SAVE POINT 10
Rosabella
I crawled onto the dark ledge Dormouse had opened with the sinking realization that I may never come out. Darkness swirled around me. The black floor was hard and pressed against my knees and calves. Almost immediately I was forced to duck. The place was claustrophobic—a square tunnel not much larger than a ventilation shaft with black walls. I heard a crumbling sound behind me and whipped around to see—
My exit.
Disappearing.
Earth and Prickgada's loft crumpling out of sight and into blackness behind me. Wonderful and not at all terrifying…
***Welcome Back ROSABELLA, GAME MAKER 9 To The Game***
[System Reward: Way To Try To Take On The World’s Problems; ‘A’ For Effort, +5 XP 896/900]
Shit, the ‘world’s problems’? I squinted at the neon system alert as it fizzled into my vision. I was in The Game Code now? I had to find Goran, or we’d all die—he'd seriously kill me, all my friends and the world my parents loved just out of spite? It really WAS the world’s problems…well, this world’s. ...So much for Goran protecting me.
I ducked further, hesitantly crawling—inching forward, my hands on the slick, freezing floor. A quick turn of my head indicated more of the same, cramped, coal-colored tunnel stretched behind me too. The tips of my dark hair brushed my shoulders. My heart beat sporadically in my chest. Which way should I go? How was I supposed to find Goran and, when I did, how was I supposed to be able to take him down when I could barely sit upright in this space?
I reached towards my belt for a weapon, but my arm didn’t bend that way in the cramped space.
“Equip broadsword,” I commanded, hoping I really had returned to The Game in this Code and the system could help me. Luckily, text immediately flashed into view:
[System Alert: Weapon Equipped.]
Thank God—
Clink.
Ugh. My shoulders and heart sunk simultaneously because—yes—my fingers were, now, curled around the massive, silver-and-gold handle of the sword but….well, the point of it jabbed right against what appeared to be the black, metal ceiling while the bend of my wrist made it entirely impossible to swing the thing or even move forward with it blocking the path. It was wedged in the small space, trapping me. Fabulous, I was limited in both motion and a weapon.
“System, forget the weapon,” I muttered, annoyance jolting through me in an already-forming headache.
[System Unable To Understand Query…Recognizable Words = ‘‘Forget’ & ‘Weapon’. Linked to MRP &—]
I swiped the words away. “Put the broadsword in my inventory!” I huffed.
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
The weapon disappeared with a beep. Finally.
[System Alert: Rosabella’s Mother’s Gold & Silver Broadsword Placed In Inventory.]
But the dark hall, stretching seemingly on forever, felt empty without the blade’s sturdy presence. I swallowed. The Silver and Gold Broadsword had been my mother’s—the only reason I was here doing all this, my Mom. My Mom and Dad—my real birth parents—had built up The Game world while the man who’d been pretending to be my Dad (and was really my screwed-up uncle), Goran, was hell-bent on destroying it. He’d murdered my parents; he’d taken their very lives. I couldn’t let him literally take everything they’d built. This was for my parents.
And my friends.
And me.
I could do this. …Now, I just had to convince myself of it. Gritting my teeth, I used my elbows and knees to crawl forward. The sides of the crawlspace were smooth for my stomach to slide on but hard and polished—pressing against my skin like solid granite. It was difficult to find any handles here. I had to rely on my bodyweight and muscles alone. I heaved myself forward, peering into the darkness up ahead. ...Where did I go? Where did this path go? …More importantly, if I was Goran, where would I go?
“System, is there a map of this place?” I called into the darkness. A light would be nice too, but I wasn’t being picky…
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
[System Answer: Yes, The Game Code Map Depicts The Tunnels. The Game Code Map Has Been Unlocked. Would You Like Take The Game Code Map?]
[Yes] [No]
Yes, absolutely I will take that map, I told it in my head, watching as the neon ‘Yes’ button selected.
