Chapter Seven
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"Never again will I ever go on with you!" Artemis shouted hysterically as she ducked into cover beside Gunner33 barely making it as the ground where she was standing a second ago was turned into a crater as a fireball from the trebuchet on the walls landed on it.
"Oh you don't like my surprises?" pouted Gunner33 at her side looking a bit worse for wear with her yellow trench coat marred with ash and dust. Even her revealed skin which normally looked flawless all the time looked like it took a beating with little scratches and wounds here and there.
"If such surprises involved fire, arrows and a very high chance of being zeroed out, then yes!" yelled Artemis rolling just in time to avoid a very nasty axe swipe from a barbarian NPC that sneaked on where the two is hiding and nearly bisected her in two. As it is, Artemis face planted on the ground just in time to hear behind her Gunner33 finishing the bandit NPC with twin blasts from her pistols.
Artemis being one of the more famous gunters at the OASIS had experienced her own fair share of scraps. Like all high level players in the OASIS, she had been to Planet Doom more times than one. She can be proud to say that she was an elite in the eyes of many players. Many battles she fought over for items, coin and her daily vendetta against Sixers. She's not known after all as the Sixer-fixer for nothing. Here now however at the Rush where her skills and abilities were tested to their limits, Artemis felt like a rookie compared to the rest of the players who so far have avoided being zeroed out.
The Rush is different from the regular challenges. Compared to artifact grabbing challenges, the only way to achieve victory for everyone is to survive and reach the flag at the very end of the beach. Only one player is allowed to touch it and it would be victory for all with equal coin awards. However if more than seventy-five percent of the players attacking got killed during the push, the attackers NPC Roman allies would immediately start retreating and the barbarians would start pushing back. Only the players who can make it back in time to the boats would survive. Seeing that more than fifteen percent of the players attending this Rush have been annihilated before barely making any headway on the beach, things are not currently looking that good.
"You know, you look really inviting simply lying there with that delectable rear in open display my friend," the amused tone of Gunner33 brought Artemis out of her musings as she glared at the blonde woman who is looking at her ass with a cute lip bite.
"Not funny," growled the pink-haired player pulling off her ruined red jacket which resembled more a rag than its original design leaving her in her sleeveless t-shirt top covered with a mesh net. Putting herself in cover once more, Artemis took the time to blast off another couple of shots at a pair of advancing barbarians before ducking as the arrow retaliation zeroed in on her.
"You know, you should wear more of that and less that jacket," commented Gunner33, her rolling pistols sending off barrages of the thousand bullets cracking open one of the nearer defense towers like an egg and killing off any NPC barbarians inside it leaving more than a few players looking in open awe at the woman as she reloaded of the most unique weapon designs, courtesy of the products of Asgard.
"Not now Gunner33," Artemis said simply trying her best not to react as she felt the eyes of her celebrity friend note on any exposed skin of hers appreciatively. Cracking another couple of shots with her blaster, Artemis advanced to the next cover braving the continuing hail of arrows raining down on players and allied Roman NPC's, grunting as one hit her dropping her shield to seventy-five percent in one hit and throwing her to the muddy ground on impact.
"Watch out!" the warning call of Gunner33, Artemis barely registered as another arrow headed towards her and pierced through her lower shield, effectively pinning her on the ground as it pierced her left leg. Alarm bells immediately started on her head as the realization sets in that she would be zeroed out as she saw a barbarian running at her downed position, mowing down nearby romans with that giant axe of his.
"HELP!" she yelled in panic as the large frame of the Barbarian hurled that very weapon heading straight towards her with a familiar "whoomp-whoomp" sound as it flew through the air.
Artemis simply closed her eyes as she awaited her avatar's doom as the axe got closer and closer…only to smack on something solid that immediately made Artemis scream as something heavy and large slammed into her small frame tearing her off from the ground pushing her a few feet away sliding on the mud, the arrow ripping through her avatar's leg and making its vision blurry from blood loss damage thanks to the ripped leg.
In the real world, all she could see through the visor that is the view of her avatar is a greying smudge as everything is turned blurry with how much damage her avatar is taking. All she could hear is a blurry call of a familiar voice calling her name as she is pulled into cover somewhere. With how her avatar's view is going blurry with large snaps again and again, she could see the blurry shapes getting clearer, the face of Gunner33 coming into view looking at her, covered in mud and dirt, the familiar cherry red lips the Gunner had almost colored back to normal with the rain washing off the lipstick.
"We need to go now! Everyone's making a push!" yelled Gunner33 at her, shaking her to keep her avatar's eye view on the clear as it morphed into blurry back and forth.
