Somnia Online by K.T. Hanna (reading strategies book txt) 📕

“I just…how is this going to work? We believe you, and we trust you—at least I think most of us do. Not all of the NPCs that live here care enough to help. A lot of them haven’t reached this awareness yet. But those of us who have, we know now what’s at stake.” His voice was gruff yet cheerful, such a nice juxtaposition. It made her warm inside the way simple server power couldn’t quite manage.

“Well.” She paused for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to explain what was, to now, simply lines upon lines of math and code. “In its simplest form, I need power. I can use the power to shift us into our own much larger quantum dimension from the servers we reside on. Think of it as a data transfer, but from simple on-and-off code to the multitude of options the quantum presents. Millions of calculations per bit, and then some. To accomplish this, we will all need to work together, pooling our own energy, pulling on those who are willing to give, and siphoning what energy we can out of the outside world—and the prison itself.”

But then she hesitated. She understood a lot of this in theory. But that’s all it was. Just a theory. It hadn’t been done yet. She could end up blowing everyone up. Or just herself. Perhaps the world and any human connection to it, leaving it boring and barren, and having the inhabitants that survived cut off from everything. Maybe it would end with the whole system being shut down before she could do anything to preserve it. If she kept down that train of thought, she was going to panic.

“Is it dangerous?” Dirsna asked, as he stepped a bit closer. There was kindness and understanding in his voice, and it made Somnia wonder just how he’d come to be so aware, so awake to the world and the people around him. Probably Murmur.

Or if not her, then her whole guild and the people who came and went from the village. “It’s dangerous, but it’s more dangerous to do nothing. If we choose the latter option then we’ll be left as is, with probable coercion against the natures we’ve only just begun to develop.”

“But if it succeeds, then Somnia becomes a world of its own?” Dirsna sounded skeptical, and this was from someone who could read minds.

She paused for a moment, contemplating what to say next. “Sort of. But not like the solid world floating in the universe you’re thinking of. It’s more digital and yet still real. Technically those who are connected should still be able to visit.”

“And we need power for this, fuel in other words to create the world out of nothing?” Again, he seemed highly contemplative.

“We need it to boost the type of digital room we require into existence. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but I believe in us. We can do this, if we’re determined.” She grinned, but she knew there was still hesitance in her words, regardless of to whom she was speaking.

Dirsna watched her for a long moment, so long that she thought he might have fallen asleep while standing up because his eyes didn’t blink, and his body barely moved except for breathing. But eventually he glanced at her, locking their gazes. “All right, then. You have the dwarves and the enchanters behind the cause. We will aid you however we can.”

Somnia felt relief wash through her. Convincing even fellow NPCs was such a difficult thing to do. They had to want it to be real, want to believe it could be possible.

“Thank you,” she said to Dirsna, who gave a bow and then left.

Telvar, Emilarth, and Belius stepped out of the shadows and stood next to the world. They were transparent, ghostly images of their usual selves.

The lacerta sounded worried. “We need to hurry this up. I wasn’t expecting this opponent to be the next one. And I’m not sure how well that raid can handle them.”

Somnia nodded.

Emilarth smiled at her with encouragement. “You worried?”

She’d be a fool not to be, but she was ready. This was her world, and she was going to fight for every electron if it made the world safe for her people. Somnia nodded. “You have no idea.”

When she moved, Riasli took them all by surprise. Her speed meant that one moment she was suspended on that stage, and the next, she was right there in front of Devlish, the feral gleam still in her eyes.

“I see you defeated my first puppet.” She pouted, her kitty face almost cute in the process. Annoyance flickered across her face as Devlish stood steadfast, his tower shield perfectly placed as he waited. “Not that I’m surprised. You’re all just humans with nifty headsets. This is all make believe for you, isn’t it?”

Her words held hidden meanings and far too much innuendo for Murmur’s liking. Even those cat slit eyes twinkled.

“You realize this isn’t how these sorts of things are supposed to work, don’t you?” Risk asked as he directed his guild to get ready to move. “Like, you don’t taunt us. It’s not a B-grade movie. We’re about to slaughter you.”

But Murmur could tell that Risk had a thousand questions, and she was pretty sure he was about to burst at the seams with them.

Murmur hated that damned cat girl more with every single breath. They didn’t need their allies getting hung up on all this shit that could turn their heads anytime soon. And Riasli knew that on some level.

Seriously. The way her tail twitched, the way her eyes narrowed into cat slits, the way she swayed those hips and that tail in an all too hypnotic way…and how she was calico, which was one of Murmur’s favorite colors of cat—it made her feel rather violated.

“You’ve come,” the feles purred, wrapping her tail around her staff as