“Gross,” I said.

The worst part wasn’t the smell. Tons of little bugs hopping around barely registered since their damage was minor when not in packs. A long, white ribbon creature rated pretty high because clearly the game designers thought space monsters deserved tapeworms. This squishy sloppy flesh texture closing in around me was probably the grossest thing to happen my lifetime. It certainly topped the ice cockroach by miles.

It was not good. Giant explosive canisters took the lead as we pushed through the rectum. [Anchor] made the process disturbingly easy. Almost slippery.

“So gross.” I shuddered and yanked myself in behind the barrels.

Warning!

This environment contains trace acids that may cause corrosion as you are digested. The further any creature travels the worse the corrosion level will be.

Corrosion rating: 1%

I should have asked Hal Pal for a drill. We could have bore into the side of this giant creature and held on with [Anchor]. Dusk and his acid might have helped get us further down. A deeply wedged explosive could have done enough damage to distract the [Leviathan]. We only really needed a solid distraction so the giant monster didn’t end our lives.

Making it past the tight end of a gargantuan space eel caused the entire creature to shift and roll. I pressed out to the side to brace myself and recoiled in horror from the slimy, warm, rubber texture. Eyesight flipped over letting me see a slight shimmer from metal in the walls. I shouldn’t have bought [Echo Vision] with contribution. I wanted to avoid being stuck without vision like in Continue Online, but this nasty sight should have remained unseen.

I swallowed and pushed the bomb in front of me. We would see this through, and worst case scenario the self-titled [Suppository Explosive] would go off and I would be caught in the blast. Hal Pal, or its character, Jeeves, should be okay out there. Dusk and it would take off to safety while my body got caught in a mercifully quick detonation.

Attention Unit known as Hermes!

You are the first player to discover the [Leviathan’s Lower Digestive Tract] dungeon.

Primary stat will increase by ten. Secondary stat will increases by five.

* +10 [Brawn]

* +5 [Reaction]

Note: Additional Rewards will apply upon completion of this dungeon.

Neat, I guess. It would help a little in dealing with my current task. Maybe blowing the creature up would count as completion of the dungeon and helping Hal Pal would be even easier. Of course exploding it from this, delicate location, might completely debilitate the beast. Or all our efforts would come off as the biggest fart in history. I hoped for more than digital flatulence and kept going.

I readied the laser sword but kept it turned off. Inside here there were far fewer bugs to fight. Most could be stomped or were melting as the corrosion level stacked up. My own health was down roughly thirty percent from the earlier gathering and mildly acidic insides.

“Voices.” I shuddered while stepping around some sort of small melted metal bit. It looked like a helmet that almost made it to the far end of space worm digestion. “Oh no.”

There was an entire cockpit here. I could see where the [Leviathan]’s digestion process had ignored bone and leeched nearly every other mineral from some vaguely humanoid creature. The skull looked almost dark red from rolling around in metal fluids. Calcium painted with a pool of copper maybe?

We weren’t the [Leviathan]'s first meal. More victims were apparent as I went further in. A nearly broken gun, scraps from a ship’s dashboard, or the fin from a wing. Leftovers lined the entire tail end. This thing must have wiped entire raids.

“How deep do I need to go?” I muttered while letting the [Anchor] ability drop. This tunnel was narrow enough that another wiggle of the [Leviathan] couldn’t shake me loose.

Hal Pal had provided me a marker. It floated further along about half a mile. Provided nothing interrupted me, making it there would be easy.

Something grabbed at my leg. I tried not to be surprised at the sudden situation change while scrambling to activate [Anchor]. Both arms flailed wildly for the [Leviathan]’s innards. Fingers clawed for purchase and failed to hold onto any ripples.

[Echo Vision] showed my [Suppository Explosive] getting further away. I tried to get the chain and lost my hold on the wall. Whatever grabbed my leg pulled me further away. Slimy walls rolled by quickly as the thing bunched up. [Echo Vision] didn’t have colors, just a faint outline of some squiggly looking thing around my leg.

I twisted and activated my beam sword. It expanded rapidly and sliced into the creature around my leg. It held firm as my wild reactions failed to hit anything vital.

“Damn. Damn!” I yelled and slashed again. My swings failed and the creature drug me even further along an unknown path.

Liquid splashed out and white dots flooded my vision. It was warm and a small message popped up. My actions had caused damage to the [Leviathan], nothing major, only a sliver of health. I barely registered anything but the warm sensation as whatever this creature used for blood poured over me.

