A/N: Story seven is here! That must be a milestone somewhere...

Zero: Um, don't you think your self glorifying slightly?

Glint: No? I know I'm far from author material, just because I can type and post crap doesn't make me an author.

Crimson: Well, some people like it.

Lycamon: And some people don't. You can't please them all...

Zero: I can.

Glint: Show off! Anyway this is story seven. Don't ask how many there will be in total because I have no idea. I sit at home/work and a new idea pops into my head. If I like it, I write it. Hence why I have so many active stories at any given time.

Let me know what you think.

Digital Flux

Chapter 1

"You have ruined everything! My plans laid to waste by your insolence! You haven't seen the last of me! Argh!"

"Level Complete!"

"Well thank fuck for that!" I mean seriously, that boss was a nightmare. I was glad to have that out of the way. Just one level remained until I completed Dungeon Seekers VII, the seventh in the series of eight games for my XV2 VR system.

I sighed as I stepped out of the active area and shut the system off for now. I would be back in there shortly but this way it could cool of slightly. It never ran warm, but after my last session of a rather demanding game it was running slow from slight heat build up.

Casting my vision around my mediocre home I was once again reminded of my life. Twenty five years of age and living alone in complete isolation. I hadn't seen my family for five years since they disowned me over something I had done well to forget. My life then became a drone of living on my own with my VR system coming a year later, at least it passed the time faster. No friends either, I lived in a secluded place with a decent view of the large city I lived outside of. Not much existed in my life except the essentials and my VR sessions.

I came to the conclusion two years ago that I simply lived for the hell of it.

No ambition, no need to work, no social interaction. Nothing. I had been granted a large sum of money from sources I had forgotten about and simply lived of the interest it generated. It degraded my very soul to know I had no purpose in life, no use for any grand scheme waiting round the corner. If I died, no one would know or care. That sort of knowledge does things to you.

I was never truly happy since I was disowned, and even then I wasn't much joy. Life to me seemed so dull, so pointless. Nothing ever happened in mine except when I did something, and even that was minimal.

I sighed again and jumped back into my XV2, powering it up as I did so. I decided against finishing Dungeon Seekers for the moment and selected the other active title in my collection. I say title, it didn't have a name. It was just some strange simulation with odd creatures. All I did in it was run errands between three or four villages in an area. It's what I wanted to do.

I waited for the XV2 to cycle up, the panoramic screens shifting into displaying the world before I was transported inside. The cool thing about VR machines was the way you actually felt like you were really there.

I found myself in the centre of the main village I worked for and headed off to the main building where I got my work from. I passed some creatures that knew me and waved in response to their calls, they could speak as well. Not all these creatures battled everything that came their way, some lived quiet lives.

I entered the house and was instantly greeted by the officials that handed out the work.

"Shard! You're back already? We didn't expect you so soon." Shard was my avatar name, my real one was lost to me after my secluded life.

I shrugged in response. "I had free time, you got anything for me?"

The same creature as before replied again. "Actually we had an urgent request from the blacksmith, he has a delivery that couldn't make it here in Secondus town." The settlements here seemed to be named as abstract numerical words, the one I was is was names Primum with Secondus being the next biggest. Tertiary was the third, obviously.

"Anything else needed there? May as well do them all in one trip."

"That's it for Secondus, although there might be something there as well. I heard rumours that they need a courier for something to Tertiary."

"I'll be on my way then, I'll stop here on my way back to give the blacksmith his delivery. Catch you soon."

I left the building and started off for Secondus. I never asked many questions about this place or what I was doing. I only knew what I needed to know, nothing more. It was simpler that way.

I was always told the roads were dangerous to travel alone, but I didn't mind. A little danger here and there mixed things up a little, but as of yet I hadn't seen anything worthy of a threat to me. I was never attacked by anything or had any misfortune while travelling. Some call me lucky, I don't believe in luck.

