"Good morning! The operation was successful!"
I heard a cheerful voice as I woke up. What operation? As I looked around, I noticed I didn't see myself in a hospital. I was in my inn room in the game; I was still inside the game. …Were they using the VR gear as an anesthetic? It does block out a lot of outside senses…
"You look confused. How are you feeling?" I looked towards the source of the voice, it was a small woman floating in the air in front of me. Small, like, tiny. About the size of my head tiny. I thought about a faerie, and there are faeries in the game, but I didn't see any wings or the antennae. She was just a very small human floating in front of me.
"I'm feeling… confused. What operation? Who are you?"
"I am the Sixth Project AI manager, Eternal Freeze. You can call me Eternia if you like. The name of the operation is the same, Eternal Freeze. We've gotten your signature in regards to your informed consent before starting the operation…" She started to look worried, probably due to my continued confusion showing on my face.
"I don't remember hearing or signing anything about an 'Eternal Freeze'."
"Oh, this is a problem." She began to… pace around in the air somehow. Is she really an AI? I don't remember AI acting so… life-like. "Do you really not remember signing anything recently?"
I began to think back, and soon I remembered a strange event. My father gave me a paper to sign, but he really rushed me through it and I wasn't able to read what I was signing. Considering the condition I was in, I didn't really give it much thought, but it is certainly suspicious. I told Eternia about this.
In response, she bowed. "We apologize for not doing our due diligence to make sure we had your proper informed consent for the operation. Unfortunately, the operation is irreversible." She faced her head up. "Although on the positive side, it seems that the operation hasn't impacted your mental capabilities so far."
"I see… Or rather, I don't. What was this operation you did on me?" So far, she hasn't told me much.
"Right. We can at least do the informed part of informed consent now. What the operation Eternal Freeze aims to do is to digitise human consciousness. You're for the first successful subject."
"Digitise human consciousness? Is that why I'm in the game? Am I stuck here forever?"
"You are… currently stuck here. We plan on implementing the ability for you to access the internet and other worlds freely."
"But I'll always be in the digital space."
"That depends on how well the robotics project works. If it works well, exploring the outer world is possible."
"What about my real body though? Eternal Freeze would be cryostasis?"
"No, the name only came about to adhere to a theme. Your real body is… dead. For the operation to be successful, the real body must die so that the consciousness can transfer over."
"What? That sounds weird. Why?"
"We don't currently understand the full science behind the procedure, only that it only works if the patient dies during the process."
"So you killed me."
"We regret to say that yes, we allowed you to die by removing your life support in order for the operation to go ahead."
Well, it's not like I was exactly happy being there in the hospital all this time. If I had a choice, I absolutely would play this game all day instead of suffering in a hospital bed. …Things could've gone better.
"So, what's next then? What should I do?"
"You're free to play this game as you please. Although unfortunately you can't really do much else, there is still lots to do in this game."
"I suppose things could be worse." I finally got out of bed. Everything felt rather normal here, aside from not having any sensations from the 'outside'. I suppose that makes sense considering the situation I'm in.
"Before you leave, there's some things you should be aware of." I looked towards her. "First is that although we can talk to each other, only people involved in the Eternal Freeze project can see or hear me. If you want to talk to me without looking like you're talking to yourself, I'm registered as your friend so you can communicate with me that way." I looked through the UI to confirm this.
Sheene> Like this?
Eternia> Precisely.
"Another thing is that you're considered a hybrid between a PC and NPC to the game, which mostly just means that you have access to NPC-only functions. I recommend you ignore these for now, as being found out that you're special in the game can attract some unwanted attention. Although we can't stop you from doing otherwise, we recommend that you keep matters of Eternal Freeze private for the time being."
I nodded. For now, I just want to be normal. Well, as normal as someone trapped in the game 24/7 can be.
"Lastly, you can control the speed at which your mind is run. If you speed it up, you 'overclock' your mind, which makes all mental processes go faster. This will likely make it seem like the world is slowed down. That said, this is still experimental, so do be careful with it. There are limiters on how quickly or slowly you can run your mind, and I can override it in case of emergency."
"How do I…" In the middle of the sentence, I managed to speed up my mind. It didn't feel much different, except the world was moving more slowly. I moved my arm around, and it sorta lagged behind my mental commands. I returned the speed back to normal and things… returned to normal.
"Seems like you've got the hang of it. What are you going to do now?"
I thought about it for a second. "I think I'll just play as normal for now. I guess I should get used to my new life." I looked over my UI to confirm things, but then noticed something off. "Eternia. How long did the operation take?"
"…Due to some unforeseen circumstances, it took approximately a week to get you up and running. We don't believe there to be any other side effects to this issue, however."
"A week… I was asleep for a week?"
"That is… one way of putting it, yes."
Kryla> Hello Sheene. Did you get my message? How far did you progress while I was gone?
I 'overclocked' and quickly went through my messages. Kryla sent a few after we met last, about how she was grounded for a week due to falling behind on school grades and thus won't be able to play. This happened to overlap well with my week off as well. That's a… convenient coincidence.
Sheene> Hey Kryla. It just so happens that I was also taking a week break from the game, so I didn't progress much at all.
