Chapter Twenty Four: Ultimate Supreme... Monstrosity?!

"can a digital program learn? can an AI live? when does it stop being a lifeless program and become 'alive'? where are the barriers? are we so blind that we worry whether our own technology will fight back against us every time we descover something new?"

-emperorwolf.

the mongoose-shaped artificial intelligence drifted through cyberspace, the live feed of the footage of Agnak shot by on the information superhighway.
it didn't interest him.
what did interest him was his creator was in a coma... which left his body vacant.
vacant for him to inhabit!

however, it was difficult to locate his whereabouts.
the system was so huge, he could spend decades in here and still never find him.
and that was when an interesting advert passed him by.

"coma sufferers to be hooked up to online game."

he chased it down and read the article.

"sufferers of comas will be hooked up to a new VRMMORPG in an attempt to allow them to interact with the waking world, this motion was put forward by innovative game creator, and head of Ziagappsa incorporated, Jeremiah aflix, who claims it is also, in part, to allow us to contact the currently comatose 'Beta', the famous wolf everyone's been talking about."

USM grinned evilly, if he eliminated Beta's mind here, his physical body would be his for the taking!

he looked over the article and found the adress to the game.
"Vagrant Eons Online"

he hacked himself in.

---

welcome to Vagrant Eons Online registration, please sign up.
[character gender: male, female, or other?]
[male]

[character job: light-gunner, heavy-gunner, healing-mage, knight, barbarian, thief, pirate, or offense-mage?]
-ERROR, CODE DAMAGED, VIRAL INPUT DETECTED- [$w0r>sm#n]

-VIRAL INPUT ACCEPTED-

[character species: human, or other?]
[mongoose]

[character race: kelptis (land-based), mekis (aquatic), zobian (airborne), lelena (subterranian), pragma (faerie knight), or govion (demon knight)?]
-ERROR, CODE DAMAGED, VIRAL INPUT DETECTED- [h%p&r10n]

-VIRAL INPUT ACCEPTED-

[character name: ]
[Uron.]

---

-elsewhere in Vagrant Eons Online-

Draqis, a light-gunner pragma; a lupine Faerie knight who used light guns such as handguns and submachines, sat in a beautiful meadow, the digital wind blowing through his brown fur pleasantly.
"ahh, this is great, better than coma hallucinations at least."
he lay down in the soft digital grass, sighing contentedly as the bright virtual sun shone overhead.
he wagged his tail, and closed his eyes to rest "good thing monsters are rare on this map... nice place to relax..." he yawned, falling into a happy slumber.

Draqis was a coma sufferer in the real world, and like everyone else, his consiousness had been transferred to this game so they could interact.
he was only a newbie, and was only level 5, but he was confident he could raise that a bit.
each comatose user was identified by an a red triangle next to their avatar's name in the HUD, but so far, he hadn't seen anyone else yet.

that was about to change.

another user walked up from the distance, smirking at the sleeping wolf-Faerie.
"tsk tsk," the red-haired human kelptis girl shook her head "newbs, always dozin off..."
she drew a huge sword from her inventory, the blade almost matched her in size, and reared it above her head.
"cocky piece of trash!"
she swung the blade, but a longsword blocked it from her left.
she turned, seeing a red-haired human knight in blue armour glaring at her.
his chiropteran wings identified him as a govion.
he growled at her "we don't approve of PKers."
without another word, he bifurcated her, killing her character and forcing her back to whatever town square she passed last.

the lupine Faerie knight had woken "thanks, i didn't expect player killers... i was just thinkin' 'bout the game's monsters, thanks for savin' me."
"no trouble, I'm a PKK, it's what i do."
"a player-killer-killer huh? cool."
"yep, i hunt down PKers for other players."
Draqis stood and stretched "whelp, i better get a move on, prolly best to reach the next town before nightfall, y'know?"
"i do, yes."
the Faerie wolf's black insectoid wings appeared with a shimmer, and he lifted into the air "nice meetin' ya, bye!"
he flew off, leaving the knight alone in the peaceful meadow.
a message popped up for the knight.
"hm? what's this?"

