Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 2 - Part 1

Privacy mode wouldn’t be enough to hide my identity from anyone that saw me in person, so I took out a dark gray cloak and pulled its hood over my head. Gravel prided itself in realism, so hiding my facial features made it so that other players would be unable to identify me unless I was grouped with them. Once in the guildhall there were ways around this, but I should have enough time to pull off what I had in mind. I ported over to a newbie area while keeping my hood on.

Finding a new player, I approached him as he looted a slain zombie. It was one of the lowest level creatures in the game and had slow, exaggerated movements. Perfect for new players who wanted to get right into the action but still needed to get a feel for the game’s physics engine.

“Give me your sword and newbie garment,” I said, requesting a trade.

I saw it in his face. He was a pleasant looking guy except for a hooked nose, which made his scowl look rather impressive. But when he saw the one hundred gold in the trade window, he stripped quickly as if it had been his idea.

After he accepted the trade, I ported away and inventoried all my old gear. All that I wore was the newbie robes under my cloak and had the starter short sword strapped to my waist.

As I arrived at the guild entrance, it was impossible to not notice the remodeling. Greek style columns lined the building on every side. There was an arched entryway with its door opened inward and out of view. The size dwarfed all but a few of the buildings in Hobgrave, the main player city in Freedom. It was hundreds of yards wide and five or six stories tall. It would take half a dozen people holding hands to fully embrace a single one of its columns.

I stepped through the doorway without a problem. Disguised or not, I was still a member of guild Nexus.

Walking into the guildhall, I slowed, immediately recognizing the gigantic room’s layout. There were three levels with a little more than a yard of elevation between each of them. The first level was filled with the most people who were walking past or stood there in groups conversing. The second level was like it, but had round tables and most of the people there sat. The third level was even smaller, and those sitting were facing those in the rest of the room.

“Destiny,” I whispered.

She already knew what I was going to ask and didn’t need me to say more. “Its design is based on the Prodos Tavern,” she said as my personal system AI where no one else could hear. “I don’t have all the details, but when you discovered Chewme’s version of Nexus and declared yourself a fellow founder, St3alth and the other veteran members were forced to choose between you or him after your confrontation. There was even talk of lawsuits. They didn’t hesitate to choose you. That saved them from a lot of problems, but there were a lot of people that thought they betrayed Chewme. That’s when St3alth started doing interviews. As you got stronger, and became more popular, they went all in on backing you, and as an extension, Prodos. I’ll let St3alth tell you the rest in his own words.”

As my personal AI, no one could see her, and they could only hear her if she wanted them to. She was like a voice in my head, giving me useful feedback.

Seeing that the guildhall was laid out in levels, I was faced with a problem. As soon as I stepped onto the second, I’d probably be confronted and questioned. I was careful to glance up to the third level without removing my hood. St3alth was sitting there conversing with a few familiar faces.

So how should I handle this…

I could take the direct approach or contact an old friend to make it easier to get close. Why take the easy way when chaos was much more fun?

Finding the stairs to the next level, I scaled them as a man with purpose. I made it halfway past the first table when a red robed fighter with a spartan-type helm stood and blocked my path. Instead of simply coming to a stop, I waved him closer and leaned forward to give him little choice. Then I whispered where only he could hear. “We are about to be attacked. I have information St3alth needs to hear.”

I gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder before literally pushing him aside and stepping past. Gravel’s physics equations weren’t based on your characters stats, but your body’s real physical features. With my real world strength and increased weight since last time I played, moving him aside was almost too easy. It had all happened so fast that he wasn’t sure what to think and didn’t immediately pursue me.

Nodding to anyone that glanced in my direction, I marched forward. They’d seen the man let me pass, so no one was quick to stop me a second time.

It was only when I reached the stairs to the third floor that I started to pull up the side of my cloak. Reaching the top level, I unsheathed my newbie short sword that looked more like it was made out of white plastic than steel and held it up where all could see.

A sudden hush came over the room. It took a few seconds for those on the bottom level to realize there was something going on and to quiet down. The hundreds of players in the room didn’t react that way out of fear or danger. They saw the sword I held and knew how harmless it was.

“Who let in the idiot?” St3alth called out, looking up at me with annoyed indifference.

As the rest of the room rumbled with laughter, I got my first good look at St3alth and immediately knew why Destiny wanted me to see him in person. He wore new black-leather armor of the highest level which I didn’t even know the name for because I’d been gone for an entire year. His cloak was missing, and he didn’t wear a helmet or gloves. This wasn’t like Freedom where things could become uncomfortable if you wore them too long. He simply wasn’t equipped for a fight.

