Chapter XII

Finn and I were so focused on movies, television, games, songs and now cartoons that it never crossed our minds to consider books as well. Reading was still surprisingly popular in the nineties.

The first book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series was rather obscure the year it was released. In 1996 Tom Clancy, Micheal Crichton and Stephen King still ruled the bestseller lists. The biggest hit in non-fiction was a book titled Creating Killer Web Sites.

"Couldn't you have had that brilliant epiphany before you had me running around shouting Kamehameha? That was one freaky planet. Felt like it could turn into a full blown hentai any moment…" Finn complained. "And I didn't see one dragon!"

We were already off to Westeros. The official, but very divisive planet for the Game of Thrones universe. It was built on the television show and the spin-offs, not the books. We binged most of it as teenagers.

By the time the last show aired in the early 2030s, people were burned out on the whole thing. Today it only had a small following that still walked the ruins of a planet that was one of the biggest attractions in the OASIS when it first launched.

Inspired by the television show, Westeros was different from the original books. Fans were still trying to figure out how Martin himself would've finished his story by collecting notes and unpublished pages. They hoped to discover the final book from it and publish it posthumously.

Some fans made mods that changed Westeros to the book version on private servers. There was very little chance this official OASIS quest we were on would send players there. Finn and I took our chances by visiting television Westeros.

Luckily we were able to wear most of our The Elder Scrolls gear here, so we had nice stats in case we needed them. When you would die on Westeros, the game would just have you start over from a checkpoint. It was supposed to be casual, like most role playing worlds.

You could play the official story quests, which would put you and your party in private instances. But by default the OASIS loaded up the public overlay. A persistent universe where players could change the course of the story with their own actions. Often it resulted in a better ending than the original show had.

Every year on September 20th, the birthday of George R. R. Martin, the world was resetted to its original state. The continent was scaled down in the OASIS, which meant a lot could happen in just a year. Some years the Night King would just steamroll everyone, while other years players managed to kill him off in the first week.

The current campaign had been underway for half a year now. Finn and I watched a summary of the current world state during our flight. This time Robert Baratheon walked in on Cersei and Jaime's secret in the tower. He hung them both.

Tywin Lannister assembled a great army and had the upper hand in a war against Baratheon, while Daenerys Targaryen was on her way with three dragons to press her claim. Dorne attracted a passionate player base this year, and they could be an outside bet.

When we arrived in orbit, Finn and I had to decide on a spawning point. We chose King's Landing, the capital of the continent and home of the Iron Throne. If we had to rule with a Charizard, we probably had to do it there.

Both of us brought our own Charizard. Mine was called Alpha, it was a pretty plain one that I kept in a regular Poké Ball. It had been the first creature I got in the OASIS, receiving it from professor Oak.

Finn chose a different starter back then, but later on bred a shiny Charmander that eventually evolved into a Charizard gray as ashes. He kept it in a fancy Beast Ball. "Fus Ro Dah", was its name.

We spawned outside of the gates. Before we had a chance to put on our Silph Scopes, the balls containing our fire dragons began to wiggle and fell to the ground. They started shaking heavier, as if something was trying to break out.

"Well, we're in the right place I'd say," Finn commented.

When the balls could no longer resist, our beasts appeared. They both let out big roars and looked bewildered before their bodies started flashing and morphing.

"They're evolving!"

Both of them fell to the ground, their tails grew, just like their necks, wings, claws. When the flashes stopped, the pocket monsters were at least three times their normal size and had all the characteristics of typical fantasy dragons.

"Great," Finn muttered. "As if Charizard needed another evolution."

"God damn Kanto pandering," I grinned.

Normally a Charizard would not even reach my chin, which was one of the biggest gripes the anime fans had with Satoshi. Pokémon officially were significantly smaller than how they appeared in other media. Players were unable to ride most of them in the simulation.

I noticed from the UI that bringing out the dragons warped us into a private instance. We were not to take part in the massive multiplayer mode, but there was a personal quest line for us.

The arrival of Alpha and Fus Ro Dah didn't go unnoticed. NPC's were running away. Travelers were watching from a safe distance, soldiers started panicking on the walls of King's Landing.

"Shall we?" I asked.

"Yes, please!"

We climbed our dragons and commanded take-off. The Charizards obeyed and took flight. Thanks to the high production value of Westeros, the visuals were amazing.

On Slovakia we weren't able to ride Sean Connery, there was just one scene in which he pulled us by a rope while smashing us into trees. I didn't mind, because sitting on a flying dragon felt childish anyway.

Now actually experiencing soaring over a great open world, I all of a sudden understood why this was the most demanded feature on Satoshi, only proceeded by having Pokémon saying their own names instead of their official cries.

Finn loved diving into crowds of civilians and pulling up at the last moment, the screaming NPC's scattered while he laughed like an evil wizard.

"Now, let's get that throne!" I screamed over the sound of heavy wing flapping and despairing civilians.

"You don't think…"

"No, no… They would never have Pokémon killing people. Would they?"

"Should we… you know, try?"

Unleashing a masked serial killer on players was already grim for a Pokémon contest, but unleashing Pokémon on human NPC's and fry them with their fire breath, that would be somehow worse. Even for Tencent standards.

I waved Finn to follow me and set course for the Red Keep, the huge castle that towered over the city. Alpha landed in the courtyard near the main gate, causing a small earthquake doing so. It really showed that every inch of King's Landing was – spoiler alert – programmed to be destroyed by a dragon attack.

Jumping off Charizard I drew my sword.

"Listen up, you mites!" I screamed to the guards, frozen by fear. "Open the gates and you will live to tell this tale to your grandchildren!"

Finn and Fus Ro Dah smashed into the courtyard too, the floor trembling so hard I fell to the cobbles.

"Yeah!" my brother shouted. "Bow to your new overlords!"

Fus Ro Dah started roaring, breathing a great column of fire from the small square. Chaos erupted, everyone ran for their lives.

"Great, just great…" I complained.

"Victory is near, dear brother! To the throne!"

Allowing Finn his little role play, I decided to follow him up a stair to the main gate. There was only one man left defending it.

When we came closer I clenched my sword, ready for a boss battle against The Mountain or another legendary warrior.

"Yo! Champ in making!" the friendly man wearing suspenders and a bow tie said. "Here to face the Elite Four?"

"It's the gym guide," I stammered. "That NPC giving tips before challenging gym leaders in the original games..."

"Yes, we are!" Finn shouted at the graying old man. "Make way, peasant, or I'll stab you!"

"Uh-oh," gym guide said. "Looks like you don't have all eight badges. Come back when you beat all eight gyms in Westeros. I'll be waiting for you."

"The fuck…" Finn said, falling out of character. "Yo, gym guy. Let us in."

"Yo! Champ in the making! Here to face the Elite Four?"

"Yes!"

"Uh-oh. Looks like you don't have all eight badges. Come ba…"

Finn pricked him with his enchanted sickle-sword. It didn't do anything.

"OK," I said. "Better inform Olivia you'll be occupied the rest of the day."