Chapter 63
“Well, that answers that question.” James said as the group left Rue’s ‘tent’, immediately finding themselves beside the hot springs of the fifth floor. While it had always looked like a tent on the outside, it served more as an actual full-on house, thanks to well, immersion magic.
“Which question?” Steve asked as he stepped into the hot springs, a heavy sigh escaping his lips as he eased into the water.
“He was probably still questioning he was straight,” Fel said with a laugh as she snapped her fingers, a bikini appearing around her before she stepped into the water. “I could have helped you sort that one out.”
James growled but said nothing. Rue laughed lightly as she got into the water, a bikini of her own appearing around her form. James willed his own swimming suit onto himself as he got in. Technically none of that was needed. After all, they weren’t real clothes, and getting into the water, no matter what you were wearing, felt nice. Case in point, Steve, who was still dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a half-unbuttoned t-shirt, looking every bit as disheveled as he seemed to be.
“You can’t keep making jokes at James’s expense just because you’re nervous,” Rue said pointedly towards Fel, “sooner or later you’ll have to deal with your own situation too, won’t you?”
Fel looked away from Rue’s gaze, crossing her arms and refusing to answer. James couldn’t help but laugh, though it was short lived. Fel being there meant that everyone was logging in instantly into the game. On the plus side, that meant everyone, technically, was already in DCO, and he’d probably be able to do one last climb with everyone. On the negative side, it meant the government plan was in full swing already.
“Much as it pains me to say,” Steve said as a Painguin brought a drink to him, “now’s probably not the best time for poking each other.” He took a drink, closing his eyes as he savored it, “I’ve done everything I can on my end, but I still feel the situation moving forward is dire.”
“I did my part,” Fel crossed her arms and leaned back into the hot springs, “passed off the package, and have everything in place to counter any potential efforts to bring us down in game.” She looked at Steve, “can’t believe we’re going to be working together in that regard. And I really hope you’re just being paranoid.”
“As do I,” Steve said, “but while James is away, we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep all of the focus on this immersion, and more importantly, on keeping anyone from realizing what’s going on.”
“I still feel like you’d be more helpful in person,” James said to Fel. “You’re better trained than anyone I know.”
“Yeah, well unlucky for you, there’s not a magical twin of me running around. And we all know your biggest weakness,” she pointed towards Rue, “is stuck within immersion. Steve’s safeguarded Rue’s consciousness, but that doesn’t mean shit if the government’s hackers break in here and cause trouble. Between myself, Steve, and Hades, hopefully, we can keep the ruse going. The longer we keep anyone from realizing what’s going on, the more time you and the others will have to actually breach the government stronghold and take DCO offline for good.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Their plan was a two pronged one. It involved the physical assault on the government facility situated within the mountain. The one his parents were located at, along with Rue’s actual body, and hell, probably her father. He wasn’t sure who else was there. Maybe Steve? He knew BLANK was situated on the west coast of the continent, but he wasn’t sure if Xander had been there, or had been in James’s area considering he was the head of DCO at the time. If he was, and he’d been captured here, then…
James shuddered and pushed those thoughts from his mind.
“I’ve got the cloning program set up as well,” Steve said, not seeming to notice James’s trailing thoughts. “I’ve had it running through all of the data on James, as well as the Knights. It should create a perfectly believable copy, as long as no one intimately familiar with them engages with them.”
During their time in the real world, Steve had suggested they use the AI program from DCO to create ‘clones’ of James and the others. While James’s presence may go unnoticed, unless he was summoned during the Dungeon War, Z and the others were too well known. Too public. Meaning they needed a way to ensure no one noticed the top five players, essentially celebrities, were missing.
“And James has the masking chip in his pod,” Fel said, looking at James, “at least, I’m pretty sure he does?”
“Was that the challenge coin?” He asked for confirmation.
“It was,” Fel said narrowing her eyes, “please tell me you figured out what Faust was telling you?”
“I, hope so?” James still wasn’t a hundred percent. “He wanted me to have it in the pod with me, right? Why?” He still wasn’t sure what it was supposed to do. No one had mentioned anything about masking chips.
“It’s a special chip used to mimic an identity chip.” Fel said with a heavy sigh. “Enforcers and other government officials use them to keep their movements masked. It uses your immersion pod as a broadcast point. By immersing yourself with it on your person, it will automatically attune itself to your pod. Once you’ve immersed with it, and it’s become synched with your pod, it will broadcast your information as if it were coming from the pod, essentially making any, say, monitoring systems believe you’re still immersed, even when you aren’t.”
“It’s a part of how Enforcers can stay anonymous.” Steve added. “Helps eliminate any possible traces or patterns for people to pick up on. It’d be pretty obvious if people who were ‘supposed’ to be immersed, often logged out and went other places during their assigned immersion time, especially if it happened to correspond with Enforcer activity and operations.”
“Oh, well, glad I figured that out.” James let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if that was what he wanted me to do with it.”
“For you it was more of a backup plan.” Steve said with a shrug. “Since you’ve got Dagger with you, I’m sure there are other ways to mask your identity chip’s signal from broadcasting. But it’s a nice failsafe.”
James nodded, “makes sense, though I feel like I was the only one not in the know for that bit.”
“It was an after thought he came up with during the day,” Fel said, “and obviously no one had a chance to tell you. Out of all of us, you’re, eh, acting skills are the most lacking.”
“Fair,” James conceded the point without contest. Everyone else lied and seemed to be able to embrace the cloak and dagger lifestyle with ease, but he had trouble doing the double speak they seemed skilled at. And knowing when they were speaking the full truth, and when they were trying to hint at something else. He was glad he’d never had to be a part of the world before, having seen first-hand how it had affected Fel. But right now, for this very important mission, he kind of wished he felt more prepared.
“Even if my acting skills are lacking though,” James said after a moment. He looked at everyone and couldn’t help but feel his smile spread. “I have something I need to tell everyone.” He focused on Fel, this time his smile reaching his eyes, “I need to tell you what I found in my parent’s workshop.”