AlterWorld

I rolled another hundred cigarettes, for myself and for networking purposes. My bodyguards were already in the group chat, asking if I wanted to join them for morning coffee. I got the hint. I invited them in and we had a nice little talk sending fragrant smoke curling to the ceiling.

Finally, Taali arrived. She stormed into the room forcing the bodyguards to jump up and line the walls. She stared at the haze-filled room, indignant, then opened the window and waved her hands, trying to banish the colorful smoke from the room. The lieutenant chuckled and snapped his fingers. A tangible breeze swept through the chamber.

That got me curious. "What's this spell you have? Draft #5?"

He didn't appreciate my sense of humor. "It's not a spell. Pure mental force."

"What do you mean, mental? I don't think I remember this skill in the game."

"There is no skill. There's an aptitude. You see, those who've been digital for a while—and I've been here for the best part of two years now—we don't seem to depend as much on the game code. We start to push the envelope a bit as we learn to control our own power outside of the limits set for us by the game developers. Nothing extraordinary, really. Children begin to grow, old people rejuvenate, and little by little, we learn to control magic. Your own element starts to obey first: I'm an air wizard, you know. And then… God knows."

Taali and I didn't move, digesting what he'd just said. "Holy cow," she whispered.

The wizzy nodded. "Exactly. It's not a game anymore. Hasn't been for quite some time—for us, at least. Probably, if two digitized partners wanted a baby really badly, I can't see why they couldn't…"

Now we all fell silent. The world puzzle had turned again, revealing to us its new sides and colors. The bodyguards tactfully made themselves scarce while Taali was pressing me for more details, oohing and aahing with concern. But behind it I could see she was proud of her man, a go-getter who wasn't going with the flow but went out on a limb seeking opportunities and grabbing them. I felt flattered even if I realized that her noises of support were just one of the things that made for a happy marriage. Some women don't seem to understand such simple stuff as they vent their indignation with their Tom, Dick or Harry apparently not being able to get off the couch and change their lives for the better.

As I lounged on the bed admiring my paladin maid, I remembered Fuckyall's gift. I took out the bracelet and looked up its characteristics.

Weeping Shackles

Item Class: Rare

Upgrades: Life Stone x2

Class Restrictions: Paladin

Minimal level: 150

+90 to Armor, +40 to Strength, +40 to Agility

When the owner sustains damage, Life Tears have a 24% chance of spraying, restoring the group members' life +120 pt.

Now that was a bracelet! I didn't even want to know how much it cost, or my i

She turned away from studying her portrait on the wall and gave me an inviting and curious smile. I didn't beat around the bush and handed her the item.

She peered at it. Her eyes opened wide. "You can't be serious. Just don't tell me you've farmed it yourself. Although I wouldn't put it past you."

I shrugged, faking indifference. "A swap. I traded it with Fuckyall. It's his personal item… was."

"Holy cow," she whispered, pressing it to her chest. "I'll have to grow into it. Back in real life, I have this solid silver bracelet… and I think this one costs more. It's all so relative…"

She jumped onto the bed and straddled me. "Want another example of relativity?"

Slowly, she began undoing the top buttons of her blouse as I watched, intrigued. She reached under the collar and pulled out a small blue stone on a piece of string.

"Do you recognize it?" she asked. "A gnoll camp and a sad-eyed girl…"

"A laurite," I said. "The laurite…"

"That's it," Taali gave me a proud, happy smile. "The one you gave me on the day we met. I'm sorry, but it's more precious to me than Fuckyall's bracelet. That's relativity for you…"

I reached out and touched the stone. I looked into her eyes and gently pulled the laurite down toward me, making her lean closer and closer.

The next two hours went too quickly. Still, I couldn't complain. Tired but pleased with ourselves, we were lounging in bed when I received Dan's message. Apparently, the meeting was taking too long; he didn't expect them to come to a decision before tomorrow. He was leaving me the bodyguards begging me not to stick my neck out, with a warning that the situation was heating up and sharing the tobacco pie had created more waves than we'd expected. He attached a large file from Mr. Simonov containing his propositions on forming a tobacco alliance and creating an AlterWorld tobacco market. I scrolled through pages of diagrams of suggested volumes, market coverage rates and distribution cha

Oh well. He and his friends seemed to be working hard and their objectives seemed to coincide with mine. I forwarded it.

Now I needed to decide what to do with myself in the meantime. Taali didn't have this problem: blaming the full-immersion time restrictions, she took off back into the real world. After racking my brains for a while, I remembered the idea I'd been toying with for a while. I still had a good half a ton of loot that Teddy was lugging around. I had to sort it out but I really didn't want to go out into the courtyard. Skeptically I glanced over the room, pushed all the furniture into the corners and pulled out the Summoning Whistle.

The room rang with the bear's happy hollering, sounds of smashed crockery and a crushed chair. I went flying onto the bed. Apparently, the room was smaller than I thought. The door crashed open as one of the bodyguards attempted to break in. He hit the bear's side blocking the doorway and bounced back. I heard the electric crackle of a spell being cast and hurried to remove the bear.

I was facing a scene of complete desolation. Now I knew the full meaning of the bull in a china shop thing. The lieutenant froze in the doorway. He cut short the almost-cast spell, shaking the remaining sparks off his fingers and shrugged, studying the room.

"You're too much, you know that? If you need to summon your bear so badly, why not do it downstairs in the yard? We'll cover you."

"Sorry, guys. I've never done well in geometry. I just failed to fit the bear into the space available."

We all stomped down the stairs. As I sorted through the loot, the passersby got an eyeful of my bear—a rare sight for low-level players. A second lieutenant arrived and helped his troops to carry all the goodies to the nearest store. Here I must mention that all five bodyguards were company officers which said a lot about their professionalism and their place in the clan. They all laughed at my pe

Type: Riding Mount