was typical in these games, her breasts were exaggerated in size, made even more pronounced by the armor. It was an unspoken rule in visual game design to make women look the way men wanted to see them.
The warrior that Lily was playing was a randomly generated guest character named Boobooma of Sanadas, which, for whatever reason, was the first thing that jumped into D_Light’s head as he initiated the guest account. D_Light created a guest account for Lily because she did not have a game account of her own. Trial-basis guest accounts were allowed in NeverWorld because it was a good way to introduce new customers to the game and, from the perspective of the Seriah family that ran NeverWorld, lure new subscribers.
Lily blinked at the bright light emanating from D_Light’s wand. He whispered a curt command to the wand to dim the light. He did not want to attract any unwanted attention just yet. As the light dimmed, allowing her to see clearly, she focused on D_Light’s face, and her eyes widened.
“Who?” She looked at him with a start and then turned all around like one desperately searching.
If D_Light had not been in such a hurry, he would have relished this moment with the NeverWorld nOOb, perhaps messed with her mind, or at least teased her a bit. Unfortunately, there was no time. Soul, she’s such an adorable nOOblet, though, he couldn’t help thinking with a chuckle.
“My lady, it is I, the man you made a fool of earlier. Thou art a damsel in distress, but fear not, for I…”
It was evident from Lily’s stare that telling her not be afraid in fantaspeech was having the opposite effect. D_Light decided to drop that part of NeverWorld role-playing for now. He would just have to endure the point penalties.
“Look, it’s me, okay? I’m D_Light, the guy who’s helping you,” D_Light whispered urgently.
“You look like a woman…and you sound like one.” She looked at him hard as her jaw clenched.
D_Light would have picked his male wizard character, Hygelac, to make things simpler, but that character had gotten his throat ripped out by a hellhound earlier.
“You’re in the game, remember?” D_Light asked.
“Everything looks different. Everything is going to sound different too. Soul, you might even smell things that aren’t there. Look, I’m the guy who ran after you and then you stuck a knife halfway into my throat.” He pointed at his now long, sexy neck. “I’m not really a woman; it’s only an illusion.”
Lily was breathing hard, almost panting. Her head shot around in all directions. She looked like she was going to bolt.
D_Light put out his hand, now a smaller, more feminine version of his own, in a gesture that he hoped would calm her. Damn, I should have warned her that I would look different.
D_Light rarely considered what he looked like in the game, as it usually made little difference in typical play. He tried to reassure her. “Everything is fine. You’re doing great. Just take a moment to look around.” Sounding even more effeminate than he’d like, D_Light felt self-conscious of his voice. He remembered how it had taken him hours to choose that voice when he first created this witch. He usually played women characters because he tended to get more aid and cooperation from other players who, at least in NeverWorld, tended to be men. As an added bonus, whenever he chanced to look in the mirror or into a reflective pool, the scenery was nice.
Lily watched him as he spoke. Her face was rendered just like her real face. This was the default. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them again. She grinned weakly and said, “I think you look better here.”
D_Light smiled back, relieved that she was now adjusting. “Yeah, people tend to. Okay, I’m going to have to cast some spells now. They’re not real, just part of the game. These will help protect us.”
“Protect us from what?” Lily peered back over her shoulder.
“Just from the stuff in the game. You know, monsters and such. They can’t hurt you in real life, but if you die in the game, you get kicked out for a while, and we don’t want that. We want to blend in, remember? And the best way to do that is to stay in the game.”
He wondered if, perhaps, he should have jacked her into a game with less violence and horror elements than NeverWorld. Maybe a social networking game like Grokstania would have been a better introduction to spanker games. In such a game they could walk around bowing, complimenting, flirting, or otherwise trying to make friends and influence people in a palace, garden, or some other visually rich and romantic setting. But D_Light was sure Grokstania was not popular in this spanker ghetto, and they needed to follow the crowd. Plus, in order to escape, he planned to do a lot of running. Grockstania was a game of subtlety and witty banter, not a game of hell-bent sprinting.
D_Light spent about a third of his manna on protection spells. He could have gone invisible like he had done earlier, but he decided against it. To blend in, they needed to appear to be like any other spanker, and most spankers fought monsters-they didn’t try to avoid them. You got more points and treasure that way. Besides, they couldn’t sneak around very well with this nOOb clanking about in that armor.
D_Light began making his incantations. Lily remained quiet as a mouse. He was grateful that the girl seemed to know when to shut up. She did, however, look at him oddly during his spell castings, but he could hardly blame her for that.
Done with his spells, D_Light turned to Lily to give instructions. “Okay, try to stay behind me as much as you can, but don’t run unless I run. Stay close. Oh, and if you have to, go ahead and swing that.” D_Light pointed at the long sword in the sheath hanging from her belt. Lily took the sword out and gave it a good swing.
D_Light flinched. “Uh, yeah, like that. But don’t swing so close to me, right?” Lily responded by turning her back to him and swinging some more.
“Um, sure, you can cover my back, okay?” D_Light was mildly surprised she took to the virtual sword so quickly since the touch sensory input for spank games was not very advanced. No doubt she could feel only the slightest weight and pressure on her hand as she gripped the weapon.
“You can practice as we go,” D_Light said. He then took a deep breath and trotted off down the dark, dank hallway.
CHAPTER 13
Jacob’s sensors picked up the unusual heat signature right before the BB gun exploded. This warning, despite being only a fraction of a second before the event, gave Jacob enough time to evade much of the blast. Nevertheless, he was engulfed in superheated flames and sprayed with a fine sheet of molten metal that fused into his nanofiber-constructed shell.
Many of his systems were knocked out. Of course, his most important ones were redundant, particularly his sensory and communication systems. Jacob reallocated his available power to his scanners to take a good “look” at the scene and, upon taking this final snapshot, uploaded the data to a secure location in the Cloud.
After completing these momentary tasks, he shut down. Somewhere hardwired on a chip at the center of his body, sheathed in layers of additional armor, was his most primitive programming. It was here that his emergency shutoff routine was housed. An angel that had withstood massive injury but was still operational was a potential liability, an unknown quantity. Such a complex machine was difficult enough to test when it was fully operational, much less when it was damaged. A compromised angel that incorrectly processed input could be a lethal instrument, and so its designers had enough foresight to give their creation less than a second of life, enough time to “phone home,” before it went to sleep.
Bitch, we would be so made, stompin’ into Rudy’s with matching Moon Booties™! Katria sent the blink with as much enthusiasm as she could summon.
I dunno, I think we might look like a couple of nOOblet showoffs. Example, I watched this archive of one fool wearing those booties that thought he was the meow, but ended up pinging his brother in the head as he jumped over ’im, OffDaLeash responded.
Katria did not bother to assimilate the archive. She was well aware of the dangers of using the gravity- defying boots. In her own experience of using them, she had sprained her ankle several times already and nearly brained herself when she nicked the ceiling in her apartment. All of that was beside the point. If she could convince OffDaLeash, her sister and longtime friend, to buy a pair, she would get herself a handsome shot of points from OwnYoAss™.