“Get away!” I twisted the blade down trying to remove the noose around my leg. A slash hit and another message displayed.

Attention Unit known as Hermes!

The boss for [Leviathan’s Lower Digestive Tract] has been encountered.

Be warned, suffering death from a boss level monster will have increased penalties.

“Not neat!” I shouted while attacking again. There was no [Identification] skill in my bag of tricks yet. This monster's actual health was a mystery. My only hope was to slash away any time it got near and drag the bomb deep enough.

I just had to get back there by crawling through loops of gross digestive tract while avoiding that creature. One tentacle-like limb couldn’t be the extent of a dungeon boss. Not if this place was like Continue Online. So gross.

“Where did my bomb go?”

“User Legate? Can you hear me?” Two voices came through, one like a crisp butler with a British accent. The other a female nanny from the same area. A small box appeared in my lower left vision with names by it.

“Jeeves?” I said in confusion. This had happened once before with Treasure, the small gold and silver [Mechanoid] talking to me.

“Affirmative. Were you addressing me or someone else?” The AI answered me. My player interface lit up with a bouncing line as it spoke.

“Uhhh...” I looked up to one side in thought. “You?”

“Ah. Then I have an answer. I do not know.” Both Hal Pal’s voices sounded mildly saddened. Part of me started to equate the faint tone to a person always on mood dampening drugs. Under the muted tones, there was a person with real feelings, but they were detached.

“Darn,” I said. “I’ll climb back to the entrance.”

“Time is running out.”

“Isn’t it always…” I muttered, hoping that our intercom system wasn’t picking things up.

A thin cord slithered across my vision. I reacted much quicker than before. One hand gathered the laser sword and flipped the grip around. My laser sword swung left to right. Two beams of energy covered a wider area. [Morrigu’s Gift] would never have worked like this. Maybe, I filed away the idea to try with a shape-shifting blade.

The [Leviathan] parasite thing’s limb lost a few pieces. Damage flashed up as a squirmy segment flopped against my arm. Months of in-game training meant I only shuddered a little bit. My jaw set and the free arm brushed off monster remains.

Parasite tentacle limb was in one direction. My bomb had to be in the other. I drug the sword behind me to keep the arm creature back. A [Leviathan]’s outer shell may be energy proof, but that didn’t extend to its insides. Puddles trickled and gushed behind me that reflected like mud to [Echo Vision].

“Jeeves?” I asked while trying to get past another the next twist of innards.

“Yes, User Legate?”

“There’s something down here. Long arms, seems to slither around.” I jerked abruptly and caught another limb of the creature trying to snake in overhead. The monster was clearly smart enough to try new tactics plus had some ability to detect my movements. “And it’s gross.”

“One moment while I review. Due to the reduced status of [Wayfarer’s Hope] it will be difficult to get an accurate response.” The AI said with a heavier male voice.

The monster seemed to wait awhile between attacks, allowing me to scramble a few more yards down the tunnel made of giant monster guts. This pocket of flesh twisted around. Smaller tunnels went in different directions. Hopefully, they were only random folds of flesh or some corner that grew over time. Maybe the game developers had never really given thought to a good layout for [Leviathan] innards.

Was this place developed by a dreaming AI like the company name implied? If so, I was willing to bet that the machines didn’t like human insides. For a brief moment, I worried that the monster's inside here were inspired by a computerized personality’s horror at biological designs. My armor polishing skills needed to be worked on soon. Giving Hal Pal’s chassis a once over while traveling in the Trillium van sounded vaguely creepy.

I could see it now, a [Mechanoid] xenophobe going ‘flesh is so gross’! They would recoil in horror and wave both hands in the air while freaking out. The momentary thought of an AI with some exaggerated face of disgust made me laugh. Maybe I could take a selfie the next time this dungeon boss attacked me.

“I’m mostly concerned with getting back to the bomb. Will it stop me?” My question felt rhetorical before it even finished being uttered.

“It is likely.”

I sighed. Not that the inside of this creature had much air. There were gasses of some sort, but it felt dense. The air was filled with a heavy mist which kept putting spots in my [Echo Vision]. ARC feedback felt like beads of water gathering all over my body.

Another limb tried to sneak up. I hit that one but failed to notice a second limb wrapping around my arm. It got a firm grip then yanked. This time, I managed not to lose my grip on the item in my hand. Being without a sword would seriously hurt. My other hand grabbed at the wall and prayed that [Anchor] would be enough. The hand slipped off squishy walls. Fingertips curled to try and hold on tighter.

