Caged Demons: Entrapment

Chapter 1: "Nothing Important"

Chapter 1: "Nothing Important"

Bright blue eyes drifted across the crowd of people to settle on a familiar face. It was familiar to him at least. To anyone else, the man was just another face in the crowd. Average features, short brown hair, and unfocused brown eyes fit in perfectly with the sea of faces. This stood as a deep contrast to the owner of the azure eyes. Shining blonde locks and a sharp chin drew quick attention to the blue-eyed man.

"Lukas," a quick tap on the shoulder drew the blue eyes' attention away from the other man. They instead shifted to a rather short woman with dark hair pulled back into a braid. Several freckles twisted with worry as the woman looked past Lukas to the distracted man. "How's he doing?"

Lukas frowned, "Not good."

"I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now. He's just retreating into his head. You should say something to him."

Nodding, Lukas turned back to the other man and spoke a bit louder so that his friend could hear him, "Steven."

There was no response. Instead, Steven just continued to stare off across the sea of other faces standing in the line which ran ahead of the large, brick building that they were trying to enter. His attention was focused across the busy street traffic. The vehicles rushed over the recent rain covered pavement. Fortunately, the advanced technology of hovering transportation left the liquid stagnant on the road and did not splash the waiting customers.

Stepping closer to Steven, Lukas could see what his friend was observing. Despite the buildings across the lane being covered in neon glow and projectors unleashing a wide variety of holographic advertisements, the shorter man was staring at the most mundane thing on the block. At the very top of the building across the street stood a large screen blaring with a red warning. The image of an eye surrounded by a cloud was positioned at the very center of the precaution. Lukas recognized the symbol and snorted in amusement, "The Eye in the Sky. What a joke."

Lukas's close proximity and sudden comment caught Steven's attention. He finally turned away from the screen, "They seem worried about him."

"It's just paranoia!" a rather tall, lanky man rushed behind them and threw his long arms over their shoulders. His long, dark hair and a thick beard gave him a rather disheveled appearance. "When has anything really gone wrong with Integration Tech? They just like to make things seem professional after the update."

Steven didn't look convinced, but Lukas smiled at the lanky man. "And they put a prankster hacker up to make it seem like they're vigilant? That's funny."

"Just because nothing has gone wrong in a long time, Alex, doesn't mean that they shouldn't be cautious," Steven's face remained as hardened as steel.

Alex snorted and removed his arms form their shoulders only to lean on the shortest of the three men, "Cautious is an understatement, Stevey. They got a dozen crash mats under seven safety nets all the while strapping us in balloon suits. It's ridiculous. I wish they would calm down a bit so we could just get through this dumb line."

Lukas found himself agreeing. He and his group of friends had been waiting in line for close to an hour, and they were only now getting close to entering the building. Judging from how far the line went back from the entrance of the building, it appeared as though they were the lucky ones. Some of those people in the back would be waiting another couple of hours at the current rate of the line's movement.

"Hey! Line's moving!" a rather short yet bulky man snapped up to them. With his squared chin set into a snarl, the man gave off an intimidating aura. His shaved head and beady eyes only enhanced that aura.

"Alright, John," Lukas quickly guided Steven up the line and into the building. "Come on. Take your mind out of reality for a bit. Have fun and don't be so serious."

Steven just remained silent as he was led inside the structure. Just as soon as they took their first step into the interior, they were assaulted with waves of bright lights and dizzying noises. Their sides were pierced with coldness created by hard working air conditioners used to prevent the various equipment from overheating.

While the outside of the construction was rather plain with simple red bricks and a large sign with Integration Tech written across the front, the inside of the building was one giant intricate maze of wires and machinery. Hundreds of screens hung from the walls and showed various images of strange creatures fighting each other. Red ropes directed the line through the safely marked areas to keep the customers from getting towards the carefully organized cables and hardware. Different security guards watched the customers to make sure that no one stepped out of line and onto the part of the floor where the important equipment stood.

Once they reached the end of the ropes, the line immediately branched off into different options. Off to the right, the customers could immediately exit the path to head towards the food court. Everyone else could take their pick of ten different lines that continued all the way across the building until the end of the room. Above the main area, a balcony allowed people on the second floor to look down at them and see how everything was progressing.

