Chapter 1 (Patreon)

And were back with another chapter!

This time from Karen's perspective, which some of you may remember from Jason siege of Sandscrit. What can I say? This lady knows how to hustle.

She even came up with a pretty clever idea…

Enjoy and I will be back next week with another chapter!

Chapter 1 - Motherhood

Pax

Karen

If someone had asked her in back October where she saw herself just two months later, Karen wasn’t sure how she would have answered.

The usual laundry list?  Like making the kiddos’ lunches, taking them to school, picking them up, helping with homework, cleaning the house, and actual laundry – all of the thousand chores that came with being a mom.  A slow death by a thousand excruciatingly boring cuts.

She might even spice things up by arguing with her husband Dustin over how much to spend on Christmas this year… even though he’d bought himself some stupid new self-driving pickup truck.  As though he had anything to haul other than his own bullshit. 

Or dreaming of sipping a margarita on a beach, courtesy of the alimony.

A fantasy where Dustin took the kids in the divorce.

Not all of the time, of course.  Just more often than, well… never.

Alright, fine.  That one might have been a recurring fantasy.

Because the truth was she knew exactly where she’d expected to find her future self.  Doing the exact same damn thing.  Bickering with Dustin about those same household chores – which he never did – or how he was checked out with the kids.  And with her.  Evidenced by the many, many nights he spent “working late.”  Those arguments just going in a big, pointless, futile circle.  Karen too scared to leave him.  Too financially dependent.  Their lives too intertwined.

So, maybe it wasn’t really that surprising that she’d found an outlet for her frustration.  That she’d find herself standing in a dark alley in an underground city.  A videogame city.  During the middle of the day on a Monday – those mundane chores all but forgotten – taken care of by the cleaning bot she’d purchased with her newfound income.

Or that she’d find herself leading a mercenary group comprised of most of the other moms from her daughter’s class.  The group hidden by the alley’s shadows, avoiding the rainbow light shining down from the massive cluster of crystals embedded in the cavern overhanging Pax.  Their expressions all grim.  Determined.

They were all here for the same reason.

They had been too slow to log in during the Cerillion event.

They’d tried, of course.  They’d all gotten the group text at the same time.  Had frantically dropped doing laundry and making dinner and grocery shopping and dealing with sick kiddos to find their VR headsets.  They’d logged in to discover complete chaos – travelers frantically fleeing the Crystal Reach.  Floating islands falling from the sky, accompanied by the bodies of bloodied and beaten Nephilim, a crimson rain pitter pattering the ground.

They’d even managed to regroup.  Had tried to make it to the escape portals that Jason had opened amid the throng of other travelers.  A living river of crushing bodies all fleeing towards those rifts of rainbow energy.  Watching as horde after horde disappeared to safety.

Jostling and pushing and cursing and killing their way to the front—

Only for the portals to disappear.

Leaving them stranded in the Crystal Reach.

An army of decidedly unfriendly and somehow much higher level Nephilim at their backs.

Of course, they’d fought back with the other travelers.  An immortal army facing off against a legion of Nephilim.  Despite the crazy level difference, the travelers had numbers on their side and the angelic city was in ruins.  It was a battle they could still win through raw attrition.  By respawning and killing and dying, only to come back and try again.

However, the old avatars – these “Originals” – were as crafty as they were powerful.  They quickly realized that they couldn’t kill the travelers – not truly.  But they could trap them.  Imprison them at the city’s respawn point, the starting courtyard quickly walled off with gleaming panels of light and surrounded by fluttering, glowing-eyed guards.  Their beams punching smoldering holes in anyone stupid enough to try to escape.

Karen had thought that was it.  Game over.

All that was left for her was chores and soccer games and wrapping fucking Christmas presents and dreams of sipping a bottomless margarita on a beach somewhere…

Maybe that’s why she’d been so open to their offer.

The one a haughty angel had made after he released Karen and her guildmates a few days later – picking them out of the crowd.  The terms of their offer enshrined in a beautiful blue box.

New Quest:  Redemption

You have been given a chance to earn favor with the true ruler of the Crystal Reach, the original avatar of light – the Empress herself.

Form a party of your kind – these so-called “travelers” – and journey south to Pax.  Once there, infiltrate the city and ingratiate yourself with the other travelers.  Make them trust you.  Then prove your true loyalty by doing to their city what they did to ours.  Destroy it from within.

