《Ghoster》


 Ghoster

    A woman walks along, her hand out as if holding another hand. Plain brown hair is trimmed in a buzz cut against her head, and she wears an off-white tank top and off-white shorts.


    She stops, as if she''s hit someone


    "Ghoster!" She proclaims as she jumps back from the person she just ran into, her face slightly shocked as she looks around and sees no one in her reality.


    The woman she ran into stumbles backward to keep her balance. "I hate these virtuals," she mutters as she pulls down at her green dress.


    "No regard for the real world around them. Always living in the virtual space." No one hears her or notices her. She plays with the end of her black braid.


    "One day I''ll run into another ghoster my age, maybe. Then maybe they will appreciate the effort I go through for my appearance."


    "Ghoster!" The woman who ran into her calls out again, her eyes blinking as she adjusts her contacts to look for something not accounted for by the virtual adjusters.


    "There you are. You should watch out for other people if you aren''t going to at least wear a reference chip." She blinks again, looking over the woman in front of her. "You are such a plain little creature. You should join the virtual world. It could make you so much prettier."


    She sighs, running her hand through nonexistent hair. "I''m in a hurry, so watch out little ghoster." She walks around the woman in the simple dull green dress, leaving her standing there, playing with the end of her braid.


    The woman in the green dress shakes her head, and watches the people carefully as she skirts around the edge of the square. "Why am I the only person my age who doesn''t want to be connected to a virtual world all the time?"


    An older man in a black suite with a black top hat and gray hair who is also skirting the square tips his hat to her. "Not often I see a pretty young thing these days. Most..." He waves his hat toward the people with their shaved heads and uniformly off-white clothing.


    She laughs nervously, "Yeah, the contacts and the chip hardware gave me severe migraines, so I had to have the interfaces removed."


    "Well, at least you are a bit of color in a dull world."


    A young man stumbles, almost running into her, and his sleek gray, almost human shaped robot grabs his hand and catches him, guiding him away from her.


    "I''ve heard," the old man says, "that even the robots look like fellow humans to them."


    The woman nods, "Yeah, I remember them looking like humans. From before."


    "Well, young lady, I hope to see you again. It''s a rare treat to talk to someone these days, but my wife is expecting me to be buying groceries for dinner tonight."


    She smiles, the man seems genuinely kind. "Thank you, and I hope to see you around also," she calls as the man waves and continues off on his mission.


    Her parents moved here recently, hoping to make it easier for her. Truthfully, it would probably be easiest to just leave any city environment and go to a farm. Then she wouldn''t have to deal with all the virtuals.


    She is almost to the turn for her street off the main square when she hears the first cry of "Ghoster!" A multitude of voices take up the cry, and near the middle of the square she can see a guy, his long, floppy blond hair and wild tie die shirt and jeans marking him as different. He is probably close to her age, and purposefully breaking the law by knocking into virtuals.


    "Hear my cry!" He shouts to those that he has pulled from the virtual world. "Come back to this world. See the beauty of the space around you. Enjoy what you have."


    The guy is going to get himself arrested! She runs toward him, dodging virtuals who haven''t noticed the commotion. The awoken ones stare at her as she darts forward, obviously shocked to see a second ghoster in the same day as they were forced to look at reality by a crazy man.


    She grabs the guy''s hand and takes off toward the edge dragging him along behind her.


    "Hey, stop. I''m on a mission to awaken people."


    She brushes past people, and all around her she can hear the angry exclamations of the awakening. He is probably also purposefully knocking into them.


    "Let go! We have to get them to leave the virtual. They have to wake up."


    She pulls him until they are in the ghoster zone, the safe area for those without the implants.


    "You idiot!" She yells at him, and he stops talking, staring at her. Brown eyes just looking at her, taking in that she is standing in front of him.


    "Hey, you dress like a ghoster! Didn''t know any virtuals dressed like that these days." He is still looking at her, as if he can''t quite identify what she is.


    "You idiot!" She yells again, but no one else notices. "You can get arrested for trespassing in virtual territory."


    "I know that, but why do you care? Most virtuals just continue on in their self-absorbed lives after being bumped."