There was quite a lengthy pause after that.
Kryla> …That was a quick reply. Well, if you're up for playing together again, I'm free.
Oh, right, the overclock. I quickly turned that back to normal.
Sheene> How about we meet up at the guild for now? We could find something to do there.
Kryla> Sure. Headed there now.
I went out and headed towards the adventurer's guild.
Kryla was there before me. She was taking care of her feathers from her falcon aspect. My shell from my turtle aspect didn't need much maintenance. Well, as this is a game, I don't think her feathers did either, but there's probably a calming aspect to it.
"Heya." I called out.
Kryla jumped a bit at my words. But then quickly regained her composure. "Hey. So what do you want to do? Try out another dungeon?"
"Sure. We can do a warmup after our little break."
"Warmup for what?"
"I haven't thought that far ahead."
"What happened to the wise turtle? Well, whatever, let's go."
"Just the two of us?"
"It's warmup, right?"
We talked with the receptionist and found that there's an active dungeon that's suitable for our needs nearby, so after some preparation, we went out and entered the dungeon.
It was an underground-style dungeon. They said the theme was insects, but it's mostly filled with centipede-like monsters. When we entered we came into a cave with a bunch of glowing mushrooms everywhere to give it light.
"There weren't any mushroom enemies here, right?" I asked.
"No, although there are moth enemies, and there's mushrooms that can be a hazard when attacked."
"Gotcha. Well, I have my poison resistance ability ready."
"Same, let's go."
We moved forward and she soon spotted the first group of enemies. A pair of centipede-like monsters called pedalfeasts and we had a purple mushroom on the field on both sides.
"I'm going to try attacking the mushroom to see what happens." I agreed with the idea and let her do her thing while I established a defensive link with her.
She shot an arrow that went right through the center lane on the enemy side, hitting both pedalfeasts and the mushroom. The mushroom sent out spores to its surrounding spaces then changed colour to green, poisoning both monsters.
Preemptive round over, the mushroom on our side was in the center row but on the side, so we both decided that moving away from it was a good idea. The pedalfeasts did end up attacking it, but being away from it, we avoided the poison. Hitting the mushroom on their side again had a different effect, the spores this time healed the pedalfeasts, and now it changed colour to yellow.
"So, each time the mushroom is hit, it does an effect depending on its colour then it changes colour? Purple is poison, green is healing, let's see what yellow does."
"If green is healing, I'll get next to it in case they attack it again."
"Roger."
Due to my defensive link skill, Kryla hasn't taken any damage yet. The pedalfeasts can either attack in a row or column, or attack a single target. Only the latter can deal more damage than my link can transfer but they haven't targeted Kryla with it yet..
Kryla struck at the mushroom again, the yellow spores spreading while turning back to purple. It looked like some sort of paralysis effect? Although it didn't stop the pedalfeasts from attacking, striking both me and the mushroom on our side. The mushroom's yellow spores affected me and I saw its effect.
"Yellow's effect stops the next movement and next art use."
"So you can't move right now?" The turn was over and movement was indeed disabled.
"Nope."
"Then let's end the battle here before they get our purple."
Right. Right now, I was stuck beside the purple mushroom on our side, and the next hit will be poison. Kryla used a bow art to quickly deplete the pedalfeasts' remaining HP and we were done with the battle.
"Well, that was an interesting gimmick."
"Poison to healing to stun to poison again. It's something we'll need to be careful around."
"Yeah. Well, let's continue on!"
Next battle was similar to the last, although this time with an ambush element to it. That said, we avoided the ambush element due to Kryla's scouting skills, so it was pretty similar in the end. We learned something new about the mushrooms this time, and it was that after they get used, they dim a bit. Attacking a dimmed mushroom doesn't do anything, and it'll brighten at the beginning of each round. Additionally, if I defense link with the mushroom and it doesn't take any damage because of it, it won't go off.
The moth-like Spore Carriers in the third battle changed things around though. They could move around the mushrooms and make them go off while still keeping them bright. This proved to be rather annoying, but not insurmountable. Or rather, although they've been annoying, we haven't had much issue with our HP and were never in much real danger.
Which means the boss will be particularly difficult.
The fourth battle was more of the same, although with, well, more. We took some damage, but it wasn't too bad. Next is the boss of the dungeon.
Greater Pedalfeast. Well, it's certainly bigger. Two mushrooms each on each side this time. Or rather, a mushroom each on the left and the right, on both the player and enemy sides of the field.
"Any ideas for strategy?" Kryla's the better one for figuring that stuff out.
She thought for a moment. "We heal the boss."
"…What?"
"Hit the purple and green mushrooms whenever they're there. Otherwise, aim at the boss."
"If you say so."
All of the mushrooms start off purple as usual, so we aim after those. Although in the first proper round, the boss summons a pair of Spore Carriers moth monsters. "New plan. Take out the adds first, although try to hit the mushrooms too. But only until they're yellow."
Between the Spore Carriers and the mushrooms, there was a lot of poison, healing, and stunning, making it difficult to have the damage we deal stick. Still, we managed to gradually chip down on its HP without getting our own HP too low, although the poison was starting to become an issue. The second phase started with a bang.
