MM - Chapter 90 - GERONIMO

The group marched at a brisk pace, ascending the steep, zigzag path higher and higher. Vile Peak Town grew ever more distant behind them, and early evening winds brought just a touch of warmth to the frigid mountain air. Raine didn’t allow the group to fight the rock golems that consistently rumbled to life at their approach. Swapping to his Rock Crusher title, he made short work of them.

The Superiority they would provide was too little to be worth the time. Where they were headed was a thousand times better. Besides, it would be tight to get everyone leveled and into Silverlight on time for the competition. He had also promised Mrs. Stonewhall he would attend the opening of the emporium and he definitely didn’t want to be late for that.

The group mostly talked amongst themselves as they climbed, leaving Raine to his thoughts. The only exception was TwistedReligion who nagged him every few minutes, “So, you’re basically rich now, right? I’ve got some really great ideas that could triple your credits, just hear me out!”

Raine scoffed, his tone deadly serious, “Rich? What rich? After paying your salary, I’m the broke one! How about you loan me some gold, huh? You guys must have found some good stuff while leveling. Shouldn’t you share after I helped you so much?” The hushed whispering of the group cut off, each of them glaring daggers at the back of his head. 

TwistedReligion laughed it off as if Raine’s words were a big joke, “Okay, cinema idea. You’re going to love this. It's super original. Imagine a fantasy world just like ours except portals have opened, unleashing monsters on society. After fifty years, the world ends.” Raine gave him a glare that could strip the paint off a wall. Unaware, Twisted kept right on rambling, “So, the story starts with this guy who lived through it all and gets reborn. But he’s got a dragon for a pet, no, even better, he’s got dragon eyes! Oh, and he can summon dragons! And he summons a half-elf half-dragon waifu that loves him even though he's completely powerless without her!”

Raine seriously contemplated throwing the idiot off the cliff less than a meter away, but reasoned himself out of it after remembering he needed everyone if he was going to get into the raid. “Enough messing around. I’m not interested,” Raine firmly put his foot down.

“Hasn’t that story been done like ten thousand times already?” TwistedReligion was startled into silence by Deloralicious’s bold question.

He responded with a despondent, “Oh.” Then, he started all over again, “Okay, you don’t like that one. That’s fine. I’ve got a ton more where that came from! What about a guy who spends a thousand years in a place called The Great Murim and then gets brought back to Earth as a kid but he’s super OP?! He’ll definitely have a pet, too! People love pets. If you don’t like that one, he could go to hell for a thousand years instead. But he’ll still have the pet…”

Screw it. I’ll just have to pay some random person to come.

Raine licked his lips, advancing with death in his eyes. TwistedReligion fell back a step, his foot centimeters from the cliff, “W-why are you looking at me like that? I-I don’t taste good.” Raine reached for his face and TwistedReligion flinched, turning away with his eyes closed. “I’m sorry! I’m so nervous after seeing you fight that I can’t keep my mouth shut!” When a few seconds passed without experiencing weightlessness and rushing wind, Twisted cracked open an eye to find the rest of the group had left him behind.

“Wait up! I’ve got a way better idea. It’s so original you’ll puke blood! I promise you’ll love it!”

Raine pushed them hard the rest of the way. He sprinted ahead to kill the golems in advance. At the top of the mountain, he used a single Rupture to wipe out the group of ten golems and looted the Common Grey treasure chest they were guarding. There were only a couple pieces of regular level ten equipment inside, along with a few potions. He stored them with the nearly two hundred thousand pieces he’d liberated from Righteous and Rising Endlessly.

I wish I could turn all these into credits and gold. These few basic pieces will barely be enough to jump-start my guild. I’m going to need way more gear. Crafters too. Rich my ass. I’ve never felt so poor.

Raine pushed the thoughts away and sorted his inventory to find the basic Gromglenn Skydrifters he’d purchased for everyone. They came stumbling around the last corner, huffing from exertion. Opening a trade window with them one at a time, he distributed the drifters.

Raine pointed to a nearby section of open air where rushing winds lifted high into the sky, “Activate it right away when you jump. Losing a few feet of elevation could cause you to miss the next uplift. There will be colored sections in the air, stick to the green and never go into black, grey, or orange.”

“Wait. What are you talking about?” Rhino looked between Raine and his inventory, growing apprehension written across his features.

