Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (11 page)

After a few minutes, during which I braved the outer rim, I made it back to Treasure in her little shop. The place was the least tidy in the entire ship. Even with the
[ByteMite]
s cleaning all over. Dozens of the small creatures scooted in and out while Treasure watched a dozen different screens.

"Ah. Unit Hermes. Your consciousness has successfully been transferred. Are you alright? Is your core in one piece?" Treasure smiled. Her golden coloring seemed to be laced with a secondary series of lines that escaped my notice the first time.

"I think so," I answered while trying to puzzle out the other color. Silver maybe? It had a shine to it that simple metals didn't. "I got knocked off by some creature and couldn't hold onto the ship."

"It's alright. The ship's reserves have more than enough resources to recreate you. Shifting your consciousness takes time due to the space lag, but this sector is supported well."

"That's good."

"Indeed, less complex programs transfer quickly. Were you to suddenly increase in parameters the transfer could take days," Treasure said and smiled. I took her brief explanation to mean that having additional skills and abilities would lead to a longer resurrection time. Video game hurdles were once again explained by in-game logic.

"What happens to my old body?" I asked.

"It will compact and await pickup by a drone." Treasure turned away from me and shrugged. Her eyes looked back up at the screen. "This unit does have a question."

"Okay."

"You said there was a creature on top of the ship?" She turned to look up at me. I had gotten closer in order to better see the monitors in front of Treasure. Even distracted her hand kept pressing buttons on the display. It made for an oddly interesting view. Too bad she was a robot.

"Yeah. Something small and black." I tried to remember the blur that knocked into me twice. Why anything would use a headbutt as their primary attack was beyond me.

"Strange. We haven't passed any life-bearing locations in quite some time," Treasure said with complete confidence. Her dual tones merged together in a sweet but tired drag.

"I wouldn't know," I said while being annoyed that my own voice didn't perform any special harmonics. What use was being a
[Mechanoid]
if I couldn't get any neat colorings or speech patterns? Maybe I needed more levels or skills.

"I checked the readings. There is a small thermal signature on the hull and has been since roughly the time of your first unit's awakening." She looked at me again with one eyebrow up in a question.
[Mechanoid]
s didn't have real hair, but there was a slightly darkened bump that passed for an eyebrow.

"Really?" I squinted in thought. Or I would have squinted had my eyelids worked right. It was strange not blinking. The fact that some small black creature had shown up at the same time as my creation of this character seemed questionable at the very least.

"Affirmative. This unit hopes you will be able to capture the creature so we can determine how it got attached. There are additional questions regarding its ability to survive in a vacuum." Treasure walked away toward another screen, then shook her head. Moments later she was standing near a panel in one wall.

"That does sound odd." I said slowly.

"Indeed. Very few creatures of that size are able to do so, and most are unfriendly to other life forms." Treasure frowned and pointed toward a screen near me. There was a fuzzy image of a small raptor-like creature with an extra small set of arms.

"I'll look into it." This whole situation was suspicious. Very, very suspicious. A new message popped up to distract me from the various possibilities running through my mind.

I blinked and tried to figure out if that was a lot of contribution or not. There was nothing good to measure it against. Maybe being a mop man paid the same as a janitor did years ago before the work started being outsourced to robots. The idea of a minimum wage version of contribution made me laugh.

"Unit Hermes. It's dangerous to go alone, take this with you," Treasure said. In her hands was a small wristband. She must have pulled it out of the wall panel while I looked away.

My words accompanied taking the small item. "What's that?" It looked like a wristband that was wide enough to cover most of my forearm.

"A combat program holster," Treasure said.

Small pictures and symbols were flashing across my vision. Bits of information that looked like code that didn't associate with anything else. This was different than the body enhancement which gave me
[Anchor]
. That had been purely physical sensations where this upgrade seemed to be mental.

Was this what Hal Pal felt while running various program upgrades? How strange.

"It uses the same technology our shells are built with in order to provide adaptable weaponry," Treasure said as images kept flickering by. They had died down a little once the pop-up box came into being. "Combat loadouts may vary and require significant contribution to acquire."

"So I have to work, to earn additional weapons?" I missed
[Morrigu's Gift]
and
[Morrigu's Echo]
. My weapons in Continue Online were absolutely the best. Using them only made their broken nature more apparent compared to normal weapons.

"That is correct, Unit Hermes. Your current value to the consortium allows for two patterns to be inserted. What type of combat do you prefer?" She smiled a bit while looking at me. I guess combat was second nature to
[Mechanoid]
s. Or maybe they were just realistic about the need to be prepared while venturing out in space. There had been six other Wayfarers before this current one.

"Can I do a giant sword?" I defaulted to the style Old Man Carver had passed on.

"Negative. You do not possess enough material to support such an item," Treasure said, more exhaustion than sweetness was evident in her tone. I reread the box from before and zeroed in on the line speaking about weapons pulling from my current mass. "Please consider something small or an energy based weapon that will utilize your core's power."

