February 12, 2045

Two years have passed since Helen Grey first announced 'The Quest'.

She sent out a short video message, recorded in the real world before being uploaded to the Virtual Reality and posted to every single users' personal inbox. Sitting in a sparse office behind a hard oak desk, one more suited for a professor's office than that of the world's most influential boss, she spoke to a webcam. On the top of the desk was a golden plaque engraved with her name and a photo frame although it was turned around to face her so whatever it depicted was a mystery.

She appeared as a pale woman with dark, straight hair. Although it was hard to tell from the video as she remained behind the desk throughout, she was a tall woman standing at nearly six foot tall with a lithe frame. She was wearing a black pantsuit and wore light makeup, as if she were about to go to a meeting. Very businesslike.

"Hello, everyone in the world. I am Helen Grey, founder and CEO of Virtual Reality. Today I am announcing that I have contracted a terminal illness and am not long for this world. It is not in my nature to turn to theatrics or to make a big thing out of a personal issue, however this will have ramifications for all of you."

She gestured to her right and some, clearly edited in, boxes with titles like "Proposal for Monthly Subscription" appeared, all the way down below the bottom of the video window.

"These are just a few of the plans this company's board has attempted to slip in which I have vetoed. When I created the Virtual Reality I wanted it to be something that anyone could access but now most of the board no longer share my views and wish to monetise it, making it unavailable for many of you. In turn, I was slapped with a contract which has prevented me using Virtual Reality's vast resources to launch any initiatives which would improve our current situation. For the last two decades we have existed in this stalemate but now a time has come where this must change."

She flicked her hand and the list of boxes disappeared, swiping away to the side and off the screen. Then she reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a well read copy of Ready Player One for the viewer to see.

"Normally, the board would elect their own choice for CEO and their choice would undoubtedly be someone who shares their vision. I am unable, even with my controlling share of the company, to elect my own successor by normal means, however this book gave me inspiration for a solution to this problem. In this, a man in a similar situation to myself leaves his inheritance to the winner of a game he sets up within the virtual world he created." She looks up at the camera and smiles, the first real one in the entire video; it has a childish glee to it and there is an excited shine in her eye and she speaks more quickly in her excitement.

"I have hidden clues, both within the various worlds within the Virtual Reality as well as the real one. Each one will lead you to the next until you finally reach the prize which is well hidden and will require you to have found all the previous clues. Even should I die before someone completes this Quest, no new CEO can be chosen. There will be some who will try to subvert this contest, using their money and influence to ensure the winner will lead this company in the wrong direction. I have faith, however, that it will be one of you, an ordinary user of the Virtual Reality who cares deeply for it and understands its importance to everyone across the world, who will complete my Quest."

She puts the book down on the desk and then pulls out a small gun, one used for the starts of races and it is clear what she intends to use it for.

"My personal website has been converted in a scoreboard, showing who is closest to winning the prize. Using your avatar's name, of course. The first clue is as follows:"



The lines of text appear on the screen in flames, most likely in homage to the depiction used in the aforementioned book, and she looks up with an abashed grin.

"I never was a poet or a riddlesmith so forgive how clunky that was. Now, game... start!" She pulls the trigger on the gun, a brief bang and the video ends.

---

Light in the tent was dim, fires in braziers outside giving some light through the open tent flap with the shadow of two guards standing at attention outside just visible in the flicking light. Inside a few candles were casting their limp light over the map they were weighing down, one on each corner of the cracked and worn cartographic depiction of the land around them. A few men and women stood on the other side of the table wearing an assorted array of armour with surcoats over the top depicting which house they were pledged to. Once of them, a tall bearded man with the immersion breaking name of 'CraigtheMighty91', decided to break the awkward silence, slamming a fist dramatically down onto the table.

"Well? You haven't given us an answer yet!"

Artorigios looked up calmly from the chair he was sat in, an elaborately carved demi-throne he had commanded the leader of the army give up while they negotiated. He was unarmed, as had been the request of the leaders opposite, and parlay rules had been put in place meaning that no one could harm another player for the next thirty minutes. They had spent the last five minutes in silence, the others staring at him and wondering why he was wasting time staring them down in turn.

"No, I have decided not to help you. I'm already contracted to another, you see." He stood up from the borrowed throne and strode out of the tent, ignoring the shouted questions hurled at his back. The guards at the tent flap gave him a sideways glance but said nothing, the rules of the parlay meaning none of them could attack him.

As Artorigios left the camp he could hear the dull thumping of hunderds of feet and hooves on the ground ahead. It had been thirty minutes now since he had entered the camp, the parlay was over and combat could resume. Out of the darkness rushed hundreds of other avatars, past him and flooded the utterely unprepared camp. A tall female avatar wearing a crown rode up to him astride a horse with a small entourage, one of whom held a ridereless horse's reins.

"Thank you, Artorigios. Your distraction worked perfectly."

Heaving himself into the saddle, he turned to speak to the crowned rider whom he knew to be 'Andr3a', an avatar who spent almost all of her time on this particular world as its defacto ruler although several other clans and guilds resisted her; like the now in flames camp before them.

"I'm glad. Now, my payment?" He held out his gauntleted hand and Andr3a sighed before doing the same, dropping a pouch and a small scroll into his hand. He accepted the trade and the items went to his avatar's inventory. They shook hands and then he left them to mop up their enemies, his work done. A transporter, after charging an exhorbitant fee, transported him back to Homeworld where he opened the scroll he had been given.

It was in fact a map with various avatar names and several crosses upon it. For a while Artorigios had been looking for the place the first clue pointed to and many shared his suspicions but still no one had found it. The map showed the area he suspected the clue to be in and the avatars known to be still searching it after several months; these were his rivals who had not given up hope and still had similar thoughts to himself.

Smiling, he headed towards his in-game abode with its study and his notes documenting his research. The day job was done and now it was time to resume the Quest.

The arena already looked like a war zone, no thanks to the fight being waged atop its cracked ground. Weapons lie scattered across the ground; some half buried in the dried up lake bed and others simply knocked off to the side to be collected later. Only a few Avatars were actually still alive, and they were the strongest of the bunch - obviously the crowd favourites to win. In their eyes, the newcomer had simply no chance of overcoming their might. Not with that little bow and sword she was using.

Of course, they were pretty surprised she had come off with three kills. Only the favourites for victory got that many; picking off all the weaker Avatars in a kind of truce until they could fight to the death on their own. Of course, almost anything went in this arena. It was located in a Fantasy Zone, where no technology would function, but that was the only limitation. All magic, and anything else you could bring to the skirmish and make work, was allowed.

That made it pretty easy for the last two guys. Burly Avatars each with their own respective magic weapons and armour and Artefacts, and their fancy enchanted armour from varying settings. One had a full set of plate armour - made of a light weight but durable alloy from some fandom world - and wielded a mace and large metal shield. The other stood with flexible leather and two, almost identical blades with winding snakes that made up the pommel, handle and guard. The effect of the two swords had been devastating from the beginning; causing some kind of paralysis effect upon being struck. It limited motor function, as the last competitor had found out first hand.

The last competitor, and sole female competitor for that matter. She hadn't come to Strages simply to kill over-confident, egoistical twats with too much time and money to waste on powerful items and off the books PvP matches. Instead, she had to come for information. The prize for winning was a series of mint condition, wax sealed letters that contained information on the location the first Riddle pointed to.

Though, she didn't really think she needed it. She stood facing the two men; sword sheathed behind her back, and her bow in hand. Being in a Fantasy only Zone meant her Sharanga could actually be used to its fullest effect. Shield generators had a nasty habit of blocking both her arrows and stun effect. Over her head was her name tag. Normally, she would have kept it reconciled, but she very much doubted anyone would care if she was seen competing in unofficial, essentially black market PvP events.

The tag read Alekhine.

And she was pretty confident she had already figured out the location of the First Clue. Though, she wanted to make sure she was actually right before she charged off and wasted a day searching the damn place for a clue which had no physical description. It wouldn't matter too, too much. Hunters had spent two years searching for the clues to Helen Grey's Quest, and had made no progress. Zilch. Ling. Zero.

In those two years, no Avatar had made any headway on finding the First Clue. There had been so many theories, so many bandwagon wild goose chases that always ended in disappointment and a still static Scoreboard. With all the people using Virtual Reality, it was a miracle - a literal miracle - that no one had discovered the location yet. Of course, Alekhine was pretty sure she'd be the first to find it. Others might have been drawing the same conclusion as her, but... That wasn't a thought she was willing to entertain very much. She needed this. The fame would be nice and all, but it was the money she was after. It wasn't like she had any relatives she could get money off of. Not after her mother offed herself.

That wasn't her concern, though. There were so many priorities, but her mothers state of living? Not one of them. Her biggest concern, though?

The burly, hulking males who were charged towards her.

The first - a dark skinned, bald male, with his name tag hidden - swung down with his mace at the now empty patch of dried land. The arena had been built into a dried up lake-bed on the equator of Strages, and Alekhine had been smart enough to cast a speed enhancement spell on herself. She ducked backwards; pulling an arrow from her back quiver, before nocking it and firing. It wobbled as it went, and collided with the sharp end of a sword as it was swung upwards to deflect.

The two of them were good, and complete Warrior classes. Plus, they looked as though they were regular Black Market customers. Chances were they had some kind of new hacked software loaded onto their rig that let them judge projectiles with much more precision and accuracy. Or perhaps they just had some kind of ability like that character from the 2016 game Overwatch, Genji.

Her eyes flicked up to the second man's name-tag. "xXThe_Pummeler_Xx" An incredibly... original name. They flicked back to see him charge at her with his swords. She flicked the sides of her bow, causing two small blades to protrude from either end of the structure. It hadn't come with those modifications, but she found someone who could mod it for her. She parried one, then two, before drawing and letting loose and arrow that penetrated a weak spot in his leather armour; just beside his breast. His Avatar let out a grunt, and his face twisted in pain. The bastard must have been wearing a full body haptic suit, and forgot to disable pain. Idiot.

