The God of the artificial world. Juriy Tashkinov
people wandered back and forth, without a shadow of a thought. Their only desire was death and revenge. So was Charles, the long-dead king who cursed many infidels.
– Tomorrow morning we will set off to merge with the main detachment of conquests. And you will come with us. Dirk will be delighted to have guests. Please throw the staffs on the floor. You won’t need them anytime soon.
I could not disobey the order. After all, purple spells completely deprive you of willpower. But as soon as the weapon was thrown to the ground, the multi-colored lines of magic spells suddenly disappeared. The world has become ordinary. I looked back at my friends, and their pupils now took on a normal, human shape, although a few seconds ago we were looking at everyone with cat eyes.
«Now lock them,» Mallon commanded.
We were thrown into a large hall and the doors were tightly locked. We ran to the windows, but there were bars on them, and it was also impossible to knock down the doors or cause them any harm.
– OK! «I think I’ll leave the game for now,» said Bran, and his body suddenly became translucent, and the inscription «Not in the game» appeared above him.
Other players followed his example. It’s just me and Sienna left.
– You know, I’ve wanted to try this for so long. But, you know, in reality this cannot be done.
She came up to me and kissed me. But the game fully conveyed all the smallest sensations. I could feel her smooth skin and every crack in it. I could smell her intoxicating scent. When she began to unbutton the buttons on my shirt, I looked at her in surprise.
– It’s OK! It’s possible here. This is the game world.
Although it was a game world, everything was real.
***
– Get up, Ilya! – Svetka still woke me up at the wrong time. That’s a damn car! Well, does he really not understand at all when he can wake him up and when he can’t? But I couldn’t be offended by her for a long time. After all, I fell in love! You could say this was the first time. Well, love for the teacher in the children’s home does not count.
I looked at myself in the mirror and tensed the «muscles» that were hanging and jiggling like jelly. I stroked my plump belly. The double chin has long been overgrown with stubble.
– Light, I want to weigh myself! – I commanded.
– Your excess weight is thirty kilograms.
I was stunned. Will I be able to please her if we can ever meet in the real world? She is so slender and beautiful, and I only have a beautiful drawn character.
– Lights, treadmill. And a barbell!
I ran hard and then did some barbell squats.
Level 4. Captured.
– Get up, why are you lying down? – someone shouted over my ear. I opened my eyes and almost screamed in horror. It was one of the walking skeletons.
Oh, yes, we were captured last night. We were taken to the main hall. Mallon was dressed in travel uniform, surrounded by an entire army of loyal conquestists.
– Let’s hit the road.
They tied our hands and put chains on our feet. It wasn’t just us who were prisoners; there was a whole line of them.
– Why are you delaying?! – one of the conquestists shouted, and the skeleton hit his shoulders with a whip.
So we set off on the road. And we were kept company by an army consisting of people, ghosts and wights. We went west from the Cursed Forest, further and further from the capital of the Freeds. A couple of hours passed and we found ourselves in the desert. There is only sand around, which has no end or edge. Somewhere in the distance behind us we could see the forest we were in yesterday. Many of the players had «Out of Game» signs glowing above them. But I didn’t leave the game so as not to miss any details regarding the AWG company. Sienna also remained online. Or maybe he just likes to mock himself. Masochist!
When the warder passed by, I shouted:
– Give me something to drink! I’m dying, I can’t walk anymore.
– Nobody allowed the prisoners to talk! – the skeleton growled. What a surreal dream!
My legs were giving way, either from the distance traveled and fatigue, or from heat and thirst. I noticed that Sienna was also having a hard time. The prisoners walked in pairs, and we were connected with her.
«When we get out, I’ll clean up that Mallon’s face.» And to all these conquests combined! How could they do this to us! Sienna screamed. – Until this moment, I treated the «Battle for Freedom» only as a game. But now I’m really angry!
– I know what you mean! – I said.
– What do you understand?
– Talkers! – the warden shouted and hit me with a whip.
They walked on in silence. Every time I looked into Sienna’s face, I saw her unkind gaze directed towards the guards. The woman’s revenge was expected to be terrible!
In the evening we settled down for the night. They even gave us some foul-smelling water and rotten meat. But after a long journey, rotten meat seemed like a divine lunch.
The cold penetrated to the bones, although there was still warmth from the sand. A howl was heard from somewhere in the distance.
– It’s them! – whispered one of our friends in misfortune.
– Who are they? – I asked.
But there was no need to answer – several huge tentacles appeared from the sand, which immediately dragged away the two prisoners.
– But we don’t even have weapons! – I shouted to the warden.
He didn’t look in my direction and walked away. Tentacles appeared here and there. I had to use all my skill to avoid getting caught by them.
A couple of conquestists ran among a number of prisoners and pulled someone out of the line. When they approached me, Bran and I also stood out from the crowd.
– You follow me. They took off the chain and untied my hands. When we were near the captors’ camp, Mallon handed us the staves.
– Just look, no nonsense. I give the staff only for this battle.
– HEIMO! – I said immediately. This phrase was repeated by other «chosen ones». The world suddenly acquired additional colors, became more colorful, or something, especially in the dark.
The tentacles shone with all the colors of the rainbow. Moreover: wherever they touched, a clearly visible rainbow trail remained.
– MALLEBAR! – I shouted as one of the tentacles headed towards me. Orange lightning struck the monster and the tentacle began to convulse.
– DONE! – Bran shouted, and the shock wave tore out the limb completely.
– It is a useless idea to hit each tentacle separately. How many of them does the monster have: twenty? Thirty? One hundred? We need to find the root cause of what happened.
«Perhaps he’s right,» said Hyde, one of our enemies. We already met him at the technician camp. One of those, seeing which you begin to regret that spawn points exist!
Conquests and Fridas mixed together, we ran to where, according to our assumption, the head of the monster should be. Each time I had to dodge when a tentacle flew at me.
When we ran up to the place we were looking for, I was stunned with horror – here a huge mouth opened right out of the ground and smelled of rotten meat. It seems that the monster was not a vegetarian, and brushed his teeth no more than once a century.
The