Chapter 50

Entering the Zone

Boots let that sink in for me, that the Blue Masks could have the power to wipe out a whole other infamous group.

But I wasn't scared off that easy.

"So maybe they're good guys? Or, well, not GOOD, they did steal Sam. But, like, anti hero vigilante types?"

"Dunno. The lower level crimes they commit definitely don't seem vigilante like—they are clearly a force of bad. But I guess there could be something everyone is missing... but the guys I talk to? They obsess over everything. They didn't miss anything."

Like he also wasn't obsessive? I almost laughed.

"Okay. Can you give me the link to their hideout?"

"I told you, you don't—"

"What if I said I had some Intel on their group that you haven't heard yet?" I had an idea.

"Impossible. You didn't even know the simplest shit about them."

"Sure. But I didn't let Sam go without a fight. I chased the kidnapper down—who didn't have a Blue Mask, by the way, hers was made of shadow—and met who hired her. And this one had the same skull... but it wasn't blue."

"What?" He didn't even try to hide how eager he was to learn more. I had my fish hook in him. Just had to reel him in. "What color was it?"

"I dunno. What's the link for that hideout of theirs again?"

He groaned. "You don't have zilch. All talk."

Oh now he was playing hard to get, huh?

"I'll show you. A kind of bad quality version, first. But with more to come if you keep helping me. I have a whole video of angles of it and of the man who wore it."

As I mentioned the lumberjack, I was tempted to send him the whole thing in hopes that he could find out who he was. But I didn't think his big body would do much good. If only I'd thought to save the video of him maskless. I didn't know he was gonna become some big villain—I thought he was just a lame side character that just existed to get his ass kicked by the main character.

Yeah, I just implied I was main character material, did you ever think I could show that much self confidence?

"I don't know... if you wind up dead from going there I'll never get what I'm after. Not really a good deal for me, yeah?"

Hm, good point.

"Okay. The full on mask, decent shot, decent quality. With more to come if I survive. Sound good?"

"Yeah, yeah. Deal!" Gone was his worry of me dying.

I replayed the video of me getting my ass beat, searching for a good frame to show. I rewinded to where he was pretty far away from me and took a screenshot. I sent it to Boots.

"Whoaaaa," he said. "This really does look exactly like the Blue Masks style. That guy is definitely a leader."

I almost revealed all my cards and told him about how in other people's footage he was in a blue mask but I decided to hold onto that in case I needed it for leverage. He might even figure it out on his own though if he had as vast a knowledge on the Blue Masks as he claimed.

"You fought this dude?" He sounded impressed.

"Yeah." I guess I didn't have to reveal my ass beating right this second and was glad for that. "Satisfied? So, that link, please?"

An electronically glitchy sigh. "Look, I really don't want to give it to you. If you go there, you could die."

Stolen novel; please report.

"I fought one of their leaders and lived to tell the tale. If that killing anytime they want power is real or can't be that common."

"No, man. I mean that the world they hang out in… is a No Respawn Zone."

Ah, shit. That was a problem.

"I'll be fine. I won't, like, go in there screaming and crying for my pet and shit. I'll be smart. Stealthy."

"What's your Stealth Stat?"

Why the fuck did he have to ask that?

"Pretty good. I can do it. Why do you care about me anyway? I'm just a stranger?"

He was silent.

"It's not just about you wanting my video cause you haven't wanted to give me the link this whole time. So, what's the deal?"

"...I..."

"Yeeees?"

"I don't often get to talk to a girl... I just don't want you to die, okay?"

Wow. That was either creepy or—no, none of that bullshit, it was 100% creepy. But I didn't get bad vibes from him or anything, not even incel vibes. So I didn't want to be too harsh and actually call him out on it.

I decided to ignore it. "I appreciate your worry. But I've got to get Sam back. Please, help me."

"I really want that full video." He finally said after another long pause. "I can't have you dying on me before I get it. So... I'm going to help you."

That was completely unexpected.

