An Understanding
Both Rain and Reid stood dumbfounded. Did he say 'Kill them both?' He must have, because the two behemoths were practically charging at them with their swords drawn. Reid tried to dodge, but his knees refused to budge.
"Agh!!" Reid was charged into and flung backwards. Pain raged through his chest.
Pain? This was a game, you aren't supposed to feel pain! Reid thought furiously.
"Argh!" Rain was smashed into a wall, after being swung at by the swordmaster with the bronze helmet. She slid down and slumped over. Reid raised his eyebrows with intense concern. The giant swung at him again. Reid dodged it and smashed his opponent over the head with his rod. To his surprise, the man fell over with a large crash. "What the hell?" Mr. Webster stared at his hired help, sprawled on the ground. Reid stared at the man as well, surprised at his own strength.
Bam! A large ray of light appeared out of nowhere and struck the man who was flailing Rain with his sword. The man grunted and fell over. Mr. Webster, now completely shocked, took a step backward. A shadowy man walked out of the alley. A large black trench coat covered almost his entire body, except his hands and head. His hair was silver, like Reid's and was combed in a strange style. A small goatee and high, arching eyebrows that shadowed his dark eyes completed his mysterious look. His shoes tapped on the stone as he walked over to Reid, completely ignoring Mr. Webster. He stopped a few feet from Reid.
"Come with me. You aren't safe here." He ordered Reid quietly. Reid turned his head towards Rain, who was still lifelessly slumped over next to the wall.
The man seemed to know what Reid was thinking. "Don't worry." He told Reid without turning to look at Rain. "She's fine. Follow me."
The man turned around and started walking towards Rain. Mr. Webster jumped in his path. His face was completely red.
"And who the hell do you think you are!?" Webster spat at the man. The man smiled.
"That does not concern you, Webster." He replied coolly. Then the man stretched out his arm towards Webster. Webster's eyes widened. The man quickly pulled his arm to the right. "Nooo!" Webster howled as an invisible force gripped him and flung him into the air, landing in the water canal with a large splash. His obstacle out of the way, the man continued over towards Rain. Reid closely followed him. He picked up Rain and turned around.
"These guys are only stunned. They'll come back in a few minutes. We must hurry." With that said, he turned around again, with Rain draped over his shoulder, and strode down an empty alleyway. Reid ran after him, Webster shouting obscenities from the canal.
* * * *
The man turned to Reid. "Okay. We're safe here." Reid looked around. They were in an old building that was somewhere in the back alley of the city. The room was well lit and had a table and chairs, and some large boxes that Reid assumed were for item storage in the corner. Curiously, there was a small bed against the far wall. The man laid Rain softly on the bed, and then examined her. "She's been knocked out. Nothing serious." Reid swallowed hard.
"Knocked out? What do you mean? This is a game! How can we feel pain?" He asked frantically.
The man tilted his head over to Reid and gave him a small grin. "Not so many questions."
Reid slowly sank into a chair. He asked again. "What's happened to us?"
The man first extended his hand. "Not much for formalities, are you?" He queried sheepishly.
"The name's Cid." Reid shook Cid's hand weakly. The man smiled again.
"And I already know who you are. Well, in the game anyway. Reid, isn't it?" Reid nodded.
"Well, Reid. I am what some people call a 'hacker.' I fiddle around with the code in The World. I know how it works quite well because I used to be a lead programmer for The World. Well, for the English translation project, anyway." Cid pointed at himself. "As you can see, I have also fiddled around with character customization at bit too." He added slyly. Reid nodded again, unsure of what Cid's point was.
"I was fired from Cyberconnect USA after I argued that The World had some flaws from the very beginning. Dangerous flaws." Cid went on.
"I wasn't the only one fired for arguing, either. Another man, the lead AI programmer, by the name of Jim Perry was fired. Now, Jim Perry wasn't exactly a man who would give in easily. He had documents including information informing that the CC Corp. had known about the deadly problems, but hadn't halted the game servers or claimed responsibility for the 'accidents.' He told the press about the flaws in the game, and they ran a story about it in the paper. Afraid that the man had more revealing evidence that could topple the company, Cyberconnect sent men to silence Jim Perry and destroy whatever evidence he had. When they arrived at his apartment to find that neither he nor the evidence was there, they killed his fiancé. She was inside at the time and got caught in the crossfire. The wrong place at the wrong time…" Cid leaned back in his chair.
Reid concurred. "Crossfire? What are they, the mafia?"
Cid scratched the back of his head. "Well, not exactly. You see, Perry wasn't exactly… - well, let's just say he had some problems. Specifically, some gambling and money problems.
He owed a large sum of money to a particular man who invested completely in Cyberconnect, and had become a big name in the company."
Cid paused for a second, a grimace on his face. "This man was behind the whole thing. He had thugs come to the house for the 'sake' of the CC Corp's financial matters. So technically, the company didn't have anything to do with the killing, -the company's hands were clean. Later, the man began working in the company as an executive."
Cid sighed. "I guess… it was kind of like the mafia."
Reid placed his rod gently against the table. Cid kept on talking.
