Demoness Read online

  Demoness

  Harry Nix

  Galactic Royale

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  About the Author

  Also by Harry Nix

  Demoness Copyright 2020 Harry Nix. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  Harry Nix

  GalacticRoyale.com

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  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogs in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  1

  “How comfortable are you with pain, Mr. Katz?” the interviewer, Ms. Honey, purred.

  I took a breath and tried to think of cold things. Icebergs. Snowstorms. My ex’s heart. Nope, wasn’t working. Between her accent (Russian), her looks (blonde and babelicious), and the cleavage I was forcing myself to ignore, I was struggling to keep my mind in job interview mode.

  If it wasn’t for the lean guy with the shaved head and overdone orange fake tan who’d grunted at me (in Russian too) sitting in the back of the room, you would have thought I was at the beginning of a porn clip.

  I forced myself to focus on the question. It felt like one from a manual labor job interview: how comfortable are you lifting fifty pounds?

  (Fifty pounds of what? being the correct answer.)

  “Are you saying I’ll experience pain in the... uh, system?”

  Ms. Honey gave me a slow blink and touched her neck.

  “Haptic feedback,” the grunter grunted.

  Of course, it didn’t sound like that with his accent. It was more like heptac fudbackt. I was talking to a mid-eighties action movie villain.

  “What Mr. Lubochenko is referring to, of course, is the sensations you’ll experience in the system. It is cutting-edge complete immersion technology. You’ll eat meals and taste them, cast spells and feel them, experience all that our digital world has to offer. Pain... and pleasure, Mr. Katz.”

  Ms. Honey again with her neck stroking and purring Russian kitten voice. She had the job contract in front of her, and utilizing one of my many useless skills, I read it upside down. The wage for this job was more than double of anywhere else I’d ever worked. There were about fifty pages of dense fine print under it, no doubt waiver conditions if something went wrong.

  Where did I know the name Lubochenko from?

  “You can just call me James if you like,” I managed to say.

  “Of course,” she purred and then slid the job contract across to me along with a pen to sign it.

  For my own sake of self-worth, I did try to skim through the contract while Ms. Honey and Lubocheeto watched me, but we all knew the truth: I was going to sign. The $10K signing bonus was enough to guarantee that. I was down in the debt hole and needed that money to climb out. The fact that this was a testing job for an immersive online RPG? Even better.

  After dragging out the moment for a minute, I signed the contract, added my bank account details, and slid it back to Ms. Honey. She pulled out a slim tablet that looked like it was from the future and tapped a few buttons. It chimed a cheery tone that felt out of place in the room.

  “You have your signing bonus now. Please come this way to begin,” she said.

  She stood up and beckoned me to follow her. Even her lovely backside swaying in a tight skirt wasn’t enough to distract me from Captain Grunty. He’d made a call as soon as I’d signed and now was speaking Russian to someone. I heard, “yah, yah, he did,” in there.

  Cheeto winked at me as I followed Ms. Honey out.

  My instincts were screaming that he was a gangster, this job was going to be definitely illegal in some way, and I’d be lucky to get out with my kidneys.

  The $10K signing bonus was shouting pretty loud too, and between that and the hypnotic sway of Ms. Honey, I pushed my fears aside and went along merrily to my doom.

  2

  My new employer was Deep Dive Inc, according to my bank account. Ms. Honey caught me surreptitiously checking I’d received the bonus.

  “Please, do confirm it has arrived. I want you... to be happy.”

  Some part of my brain recognized I was being charmed. If this was a game, she’d just hit me with sex appeal and maybe a little confusion. The way she paused her sentences.

  I want you...

  Breathy pause.

  I put my phone away and resolved to keep my eyes off Ms. Honey. Gotta focus! Break the spell!

  The job ad I’d answered had been deep down on a truly dodgy website. But I was unemployed six months now from my last gaming job (a place that put out fifty games a month in the online immersion space so you can guess the quality they were) and so I’d answered it. I’d received an email back immediately with an address down in an area known for crime.

  With no dignity and only a few weeks from eviction, I’d gone along just hoping it wasn’t some multi-level marketing scam.

  The business was in the warehouse district. The front was professional offices, but out here in the back, it was more industrial meets hospital.

  And possibly airport from the x-ray scanner with grim-faced guards they had. Two big dudes with shaved heads who looked half-a-chromosome off being apes.

  “Give me phone. Take clothes off. Put gown on,” one of them grunted at me.

  The guard behind him had his fingers hovering near his gun like he was ready for a wild-west shootout.

  I glanced at Ms. Honey, and she smiled and gave me a nod.

  Ignoring the swirl of trepidation in my stomach, I handed my phone over. Ape #1 turned it off and slipped it into a silver bag that he heat-sealed. He then dropped the whole lot into a cardboard box.