Both shoulders screamed while pressure mounted. Another layer wrapped around the bound arm which only increased the pain. My grip faltered. Lips turned up with disgust. This was not the way I wanted to go out. I needed to get back to the bomb and at least set it off.

“There are seven possible creatures.” Hal Pal’s voices showed up in my head and on the player interface.

“Busy!” The attacks were coming quicker. A third thin ribbon thing crawled along the wall. It barely registered on the [Echo Vision]. I ground my teeth and fired wild blasts from the bound arm.

“Would you describe the monster's shape as a tube or ribbon.”

“Busy!” I shouted again. Lasers splashed off one wall leaving small holes on the [Leviathan]’s insides. One of the slender limbs yanked away but didn’t vanish from sight completely. I ground my teeth as Hal Pal started speaking again.

“I will mark that as undecided. What color is the creature? Grey, or perhaps slightly purple?” Hal Pal read off the next question without any consideration for my current plight of being drawn and quartered.

“Busy!”

“I’m only asking questions in order to assist you, User Legate.” Hal Pal used its customer service tone. I had enough mental capacity to feel

“Tell me how to kill it!”

“In order to provide the best results I will need additional details. Let's start over.” Hal Pal’s female voice had grown in strength. I felt like a small child being talked down to by a nurse or nanny after pitching a fit. “Would you describe the monster shape as a tube or ribbon.”

“Ribbon. Can’t see colors! Feels like,” my mouth almost retched “melted rubber. Lots of limbs.”

“One moment please while I research your situation.”

My frantic swings of the blade were accompanied by what had to be hold music. The same innocuous tone elevators used to soothe people as they traveled between floors. I scrambled and fired off two laser blasts. This body’s health bar was down a ton. Corrosion rate had reached fifteen percent. My fingers felt almost numb from repeated abuse coupled with possible melting. At least the weapon still functioned.

A few more blasts of laser went down the tube. [Leviathan] shuddered violently. Our extended battle must be giving the creature indigestion. My energy dropped too low for any more blasts. Luckily my assault drove the exploring tentacles.

Once free from the creature I let go of my [Anchor] ability and tried to manually pull myself back down the passageway. I needed more time, more strength. An extra few hours in combat training might have helped. A dozen of other minor methods to increase stats came to mind.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Come on!” I yelled angrily as yet another arm got me. This one was damaged by some earlier attack. My arm shoved rapidly into the wall to try and bash the extension, shaving off the last few hit points.

It retreated rapidly and I started moving a lot faster. We didn't have time to slowly crawl back while battling one gross ribbon thing at a time. There it was. My precious [Suppository Explosive]. I dove for the reddish twin barrels but tripped. The monster grabbed me by the legs and pulled me back again.

“No, no!” I almost had it! This creature seemed to sense my desperation and upped the number of limbs reaching out for me. It had too many. My mind couldn’t even pause to comprehend the grossness of it all. The hold music in my head cut off abruptly.

“It is likely vulnerable to lasers.” Hal Pal said as I clawed.[Anchor] drained more energy as we were pulled backward through [Leviathan] innards. The [Suppository Explosive] was still within reach.

“I know already!” Shooting off lasers in a narrow space like this intestine had done a lot of damage to the beast. My energy had recovered to almost a third even with [Anchor]'s drain.

Now was use or lose time. Metal body mass rolled up my arm and into the laser sword's hilt. A finger depressed the trigger which set pooled energy back another five percent.

Warning!

Corrosion rating: 32%

The creature backed off again and I dove for the chain. A small message popped up saying 'You have the bomb' with a sound effect playing a triumph series of bleeps. Things were going in the right direction now.

"Got it!" I shouted.

"It's also vulnerable to explosives."  Hal Pal's words triggered an idea. A desperate idea that made a bitter taste of bile crawl up my throat from revulsion.

"Jeeves! New target, where ever this thing is, will it be deep enough?" I shouted.

"If it is a true parasite it will be embedded in a warmer spot, likely further into the intestines." The AI seemed to be following my train of thought. By holding the bomb and letting it drag me onward, I could kill two monsters with one stone. Well, one item that held a strange chemical concoction primed to explode.

"Will that be good enough?"

"Any target that does damage increases in value as our time runs out." Hal Pal responded.

"Good enough." I looped the chain around my arm and yanked. Getting it closer to me would be better. This bomb and I were going to let the creature's limbs pull us inward. Right to the creature's core, and then my [Suppository Explosive] would go off.