"Sir stormferno, report to Jilia imediately... there's a problem. -Head Admin."

the knight sighed and retrieved a townslipper from his inventory; a whistle-like item that allowed instant travel between previously visited towns.
he blew it and vanished.

Draqis' flight to the closest town wouldn't be short, he knew that, but it was nice to see the brilliantly rendered environment, and flying did have a pleasant novelty to it.
one he'd missed for a while.
in truth, Draqis was Beta's character, but he was trying to avoid the admins and enjoy this game.
surely, things couldn't be too bad in reality.

after a 19 minute flight, he landed in the town of Praeton, a place where things were much like medieval earth was, right down to the abundance of knight and barbarian characters of the Kelptis race, as well as many mages of the same race.
while all races were welcome here, Praeton was certainly a kelptis town.
curling his wings beneath his armour and coat, Draqis strode into town, locating an inn with a few rowdy players outside, enjoying simulated alcohol.
"eh, why the hell not? maybe i'll find somethin' useful 'ere anyway." Draqis told himself, and entered the inn's bar.

NPCs were serving large mugs of likely alcoholic liquid, judging from it's colour and the simulated scent that hung in the air.
he headed up to the bench and another NPC served him, this one an 'overly well endowed' female fennec fox wearing an apron "wha'cha havin'?"
"something non-alcoholic, if that's possible."
"comin' up."

while he waited, a player beside him tapped his shoulder
"'ey, whazza idea? why dun ya get some?"
he didn't sound intoxicated, but something about the lynx's disposition put him ill at ease.
"i don't have to get any if i don't want to. 's my choice isn't it?"
"true 'nuff." he offered his paw, clad in a silver gauntlet "i'm Benkei."
"Draqis," he answered, returning the handshake politely "what race are you?"
"zobian, real pain to cloak these things, y'know?" he answered quietly, pointing to his back, where his wings likely were hidden beneath his silver armour "what's yours, kid?"
"Pragma, and mine are a ton easier to hide." he replied, just as quietly.
they shared character stats, Benkei was a knight who seemed mostly to equip eastern, asian weapons like katanas along with western, european armour, and he was level 28, and while he seemed amused at the Faerie wolf's comparitively atrocious stats and low level, he didn't bully him over it.
he even gave him some better equipment he'd picked up "was gonna sell 'em, but ya need 'em more."
"thanks, i'll repay you when i can."
"i'll take 'at as a favour pending."

the barmaid returned with Benkei's veritable jug of beer and Draqis' normally sized glass of water.
"figures," the wolf laughed "only non-alcoholic thing they serve is water!"
Benkei downed a third of the big mug's contents in one go, and smiled "yeah well, it is a bar, kid!"
"true enough." he sighed, the rowdy behaviour around him intensifying and making him uncomfortable.
"think i'mma go, gettin' a bit... loud in here."

he stood and walked out, waving goodbye to the lynx before going out the door "nice talkin' to you."

he'd been in the inn for a while, as the night sky now hung overhead, so he looked around the mostly deserted streets for somewhere he could sleep for the night cycle.

he found a bench seat beneath a flaming torch and sat down.
he looked through his inventory and located his equipment, setting his best dual guns in place of the single revolver he currently had equipped, and replaced his newbie armour with more durable pieces; ornate gauntlets and greaves of black metal with silver detailing, and a matching breastplate.
then he switched out his mid-level garments of threadbare nature with a black silk shirt and a pair of simple black cotton pants.
then he exchanged the average coat he wore in his upper-level garments with a charcoal-black denim duster coat.
"prolly best to sell this old junk..." he mused, referring to his equipment he'd just unequipped, and wondered if there was a trader nearby.