If you succeed, you shall be amply rewarded and given a place among the Crystal Reach.  However, should you fail, you will be exiled – doomed to wander the world alone.

Difficulty:  A

Success:  Successfully destroy a shop or crafting facility.

Failure:  Hostile reputation with both the Crystal Reach and Pax.

Reward:  100 gold per building destroyed and neutral reputation with the Crystal Reach.

Karen and her guildmates had hesitated at first.  Had weighed the moral implications of attacking the other travelers and the depth of the Originals’ cunning and depravity – pitting the immortal travelers against one another.

But was there really a downside to accepting?  After all, once they were free, what would stop them from joining Pax?  Or reporting this quest to Jason and the other avatars?

So, of course, they’d enthusiastically accepted and vowed to consider their options later.

And they had.  Which is why they were here.

“Are we sure about this?” Susan whispered from the alley’s shadows, Karen’s attention suddenly refocusing on the group.  “Are we getting greedy?”

The others eyed one each other warily, then looked to Karen for guidance.

After all, this was her plan.  A few days ago – more than a week now in-game – she might have wavered.  Back before the Reckoning.  Before the prospect of losing her foothold in this world.  But after facing that harsh reality… well, she’d realized she’d do anything to stay here.

And they’d all seen the truth by now.  A single city was never intended to house all of the travelers.  Or even most of them.  They’d witnessed the fights.  The squabbles over resources.  The huge lines of refugees at the entrance to Pax, fleeing the other elemental cities – no doubt, more than a few “escaping” with their own quests.  The escalating attacks on the city’s infrastructure over the last few days seemed to be proof of that.

Which meant life here wasn’t so different than the Crystal Reach, was it?

And Jason and the new avatars also weren’t offering nearly as much gold…

“You’ve all seen the state of this place,” Karen answered finally, meeting each of their eyes.  “Gold in hand now is worth more than promises later.  Besides, our plan is working.”

Her gaze skimmed to the shop across the street, its stone walls filled with a delightful assortment of treasure.  Blue and yellow weapons and armor.  Even a couple orange items tucked away behind wards and barriers – precious treasure.  All of it defended by satyr guards who stood out front and collected mana from the travelers waiting to get inside.  A toll to use the city’s services – one modeled off of the mage city of Vaerwald.

“Mommy, I’m booooored,” Becca whined, tugging at Karen’s sleeve.

She winced.  She, uh… well, she hadn’t expected this either.

It looked terrible, she knew that.  Bringing their children into this violent, chaotic game.  Even now, the other moms were trying to placate their kiddos – to keep them quiet and still.  The amber bubble of magic covering them didn’t suppress the sound, after all.

Even worse… this had been Karen’s idea too.

However, in her defense, it made sense!  After all, the time compression let their kids finish their schoolwork in a fraction of the time, there were fantastic online education programs available nowadays, and she and Dustin had always talked about homeschooling… they just hadn’t quite agreed to pull the trigger.  So, in a way, this was a good thing.

Plus, now she didn’t have to worry about getting them ready for school or picking them up – which cost her days of in-game time each week.  Of course, the VR headsets and subscriptions were ungodly expensive, but Cerillion had recently begun offering discount programs for children under 10 years old to help facilitate their schoolwork.  Some sort of PR campaign to win over reluctant parents.  And with the money Karen had been making selling in-game gold and items as a mercenary, she was actually making more than Dustin now.

More than enough to pay for the cleaning bot and VR tech.

Not that Dustin had noticed any of it – the bot, the kids, or her swiftly growing bank account.  One almost large enough to free herself – both in-game and out.

Because she’d had an ulterior motive in bringing the kids into AO.

After all, the quest reward was per person, wasn’t it?

Also, and most importantly, it was shareable.

Which meant each of the moms received 100 gold per building.  And if they shared the quest with their children?  Well, that meant Karen made 300 gold per building.

Getting the kiddos set up was easy.  Especially with the game’s parental restrictions and controls.  They allowed Karen to assist with character creation.  To set a starting point – the Crystal Reach, obviously.  It even let her—

 A red UI notification flashed in her peripheral vision.

Child Tether Warning

Child account has stepped out of range (currently set to 10 meters).

