Play of Shadows

2.19: Child's Play

On the other side of the wall, the situation was quite dire.

Six little dolls tumbled down a corridor that had no end. Empty picture frames hung on the walls on both sides. Bulbous lamps flickered above them, burning out in bursts as the dolls ran past. Dust rose like confetti where they passed, sparkling gold and silver.

Ann chanced a look over her shoulder. A wave of glowing eyes advanced with the shadows, the chittering of teeth and the clatter of claws scrabbling over the wooden floor deafening in the quiet. Ann cursed under her breath and ran faster.

"Where'd they even come from?" Danny protested.

Ann wanted to know herself. The horde of rats descended upon them without warning or any kind of trigger she could discern. One moment, they were exploring a playroom in search of the other players, and the next they were running for their lives.

"There were children's books on the shelf," Svetlan reminded. "At least one was open."

Ann thought back. The books, like everything else in the room, were old and discolored. She remembered loose pages stuck under furniture. They bore traces of sticky fingers and colorful doodles. Ann had only given them a cursory look, more focused on searching for stray dolls than exploring secondary clues.

A rookie mistake. Nothing happened without a reason in a game, especially in worlds as intricate as those created by VELES.

"Do you remember which story?" Michael grunted. He was charged with minding their little tag-alongs and was somewhat distracted. The porcelain dolls didn't share the players' fear of the manor and its dangers. If no one was paying attention, they might just wander into the dark and never be seen again.

Svetlan shook his head just as Danny exclaimed, "There was a flute!"

"In the story?" Michael asked.

"Yes! A drawing of it. I remember, because it looked strange - it was colored in with red crayon," Danny said.

One of the porcelain dolls giggled. The light just behind them exploded in a shower of sparks and glass, momentarily distracting the players. The rats were so close now they were literally nipping at their heels.

"The Pied Piper!" Ann shouted, fighting for breath.

"That would make sense," Svetlan agreed placidly. He didn't sound nearly as winded as the rest of them, a realization that distracted Ann from noticing the contemplative look Michael threw her way before withdrawing his gaze.

There was no real reason for any of them to be at loss of breath, given that their physical bodies were sitting snug in comfortable pods, but VR had that effect on people. The immersion was too complete for a player to be able to distinguish reality from fiction. The brain imposed the same constraints on the body as would be in play in real life, which was why players trained like pro-athletes and opted to acquire skills the old-fashioned way. The boom of interest in things such as archery and martial arts in the wake of the VR revolution had really caught the world by surprise. Sure, a player could gain a skillset through their character settings in a game, but they would not be a match for someone with actual training and the ingrained instincts to back up their moves. In the field of competitive gaming, even the slightest edge could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

That was all to say - Svetlan ought to be feeling the burn in his cotton lungs just as the rest of them did. A small percentage of the population retained lucidity during immersion. It was a sign of VR incompatibility, and basis to deny a player a VR pod. Ann had never heard of a player of Svetlan's level so casually unaffected by the game mechanics.