[System Reward: Those Who Ask Are Answered, +5 XP, 901/900]
Answered? Was that a Level Up? Sure enough, the world around me paused as green, plus marks spun and spiraled upward from the floor… The text and following chart almost felt like a comfort to me as they appeared a few inches from my face:
[System Alert: ***Congratulations, You’ve Advanced To Level 10!***]
NAME
ROSABELLA
CLASS & LEVEL
GAME MAKER 10
XP
901/1000
MRP
3795/6209
HP
67/89
Baddie Points
635
Armor Class
15/20
ABILITIES /20
Strength
+1
12
Agility
+0
10
Endurance
+0
11
Intelligence
+1
13
Awareness
+1
12
Presence
+3
16
CM
4
[+9 HP & HP Extended By 9, 67/89. You’ve Been Awarded the Ability to Select One of the Following Extras:]
[Mean-Looking Machete] [1 Small Health Pack]
Oooh. I sucked in my breath at the options. I loved them, and I hated them. The machete was everything that I needed in this narrow space—a weapon that I could actually swing. But to give up a small health pack when they were so rare to find and so useful? It made me hesitate. Should I examine both options, or was it a waste of time at this point? Goran was on the loose. I wasn’t going to sit here flipping through system options only to gain XP—
[Mean-Looking Machete Available Or 1 Small Health Pack. Please Select Which Extra You Prefer.]
I let out my breath. “The machete, System, thanks,” I told it, not pausing this time and, honestly, feeling pretty grateful for the chance to have any smaller weapon I could swing in this space. An electronic beep sounded.
[System Alert: Mean-Looking Machete Selected. Object Will Be Placed In Your Inventory Unless You’d Like to Equip. Would You Like To Equip?]
[Yes] [No]
“Yes, equip,” I blurted. I needed that blade now—I needed SOMETHING to protect myself. The thick, metal handle of the machete appeared in my grip. I flexed my fingers around it, reading the weapons stats.
[System Alert: Weapon Equipped, +10 Baddie Points, 645]
OBJECT
MEAN-LOOKING MACHETE
REQUIRED CLASS & LEVEL FOR USE
NONE
Okay, this thing has some weight and craft to it—looks particularly substantial and honed from metal. Let’s see what it does in real life?
Augment Capacities
+3 Strength
Baddie Points
+10
Thank God it was shorter than my broadsword. Still, the edge glinted in the dim light as the Level Up thinned out, returning me to The Game Code. I gritted my teeth. Time to do this thing. But I was stopped short by an immediate, system pop-up.
[System Alert: The Game Code Map Acquired. Object Will Be Placed In Your Inventory Unless You’d Like to Use. Would You Like to Use?]
[Yes] [No]
Oh—The Game Code Map? I’d forgotten about it.
“I’d like to use,” I dictated swiftly. Maybe, now, I’d be able to find Goran or, at least, my way around. A digital map popped into view, and my jaw dropped as I scanned the myriad of darkened twists and turns.
This place was a maze! How the heck was I going to find Goran here, much less navigate—
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That's when I noticed two markings on the map: a white circle and a white diamond. What did those mean? I squinted at the locations. Actually, it kind of looked like the diamond one was...
I looked both ways down the black hallway stretching in both directions.
The white diamond looked to be placed exactly where I was. ...So, did that mean that the other marking—the white circle—was...could be...
...Goran?
My throat was dry at the thought. My jaw clenched. “System, what do the markers on this map mean?” I blurted before I lost the courage. Rainer had lectured me before not to rely too heavily on the system, but, in this near-pitch darkness, it felt like I had little choice. The immediate response appeared, wobbling in neon letters:
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
[System Answer: The Circle And Diamond Markers on The Game Code Map Indicate Individuals Currently Within The Code.]
The knowledge just made my heart race faster. “…Is one of them Goran?” I growled. It felt like forever as the system processed my question—like I could feel every bead of sweat forming on my forehead, every ache in my squatting legs and every shuttering breath in the cramped space...
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
[System Answer: A Proximity Check Indicated That ROSABELLA, GAME MAKER 10 Is Within Range. Other UNIDENTIFIED GAMER Is Too Far Out of Range To Identify Tag.]