“No time to explain. If you want what I promised you, shut up and jump,” with that, Raine dashed toward the nearby ledge and leaped with his limbs spread wide. He activated his own basic drifter and metallic bars, topped with a wide central wing, unfolded around him. Rushing wind kicked him from below, sending him higher in a sharp gust. He circled the group once, then headed north in the nearest green skylane.

“Oh, fuck yah!” Celeste shouted, eyes glistening with unmasked delight. She copied Raine exactly, quickly rising high in the air and leaning hard to fly after him. Her hysterical laughter grew more distant by the second until it was silenced by the rushing wind.

“Geronimo!” Fizgore roared, laughing as the uplift caught him. Mel was right behind him, not as excited but showing little fear. Seeing them safely activate their drifters, Rhino growled and followed with a warcry.

Deloralicious shook her head, watching them with wide eyes, “This is crazy! And the four of them are just as crazy as he is! Where did Rai-Alaric find them? I didn’t think he had any friends.”

“No clue. C’mon, this is a small step toward the epic future we were talking about, right? It’ll be easy, you got this,” Richtor ran, then closed his eyes and jumped. His sphincter squeezed tighter than a constrictor knot as he pressed the button to summon the drifter. The updraft kicked him in the gut, stealing his breath. The glorious cry he intended to use to motivate his friends turned into a wheezing, strangled moan.

Milkdud shook out his limbs. He took a few heavy breaths, mumbling to himself, “At least it's not more spiders.” Then he was gone. The last three remaining saw Raine’s form growing more distant and knew they needed to go soon or forever be left behind. The raucous caw of a level fifteen Great Eagle was the last bit of motivation they needed. With tears streaming down their faces, they jumped.

Tannis Tafell

- Patriarch of The Everlasting Phoenix Clan -

Tannis sneered at his foolish daughter. He’d heard Arya out about the coming dangers of the game known as ZionLine. After her thorough explanation, and the VRVod she’d recorded, he found himself agreeing with her sentiment, though not her cynicism. His finger tapped heavily against his favorite reinforced desk. After years of effort, the material could now withstand flechette rounds without a scratch. As always, the sound produced was crystal clear and calming to his nerves. The others flinched as the loud sound reverberated within the otherwise bare personal office.

Ready to be done with the conversation and resume his training, Tannis dismissed Arya with a wave, “You say this can’t be stopped? What nonsense! Send all three wings of the Halnugen to destroy ZLO’s HQ and purge their servers. This threat will vanish before it can materialize.”

Arya’s face twisted, “I looked into it while waiting to meet you. Nobody I’ve spoken with has any idea where the servers are now. Their HQ was cleaned out and deserted the day after the game launched and none of their administration has been in contact since then.”

Tannis tapped again, this time forceful enough that the desk quivered, “Hmm. The hypernet is hardly infallible. Track the signals being sent and received from the thetadrive headsets,” Tannis snapped and a servant scurried away. 

Minutes flew by and the same man returned. He knelt and touched his forehead to the floor, “The signals are leading to and coming directly from the hypernet nodes. It's almost like they turned the hypernet itself into the servers. We purged our node’s data and restarted it, but the signals immediately reappeared. Perhaps if we disable every node at once—”

“Preposterous!” Tannis’s anger exploded. His finger came down, packed with external force and the ancient, supposedly-indestructible wood was blown to dust. The force of his tap continued down, cratering the duracrete floor. Tannis’s robes rustled as he stalked toward the room’s only window, jaw tight with fury.

Through it, he gazed at the vast city far below. It stretched to the horizon and beyond, doing wonders to quell his rage. A billion souls inhabited this city, his city, and it was but one of many under his rule. Too many lives to count relied on his guidance to ensure they lived happy little lives free from worry or suffering. He would do what he must to ensure they remained the dutiful little worker bees that he needed.

The mere thought of convincing every government across the globe to turn off their nodes simultaneously was ludicrous. It would never happen. Not when those who were weaker had so much to gain by leaving them on and basking in the potential of ZionLine.

His voice cut through the complete silence he left in his wake, “Find the people who did this, Arya. They’ll suffer for what they’ve done.”

“I understand, father. And what of the Phoenix?”

