System Break

It was dark, wind was blowing in my face and there was extremely loud machine running. It took me a moment to realise I was in a helo, in the edge seat with my gun in one hand and roof mounted strap in the other. For some reason I wasn't buckled in and the helo banked, so I leaned. I could see the ground, I felt if I reached out I could almost touch it.

The helo straightened and I looked to my left - my squadmates faces were all blurry. I knew them well; we were like a family, but they were far away. They were there, but unreachable.

"Hey," I called out, but my voice was drowned out by the helo. I couldn't talk to my squadmates, I didn't have a headset and my voice was carried away on the wind.

I looked out the open side - to my right - into the night sky and I felt a tug inside my gut. There was no voice, no magic fairy telling me to jump but when the helo spun I wasn't surprised. I let go of the strap and I flew. Everything went dark.

When I woke I was in the familiar pool. I shivered at the remembrance of my accident. It was a dream, but it was vivid and brought back all the emotions from what felt like a lifetime of being paraplegic. Actually, I was still an invalid, even worse than before, but I didn't feel that way. The new Qi World set me free.

Sakaala, or Jia, had come to get me during the night because her father had called an urgent meeting.

There were still two portals. One was back to my body, but I had no idea where the second went. I pushed at the blue film covering the entrance. It was like a vertical pool of crystal blue water. It was weird the portal was there, but it was closed. What could it mean. Did I put it there somehow without knowing what I was doing. It appeared after I moved but that was my only clue.

I swam to the portal and back into my body. It wasn't long before I was ushered into a meeting room with Gan, Jia, and their father.

Gan shot me a warning glance as soon as I entered, and my robot pulled up to a space that was left for me at the long table. Images and graphs appeared on the table, but I ignored them and looked at the people present.

"Hey," I said.

"Thanks for coming on short notice," Xie said. "There's been a development and some disturbing matters have come to my attention after a forensic review."

"Sure."

Gan looked at the table and did not meet my eyes again. Jia leaned back with her arms folded.

"We'll start with the most urgent. The two directors who're logged into the game have gone missing and we can't severe their connection. They have a black site somewhere and their own backdoor. I've had my best people on it and they came up with nothing."

"Two directors? I know the Chancellor is one, there is another?"

Xie nodded. "The old Chairman's nephew. We don't know his in game identity."

That was the first mention of another, I thought they were talking about Researcher 001, the Founder, but he wasn't logged in. He was all in.

"It's possible they separated from their bodies," I said. "They're entirely in the game and left this world for good."

"Even if that was possible, why would they do that?" Xie asked.

I looked at my useless legs, as much as I could with a head that could barely move. "It's alright here for you, but for me it's a much better place."

"You're well compensated and looked after," Xie said as if that mattered. It was easy for someone who was abled bodied to take what they had for granted. You didn't miss it until you lost it and then your world view changed.

"It is possible - they were concerned I would do what Researcher 001 did when I was there and then they would lose me. Do you have him in your files?"

Xie brows furrowed. "We'll look into that. You're right all possibilities should be considered at least." He sighed. "This piece of vital information brings us to another issue. Why is this the first we've heard of this? And this is only one item – you're not meeting KPI. You're not following orders from your superiors."

"My superiors?"

"Gan and Jia. You report to them in and out of game. They both have their own sections and KPIs."

"How can I have two superiors? And this is news to me."

Xie frowned. "I suspected as much. They've been giving you too much free reign. From now on you'll report to Jia and follow her directives."

My eyes darkened. "I didn't sign up for this. The deal was I would do what I wanted in game as long as I discovered new abilities."

"And that has been severely lacking. You're not saving your new techniques in the quickbar  and when you improve them you're not saving the updates."

"But I'd be giving away all our hard work to the competition. I don't want every adventurer being able to do what we do with a simple UI activation."

"But that's your job. That is what we pay you for. That's why you're given a place to live, a state of the art robot assistant and our protection. This is just a game and the last thing you should be thinking about is competition with paying customers."

"We're behind on so many fronts, we have a competitor launching this month, directors disappearing, and we haven't made first contact with the gatekeepers yet. What will we do if the gatekeepers cut us off from the Qi Worlds? Why are you running around buying forts when you should be focused on uploading skills and finding the gatekeepers."

"Finding the gatekeepers wasn't one of my tasks," I growled. It was a goal I'd set myself, but none of them had mentioned it before now.

Xie slammed the table. "Can you comprehend the position we're in? We've lost track of a former director who has the only connect with the gatekeepers and we have a major competitor entering the market. We have no idea how Joseon Industries got their alpha up and running so quickly but they're searching for candidates now. We're lucky we have a mole in their executive team."

I was angry. All of their issues had little to do with me. "So your failures are all my fault somehow? What am I - Your scapegoat?"

"We're all on the same team," Ailen said. "It's not your fault, but it's all our responsibility."

Xie's face turned red. He looked like someone who was used to getting his own way. "Get the fuck out," he yelled. "All of you. If I don't get results quick I'm cutting you all off."

He stood and seethed. "That's not a threat – it's a promise." Then he stormed out.

Ailen sighed. "I tried to warn you." He shook his head. "Next time just agree with everything he says and promise to do better."

"Fuck that," I said. "He's a grown man. He should be able to admit his own mistakes."

Ailen shook his head. "You don't know many billionaires do you."

Jia laughed and it was a mocking sound. Ailen stared at her. "You didn't prep him did you?"

She tilted her head and smiled. "He's his own man."

Ailen looked at me. "I knew fucking and dumping her was a huge mistake."

I had to agree with him. "Let's not cry like children. We just need to cut the chancellor's head off and take over the relationship with the gatekeepers." I frowned and had my robot take me back to the pod.

I left and Ailen put his head in his hands.

"Don't cry little brother you'll be fine," Sakaala said.

He looked up at her. "You two are infuriating. You're both out of control children."

She smiled and shook her head. "You're naïve. You have no idea what just transpired."

"What?" he asked.

She stood and walked out of the conference room chuckling to herself the entire time.

Ailen slammed the table. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. Just when things were going so well."