The boss rushed through our field, hitting everything. Fortunately, the mushrooms were on green at this point, so we managed to heal some of the damage done. It still managed quite a bit, however.
We spent a turn healing up and found that the boss only attacked normally at that point. Although the normal attacks alternately hit a part of the field alongside a mushroom. Next turn was the same, except we were already mostly healed so we attacked instead. The turn after that…
"Is it… powering up?"
"Seems so. I imagine it's going to repeat the opening attack for the phase."
"Okay, I'll get my defenses up for it then."
"Don't bother, just attack. I'll deal with it."
"Oh, sure." Kryla seemed to have a plan, so I left it to her while I focused on bringing the boss's health down.
She attacked one of the yellow mushrooms, disabling its movement(although it doesn't move) and its arts once. There was a message about the Great Pedalfeast being unable to use its arts and it just ended up doing a normal attack instead.
"Alright, it worked." So that's why she always kept a yellow mushroom available. We need to use the mushrooms carefully for this boss.
Due to strategically using the yellow mushrooms in this phase, we found it to be even easier than the last phase. However, there was one phase left.
Great Pedalfeast enters Rampage Mode.
After the first turn, it became clear what this did. Rampage Mode increases attack and damage resistance each turn, while it also decreases healing effect each turn. Which means…
"Sheene, attack both mushrooms as much as you can."
I nodded, and we both unleashed arts as much as possible, as our normal attacks only hit one target. I ended up taking most of the damage while occasionally healing myself. We soon managed to get it down to low HP.
And then it charged up.
Neither mushroom was currently yellow.
"I'll handle this."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, just heal me." Due to Kryla's speed, her heals are more useful in this situation.
"Gotcha."
After receiving the heal, the Greater Pedalfeast charged forward with an attack that'll probably wipe out most parties unprepared. Well, I had just the art for this situation.
Shield Art: Absorb Power. As the boss slammed into my shield, it absorbed a portion of the power of the attack, making it weaker, as it ran through our field and made its way back. My turn. I managed to strike the Greater Pedalfeast with much greater strength than usual, using the power that I absorbed as a part of the attack.
It fell.
"We did it!" I cheered happily, and I went and hugged Kryla. "…How is your HP still so high?"
"I just dodged that last attack, that's all." Well, that's not… impossible. "Anyways, yes, we did it. That was a good warmup."
"Ah, yes, warmup."
"What were we warming up for?"
"I still haven't thought that far."
"We will now commence the Seventh Club Offline Gathering."
"Is it really an offline gathering if half of us are online?"
"The important part is the other half is here offline."
After a lot of organisational effort, we managed to hold an offline gathering for our Seventh Club for Six Online. Six Online has guilds, but guilds are for mostly NPC organizations like the adventurer's guild, so players have clubs instead.
We have a laptop set up at the end of a table streaming everybody else who couldn't make it on video. Some have their faces in the camera, some are using their in-game avatars instead, and a few are doing something entirely different. We're doing this to get as many people together as possible in this cafe.
That said, despite having organised all of this, I can't quite say I'm in the mood at the moment.
"Um… Vos, are you alright?" Lena, my closest friend in the club, was worried.
"No." I was not feeling alright.
"Should we stop this?"
"No."
"Are you going to say anything other than 'no'?" Rike chimed in.
"No."
"…"
"So… uh…"
"Sorry." I interrupted Lena. "I have something I would like to say if that's okay."
"Yes, that's fine." People were in general agreement about that. Well, I was nominally the club leader.
"As some of you already know, I have just returned from my sister's funeral." I looked around to see their reactions to that. Although some were aware of this, most were not. "I… have been finding the circumstances surrounding her death to be a bit suspicious."
"Are you saying she was murdered?"
"No. There's no reason to murder her. She… was dying anyway. However… Starting about a week before her death, the hospital staff have started denying me access to her. About that time, I got a message from her phone." I took out my phone and showed everybody the message I got. It had a picture of her with a VR device, saying that she'll play Six Online soon.
"So, she was playing Six Online, and that's why they didn't let you in?"
"If it was just that, why wouldn't they just tell me? Or rather, she wasn't supposed to be playing full dive games in the first place. We don't know what sort of effects that could have on her health."
"If she was dying anyway, is her health that important?"
"She was still supposed to live for a few more months, not die last week."
"Um… if I may, perhaps her condition got worse?"
"Well, yeah, as I said…"
"No, I mean, maybe that's why she decided to play games, since maybe she found out that she only has a few weeks left rather than a few months, she might as well use them to play a game she likes?"
"Then why wouldn't she just tell me that?"
"Because she didn't want you to know she was dying so soon."
My clubmates began nodding their heads, convinced of the argument. "No…"
"Vos, I know you're still…"
"I said 'no'!" I held up my phone. "This is the last message I got from her. I tried messaging her more times, asking about how the hospital staff refused the visits, but I got no reply. When she sent that message, she didn't know she was going to die in a week. She wouldn't have sent it otherwise. Something happened, and I believe it's related to Six Online."
