aboard this vessel, do you?"