Ten large machines awaited at the end of the building. The main part of each machine was a giant cube of flashing lights and different gauges. Spheres of glass with a single seat located at the center were connected to the front of the large cubes. When people got to the end of their line, they spoke to the control technician working at the console in front of the machine. They then entered the sphere, only for the glass door to close behind them and turn a dark shade of black to hide their features. After a few seconds of the machine lighting up, the glass tint faded to show that the customer was gone. The door would then open once more for the next person in line.

Slowly, the group of five friends made their way through their line. Despite the boring process, they remained patient and eager to make it to their chosen machine. Eventually, their patience paid off as they stood in front of the equipment ready to take them to another world.

"Hello," the lady working at the console spoke to them in a bored tone. The dark uniform and bun holding up her brown hair gave her a professional look, but the uncaring expression across her face made her appear like she didn't care about her current work. "Welcome to Integration Tech's Paradisus Transition Sphere. My name is Wendy, and I'll be your Transition Technician today. May I please see your ID?"

Lukas reached into his pocket and pulled out his proper paperwork.

"Lukas Paine. Avatar name: Hercules. Race: Human. Class: Combat Soldier. Last date of transition…" Wendy paused for a brief moment, "before the world update."

A holographic contract popped up in front of the console. Lukas saw the Terms of Agreement written in bold across the screen. Several pages of text were accessible by the scroll bar at the side of the pad. At the bottom of the hologram, the words accept and decline were written in green and red respectively.

"Please read the entire—"

Lukas immediately pressed the accept button.

"Thank you for reading and accepting the updated terms of agreement," Wendy continued to mumble through her memorized lines without missing a beat. "Before you step into the Transition Sphere, please remember to remain still and don't touch the walls. Once your play time has come to an end, there may be a bit of wait before you can exit the game. Please be aware that the exit Transition Stations are on the second floor, and I won't be there to greet you when your session is complete."

"Yep. Heard it a hundred times, Wendy," Lukas responded with an equally bored voice.

Not affected in the least by that comment, Wendy continued on, "Please step into the sphere. We'll be transporting you to your last save point. Enjoy your time in Paradisus."

Lukas quickly stepped into the sphere and sat down in the chair. Before the glass turned black, he managed to get one last glimpse of his friends. Three of them were smiling at him, but Steven just continued his hardened gaze. Lukas just gave him a friendly smile, promising that things were going to get better.

As soon as the glass tinted to separate him from the outside world, Lukas felt as if he was spinning. His vision became a blur of light and messy text. Loud ringing blared in his ears. For the briefest of seconds, his stomach twisted like he was going to vomit. Then, Lukas felt like he was being squeezed all over his body as if gravity had been tripled. The strange force seemed to be compressing his body from every angle. Just as he thought that he was about to be crushed into dust, the pressure stopped. Finally, he seemed to be released by the machine and was sent falling into a warm ocean of ones and zeroes.

As the numbers faded, Lukas blinked in order to clear the nausea he felt churn within his stomach. Once his intestines stopped trying to turn inside out, the world around him slowly began to form into existence. He now stood on a small, grassy hill overlooking a tiny town. Golden light rolled down onto his form as a light breeze brushed up against him. The red armor that covered his body shielded most of the wind's light touch, but the cooling feeling of the rushing air felt great against the skin of his cheek.

Lukas could only grin. He loved this part of the transition. While it was disorienting to be uploaded into the game, the arrival made everything worth it. Paradisus was a beautiful land filled with dangers, but there was nothing else like the virtual land. In truth, it may be just a bunch of data, but it was still made him feel more alive than the real world ever did.

Turning around, Lukas was greeted by the sight of a rather broken down building. Standing at two stories tall, it was a rather disappointing sight with rotten wood and collapsing walls. Yet, Lukas still smiled at what was to be his group's future guild hall. He didn't see the broken down pile of trash that most people would view. No, what he saw was a potential home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What took you so long?" Lukas, now Hercules while in the game, questioned after his friends and guild mates all finally managed to load into the game.

"Martial wanted to read the entire agreement," the only female member of their guild spoke while straightening her fur covered armor. Unlike Hercules, who had not really changed at all in his appearance, her avatar in the game had a few differences from her true self. Sharp pointed ears stood up high over her head and were emphasized because her long, pink hair was pulled back into a single braid. An engraved silver locket hung from her neck and identified her avatar name as Minerva.