Once again I arrived in Secondus without issue. It had taken me half an hour but I didn't mind, I did all the work keeping these towns connected with each other and the outlying villages. I found it relaxing to do this stuff, it made me feel good as well knowing I was helping others. A welcome change to rampaging through dungeons slaughtering countless monsters and bandits in the name of treasure.

I retrieved the package and inquired about any other work. Another urgent delivery to Tertiary was handed my way, as I was told at Primum, and I was off. The route back was slightly faster as it was slightly downhill this way so I make good time, stopping off at the blacksmith to deliver my first errand before continuing on my way.

All the towns were virtually identical, computer generated settlements always had that genericness to them. Tertiary wasn't any different. Again I had no trouble on the way and delivered the final delivery. Nothing needed doing at Tertiary so I returned to Primum, I had made that my home of sorts so I logged in a familiar location each time.

For good measure I checked if anything else had come up in Primum while I was gone, the trips had totalled to three hours or so. Again nothing was available so I had time to spend as I wanted. Sad thing was I didn't know what to do during these times. Usually I logged off and did something else, returning later to see what else I could do. But this time I decided to wait within the simulation.

So I wandered aimlessly within Primum, seeing things I had seen before, meeting creatures I had met before. I knew these towns like the back of my hand, possibly better. I found a scar of one hand that had been there for months before I actually noticed it.

Fifteen minutes into my wandering a voice sounded around me. I tried to find the source but was unable to tell which direction it had come from. It sounded again, repeating what it had just said.

"Are you lost?"

"No?" I seemed to be talking to myself. I was surprised when I got an answer.

"Then why are you wandering?"

"I'm waiting for more work."

"Why do you devote so much time to helping others?"

I was beginning to become annoyed about not seeing this speaker. "I do what I do for my own reasons, I don't need to justify myself to a voice with no courage to face me."

"You do this work for others because you simply want to. With no regard to your own desires, you place yourself behind those you wish to help." I was shocked when the voice ignored my provocation and instead explained the exact reasons why I did what I did.

"What's it to you, oh mystery voice?"

"You are Shard. You are heralded as the most trusted being in three towns in this area. Your presence has shaped their growth and helped their supported villages grow as well. Your influence spreads further than you could imagine. For this reason you have come to our attention."

"For what reasons are you watching me? I don't like stalkers."

"You have judged and tested, and found worthy. You are needed in a place under a great threat, one that threatens to destroy two worlds. It has yet to fully awaken but the sooner we act the more destruction we can prevent. Are you ready for the next level Shard?"

So that's what this was, some epic quest line the game has offered me through some form of trigger. But I felt content here, needed even. I didn't want to leave this place behind when I knew I could do so much more.

"No, this place still needs me. I will not abandon them now or ever."

"Such nobility and devotion, rare qualities these days but always admirable. This place will thrive with what you have done, whilst you will be missed nothing negative will happen with your withdrawal. And I am afraid I wasn't asking so you had a choice, you are needed more so than here."

I sighed. Maybe it was time to 'level up'. "If you can promise me this area will continue on, I will go."

"Then let us depart. Welcome to the next level."

A flash of light surrounded me as I felt, actually felt myself being drawn away from where I was. VR didn't provide feeling from the game so why I felt the movement was odd, maybe it was an instinctive reaction with my senses.

Then it got even more weird. The landscape rendered around me, a simple forest with a few clearings. But the weird part was I felt the breeze, smelt the grass and leaves and tasted the freshness of the air. Sight and sound were fed through the system but the others had no way of being portrayed like this. New technologies were being developed that could do that but they were years off from completion. And I knew the full capabilities of my XV2.

For the first time since I used this system it felt real. Really real. The responses were immediate, the vision crisp and clear. Sounds weren't clipped or compressed. It actually seemed very real, but the thought of this being real was too impossible to even think on. I was in a VR system, not an actual forest.

I glanced across myself and froze. My avatar body was clad in a simple attire of neutral colours as I hadn't been bothered to change the default look. But my body now was wearing what I wore in the VR unit. Even the physical shape of my body was of my real one, I never could quite get the avatar as a perfect match.