He was a Korean-American with a thin face, but defined jaw. He had popstar good looks and that hadn’t changed. What had was the thickness of his neck and shoulders. His face still looked thin, but his jaw was even more defined than before. I already guessed what he’d been up to. The reason he wasn’t playing Gravel as much was because he was training in hopes of getting in on the next stage of the coming war.

Destiny and I had already agreed on what voice to use earlier, so as I spoke, the most whiney high pitched squeal came out of my mouth. “St3alth! You’ve been talking about me behind my back!”

Without even letting me finish, the crowd erupted with one giant snicker. No one cared to stop me. I presented no visible danger. St3alth didn’t even bother laughing but turned back to the man he was talking to.

“You dare to turn away from me!” I squeaked.

As if it was even funnier than the first time, the laughter only grew.

Lowering my sword in one smooth motion, I thrust, jabbing St3alth right in the chest. I used arm strength only, and just a fraction of what I possessed. My newbie blade thudded off his armor, doing zero damage.

There was a moment where everyone seemed to choke on the absurdity of it all when a delayed woman’s voice called out with unnatural volume. “Poke.”

It was going better than I could have hoped for. The laughter became even louder in response to Destiny’s shout. Not only was there still no one trying to stop me, but they were treating it as the funniest thing they’d seen in weeks. Instead of a guild of players, they were an audience witnessing the foolishness of a young troll.

I almost wanted to pull out my character’s actual weapon, but I immediately decided against it. It really wasn’t necessary for what I had planned.

Someone called out for someone to kill me, but no body approached. It was still a warning that soon someone would try to stop me, and it looked like St3alth would soon figure out what was going on.

I lowered myself into a widened stance. Newbie sword or not, Gravel’s physics system was still based upon the real world.

“Die!” I cried, throwing my sword forward with a true thrust.

St3alth’s gaze fell upon me as the newbie blade plunged into his chest around the same spot as before. The sword’s poor quality mattered little as it dug into his max level leather. His jaw shot open as the air was driven out of his lungs. Giant red text reading -513 HP floated up over his head for all to see. It wasn’t much compared to his 4,000 plus HP, but the damage had been caused with a newbie weapon. The weakest in the game.

As if the rest of the room had the air knocked at of it under the same blow, everyone was suddenly silent.

Destiny chose that moment to shout again. “Super poke!”

My old friend that had just been pounded in the chest rocked back into his chair shaking his head. He’d felt the forty percent pain maximum the game would allow, but it only lasted a few seconds. Even then he’d never ben a slouch when it came to dealing with it. One corner of his mouth inched up into a half grin.

In the next instant, the entire room had come to its feet and drawn their weapons.

Spinning, I found a group more than five times the size of the total number of members guild Nexus had when I left facing off with me.

Before anyone could make a move, St3alth came to his feet behind me and reached forward, pulling back my hood. As my identity was revealed, the tumult was replaced with muffled astonishment. Then in the next instant, I was mobbed.

Never before had I seen such a drastic change come over a group of people so quickly. That wasn’t exactly true. When Victoria had interrupted the semi-hostile Council of Guilds by firing off the strongest psionic blast anyone had ever seen to kill Jayden who was standing across the room, that had been just as quick.

They didn’t mob me with weapons, but back pats and words. It was like having a hundred Kline’s in the room congratulating me all at once.

Out of everyone I missed since leaving Freedom, Kline was at the top of the list. With his full beard and fervid gaze, he could pull off both the goofiest, and most intimidating facial expressions I’d ever seen. He entered Freedom as a black MMA athlete looking to remind the world how amazing real martial arts could be. He ended up becoming one of the most powerful fighters in all of Freedom and was like an older brother to me… In some ways I’d surpassed him, but if anyone would catch me, it would be him. He was as cunning as he was unyielding. Even now, I doubted I’d be able to win every exchange against him. He hadn’t unlocked as many abilities as I had with his psionics, but he’d strengthened his walls to an absurd level.

Even as I was being bombarded by the crowd, St3alth sent me a group invite and I accepted it.

His first greeting wasn’t for me, but for my AI. “Hello, Destiny.”

“Hey. Looking good St3alth, but don’t let my compliment go to your head.”

“Oh come on. Aren’t you lonely after sitting around in a box over the last year?”

I couldn’t see him since he was still standing behind me, but I could easily imagine his smug look. My attention was drawn back to what was going on in front of me as I shook someone’s hand. St3alth really hadn’t changed. At least not on the surface, but there we had a conversation coming, and I knew nothing could remain the same.

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Author Note:

So this chapter is fully written, but the last part is being stubborn. There's a lot of little nuance things I'm trying to fit in without it feeling stilted, so I'm going to give it a fresh read in the morning before posting the second part. You can expect it early in the day. 

Cheers!