I started laughing. The gross creature yanked and tugged us to its doom. Corrosion made my leg too slippery for it to hold onto correctly. More limbs showed up to join the first with a better grip. The chain also lost traction.  This status debuff was eating away at all the metals.

The momentary maniacal laughter cut off. Would our bomb hold up? I turned [Echo Vision] to the area behind me in worry. Would it work if we didn't set it off right? Would this plan fail because of moving too slowly? I needed [Blink] back, I needed my stats from Continue Online. This character, this [Mechanoid] body had only a quarter of my main avatar's capability.

The partially melted chain was looped around my arm as the monster circled its limbs around both my legs. Our actions were disturbingly in tandem. I yanked the barrel closer and used numbed fingers to grip the edge.

A glow disrupted my [Echo Vision] and overlayed portions with colored regions. I turned to see a giant maw, like an octopus mouth only disturbingly close. That thing would be big enough to chomp me to bits with only a few workings of its jaw.

Between us was the bomb. I wiggled, struggled, and shoved the giant object in the maw's direction. This might distract the monster. Only now the explosive triggers sitting on top of the bomb's conjoined barrels was too far away.

"Dammit!" I said while reading a window that only showed the digestive acids hitting me harder.

Warning!

Corrosion rating: 41%

My sword reactivated. The weapon brought more ambient light to the area. My lasers hue mixed oddly with the boss monsters grey glow. I quickly sliced toward the monster's limbs which were waving around. The action was enough to drive it back from my [Suppository Explosive]. Enough room to get close and set up the bomb.

“Gotcha!” I shouted with a smile. Something finally went my way.

The sword was tossed away. Both palms slammed down on two different buttons as the monster's limbs waved franticly. They seemed to be worried about touching the flying sword which stayed active. Too many prior encounters which damaged the octopus mouthed beast. My energy reached zero and the sword flickered off.

Finally, the flattened monster arm closed in on me. I slipped backward with one hand out to prop me up. A fallback maneuver practiced over many hours in the ARC dance program. Another shift of feet got me ready to shoot backward. This body's [Reaction] and [Limberness] was high enough to pull off this move. Combat training on the [Wayfarer Seven] helped.

Limbs shot over my old position, I twisted and dove away in a forward roll. More moves practiced in a group dance program. The kind of ability needed to quickly get from one part of the stage to another. Months in Continue Online had helped me grow in applying those abilities to combat.

Another hop, this time I failed and got knocked down. Behind me, the conjoined barrel explosive was counting down with giant numbers and a loading circle swirling around above it. Whatever I had done would work and my new goal involved getting far, far away.

Only there wasn’t enough health. Corrosion stacked far too high, and even if I made it four yards, or ten, it wouldn't be enough. Fine, escape wouldn’t happen. I turned to watch the final seconds count down. The monster grabbed at all sorts of objects. Some limbs were pulling in bits of bone from the ground for eating.

The marker hit two seconds left. My hand still hung onto the [Leviathan]’s inner walls with [Anchor] but the metal content wasn’t high enough to stop my movement entirely. Another loop of coils about my remaining leg looked blurry to [Echo Vision].

My game interface had some clarity. The countdown timer swept around in a circle to one, and finally zero. There was a click. A momentary hiss preceded the sudden engulfment of pressure. [Echo Vision] overloaded with a bright, white flash.

There was pain. Terrible pain came with a strange sort of euphoria. Part pride that my body could still feel things after all the damage this ARC and real life had put upon me. Some happiness because of the last minute struggle to complete my mission and set right what my earlier reckless flight had started. A vague feeling of triumph as a huge red set of numbers popped up displaying insane levels of damage the [Leviathan] received.

“User Legate, there’s something happening here…” Hal Pal’s two tones stood out almost like separate people speaking the same line at once. Both held a hint of fright and awe. I could barely register it as my ARC feedback slowly lowered in intensity.

Then nothing but a message was left.

Attention Unit known as Hermes!

You are currently in a state of critical system failure. You may wait for possible aid or choose to release consciousness from this shell and return to the [Wayfarer Seven – New Unit Production Room]

Please be aware that due to your critical system failure, logging out of the game will result in automatic release initiation.

I opted to wait. Dusk and Hal Pal might be out here searching for me. Sitting here in-game would help calm me anyway. Out there my only recourse would be to run into the Trillium van and shake Hal Pal repeatedly. This existence here in-game was separated from the others in its consortium so the effort would be wasted.

There was no physical sensation tied to any actions. I had tried to shake my head but without an avatar in the game there would be no ARC feedback. Moving around was possible but only because my body had been placed in a giant, empty plain. Similar to the one I dealt with in Continue Online only eggshell white.

