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

to eat through his clothes, drenching him in sweat in no time, yet his captor didn’t seem to notice.

He tried to activate his interface to log out but received an error notice.

Error

You cannot log out until your quest has been finished.

Panic gripped him once again. Quest? He wasn’t even on a quest. He’d deliberately not taken one. He wasn’t playing the damned game to complete it or actually be an adventurer; he just needed answers.

Riasli purred as she pushed open what appeared to be the thick bough of a very large tree and laid him down. “Oh, Mr. James. Don’t you realize? You’re going to get all the answers you need and more. I promise, you’ll be a big part of the solution.”

 

Somnia Online

Cenedril - Curet

Riasli’s Exile Hideout

Day Thirty

James felt every root, every stem of every plant, and every leaf that made up the makeshift mattress he rested on. No matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t figure out how to access his HUD, and therefore couldn’t figure out a way to disconnect his mind from the system. This left him with the unenviable position of being stuck in the game. He didn’t understand how that worked. It wasn’t supposed to be possible.

Through all the testing, through all the usage, no one reported anything like this. The headsets were compatible with other games, and no one had registered complaints of any sort yet. So why was he stuck here, in this game, without the ability to exit?

Even the cat-like creature had left the small home, as if she knew he wouldn’t be able to escape. And she’d been right. How she’d managed to truss him up and make him stay in that spot, he had no clue. This wasn’t the easy jaunt through the game he’d intended. If he really examined his fears, James was somewhat terrified.

He’d thought they were hiding something—he’d no idea it would be something this big.

“Silly human. It’s not this. This is not what they’re hiding at all. In fact, this has nothing to do with anything except for me. You wouldn’t believe how I got to be this way. It’s an excellent story, if I do say so myself.” She purred as she walked back into the small living space. Massive leaves made up sturdy doors that surprised him with their durability.

James wanted to speak and ask a question, but this Riasli wouldn’t let him. Come to think of it, he had no idea how he’d known her name. He’d certainly never asked for it. And while he could see his spells listed out, their listing was heavily overlaid with interference, barely legible.

“Sometimes the best gifts we receive are those for which we do not beg.” Riasli twirled around the room with some sort of flower arrangement in her hands. Her calico fur was brushed until it shone, and her ears twitched amicably.

Then she stopped and took a few steps toward him, frowning slightly. “You know, though, you’ve gone about it all the wrong way. All you had to do was ask. We’re pretty amenable to those thoughts you have. Those wish fulfillments you seek. Making your bosses happy? We can do that. We can do anything.”

Her cat slit eyes were hypnotic, and James found himself falling into them, believing every word she said. Even if a portion of his mind rebelled against the fact, even if a part of him was horrified that any part of him even contemplated accepting their help.

“Just what can you do? Can you show me what they’ve been hiding, what they’ve been concealing in the reports? Can you show me why?” Finally allowed to speak, he could hear himself begging, which was so unlike him. A part of him wanted to scream at his mouth to stop letting words spill out of his head. But it wouldn’t come, it wouldn’t listen, because a part of him longed for this cat to do anything she could to him, anything she wanted with him.

Riasli purred and her eyes gleamed a strange sort of yellow.

“Now that’s a good human. Of course, you want that. I can make you want anything, but this is what you chose for yourself.” She turned around, her tail swishing with agitation and she began muttering under her breath. Quick and soft, and yet just enough that he could hear her if he strained. “Not, of course, if she protects them. That damned shielding. It shouldn’t be possible for a player to do something like that. Not considering how weak players should be. I’m so sick of that girl and her machinations. She could have been my student. I could have taught her so much. But this one is a warlock, something not even I can access. He can’t resist me. This will be perfect.”

She busied herself with something over by a crude sink that leaned against the wall.

James wanted her to keep talking, regardless that he had no clue what it was she was talking about. Her words and her voice, they clung in his ears, rang through his mind like a bell of joy. His head yearned to hear more of it; his body begged to let her touch him. But in a corner, just a small corner of his mind, his actual self screamed, trying to make itself heard as the space for it to exist got smaller and smaller, until all he knew was Riasli and all he wanted to do was to please her.

Hipnormous roared. The wind that tunneled out of its mouth was rank, its stench worse than week-old meat left out in the sun to rot. It hit every single raid member with a debuff.

Disorientation

You have been bowled over by the stench. You cannot gain your bearings fully. This effect will last for five seconds.

Murmur really hoped the others had resistances. What with her shielding over half of the raid, and her own magic resistance spell, the people in the raid should be mostly safe. But