With a twist, she spun around his body and kicked him hard in the ankle, causing him to drop to the floor. Alekhine went to turn and stab him through the throat and kill him, but the mace came up over her again. She kicked off "The Pummeler", and let the mace smash into his back. In the next instance she loosed and arrow, which was promptly blocked by his shield.

But it wasn't any arrow she had fired. It was from the right side on her back quiver. Or, as it was mor commonly known to Alekhine, her "Boom Boom Pouch". The arrow detonated on impact and flung the two men back a small ways. It wasn't enough to cause them much harm - well, not for the one holding the shield - but it was enough to disorient and stun them.

Even before the explosion ripped through the air and danced across her face with heat, she had begun running. The Paladin type man was still standing, if barely, but his shield was low. Low enough for her to jump onto. Her run halted as she took a step up onto the metal, and jumped off behind him; pulling an arrow from the left side of her back quiver and firing it. The "God's Wrath" section, as it were.

The arrow quickly began to glow, and then shot away through the air like a lightning bolt. Because that was exactly what it was. Enchanted to become a lightning spell as soon as the Sharanga gave it the stunning effect it did with every arrow. The delayed crash of thunder ripped through the lake bed just as it slammed into the back of the Avatar's neck, and his body crumpled to the ground. In seconds, the Avatar was deleted, and the contents of his inventory piled up on the dusty floor.

Alekhine picked it up, and stowed it in her inventory; ignoring the penultimate fighter as he stood from the ground and picked up one of his swords; the other having skittered away from the explosion. There wasn't even a second between the two actions before he took a swing at her. Swinging her bow, she parried, before dashing behind him. The joints of her arms locked on the arms of the bow and she grabbed him from behind - bow pressed into his neck.

In the next instant - before the crowd could react - he was dead. The blade of her bow had slashed his neck as she forcefully ripped it to the side. He fell, and his body vanished; his items collecting together very similar to his cohort. The only things interesting, though, were his two swords, which she promptly collected.



"A lot of money was exchanged today, you realise? The crowd really isn't the happiest that the two favourites were offed by a newcomer." the voice of an older woman scolded; likely in her late fifties, "If I were you, I wouldn't be surprised if someone set a bounty on me - showing your name and all that."

"What are you, my mother? I've dealt with sissies setting bounties on me before. Piece o'cake." Alekhine almost chirruped to the female Avatar stood before her. They were on the Astrid; a souped up battle cruiser with jump capabilities owned by "Madrek". She was a rather old PvP star who owned several underground PvP rings, as well as business selling secrets.

"Maybe you should give those Artefacts to the crowd, before someone hunts you down and offs you. Charity work would suit you better than running your ego all day." always the joker. Madrek was... well, a fun character. She didn't want to have anything with The Quest, so instead she simply ran her business and kept herself warm and fed.

"Like hell!" the blue haired Avatar exclaimed, "I'm pawning these babies off as soon as I get back to the Bazaar. I-" she was cut off by her illegal associate.

"You need the money, I know - you say it every frickin' time you win one of these things." it was true. While she had never competed on Stages, she had fought in other arenas owned by Madrek. That was how they became acquainted. Something told her that the woman was getting somewhat tired of dealing with the crowds of people pissed at the Avatar who always managed to kill the favourites.

"Oh, shut up, Grannie. Actually, I never asked... Where does your name come from? Also, where the hells my prize?" her voice was still calm despite the nature of the words she spoke. It never really moved from that tone, to give her credit. A lot of people attributed it to some kind of voice regulator, but somehow it was completely natural. She just wished it was the same was she was in the real world...

"Vulpin word for "Dominator". Got it changed after I visited the planet they were on. Some fandom crap; people with fox ears and tails with powers like those Ghouls from that Tokyo Ghoul anime I got pestered into watching. Bloody hunters..." she looked slightly annoyed, but also slightly playful, knowing that Alekhine herself was a Hunter, "And your prize? Here. The paper catches fire a short while after the seal is broken, I was told. Make sure to take screenshots. Now get the hell off my ship, hot shot."

Alekhine took the envelope and stored it in her inventory; giving a mocking salute as she turned to walk away.
"See ya, Pharaoh~" she called back, a note of playfulness in her voice as she stepped into the private teleporter. It still cost Credits to travel, but at least it was convenient. The sum of money was immediately deducted from her account as she was transported away; from the ship, to The Bazaar.

"Cage of Hell. Cage of Hell, what the hell does that mean?" she muttered, wringing the water from her hair and glaring at her reflection. In the background she could hear her mothers trilling laughter as she no doubt was meeting up with another client this morning. It wasn't that Quinn disapproved of her mothers new job, in fact it was a smart move when her school closed but it wasn't deserving of the late Prima. Linda was respectable among high society and Quinn fought to keep that image alive in the real world. Even if her mother didn't care; she did.

Quinn pulled on a soft black tee and some athletic pants. She enjoyed the way the fabric moved with her body as she stretched. It wasn't like the dives had a huge impact on her physical fitness, though if anything she was probably in better shape than she was when she danced with her mother. But habits die hard and there was something soothing about going over their old routines. Even if it meant she had to do them alone. At least the clothes helped keep her cool and comfortable; even under the haptic suit. While Linda only ever logged off for a few meals and sleep; sometimes not even that. Her mother was a shadow of her former self. Malnourished and the glow had left her skin but never her eyes. It was in that gleam she had never seen before that Quinn kept her mouth shut- that and it did rake in some decent earnings on top of the small royalties they received each month.

Other than the odd sound from her mother the outside world was fairly quiet. It used to be city that never slept, or so she was told, but now Quinn was left with the muttering of her thoughts. Which were almost obsessive with the damned riddle. Even Homeworld was flooded with rumors and secrets pertaining to The Quest, many a player tricked out of their hard earned cash for dead end information. It was a good run for the scammers though. Desperate and burned out adventurers would shell out good amount for any sliver of hope but alas, the leaderboard remained empty.

Quinn needed a break.

'Bills? Paid. Lunch? Leftover pizza and fizzy cola for mom. Plants? Watered.' Quinn mentally checked off her daily chore list as she padded to her personal VR chamber. She needed to do laundry but that'd just have to wait. Today she was supposed to meet up with Moonlit in a couple of hours, something about needing a few buffs in Skyrim.

Quinn chuckled at the thought of the small rogue. They had bumped into each other on the road when the girl had attempted to pick pocket her. If it wasn't for the fact she had high alert levels she probably wouldn't of even noticed. It was a fast partnership from there and if she was being honest, she enjoyed the companionship.

By now putting on the suit was a mindless routine. She strapped herself into he haptic suit and checked all its cords. Quinn knew she was luckier than most in her gear. It ran smoothly and felt comfortable against her body. The small circular treadmill moved effortlessly and most of all silently. Of course there was better gear out there but why waste the money when what she had wasn't broken?

Flexing once more before slipping her visor helmet on, Quinn felt the silence slip behind her, "Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect." her mouth curled into a smile as she spoke her log in phrase. It was odd but it brought with it warm memories of a life well past. There was the familiar hum as the device sprung to life and put her in a virtual version of New York city. This is what she imagined old school New York probably looked like. It was bustling. Avatars roamed together all around her, chatting, going into virtual ships and driving about.

'First things first.' Proxy patted the hem of her kimono. She needed to stop by the bank before popping off. Both her and her mother had opened a joint account, allowing her to sort their finances without her mom having to be there

The small avatar wound its way down the street. She ignored the odd glances from the suits around her. Yes, she looked like some demon child. Yes, she had a pastel Japanese dress on. Yes, her eyes did glow. It really shouldn't be that odd anymore. There was plenty of avi's modded out with much flashier equipment wandering about.

Today was lucky though, as she had logged in not to far from their bank.

Stepping in Proxy noted the soft scent of vanilla that wafted in the air as she stepped up to a empty console. The bank had underwent some upgrades since she had last visited. The walls which used to be a pearly white was now lined with sharp silver embellishments. Small security orbs roamed while scanning the room; ever on the lookout for hackers and the like.

She plugged in her security details and opened up the units slot. "What the shit." she muttered angrily. Proxy checked again but the glaring red letters read the same: Zero. Her mother had forgotten, again. Stepping back she swiped her hand down with apparent irritation, pulling up the main menu and scrolled through until her mothers username appeared.

A small keyboard popped up as she opted to send a text message instead of video. Her tiny fingers plucking at the letters with vicious intent,



"P.s. Stop being a forgetful cow. 'Kay. Thanks. Much love." Proxy mocked be for sending the message. Closing out from the menu Proxy stormed out of the bank and stomped all the way to a nearby portal. She wasn't sure if the developers meant for the hole to be permanent or what but the portals here happened to be modeled off a famous show and resembled old British police boxes. She didn't mind. Actually she thought it was a bit funny- albeit out of place.

There was a few people ahead of her so she pulled up her menu once more but this time to change her equipment. Skyrim was built off a classic rpg game but luckily they had made some subtle upgrades as the popularity went up. Still, her kimono wasn't something equippable there and after the first time of logging in to find herself down to basic underwear, which unfortunately she didn't realise that her first log in gifted her with basic armor in her inventory, she really didn't want repeat the event.

Her kimono gave way to a soft cloth tunic, dyed in her favorite lilac color. A beautiful lute appeared on her back, it's wood a strong cherry color with tiny delicate details carved into its base. By time she had swapped out her clothes and equips it was funny her turn At the portal

Proxy loaded a few units into the machine and chose her world. Being uploaded from one place to another felt like her whole body was vibrating. It was a strange sensation that she wasn't sure shed ever get used too but luckily it didn't last long. Opening the door proxy was greeted to a new sight. New York had faded away and in its place was what looked like a medieval tavern.

