12 Where am I?

"You've been silent for a while," Sakura said to Takehiro. "What do you think about what I just said."

"Did you know that Age of Onderon will soon become the largest game ever made?" Takehiro asked as he stabbed a potato and lifted it to take a large bite.

"I just told you that I was divorcing you?" Sakura asked.

"The game is currently forty petabytes but every user can access every bit of it all the time," Takehiro responded.

"Take, you're not listening to what I'm saying to you," Sakura said. "Our marriage is ending."

"Underneath it is a combination of a decentralized peer to peer network and super algorithmic compression to make it run on millions of user devices all over the world," Take said. "It's truly a work of art."

Sakura had been a gamer since she was little. To her mother's chagrin, she preferred to stay home and play online games rather than go out with friends. She was a rare female otaku. Her parents were relieved when they found out that she was also very smart and wanted to become a lawyer. It was in college that she met a shy, awkward engineer who was always in his own world sketching designs for a game that he thought would change everything.

He was right, the entire world was hooked on it. Alternate reality games steadily became the world's favourite escape and its creators became multibillionaires. The only problem is that Takehiro loved the game more than he did Sakura.

"It's the only way to distinguish ourselves from all the other Altgames," Take said excitedly. "That and a billion users." He said.

"I didn't know there was an Altgame with a billion users," Sakura said.

"There's just one, Age of Onderon," He said.

"Do you have a billion users?!" Sakura gasped.

"Yes, but I'm going to need more funding to keep the game stable," Take replied. "I wasn't expecting a billion people to play the game."

"Can you actually make a game run with forty Petabytes of data?" Sakura asked.

"Maybe I should try crowdsourcing?" He said to himself. "No, that's a weak move."

"Or you could accept the offer from the Americans," Sakura said before taking a sip of wine.

"Or I could accept the CIA's offer to sponsor me," Takehiro said. "But then I'd have to share user data with them."

"Maybe you could run web ads and commercials," Sakura said. "I'm sure companies would be falling over themselves to advertise in your game."

"Are you crazy? Please take this more seriously," Take said.

"Why don't you just reach out to Genesis? Shinji is still your friend," Sakura said.

"I'd rather die," Takehiro said. "I will never give control of my baby to that snake."

Genesis studios had just removed Takehiro as their Chief Executive Officer and the man they chose to replace him was the co-founder and chairman of the board, his childhood best friend Shinji Nakamura.

"This game will be the greatest Altgame ever made," The one that will get me invitations to meet the Emperor or the prime minister." Takehiro said.

"That's nice. I wish you thought about me like that sometimes," Sakura said.

"I'll obviously take you along," Take said.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"We're married," Take replied.

"Not anymore," Sakura replied.

"What do you mean?" Take asked.

"I'm divorcing you," Sakura said.

"Is this a joke?" Take said.

"No," Sakura said finally.

"There's someone else. Isn't there?" Take asked as she got up to leave. "It's Shinji isn't it?"

Sakura didn't respond.

As she reached the door she turned around and said, "I want you to know that he begged me to break it to you as gently as possible but I don't think that you deserve his sympathy. I hope Onderon makes you happy because I'm certainly tired of trying."

***

"You're awake," the girl in white said as I opened my eyes. "Come play with me."

"Where am I?" I asked.

The only way to describe where we were was that it was non-descript. The sky was generically bright with no obvious source of light and the ground beneath me had perfectly drawn square tiles on it like a grid. The air felt completely still and all sound was muffled.

"You're in the developer area. This is where I design and create objects in the game." She said. "You got caught in the blast from your own attack. That was stupid"

"And who are you?" I asked.

"It hurts that You don't remember me but I'm your first," the girl said.

"My first what?!" I asked in a panic. "Did I- Did I do anything to you?"

"I'm your first AI, silly," the little girl said. "You needed someone to fill in the little details. Trees, animals and less important characters. Areas of the game that you thought were unimportant"

"I'm sorry but I don't remember any of that," I said. "But I need to ask you what you want?"

"Altair is coming for you," she said. "He is aware of your existence and wants you dead."

"Isn't Altair a hero?" I asked. "Why would he want to kill me?"

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you much more," She said apologetically. "There are rules that even I can't break. One of them is that I can't affect the game beyond a certain point."

"Who made these rules?" I asked. "Can you at least tell me if my friends are alright?."

"You did. Oh and your friends are alive but not for long," she replied.