  “If you come out and that is open, very bad things will happen,” he grunted to me.

  Then he pointed to a flimsy changing cubical that looked like it had been put up a half-hour ago.

  I went inside, stripped off and put on one of those hospital gowns that leaves your ass in the wind. I did my best to tie it up, but still, those things are designed to leave you uncovered.

  “We must hurry, James,” Ms. Honey called out.

  I shuffled out, and Ape #1 took my clothes and shoes, searching through the pockets and taking out my keys and wallet. He went through it quickly before dumping the lot into the box. Ape #2 ran it through the scanner and grunted assent. Ms. Honey had to leave her expensive tablet behind and stepped through the scanner before Ape #2 waved a wand over her.

  She did it all with a slight smile on her face that I know was designed to calm me. This was a game-testing job. What could warrant this level of security?

  Then It was my turn. Despite wearing nothing but the gown, the buzzer went off anywa
y, and I got the wand. It must have been way more sensitive than the ones at the airport because it lit up when he waved it near my mouth.

  “Open,” he grunted.

  I showed him my fillings.

  “Good.”

  I got waved on, carrying my box.

  The short corridor opened up to a gantry overlooking a large space that was partitioned off with movable walls. I immediately spotted six immersive units. They looked like big sensory deprivation tanks or a ride at Disneyland where you get sealed in to blast through the universe or scream on an imaginary rollercoaster.

  “So there are others already in the sim?”

  “We call it a game, James, not a simulation. After all, what is reality, but the sensations delivered by our bodies to our brains?”

  I gave Ms. Honey a double-blink. Now that we were out on the shop floor, so to speak, she’d cut down on the purring sex kitten vibe and was suddenly hitting me with the deep philosophical questions.

  “Uh, yeah, sure. So, there are six people testing?”

  “Those are the old models,” she said, waving a slender arm. “You’re going to be the first in our updated system.”

  I followed her down some metal stairs, her heels ringing out each step. There were a few people here and there working on various things. I saw a Chinese guy disassembling a large helmet that had metal studs dotted on the inside. I spotted what had to be doctors too and a bunch of medical equipment.

  Despite the overwhelming awesomeness plus holy fucking what of it all, I noticed that Ms. Honey had dodged my question twice.

  We reached the ground floor, and I followed Ms. Honey through the maze. Down here, the sensations of there is something seriously fucked up grew stronger. It smelt medical but also industrial. Disinfectant and grease.

  “How did the previous testers go?”

  “Very well, indeed. Their... time with us... helped us improve many feedback systems. Our Ai learned a lot.”

  Those pauses again, but this time it wasn’t as sexy as before. Maybe it was her accent, but ...time with us... felt like the testers were no longer around.

  I guess they knew how creepy they looked, and this was why the email back for the job said it would start immediately after the interview. They didn’t want people to have second thoughts.

  The winding path spat us out into what looked like a hospital room. There was a large immersion unit in the middle of the room, looking much like the other ones. All around it, technicians fussed. The side of it was open, and a girl was soldering wires within.

  As we entered, a mid-fifties woman with a horizontal scar across her face approached us.

  “Mr. Katz, this is Dr. Lubochenko, our head of research. I will leave him with you. Are there any questions?”

  I should have asked what happened to the other testers, but instead, I blurted out, “Are you related to Mr. Lubochenko I just met in the interview?”

  Dr. Lubo gave an odd smile.

  “He is a nephew. This is a family business at heart. Now, come, come. Lucy, did you hear his name?”

  Dr. Lubo pulled me toward the immersion unit. I looked for Ms. Honey, but she was already gone, the flick of her blonde hair disappearing out the door the last thing I saw.

  “Mr. Katz confirmed,” a soft voice said from within the unit.

  Now that I was close to it, I saw it was different from any other immersion unit I’d ever experienced. They’re usually haptic feedback systems—gloves with motors, a floor that moves and vibrates, a big-ass helmet most of the time.

  This one looked like the inside of the helmet I saw the tech fixing earlier. It was dotted with metallic studs and big enough to fit an adult inside. It was also empty, which was a surprise because I’d just heard a voice coming from there.

  Dr. Lubo must have seen my confusion.

  “Is Lucy, our Ai. She helps run the Nine Realms.”

  “The Nine Realms? That’s the sim—I mean, the game?”

  Dr. Lubo waved her fingers at me. “Yes, yes, Nine realms, nine evils, nine deadly sins, or whatever, she likes such things. Please put this suit on now.”

  “Aren’t there seven deadly sins?”

  “Yes, yes, now suit.”

