I spread my arms wide and activated Undead Domination. The breeze I was expecting never came. In its place was a message prompting me to say, “Princeps Mortuorum Sum.”

How do I even say that? I thought.

A flash of light burst at my feet and coalesced into a sitting Zix. You start by saying Mort-u-AWE—

“Nope, not gonna do it,” I said.

Jason took a step toward me. “What's wrong?”

“I'm not going to say some dumb catchphrase every time I want to use the skill. There's a reason I didn't use a chant or shout when making it,” I said.

Florence crossed their arms. “You used gentle breeze as an initiation for the skill.”

“Which doesn't have any vocalizations,” I said.

They shook their head. “The first level of the skill doesn't, but the upgraded version does.”

“How was I supposed to know that? I didn't even know Control Undead evolved!” I said.

“Of course, it transmutes,” Florence said. “All of our skills—”

Jason raised his hand to cut her off. “Can you say it just for the test?”

“How am I going to be stealthy when I have to go around mumbling to myself whenever I want to—”

“I don't think stealth is an option for you anymore,” Ellen said.

I spun, glaring at the shambler with the dangling eye.

“Azerail,” Jason said. “I'll see about getting it changed, but for today you're going to have to say it.”

The vocal prompt suddenly disappeared.

Must have timed out.

My mom dashed over and put a hand on my back. “Az, honey. We don't have to do this if you don't—”

“No, I'll do it,” I interrupted my mom. The last thing I wanted was to retreat back home with Mommy. Especially with Kevin watching.

Jason cleared his throat. “Remember, look through one person’s eyes.”

I nodded.

How do we pronounce it again, Zix? I asked.

Zix went over the pronunciation with me.

After I was satisfied I wouldn’t screw up I spread my arms and activated the skill again. “Princeps Mortuorum Sum!”

Once again the gentle breeze I expected didn't come, instead, the air seemed to explode around me, cascading outward. My perception expanded as I rode the edge of the power like a surfer glided along the edges of a massive wave.

It crashed through each of the undead in the area, and I suddenly sensed them all. I did as Jason said and focused on seeing through Kevin’s eyes.

He, like everyone else, stared at me. We turned our heads and raised our hands. As we flexed it I noticed something odd.

A chill ran down my spine. I wasn’t getting his emotions or thoughts. Control without the sensations from Kevin felt wrong somehow. As I closed my eyes and concentrated I felt something but it was out of reach.

“Something’s wrong,” I said and the echo of us talking as one rang in my ears.

No one responded.

I shut off my ability and a willowy sigh drifted across the meadow.

Everyone kneeled.

Just like with Molly, there seemed to be a waiting period before they gained control of their characters again so I waited.

Zix can you time this for me? I asked.

Yup, he responded.

If I was going to start streaming it would probably be a good idea to hire a Butterfly. Joan was one, but she seemed pretty busy. I wasn’t sure how many commitments she already had.

Joan preferred to work in areas where she could comfort people in difficult situations. She probably wouldn’t want to manage my social presence. I would ask her to be courteous though.

Streaming wasn’t too complicated, but I needed to learn how the controls worked especially the third-person floating point of view. There might be a simulation or tutorial I could learn from. The Brain Trust app was always an option but that meant I’d have to take a lot of notes and I preferred to learn through doing rather than written instructions. Zix tended to get things wrong sometimes so he wasn’t the best option either. Getting people sick with bad movements and views could cause them to leave the stream, and if I wanted to do it properly the sims were my best option.

“Whoa,” Kevin said as he stood up.

I smiled. “That weird?”

“I’ve never been kicked out of my own body before,” he said.

Everyone else got up as well.

How long was that Zix? I asked.

One of Zix’s ears flattened against his head and then flicked up a second later. Three minutes exactly.

“What went wrong?” the Jason shambler asked.

I kneeled down and scratched Zix’s head. “Couldn’t feel his thoughts or emotions.”

“That's not something you have to activate somehow?” Florence asked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I shrugged. “Not really. Yesterday was the first time I tried to command human-controlled shamblers. I’ve always been able to see through the NPC’s eyes but when I got emotions and thoughts from the play—humans, I knew something was weird.”

“That’s interesting,” Florence said. Her arms were a blur in the air as she did something with her interface.

Jason put his hands behind his back. “Let's move on to the second test.”

“Do we have to wait three minutes between every test?” I asked.

Jason, Florence, Ellen, and Euslin shared intense gazes.

After what seemed like forever Jason answered, “Yes.”

They were obviously using an app to communicate outside of the game with each other.

“Okay, so I control everyone this time right?” I asked.

Florence nodded.

Without waiting for someone to say, “Go,” I activated my skill and mumbled, “Princeps Mortuorum Sum.”

Just like last time the area around me exploded in a gust of air followed by the expansion of my senses.

I jumped into ‘us’ mode again.

Everyone turned to me as if awaiting my command.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do exactly, so I did what I thought might impress them.

We moved into a square formation and then spread out quickly. I could tell my stats were being shared because we all scattered at the same speed. It was much easier to differentiate Inethiel and Kevin’s skeleton from the rest of the group by how they walked.

As we circled the area I found what Ellen said was true. Hiding Inethiel inside the group would be almost impossible.