the streets were empty by this time, everyone else had either logged off or lodged at one of the inns by now.
so when a set of loud clacking footsteps came up on his right from the cobblestone road through town, he jumped in surprise.
just outside the dim glow of the lamp was another player, entirely clad in a heavy black cloak that obscured any details on them, save for a large scythe clipped to their back.
"oi" the player grunted at him "wha'cha doin' out so late? can't 'ford the inn?"
"no..." Draqis replied, wary of this person after the run in with the PK earlier, especially since they were cmpletely alone in the dark streets "i'm... i just prefer sleeping outside as opposed to the inns, that's all... why'd you wanna know?"
the figure walked over and sat beside him, removing the hood and exposing their squirrel features, as well as slipping his large bushy tail out from the folds of his cloak.
"'cause of PKs, gotta be ready, even in towns these days."
"fair enough."
the squirrel smirked "thought nobody'd find you at this hour, 'eh?"
"what? no, i guessed everyone'd be logged out or sleeping, if that's what you're asking, but i'm not hiding--"
"cut the crap Draqis... or should i say 'Beta'?"
Draqis' amethyst coloured eyes went wide "how'd you know?!"
the smirk broadened "B, it's me; Jeremy."

as the squirrell spoke with the wolf, a white mongoose wearing a translucent trenchcoat over skeletal armour and chainmail glared at them from his hiding place across the street, although he now also bared a grotesquely shaped weapon that appeared to be a broken and mangled durndal, and vein-like cracks glowing with red light now spread over his body beneath his clothing and armour, if Draqis had seen him, it'd have been obvious from his face that it was the evil Artificial Intelligence called USM; 'Ultimate Supreme Miracle', or rather Uron, his avatar meerly being a modified version of his regular form.
"damn, took a few hours, but there he is... too friggin' bad he's got the head admin with him..."
Uron turned and padded away down the dark alleyway "another time, my creator... another time."

as he stalked away, keeping a lock on his creator's position on the map, a blue armour-clad-kinght appeared in his path, sword raised at him.
"halt, Virus."
a squad of AI-controlled blue knights stood behind the first knight, in fact they were all AI.
Uron grinned evilly "i've got a better idea: get..."
he drew his mutated blade, and swiftly cleaved through the knights "...DELETED!"
as the knights broke up into severed bits of code, he devoured their data, gaining more power.
he turned his attention to the map, but his creator had seemingly vanished.

"ah well," Uron sighed "he can't avoid me forever."

Draqis was walking down the street with the admin, who was lecturing him, something Draqis hated.
"you've got responsibilities, you can't just stay hidden in the network like this, come on back to base and we can forcibly break you out of your coma and back into the real world."
the Faerie wolf growled "how many times do i have to say 'no' before you understand what i'm saying?!"
"look, stop being so childish--"
"i am NOT being childish. and i'm not 'subject number #999' anymore, i'm just a regular wolf nowdays, okay?"
"no, you're far from regular."
"well i want to have a regular life, if only for a while... it's hard being the hero, you know?"
the squirrell trembled in anger, grabbed Draqis by the collar and shouted directly into his face in enraged Gentikan, his mother tongue in the real world.
"zobba kimeq frion majjia! roa bii-ne lo! saragassa jolvek HERAGANDMAI!!!"
the Faerie wolf grabbed at the squirrell's wrists, and squeezed, unleashing an amount of strength that belied both his in-game level and low-muscle tone, making his aggressor wince in pain.
"let... go... of... me." he demanded, his words little more than a savage snarl as violent intent burned into the squirrell's skull from Draqis' purple eyes.
his claws dug in, and the game registered his vice-like grip as actual damage, the admin's HP steadily decreasing as he tightened his paws further, making it clear that his demand was not a request; it was an order, one of the 'do as i say or die' variety.

the squirell released him, and Draqis tossed the admin against a nearby wall, dealing further damage to his HP.
"now listen Admin, and listen well, 'cause i'm only saying this once..."
"y-yes...?"
"Leave. Me. ALONE."

and with that, the Faerie wolf turned and walked away.

"son of a..." jeremy coughed "goddammit..."

a yellow-furred fennec approached him from behind, wearing simple green medieval clothing and had two knives strapped to his belt "you really suck."

jeremy struggled to his feet and glared at the yellow vulpine "i'm in no mood for you, so get out of my sight before i delete you, Kori."

"tsk tsk," the fox went as he skipped away "PKers get no respect these days... i added another hundred to my list in case you're wondering!" he called back tauntingly as he vanished from jeremy's field of vision.

he wasn't having very good luck; not only had Beta refused to return, but psychotic murderers like Kori were using Vagrant Eons Online to live out their demented killing sprees...
"dammit... what am i supposed to do?!"

(Next Chapter: the high point of the festival)