"Um..." A box came into sight with a few options to choose from. I guess the game was helping me since space weaponry made no sense. Options were poked through slowly.

Treasure set about inspecting her lab and chasing around
[ByteMite]
s while I poked through options. There were a few extremely high-end ones well outside my reach. I saw one that basically turned my arm into an energy cannon like an old style video game character. The contribution required would be almost triple my current total.

I flicked through numerous options. Most were distance based. This was intended to be high science fiction so I guess everything having lasers made sense. As much as a game could. Me being a robot body made of metal that could move around its atoms in order to use skills like
[Anchor]
kind of stretched the limits.

Finally, I settled on two. One would allow me to try something new.
[Wrist Blaster]
did low damage and had minimal range. It didn't get in my way either since I could basically curl my hand down and fire it off the top.

The second was double beam sword with high damage and an absurd energy drain. It at least felt the same size as
[Morrigu's Gift]
in the two-handed form. Months of training with that blade wouldn't be wasted even here in a new game.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"I am."

"Very well. They will load shortly," Treasure spoke and small loading bars started crawling across my lower right vision. "You should see an activation icon on your interface. Only one may be active at a time without further modifications."

"Got it." The loading bars dinged upon reaching one hundred and transformed into icons. I focused on the laser one and felt my arm tingle with energy. It seemed comparable to a small volume electric jolt.

"Unit Hermes, please continue your contributions, and be careful." Treasure blinked a few times, looking worried. This game, even though it wasn't Continue Online, felt amazingly well thought out.

I nodded then focused on the other icon. A bit of metal looking like an unlit candle trident appeared in my hand. There was a trigger button under one thumb. Pressing it made two large beams shoot out to about three feet in length. It was like
[Morrigu's Gift]
meets laser sword. This felt almost natural minus the lack of color. Maybe once I got my own color scheme like Treasure's silver and gold the sword would adapt as well.

According to my choices, the laser beams only drained energy when fired. I had never shot a gun so this would be completely new on all fronts. Hopefully being a
[Mechanoid]
included target assist skills. Even after months in Continue Online, my throwing ability had huge gaps.
[Blink]
made distance fighting nearly unneeded.

"I'll check it out now," I said to Treasure. She nodded and waved goodbye.

Getting outside was a bit quicker.
[Anchor]
had increased in efficiency during my prior hours of cleaning. I knew where the handholds were and only cleaned parts of the hull within easy distance. Each small pile of gunk gave minor contribution points even with the task removed so there was value in cleaning.

Finally, I was near my prior spot. We weren't traveling through a debris field at the moment, plus I had hustled along a lot faster instead of woolgathering while cleaning.
[Anchor]
turned off while I grabbed onto one of the many handholds on the ship's hull.

I would be ready this time.

Off in the distance stood my small target. I studied it, wary about being knocked into space again. It was a tiny creature without wings that hooked into the ship's hull with springy legs that ended in sharp claws. A three-foot long tail snaked out behind it and jabbed into the hull as an anchor.

"Neat." I realized how it survived without floating into space. In my case, the answer was
[Anchor]
, but that creature actually latched on. Our ship was moving at insane speeds, but there was no wind to tear at us.

I would have to ask Treasure or Emerald how the ship managed to avoid G-force pulls. Maybe it was a game mechanic to allow people to go on the outside of the ship.

The small creature looked around nonchalantly before yawning. A clack of jaws brought back memories of a certain
[Messenger's Pet]
riding on my shoulder and making that same noise.

"Dusk?" I said. My own sound became muted by the void of space. There was no atmosphere for a vibration to carry through. Somehow my
[Mechanoid]
body could detect other sounds, though. Was that programmer error or some feature I didn't notice? The small creature's head perked up anyway. My second attempt was much louder.

"Cupcakes?!"

Over the small bundle ran, loping with claws and a tail jabbing every few feet. It was a sloppy hop. Abruptly I realized that if this was Dusk, the reason he headbutts me must have to do with adapting to a new body. He would have an even harder time using those limbs than my robotic frame that couldn't blink.

Finally, the small bundle latched the long tail about my neck, a sensation that didn't hurt in the slightest. Then it was up on my shoulder headbutting me like a small cat, raptor, thing. He was close enough to actually hear pleased chirping.

"Dusk?" I looked to the side and questioned.

The small creature nodded twice.

"How did you get here?"

Session Forty Four – Biologic Cargo

I hurriedly marched back to the ship proper. It was that or log out to shout in my Atrium. Both felt like valid answers to the absolute confusion of having Dusk appear in another game.

Differences and similarities ran through my head while he chirped away happily. There were no smiley faces or frowns above his head. The mannerisms were clearly the same as my
[Messenger's Pet]
. Chirping, tail around the neck as an anchor, jaw clacks when yawning. The weight and size were even roughly the same.