System Break

The coldness of the stone slab seeped through my cloth pants and shirt. I sat up and inspected my shirt and the first thing I noticed were my white hands. I sighed inwardly and decided to block out the fact I was a white mother fucker. 

My clothes were nondescript - the shirt was tan, and my pants were dark grey. I swivelled and slid off the cold slab. My soft leather boots barely made little sound when they hit the floor. I bent down and inspected them; they weren't bad, and I resisted the urge to take them off I had to fit in.

The room was filled with similar stone slabs and I wasn't alone. There were a dozen other players here. My gut told me they were all from the Reds, despite Gunk dying alone, because very few others should be getting bodies. It was only allies of the Chancellor who were immune to the embargo.

"Gunt," a player who was dressed identically called. That's right Junior – the imbecile - had lumped me with the name Gunt. A true heroes name.

"Hey," I said. I knew his friends names but had no idea which was which until they let slip a hint for me at least. I grinned, "Ready to fuck this bitch up?"

He laughed. "What the ship?"

"Nah," I said and began to walk towards the obvious exit. The group of players were all male and most were headed towards the massive double doors.

We stood and waited as a group exchanging small talk. No one had swords or armour, just enough clothes to be decent and the boots. 

"Check your stats," one said, and moans ensued. They were all reset to ten and skills were totally blank. 

One of the dropped to the floor and began push-ups while the others teased the shit out of him. 

"Don't be a dick Waylander. You'll get like 0.01 and for what? So you can die like a bitch again." I was already jealous. Waylander was a way cooler name than Gunt.

My qi sight held no surprises; it worked, and we all sucked. 

The doors finally creaked open to reveal a shimmering portal at the end of a wide corridor. We filed like lemmings to the edge of a cliff, and it spat us out on to a ship.

"Keep moving," a sailor called as soon as I was through and I suspect before I arrived as well. "Keep moving," he said again and again. He pointed, "Line up at the quartermasters table. No pushing or I'll throw you overboard."

I scanned the horizon, and I couldn't see land. I looked up and it struck me that the moons were smaller than usual. They were the same moons, and the sun was the same colour, but my gut told me this wasn't the same island. It was off somehow.

There were no purple clouds, and the sky was a clear blue. They had all been through here before, so I kept my mouth closed.

The guy in front of my said his name at the table, "Vengance." The quartermaster marked it off and handed him a sword and scabbard. All of the reds had selected Swordmaster archetype, so it was no surprise. 

I collected my trashy sword and moved aside, but I hovered near the table to listen to all the names and try to remember something about their features which stood out.

Salamander had green eyes.

Vengance was taller than most of us and he had black hair.

Waylander had a bent nose.

If Junior was to be believed Stonk was an idiot. I was glad, because the denser he was the less chance he would blow my cover.

"Where have you been?" he asked. This friendly guy had to be Stonk.

"You know," I said and indicated my crotch. "The ladies can't resist this."

He laughed and said, "Sure, sure. They can't resist your bitcreds." He walked to the side of the boat and I followed. He looked out over the sea. "Smells good. Glad to be back and away from my old man."

I smelled the sea spray. "Yeah, same." Stonk wasn't sounding stupid so far. Maybe Junior was the stupid one.

"Are you going to cause havoc again or have you learned your lesson?" Stonk asked.

I chuckled. "Hell no."

He sighed. "They will kill you again. Just bend the knee so we can get our skills up. Bide our time."

Fuck. Junior was so full of shit. Under torture he spouted his delusions of grandeur and said nothing about a conflict with other players. Not on this scale. At least he was accurate in one area, he had a smart ass mouth.

"Maybe," I said and changed tact slightly. "But I have to eat shit from my old man back there. I come here for an escape."

"Whoa," Stonk said. "Did you do some drugs that made you self-aware all of a sudden?"

"Yeah, my new girl fed me some psychedelics. Know thyself." And then I let go a mocking laugh.

"Must have been some bender. No wonder you've been off grid the last couple of days."

"Yeah," I said. "She was great. A real eye opener."

He laughed. "Is that all?"

I grinned and looked towards the horizon. It was small at first, just peeping over the horizon, but the portal crept higher as we approached. It was soon obvious that it was massive. Big enough for the ship to sail through. I wanted to speculate with Stonk about who built it and how, but that would surely be breaking character.

Waylander was doing chin ups and still being jeered by his guildies. Stonk turned to watch with his back on the rail. And I noticed the crew of the ship ignored the antics and just went about their business.

Who paid them? How did they know we were coming? Why not just drop us in Dawnharbour or Loctris? I internalised everything because Junior was the imbecile, and his friend didn't seem all that stupid.

We sliced through the water and the portal flared as the distance dwindled. I moved to get up higher to look over the edge, but a guard made it clear I was not welcome on the higher decks - aft or stern.

I grabbed a rope which stretched up to the mast and stood on the rail. The water lapped against the side of the island and doubled back on itself. Past the edge was just sky. Flat earthers would love this place; it was literally their dream world.

The ship cruised through the portal and I couldn't take my eyes off the sky which reached out beyond. I wasn't able to see much before the portal took us, but I was sure we were floating in the sky.

It was a sky island.

We sliced through the portal and past the docks. They were built on the edge of the portal and we could have stopped and tied off, but we kept sailing past. These docks were built from wood at the edge of my island and I wondered who built them and why.

The wood was dark and covered in barnacles. They were old. Much older than the docks at Dawnharbour. But they still stood even though there was no obvious purpose. I dearly wanted to ask questions, but I couldn't. Gunt wouldn't care. I was curious but these mooks were a bunch of spoiled rich kids playing at being sword knights.

"Not safe up there," a sailor said as he passed.

"Training my agility," I said and Stonk chuckled. 

"It's not agility you need to impress the Red Queen," Stonk said.

"I know," I said, and I had no idea what would. Junior believed it was swordsmanship but now I doubted most of what he told me. "Did you work on your swordsmanship while we were out?"

Stonk nodded. "I told you I was and invited you to join – you left me unread you bastard."

"Sorry," I said and grinned. "I was otherwise occupied." Finally, Junior was right about something. The Red Queen elevated the best swordsmen. I looked Stonk up and down. "You can show me what you learned, we need to work on our stats and skills anyway."

He hunched over. "I'll try. I'm not a natural like you. I work ten times as hard and am still shit."

"If I was a natural I wouldn't have died."

He sniffed. "Sure. We'll do better this time."