"You really should think about getting a base here, Proxy." a familiar voice called out.

Smirking she turned to see Andromida0014 a worker that managed the portals and sold health and mana potions. "Finally going to buy me a home here then?" she teased as she stepped out into The drunken huntsman. There was a handful of adventurers milling about as they waited for their guild members to arrive.

"Have you seen Moonlit?"

"No. Sorry. You going to do a bit of business while you wait?"

"Unless you're willing to start paying for my bills as well."

Andromida0014 chuckled before shaking her head in disbelief, "Well you know the deal. Now get out there."

Proxy shared in the laughter before removing the lute off her back. Her fingers traced down the taunt strings and plucked out a few notes. It felt real, that's the part that always got her, it felt heavy and solid in her hands. Not like a pile of ones and zeros.

She strode over to the center of the room when a small option menu popped up. Clicking on a selection her hand automatically went back to her lute. At this point she was no longer in control of her hands as the coded music poured out. It was a complex classic piece, a higher tier piece. Though she couldn't play this in real life it didn't stop her from getting into it. Her eyes closed as she allowed herself to dissolve into the softness of the sound. The sway of the music as her alt shifted its weight from one foot to the other. Already emails were popping up on the corner. Requests for trade. A few party invited and what looked like a new guild invite.

As the music came to an end the room broke into scattered applause. Proxy was a decent level bard. Her music selection showed just that as it was only unlocked after a certain level. The higher level she was the better as she had access to bigger and badder spells. Which meant more coin she could charge per buff. Quickly she began addressing the messages; opened the trades and began to play over small groups that would gather before her.

Even if she stood there all day. At the end of the day it didn't amount to much. Not even if she was to stiff Andromida0014 on her cut shed barely bring home more than 60 or 70 dollars but it was better than nothing and she enjoyed the job.

'Now where is that pesky rogue?' she thought as she glanced over the room.

The avatar of Roman Lee, a tall and athletic man by the username of "Kingslayer," sprinted forward at full force. On any given day, he sometimes sprinted down a battlefield with a sword in hand. Other days, he ran through the crosshairs of simulated gunfire and elite soldiers. Today, however, Kingslayer's feet carried him down a long green pitch. His cleats hit the ground as he moved as fast as his upgraded speed skills would allow him to. He slowed only as he reached the last defender of the opposing team. The left forward, a player named "DannyBoy," reached the defenders as well, several meters from the 18 line. DannyBoy took a single, swift kick and punted the football across the pitch towards Kingslayer. Now rid of the danger of being called offsides, the latter burst forward, his stamina bar rapidly draining. As he raced forward, he could see the clock in his HUD. It read 89:52. They had 8 seconds to score a goal and advanced the 2-2 draw.

The ball sailed through the air, curving in a nearly perfect arch, or so DannyBoy had intended. It seemed as though the ball was coming in short, leading Kingslayer to curve his run into the keeper's box. He burned past the last defender as the ball sailed towards the ground, near to landing between him and the keeper. As the keeper stepped from the goal to get to the ball, Slayer lunged upward, his boot catching the ball with his first touch and sending the ball into a volley. The keeper dove forward, hands reaching for the ball, but Slayer jumped over him, feeling weightless in the air. His right, preferred foot came swinging as his body tilted into a near backflip. His boot made solid contact with the ball, as he performed an almost perfect bicycle kick, sending it flying into the middle of the net as Slayer rolled on the ground with a thud.

A shout sounded from the animated spectators and the players on the field rushed towards him. Kingslayer jumped to his feet as the clock sounded and a loud horn signaled the finale of the match. His teamates rushed towards them, shouting in excitement as they all surged towards the righthand corner of the field. Kingslayer reached the corner flag and slid down onto his knees, in a dramatic celebration. As the other players swarmed him, he pounded his chest.

He stood as DannyBoy sprinted over, jumping on top of him. "What a ball, Slayer!"

"Great cross, man!" He exclaimed as the end-match stats. Kingslayer checked his stats, two goals; one assist. As all of the players were returned to Homeworld, Kingslayer's football uniform was changed with his default outfit - black pants, brown boots, and a white t-shirt.

The player opened his HUD Menu and teleported himself to his In-Game home, a lavish penthouse apartment in the Virtual Rendition of Uptown New York. The apartment was a very expensive home, and it was obvious by all of its bells and whistles. He walked to the office space, unlocked it with a keypad that only he knew that combination to. He shut the door behind him and crossed the office to the large bay widow that looked over the virtual city. He often found himself gazing through this window, entranced by what he saw. Everything from the sun overhead to the fabricated smoke from factories, all of it was so real... but in the back of his head, he knew he was only looking at translated 1's and 0's.

He sighed, turned, and sat in a high backed chair in front of his desk. He opened his HUD Menu, selecting his friends list. He spotted his sister's username, and saw that she was playing Skyrim. He sighed, opened a drop-down menu and fast travelled to his car garage. As he entered, he walked past several luxury cars, two of which he'd won in VR Football tournaments. He then passed his collection of eight motorcycles, each having a different specialty. He found his car of choice; a matte black Virtual Model of a Lamborghini Aventador. A swift motion of his hand signaled the car's program to activate, and the suicide doors slid up into the air. He climbed in, pressed the button to shut the doors, and activated the push-to-start ignition. The igntion caught and the vehicle quite literally roared to life.

Roman pulled the supercar to the garage door, which opened automatically. He pulled out onto the streets of virtual New York, and sped away at with a squeal of his tires. A drive that should've taken a normal player about ten minutes only took Roman two minutes and fifteen seconds. He reached a portal hub in a fancy part of the city. As he reached the valet spot, he slid the car to a halt with a skid of his tires. He stepped out and the car vanished in a slew of hexagons, only to return when he himself returned. Several player standing close by were picking up their jaws after his super car had pulled through.

Roman reached the portals and selected the fantasy world he desired. As he shifted into the world of Skyrim, his expensive, modern clothes were traded for something more fitting of a Medieval Fantasy Realm. He wore a tan tunic, brown boots, and black belted pants at his waist, upon which hung an ornate black dagger with a curved blade and sheath. His house was a secluded home in the mountains of the Eastmarch Hold, about ten miles from the nearest town of Kynesgrove. In the middle of the main room was a firepit, surrounded by small benches. Upon one of these benches sat an NPC, a large Orismer warrior by the name of Nargosh. The NPC was his personal companion for when he didn't have his sister or friends to play alongside him. He walked towards the door and equipped his travel gear - a set of elven light armor and an orcish short sword with shock damage enchantments. It wasn't his strongest, but it was enough to hold him off if he needed to get out of a situation while traveling.

As he beckoned his companion out of the door to his home, he squinted his eyes to adjust to the light of the forest. Amongst the quiet of the wooded region, he heard the sound of bootfall to his left. He quickly cast a spell in his right hand to detect nearby enemies. He saw the first player stand from his crouched position behind a tree, drawing his bow as he stood. The arrow from the players bow sailed and hit the ground in front of Kingslayer's feet.

"GIVE US BACK THE SPELL TOMES AND WE WON'T KILL YOU!" Another player shouted as he and five others stepped out from their various hiding places. He strategically planned his next move as the group of Player Bandits formed a circle around the front of his home, meanwhile he discreetly sent a group message to three players. The one who had yelled was a steel-armored player named B4DB0Y and wielded an elven war-axe.

"I don't have the spell tome, our guild mage has already used it." He said, truthfully. About three days ago, he and a group of friends had stolen a tome from a bandit camp, but they'd had to fight these guys to get it. They'd won that fight by a mile. "And you lost, last time around."

"Well there's only one of you here!" B4DB0Y yelled. "You and your Orc are way outnumbered, dude! It's 6 on 2"

In his offhand, Roman summoned an invisibility spell into his right hand, casting it and sprinting quickly as he drew his sword. Though the spell cost him all of his magika, it was worth it. He rounded the tree where the archer stood and quickly executed three quickstrikes, draining his HP to 10 Points. As the cloak faded from the brief seconds of invisibility, Roman swung towards the Archer's neck, executing a kill animation and decapitating the avatar; hence what happened when you challenged a player that was nearly 20 levels higher than you.

"Attack!" He yelled to Nargosh. The Orc sprang into programmed combat moves as he engaged a leather armored player. On Kingslayer's right was a Avi in storm cloak armor, who swung his Warhammer into his left shoulder, sending Roman's avatar toppling over. His upgraded agility allowed him to recover quickly, rolling to his feet. Warhammer-boy swung again, but Kingslayer rolled to the right, leaving the hammer to crash into a tree. While the player was recovering, Roman activated his special ability as an Imperial character to increase his luck and raise his chance at a critical hit for fifteen seconds. He swung down at the player, his own sword activating the critical hit and allowing him another kill animation, in which he slid the tip of his katana through the players ribcage, then ripped him to the ground.

Roman turned in time to see Nargosh use his Battleaxe to slice through B4DB0Y's armor, sending him to Valhalla as well. Nargosh's HP was drastically low, but he could only see one player left. Nargosh switched paths and focused his attacks towards the final player - a female mage called KandyMandy. The player drew her hands as Nargosh swung what Roman thought would be a fatal blow. Instead of getting hitting, KandyMandy thrust her palms outward, summoning a massive arch of flame and striking Nargosh in the chestplate. "Ah, crap..."Kingslayer muttered to himself as his companion fell. He flipped his katana and prepared to fight, sprinting forward at the mage. KandyMandy was not prepared to receive his lightning-charged blade, and she toppled over, but her HP didn't drain, but was rather only damaged slightly. He slid to the ground and she left her right hand to cast a spell at him. He pinned her hand to the ground and reared back to stab her, but she opened her mouth and led out an earth-shaking cry.

