Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3) by John Gold (novel24 TXT) 📕

to enter, and my magic vision shows me a new eddy that drops us in the open sea. We find ourselves to the north of Tanatos in the River of Life. But that’s no good, and so I open another portal and take us back to the island so we can find a different way. The next one is a portal to a spot to the northeast of Tanatos, still in the River of Life. Four tries later, we’re south of Tanatos, a day’s journey away from Clover.

Femida lost her lord sandals and armor in her first escape from prison. I don’t feel like carrying her, so I have to keep her covered with a spell for walking on water until we get there. She still hasn’t picked a class, and the only battle technique she had was the dissection her blood knight armor gave her.

“What class are you looking to get? Oh, and what’s your level?”

“957. I want to be a master swordsman specializing in longsword fighting. If I were to be a blood knight, I’d have to be with you all the time.”

“Good choice. When we’re done with the clinic, we’ll have to go back to Kkhor. There’s a shop that’s all set to start working on your sword, and you’ll be able to pick it up as soon as I work there for a week.”

Femida laughs so hard she almost chokes. We’re already running across the inner waters of the River of Life, constantly attacked by high-level monsters we’re able to hide or run from pretty easily. In her laughter, however, Femida trips and crashes down on the water. Just then, the shadow of a flying whale creeps over us, followed a second later by razor-sharp pieces of ice raining down. I’m forced to cover her with a magic shield until she can get a grip on herself.

“The whole world is looking for you, including all the gods and the Hunter clans. But you’re over here just talking about how you’re going to up and work at a shop in one of the world’s most highly populated capitals. Why can’t you just buy the sword?”

“It’s a mind weapon bound with blood. I don’t have money, and nobody’s going to find me.”

Femida logs out of the game for a day near the clinic dome. If everything goes well, I’m going to send her a message in the real world so we can meet there.

***

After dying in Project Chrysalis, players could go to sleep or use the capsule interface to jump over onto the infonet.

Kirk just waited there in the dark, glancing at the clock telling him how soon he could respawn. The thought that he’d helped Bloody Sagie find Femida gnawed at him.

Sagie’s name was used to scare disobedient children. He was a symbol of destruction, devastation, and antisocial behavior, a champion of the dark powers. Some people even doubted his very existence. There were theories that he’d been a stooge placed there by Lunar, and that his character had been deleted after the battle for Castle Airis. His level and skills were thought to be beyond the scope of the imagination; he was said to eat raw meat and drink blood for breakfast like a super-mage. Kirk, however, had lived with him for more than a month, and had seen nothing but an ordinary guy. Sure, he was overly serious, but he was still far more ordinary than the monster the media and news sites made him out to be.

Still, all that paled in comparison to the depth of Sagie’s betrayal. He had coldly exploited Kirk’s trust, hiding his name and coercing Kirk into helping him completely modify his mental body.

Lira, the blonde angel, was Kirk’s first love. She was the first and only person to fall in love with him, and not his money. Her blue eyes, her long, golden hair, her marvelous laughter, her gentleness, her life… Sagie had taken all of it.

A minute later, Kirk sent a message to the Golden Hand.

I know the exact location of Bloody Sagie, his level, his class, his body modification, and what he’s been doing over the past month.

Ten minutes and five officials later, he was talking with Leon in a personal virtual room. Kirk told the god everything he knew about Sagie and his battle skills. He showed the video he’d taken next to the prison. Afterward, Leon fell silent for almost a minute. It wasn’t a hesitation or just a pause; it was horror. Leon got the message Sagie sent him. He remembered the promise.

It was only when St. Rachel walked into the room that Leon started talking—she looked him in the eye and told him to snap out of it with a firm voice. There were two of the people Sagie had addressed right there in the room, and, judging by their reactions, they knew both Sagie and the promise he’d mentioned. Suddenly, doubt and questions he didn’t voice crept into his head. A small, barely noticeable spark of suspicion awoke in his soul, though it was doused in a wave of righteous rage.

Two more people showed up. First, there was Nate, the head of Leon’s security. He was followed by Merlen, the number-two man in the Golden Hand. Nate was like Leon’s shadow in real life and virtual reality both, and he moved like a professional killer. Even though everyone knew where he was standing, it still felt like he wasn’t there. He was wearing the modest outfit of a city slicker copied from his Project Chrysalis character, with hair pulled back in a pony tail, and wearing small glasses with thick black frames. He looked anything but the terrifying assassin everyone in Project Chrysalis thought of him as.

Everybody there watched the recording one more time before going their separate ways. Nate was the last to leave, and he turned before he went.

“The