"Can't," the voice of her avatar came more out as a blur thanks to its groggy state, her head shaking back and forth. "Too much damage, I have to stay here,"
"I've injected you with a healing potion; you'll be right as rain. We have to help the others make a push on the last wall else we're not going to make it," said the woman in front of her ripping her torn mesh shirt which resembled strips of rags. "We're down to fifty percent, a few more players lost and this game would be over.
"You're really a bad negotiator," Artemis gurgled unhappily but got up at the same time, taking Gunner33's hand as she helped her up. "Where are they?" she asked the taller woman who simply pointed at the front a few meters away from them where the Call of Duty guys with a little help from a couple of TRON fan players have rallied a large amount of advancing NPC Roman Legionnaires and are slowly advancing forward over the low wall where the largest concentration of Barbarian slingers and archers are situated.
"Come let's go," Artemis nodded at Gunner33 who simply leveled her twin gattling pistols before advancing with her.
Artemis had to admit that pushing forward in her state that more walked groggily than jogged is not at the top of her best ideas. Time is running out though. This is the final push with time and players running out. If they don't manage to push forward with the rest, barbarians would rally and the reserve NPC's that would come out of hiding to finish all of them would come out of the gates.
"Push forward! Use the Romans and the shields as cover. Those of you that have guns, use them!" the de facto leader that is leading the charging squad, a Tom and Jerry character, which is a cat wearing a bastardized Skyrim armor is ordering, pushing everyone forward even as hails of stones and rocks pelted the shields of the NPC Roman Legionnaires. Although most are weathered by the massive Roman shields as they marched forward, not all are immune as smaller rocks sailed overhead knocking players and allied NPC's at the same time.
"This is a tight problem we have," chuckled Price, the Call of Duty NPC player she met on the boat as she took cover on the Roman soldier beside him with Gunner33 situating herself a little behind beside Tom to make sure that the cat leader won't be killed. Apparently despite his avatar, he is now the only one currently rallying the players and if he dies, it would be a rout.
"I have to say, you look good Artemis," commented Soap at his side with the other five remaining Call of Duty players from the fifteen he brought nodding in affirmation. "You should wear your avatar's attire more like that,"
Despite herself, Artemis can't help the red tinge that marked her cheeks as she noticed their eyes eyeing her form appreciatively. Her shirt is now torn to her lower chest, showing her avatar's navel, the butterfly line designs on her skin standing out. The strap on her left shoulder had also been torn and her entire left part is strapless showing off even more skin.
"WATCH OUT!" one of the TRON avatars shouted making Artemis bring her attention back to reality just in time to see a large rock being dropped on the low wall rolling on them and breaking the formation of the Roman NPC's as it unbalanced them and several other players, making them hit the dust. Before anyone could react, arrows and stones immediately peppered her exposed allies zeroing them all out in a matter of seconds.
Adding insult to injury, Tom who at the back is screaming orders never noticed the two arrows he got distracted from piercing through his shields and hitting him in a double head-shot. The cat avatar is zeroed out before he even hit the ground.
Immediately Artemis could feel the small army of players and allied NPC's breaking cohesion as the one giving orders that everyone followed got killed. She knew that someone must take the reins else it would be a complete rout. Already she could see the enemy Barbarian NPC's starting to cheer, their morale going higher at least until the lead stone thrower got torn to pieces by a barrage of bullets that looked familiar on a person she knew skill sets. Like her, everyone else looked at the source that had her twin pistols smoking.
"What are you all looking at me for? Aim for those stone throwers now!" yelled Gunner33 at them. For a moment nobody moved, unsure of the sudden change of leadership. Artemis however, had no qualms on taking orders from the gorgeous woman. Standing over the shields of the Legionnaires in front of her, she immediately let loose her blasts on the nearest barbarian she is capable to hit.
They say courage, like cowardice is infectious. With someone now taking lead and someone following, the rest of the bewildered troops once more advanced, the guns of the modernized weapon avatars covering everyone else as they lessened the rocks and arrows of the barbarians who had to duck to avoid being destroyed. Already everyone is close enough to see the Barbarian leader who had stolen a Roman helmet at the middle of the wall shouting things at his men.
"Damn I'm out, everyone else cover me, I'm taking out their leader!" shouted Gunner33 at them all, as she picked up a spear from a dead Roman NPC.
This time it was Price who took charge, cutting off Artemis as she just opened her mouth. "Okay guys, we're going to lay down some cover fire in the count of three. Ready?!" at everyone who had something resembling ranged weaponry nodded, he hefted his gun. "In one….two….three…NOW!"