"FUS ROH DAH!!" Her magic cry sent him flying backwards, sailing into the wall of his home. As Kingslayer hit the ground, he swore, his HP bar dropping lower than he would've liked. An alert on his HUD read, "You've been paralyzed". He could see KandyMandy walking towards him, summoning a firebolt spell in her right hand. She charged it, preparing to kill him. She thrust her hand forward, casting the spell. Just as the bolt of fire formed in her hand, a horse rider charged into the clearing, swinging a glass warhammer into the mage. He body went limp as the charged attack dropped her HP to 0, and the avatar did a dramatic flip before hitting the ground with a dull thump. Kingslayer sighed in relief as he felt his avatar being able to move again, just in time. The horse trotted to a halt in the middle of the clearing and the rider jumped down. The player was a tall, muscular avatar named Ganandork - the tank of Kingslayer's guild.

"Dude, did hear that chick use Thu'Um." He asked as he walked over to Roman, who stood to his feet.

"Yeah." He said, high fiving his friend. Ganandork gave an awed laugh.

"Did you ask her where she got the words and the dragon souls?" He asked.

"No, Gan. I was trying not to die and loose my gear."

"Dude, check out her mage robes! Jaxter could totally use them." Ganandork leaned over the dead mage and began looting the avatar's corpse.

"Oh come on, I can buy Jax some of those, don't take her clothes-"He said, but Ganandork took the avatar's mage robes, leaving the dead body in nothing but underwear. "C'mon, have some decency."

"Dude, all these guys gotta have something on them." Ganandork began searching the other bodies, leaving Kingslayer to shake his head.

"Okay, you have fun violating dead bodies. I'll be in Whiterun meeting my sister." He said, only receiving a distracted wave from his guildmate. He opened his menu and selected fast travel, transporting himself to Whiterun.

Procrastination had seem to become one of Sarah's best friends ever since her parents had left, once again, to resume their many studies. The young woman never did like science, so she felt a bit out of touch with them whenever they came home on their couple days off. It wasn't often that they had off, but when they did it tended to be several days at a time.

She lay in her unmade bed, staring out of her window into the vast city. It had been raining slightly which made her not want to get out of bed to even eat, which was a horrible choice on her part.

Sarah sighed as she flipped over in her bed, her eyes staring off into space as she was facing the clock on her wall. It took a second for her eyes to focus on the moving hand on the clock, and even a couple more until she fully comprehended what time it was.

"Oh my god, she's going to kill me!"

Sarah's high pitched voice broke the silence of her room as she shot up from her bed and half jogged to her small 'gaming office' as she called it. she hardly played anything but Skyrim and another game that she always forgot she had. Within a couple of minutes, she had reached the room and set herself up to immerse herself in the virtual world. It gave her chills each and every time she logged on; loving the fact that she could visit so many different worlds in a matter of seconds.

Her eyes scanned the virtual city around her. Sarah had little to no time to focus on those around her. She had promised to first find her favorite bard in Whiterun, then continue to find her brother. Hopefully he wouldn't get too involved in his sport playing games and completely forget about her. Sarah never really got into playing sports via VR. She would much rather run around killing dragons and jumping off of cliffs into rivers.

When Sarah finally arrived into her humble abode, Breezehome, Sarah quickly ran to her chest to get what she needed for the day.

"Daedric Bow of Storms? Yes. Too many arrows to fathom? Kind of. I'll loot more. Annnnnnnd I think I'll go with Dark Brotherhood armor today because why not?"

Sarah smiled, pleased with her choices, and decided to make her way out of the home. She kept her eyes peeled for her brother, but also for any of the players that decided to try to kill her. There was that and the fact that apparently some other Dragonborn had been trying to kill her but she was too lazy to go and take care of that problem. Upon reaching The Drunken Huntsman, Sarah took one last glimpse of the area. Roman was no where to be seen, and it seemed safe enough to let her guard down for just a few minutes, so she went inside with a slight shrug.

Once inside, the familiar music filled her ears as she tried to not make too much of a scene. She had a couple of bounties on her head so it was best to not sneak around and make herself look suspicious.

"Heck!" Sarah gleamed as she found her partner in crime across the room. She had gotten into the habit of calling the young woman by that nickname instead of her entire username. Especially when she was trying to annoy her. She walked over as she looked around the room for any familiar faces. "Sorry if you've been waiting, I've been busy doing nothing."

Julius had temporarily logged out of VR, taking a quick toilet break while the kettle boiled. It was pitch black outside the kitchen window and the street lights were all off, meaning no one had passed recently. With the energy crisis at its current stage, new sensors and kinetic pads had been installed in most pavements which detected when someone was walking and used the pressure their weight exerted on the pavement to produce energy to activate the streetlights. Some places didn't have this kind of technology installed and ended up with deactivated streetlamps, the residents forced to spend whatever little funds they had on torches or otherwise move about at night in pitch black.

A quick glance at his watch told him that there had been sufficient time for the tea to brew. After adding a splash of milk and a stir, he took the mug, a large monstrosity of a mug depicting the human muscular and skeletal structures with every part labelled, up to his father's study. It had been some time since his parents had both passed away and, after a time, he had found ways to make the house his own while keeping little mementos about. For a while he had not entered his father's study, feeling like he was trespassing. Once he found his way in, however, he found it to be a perfect place to conduct his research; surrounded by books on every topic possible with an old style laptop for online research on the large oak desk set against the wall by the window. During the day, Julius could look out over the out of control garden (he couldn't afford the energy costs to power a lawn mower or even a strimmer so he would go out a few times a season with some hedge clippers and just hack the vegetation back a little), and appreciate some real nature for a change; it helped him concentrate while keeping an open mind.

It was in one of those moments, taking a small break from his research, that he had answered the first clue. Of course, seasoned Adventurers had been all over the most likely location, but Julius started afresh with his research to ensure he was going to the right place. He had been listening to his father's music collection, decades old albums by the likes of Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Status Quo and Rolling Stones; giants of the early music industry. He'd listened to them all before, of course, but with the lines of the Quatrain fresh in his mind some of the lyrics had jumped out at him.

Bruised and battered was definitely a reference to Bruce Springsteen's Streets of Philadelphia, while I sailed there came from Mark Knopfler's folk style song telling the tale Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon's journey to the same place, Sailing to Philadelphia. When he'd realised that he cross-referenced his discovery with the second line and the evidence just mounted up further.

To draw a line tied into the Sailing to Philadelphia lyrics again, Mason and Dixon famous for drawing the Mason-Dixon line although it changed many times over the years afterwards. Julius had long since suspected that the Bell, with its capital letter suggesting it was both a famous item and also had its own name, was a nod to the Liberty Bell and it only cemented his confidence in his decoding so far. Of course, every famous bell in history had been scoured by Adventurers, especially the Liberty Bell, but nothing had been found so there must have been more to the clue.

For weeks, Julius had troubled over the final two lines. He assumed that the stately house referred to Independence Hall but it certainly wasn't lying bare in either the real world or on Homeworld, where he assumed the first clue led as any avatar could access it for free as in Ready Player One. The final line truly stumped him, he had several theories but had decided that the only way to find out was to go to that location and look himself. After a final look over his own, hand-written notes, he returned to his former bedroom now converted into his VR room. While he couldn't afford top of the line equipment he had a haptic chair which could transform into a treadmill as well, a reasonable quality haptic suit and even an odour tower although he rarely used it.

He slipped back into the suit, careful not to damage the fine electrodes running through it, downed the last of his tea and then sat down on the chair and slid on his visor. "If honour were profitable, everyone would be honourable." He intoned his log on password phrase and appeared in his Homeworld abode, a spacious flat that was a private space where he could set rules and only those he had invited could enter. It was modernly furnished but sparsely, an in-game study was locked to all but himself permanently and inside he had his safe containing items he used only on specific worlds and some notes for the Quest he didn't trust to keep saved to his profile. No one had successfully hacked into a user's data, to anyone's knowledge, but he wasn't prepare to take the risk of being the first victim.

He changed his avatar's appearance, looking in a full length mirror as he 'disguised' his character. Walking around in his very stylised full plate armour would only draw attention and he wanted to stay as incognito as possible when 'Questing'. Opting instead for a standard jeans and black t-shirt style, with large Ray-Ban sunglasses to hide some of his face and a cap denoting a false allegiance to a long-gone football team. After selecting the option to hide his avatar's name, he left his abode and headed to the nearest teleporter. He could drive one of his several vehicles but the teleporter would save time and he wasn't short for cash at that moment.

Seconds later he was stepping out onto a street in Philadelphia, pulling up an on-screen map and setting course to Independence Hall. He wasn't sure what he was looking for but today was a research today; there was little to no chance of accidentally stumbling upon the answer to the first clue after two years of the world searching.

(Will edit title when I get home. Collar with Llama and Proxy.)

Roman walked up the cobbled streets of whiterun, scanning the crowd for the face of his sister’s avatar. He checked his friends tab and saw that she was indeed in Skyrim at the moment. He took his time in making way towards the Drunken Huntsman. Hopefully, she would be there, since his next spot to look was all the way in Windhelm. A small khajiit avatar ran past him, and he leaned to the right to avoid its pickpocket hand. The avatar went past him and then chose another player to rob. He would've done something, but his HP was dangerously low and he'd left his healing potions in his house.

He stepped into the drunken huntsman and spotted Sarah's avi, speaking to a familiar tiny bard, by the username of HecateProxy.

He gave the latter a slight wave, then turned to his sister. ”Ganandork and I killed that dragonborn that's been hunting us. She's got full Fus Roh Dah, so we still need to watch out for her.” He said nothing more and sat beside Proxy, looking like a giant, given their two-foot height difference. He dropped a bag of 200 gold coins. ”Can you play a healing tune?”