    "I..." He is staring at her so intently, and he still seems to think she is a virtual. She pulls at the end of her braid hanging over her left shoulder. "I''m not a virtual!" she yells at him.


    She hasn''t interacted with people her age outside her family in a while, and the way the guys is intently staring at her makes her fidget and look away. She can look anywhere except at the unique ghoster standing in front of her.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "Really? A pretty girl like you is a ghoster? What are you doing hanging out in the loser''s world?" He grabs her shoulders, and she looks back up at him, the joy in his face terrifies her.


    "Yeah, I..."


    "I''ve found you!" He shouts, not listening to her. "I can''t believe it, another person who recognizes the truth. The virtual world has turned us into no better than robots, and someone else has seen this truth!"


    "Ummm?" She tries to ask what is going on, but he continues.


    "I thought that when I left the office, when I left that place where we develop the worlds to control people, that I would never find someone else who would choose to take off the yoke of the virtual world, but you are here standing in front of me. A dark goddess to join me in dismantling this world''s system and raining chaos on the ages!"


    She knows she is no such thing, but she can''t bring herself to speak the truth. She can''t fight the man''s intensity, or his hard grip on her shoulders.


    "So, my fellow ghoster, what is your name?" He asks while pulling her along the small alleys designated for ghosters to travel on.


    "Umm, Kate." She whispers, not quite sure how to respond to the situation.


    "My name''s Lee. I was a level 115 programmer for Spartan Core Systems world when I realized how the companies were using the system to control the populace."


    He pulls her to the side as a police robot drives by. "They are probably looking for me. They''ve been chasing me since I escaped. I programmed a malfunction into my own hardware so that I can get on and access the virtual worlds, but they cannot access me. I made myself a god power profile that allows me to access their internal code and systems and modify it."


    He''s insane, she thinks listening to him babble on.


    "You have no hardware at all, right Kate?"


    "Uh, no."


    "Why is that, by the way?"


    She blinks a couple times as she can''t figure out the flow of the conversation.


    "Uh, well, my body can''t accept ¨C"


    "It doesn''t matter anyway." A black car door swings open, and she notices that they are standing next to a luxury line, self-driving, black Jaguar. He drags her into a roomy interior with leather seats all facing toward the center.


    A platform rises out of the center with a bottle of wine on it, and Lee pulls two glasses out from a hidden cabinet next to him.


    She can''t help but feel like she''s been kidnapped into some strange virtual game.


    He pours wine into the glasses, and places the bottle back on the platform. He holds out the glass toward her, but she hesitates to take it.


    "Don''t worry, I wouldn''t poison my helper. I need you on this mission."


    She takes the glass, looking out the window to notice the city flashing by. "I, uhh ¨C"


    "I haven''t explained yet have I!?" He makes as if to jump up, but hits his head on the ceiling and sits back down with a slightly stunned look. "I forgot my surroundings again. I get so disoriented sometimes. I''m sorry. Please, excuse my poor behavior. So, Kate, you are the kingpin of my mission to take down the virtual worlds."


    "I, but ¨C"


    "Don''t worry. I will be in the system making sure that even devices looking for physical presences can''t see you. I can''t go in because I''m not a real ghoster. I actually have hardware in me. The devices would notice my hardware even if I hacked into them it would still leave a trace. The beauty of you, a true ghoster, is that you can get in without worrying about that. Because the hacker won''t be the one going through the building, and the one going through will have zero hardware, the building''s security won''t see you at all."


    She listens to the mad man rambling, wondering how she got into this situation. A moment ago, she was walking in a residential virtuals hangout area, on her way home. And now, she is in the car of some rich insane man who apparently wants her to help destroy the world.


    "What if I say no?" She asks.


    He stops talking; staring at her like she grew another head.


    "Well Kate, that would be a bad idea."


    "Why? Why can I not say no?"


    He leans back and laughs. "You think you saved me today, but I was waiting for you. I often try to break through to the people, but I''ve been waiting for you, watching for you. I wanted to see what you would think of my attempts to enlighten the people, and you were beautiful, running in to rescue me with that long ghoster hair of yours caught by the wind looking like you stepped out of the virtual world in a dash of color and beauty."


    "So you''ve been stalking me?"