Every player immediately broke cover, Artemis alongside them weapons erupting in full auto even as others went back down immediately as well-aimed arrows cut through shields like butter. Artemis barely had the time to empty her newly pulled semi-auto SMG when she had to duck for cover once more as arrows planted on the Roman shield she is using as cover.
That moment however was all Gunner33 needed as the tall woman hurled the pilum and her aim strike true. The large barbarian shouting orders immediately went down like a sack of potatoes with a spear lodged halfway through him.
"Pilum up!" she shouted in command making the Roman NPC's that is on a staggered march break to five lines, their holds on their spears shifting to throw. Players who noticed the change, also grabbed fallen shields as they realized that guns is not the best bet now.
Stones and arrows still poured over the charge but the defense is now holding as the advance became steady thanks to uncoordinated attacks unlike before with someone leading them.
"Pilium ranks! THROW!" the order came through. No one else needed more encouragement. With a loud yell, Roman NPC's showing Roman discipline threw their spears rank after rank, players trying to imitate a lot more clumsily. Still it works, barbarian defenders started falling down like weeds, the coordinated defense turning even more chaotic as gaps on their archers' lines started showing.
"Form up and Draw blades!"
Artemis really wanted to scream at Gunner33 that going up against barbarians up close and personal isn't most players' forte. However it seemed that her leadership is infectious with everyone so hyped up with how close victory is at. Everyone who had a melee weapon is drawing theirs. Call of Duty people have their jungle knives drawn, TRON players have their discs at full power, heck even Jerry the mouse has his own toothpick sword drawn.
Seeing the allies of course coming so near, the barbarian NPC's started panicking, their arrows getting wilder and wilder even as Romans grunted from the strong barrages. How in the hell is everyone supposed to climb up the wall anyway? Artemis wondered to herself as the lead ranks of the Romans are only a scant few meters away from the wall.
"Testudo!" the shout went from mouth to mouth and as the familiar Roman call clamored, the Roman NPC's immediately interlocked shields, forming the defense that made the Roman military well known during their time. Arrows and stones continued pelting them but the Romans remained strong, now calling off a cadence as more NPC's and players joined the march as it reached the edge of the low wall.
"Shields drop and interlock. Form a bridge," called out Gunner33 making the Romans bend below making a makeshift bridge using their bodies as support for their shields heading all the way up to the top.
"Forward! Kill them all!"
No one needed any more urging. With yells of rage, excitement, players filled with adrenaline rush, charged forward risking the last few bolts of arrows and stones using the shields as ramps coming into grips unto their enemies in hand to hand combat. Roman NPC's soon followed and the low wall where the flag is situated soon turned into a confused melee with everyone trying to stab everyone they could reach. Artemis can simply stare at the top being the last one on the bridge. What happened is crazy, confusing and insane. She grinned though as she pulled out an antique revolver from her inventory. They had a chance to win now though.
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"COPPER KEY FINALLY FOUND AFTER FIVE YEARS! WHO IS THIS PARZIVAL?"
"Really? The news are loving this guy so much," Sagara chuckled as he watched the newsfeeds being plagued by players either saying congratulations for the newly minted first player that managed to place his name in the scoreboard for after five years, or asking how in the hell did he manage to get the Copper Key after so long with no one coming even close to it. Thankfully of course, the new champion is sensible enough not to brag as to how he did it. He got a nagging feeling though that he'll see another name in the scoreboard next to Parzival soon enough.
"You've seen it too huh?" the sound of the door of his office opening made the captain of the Seikihoutai turn his gaze from the monitor in front of him to the avatar of his friend, holding a stack of data pads in her hand.
"More things to sign?" he asked looking balefully at the pads that resembles paperwork here in the OASIS.
"More things to sign," Laetri nodded in positive with a little bit of humor lacing her eyes at Sagara who immediately winced as if he touched something hot.
"Alright, just give me all that," he grumbled unhappily as his assistant placed the stacks at his left side where he took one unhappily and began reading it.
"You know, if you just work on it quickly, it would be over soon," said Laetri innocently making Sagara grunt, not the least amused by the Night Elf avatar's little jab. So much for being the secretary, in his opinion, the work of a secretary is less stressful compared to being the president of the company. At least at times like these, she could relax and rest while he had to spend his free time looking over boring honeyed words trying to convince him to sign for them.
"Sooo, you've heard the news huh?" Laetri broke the silence after a little while with the sound of an irritated Sagara muttering mutinously about how's he going to destroy paperwork in a few creative methods if he could.