"Really?" Hercules gave Steven an amused look. Said man just ignored the comment and looked away from the hill and to the tiny village filled with artificial people. Like Hercules, Martial chose to have his game avatar appear as his normal self. Dark robes covered his entire body. He held a large, wooden staff that functioned both as a weapon and as a walking stick.

"Course he did," the shortest of their group let out a huff. While in real life John had been below average in height, in the game he was the size of a literal dwarf. A long, thick beard of red dropped from his jaw to his knees. Dirty, gray armor covered his chest, but his massive arms stood out for all to see. "Someone's got to read it. Any changes, Martial?"

"Nothing important, Hookfang," Martial mumbled.

The dwarf looked like he was ready to push more, but the last member of their group interrupted. Most of Alex's upper body was exactly the same as before he entered the game. His changes were the most distinct at his lower half. As a centaur, his lower body was that of a majestic stallion, causing him to now stand far above the other members of the group, "Let it go, Hookfang."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say, Lucky," Hookfang huffed. "Let's just go. I think we could all use some excitement."

Martial spoke up without outside encouragement from others for the first time that day, "We should be careful. Last time the game had an expansion update, the enemy locations changed."

"Well, the landscape hasn't changed," Minerva noted as she looked across the horizon. A deep forest stood right at the edge of the town and spread outward almost as far as she could see. Through the thick woods, various mountains jumped up to reach towards the sky. One mountain far into the distance even reached up so high into the sky that it tore past the gentle clouds. "And our guild hall is, um, still there."

Everyone turned to look at the guild hall. No one looked pleased.

"What?!" Hercules gained an insulted expression across his face. "I bought the best thing I could with the gold we had. So what if it's a fixer-upper. We'll just get supplies and build it up. That's the fun part of having a guild hall, right?"

"It's going to take some time, though," Hookfang stroked his beard in thought. "And at this rate, we'll never get anywhere close to catching up with the Guardians and getting even."

Martial let out a snort, "That was an impossible goal from the start."

"Hey, the point isn't to beat them," Lucky argued. "Besides, it's just a game. We don't have to take it as seriously as those guys do."

"Still, it'd be nice not to get crushed by them again," Hookfang grumbled.

"We won't," Hercules suddenly gave them all a determined look. "They won't be stealing from us again. We'll build the hall up and then seal all the treasure away."

Martial nodded. With a wave of his hand, he opened up his menu. A holographic image of himself along with all of his stats popped up. Opening his inventory, he summoned out a sheet of paper from his personal space. It appeared in his hand with a burst of light, "I've made a list of what we need. First thing we should get is as much wood as possible. We should stay close to the tree line in case there are new monster types we don't know about."

"Alright!" Hercules quickly stepped forward and began to lead his friends down the hill. "New update! New adventure!"

Even as Lucky and Hookfang followed the guild leader, Minerva paused in her trek when she noticed that they were missing a member of the party. Glancing back to Martial, she noticed how he was staring at his menu. The frown on his face showed that he seemed really bothered by something.

"Hey, Martial," Minerva stepped back up by the staff mage. "What's wrong?"

"That counter," Martial pointed to his menu. There was a new time counter at the top of the screen. The only thing it said was that it was day one. "What does that mean? I never read about that in the update blog."

"Maybe it's a boasting thing," Minerva suggested. As she spoke, she purposely took a deeper tone. "You can open your menu and be like, 'Look! I haven't died in a month. How awesome am I?' You know. That kind of thing."

Martial's eyes drifted to her, "Is that what you think I sound like?"

Minerva giggled, "No, that was Hookfang."

Martial shook his head and looked back at the menu.

Minerva gave him a look of sympathy, "I, uh, know that you don't want to talk right now, but could you try to take your mind off your, um, things and have some fun? I thought that's why you agreed to come."

Martial gave her a slow nod, "Yeah, you're right. Sorry. I just—"

"Hey!" Hercules called up to them from the bottom of the hill. "What's taking you so long?! Come on, we're burning daylight!"

"He's right," Minerva noted as she moved to walk down the hill once more. "Come on. We only have so much game time before we're forced to log out!"

Martial licked his dry lips as he considered Minerva's words. Dismissing his menu, he ran to catch up with his friends. Minerva was right. That counter was most likely just a bragging rights thing that the developers left out of the update notes. It was probably nothing important.