"Jim wasn't easy to forgive. He fled the city and worked for almost a year to create a perfect virus in a unstoppable rage. A virus that would take down the entire Cyberconnect Corporation. He created it with a very advanced AI system, so the virus would appear to be a regular person playing the game. It was to target all of the company administration who had known about the murder, but had done nothing about it. After months of testing, he thought it was ready and set it loose in The World." Cid swallowed hard. "Then….. everything went wrong. It didn't attack what it was supposed to attack, but rather, it attacked anyone it could reach."
Reid widened his eyes. "So… that woman that we were attacked by in the dungeon… was the virus?"
Cid nodded solemnly. "The data that was used to create the virus was apparently corrupt. The virus went berserk. It can change its appearance into whatever it wants to look like, and its attack has a grave side-effect." Cid told him.
Reid sat up in his seat. "What? What happened to us?"
Cid shifted his eyes to the ceiling. "You're in a coma."
Reid collapsed in his chair. "A- a coma?"
Cid shifted his gaze back to Reid. "Yes, a coma. But that's the strange thing. You two are still in the game. I don't know how this is possible, but as you can clearly see, it has happened."
"And this pain… is it real?" Reid asked.
Cid stroked his goatee. "It is real pain, yes." Cid replied. But it does you no bodily harm. Waves are transmitted to your brain to simulate real pain.
"Then… what happens if we die in The World?" Reid asked, almost knowing what the answer would be. Cid answered slowly, stroking his goatee again.
"If you die in the game, …you won't come back. The link- the connection, between your brain and the game would be severed. You will remain in the coma until you die." Cid glanced at the petrified Reid.
"I don't mean to scare you, Reid. But you're in a lot of danger. Webster and the rest of the administration will do all they can to kill you."
"But why!?" Reid stammered.
Cid straightened his collar. "Reid, you must understand something. The World has over 20 million users playing the game every day. If the whole world suddenly knew that a mega-virus with the power to kill you was loose in the game, people would obviously stop playing. The World rakes in billions of dollars every month and they would be ruined. Reid, these people will kill you. And when they do, nobody will know about it. Nobody could possibly see the connection between a PK in a game and a person who died in a coma. But we can't let that happen. You, Reid for some reason, can still see the virus when it doesn't want to be seen."
"Yeah." Reid remembered when he had seen the virus, but Rain couldn't.
Cid raised one of his eyebrows. "Now, did you have a registered copy of The World?"
"Umm… no. I burned mine." Reid admitted, shifting his weight in the chair.
Cid smirked. "I thought so. Apparently, your burned version of The World has some corrupt data. That data interfered with the Virus, and you were able to see through its disguise. Even I cannot do that." Cid stood up, walked towards the window and looked outside.
Reid stared at his staff for a moment. "What about our upgrades? How did that happen?" He asked Cid. Cid responded without turning around.
"I don't know. I didn't give them to you. The only way I can assume you got it from the Virus."
Reid was dumbfounded. "By the virus? Why would it do something like that?"
Cid leaned outside the window a little. "I truly cannot tell you, Reid. As I said, the virus is unstable. It's berserk. I don't know what it wants to do."
Reid sat silently in the chair. Cid changed the subject, still looking out into the streets.
"I have been hunting for the virus for about two weeks now. I need to destroy it before it does anymore harm."
Reid stood up and walked to the window beside Cid. "How? How can you destroy it?"
Cid leaned against the windowsill, facing Reid. "I have made a program that will delete the virus by stripping apart its code. I have modified so you can use it like a skill in The World. It's called:
HOLYMATERIA.exe. You mustn't use it against anything but the virus. The program will completely destroy whatever it is targeted at."
Reid thought for a second. "Holymateria.exe? Why'd you name it that?"
Cid laughed for the first time. "It was probably before your time, I'm guessing. It's a reference from an old RPG, "Final Fantasy 7."
"Wait!" Reid interrupted. "I remember Final Fantasy. It was a RPG for the PS2, right?"
"It was a series of fourteen games." Cid corrected. "It started on the old NES and continued to the PS2. Then, after the FFXIV in 2005, Pluto's Kiss had overcome the net. Enix-Square, the company that made the games, was devastated by the fiasco and went bankrupt."
"Oh." Reid was silent.
"Anyway," Cid continued. "Holy materia is a reference to FFVII. In that particular one, there was a… magic orb of sorts, I suppose, that would purge the entire planet of evil. In the end, it does just that, destroying modern civilization."
"Umm.." Reid wasn't sure if he understood.
"Don't worry, you don't need to know any of that stuff, anyway." Cid smiled warmly at Reid. Then he leaned closer to him.
"But… Reid, will you help me destroy this virus before it hurts anyone else?" Cid's eyes shone pleadingly.
"W- will you help me and Rain?" Reid questioned uneasily.
"Of course." Cid nodded. "I will do I can to help you, if you help me."
"Then I'll help you." Reid answered.
Cid laughed again and shook Reid's hand wildly. "Excellent!"
The bed squeaked. Both of them turned to the other side of the room.
Rain painfully rose from the bed. "My head…" She whined as she rubbed the back of her head. She shook her head, opened her eyes and gazed at both Cid and Reid.
"…What did I miss?"