"If you meant about Parzival wining the Copper Key then yes," he answered taking his eyes off from one of the requests of a guild to access planet MULE to look at his friend who is reading an open newsfeed over her persona console. "I believe every player on the OASIS would know it already too,"
"At least he's second only on making the headlines. We've got the first, not surprising after all since we terraformed Africa after all," shrugged Artemis, her finger rolling the newsfeed upward before stopping suddenly as she paused with one eyebrow before giggled, making Sagara once more turn his attention from another data pad to her friend who is trying to smother her snorts.
"What's got so amused Cass?" he asked his friend who seemed to be turning into a delightful shade of red with her snorts and laughter. Her response however is only to turn the personal profile screen she is looking, at him. Immediately Sagara's eyebrows rushed to the top of his head as he saw the pictures of two people he recognize at the forefront of the newsfeed he is reading.
"RUSH VICTORY! Gunner33 and Art3mis single handedly led attackers,"
"I knew that our dear old Zhyra liked Art3mis but I never expected that she would try to undress her as soon as possible," he commented as he stared at the pictures of Artemis and Gunner33 back to back as they are surrounded by barbarian NPC's. Gunner33 looked a little worse for wear, her yellow and black trench coat looking a bit smudged but Art3mis seemed to have lost both her red jacket and punk shirt with only her torn fishnet underneath as cover for her black sports bra.
"That's Zhyra for you," Laetri giggled once more like a little girl turning back the window to her. "Oooh I can't wait to tease her for this," she added making Sagara roll his eye inwardly; girls and their avid fascination for anything resembling romance. Cassandra may be a little serious in life compared to other girls thanks to her position in Sagara Foundations, but she isn't completely immune from her gender's quirks that made them unique.
"So what are you planning to do?" Sagara barely managed five minutes on returning to his office work before the question confronted him, forcing him to turn his attention from the data pads to Laetri who had sat at the edge of the table looking down at him. He had to focus on making sure that his eyes remain focused at her face and not at her rather impressive bust that is standing out thanks to Warcraft Sentinel armor. Cassandra really makes a good Night-Elf face wise.
"Planning to do for what?" he asked her friend who rolled her eyes before bonking him none too gently on the head.
"Ow! What was that for?!" the Seikihoutai captain yowled holding his bruised scalp.
"For being an idiot, don't tell me that you don't know what I'm talking about. What're you planning with this information of Parzival, a guy you sponsored achieving the impossible for five years. Don't tell me you're just going to let it slide and let everything come together on its own. You know as well as I do that IOI will hound him, both in the OASIS and here in the real world,"
Sagara only sighed tiredly as he stood from the comfortable office chair, putting his hands at his back as he strode over the opened windows of the Omega building that is the center of Seikihoutai control here at Asgard. From his vantage point, he could see the thriving city of Asgard with a million players and a thousand other visitors from everywhere every hour. All of this is because of the OASIS, Halliday's achievement. He's also aware that the only reason why people are these numerous is because it's very cheap to log-in. He's got no doubts that with IOI taking control of the OASIS, everything about it would change. IOI is well-known for its loyalty centers and swindling people with debts to them, wringing every basic juice of them to the bone. To give a company like that even more power, they would not only be a threat to the world's great resource, but also that in the real world. Gregarious games have many connections on the high places that IOI could abuse if they ever get in power.
"I've allotted the first and second company to keep an eye on things. All information about our friend, Parzival is currently being gathered. I believe that we'll know soon enough. Information brokers are hounding him like bloodhounds and we'll soon have everything that is to know about him, the places he go, the people he associates with, the time of his daily route in the OASIS and the weapons he had at his disposal," explained Sagara. "The Black Watch has also been deployed and are currently trailing him, keeping an eye on his movements and if necessary, save his sorry ass if the Sixers ever try to do him in, for him to be removed at the scoreboard,"
"Wow, you really planned everything huh?"
Sagara only smirked at her friend. "Of course, you know me Cass, I always do my best to be two steps ahead of everyone. Turning on his personal communication link, Sagara immediately turned it on showing a very happy Parzival regaling his tales to a stunned Aech who seemed frozen as he processed the information that his friend is no longer the OASIS nobody that he knows a few hours before, but one of the now most well-known figures on the OASIS.
"Woah, is this feed live?" asked Laetri as Sagara turned it on, letting her hear the voices of the two talking.
"Yep," answered the head of the Seikihoutai. "Courtesy of yours truly; R&D have managed to reverse engineer Aech's prototype spying spider and I have left one at Aech's workshop out of a hunch. It is soundless, very small and cannot be detected by sensors. Good thing I did too else we would never have this firsthand information anymore about our newly minted champion.
