“Great, we got the murderous aliens, not the cancer healing kind,” Van said, gripping the darts at his side. He felt really nervous now. It was almost like being in a horror movie—they had just made contact with something, and now it was only a matter of time before that something showed up, angry and violent.
“No, friends,” Sang said, tapping on the crystal again. There was a longer delay this time and then the lights began to flash, now seeming a little more frantic. “Draco… kill,” Sang said. “What?”
“It’s trying to tell us that Draco kills,” Van said. “Which leads me to believe this is probably some kind of stupid Easter egg. It’s probably some kind of joke. There’s that old trope—you die in the game, you die in the real world, and this is probably some kind of trick to scare players or something.
Sang’s face grew dark as she watched more lights flicker. Her eyes darted left and right as if she were getting a large amount of information at once. “What’s it saying?” Van asked.
“Shh,” Sang shushed him as she stared at the flickering patterns of light. She shook her head a few times. “Something’s… something’s not right.”
“Come on, don’t hold back on me, Mulder!” Van said. He could tell that Sang’s face was growing more concerned as she read the message, and he wanted to know what was going on.
“They… they’re watching us, Van,” she said quietly as she turned to look at him. There was a strange mixture of fear and excitement on her face. “They’ve been watching us specifically for all this time. They have a message. We have to bring it back to the CIA.”
“What’s the message?” Van asked.
“It’s encoded—they’re worried about letting Draco know.”
“Wait, so these aliens or whatever don’t like Draco? Why would they be trying to talk through this game then?”
“I’m not sure,” Sang said as she looked at the rapidly blinking lights again. “But it seems that Draco isn’t what it seems. They’re saying a lot more than just a few letters, but some of them don’t make sense. I don’t think these aliens know our language very well.”
“Look, rapidly blinking lights doesn’t mean that these things are aliens,” Van said. “It just means it could be some clever programming having a bit of fun with a secret.”
“No,” Sang said, a few tears showing on her face. She continued to stare at the lights, which themselves continued to blink so quickly. “They’re real. They’re real. I can hear them. In my head.”
“Wait, what?” Van asked, taking a step back from Sang. He had heard that sometimes madness could be a byproduct of using haptic pods too much, but he had always thought that that was just a rumor.
“This pattern—it’s like… I can read the code, but I get this feeling, in my head. Like a voice that isn’t mine. It’s not making a lot of sense, but it… it’s speaking,” Sang said. “I feel it, Van! I feel it!” She staggered backwards a half step.
“Uh, are you okay?” Van asked.
“I don’t… feel…” Sang broke off, collapsing on the floor in a heap.
“Sang! Sang!” Van said as he rushed up to her unconscious body. There was no health bar above her, nor any kind of health indications at all around her. And the lights of the crystals had all stopped flickering immediately, leaving Van in total darkness.
“What’s going on?” Van asked himself as he pulled out his lantern and activated it. The light shone around him, illuminating the cave enough for him to see that Sang was suddenly gone. Had she logged out? He hoped that she had.
Van glanced around the dark room and pondered what he should do. Aliens might or might not exist, and Sang might or might not be nuts, but he was definitely going to get in trouble if he was caught screwing around in the game during Sleep Time.
As he pulled up his log-out bar, a suddenly explosion threw him to the ground. The wall that he had been close to had completely collapsed, and standing in the newly formed hole was a man wearing full plate armor and holding a flaming longsword.
“Hacker!” said a voice that seemed awfully familiar to Van. “I have come so that I may exact vengeance on you for your crimes of infiltrating this game during the sacred hours of rest!”
Van slowly stood up and held his lantern higher. He could see that it was actually one of his old friends, Trefor. He shuddered once he remembered that, the last time he’d seen Trefor, the paladin had just leveled up to Level 79. This was going to be a quick fight.
“Do you have anything to say to defend yourself?” Trefor asked.
“Uhhhh, yeah. It’s… I’m here… because… crap. Damn it! Trefor, it’s me, Van. Don’t stab me, bro,” Van said in a rush.
He’d panicked and blown his own cover. Great.
“Van? Really? I thought you were in the hospital. Also, why aren’t you Sivlander? And why are you here in Sleep Time?”
“I got out of the hospital because I couldn’t pay for it. I’m not Sivlander because I was hired to escort some snot-nosed brat and she insisted on making new characters... and, uh, she demanded we investigate this area during Sleep Time, and I’m already way behind on my rent, so I figured… You know, what’s the harm?” Van offered. He knew the best way to lie was to mix some truth in. He hoped it was enough to keep the real reason concealed.
“I see,” Trefor said as he sheathed his sword. “Players have been crawling all over this stupid place; I’m killing at least 10 to 15 players during Sleep Time a week, it seems like. I blame the Developers for not just removing this area until it’s patched.”
“Yeah, definitely,” Van said as he glanced at his logout status. For some strange reason, it appeared to be greyed out; there was no way for him to leave the game.
“Well, come on, bozo, let’s get out of here. You’re lucky I’ve been assigned to this area—any other pro player and you’d be skewered immediately.”
“Yeah, and hey, thanks!” Van said as he followed after his friend. Trefor was a pro player, meaning that he’d be reporting to Draco. As long as Van kept his cool, however, he wouldn’t blow his cover. They couldn’t know that the CIA was busy poking around; that would compromise the entire mission. Van checked his message log, hoping to see there was some kind of activity from Sang, but there was nothing. He really hoped that she was okay.
“Well, I mean, we’re friends, right? No reason to get all stabby on you,” Trefor said as they walked out of the cave. “Say, you didn’t see anything strange in there, did you?”
“Lights were all flickering, but that was about it. No expansion details, if that’s what you mean,” Van said, feeling his heart rate go up a little bit.
“Right, right,” Trefor said as he stopped walking. They were still in the lush, green park and it was still Sleep Time, meaning that everything was quiet. There was tension in the silence this time, though, as Van had no idea what to do next. He kept checking his log-out option, but it was grayed, meaning that he didn’t have the ability to leave the game at the moment. That was odd... maybe it was because, since Sang hacked them in, he needed her to get out?
“Let me be honest with you, Van,” Trefor said as he turned to face his friend. Van swallowed hard as he saw Trefor’s hand casually touch the side of his sword. “I’ve been following stories about a bard and a ranger running around for quite some time now. Draco’s had their ears on this one, and they’ve noticed there’s some sort of pattern. The questlines are barely completed and they’re—you’re, right?—jumping from area to area, sometimes trying to enter areas that require a much higher level. Things are... let me put it delicately... suspicious on our end. Now, you of all people, I can trust. If there’s anything shady going on, it’s going to be the woman you’ve been escorting’s fault. Not yours. In fact, I should probably tell you something. Before you were hospitalized, Draco had decided to select you for sponsorship. They wanted to make you a professional player. But you vanished, and when a Draco recruiter came looking for you, they were forced to go with their second choice, me.”