I narrowed my eyes at the text. Oh really? Well, I knew one way to find out fast. My breath quickened, fluttering in my ears and chest as my eyes traced a pattern on the map to the white dot marker. With renewed determination, and biting my lip against the discomfort of each movement in here, I crawled forward, sliding under the electric wires which tangled overhead and—goddamn!
Ick.
I went face-first into a million tiny fibers—spiderwebs? I swatted them away with my hand still clutching the machete, but not before the skin of my cheeks began to tingle and smart. I blinked down at my hand and blade, seeing shining lines there as my fingertips and the back of my hand started to burn—ach!
[-1 HP, 66/89]
My HP appeared, lowering slightly from the contact as I struggled to get the sticky fibers off my hands. It was an enormous cobweb? Ew!
[-1 HP, 65/89]
…Apparently, an enormous stinging cobweb. I had to get out of it before it drained my hit points! I stamped my feet, flinging off the remainder of it, only to see something dark hanging, tangled, in the massive web which stretched over the electric wires running along the ceiling. I peered at the object. But it was just…a flashlight, wound in the sticky web with a few forgotten, dried-up leaves? Wow, I could use one of those. But the stupid web was going to sting me again. The skin of my hands still smarted. Biting the inside of my lip, I yanked my chest plate of body armor off, and I wrenched my t-shirt over my head. Covering my hand in the soft fabric, I reached into the web.
It didn’t burn me as my fingers closed around the flashlight—bullya!
[System Alert: Basic Flashlight Acquired +10 XP, 911/1000. Object Will Be Placed In Your Inventory Unless You’d Like to Equip. Would You Like to Equip?]
[Yes] [No]
“Yes please,” I announced grandly to the dark hallway that instantly became lighter in the beam from the object as it appeared in my hand.
…I did, of course, have to reconcile with the fact that my t-shirt, then, held pulsating gobs of spittle-white web over my hand which had reached for the light. I guessed the shirt wasn’t going back on. The sports bra was going to have to cut it. I looped my body armor back over my chest, my eyes trailing over the mess of webs that continued where I needed to go.
…Wait…webs… The interwebs Dormouse had warned me about? What else had the kid said? Bugs. …Something about killer bugs in the software. My fingers tightened around the metal handle of the machete as I clawed forward, ducking under more low-hanging webs. The things were everywhere, coating the ceiling like sweeping white, woven canopies. ...Worse than a bad haunted house but no one was decorating for Halloween. What kind of giant bugs would leave webs like these? I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. If I could get to Goran and get out of here—
That's when I heard it.
A scampering.
A million, stiletto legs tittering against the hard rock of the narrow hall and the noise was coming—
It was something huge coming for me.
[System Alert: BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13 Approximately 20 Feet Away.]
…10 Feet Away…
Shit.
A furry leg rounded the corner ahead, tiny, extra legs jutting off it and billowing out, like long fur, like smelling the air there—
I froze.
I didn't have time to scream; I didn't have the room to run. The world turned in slow motion as a mammoth, hairy spider with enormous, black-gray-and-brown-bristled legs blinked at least twenty, bulbus, yellow eyes at me. Not in a curious manner, like two different species examining each other for the first time, no. The eyes narrowed like—like it was starving and had finally found food. The thousand, tiny fingers of its hair reached for me, standing full-on off its body. Air whooshed. And the hair—spikes? Darts?—flew directly at me—
I covered my face with my arms, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Damn it, who had talked me into this?!
A thousand sharp pin-pricks hit me all at once—tearing at the exposed flesh of my neck and face and bouncing off my body armor—fuck!
[-2 HP, 63/89]
A million legs scrambling against metal reverberated in the tunnel. One eye open showed me the beast rushing forward with an unearthly scream—its hideous, hairy body nearly blocking all of the tunnel forward.
Fear laced through my veins like a familiar poison, but there was nowhere to go!
Slick, straight walls.
And only this stupid machete in my hand.
I swung it choppily in front of me. I shouted, “Get—get back!”
