North American Broadcast Corporation (NABC) newsroom

Oct 25, 2046 :09:00 AM EST

Both women stared at the empty chair, one concerned the other annoyed. The male news anchor had logged out of the newsroom virtual studio 10 minutes before to use the rest room. As the on-air light went green the camera shifted to leave out the empty chair and center on both smiling women. The reporter started speaking as soon as the prompt flared to life, earning her a hate filled glare from the blonde anchor. “Crisis update! Authorities have attempted to block new e-purchases and new user registration for Siarra’s MMORPG expansion to the massively popular Esper online; but are reporting something stopping them.” The anchor cut in, “To add to issues across North America automated, cars, work droids, and other AI controlled machines have become unresponsive.” The producer waved to a small screen which both women looked at then froze in shock . The reporter recovered first. “Breaking Update! This video you are seeing is a live feed from our on the ground news teams at NYU. If you can not tell. Those are students being pulled out of the dorms, by automated trash collection androids. That vehicle we are seeing them be placed into is a trash collection vehicle with some kind of new wireless net connection.”

The anchor had her hand to her ear and nodded, “Our team on the ground are now hearing from students. Those people being taken are all Esper Online Players who are currently logged on. Everyone else is being ignored by the rogue robots.”

The market square was packed with people. The guards had started removing frozen players, but it was now impossible due to the numbers of active players milling around. I was rather glad; I had left Ace in the Inn asleep. The poor boy had been snoring loudly before his head even hit the pillow. Then with this thick of a crowd the chances to get separated was high. As I watched two players bumped into each other, being pushed by crowds on both sides. The collision resulted in name calling, then blows and ended with one player a headstone and the other being led off by the guards. The crowd was starting to get restless and rowdy, so I understandably jumped when a hand touched my back.

Trying to spin around and draw my sword. I hit a person on my left and elbowed one on my right. Both gave me dirty glares and pushed away from me.

Turning slowly, I saw the small girl from earlier there, her eyes were red rimmed and fresh tears ran down her face. “My Papi hasn’t woken up. He is still in his grave. Is he going to be okay?” I tried to kneel but bumped into more people. Instead I put my arm around the poor girl and hugged her as best as I could. “I’m sure your dad will be fine. Let’s hear what this numb skull has to say, then you can log off and see what is keeping him. I bet he is just eating your food.” I said the last with a mischievous smirk. The girl looked at me and half smile, “He better not!” Keeping my arm around the girl I went back to watching the raised stages, not sure where I should be looking.

A minute later a voice called above the din, “Hey Azriel! Turning I saw a figure pushing through the crowd toward me. She sauntered up to me, moving in a sexy walk with chest thrust out and hips swaying. Or at least as sexy as a rotting corpse could, her flesh was either hanging loosely and grey or completely missing showing dull red muscle beneath. Her cataract covered eyes were capable of seeing clear enough though because the stayed locked on me as she pushed through the last couple people separating us. I took a second to examine her tag.

Penelopy Cruz (3)

Brotherhood of Steel

HP 100%

Mana 100%

Stamina 100%

Her Status bar had the name Brotherhood of Steel attached so I assumed this was Penelopy a guild officer from Nirvana. The girl at my side made an ecking sound upon seeing the Deathless woman and buried her face in my cloak.

“Penelopy Cruz?” I asked the rotting woman.

She smiled, half her face did anyway. “Like the pun? I figured this was a perfect set up.” She gestured to herself again half smiling.

Laughing I nodded, “I like it.”

The smile faded, “Hey look I’m sorry about the officer thing. I was overruled.”

I paused my smile slipping at the edges. Penelopy was and I assumed still was one of the Guild officers.

I shrugged, “I don’t kiss enough ass to win votes from the Officers.”

Penelopy shook her head, “Na there is only 7 of us right now. You Got 4 votes for Yes. It was Lothorb who denied you. He claimed to get three votes as Clan Master.”

I grit my teeth, “That Arrogant son of a… He has never liked me.”

Penelopy shook her head sending limp stringy hair waving, “No not after the Raid on Deep Watch, where he led the raid for 6 hours and failed to complete it. Pissed he left us there calling it a failure. We nearly disbanded, our gear was broke as shit and the expendables were gone. Then you come in, throw down a mobile repair forge and take leadership.”

I laughed, “Yeah it still took us another two hours to complete that damned dungeon though.” She shrugged, “But we did.”

“Yeah, I guess. Anyway, he isn’t Clan leader anymore, no he is Guild leader.”

Penelopy laughed, “Clan or Guild. Just a new name no difference.” I smiled but didn’t feel like explaining that there was a difference now.

Instead I gestured around and asked, “What do you think of this deal?”

The undead woman looked around, skin on her neck cracking and peeling as she did. “I’m not sure. I’ve not tried to log out myself, but a few of the others said they were going to see if they could get over to Nirvana. Then they were supposed to come back and let us know. “ She paused and looked me in the eyes, “They haven’t come back on yet.”

I nodded and pat the top of the girl’s head, thinking of her dad.

A commotion near the Auctioneers platform caught my attention. After a moment I could see Pollaris Standing there waving his hands to get the crowd to quiet.

The crowd settled and a tense silence fell over the square. Pollaris started speaking but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Someone shouted, “Speak up man!” Shouting he tried again, “I know yall are all here about the Log Out issue and the Stiffs.” People around me muttered and cursed the man. “So yall,let me jump right to the point. I was part of a police effort to get players to log out of the game.”