That gave me an idea.

I split Inethiel from us and was instantly hit with pain, followed by tinnitus. I was in Johnathan’s point of view at the time and grasped my head. The discomfort faded after a few seconds and I could easily control the horde and Inethiel as if they were two separate entities.

While the pain sucked and was on par with what I usually felt when getting a call from someone, the ability to separate myself from the group without having to constantly shut down my skill was exhilarating.

As Inethiel circled the horde I had a weird sense of separation from the game. It was much more intense than perspective swapping. I held onto that feeling and pushed. Suddenly, I separated from the bodies below and watched them from above. For some reason, the wave of nausea I expected from being so high up didn’t come.

My heart beat rapidly increased which was strange. You weren’t supposed to feel your body while in VR.

Before things could get too weird I disabled the ability. A sense of dread hit me as I fell and was pulled into Inethiel’s body. At least I couldn’t feel my heart again which was surprisingly calming.

While I waited for everyone to return to their bodies I decided to get some questions I had brewing in my brain answered.

Zix, was that recorded? I asked.

Zix dashed over to me. Everything you experienced should have been captured. Was there something in particular that you are referring to?

I could feel my heartbeat, Azerail’s heartbeat. Is that in the VRV? I asked.

He shook his head. There is no indication that anything like that happened in your recording.

Had I imagined it? No, I felt what I felt.

There were only so many brain malfunctions I could handle and adding another one on top of the others was just too much.

Kevin was the first to break from the trance and move.

I was so transfixed with the weirdness I didn’t even notice everyone get down on their knees again. It made me feel uncomfortable having people kneeling in front of me. It wasn’t like I was their god or anything like that.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get used to that,” Kevin said.

I laughed. “Wait till you do it in real life.”

“Wait, you can leave your body IRL?” he asked.

The others broke from their stupors as I gave Kevin a quick nod and a grin.

Florence was the first shambler to stand. “That was great Az. You have amazing precision with your abilities.”

Everyone else stood up.

“Kevin’s right about it being strange,” Mom said.

I turned to Jason. “Weird things started happening.”

“What weird things?” Florence asked.

The group gathered around as I debriefed them on my odd experiences.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” Florence said.

Doctor Stevens, who had been quiet until then, chipped in. “Azerail has vertigo issues so it could have been a symptom of that ailment.”

“Am I supposed to be able to separate from the bodies of the horde like that?” I asked.

Jason put a hand to his chin. “Our play-testers were able to do it but feeling your host body's heartbeat?” He shook his head. “No one has reported anything like that happening before. Your Zix said that it wasn’t something that was recorded?”

“Right,” I said.

Jonathan fell to his knees, and his hands darted to his head as he rubbed his temples.

Doctor Stevens dashed over to him. “Are you okay Johnathan?”

“Thought these games aren’t supposed to cause pain,” he complained.

“Wait,” Ellen said. “Azerail had one of those during the second test. She was in Jonathan’s shambler.”

There were already multiple recordings of my pain. “I can share my headaches now?”

“We received two different readings during Azerail’s and Jonathan’s headaches,” Florence said.

Ellen shook their head. “No, it appears to be an echo of some sort.”

“Pronouns Ellen?” I asked.

“She/her,” she replied.

Normally in a VR game, you could still see someone's identity and profile, but they didn't seem to have that functionality in DO yet. I could see the VRVs of the players complaining already. Since they were doing everything by hand, who knew when they would have that added to the game.

“Would you mind sending those readings to me?” Doctor Stevens asked.

“Working on it,” Ellen said.

Jason cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. “The next test is going to be a little longer. Azerail, I want you to inhabit each one of us individually and see if you can get any emotions or thoughts from us.”

“Oh!” I said. “What if I have to use my drain skill first?” I checked my list of skills and couldn’t find it. “Uhm.”

“What’s wrong?” Florence asked.

“It’s gone,” I said.

Ellen flicked her wrist as she navigated through her menu. “Skills don’t disappear once you’ve leveled them up.”

I couldn’t remember if I ranked that one up or not.

Zix, do you have a record of if I ranked that skill up yesterday? I asked.

You did. It was at two point four three percent as of when you logged out last night, he replied.

“I did rank it up,” I said.

The four devs glanced at each other again and blinked a few times.

Out of curiosity, I backed up and reached my hand out.

Kevin and my mom’s eyes followed me as I moved.

Kumo’s Fang appeared in my hand as I pulled it from my inventory. Its hilt looked completely different. I turned it to examine the blade. The runes were also missing, making it look like something a newbie adventurer might pick up.

“Is that… it?” my mom asked.

I shook my head. “It’s different from the other one.”

“You shouldn’t be able to wield a sword like that,” Jason said.

A translucent overlay flickered several times overlapping the sword. I could barely make out what the image was. The blade shifted and changed in my hand.

Little shambler, echoed in my head and I dropped the sword on the ground.

“Did you see that?” I asked.

Everyone's eyes were on the sword. It flickered a few more times before reverting to the basic sword it was when I pulled it out.

“Yeah,” Kevin said.

Zix’s little ears flattened against his head and he yipped.

I had to say what everyone was probably thinking. “Zix, check for viruses.”

***