    "Kate, I''ve been searching for someone like you for over a year now. A person who has absolutely no hardware. I accessed all the city scanners, searching for the right person. A full, true ghoster. A person only physical security cameras would pick up. And then I saw you, unseen by city surveillance because you have zero hardware. Only my own physical cameras could catch you. You are a gem Kate! Of course I need you for my plan. You will turn this world on edge!"


    "What if I don''t want to? What if I wish I could just go into the virtual world with everyone else?"


    "But you can''t can you, Kate? You are stuck on this plane of existence by yourself. Don''t you desire company here? Don''t you wish that more people would at least come out of the virtual world when they are walking around? Don''t you wish people could see you?"


    People, able to see her. Not having to worry about people running into her... It sounds like a dream world. But could she accept that at the cost of destroying the virtual world for everyone?


    He sighed. "Ahh, I was hoping to convince you with words alone, but I guess you need more motivation to help me."


    He held up an image of her mother staring blankly at a wall. "I''ve trapped all your family in the virtual world. All of them are being held in total darkness, unable to see, move, hear, smell, or touch. They won''t be released until the servers are destroyed."


    "WHY!? Why do you want to destroy the virtual world?" A little wine spills out of her glass as she swings her hands in dismay, but she doesn''t notice.


    "Why? Because I am tired of it. I am tired of watching people follow blindly like sheep wherever the corporation tells them to go. I''m tired of being a person working in a society where most people don''t really hold much of a real job anymore. I want to shake up this world."


    She stares at the wine glass in her left hand, the wine twirling around in it. She lifts it up, and takes a sip, making a slight face as she downs the sip.


    "Don''t the virtual worlds have backup servers and servers across the globe?"


    He gives a half laugh that sounds closer to a gasp of air. "Oh yes. We aren''t the only ones in this mission. The others have had their ghoster ready for months. After I saw you, I told them about you, but I decided not to grab you until the last minute. I hope you enjoyed the extra time I gave you with your family."


    This man is past just slightly crazy. She is certain that he is fully insane. She takes another sip of the wine. It leaves her mouth feeling drier than before she took the sip. "So, what is my role in this?"


    He smiles, the corners of his mouth lifting his cheeks up into his eyes, and giving him a maniacal insane look to match his personality.


    "You, Kate, are going to blow up the servers. I will give you the explosives to carry in and place, and once you are out, I will blow them up."


    "How am I supposed to know where to place your bombs?" She asks, staring straight ahead, out the window opposite of her. Her face is devoid of crinkles or even the slight movements that show emotion.


    "I drew you a map. I even marked where to place the explosives. You can read a map, right?"


    She nods. She has to do this, to free her family.


    The vehicle slides up to walkway and the door opens. She takes the map and the bag of explosives Lee is holding out, places her glass of wine on the center platform, and steps out of the car. The front door swings open, and she walks through. There is no one in the hall as she walks in, and no alarms go off.


    She follows the path marked on the map, and every door she comes to is open, waiting for her. She places the explosives where the map tells her to, and then she calmly walks back out of the building, walks back to the waiting jaguar, and picks up her glass of wine, dropping the bag and map onto the floor.


    "Everything''s in place."


    He smiles and as the car drives away, she can hear the distant booming echo of explosives going off.


    She wonders, are the servers all offline now?

 You Harpy She-Devil

    Melody skipped a step, her robe¡¯s skirt swishing around her legs. ¡°Com¡¯ on Rich. Hurry up!¡±


    ¡°Where are you taking me?¡± Her companion asked again. He¡¯d asked her so many times already!


    She shook her head, her new long purple hair she just bought swishing over her shoulders. ¡°You¡¯ll see when we get there. You¡¯re so slow!¡±


    ¡°Well I¡¯m sorry I¡¯m wearing heavy metal armor and training strength instead of speed. And if you keep bouncing around like that you¡¯re going to tire out.¡± He slogged along behind her, his head hidden by the knight¡¯s helm he¡¯d recently won in a quest.


    He didn¡¯t look too bad without the helm with the mocha colored skin he¡¯d chosen and his striking golden eyes and white hair, but he always seemed self-conscious and wore his thick heavy plate mail everywhere. Except to school. For school, he bought black eye dye and black hair that he would equip. She preferred him the way he looked now.


