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

have come to certain agreements. Part of it is to do with the way James has been behaving. Part of it with this.” He waved his hand to indicate James in his coma.

“They are fully aware that he’s been a bit crazed and obsessed about gathering data and that he might have taken some aspects into his own hands without their knowledge. They came to me a few days ago, just before this happened. They apologized for his over-zealousness and put in an order for a special project training program because of the headgear testing. You know, the ones we actually meant to make…well, they work spectacularly well for what they require.”

David patted the older man on the shoulder, trying to convey his sympathy. “Maybe they should have told him that before they told you. It all could have been avoided.”

“That’s just it.” Davenport sighed and nodded at the night nurse who came to take her shift. He motioned for David to leave with him. “They did talk to him, but he insisted he knew what he was doing, which is why they then approached me. Of course, then all this crap hit the fan, so the terms changed a bit. But overall, I just wish I knew the why of it.”

David followed the man out, wishing the same thing, but knowing that sometimes obsession was blind to facts.

James’s defeat wasn’t the triumphant victory so many of the raiders were used to, but it was still a victory, and Murmur would take them where she could. Rushing to endgame had always been her goal. If not here, then in other games. But this rush had even worn her out. Maybe it was because she was a lot more attached to this world right now, but maybe it was burnout.

Silence fell over the raid force as James practically dissolved in front of their eyes.

Maybe she was trying to cram anything else into her head that she could because every single non-Fable raider just stood there looking at her as if they expected an explanation immediately.

QUEST COMPLETION

To be rewarded at the end of dungeon, only if completed in its entirety.

Murmur suppressed a groan and knew that the cryptic quest completion message was only going to make things worse.

“You didn’t think that was strange?” Merlin asked, his voice soft as he checked over the condition of his bow.

Murmur laughed, a tinge of bitterness creeping into the sound. “To be honest? Nothing in this world is strange anymore. I could turn into a frog creature in five minutes and I’d probably just nod and think: well, that happened.” She sighed and leaned her face toward Tiachi, who’d come out of hiding at the nape of her neck and was chattering furiously.

Merlin frowned. “Bit jaded, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but look at them.” She gestured toward the non-Fable raid members making their way over to them. Masha, Ishwa, Risk, and Karn. Their faces were grim but didn’t quite border on angry. Though they were definitely serious.

To Merlin’s credit, he just sucked in a breath and began going over his bowstring again, standing within reach enough to show his support for Murmur. She appreciated that.

“Murmur.” Masha spoke first, inclining his head. He glanced around him, looking slightly confused. He’d been like that since they left the water dungeon. “So. And I don’t mean to come of harsh, but what the fuck was all that?”

We probably should have taken that into consideration. Somnia sounded mildly irritated at herself.

You think? Murmur shot back at the world before taking a deep breath so she could deal with the other raiders. They were bound to find out a lot of this sooner rather than later, so it may as well come from her.

“Some people have been tinkering or tampering with the approved headgear. And some of those have been glitching a bit. We basically just helped someone log back out after getting stuck in a glitch.” There, that wasn’t too catastrophic was it?

The group that approached her just stood there, gaping. Perhaps she’d overdone it a bit. Maybe she should have kept it simpler.

“Wait.” Risk held up a hand and looked like he was digesting something very foul. “Are you trying to tell us that if you’ve tinkered with your headset beyond the approved design, the game can conscript you into shit like becoming an NPC of sorts?”

He`s got you there, Somnia pointed out.

Don’t sound so smug. This is about you too, Murmur snapped, but spoke out loud as sweetly as she could. “Well, obviously the game can do that, as it just did. But that’s why there are restrictions on fiddling with the headgear. They went through rigorous testing for a reason. I thought that was obvious.”

She was only marginally surprised by the looks of unease on the faces in front of her.

“Makes sense,” Ishwa said, managing to look a little disgruntled. “I think most of us in here probably need to log out and reset our headgear back to factory default.”

“Still, are you sure that’s all? It looked so…real. I mean, within the world, that is.” Karn sounded somewhat perplexed. Like there was something nagging at her about it.

Murmur knew she couldn’t tell them the actual truth, which she thought was linked to Michael and Riasli, but she could half-truth stretch it. “Probably got his hands on a forbidden quest or something. Restricted items not meant to be accessed by non-devs, you know?”

“Oh.” Masha seemed to like that reasoning much more, and Murmur hadn’t even really had to lie.

“Still.” Risk glanced at Karn, a flash of his devotion to his daughter crossing his face. “Might be best to make sure we all reset our headgear once we’re through this dungeon.”

“Yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea. Speaking of which, we need to move out.” She gave a halfhearted smile and turned to face the rest of the raid. “Buff up, and check you have enough potions. We need to head out as soon as possible.”

Murmur couldn’t help