—As I scrambled back, but I was too slow, or the spider thing was too fast.
It charged.
I screamed.
Bristling fur met my arms. Sharp teeth dug into the skin of my stomach. Pain ripped through me.
[-10 HP, 53/89]
Damn! What level were these things?! The creature’s jaw locked down on my middle, latching. I tried to swing at it with the machete, but it, suddenly, felt like a brick. My arms felt unmovable…my eyes… Was this some sort of poison?
[-100 CMP, -100/400]
Negative Creator Magic Points? I tried to shake myself awake. How could this thing take away CMP—
[5]
[4]
It was counting down something? "Fuck!" I yelled, attempting to kick the pulsing body off me with leaden feet that barely obeyed my orders. “System, what the hell is this thing?!”
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
[3]
[System Answer: The Creature is a BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13, A Mutated Arachnid Which Can Drain Gamers Of CMP By Latching Onto Their Bodies During A Bite. The Gamer Has 5 Seconds To Escape The Lulling Effects Or The CMP Will Be Poached And The Corresponding Number of CM Diamonds Stolen. Would You Like to View The Creature’s Stats?]
[Yes] [No]
…But I was kinda still hung up on the ‘CM Diamonds stolen’ part… “NO!!” I bellowed the word, both at the system and at the injustice of the whole situation. This thing was trying to take the CM I’d worked so hard to activate?! Hell no. Any terror that'd overwhelmed me just minutes before had transformed into pure rage. Pure anger. Vibrating through my body in a jolting hum that made me quick—adrenaline shattering the languidness of my body in the Bakas Qilikbara’s grip. I stabbed the machete upwards and not at all mercifully. I slashed.
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -2 HP, 46/139]
[2]
Wait, the thing wasn’t at full health? Even better. I hacked at the beast's legs—body—
Anything I could cut.
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -2 HP, 44/139]
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -2 HP, 42/139]
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -2 HP, 40/139]
Anything I could hurt.
Anything that I could hurt that wasn't me. Just so it would stop hurting me—anything to save me.
This was survival: raw, rugged. Nothing I'd ever wanted but something I most certainly had to do. To know I was strong enough. To know I could hold my own when push came to shove.
And it came to that. No!
[1]
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -10 HP, 30/139]
I shoved the beast backwards, twisting myself away from its scrabbling legs and forcing it against the hard wall. I breathed heavily into its face; strings of my sweaty hair draped in my vision.
[System Reward: This Spider’s Bite Didn’t Give You Superpowers, But It, Also, Didn’t Take Them Away; Way to Save Your CMP! +15 HP, 926/1000]
The beast screamed, trying to reach for me with its wildly waving, bloodied limbs—the hair on them standing on end. It clacked its fangs like it'd love to take another hunk out of me as its yellow eyes swiveled in a million directions. I leveled the point of my machete at it.
No. I wouldn't give it the chance. The Game world, my friends and my very survival were on the line. Anything in the way of me finding Goran was going down.
And I brought the machete down.
Hard.
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -15 HP, 15/139]
I sunk it into the spider's flesh—watched the thing wriggle and protest as blood squirted onto my arms and into my eyes as neon letters flashed into view:
[BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13: -15 HP, 0/139]
[System Reward: BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13 Eliminated +20 HP, 946/1000]
...And I wondered if it was bad that I didn't feel anything this time. I didn't feel bad for this life taken as the thing slowly stopped wriggling. Maybe the Grand Dragon had been right about death…about killing. Maybe it wasn’t the way but no other way had let me survive so far.
The Qilikbara shuttered into death like a place it didn't want to go. It was him or me, and, as I drew in another hissing breath and brought a hand to the searing bite in my side, I realized just how close it’d been to being me. My palms were slick with blood and the wound pulsed like a stabbing knife. Damn, the thing had got me good.