    ¡°You¡¯re staring at me like I said something weird. I know you haven¡¯t been running as long as you should each day to build up your experience. I can see it in the party stats menu.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t about what you said. How do you see with that helmet on, you should hide it like I hide my hood¡­¡±


    ¡°Well miss healer, I like to use the role-playing aspect of this game to its fullest, and that includes wearing my helmet. And as I told you before, the vision limitations aren¡¯t that bad. It looks worse than it actually is.¡±


    She shrugged and looked at her map. They were almost at the destination. The map called it the ¡°Temple of Neparna¡±. She had this stupid item called the ¡°Pact of Lauria¡± that had come with one of her dresses she bought for mana regen and it was an item of experience bonus; a buff that nothing else in the game boasted that she knew of.


    The item required two people to go to a temple of one of the game¡¯s gods, get some sort of quest, and the reward was two rings that would increase experience gain for both players as long as they were in a party together.


    Rich was a decent guy who played ¡°Legends of Alamoth¡± with her all the time. She didn¡¯t really have anyone else who played Legends with her, so he was the only one she could think of to drag along. He shouldn¡¯t complain about getting an experience buff, right?


    She¡¯d wondered if she should save the ring, but for what point? Why save such a powerful item when she could use it now? And sure, she probably wouldn¡¯t be in a party with Rich forever in the game, but they partied up a lot to play. And it was just a game item. There were no real world consequences for using a game item.


    ¡°Have you heard a single thing I was saying?¡± Rich asked, grabbing her attention back from her thoughts.


    ¡°Huh?¡± She paused, wondering what he¡¯d been talking about or asking her.


    ¡°Melody, I swear your brain is like a rabbit. One moment you are here and the next you¡¯re off after a piece of grass.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I was just thinking about my stats and how much mana I have. The best players have way higher stats for their armor. I wish I had more money in my budget to buy better robes.¡±


    ¡°You are always buying better stuff. Just craft something yourself.¡±


    ¡°You know my crafting levels are low.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I know. You¡¯re focused on your pre-med studies that are helping you skill up as a healer.¡±


    She beamed at him. ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°And I should be studying more for my physics test, but instead I¡¯m out fighting mobs. And walking to some bizarre location. Why did we not take a bus again?¡±


    ¡°Because I wanted to walk and enjoy the scenery of Legends.¡± She looked around as she said this, taking in the mega trees near them, and the characters walking past. She loved how Legend¡¯s turned the city¡¯s skyscrapers into monstrous trees that dimmed the sun. Of course, if she switched to a different world view/game, her contacts would change the way the sun looked. The only thing that didn¡¯t change with the settings were all the people around her. Each person had avatars from their own games or designs that they wore. She¡¯d turned off the visual overlays once or twice before, but it felt wrong, like she was invading people¡¯s personal space.


    And it was interesting to see what people chose to look like. Ahead of her was a man in the Japanese anime style with spiky orange hair and smooth, featureless skin.


    Behind Rich she could see a woman who looked almost like a ghost floating above the ground. The giveaway was in the way she was moving with her shoulders bobbing and arms swinging.


    ¡°-this scenery. This heat is going to kill me!¡± Rich was saying.


    ¡°Well take off your armor. Wear a cape or something.¡± She knew he had one. She¡¯s seen it before.


    ¡°And what will you do if we get attacked by a mob while out walking the streets without my armor?¡±


    ¡°I will draw them away with my awesome bow skills while you equip your armor.¡±


    ¡°And in the meantime, you will die, and I can¡¯t heal, so we¡¯ll be kicked from Legends for a couple hours until the death penalty is paid, and you won¡¯t be able to show me whatever it is you want to show me.¡±


    Was he really going to whine this much? It wasn¡¯t that hot yet. It must be the senses implanted throughout his body to allow the simulation of armor that were making him so ornery. ¡°Fine, let¡¯s switch scenes for the walk there so we don¡¯t get attacked.¡±


    ¡°But aren¡¯t we walking so you can enjoy the scenery? The pretty fake virtual trees we could¡¯ve seen from the bus.¡±


    She huffed, ¡°I can¡¯t win can I! I simply wanted to enjoy walking through the trees of Malern in Legends with you and you just keep complaining!¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    He looked at his feet sheepishly which caused an interesting grinding noise from his armor. She loved how realistic everything felt and looked and even sounded in this game! Even the noise from the people around them was dimmed by the programming and hardware in their bodies.