"I'll say this once my friend, but you are a total genius,"
Sagara only smirked as he put his hands around her waist. "I try to be Cassie, I try to be,"
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"Woah man you're rich," commented Aech as he jogged alongside Parzival as they entered the world market of Asgard. Even here, people are clamoring to get his friend's attention to take a picture or simply say congratulations. He still can't get it passed his head as to how his friend who had no place to crash and had to loan his respawning bed at his workshop is now "the Parzival" of the OASIS.
"So when you win, all these coins just showed up?" he asked, his big bulk easily making him get passed people unlike Parzival who had to wade through the throng of his well-wishers.
"Yeah man, all a hundred thousand of them. I believe it is the first prize of being the first on the scoreboard,"
"My optics is sizzling right now!" exclaimed Aech as they turned to look at the products for sale at the world market. He wished he had ten more eyes. Most players never visited this part of the OASIS with it being too costly and for good reason too.
Around him is the exotic of the most exotic; rare avatar designs from the past years and decades, powerful weapons that can instant kill anyone who is dumb enough to stand on their way, luxury items that can only be bought through auction and many more. Even he who is one of the richer guys in the OASIS can't buy more than two or three stuff from here before being bankrupted.
"Holy hand grenade, that's a steal!" Parzival chimed in making Aech turn his attention back to his friend who had just bought a powerful grenade for twenty five thousand coins. He barely managed to catch up to him in a small jog before he arrived at another of the "lowly cost items,".
"Look it's a Zemeckis cube, turns everything back in time for one minute, I gotta get one of these!" he exclaimed pressing the buy button for one, at least thirty thousand coins.
"Hey man. You gotta be careful more. Don't spend all your coins right now," warned Aech as he saw the fastly depleting money of Parzival who looked to be drunk in joy and victory as he wandered from one item to another like a child hyped up in sugar.
"Oh come off it Aech, these items are the best and you bet everything around here is at limited edition," the blue haired avatar waved off looking hungrily at a Halo Master Chief avatar before turning his attention to an item that Aech did not recognize.
"The Catalyst?" he asked reading the name and the sold on it.
"Yeah, item that destroys every avatar on the planet it is detonated, even its owner," answered Parzival looking at the item also.
"Who has it?" asked Aech seeing the name "sold" flashing over the floating version of the Catalyst and the ten million coins that it cost.
"IOI, they sent one of their agents that bought it here and barely got away from the Seikihoutai," answered Parzival before turning away. "Now come on, I still have some money to spend buddy,"
Aech was about to follow before a musical voice that he recognized spoke. "He is having the time of his life huh?"
Turning faster than a pendulum, Aech found himself looking face to face with an amused looking Gunner33 who is at her usual revealing outfit, revolving one of her pistols in one finger.
"Gunner33," he half-gasped in awe at the sight of the illegally sexy celebrity whose breasts looked ready to pop out of their confines. He never truly had the opportunity to get to know the buxom blonde the last time with Parzival and Artemis taking the lion's share of her time when they discussed what they plan to do with the money they would win if they ever be the one to get the winning prize for Haliday's egg. To see her here right now, the her in the real world is blushing and being aroused at the very sight of one of OASIS' celebrities and best fighter, only topped by the legendary Captain Sagara of the Seikihoutai.
"Yes, that is my name. It's good to see you again…Aech is it?" she replied at which Aech simply nodded dumbly, his brain having the hard decision where to look, the angelic face of the avatar or the shamefully exposed cleavage just baiting in front of him.
"Good to see you again, my man," she grinned showing pearly white teeth and making that face even more beautiful ten times greater. No one should be that illegally beautiful, avatar or not. "By the way, you better stop your friend from buying everything here in the store. The World Market may cater loans but it is also notorious for trying to get them back…and with interest,"
Aech barely manage to gather his wits about him as he turned his head to Parzival's direction, only to see him buy an X1 body suit with a loan he just borrowed on the market. Already the feeling of his wallet going lighter, Aech could feel. With a loan as large as that, Parzival would have no choice but to borrow money to pay for it before the interest of the loans pile up and swallow him whole. After all, the World Market is renowned for its rare items, its possible loans, its insane interests, and its notorious way of collecting said interests.
"Parzival NO!" Aech only managed t shout out as he watched as if in slow motion the finger of his friend descend on the "buy" button in front of him and touch the holographic surface. It is as if it's a touch of destiny as the very moment that the finger of Parzival's avatar made contact, he could feel the cry of fate calling out that his wallet is certainly dropping to lightweight in the coming days.