“The Everlasting Phoenix Clan will be reborn. As the Rising Phoenix Guild, we will conquer this ZionLine. We’ve been given little choice but to go full force. It’s still possible this can be stopped, but if we hesitate and it can’t, we’ll be doomed. Divert two trillion credits immediately and repurpose the western territories for mass expansion into ZionLine. Also, begin liquidating another three trillion in real estate. Hopefully, we’ll be ahead of the curve and prices won’t have plummeted already.”

“As you command!” The servant climbed to his feet, still bowing, and backed out of the room.

Arya rose to go as well but Tannis stopped her with a raised hand, “Bring me one of these thetadrive headsets. I wish to see for myself how this game handles a grandmaster.”

Raine KongRu

Three hours of flying passed in the blink of an eye. Raine didn’t lead the group directly to Silverlight City as they wouldn’t be able to get through the gates until they were level fifteen. Instead, they flew north and west toward the kingdom’s border with the Dantinian Empire.

Long before they arrived, the group spotted two gargantuan walls separated by fifteen kilometers. Each began shortly into the mountain range and snaked across the lands. Their ends were far out of sight, even from their aerial vantage. Between both walls was barren, tarnished land swept clean of life by constant warfare utilizing skills well beyond the group’s meager capacity.

According to the lore, the Silvergate Kingdom and Dantinian Empire had been at war on and off for years. It wasn’t until players involved themselves in the conflict that it took a turn for the worst, at least for the Tri-glades. In the past, the kingdom lost the war, leading to a severe decline in industrial capability for all its inhabitants. While Raine was determined to alter the course of history, it was impossible to make a difference without a guild.

He guided them to a small town tucked into the base of the Silvergate Kingdom’s Great Wall. They dropped to the road, just shy of the little town. The Wall—as players came to call it—rose high into the air behind the town, dwarfing every other landmark and blotting out half the sky.

“Wowza. It’s way bigger from down here,” Mel spoke breathlessly, her neck craned, trying to see the top which nearly touched the clouds.

Milkdud opened his mouth to say something inappropriate but Delora’s hand was already racing toward the back of his skull, “Don’t you dare!” Milkdud, also wise to her antics, ducked and spun away from the blow.

Raine clapped his hands, calling an end to their shenanigans, “We’ve got less than twenty hours to get everyone to level fifteen and back to Silverlight City to class up. There’s no time to gawk and sightsee.”

“Less than a day?! It took us two days to go from level ten to eleven. No offense, but your friends aren’t even level eight. How are we all going to get to level fifteen in less than a day?”

“With impossible challenges, comes impossible rewards. No more questions, you’ll understand soon enough,” Raine sprinted the rest of the way to West Base Town, the others struggling to keep up. Entering offered no obstacles. A few coppers later and they were marching through streets packed with Vaaterrans and not a single other player. They stopped by the nearest tavern to bind, then were off again in a hurry.

They drew closer to the base of the wall which now seemed to loom directly over them like some ancient god. A keep that only looked small in comparison was built directly into the wall and Raine fearlessly approached its large double doors. They were wide open, guarded by two warriors in immaculate silver armor.

[Great Guardian Knight (Noble): Level 120 (HP ?????/?????)]

“Follow my lead,” Raine whispered over his shoulder. Eyes forward, he bowed deeply to the knights, “My lords, we were sent by a guard captain in Silverlight City to assist with minor exterminations. If it pleases you, we would begin straight away.”

Not one person in the group could believe that such a polite and cordial tone could actually come from Raine’s mouth. Remembering his words, they stopped gawking long enough to poorly mimic his bow. The knight on the left grunted, flipping up his visor to reveal middle aged features, “Not what I was expectin’ from our first travlas but I’ve no issue with you lot throwin’ your lives ‘way.” He hooked a thumb to the left, “Round there to the side entrance. One o’ the chamberlain’s adjutants ‘ll set you straight.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

They went where they were directed to. Once out of earshot, Celeste couldn’t help but snicker, “Thank you, my lord.”

Raine held his breath for a second, then sighed in relief when they weren’t all reduced to free-floating atoms. “You’re lucky they’re in a good mood!” He hissed at her, “Both of them are just as powerful as the guy who made all that lightning in Vile Peak Town. Also, they can still hear you!”

Her face turned pale and she swallowed hard, “Oh… Uh, sorry?”