Taboo Online

Luke leaned into her touch.

For the next several minutes, they remained close while Lauren recovered. Luke sat beside her with one arm around her waist and his spear within reach. The Black Rain continued pounding the forest beyond the roots, but inside the hollow, its roar had weakened enough for them to speak normally.

Once Lauren’s breathing had steadied, she asked, "Should we log out and tell the Bureau what Powerforge did?"

The mention of the Bureau pulled Luke out of the warm haze left by their kiss.

He had known the question was coming. The Bureau had placed them in the supervised dive specifically to discover what changed inside Powerforge, and being branded as new-generation heroes went far beyond anything Red Hound had warned them to expect.

The Warden’s Forges made the situation even more serious. Powerforge had revealed portals capable of transferring skills, weapons, and possibly other things from the game into reality. The Bureau needed to know about them.

Luke still did not want to leave.

"What if they don’t let us come back?" he asked.

Lauren stayed quiet for a moment. "That is possible."

"They can’t see what happens in here. They only know what our real bodies are doing, and they won’t disconnect us unless something goes wrong."

"They’ll question us when we return."

"I know, but we don’t have to return yet."

The excitement from the Rain Flock still tingled through Luke’s hands. His skills had reached Basic proficiency, his body felt better than when they entered, and somewhere on the minimap, a Warden’s Forge waited for them.

He could create a new skill, while Lauren might find something that reduced the strain of Oracle’s Glimpse. They could forge a better weapon or discover how the portals worked.

Leaving now meant walking away before they had earned a single token.

"We’re finally making real progress," Luke said. "Truth Behind Motion worked. Mercer’s training worked. I could see the birds trying to trick me, and I knew what to do before they reached us."

"You still needed me to expose their weaknesses."

"I know. That’s why it felt so good. We did it together."

His fingers curled against his knee.

"If we tell Red Hound about the portals, he might end the entire dive. He could decide none of us are allowed back until the Bureau understands them."

"That would be the cautious response."

"And how long would that take? Days? Weeks? Months?"

Lauren did not answer, so Luke looked toward the rain.

"What if Powerforge keeps giving villains tokens while we sit outside? Red Hound already said criminals are awakening. Now the game is rewarding them for becoming worse."

"That is exactly why the Bureau should know."

"I’m not saying we hide it forever. I just want to learn more first."

He turned toward her.

"We haven’t even found a Forge. We don’t know how Hero Tokens work or whether the portals actually do what the system claims. If we leave now, all we can tell them is that Powerforge gave us another warning and pointed us toward something we never saw."

Lauren considered that, though Luke could tell she still disliked the idea. Her mouth tightened the same way it did whenever she wanted to argue but had not yet decided where he was wrong.

He continued before she could respond.

"What if they take this chance away from us?"

"You’re still worried about becoming powerless again."

"Yes."

Luke had spent most of his life unable to protect himself. Three teenagers had beaten him, blinded him with pepper spray, and taken everything he owned. Later, an awakened attacker had entered Lauren’s café, and Luke had survived only because Powerforge had already begun changing him.

He could not return to being helpless. More importantly, he could not become the kind of boyfriend who hid behind Lauren’s visions while she paid the price for every mistake.

"If I stop improving, I’ll fall behind," Luke said. "There are already people stronger than us, and some of them are getting rewarded for hurting others. I don’t want to leave when we finally have a way to catch up."

Lauren rested her hand over his clenched fist.

"I don’t want to leave either."

Luke turned toward her.

She smiled faintly. "You aren’t the only one who wants to understand what the Forge can give us. If there is something inside this dungeon that can help me control Oracle’s Glimpse, I want to find it."

"So we stay?"

"We stay," Lauren said. "But we’re not going to blindly follow whatever Powerforge decides is heroic."

Luke nodded. "Agreed."

"I haven’t explained the rules yet."

"Of course there are rules."

Lauren squeezed his hand.

"We help people because we choose to help them, not because the game promises us a token. We don’t kill someone just because Powerforge labels them a villain, and we don’t assume everyone this world calls an NPC is disposable."

"NPCs?"

"People who belong to this world."

Luke frowned. "We haven’t met any."

"Not yet."

Lauren turned her face toward the rain.

"Powerforge can place abilities inside our real bodies. It knows enough about the outside world to compare us to heroes, and now it claims its portals can move physical objects between worlds. After everything we’ve seen, calling it a game doesn’t explain much anymore."

Luke stared at the trees beyond the hollow. Rain ran upward across some of the trunks, pools moved against the slope of the ground, and creatures formed from water before attacking with clear plans.

"What if there are villages somewhere outside the dungeons?" Lauren continued. "What if there are people who were born here and have never heard the word NPC?"

"That would mean Powerforge isn’t creating them for players."

"Or it created them and they’re still real. I don’t know which possibility is worse."

Luke remembered the description of Truth Behind Motion. The skill activated only when he observed a living target, and it had worked on the Black Rain birds.

"They were alive," Luke said.

Lauren turned toward him. "What?"

"My skill only works on living targets. It worked on the birds."

Neither of them spoke for several seconds.

Luke remembered the intentions pressing against his senses during the fight. The birds had not followed simple attack patterns. They had waited for him to choose the wrong target, changed paths whenever one of their own fell, and tried to rush past him to reach Lauren.

They had planned, and they had tried to survive. When his spear destroyed the mana knots holding them together, they vanished into black water without leaving bodies behind.

"What about the Dread Devourer?" Luke asked. "What about the creatures in our first dungeon?"

"I don’t know."

"They were trying to kill us."

"That doesn’t mean they weren’t alive."

Luke looked down at the soil between his boots. If they attacked him, he would still fight back, but they were no longer simple targets placed in front of him so he could gain experience.

They could think, choose, and fear dying.

"What kind of place is this?" Luke whispered.

Silence settled between them, broken only by the rain drumming beyond the boundary. Luke became aware of the warmth beneath his boots. It had seemed harmless when he tested the shelter, but now the heat felt almost rhythmic, rising and fading through the earth like something breathing in its sleep.

Lauren’s fingers tightened around his hand.

Behind her, one of the roots shifted. The movement was small enough that Luke almost blamed the storm, but then the warm soil beneath them pulsed.

Lauren’s blindfold flared. "Luke, there’s something under us."

The wall exploded.

Packed earth and tangled roots tore free behind Lauren, twisting together into two enormous arms. Thick fingers closed around her waist and shoulders before either of them could move, and Lauren cried out as the arms dragged her backward.

Luke lunged and caught her wrist with both hands.

Truth Behind Motion activated, and the intention beneath the tree slammed into his mind. Whatever had grabbed Lauren wanted her alive.

"Luke!"

Reinforce surged through his body as he pulled with everything he had. Lauren’s fingers locked around his, but the earth continued swallowing her. Soil closed around her hips, climbed over her stomach, and dragged her deeper into the wall.

The roots tightened, tearing her hand from his grasp.

Luke lunged again, but Lauren vanished beneath the soil. The wall sealed behind her before he could reach it.

"Lauren!"