I could have released from this current character and restarted on the [Wayfarer Seven], maybe from there it would be possible to talk to Treasure, Emerald, or Iron and get assistance out to the others. There was a floating [Synchronization complete] notice under my health bar. It meant that I could release and theoretically keep all my current game stats. Character point values paled in comparison to seeing if Hal's in game consciousness was okay.

A lack of sensation accompanied my slow dance through whitespace. Sans a partner, sans music, sans sensation. I let thought go and moved. It felt pleasant to default back to the motions I had spent over a year learning. Some people knitted, others tapped feet, but this was my happy space.

Feeling slowly returned but my body still twisted in an empty landscape alone. I tried not to think about how strangely these moments mirrored my life after Xin passed. Dancing in an ARC program with a ghost. Flirting with the past and trying not to let the memories slip through my hand.

Believing that I existed alone without support from anyone would be a slap in the face to my sister, to my niece, to the work Doctor Litt had put in. I was objective enough to understand a few very strong people helped. Their actions helped keep me afloat until I found a way to stumble on my own. Despite the intellectual awareness of their support, life without Xin often felt lonely. Empty, like this white space.

I didn’t like it here. I didn’t like being alone.

My eyes closed and I tried to remember her face. An image burned into my mind through thousands of hours inside the ARC. Her eyes were the best feature. When she looked at me there was a twinkle of amusement that made everything else seem insignificant.

Both hands went up. One raised up to a side and the other around an imaginary waist. Were she here we could dance, the idea brought comfort. It wouldn’t matter which Xin anymore. The original Xin had been more than I dared hope to be with, and any form of a second chance was a kindness fate never needed to allow.

It felt a bit easier, as if the ARC registered my thoughts and provided a small amount of feedback. I could almost feel Xin’s fingertips brushing against mine. My own hands were a bit softer, hers a little rough from work. The curve of her body as we stood chest to chest crawled out of my memory and felt almost present. Her light footsteps would barely whisper upon a wooden dance floor but a slight sliding sound accompanied me. Maybe something else was in this emptiness with me, because in this moment I didn’t feel so alone.

Now I could almost see her face. A barely discernible outline so frail it might well be a mental illusion. Then again, inside the ARC, everything was a product of human minds seeing things that didn’t actually exist. Everything Xin was could be boiled down to an incredibly long list of ones and zeroes.

I tried to stop solving existential questions and went back to dancing. Moving across empty space gave the illusion of progress at least before things eventually returned to their starting positions. It helped me feel oddly at peace with being unable to escape the blast. Satisfied that my actions might have saved Hal Pal and Dusk’s virtual existences. Maybe seeing a hint of Xin here was a reward.

The thin existence of Xin smiled like I had imagined hundreds of times over the years. Her expression was wide and would always lift both ears. A bit of her forehead would wrinkle in the past like I imagined it doing now.

“What do you think, babe? Will we make it? Or am I crazy.” I said as my delusion and I slowly spun. Still without music, though I had a partner and faint sensation.

Xin’s image shrugged and her head fell to one side. A smile still crossed her face, but it was fainter. Even less present than it had been.

The hint of feeling faded and once again empty eggshell white oppressed everything else. I closed both eyes and detached my feelings for a moment in order to piece together what just happened. Was that Xin Yu’s recreation within the ARC? Had she tried to visit me here in this other digital world? Could that even happen?

Dusk could cross through software boundaries. Hal Pal had shown it could as well, though the cessation of its game character was still problematic. Xin might be able to as well. I completed the quest to allow her genesis. We spoke through letters. Yet, meeting in person had only happened once. Maybe I wasn’t good enough.

Scarier still, maybe she didn’t feel the same. I bit one lip and shook my head. Our only conversation in person had been about the tale of Orpheus. Don’t look back, keep moving forward. If I reached the other end she would be returned to me.

Xin wouldn’t have come to me like that if she hated me. I had to keep hope, even if it was faint. A hint of her could keep me going for a bit longer. Long enough to sort out my sister, to sort out Doctor Litt and all these legal issues. I could get back to Continue Online and once again move forward.

A message popped up.

Attention Unit known as Hermes!

A fellow [Mechanoid] has provided both energy and resources in order to restructure your current shell. Would you like to return to operating this shell?

Location: [Tuu System] [Asteroid Field]

A sigh preceded my arm lifting to press the yes button. Hopefully this was Hal Pal and Dusk. I would find out soon.