Karen glanced up to see her five-year-old son slowly creeping toward the alley entrance, a dagger in each hand – the blades comically large in his tiny hands.  His attention trained on his prey, a traveler with his back to the alley.

A snap of her fingers and her son disappeared just before he could strike.

With a flash of rainbow energy, he reappeared beside Karen and she snatched his arm.

“What do you think you’re doing, young man?” she hissed.

“Nothing, mommy,” he replied, unable to meet her eyes.  “I was bored and saw a loot pinnatta.”  He said that last part with an adorable lisp and a stabbing motion.

Which wasn’t quite as, uh… as bad as it looked.

The murder and violence, that is.

As she was saying, there were parental controls, which included a gore filter.  It helpfully turned blood and entrails into rainbows and cotton candy.  The pain suppression maxed out until the children felt nothing.  Which might be a double-edged sword, in her opinion.

Because their kids… well, they had taken to the game like fish to water.  They’d already been fearless little monsters in a world filled with scraped knees and bruises and parents who were much stronger and smarter and faster than them.  But in a world where they felt no pain?  Where they could learn magic?  Where their stats scaled at a crazy rate?

Well, there was no holding them back.

Ahh, her son was looking upset now, fidgeting again.

Karen sighed and stooped down until they were at eye level.  “You remember what we talked about?  If you’re patient and help mommy, I’ll take you all to the pvp arena after this.  We even bought a line skip pass,” she explained just loud enough for the others to hear.  And the little monsters lapped it up, their eyes gleaming in the shadows.

Which didn’t help with the guilt.  She had to promise to let them murder people to keep them calm, after all.  But it was that same fearless self-interest that she needed right now.

Well, that and the tether.  It was instrumental to their plan.

Her eyes focused on the children, gesturing for them to gather round.  “Do you all remember the plan?” she asked gently.  “It’s super important you follow it closely.”

“Yes, we go into the shop and steal all the weapons and armor,” her daughter Becca answered – the self-appointed leader of the group of children.  Karen was almost proud.

“As much as each of you can carry,” Karen agreed.  “Then what?”

Her son Tommy wiped at his nose.  “Then I tug on my shirt,” he said.

Karen flinched as he swept his little cloak back to reveal a harness of glowing red crystals strapped to his chest.  Those were fire mana gems that Karen and her guildmates had gathered from the mines – completing a few basic quests in Pax to earn the reputation needed to access to the stores.  They’d also ended up with a decent-sized stockpile of gems which they’d charged with fire mana and fashioned into tiny little explosive vests.  One for each of their kiddos.

The other moms were watching her again.  She knew what they were thinking – understood the doubt shining in their eyes.  But she needed to stay strong.  Especially now.

“That’s right, Tommy,” she said, ruffling his hair.  “And do you remember what we learned last time?  About the counting?”

His little face scrunched up and then he nodded.  “I have to count all ten of my fingers,” he answered proudly, displaying all ten digits.

“And you need to count slowly,” Karen agreed.

“Ten Mississippippis,” he confirmed with a nod and a smile.

Close enough.  “Okay, are we all ready?” this question was directed at the moms.

They all nodded, their expressions dark.  But no one backed out.

“Alright,” Karen said, clapping her hands.  “On the count of three.”

“3,” she began.

“2…”

Their kiddos were already gone, dashing out of the alley in a blur of motion, the illusion concealing their presence rippling and warping before re-stabilizing.  The children were moving so fast that they were barely visible in the street.

Children ran everywhere in the real world, so why would that change in-game?  Except here, inside AO, that quickly translated into the Sprint skill.  Which they had leveled with an aggressive overabundance of energy.  And, once most of them had learned air magic, they’d only gotten faster.  It really wasn’t fair to the guards.

The satyrs surrounding the shop had no chance.  A dozen blurs of amber energy sped overtop, beneath, and around them – leaving the satyrs scrambling to turn and conjure their earth magic.  Walls of stone soon sprang up around the store, protecting it behind several meters of magic warded stone and shoving the line of travelers back.

The crowd let out belated murmurs...

“What was that?”

“Did you see something—”

“I think… are those children—”

Yet it was far too late.  Their kiddos were already inside.  No doubt speeding around the shop and gathering as many weapons and items as they could into their tiny arms – stuffing them into the storage bags that they’d earned by completing the in-game tutorial.