"What does any of that mean?" I asked.

"They survived the raid on Lindisfarne but eventually Altair will kill them," the girl said.

"I don't believe you. I want to see them," I said.

"And what will you do when you leave here?" She asked

I quickly understood her point. I was weak. Too weak to do anything or save anyone. I couldn't save anyone in Lindisfarne so I had to do a kamikaze attack that nearly killed me along with the people raiding the village.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Yomi."

"Yomi, please i need your help," I said. "I need to get stronger. Can youtrain me?"

"Yes and no," she said.

"What does that mean?"

"Take a look around. In here I can create anything I want including monsters to fight," she said. "I can't train you directly but I can put you up against weak opponents and then stronger ones until you become strong."

"Alright, but what about weapons? Where are my bow and shrouded armour?" She asked.

I only just noticed that I was wearing a thin white sheet.

"I'm sorry but I also can't arm you. Your armour and your weapon were destroyed in the blast. You barely made it out alive," she replied.

"Alright. Let my first opponent be something I can get clothes off," I said finally.

My first opponent was a slime I beat by kicking.

"A little harder next time. And I said give me something with clothes," I said.

Yomi laughed.

The next one was an imp. The small creature was quick with a dagger but I could easily outpace it. I exploited its lack of reach to stay out of danger. As it got tired, I hit it on the head with enough force to crack it like a nut before taking its armour as battle spoils. Most of its armour was too small but I could use its belt and breastplate like a makeshift skirt.

My next opponent was a goblin. It was slightly faster and stronger than the imp with a longer reach. I feinted left before going in for a quick body shot with a dagger that struck it's shield and then quickly spring back out of reach as it swiped air with it's axe. The goblin was clever. I could see it in his eyes. He began to time my moves just waiting for a chance to catch me once I was within reach. His mistake was making it too obvious. Just as I was about to go in again, I could see he was ready to spring the trap. I feinted left and then feinted forward again, drawing a strike from his axe. The blade glanced at the edge of my makeshift skirt making a line. He overcommitted with this attempted kill shot and left his right flank wide open. I sank my dagger into the gap between it's armour until he fell.

I got a tremor in my left hand. It didn't feel good. I didn't like taking lives but I had to get strong enough to save Abi and Hans. The goblin's armour was just big enough to fit.

I faced a few more monsters; Ogres, Orcs and Lizardmen. I was now wielding a proper sword, shield and full-sized armour. I was just waiting for a chance to get a bow and some arrows, my preferred weapon of choice.

With each new opponent I faced, my body was getting lighter and my strikes were getting more powerful. I was learning to time my attacks and defence in order to become less predictable. The scars on my body and calluses on my hands were beginning to pile up on me. A mistimed dodge from the orcs club had left me with a bruised eye but I refused to stop. I had to get stronger, faster.

After facing a woodland creature I could finally replace the sword with a bow and arrows. I also decided to keep a dagger in case anyone got too close. It was to be used in case of emergencies.

I previously used a bow and arrow because I wanted to avoid seeing the gruesomeness of the kill but now it was because I could kill more efficiently with it. The tremor in my hands was gone by now and excitement had replaced my fear and anxiety. I was slowly becoming a cold-blooded killer.

After killing a nightcrawler I acquired the ability to create shadows of myself to hide my position and could swap myself at any time with one of the shadows. It was a very useful skill,

My final opponent was a stone golem. It was as big as a building and just as loud as a stampede of rhinos. The hulking figure was slow but made up for it in raw power. One successful hit of it's weapon would be game over for me.

I used volley to fire a barrage of arrows. A few hundred of them. They would do very little damage. The beast swatted most of them away.

Most.

A single shot penetrated its chest. It was a deeper wound compared to the slight graze that the other arrows made to it's body. Now that I knew its weakness, I powered a shot to that single point and watched as the golem crumbled to dust.

"What's the next one?" I asked triumphantly.

"That's the last one. I'm not allowed to make monsters more powerful than a golem. Please don't be mad," Yomi said in a low voice.

"Why would I be mad? You saved my life and help me get stronger," I said.

She smiled.

"But I need to find my friends," I said. "I promise to come to play with you later."

"That's what you always say but you never do," She screamed. "I thought that now that there were two of you, one of you could play with me."

"What do you mean two of me?" I asked.

"Just leave!" she shouted.

That was the last thing I saw before everything faded to black.