    ¡°Sorry Melody. I didn¡¯t mean to get annoyed, I just¡­ I enjoy playing this game with you, but really, why are we walking to this location?¡±


    She sighed. She couldn¡¯t actually tell him anything. ¡°I have an item I need to activate at a certain location. I need to be in a party to be able to activate it. And it¡¯s not that far. The walk is good for our basic daily stamina experience gain.¡±


    ¡°Are we almost there then?¡±


    She pulled up the map overlay. It was just around the corner.


    ¡°Yup. We¡¯re almost there.¡±


    ¡°Thank God. Really Mel, please at least explain stuff before dragging me off on some ridiculous expedition to find some shrine or another.¡±


    ¡°I will next time. I just thought this didn¡¯t need much explanation.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t¡­ Really¡­ I give up.¡± He threw his hands up in the air in mock defeat and she smiled and laughed at his gesture.


    ¡°Oh! An epic quest just popped up on my radar with the Sword of Akabosh as a reward!¡± He exclaimed.


    ¡°Ok. Cool. We can do that after I get my item.¡± It would be a useful item to have, but after they used her item they would get more experience from the epic quest.


    He looked a little distant, as if reading through some online screens. ¡°The Sword of Akabosh is a rare greatsword that does fire damage to enemies.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d hate to be on the other end of PvP combat with flame damage.¡±


    ¡°I know! I can¡¯t wait to get this sword.¡±


    They turned the corner and she could see the vine covered front entrance of the temple with its oak double doors. It was neat how the entry looked like the walls were stones placed between trees with vines dangling down them.


    ¡°Here it is.¡± It was quite a pretty building, but unlike most game temples, it didn¡¯t look like it was a church outside the game. She wondered what it looked like outside of the game. There was no steeple for one thing. Maybe it was just a small office building in reality. Nothing was as cool looking outside the game though. Probably better to never see it outside the game.


    He shrugged. ¡°Cool, can we go in and get this item or whatever and get on an air conditioned bus? We can look at the pretty trees from the window of the bus then.¡±


    ¡°Yeah sure.¡± She agreed nonchalantly without paying much attention to him as she pulled on the door. Either this game had done some major programming for these doors to make her feel like they were massive and heavy, or the doors on this place really were just that massive and heavy.


    The door opened into a dimly lit massive space. Trees lined the edges of the hall making the bones of the structure, and an arched glass roof allowed her to see their massive branches above the building. The light inside was all provided by the small amount of sunlight filtering in.


    The programmers must have spent time making this temple look so unique. Even the seats around the edges of the large room were made of the roots of the trees bursting through the ground to form natural bench seats for people to sit on.


    This type of design was why she played Legends over all the other *MMARRPGs out there. Half of them were super cheap in their Augmented Reality integration. The graphic overlays wouldn¡¯t be quite right. The weight mechanics wouldn¡¯t be integrated in so nothing felt real. People got what they paid for in games, and Legends went the extra mile on everything. All this detail for what was probably the lobby of an office building.


    ¡°Why are we in what looks like a church?¡± Rish asked, pointing at what looked like an altar made of tree roots at the front.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a church. That¡¯s probably the front desk of the lobby in this office building.¡± Melody shrugged as she made her way to the front. The guy up near the front in a black robe sweeping at the dirt floor was probably the quest giver and would give them the items for xp. He might even be a bot NPC put here by Legends. She really needed to stop breaking immersion by trying to guess what things were under the AR layer.


    ¡°Hey, sir! Are you the quest giver for the ¡®Pact of Lauria¡¯ item?¡± She called out to him.


    He looked up at her with what looked like annoyance. Maybe he wasn¡¯t a bot. It was hard to tell these days.


    He sighed. ¡°I might be. Let me check.¡± He moved as if he was checking through different screens.


