“Are you ready? asked Patrick Cork, stroking his beard."Yes," I replied. I had been waiting for this day for a long time.I was nervous, it was the day of the worldwide launch of Allsium.Millions of people queued at AfroCrop headquarters to have the chip implanted that gave them access to the system.Allsium would go on the market with two game modes.The first was the one I had experienced five years before: stories lasting a maximum of ten days, that is, a year and a half in Allsium. They were adventures of an individual type, everything was created by the experience, fears and dreams of the participating subject.The second dealt with massive virtual reality. Worlds that AfroCorp had created so that all the players in the world could go on adventures and interact with each other. It was something like the evolution of massive online role”playing games, a game mode that would take entertainment to a new level never seen before. Players could experiment, as I had done in Allsium in
It was curious to see how the leaves of the few trees that were left standing in that immense garden were stopped in the sky. The wind wasn't blowing, Gina didn't move a hair, and the black dot that the Leproiners' helicopter had become was still on the horizon. I walked around the place trying to figure out what had happened, wondering if it was the power of a path.What I didn't know was why only I could move."You have pronounced the magic words," I heard a deep voice full of wisdom. I couldn't explain it, but it was like that.I looked around, but I couldn't find the owner of the voice. I drifted away for a bit, but it wasn't long before I was back with Gina.I was astonished to see that there were two people next to her.“Who are you?They were an old man and a young girl who looked very much like Gina. I was blank and not knowing what to say."Wow, we do look alike, yes. “His voice and hair were the same, but the way he gestured and his firmness were not so similar. She wasn't a
I woke up suddenly to the feeling that thousands of ants were crawling across my face. It was Choco with his beak, he drilled me gently to see if I would come to my senses at once.“Shock… what happened?As golden and legendary as it was, the chocobo did not speak.All he let out was a grunt of pain that felt like my own.He had been shot and was on the ground trying to get up without success. He was exhausted, his last strength had been invested in saving my skin.Before he suffered any more, I thanked him and made him disappear.He did not feel the rest of the summons; no sign of Kody, Harpy, Fuego, nor of course Rexie.Losing consciousness was reason enough for the summons to dematerialize. I didn't understand Choco, but I had seen before that the golden chocobo seemed not to be subject to conventional rules."Have you come to yourself yet?" said a voice he hadn't expected.I tried to get up, but I only managed to sit down and had to hold on with my hands to keep from tipping over.
We had been fighting for about ten minutes and neither of us could finish the fight. Punches and kicks collided, dispelling waves of ice, fire, air, and electricity emanating from our pathing abilities. No wonder he was the champion of the battle arena, but given more time I would have been able to reach him in the Novingrad Coliseum.He had never fought anyone so evenly before.My ethereal, fire, thunder, or ice abilities were of little or no use against the power of his blows, which were also elemental charge. We both managed to freeze areas of our rival's body, burn others and shake discharges that left us at the mercy of the other; that when we did not use the power of the wind and we crashed against the walls of that viewpoint that began to be a shadow of what it had been."Looks like martial arts won't end this fight," Jackie Leproiner announced, a few bruises and blood on her face. You were in a hurry, right?"I don't think they'd mind waiting a bit," I replied, wiping the bloo
Chocobo Stampede ability increased his physical strength, speed, and power, as well as making him able to go through anything in his path. Needless to say, the barriers were going to be formidable challenges to his skill.We were going to check it out right away."Kuee!" He yelled when he saw me.The golden aura of his armor and plumage blinded me. Choco had also changed; he was slimmer and even more golden, if that was possible. Its feathers had grown much longer, its crest looked modern, and its beak was fearsome.Riding on it I felt capable of anything."Choco, we're surrounded by invisible barriers, see if you can break them," I suggested.Two steps back and the chocobo stampede began. He didn't know how, but Choco detected the barriers and gave them a peck, not too hard but very dry. He went on from here to there, going around and doing the same thing over and over again; we seemed to be in an invisible maze. I was going to ask him what the hell he was doing, but just as I wanted
I woke up in a dark place of no more than three square meters. A conditioned cell, shackles on the hands and feet and unbearable heat.Five days had passed since we arrived at Gardiners Island in virtuality, more than enough time for our bodies to have traveled from the old continent to New York in reality.“Anyone there? I yelled.The voice was lost in the echo of some facilities that seemed enormous."I'm here Vinci!" Greek replied. It seemed to be in the next cell. Where the hell are we?“Dagon! Are you here? “I asked for.There was no answer."Shit, Vinci, we have to get out of here now!" Greek yelled. I have my hands and feet tied, I can't materialize anything.I discovered that virtuality could no longer be accessed, it was as if that part of my brain had been torn out. The automatism that allowed anyone to enter Allsium had been switched off.Virtuality had passed into history and the New World had arrived.But somehow, I felt powerful.I took a deep breath and thought. In a te
Dagon took hours to recover and be able to walk. The fight against Ryan Leproiner had exhausted him and his healing abilities were slow to heal the severity of his injuries. Dark magic was like poison, eating away at everything in its path, especially wounds. Dagon might have lost his virtuality had he not been a holy paladin, as the damage from the dark was still taking its toll on him. Proof of this was that he could barely stand up.Gina's orders were very specific: we were to travel to New York to meet her at Gardiners Island, a private property that, apparently, was virtually Kurayami's base of operations for the American country. It was far from the big city, so it was perfect to wait for the arrival of the New World.We bought three tickets to New York. In a matter of blinks we reached New London, in the state of Connecticut. From there we had to travel by helicopter to Gardiners Island, where they were already waiting for us. I preferred to travel on Harpy's back, and since Da
London from Harpy's back looked dirtier and darker than ever. Its buildings were empty and any glimpse of art, which was not in short supply in the city, lay in ruins. An insult to history that the system could patch up over time if the New World didn't put an end to Allsium sooner. Security had fallen and, although I knew it was virtual, it hurt a lot to see how your hometown ended up demolished because of the same thing that had destroyed it in reality: human greed."There's something going on down there," Greek announced, looking up at Westminster Bridge.I took a look and ordered Harpy to come down. There was Ryan Leproiner, swelled with pride as he spoke to the masses and railed against the Kurayami rebels.However, as the Italian had pointed out, something seemed to be wrong.Dagon's limp body shimmered and broke into a shaft of light that shot up into the sky. The silence that had invaded us was broken by Harpy's high”pitched squawk.Instead of moving away from the bridge, the
"Any specific strategy?" He started asking someone who was next to me."Leave Ryan Leproiner to us," Greek replied. It's the only thing you should know, capito ?“That? He said strangely while looking at us from top to bottom, like most of those who marched next to us. And who are you?"The leader's shields," I answered with a smile on my face.There was a deathly silence, broken only by the screams of the Allsionista, who had about fifty meters to go to meet us."Are you the fucking shields?" But weren't there four? Where the hell is the leader? “were some of the questions that were heard from the different voices that were raised in the crowd, all of them with the same tone of disbelief.There was no time to answer them, but at least they had believed it. I supposed that no one in Kurayami would dare to proclaim themselves the leader's shield, especially in a situation as complicated as that one. It was funny that everyone still thought there were four, especially when that fourth s