”Huh?” she looked over at him, startled as Proxy had been preoccupied glaring at the chipper rogue before her.

”Oh, yeah. Sure. Just stand back and prepare to be amazed and slightly less, bloody. Proxy mused at the hulking figure before her. She had only met Slayer a few times before but he often overpaid, not that she was complaining, and tipped freely.

Pulling out her lute the menu popped up once more and Proxy quickly scrolled to one of her more powerful healing spells. Music poured from her avatar as she watched his health slowly begin to climb. ”You lucked out. I just unlocked this one the other day. You'll have a 10 percent health regen for the next five minutes as well.” As the music faded away she quickly pocketed the coins as Andromida0014 cleared her throat behind them.

”I've not forgotten you.” She popped down her HUD menu once more and divided up her loot before sending over half to the pesky bar wench. ”See? Now go pester the other bards.”

Turning back to the siblings Proxy propped her hands on her hips, ”So, what's the big event you had planned, Moon?”

Sarah intently watched on as HectateProxy went on to heal her brother. The young woman smiled on at the two before turning to her brother, “You’re lucky Proxy is nice enough to heal you. I could've taken on like thirty at once and killed them all with one arrow.” Sarah’s arrogance mixed in well with her sarcasm so she could play off being a bit of a jerk to her brother. “I need to be able to do these shouts. Can you imagine how easier life would be…. buuuut instead I stick to pickpocketing and sneaking around caves for gold.”

Sarah returned her attention to Proxy, who had finished playing the healing time and had addressed her over what they were going to do. “Well seeing as how Ro here killed the Dragonborn that's been trying to kill us off, I kind of don't have an agenda anymore.” The young woman grinned at both of them before she remembered that her avatar’s suit covered the majority of her face, so instead she simply shrugged and looked towards her brother for some guidance.

Roman formulated an idea in his mind, one that he was very eager to complete. He leaned forward on the wooden barstool. [color=chocolate]” I've been trying to get my hands on a dragonscale shield. I could buy one but I can't locate a vendor that has one. An info broker gave me a hint that there was a bandit camp outside Falkreath where a few players stashed their loot from a blood dragon, but they're camped out their. We'd have to kill them to get to it, but it's also a chance to increase other skill trees in combat, for all three of us.”

“Can you invite Ganandork? Just in case?” Sarah interjected without really thinking of what she was asking.

”He's backup. Stealth is important so we don't need a tank until necessary.” He said, looking at his sister. “The camp is right against a cliff on Knifepoint Ridge. We’ll go around the top of the cliff and you’ll cover us with your bow. Proxy and I will sneak down into the camp as you take out the guards on the towers. We’ll figure out the rest when we get there, because I haven’t been able to scout it yet.” He ended his plan, and quickly sent an message to Ganandork.

”It all sounds good to me.” Proxy mused as she shuffled through her inventory, swapping out her hide boots for a pair of soft cloth with a stealth bonus. ”I've got a few buffs that'll help with sneak and archery damage,” she looked over at Moon, ”That is- if you're interested. It racks on a 15 percent damage bonus of stealth attacks. As for you, Slayer, what's your weapon of choice?”

She was already scrolling through her spell list and prepping herself for their impending quest.

“You've got the good stuff? I'll take some!” Sarah said jokingly as she walked closer to Proxy. “I’ve got five hundred on me right now because I forgot I already had money in and deposited more because I'm an idiot…. If it's not enough, Ro will cover for me and I'll pay him back. As for coverage… I guess you could say that I've got y'all covered. Ready to go?” Sarah stretched quickly before becoming lively again and pacing around as the two got their ducks in a row. She never stood still and much less when their was an impending acting packed quest. The thrill always had her jumping around like a bouncy ball going off the walls.

Roman, satisfied that a plan was set in place, left the girls alone for a moment. He fast travelled back to his home and traded his travel gear for his higher level armour, which was enchanted to perfectly complement his speedy, stealthy play style, but with also enough protection to allow him to engage in head-on combat. His armour set was similar to that of the armor of the Dark Brotherhood, but more protective and stronger, and complimented by his personal enchantments. He fitted his inventory and his assorted weapons appeared on his avatar in their respective places. On his back was an ebony sword, with an upgraded base damage of 15, plus a very damaging flame enchantment. On the left side of his belt was a glass war axe with a spark enchantment. Finally, strapped to the right side of his belt was an ebony dagger that was enchanted with HP drain. His sneak skill being perfected, a stealth kill with any dagger would do six times the dagger’s base damage. Essentially, it was his best weapon.

Around dusk, the trio gathered around a cliff’s edge above Knifepoint Ridge. A shadowy figure in the distance confirmed that Ganandork was in his place for backup. Roman began numbering the players in the camp. He counted six avatar’s in total. Two at the blacksmith’s forge below, two at the tents, one at the gate, and one on the watch tower. He looked to his sister, whispering to her. ”The guard on the watchtower is your first target. Prox and I will drop down and take out the two guys at the forge, then, once we move forward, you drop the avi at the gate. That will allow us to kill those guys at the tents with no problem.”

He ran through his plan mentally, checking to make sure there wasn’t a better, safer way. He decided that the plan would definitely work better than any other. He was getting ready to climb down the cliff when the gate of the small fort slung open. He swore and ducked back down as two more avatars walked in. He squinted to see their usernames, and now he found himself even more nervous.

As B4DB0Y and KandyMandy talked to the avatar at the gate, Roman looked to his sister. “That’s the Dovakhiin that Gan killed.” He said. He wouldn’t have worry too much about them if he hadn’t just killed KandyMandy earlier that day. Once she died, her daily ability reset - an unfortunate mechanic that some people exploited. “I don’t know what shouts she has, but she has all three words of Unrelenting Force…”

”Then we just need to take her out before she has a chance to blink.” Proxy said with a devilish gleam in her eyes. ”Alright. I have a small idea. I have some point in conjugation. Not much, but I do have familiar unlocked. Now, we still need Moon to take out the guard,” she turned to look at Moon, ”Your stealth buff will last approximately five more minutes so we need swift and precise. Drop the guard and then signal us… uhh, hoot or something.”

She turned back to Slayer, ”As for us we need to get the Dovakhiin and her partner out of there. The bandits in the camp are nothing in comparison. I was thinking if we can get Gan to lead them away with the help of my familiar we could take out the camp, the three of us, and then surround the pair while they're chasing after Gan.” It was a risky plan but she honestly thought it'd work, that is if they could take out everyone before the two figured it out.

Roman nodded as he processed proxy’s idea. It was a solid plan, especially if Gan could lay the bait. He quickly sent him a PM. ”Dov is here, get her attention as soon as Moon drops the avi on the watchtower.” A moment later, Gan confirmed that he was ready.

”Gan’s ready.” He said shortly. He opened his inventory and selected a Magika Poison potion.” He sent the potion to Sarah’s gift inbox. ”I need you to poison an arrow and shoot the Dova. Prox we kill them and then help Gan. She’s a strong mage, Gan doesn’t have any wards worth using. Summon your toughest familiar and we’ll go after her. If we get lucky we can bait her to use the Thu’Um and waste it.”

The confirmed their combined plans and Roman got ready to move. He watched for Ganandork in the distance, not seeing him until his stepped from his hiding spot. He stepped out onto the road and summoned a fireball spell in both hands. The spell was pathetically weak, but Gan didn’t need damage rather than distraction. He charged both hands and released to balls off flame that sailed towards KandyMandy and B4DB0Y. The dovakhiin mage was much too quick for Gan’s spells to do anything. She quickly summoned a ward and the fireballs dissolved against the magic barrier. ”Hey, Dovakhiin, remember me? I’m the guy that destroyed you this morning. Up for round two?” Gan shouted.

KandyMandy shook her head, summoned shock spells into both hands, and charged them up. ”He’s baiting you, Mandy. He wants to fight.” B4DB0Y warned.

”I know, that jerk left my avatar naked in the woods. I’ll kill him real quick, won’t even shout.” She said, marching forward. ”We’ll take care of him, give us a minute.” She said to the Bandit players. She released her bolts of lightning towards Gan, who was thrown into the air as the magic collided with him. Roman heard Gan swear as he flew back and fell against the trees, but the forest was too dark for him to see where he had ended up. The two partners rushed into the woods after Gan, taking their bait.

”Now.” He said to Proxy. The two of them down the sloped cliff, falling into the Bandit Camp. As they hit the dirt, Sarah released an arrow that downed the player on the watchtower. Roman stabbed the bandit nearest him while Proxy took the other. They repeated the process with the players around the campfire, then Roman drew his sword, sneaking up behind the player at the gate. His sneak and one-handed skill, combined with his sword’s damage, gave him an instakill. The kill animation took over and he stabbed the player through the abdomen. As the avatar fell to it’s knees, Roman pulled his sword back and swung it forward, lopping the player’s virtual head off.

”Well that was fun but I think it's time we pop on to the main course.” Proxy sighed before taking off towards the woods. Earlier she had sent out one of her strongest familiars, a little dire wolf, to help lure KandyMandy and B4DB0Y away from the camp and hopefully give Gan some cover. Though as she minded her stats it was almost time for the apparition to disappear.

There was only a few minutes left on her sneak buff as Proxy slithered into the woods. She had pulled up her familiar spell once more, summoning this time a small fox creature. Its health was half of the dire woods but I tested twice as long. She plugged in its basic commands, targeting B4DB0Y and hoping to separate him from his partner.

With deft fingers she plucked an invisible potion from her inventory and sent it to Slayer. If he could sneak up on the mage he could fell her in one clean swoop. ”Come on, little fox.” she muttered.

B4DB0Y trudged after KandyMandy. ”You sure you want to waste time this way?”