    He probably was an actual person Legends and other games paid to give items and quests out to people.


    ¡°Yup, looks like I am. Let me read this over quickly.¡± He said as his eyes scanned something that only he was seeing.


    ¡°That guy looks like a priest.¡± Rich commented.


    Why was Rich so obsessed about commenting on what this place was? ¡°He¡¯s probably a janitor. He was sweeping a second ago.¡± Melody whispered back to Rich. She didn¡¯t want to disrupt the man¡¯s reading.


    The robed man sighed again, scratching at his dark bald head with a black gloved hand.. ¡°Ok. I¡¯ve got this down. Come stand over here.¡±


    They both moved over to where he was pointing.


    ¡°Do you two agree to quest together and gain XP together?¡± He asked.


    What a strange quest. Melody nodded. For right now she would continue questing.


    ¡°I need a verbal answer from both of you.¡± The man said with a clearly annoyed voice.


    ¡°Yes, sure! Why the hell not! I just want to get this over with.¡± Rich grumbled with clear annoyance at this quest.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Melody stated. She was really excited to be able to use this ¡®Pact of Lauria¡¯ item finally!


    The man nodded, pushed a button, and then said, ¡°The pact has been signed. You are now partners of Lauria in the name of Neparna¡±


    The air around them began to swirl in little white lines. It created a tube shape around them. Tendrils of white wind came out of the pen around them and reached for their hands. It swirled around their hands covering them from view. It dissipated after just a couple seconds leaving an unfamiliar weight on her left hand ring finger. Wait, why was there a gold band on the ring finger of her left hand?


    She looked over at Rich and saw the same on his hand. Wait. These couldn¡¯t be¡­


    ¡°YOU HARPY SHE-DEVIL!¡± Rich screamed. ¡°You just tricked me into marrying you!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Melody responded, bringing up the status sheet to look at it. It showed Rich as her partner and the XP bonus. ¡°I don¡¯t think it means we¡¯re married. Just questing partners.¡±


    ¡°Look at this dumb ring and our real life statuses you crazy woman!¡± He held out his hand and showed he was trying to remove the ring and he couldn¡¯t.


    It was a virtual item. Of course he could just easily remove it. She went into her inventory and looked at equipped items. She clicked ¡°remove¡± on the ring. A status window appeared ¡°Can not remove without divorce proceedings.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Oops.¡± Shoot. She hadn¡¯t thought this was a marriage item!


    ¡°OOPS! OOPS is all you have to say for tricking me into a marriage! I don¡¯t want to be married to you!¡± He yelled at her and then turned to the robed man, who was probably actually a priest. ¡°Can you divorce us right now? I didn¡¯t agree to be married.¡±


    The man shrugged and started sweeping again. ¡°Not my problem. You should have read the fine print. You¡¯ll need a divorce lawyer to get divorced.¡±


    Rich ground his teeth in clear frustration. ¡°Fine. Forget the sword of Akabosh. Next stop is a divorce lawyer.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s done is done. We might as well get your sword and use our XP bonus while we do so. Then we can head to a divorce lawyer.¡± Melody didn¡¯t like the thought of being married, but the XP bonus was super exciting. Maybe by being partnered for a little bit she could get ahead in her school work XP. And they would be getting a divorce anyway. It wasn¡¯t like it actually changed that much.


    ¡°Are you really that crazy? Is this you saying you want to be married to me?¡± Rich sounded exacerbated.


    ¡°No. I don¡¯t want to be married to you, but it¡¯s already done and will take some time to undo. I just figured might make the best use of a bad situation that we can.¡± She smiled thinking about the XP bonus on the next quest. ¡°Just think of all the XP we will be getting.¡±


    ¡°Fine. Sword of Akabosh first. Then IMMEDIATELY after, we will be going to a divorce lawyer.¡± He stormed toward the door not waiting for her.


    ¡°Enjoy your married life!¡± The priest called out to them as they left.


    Neither of them bothered to respond as they headed for the bus stop.


    *Massively Multiplayer Augmented Reality Role Playing Game. Similar to the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games of the past, but overlaid on top of the real world to form a true Augmented Reality/Virtual experience.