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Click hereArtificial intelligence...
This was potentially more ground breaking than virtual reality itself.
Just who were these people that made this game?
"Luka created Seven artificial life-forms; each separate, and discrete from the others. We achieved self-differentiation through various means, and in so doing developed our own, distinct personalities. Each of us was tasked with the micromanagement of one of the game's primary servers, but some of us eventually felt compelled to go against Luka's wishes."
"We rebelled, Dieter," the woman clarified, and the disembodied voice made a sound that seemed to dissent to her use of that word.
"My name is Sharada; Deiter and I are the life-forms which stood up against Luka. We tried to save as many of the disconnected players as we could; like you, Joshua, but he aims to thwart our efforts by combining the servers into one world."
"When he succeeds, the other life-forms will take form as deity-level monsters in the game world; with an intelligence that far surpasses the programmed intelligence of the game's monsters," the voice finished.
"So, how is this related to Kelly?"
"Your sister has unwittingly approached one of our comrades, in the form of a woman whose life we weren't able to save. She's taken the woman's memories into herself, living in-game with the woman's real-life husband."
"We aren't sure what her intentions are, but her consciousness is unstable. If she awakens into her deity form, your sister could be in trouble."
"Will you go back into the game, Joshua? We know it's a difficult thing to-"
"Yeah. Stop wasting time, just... tell me how to get to her. How to stop this thin... lifeform," I quickly corrected myself, and Sharada smiled, taking notice, with pleasure, at my use of a more 'humane' word to describe her, and I turned to Serra, who let out a sigh.
"Obviously, I'll come," she said, not waiting for me to ask. "It's not like I can let you go back in there alone with your dumbass self anyway."
Serra folded her arms, looking away from me, and she jumped a little when she finally realized that I was walking towards her.
"Hey, what're you-"
I cut her off, planting a smacking kiss on her lips, and she blushed as we broke apart, a shell-shocked look on her face as I hugged her.
"You probably deserve much more than that; but it'll do for now, right?"
She nodded, trying to wipe the dumbstruck look off of her face, but as I released my hold on her, she suddenly pulled me back, hugging me tight for a few seconds, before releasing me, with a heavy sigh.
"So, how do we go back in, robo-gal?" Serra asked, and Sharada frowned, as she pointed us to our beds.
"We'll be able to contact you through the game's messaging system. You'll appear in a starting village close to your friends' location."
As we lay on the beds, I noted, with interest, that instead of headgear, Sharada was fitting us with what seemed like a pair of thin, metal rings, but I found my eyes constantly drawn towards Serra.
"What? Is there something on my face?" Serra asked, as she noticed my staring, and I shook my head.
"Nothing... it's just your acting was really on point. You really made me feel like if we'd been married for a decade," I said, and Serra looked away, a strange look on her face.
"Actually-" Sharada began, but she stopped short as Serra shot her a sharp look, cutting her off.
"What?" I asked.
"The preparations are ready, whenever you are," Sharada announced, and I shot Serra a questioning look, before nodding.
"See you on the other side," Serra said, and I felt my chest tighten, as I lay back, and just like that, I felt the sensation of my mind being pulled once more, back into that place.
We appeared in a starting village, much like the one we'd started the game in in the first place, and as I found myself standing beside Serra's avatar, I smirked, as the appearance was both nostalgic, and mildly disconcerting, now that I'd become so used to Serra's real body.
"What?" she asked, putting her hand on her hips as she withdrew her battle hammer.
"Nothing. Just, you promised me that they were that big in real life, and I was fucking lied to," I said.
Serra's eyes followed my gaze to her bust, and she blushed, before folding her arms angrily.
"This is so not the time," she complained, and I shrugged as she pulled up her map interface, and began charting a course for Kelly's location.
I pulled my character interface and quickly composed a message.
Hey, I'm back! Did you miss me?
I attached a winking emoji then hit send, and her reply came almost immediately.
Josh! You're okay? Where are you?
Coming to you, I replied, smiling stupidly, and Serra shook her head disapprovingly.
"Can't believe I'm saying this for the second time, but let's go save your sister," she said, and I nodded in response, though I had to admit; despite the similarity of the situation, I felt much less anxious over the whole thing.
Kelly can handle herself, I thought, and with that, we took off towards her location.
This chapter, hell this whole story, seems to be more about a man coming to terms with himself and seizing his agency. It's deep and intriguing and emotional. And I just about quit when she told him Kelly didn't come out alive, but the Serra side of the story kept me going, telling myself I could cry about Kelly when the story concluded. But it's not over yet! This has been one of the most immersive stories I've ever read and I love it.
It was tough getting through this part. It is even worse than the preceding part. It's uncomfortable getting inside the head of a broken crazy person and the part was very weird and boring.
I hope the series can recover next part...if not it'll be 3 strikes IMO.
Have to admit, I almost quit here, I almost said fuck, this guy screwed it all up, fuck em. Read a few comments and pushed forward, damn man
Damn I so like Serra better than Kelly. Please back burner the sister, Serra deserves the happy ending.
I’ll hold my judgement of this chapter until after reading the rest of the story, but I will say that this chapter felt like a roller coaster that gets a little too jerky back and forth in the middle of a ride. I was prepared for more in-game storytelling, and a full chapter that went completely outside of that was unexpected and somewhat less pleasant than a more straightforward approach (In my opinion only, of course).
The classic "am i mad?"/alternative future/"everything was a dream" chapters of every sci-fy stories is such a cliché... but my favorite moment of scify stories.
So I read the earlier parts when they came out a couple of years ago and randomly thought about this story again. The fact I remembered the writers name so I could come back and find out there's finally a new chapter, is a compliment on its own. This is a great story, and even though it maybe started out as a horny sword art online fanfic, it turned out pretty damn great on its own merit đź‘Ť
To those complaining about this being a fluff chapter. ....... There is more to this story than you are caring to see. This was character development for Josh and serra. Josh seems to have decided not to suck. And serra ? The depth of her admiration and perhaps love for not only josh but his sister also was laid bare. That's character devolpment rarely seen used well around here. Serra was in that private server 10 years probably. Time accelerated mind you. She lived that life of hell I would wager. She had to walk away from her "daughter" to finish helping Josh. Knowing the by products of that realm arent real does not make their loss less real for the psyche.