”Its barely any time wasted. He's probably only got a sliver of health left, not even that. You saw him fly.” there was a snide tone to her voice as she picked her way through the woods. She was sure he had crash landed over in this direction and there was no way she was going to let him get away after the stunt he pulled earlier. KandyMandy could still feel the heat rise in her cheeks when her avatar had awoken bare in a crowded place.

”What was that?” B4DB0Y halted as he caught a glimpse of a pale blue creature dart behind the brush.

”It was nothing, come on.”

”No. It was not nothing. It looked like another familiar.

”Oh please. Did you see the weak little fire balls he casted? He's not a mage. It's probably one of the guys at the camps. You know how they are, nosey.” she brushed him off but B4DB0Y wasn't convinced.

”I'm just going to check it out.”

”Oh for Christ's sake, fine! Go. I got this.” she stalked off without him.

Proxy shot a smile over at Slayer with a quiet nod before commanding her familiar to slowly lure him back towards the camp. Moon was perched high above, arrows drawn taut as she waited for his shadowy figure to come into her line of sight.

As the fox tripped its way towards her Proxy stood up with a manic smile plastered on her face. ”Gotcha.” she teased before an arrow whizzed past her and sunk into his helmet. The archery bonus and the stealth attack bonus was just enough to bring him to his knees. Proxy’s hands glowed a soft amber before a fireball shot out and snuffed out the last of his health.

Further into the forest, Kingslayer snuck towards KandyMandy, cloaked by Proxy’s invisibility potion. His right hand gripped tightly around his ebony dagger, ready to strike. He wouldn’t leave the chance of her not dying, so he relied on his dagger’s enormous damage multiplier from sneak attacks. He saw her through the trees and he crept forward. Though she knew Gan was out here, she had no idea he was even on this side of Skyrim, and he would’ve liked to keep it that way.

As she stopped in a clearing she seemed to search more for Ganandork. She summoned another shock spell in her right hand, ready to strike. Roman watched careful, trying to stay behind her. His position didn’t allow her to see the second spell that she summoned in her left hand - at least, not until she cast it. The spell illuminated her in a scarlet shade as she magically detect all life within twenty yards. Her eyes stopped dead on Roman as his formed burned red, exposed by the magic. He rolled just in time to dodge a bolt of lightning, hiding himself behind a tree as the Invisibility potion was negated by his upright movements.

”I know you’re here Kingslayer!” She yelled. Roman searched for Proxy’s marker in the distance, but he supposed she was too far away. Sarah was much too far to hit KandyMandy with the magika poison arrow. He sighed and drew his ebony sword from his back, but this time also drawing his glass war axe. He lunged to the right, rolling to another tree as the mage shot a bolt of lightning at him.

”It’s too dark!” He shouted, hoping that Proxy would hear him and cast a magelight, or at least get close enough to summon an atronarch.

”Ah, hell.” She groaned before taking off into the woods. Her spell log was pulled out, prepared to cast whatever was needed of her as she wound her way through the brush.

A ball of light popped into existence, illuminating the path before her. She could see Slayer’s marker but she laid eyes on KandyMandy first. The avatar was drawn backwards as the old familiar animation took over. ‘Shit.’ Proxy knew what was coming and panicked for a moment before scrolling through her spell list.

The air rippled around the Dovakhiin before projecting forward at Slayer. Proxy moved with a nimbleness that came from her dancers core as her own light burst forward as she summoned her ward. The shout crashed into the ward and she felt her body jerk back from the force.

Roman lay knelt on the ground, lowering his weapons from their defensive position that would’ve been completely useless if not for Proxy’s ward. Before he stood, an arrow whizzed past him, flying over Proxy’s shoulder and landing in KandyMandy’s right shoulder. The avatar staggered as Sarah came into view behind Roman. He knew the arrow was poisoned, so he rolled around Proxy and readied his blades. Without being able to cast armor spells, KandyMandy’s HP was no match for Roman’s weapons. He sprinted forward and triggered heavy attack. His animations took over and his sword slashed across the mage’s chest, then his axe. He saw her HP drain rapidly as the staggering blow sent her to the ground. He rushed to her before she could recover and triggered another heavy attack. As KandyMandy tried to get to her knees, Roman kicked upwards, his boot connecting with her jaw and sending her back to the ground. The kill animation was triggered again and swung both of his blades simultaneously, slicing KandyMandy’s head from her body.

As the avatar fell limp, Roman stood up, breathing heavily. ”Not the plan, but I’ll take it…” He muttered to himself.

”NICE!” Yelled Gan as he appeared from the dark woods. ”Let’s go teamwork!” He said, jogging to halt above KandyMandy’s severed head.

”Wow, Gan, you really took your time to come back, didn’t you?” He said as he sheathed his blades. ”Nice work. Let’s go get the dragon scales. Roman turned to walk back to Proxy and Sarah.

”Holy crap!” Gan shouted, beckoning Roman to turn around and look. To his dismay Gan was once again bent over KandyMandy’s body, checking her inventory.

”Dear God, Gan! I just decapitated her!” Roman cried in dismay.

”Look at this, man!” Ganadork’s face lacked its normal humor, rather replaced by a serious shock. He held a piece of parchment - a map. When he turned it over to let Roman see, it wasn’t a map of Skyrim like he’d expected. It was a map of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An X was labeled beside a building marked, “State House,” in bold letters. Beside the X was the words, “Clue is hidden here.”

“Oh my God.” He muttered as he took the map, examining it.

Proxy was keen to see what all the fuss was about and poked her head around Slayer, ”No. Way. Those two were Questing?!” her voice sounded as dumbfounded as the look on her face. The elusive little clue that the whole world was silently fretting over. She worried her lower lip out of latent frustration as the rhyme came back to mock her once more.

”Philly, huh. I guess. Stupid cage of hell and all that,” she kicked at the ground as she muttered, ”I've been going over that dumb rhyme for months now. How awesome would it be to find that first clue? Hell, to win.” she shook her head before looking over at her companions.

”I don't supposed any of you have any interest in checking it out, huh?” Proxy’s voice hitched a little as she fished for some information. She wanted them to say yes. She wanted to go on this Quest and the two of them seemed like decent partners- even if only one of them could be the winner. She shivered at the thought of an exciting new adventure.

Kingslayer was unresponsive as Roman paused the game, breaking his immersion as he lifted his headset from over his eyes. He ran a hand through his long hair and breathed heavily for a moment. They’d actually found a lead on the first clue. After two years, they actually had some idea of what was going on. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He could hear Proxy’s voice in his earpieces, despite not being able to see the virtual world. He slid his headset back over his eyes and resumed the game.

”Not here, no. God… He opened up his menu and rifled through until he found the permission setting for his homeworld base. He updated the visitors list by adding HecateProxy to the names of allowed players. ”I don’t want to take the chance of being overhead or spied on. We should go back to my base in Homeworld. He expected them to follow as he teleported back to his penthouse.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, she was off. Her legs carried her across the cobbled road of the market planet and down busy streets framed with shops of all variety; from canvas topped caravans to futuristic establishments that varied in height stretching as far as the eye could see and further from one pole to the other. NPC and player owned shops littered ever square inch viable for a store to be located in, and every day countless would close and new ones would open. Every minute a real estate battle was waged across the face of the otherwise peaceful planet.

Every store you could possibly imagine was located here, which was to be expected from one of the largest market places in the Virtual Reality. Weapons, armour, real estate, accessories, auction houses, merchant guilds, item identifies; anything that could have been found in any self respecting market was to be found in an innumerable supply on the planet wide Bazaar. It was no surprise it was named as such.

The prices of plots of land stopped being measured shortly after the inception of the planet. Anyone who had a decent amount of cash could likely afford to rent a decent space and set up shop, yes, but the fierce competition in relation to the prices made in nigh impossible. Shortly after it had been coded and added in, The Bazaar moved to an auction based system for most all of its land. The wealthier of estate agents managed to keep themselves out of it, though they were a minority, so almost all of the land up for rent was bid on. Every day, different areas would rise and fall in value depending on whether or not there was a large amount of competition; the fluctuations being one of the main reasons no one bothered to keep track.

Once a plot was rented, the person you rented it from would collect from you every three months. Algorithms had been set in place to determine how much rent was to be given, but the complex equations that were used had long since bored most everyone. Now they simply accepted it. If you couldn't pay, you were kicked out and your land was auctioned off once again. If you weren't gone by a certain time, your avatar was killed off. The entire planet was a PvP Dual Zone, but had remained one of the most peaceful places bearing that specification in Virtual Reality; much to the surprise of everyone.

Her legs in the real world strode across her slightly outdated omni-directional treadmill. These kinds of hardware were the reason she barely had the money to keep herself afloat IRL. She had to rely on her winnings and money from selling items obtained from quests and kills to pay for food and rent, and even then she was still a couple months behind. If she was being honest, that was probably the main thing that kept her going on the Quest. Not even just the prospect of winning, though that definitely was a part of it. She had read Ready Player One countless times. Wade - Parzival - after obtaining each key and passing each gate, had been awarded credits and experience points. Even if she didn't win, that might have been good enough.

But she really, really wanted to win.

Each step she took led her towards the one shop she wanted. Probably one of the most respected establishments on the face of The Bazaar. On the left side of her vision, the screen for her inventory was displayed, and the item description for the item she had picked up was displayed. The swords her foe had wielded were considered one item, and bore the name Telrond's Fangs. High damage scimitars with a paralysis enchantment. Two similar looking snake designs made up the hilt and pommel, their heads as the guard, and led off into the deep, rust coloured blades. Both had serrated blade, and a button mirrored on either side just below the guard. Below the specifications, a description sat.

The legendary blades of the Snake King Teldrond. The blacksmith whom forged them paid great attention to their lethality, and the blood of it's enemies stains the steel forever; as wished by the King.