It was at this point that I realised a scary truth. With the way the world seemed now, coupled with the way I looked now, meant that this simply couldn't be a simulation.

I was actually, really standing inside a real forest with a real breeze and real sounds. And given what the first world had in it, I was now in real danger. Not the made up stuff when your character gets discovered my an alarm system that shoots lasers at you, the real danger that got you killed if you weren't able to avoid it. No respawns if you died, no undo command, just real danger which could lead to real death.

And since I didn't believe in luck, some danger came towards me in the form of heavy, crashing footsteps.

Now, when you're alone in a strange, unfamiliar place with heavy crashing footsteps coming towards you, you tend to panic. And since I was hardly the courageous type, I had a phobia of moths and butterflies, fear tends to take control pretty quickly.

No matter what may happen, I swear I had never ran so fast in my life. Adrenaline surged through me right off the bat. I wasn't physically fit as I spent all my time in the XV2, but with all that adrenaline even I could run pretty damned fast. And all the time all I could say or think was one word.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Over and over that word came as I raced past trees, bounded through clearings and jumped over rocks and fallen trunks. The damned thing behind me wasn't even close now, I doubt it even noticed me at all.

By the time I had realised this enough to stop I had ran for about five minutes, placing me even further into the unknown as I has no idea what direction I had come from. At least I was in an empty clearing.

"Oh fucking great!" Did I mention I was quite free with my language? Living alone allowed me a relaxed vocabulary like that. I kept it clean during simulations though, there are policies on language uses like the ones I was freely using.

I was completely lost, even though I had absolutely no idea where I was to begin with, with who-knows-what lurking within those trees.

"Some fucking quest this is." I had no idea why I said that, it made no sense since this wasn't a simulation anymore. But as to how I ended up here, I had no idea whatsoever.

"Apologies for the deception Shard." The sudden voice from before shocked me so much I fell over.

"Look, I have no idea what kind of sick joke this is, but you can go to hell! Send me back you asshole! I am not talking to some fucked up cowardly voice that sends me here for seemingly no reason at all!"

"You're talking now, what makes you think I will return you? I said we needed you, you can't go back. Not yet."

I ignored the voice and stomped off, it didn't matter where. A dark thought came to me. If this voice needed me so badly, how would it react if I just happened to stumble upon what ever the hell made those loud thunderous footsteps? One way to find out I guessed.

"I wouldn't go that way if I was you." The warning was unheeded. "Stop! You can't go that way!" Again I ignored the voice. I could go this way if I so wanted to, nothing was stopping me. "I'm serious, you won't survive long here. Don't go that way!"

"Fuck you!" My parting words were spared out of sheer annoyance. Who the hell did this voice think it was telling me what I could or couldn't do? If I wanted to travel a certain way then I would, no voice was going to prevent that.

I reached the trees again and delve back into the forest, listening for signs of big, scary life. It only took me five minutes to pick up the noises of something large nearby.

"I demand that you stop! You'll be killed if you go further."

I did stop, but not because the voice asked me to. "So? What's it to you?"

"Do you really not value your own life?"

"You seem to know so much about me so why don't you answer that one yourself asshole." That seemed to shut it up.

"I only know what I already told you." Guess not. "Your personal life isn't for me to delve into."

Now I was really pissed. "You don't have any rights to delve into anything to do with me! My life is for me, not you or anyone else. Now, send me back or watch me die."

"So this is what your up to. Trapping me between two difficult positions. You're clever, I'll give you that. But this is pointless, either way you will endanger two worlds with your actions. I thought you wanted to help others?"

"Don't start with that shit. I want to help others, but when I get technically kidnapped and sent to an unknown place things change. I do not help those who treat me the way you have. So send me back, or watch the show. Your choice." Blackmail or guilt tipping never worked on me. My life had provided me immunity from such tricks.

"Is this really the path you wish to take?"

I let a grim smirk form on my face. "I'm walking it right now, make your choice."