"Uh, no, that's okay. I don't need any—"

"I think we can help each other, actually. My colleagues may be good at finding info but they arent really, uh, the adventuring type. They would never risk their lives for more information."

They, huh? What about YOU? But I didn't voice that and just let him continue.

"You want to find your pet, right? Sneaking around will just get you killed. So... what if you join them?"

"Uh, what?" I had to have heard him wrong.

"Hear me out. You infiltrate their organization. Find your pet from the inside."

That seemed insane but... definitely better than my "plan" of just running around and spying on people.

"What could you do for me? I get how that benefits you, you can find out more about the group and how they work. But what do I get? You can't seriously be holding the link back again, you already owe it to me from the picture I gave you."

"Yeah, no, yeah—I know. I'll give it to you. But I want to ensure that you make it out alive. So I'll provide support. Give you back up, tell you what to say if you need it, do searches on things. Whatever it takes to keep your ass alive."

It was a nice offer but, I mean, would that really help me? Despite the past few months saying otherwise, my default state was to do things on my own. I wasn't used to being part of a team. It had worked with Stephen and Angelia because we hit it off pretty fast. But this guy? He was a stranger, I didn't even know his real voice.

Having said all that... a guy in my ear helping me from a safe location sounded extremely spy like and that was pretty badass.

"Okay. I'll agree to this on one condition," I paused for dramatic effect. "You have to drop the voice changer."

"What!? No!"

"That's my condition. You expect me to trust you when I haven't even heard your voice? I could ask for a face to face meeting. Hmm, yeah, that sounds—"

"N-no! Okay. Voice changer, going off... now." The last word was his normal voice and it was surprisingly high pitched.

"Say something else."

He sighed, a normal non horrible explosion sigh, so much better. "This is my real voice. Are you happy?"

"You sound..."

"Like a pre-teen? Yeah, hence the voice changer." He sighed again.

"So the voice changer wasn't because you're paranoid about privacy?"

"No. I mean, that's what I tell people but—no. The truth is I hate my voice."

That was so cute actually. But I wasn't gonna tell him that. "Are you actually a pre-teen?"

"No. Eighteen. I swear. But I don't really know how to prove it without giving away personal info."

"Don't worry about it, Boots. Welcome aboard. I'll take that link now."

I expected more dialogue but he actually sent it to me.

[ Skull City

Users online: ???

WARNING: THIS IS A NO RESPAWN ZONE ]

"Skull City, huh?" I said. "Kind of on the nose. How did you get this world link?"

"A colleague of mine tried to join. But they bailed out once they got the link and saw there was No Respawn."

"You seriously don't have any dare devils in your group?"

He scoffed. "What nerd do you know that would risk their life? Hell, what person do you know at all that would set foot into a No Respawn zone?"

He had a point. The Interverse was so good to most people that risking losing it all was left to the most insane of thrill seekers.

"Alright, well, you ready? I'm going now," I said, finger hovering on the accept button.

"What!? You can't go now are you crazy?"

"What's wrong with going now? I don't know what they could be doing to Sam, I need to save him as soon as possible."

"I get that. But it's almost five in the morning."

I just stared ahead, wishing I could see the dude to give him a blank stare. "And? You got a bed time? You sure you're not a kid?"

"I'm not a—! Ugh, no, just I think all the bustling activity would have been done before now."

"Exactly, this is the perfect time to check things out." I pressed the Join World button before I gave myself a chance to back out.

But instantly I felt a drop in my stomach, way worse than a normal teleportation. I'd never stepped foot in a No Respawn Zone. My mother was extremely good about hammering in the importance of staying away.

When the User Killers started taking on more sinister attacks, they had scams that would trick people into teleporting to an unsafe zone and they would kill them, for real. The threat was usually for people of influence and their children but that didn't stop my mom from being super paranoid and making sure I knew all the ways they could come for me and what I needed to do to be safe.

If she saw me now, entering one of my own volition, she would become some ghost in the machine and haunt the hell out of my ass.

I completed the teleportation, coming face to face with the barrel of a gun.