The sounds of merchants and customers bartering and idle chatter of passers by quieted down as the cogs in her head turned. Strings of calculations formed in the mind of the genius girl in an attempt to figure out how much she'd get for the weapons before she reached her destination. She might have been setting herself up for disappointment, considering how tarnished the metal was, but a unique trait like that should have raised the price at least somewhat, right? And they were the weapons of some King! That had to have made for some increase in value. Not that she'd ever heard of a "Snake King Telrond", but he sounded... Kingly..?

It was only moments after that her Avatar stopped in front of her chosen shop. The establishment was made of brick, which looked worn in places, and two windows sat either side of the door displaying different weapons of varying qualities and design. Broadswords, great-swords, rapiers, scimitars, axes, hammers, daggers. It was a two story building, with windows lining the top looking more like that of a home than a shop, and the sloped roof created a small area of shade from the beating sun reminiscent of a desert market. In between the door and top set of windows was an elegant sign, bordered with ornate blades.

The sign read "Yawarakai-Te", meaning "Tender Hands" in Japanese, or so the owner had said. Aelkhine had never really bothered to question if that was true, though she did ask what the significance was. The owner was a player named "Sidroagos", a play on the Greek for Blacksmith since it had already been chosen, and he claimed that, in the story Yawarakai-Te is present, it is considered the finer of two blades in a contest; quality being one of the things the man prided himself on. It only made a marginal amount of sense to the girl, so she just smiled and nodded.

The moment she walked in, he called out to her.
"Hah, well if it isn't Chester herself. What? You fuck up your bow again or something?" he smiled and placed a sword he had been polishing behind him. It was beautifully crafted, and had a delicate flower pattern engraved into the blade to mimic the flower design on the hilt.

"Nah Sid, I'm here to sell this time." she took a few steps towards the counter, and produced the two blades from her inventory, "And stop calling me Chester." Alekhine added, feigning annoyance.

"Let me beat you at chess, and maybe I will~" the Avatar reached down and picked the two blades up. A window appeared facing him, and he began to turn them over; taking in each detail. Being one of the best Blacksmiths she knew, Sid could definitely tell quality from garbage and probably wouldn't rip her off. She could never be sure.
"Now where, pray tell, did you get these, Little Missy? I've never seen something to do with a Snake King Telrond before." he glanced up curiously, before stepping back and scanning them some more.

"Some guy I killed dropped 'em. They really messed some people up, so I thought you might like them." with one in each hand, Sid gave the blades a few practice swings. He muttered some terminology that Alekhine could barely hear, probably in relation to their quality, and then rested one on the counter. In a second, he raised the other and slammed it down blade first onto its side.

The loud, metallic ring echoed through the shop as the blade bounced off its twin. Neither of the two Avatars flinched, and instead the girl smiled.
"So, whad'ya think?" there was a slight tone of pride in her voice, probably in relation to the way the swords had cut through their opposition like a hot knife through butter.

"Well for starters, they're balanced well. The metal is hard, and the blade is sharp. The enchantment is somewhat unique, and the lore is good enough to raise its price somewhat. Plus, the design is quite unique. The rusting of the blade is gonna lower it a bit, but..." he paused, and rested them on the wooden counter, "Since its apart of the blade's lore, it wont be as much. Now, I'm gonna say... he fingers lightly drummed against his counter, right next to the swords. She could almost swear she heard gears turning in his head as he calculated the amount he'd be willing to give her for them.

"7000." Sid suddenly said, laying his palm flat. That wasn't as much as she was hoping for...
"8000." Alekhine heard herself say, eliciting a smile from the shopkeeper.
"7500, final offer."

His eyes focused on the girls hand as it reached out towards the swords. He was about to protest, thinking that she was going to take them back, but was silenced as she pressed the button on the hilt.
"10,000, daggers included." Once the button was pressed in, a small dagger with an odd purple tinge to the blade emerged from the guard with a click. Alekhine simply smiled as he removed it, and turned it over in his hands.

"You sneaky little... 'Aight, you win, Chester. 10,000." he tapped the air, and a window popped up. The next second, she heard a ding, as her credit count jumped by 10,000. Alekhine took a step back, bowed mockingly, and then flashed him a smile as she turned.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Sidney~" an expression somewhere in between annoyance and wonder crossed his face as he waved to her back. He picked up the swords, and carried and placed them in his inventory.

"I swear to God, one day I'm gonna beat you. Then we'll see who finds it so funny..." he went to turn, then stopped as she called to him from the storefront; just about to open the door.

"No you wont~" was the last thing he heard from the girl as she stepped out onto the cobbled street once more. The sun hit her first, causing her to squint, but she quickly turned away. The streets were just as busy as when she had arrived, not that she had been inside for very long, and so she began to push her way through the jumble of players and NPCs towards the nearest teleporter; map open on her right.



The sound of a teleporter activating resonated through one of the many private residences owned by Alekhine. That was another thing that drained her finances; keeping her homes up the scratch. It was hard enough to keep her in reasonable condition IRL, but she had around 4 in Virtual Reality that she had to care for just as well, if not more so.

It was a cottage she had had built for her in Crapstone, Devon, England. It was out of the way of the rest of the village, but was still in reasonable distance. She wasn't entirely sure why this was where she chose to have a home built, but it was pretty cheap and the area was nice. She didn't spend much time there, anyway. It was just a place to have.

However, it was the only home she owned on Homeworld; ironically, given its name. It had become a minor version of her Quest base of operations, and housed some pieces of information that she had gathered. It was all in one room, in the basement. Her Avatar quickly jogged down the stairs, and through the door to it.

On the other side was a slight small, but seemingly comfortable room. A television sat on a large cabinet, holding many different movies - from action to Disney - and straight across from it was a large leather sofa sat on a pattered Crimson rug, which sat on the laminated wooden floor. Behind that, two huge chalk and pin boards sat, respectively; framed by two more TV's with their own dedicated stack of video game consoles. To the side of those were two large bookshelves, which held row upon row of video games specific to the consoles beside them.

The boards were littered with notes about the first Quatrain. And they all pointed to one thing. The Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. In her mind, Alekhine had solved all but the last line, maybe the last two lines. However, she was sure she was close - very close - to figuring out the answer. Hopefully closer than any other Avatar had ever been.

From her inventory, she pulled out the envelope. It was brown paper; faded in some places from sunlight, and had some small stains around the corners. A red wax seal sat on it, keeping it shut. Alekhine took a deep breath, then broke the seal and pulled out the letters.

Except there was only one letter. As soon as it was out of the envelope, she took a screenshot of it, and began to print it off both IRL and in the Virtual World. A printer off beside one of the games consoles came to life and began to churn as it painted ink across the face of the paper. As it did, the letter in her hand caught fire, and burnt into ashes in a second.

Though, she didn't need the print off to be disappointed. She had already read what was on the letter. On it, a map of Philadelphia was drawn, and around the location of the Independence National Historical Park a large ink ring had been drawn. Alekhine let out a defeated sigh, and picked up the paper to confirm it.

Sure enough, that was what she saw. There was nothing on the back of the letter, either. She had checked. Nothing in the envelope, too. What had she expected? If someone truly figured it out, there was no way she would have been holding that envelope. Who was she kidding? She had actually believed that maybe, just maybe, the answer would have been there. So much for being the first to complete the first riddle.

She shook her head, and slapped herself in the face. What was she doing?! She hadn't even been to the Independence Hall yet! Through her excitement and confusion, she had utterly neglected to go to the sight where she knew the riddle pointed to and examine it. In seconds, she had bounded up the stairs to her personal Teleporter, and selected the closest one to the Park.

On the way, she changed her outfit to something casual - a shirt, jacket, jeans and trainers - and began to make her way to the Park. It wasn't like she was gonna find the answer immediately, but it was worth a shot to look around. An activity she had, like a fool, forgotten to do.

Independence Hall towered before him, in all its mildly decayed glory. As with most buildings on Homeworld, it was based upon the state it had been in the early 21st Century where frequent renovations had taken their toll. Curiously, whoever had designed the building for VR had chosen to construct it when it had been some time between repainting and looked slightly dilapidated, although there was a small section of scaffolding up against one side of the building with a NPC who arrived every morning to start repainting it. At midnight his progress was reset, the AI forever trapped into repeating the same task forever.

That, in itself, was curious to Artorigios. There were very few NPCs on Homeworld, since it was more of a nexus for players to visit other worlds. Those few which were present often served a very particular purpose, such as tour guides around cities or as user information. Most were found in instanced environments, such as in replica museums where different protocols were in place to control player activity. The fact that this man seemed to be doing a completely inane task, day in an day out, had been a mystery for Questers for some time. If someone tried to interact with the man he apologised and tried to go back to work. Even when players had grouped together to obstruct him, to see what would happen, he merely clocked off work and went on a prolonged lunch break, yielding no appreciable results.

Artorigios crossed the road, a few players roaming about but none appearing to be in much of a hurry. Questers had suspected for a long time that this was where the first clue led but after two years no one felt the need to rush about looking; it would only attract unwanted attention after all. Independence Hall itself wasn't an instanced environment although there was a NPC tour group that started on the hour, every hour, and multiple players were roaming around inside, trying to discretely search the place for the thousandth time.

As he entered he could hear the female tour guide, leading a gaggle of NPC children along, give the same information she did every time.

"It gained a place in history on July when the Liberty Bell tolled for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence."

The purpose of the tour guide had been discussed to death on Quester message boards, of course. Nowhere else on Homeworld was there such a regular and persistent group of NPCs but there was nothing linking the tour guides' words and the clue beside the mention of the Liberty Bell. Both the Liberty Bell and the Centennial Bell, the one housed in the tower above the Hall, had been searched with no great revelations regarding the Quest. Artorigios, however, felt like there was something he was close to remembering as he listened to the guide.

He followed them from room to room but nothing else jumped out at him. Some of the scripted speech was familiar to him but it wasn't until he returned to the main room and saw a set of stairs with a rope barrier in the corner of the room that things began to click into place for him.