“System, show me the creature’s stats,” I whispered, wiping a bloody hand on the leg of my body armor. The corresponding neon answer fizzled before my eyes:
[System Understands Query…Loading Response…]
[System Answer: The Creature is a BAKAS QILIKBARA, BEAST 13, A Mutated Arachnid Which Can Drain Gamers Of CMP By Latching Onto Their Bodies During A Bite. The Gamer Has 5 Seconds To Escape the Lulling Effects Or The CMP Will Be Poached And The Corresponding Number Of CM Diamonds Stolen.
STRENGTHS: Ability To Spew Spikes From Legs At Attacker and Poach CMP From Magical Gamers Or Creatures Through Bite, Quick and Agile. WEAKNESSES: Always Goes For the Attack But Lacks Endurance Or Awareness]
NAME
BAKAS QILIKBARA
CLASS & LEVEL, SIZE
BEAST 13
HP
0/139
Armor Class
17/20
ABILITIES /20
Strength
+6
22
Agility
+2
15
Endurance
+0
11
Intelligence
+3
16
Awareness
+0
10
Presence
+4
18
My eyes grazed over the stats. Yep, that pretty much summed up the fight I’d just lived through. …Dormouse had been right about the ‘killer’ bug part. If there was more of these beasts, I’d better find Goran fast.
Swiping into my inventory, I brought up The Game Code Map again, trying to memorize the pattern towards Goran—or what I hoped was—in my mind.
"Left, left, left, right," I rehearsed to myself like trying to remember the answers to a test. But these answers were important. These answers meant the difference between life and death. Goran’d better be at the end of this treasure hunt.
I pressed a hand against my side to support my wound and dragged myself forward with the other, biting through the stabbing pain, even as I felt the stamina draining out of me.
[-1 HP, 52/89]
More dark tunnel passed as my limbs and lungs complained.
Here was the second left. Just a little further...
[-1 HP, 51/89]
Around another corner...
[-1 HP, 50/89]
Shit, if I could get my HP to stabilize... I stopped for a minute to tighten the Velcro of my body armor more tightly around the wound, hoping it’d quell the bleeding and, then, I lugged myself on, breathing heavy and bringing up the map again with a swiping finger to ensure I was going the right way. I was— Wait, I didn't understand. It looked like—like I was standing right on him. My white diamond hovered right over the circle icon. Maybe it wasn’t him? Maybe it was an object of some kind? Should I ask the system again? I squinted into blackness, my eyes sweeping—
"Mmmhhh!"
My muffled cry.
As a hand came from behind my head and clamped over my mouth. Fear drenched me in utter panic. And I'd never been surer that it was Goran, even though I kicked and squirmed, trying both to see his face behind me and escape his iron fingers—
I’d found him.
But he’d found me first. Shit! He was going to kill us all! He was going to—
"Quiet!" Goran's voice hissed in my ear.
Definitely Goran.
"Are you trying to die?!" he snarled, still in a whisper.
I fought him (and his hand on my mouth) harder; my hot breath made his palm stick to my cheeks even more. The wound in my side hurt like hell, but I fought through it.
[-1 HP, 49/89]
"You're so insistent on trying to kill us—" I growled back—although my squeaking stutter barely sounded threatening.
"Be quiet, will you?!" Goran insisted.
His grip grew tighter—hurting now as his fingers pried into the spider’s bite. I cried out.
[-2 HP, 47/89]
Why was he being so mean? Tears smarted at my eyes, threatening to spill over and race down my nose to land on his huge fingers there. He’d killed my parents. He'd been trying to force me to live with him in NYC. What was his problem?! Then, I heard it.
A hundred, scuttling legs.
One of those damn spiders. Very close.
I froze, my body going limp and ridged in Goran's hands at the same time. My blood ran cold.
With fear.
Should I use the beast as a distraction to get away from Goran? Should I try to make the creature come this way? Self-preservation, it seemed, won out because I, suddenly, couldn't make a peep. I could only watch, holding my breath in utter terror, until the Bakas Qilikbara’s hairy body scurried out of sight around a corner.
And, then, I could breathe again. Goran released his hand—thank God. His fingers immediately snapped to my forehead and my bloodied side as though he was a doctor examining me, "Rosie, are you okay?"