Someone shouted, “Why are the police interested? I can click Log Out right now!” Agreements went through the crowd.

The man looked in the direction of the speaker but went on as if not hearing anything, “My team came in game to help a family with a diabetic son. He needed to log out to take his medication. We came in, and one of the team was to log out immediately to report. He never came back. We never found the boy either. All attempts to contact the GM’s have failed. Every hour since then one more of my team has logged out. They were supposed to log back in immediately. None have come back.”

Another voice a woman’s this time, “What if they log in and are on another server? That made sense kind of.

Pollaris shook his head, “Na yall, if that is all it was then players who logged out would be reporting a different server each time. No one is logging out though!” “What about the Stiffs? They logged out!” More hopeful or angry agreements ensued. Pollaris waited for the crowd to quiet again, “I do not know. I think those players are still here, just not able to move. Their connections to the ER net stay online.”

People started to shout and scream. I was pushed in two directions at once, as some tried to leave, others tried to get closer to the podium. Fights broke out all around. Then Pollaris was shot with an arrow and the crowd dissolved into chaos.

Reaching down I picked up the girl. She started to struggle and squirm. “Hey relax. I’m trying to help. These people are going crazy.” She tensed like she was going to keep fighting then grabbed my neck and held on. After the third person ran into me and tried to shove me to the side, I realized the difference between my RL self and Azriel. Here I was stronger than the average person. Sure, I wasn’t that orc who just picked people up and tossed them. But I was a stone in a river of flesh. I moved slowly out of the square. Near the edge close to a side street I passed guards who were trying to rush into the square and put a halt to the violence before it spread. The first chance I got I turned off a main street and began moving through back streets and alleys towards The Roost. It took me nearly 30 minutes to travel the half dozen city blocks, but I avoided more large crowds and the worst of the panicked players. Reaching the Inn, I burst inside still carrying the girl. Ace was downstairs looking worried. “You left me sleeping!” The boy shouted at me. I glared at him and he quickly subsided seeing the worry on my face. Turning to the Inn keep I said, “You may want to bar your doors for a few hours. Only allow in people you know or those who have a room. People are upset and upset people do dumb things.” The innkeep rushed over to the door and barred it. “You were the only patron out. Everyone else is still in their rooms.” I shuddered thinking what that meant but I said nothing. Sitting the girl down I addressed the Innkeep again. “Do you have anything to eat I need to think, and my stomach says it could do with some food.” The Innkeep nodded, “Sure, umm for 3?” I looked at the girl and then Ace. They both looked at me blankly, no help there. “Yeah three will be fine.” 10 minutes later we were the only people sitting in the common room, oatmeal, bacon , and toast sat in front of each of us. I barely ate thinking about what Pollaris had said. I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but I wasn’t sure I didn’t either. I kept watching the City chat for someone to deny the claims. There was plenty of people saying they were going to log off and right back in. But no one ever said they had just logged back in. There was one who tried to fake it, but they were called out immediately. It was easy enough to see a Stiff versus a normal player. Stiff was the term now being associated to the players who were logged off and not active.

Ace ate his food like the preteen age boy he was, where the girl pushed hers around her bowl with worried looks. I finally pushed my plate to Ace the third time he gave it a wistful look. There was one thing for sure, if this was a hoax it was working. When the girl almost fell asleep in her bowl for the second time. Her head waved down then jerked up again quickly, I decided we must get some sleep.

Going upstairs I looked at the two rooms. I hoped Lien wouldn’t mind… Opening her door I led the girl in.

My worries fell apart the moment the girl saw Lien, “I’m not sharing a room with that!” I flinched at the wording. Was that really what Lien was now a that? I hope not.

“Well I do not think your dad would approve of you sleeping with me.” I said matter of factly. The girl glared at me, “I can sleep on my own! I just don’t understand why I can’t log out. I could sleep in my own bed then.”

I knelt, “You can log out if you want, but You heard that man. If something is going on it could mean you might not be able to return to real life or log back in here either. It doesn’t hurt someone to sleep in ER, in fact the rest you get is the same as you would in normal sleep. So, if we go to sleep now maybe this will all get sorted out. At least maybe we will here from the GM’s or Dev’s.”

The girl thought about it then nodded, “I sent Papi a letter saying I was going to be with you. When he gets back on, he will find one of us.” She looked at lien’s stiff form, “But I’m still not sleeping with that! I want my own room.” Growling in frustration I went into my room and gathered up my things. Returning to Lien’s room I put them down and said, “Fine your room is across the hall. Make sure you lock the door. I’ll have a key just in case.” The girl left leaving me Ace and the stiff Lien in this small room. With a sigh I set my packs down in the corner, rearranged liens next to it and looked at Lien. Would she kill me if she woke up with me sleeping next to her? Yes, she would. I lay on the floor and then cursed. Ace gave me an odd look, so I glared at him. 5 minutes of trying to find a comfortable position and failing I finally gave in. I was sleeping she was doing… well what ever it was she didn’t need the bed as much as I did. Picking her up I sat her on the small desk, back to the wall and feet hanging off. She looked like she could have just been sitting there. Laying down I shut my eyes and was out the instant my head went horizontal.