"Cage... With a capital 'C'." He mused, wandering over to the barrier and hopping over it. The staircase led up to the Centennial Bell, although that was nothing new and plenty of others had visited the site previously with nothing to show for it. But it wasn't the bell that he was interested in, looking to a series of brick arches, across the roof. When he tried to climb from the bell tower he was stopped with a system warning, telling him that there was an invisible wall due to the fall. Thinking for a moment, he descended one floor and then entered an old storage room. At the far end was a window that was open, with a walkway extending to the flat rooftop. This time he was allowed to climb out through the window and onto the roof where he crossed to the centre brick arch.

After a bit of searching he found what he was looking for, a brick with a small symbol on it which all the others lacked. After tapping it, he found that he was able to move it out of the way and loot the small 'chest' inside. He didn't wait to look at his inventory, keen to get away from the roof before anyone spotted him; as far as he knew no other players had made it onto the roof or made the connection between 'Cage' and the Hall. A connection he was disappointed in, although now the part about 'Hell' made sense as well.

After all, Helen Grey had hated National Treasure. 'Cage' was apparently a reference to Nicolas Cage and 'Hell' seemed to just signal her distaste for the film. This was where things differed, though. Returning through to the main part of the Hall, he descended the stairs and climbed over the barrier while trying to look perturbed. A few other Questers threw sideways glances at him but, seeing his fake dejected expression, took no more notice and continued their furtive searching.

Once again across the road from the Hall, Atorigios was now looking at the Liberty Bell. A couple of other Questers were doing all but climbing over the artefact in an attempt to find some reference to the clue. He himself had done something similar, a year ago, but to no avail. This time, though, he thought he had an answer. Drawing up his inventory he picked out the new item he had discovered, a simple pair of glasses with no description, and put them on.

The result was underwhelming, but also immensely satisfying. He had thought that, upon solving the first clue, he might receive a Key or some other item, as Gunters from Ready Player One did when they passed the first test. It seemed that, here at least, Grey was deviating from her inspiration.

On the Bell, now glowing for only his eyes to see, was a symbol. He took several screenshots, trying not to rush in his excitement, and sent several images to the printer in his father's old study, ready for analysis. Turning away, he removed the glasses and headed for a transporter. Idly, he opened the leaderboard website and saw that nothing had changed. The top scorers were still all listed as 'HEG'.

Which meant that he still hadn't fully solved the first clue.

As Roman arrived in his Homeworld Penthouse, the gore from the fight disappeared from his avatar's face as his clothes changed to his suit pants and shirt. As the girls arrived soon after, he pulled up the map, checking it again. "We've got to go to the Independence Hall in Philadelphia. He said. "We've got to blend in and not draw attention." He made a slight gesture towards Prox's... appearance.

Roman quickly selected a different outfit from his inventory and his clothes swapped to dark jeans, boots, and a black t-shirt that fitted to his avatar's muscled torso. He selected an accessory and a pair of sunglasses appeared, hanging on the collar of his shirt. He opened his map, navigated through Homeworld to Philadelphia. "We're gonna search that place inside and out. You two take the inside, i'll circle the area from the outside and search the surroundings, too. I don't know what we're looking for, but... if it looks out of the ordinary, point it out." He opened a private voice chat party and invited the two of them.

He opened the map they'd looted from KandyMandy again, inspecting it another team, checking every inch of it to garner what information he might have missed. All it said was that the clue was at Independence Hall, but nothing else. There had to be more, though. Some kind of code that he wasn't noticing or something that required decrypting. A location wasn't good enough. It might have been a start, but he'd already suspected the Liberty Bell of being involved in the clue. There had to be something... Earth shattering. Someone had to have found something of a clue beyond a location. Helen Grey was by no means simple, and couldn't be expected to create a simple test, but there had to be someone that had discovered its meanings, but still the leaderboards were stagnant.

It was ironic, really. Roman's family was very wealthy and had never even feared not having enough money. Despite his and Sarah's wealth and inheritance, all of their money couldn't help them on this quest - at least not the core of it. Ironically, you couldn't just buy the power that came with the position of CEO of Virtual Reality. He shook his head as he returned to reality - or rather what seemed like reality.

He looked over to his sister and let out a breath. He didn't say anything, but just hoped she would be as invested into this as he was. She knew him better than anyone. She knew how much he wanted to complete this quest. In the rare occasions that he openly talked, he often talked about the quest. He dreamed of the events that could be waiting for the people that deciphered the clues. Now he had the first sliver of realization; that the dreams might have been more of a possibility than he'd ever known.

Sarah/Moonlit
Skyrim-Homeworld

After the rush and excitement of the hunt was over with, Sarah was practically doing front flips and cartwheels around Proxy and Roman, barely acknowledging Ganandork when he appeared. She stuck close to the small group as she looked around the area, interrupted from her thoughts when Gan started to loot the decapitated body. "Ew can you not? ... but can you also give me some of the money or arrows?"

Sarah turned towards her brother when they began talking about a clue. Her eyes widened as she knew that her brother had devoted much of his time to finding the first hint towards The Quest. She agreed to do whatever he wanted in regards to it so she quickly followed suit to the homeworld to see what their next move was.

Upon arrival, she listened to him speaking but kept that towards the back of her mind as she focused on dressing casual. A simple white v neck and light blue jeans would do, along with some white Nike's and her hair put up into a bun. "This should be casual enough." Once she had closed her menu, she gave her undivided attention to the plan that was being made as to how they'd tackle the new adventure that was about to begin, accepting her brothers private chat invite quickly and giving him a reassuring look that she was in.

"You know I'd never leave your side!" Her grin stretched from ear to ear and she gave him a quick thumbs up before turning to Proxy. "You'll be coming right? I can't do this without my partner in crime. Sorry Ro, Proxy is my partner in crime in Skyrim. Not you."

To say that Slayer's virtual home was lush was an understatement. Proxy had an idea about the wealth of the siblings, given his particular giving nature, but she didn't really dare to guess exactly how much the two were sitting on. Every part of her was abuzz with the thrill as Slayer laid out their next movements. 'To Philly.' Her heart fluttered. She didn't even mind the small quip about her rather exotic avatars state. Instead she curtly nodded while swapping out her kimono for a simple Sun dress with little flowers dedicated embroidered on its hem. Her horns dissolved as she opted to let her hair fall freely, instead of bring pinned back. The only thing that stayed the same was the soft eerie glow robber eyes and the pointed tips of her ears. Overall she just looked like a young girl going in vacation.

As they arrived Slayers group chat popped up, "Alright. Now what?" She listened and nodded as he set the girls off to explore the inside of the building.

"You know I'd never leave your side!" Moon chirped in her ear. The girls grin stretched from ear to ear and she gave him a quick thumbs up before turning to Proxy. "You'll be coming right? I can't do this without my partner in crime. Sorry Ro, Proxy is my partner in crime in Skyrim. Not you."

Proxy couldn't do much but laugh. A feeling that warmed her very core as she watched the girl tease her brother. A few times she had wondered what it would be been like to have siblings- if she had she had hoped her relationship would be like theirs.

"Of course," she shot the two a cheeky grin, "She's got good tastes. As I am the best." She gave a playful wink towards Slayer before dissolving into a fit of giggles. Catching her breath she sighed loudly, trying to call back into a place of seriousness. "Now let us go make history, shall we?" With that Proxy strode off with a noticeable bounce in her step.

Artorigios stood outside Trinity Church, New York City. He had assumed that, along with the other clues, the theme was apparently the National Treasure film and the Trinity symbol he had discovered on the bell was clearly pointing him here. He looked around but there weren't that many passersby so he entered the silent church, closing the doors behind him as he did so. There weren't any visible players in the church, nor were there any NPCs. He stood for a moment, eyes closed to use his listen skill to its max but there was no sound except from outside on the street.

He swiped down a small window on his display and brought up his Quest folder, filled with blog links, news resources and anything else he could come up with which he thought to be relevant. On his way he had transferred a digital copy of National Treasure to the folder and bookmarked the scene where they entered Trinity Church in the film; now he loaded the film up and pinched the window so that it wasn't in his way but he could follow the steps there.

After finding the wall grave indicated in the film he minimsed the film and pushed on the plaque. Thankfully he didn't need to destroy it like they did in the film and the plaque just disappeared, revealing a small hole into which he could climb. Drawing an electric torch from his inventory, Artorigios climbed into the empty grave and crawled along the tunnel it had revealed. As in the film, the other side was a deep cavern with a rickety wooden staircase leading to an ancient pulley.

He trod carefully, it was unlikely that the area had been designed as in the film to be fragile but he wasn't going to take that risk at this point; who knew how close the next person might be behind him? The platform creaked from side to side eerily as he stepped onto it and activated the pulley system so that it sank into the darkness, his torch the only thing to illuminate it. It was a couple of minutes before he reached the next stage so he used the time to review the next part in the film but this proved pointless; as soon as she stopped off the wooden lift and onto the next platform he saw that this area bore no resemblance to the film at all.

There was a plain rock face but there were no symbols or any of the features seen in the film. He began to search the walls, pressing his hands against them to see if there were any hidden entrances but nothing appeared. Frowning, he took a step back and looked again but nothing new revealed itself.

Julius sighed, removing the VR gear and moving to the kitchen to pop the kettle on. As the water boiled he considered the new obstacle, only just noticing the quiet click that signalled the water had boiled. He opened the cupboard and stared inside, considering what tea leaf he wanted to use but found that he had forgotten to put on his glasses and he couldn't read the box labels. He went to retrieve his glasses and put them on, the world instantly becoming clearer as his vision was corrected.

He paused, taking the glasses off and then putting them back on again before discarding them and slipping the VR gear back on; he knew what he was missing.