Seriously?! I recoiled from him, my brow scrunching up. "What is wrong with you?" I spat in disgust, "You're trying to destroy The Game? Kill us all?!"
"Oh no, no," he waved his hands in the air, his brow creasing in concern.
…And, for a second, I thought this whole thing—everything I'd thought up until this point—could just be some sort of a big misunderstanding. For a second, I slipped back into that longing to trust him...trust Goran. His face was so open there, streaked with shadowy dark...so—
"I’d never want to kill you, Rosie," he said, "I'll prove it to you." He opened his hands in front of him, offering something to me. And I saw some sort of document symbol bobbing, there, over a necklace of glowing pears. I leaned forward to peer at it. What was it?
“It’s an Immortality Cheat Code necklace,” Goran explained. It’s for you. I made sure it’s pre-initialized, so it doesn’t require coding. You just wear it for the effects. Prickgada was very helpful.” Goran’s lips moved but his words rung, echoey and distorted between us—muffled by my own thoughts?
He held the necklace out towards me as I stared; it glowed a faint light against his skin in the dark tunnel. An Immortality Cheat Code necklace? If I took it, it meant I could exist, outside of The Game even if he destroyed it? He’d planned for me to have this all along? He’d made sure I had one? My head felt light with shock and surprise.
"Rosie, I know this is hard for you to understand," Goran spoke into my face like I was a child he needed to squat down to address, "but The Game has been nothing but trouble for you—for us. We're better off without it. Take this…please."
And it was all clear again—clearer than a glass windshield on a sunny day.
Because he held up his right hand and, tight in his fingers, was a kill switch—the kill switch Dormouse had warned about. The toggle switch that could destroy The Game and all of my friends with one flick of Goran's tiny finger. Panic surged through me as I linked everything together.
“No,” I protested, “I won’t put on that necklace—I won’t. ‘Cause—‘cause you’ll blow The Game. My friends are there, don’t you get it? —My whole…everything, please—”
But I didn’t get to finish. His arm wrapped around my neck, and, then, the glowing necklace slid over my lips, cold against my flesh—no! His thumb teetered towards the kill switch as he adjusted me in his grip like a doll. What—no!
"Wait!" I sputtered, "Please wait!" Barely daring to move, though I barely could.
"Don't make this any harder than it already is, Rosie," Goran warned, speaking like the wise parent he definitely wasn't, "It's over. Just me and you, in New York City—"
But it wasn’t.
[System Searching MRPs To Select & Display Correct Memory…]
Black-and-white images blurred by my eyes, sucking me into the memories with a squelch—
Joy raised a thin eyebrow. “It’s not every day you get dinner and a show,” she commented dryly, folding her arms over her chest.
“Ooh! Rosabella, what are you going to make? I’m starving!” Dormouse added.
And my face broke into a smile, “What do you want?”
“Marshmallows!” the kid’s eyes widened, “We can toast them over the fire!”
“How about something with actual nutritional value,” Joy barked.
“I’ll make it all,” I told them.
The scene fizzed—twisted into Sparo’s face…close. Longing and sadness twisted in my stomach…
“So, I’m confused because you sent me to my death in that crater, but, then, also saved me from it with that gun so…I’m not really sure where that leaves us,” I hedged, wiggling a finger between his chest and mine.
The guy chuckled a little at that. He raised an eyebrow, “You know, not every Prince Charming rides a white horse,” he quipped, “Mine’s a red-as-fuck dragon, and you were sooo hellbent on that CM Diamond—” He shook his head, rolling his eyes.
But Sparo’s face morphed into Goran’s—his finger still on the kill switch. And I knew, in that moment, that he’d never been more wrong. It’ wasn’t just me and him, not anymore. My friends were everything to me—part of me. If they died—
"I'll go!" I choked on the words—on my frantic tongue. My eyes were wide, as were Goran's which meet mine. "I'll go with you, I swear! I'll do whatever you want. Just don't destroy The Game. Don't—kill my friends. Please," I sputtered.