Meanwhile Karen was counting down in her head – wondering how many “Mississippippis” it would take before—

That thought was swept away along with most of the storefront.  The first blast sounded almost like a giant firecracker, but others soon followed, creating a chain reaction.  Unfortunately, the satyrs’ walls worked against them.  They contained the blast, but they also left nowhere for that growing wave of flame and pressure to go.  The result was that they had turned the shop into a giant claymore mine – one filled with fancy, expensive shrapnel.

The walls blasted outward with incredible force, sending huge chunks of stone hurtling through the air.  The satyrs tried to block the attacks by conjuring gravity wells, but they were far too slow and their bodies ended up absorbing the brunt of the blast.

The travelers and growing crowd tried to run, to dodge, to raise shields – both metal and magical – but it was all futile.  Chunks of stone larger than a cart crashed through their ranks and tore through those flimsy shields, creating bloody red smears across the paved road.  More stone shrapnel rained down from overhead, accompanied by the gleam of metal weapons – a deadly rain the skewered a woman standing in street and pelted the crowd with shrapnel as they screamed and ran for cover.  Trying their best to avoid an unnecessary respawn.

Everyone inside the store wasn’t so lucky.  If the initial blast hadn’t killed them, the roof of the store caving in certainly did.  Several tons of stone sealed their fate.

And buried the likely charred, smoking remains of their children…

Meanwhile, the crystals embedded in the cavern’s ceiling far overhead flared, sending out a pulse of energy along the stone walls.  One that briefly illuminated the Respawn Field that coated the enormous cavern and encircled the city.  A flare of that energy rocketed away from the nearest section of the field, streaking across the city and exploding over the ruined street in a blast of harmless color.  That wispy energy formed a series of letters – a message visible throughout Pax.

15 Players PVP Flagged.

            Followed immediately by another firework and fresh text.

All PVP Flagged Players Eliminated.

“Good lord,” one of the other moms muttered, watching the carnage from the safety of the alley, the group protected by the thick walls of the buildings on either side.

“This never gets old,” another whispered with a smile.

The others glared at her.  “What?” she demanded.  “They aren’t really dead.  They came back laughing last time.  Besides, don’t pretend like the rest of you don’t enjoy it a little.”

Karen grimaced.  She loved her kids.  She really did.

But… maybe she did find this a tiny bit cathartic.  The money also helped.  Speaking of which, she waved at the camera orb beside her – the one recording the destruction – proof that that they had completed the quest.  Again.

“We need to move,” Karen said, interjecting before the others could start arguing again, eyeing those pvp notifications.   “We’re about to have a lot of company.”

The other travelers – PK Hunters, they called them – would be here soon, even with the notification that the flagged players had already been eliminated.  They needed to regroup at the rendezvous point in another section of the ring.  Since their kiddos were flagged, they would respawn in the Crystal Reach in roughly 24 real-world hours, but they could use the tether system to bring them back.  The perfect plan.

Karen’s plan.  One that had made them all unbelievably rich.

Who needed alimony when she could buy her own damn beach? 

Which is why she was smiling as the group fled down the alley, heading for the street opposite the shop.  Tommy had even managed to make it at least 6-7 seconds this time, which meant the others likely had time to steal plenty of items.  The gold to real-world currency exchange rate was fantastic right now and they could make even more if they sold those items—

“Oh shit,” Karen muttered, skidding to a halt with the others.

Because blocking the mouth of the alley was a single shadowy figure.  One man standing between them and the flowing throng behind him – most of those travelers indifferent to the destruction only a block over.  They even ignored the cloud dust still billowing down the alley at their backs, thick and cloying.  After all, this was just another day in Pax.  

“What do we have here?” the dark-robed figure asked quietly.

He took a step forward and some of Karen’s companions reached for their weapons, others summoning the telltale flash of mana.  Yet Karen hadn’t moved.  To any one else, he was just another traveler; another PK Hunter – the tags over his head obscured and garbled courtesy of another in-game item.  Just bad luck.  And a manageable problem with the Respawn Field still in place, the energy along the cavern’s walls shuddering and dimming but not quite disappearing.

However, Karen could have sworn she recognized the man’s voice.

Her smile faded, dread coiling in the pit of her stomach like a serpent.

Because if she was right… well, then they were fucked.