  It was a wetsuit filled with those same metallic studs. She shoved me behind a thin paper curtain and told me to get naked to put it on.

  Standing there looking at that suit, I felt that familiar flutter of excitement. You know that first moment a game loads up? A world of possibilities awaits.

  I put my box on a nearby table. I was already damn close to naked, so it didn’t take long to get ready. I stripped off my hospital gown and pulled the suit on. It was cold but quickly warmed against my skin. I’d barely hidden my junk away when Dr. Lubo shoved the paper curtain aside.

  “Sasha here will help you. We’re running late,” she muttered before walking off to the machine.

  Sasha was a brunette with thick black glasses and a punk look. She had swirling black tattoos down her arm. She had a glass of what looked like milk in her hand that she sat on the nearest bench.

  “Alright, turn around,” she commanded. She didn’t wait for me to comply—she just spun me on the spot so she could press my suit closed.

  “So you know where you’re going, what you’re doing?” she asked once she turned me around again.

  She was adjusting my suit around the neck and was right up in my face. Her lips were bright red, and the bracelets on her wrist jingled as she worked. The suit was damn tight and left nothing to the imagination, so I tried to look up and thought back to those icebergs as her breath touched my neck.

  “No, not really. I know the game is called The Nine Realms. It’s a fantasy RPG, I guess?”

  “Nine great and powerful evils have divided up the kingdoms. You got your elves, dwarves, imps, the standard fantasy stuff. If you die, you resurrect in the closest graveyard, but there’s a cost, so try to avoid that. The suit and machine should deliver full immersion, so pain’s gonna hurt, alcohol’s gonna get you drunk, and sex feels amazing. You’re playtesting so do whatever you want. Take any quest you feel like. Lucy, the Ai, is adaptive. Be evil, be good; it’s all good for teaching the system. Here, drink this.”

  She passed me the drink, and I took a mouthful.

  “White Russian?”

  “To help calm you down. Plus you’ve met the bosses... it’s a little joke. Drink up.”

  I finished it and handed the glass back. Sasha pulled out a marker and wrote CATS on the side of my box in big letters.

  “It’s Katz with a K and a Z... do I have time to make a quick call?”

  She shook her head. “No can do superhero. We’re essentially in a big Faraday cage down here. No signals in or out. Plus, I’m sure they told you what happens if your heat-sealed bag is open when you go back.”

  Superhero? Oh, right, the suit. I could see a reflection in a dull metal filing cabinet. I guess it did look like I was going to fight crime... or swim down to see some fish.

  Sasha fixed me with an assessing look.

  “You live alone, right? No cat left behind, waiting for food? No girlfriend coming by?”

  “Nope. No one even knows I’m here,” I said before I caught myself.

  Man, what was in that drink? I’d just told her she could happily harvest my kidneys, and no one would come looking for me.

  “I mean, I’m having some people over in a few days...” I mumbled.

  “No, you’re not. Besides, this is a deep immersion system. You’re starting at a week full-time first run. Didn’t they tell you that?”

  I shrugged. Whatever had been in that drink was making me feel warm from the inside out. A week, a schmeek.

  “Did you say I can have sex in there? Am I being watched?”

  I nearly laughed at the idea of it, whatever was in the drink going to my head.

  Sasha shook her head. “They get data readouts and aren’t interested in that, like, at all. We just need a human agent in the game, affecting th
ings. No one cares what exactly you do, just that you do something. It’s all about Lucy. She’s the golden ticket here.”

  She took me to the machine, and I climbed inside. It was like sitting inside a giant padded egg.

  “Any questions there supersuit?”

  “If I’m here for a week, how am I gonna pee?”

  “We’ll take care of that once you’re under. We have the top medical care here. You’ll be fine.”

  Wait, did that mean someone was going to be sliding a catheter up somewhere while I was in the machine?

  I tried to pull my thoughts together, but things were getting fuzzy.

  “What character am I playing?”

  “Whatever you want. I highly recommend the Summoner. Summon monsters, make dark pacts, kill bad guys... and good if you want.”

  She slipped a full face mask over my head and told me to lay back.

  “We’re closing the system now. You’ll hear a clunk, a whine when it starts, and you might feel a little prick.”

  Through the mask, I could see a glimmer of light. It vanished as the techs sealed me in. Things went exactly as she said.

  Clunk.

  Whine.

  Prick.

  Oh, but holy hell, it wasn’t little. It felt like every metal stud inside my suit came alive with electricity. The pain was sharp and immediate.

  It was short, thankfully. The languid warmth from the drink sloshed around my body, and I felt my eyelids grow heavy.

  Lubochenko were part of the Russian mob!

  The memory, or maybe drugged thought, snapped across my mind, but I was too tired to follow it.

  Down I went into the dark.