Taboo Online

Luke frowned. "What?"

"You aren’t even going to ask how?"

"I was about to."

"No, you weren’t."

Luke opened his mouth, then closed it again as Lauren hid a small smile behind her hand.

Red Hound looked him over more carefully.

"Your report says Reinforce sometimes activates without conscious direction. How often does that happen?"

Luke froze.

Memories rushed through him of the ability strengthening his body whenever emotion or arousal overwhelmed his concentration. It also seemed to choose the most embarrassing possible place to demonstrate that it had a mind of its own.

Warmth entered his face.

Lauren lowered her gaze to his lap for one quiet moment before pressing her lips together.

Luke cleared his throat. "Not constantly."

"That wasn’t the question."

"It happens when I get... distracted."

Red Hound waited.

Luke waited too.

For several painful seconds, neither of them spoke.

Red Hound finally gave a single nod. "Then learning control will be part of your training."

He did not ask what distracted Luke, which emotions caused it, or which parts of his body Reinforce had decided required additional strength.

Luke felt an immediate and profound respect for his restraint.

Lauren was less merciful. Her shoulders shook once with a laugh she barely managed to suppress.

Red Hound ignored her.

"As one of the licensed heroes assigned to this case, I’ve been ordered to identify verified Powerforge players who may be allowed to continue leveling through medically supervised sessions."

Neither Luke nor Lauren responded immediately.

"You mean the Bureau may let us return?" Lauren asked.

"Possibly."

Luke and Lauren exchanged a brief glance.

Neither mentioned what they had hidden above the café.

The Bureau believed it had recovered their only headsets, and Luke had no intention of correcting that assumption. Still, returning legally would mean using approved systems under medical supervision instead of secretly activating equipment connected to an unknown organization.

"Selected players will use Bureau-approved systems," Red Hound continued. "We can’t access Powerforge’s internal feed, see through your eyes, or record what happens inside the game."

Luke frowned. "Then what exactly will the Bureau monitor?"

"The bodies you leave behind. Heart rate, breathing, neurological activity, mana levels, circulation, and any changes in your awakened energy. During longer sessions, the medical team will maintain your hydration, nutrition, body temperature, and anything else your real bodies need."

"So you won’t know what we’re doing inside Powerforge?" Lauren asked.

"Not unless you tell us after you return. We can observe how the game affects your bodies, but we can’t follow you into it."

Red Hound’s expression hardened.

"We also won’t sever the connection blindly. Until we know forced disconnection is safe, no one will remove a headset or interfere with an active session. Our job is to keep your bodies stable, wait for you to return, and examine whatever changed while you were gone."

"Such as new skills?" Luke asked.

"Skills, mana capacity, physical reinforcement, neurological changes, or abilities that didn’t exist before the session. We’ll compare your readings before and after every connection."

That made the arrangement feel less controlled than Luke had first assumed. The Bureau could protect the body lying beneath the headset and measure what Powerforge did to it, but once he and Lauren entered the other world, they would still be on their own.

Until then, Luke had assumed the authorities would confiscate every Powerforge system they found. The game had awakened abilities in the real world, injured people, and attracted the attention of both heroes and the government.

Allowing anyone to enter again still sounded dangerous.

"The company listed behind Powerforge appears to have been a shell," Red Hound said. "Its offices are empty. The servers named in its corporate records are offline, and several people listed as developers either can’t be found or never existed."

"Then how is the game still running?" Luke asked.

"No one knows. The systems continue appearing through illegal channels, more players are awakening, and some of them are already using Powerforge to become stronger criminals."

"That’s why you need experienced players," Lauren said.

"We need verified players who understand the environment. We can’t allow villains to level without opposition, and we can’t send ordinary heroes blindly into a world they know nothing about."

Red Hound’s voice grew more serious.

"We don’t know whether the awakenings are intentional, what happens to players who keep leveling, or what the people behind Powerforge ultimately want. We only know they’re distributing power for a reason."

The excitement Luke had felt settled into something heavier.

Returning to Powerforge would give him another chance to grow stronger, but it would also mean walking willingly into something no one understood. He should have needed more time to decide, yet the answer already felt clear once he looked at Lauren.

Without the game, she would never have awakened Oracle’s Glimpse. Without her visions, they might not have survived everything that followed. Luke would never have gained enough strength to stand beside her either.

"I wouldn’t be here without Lauren," he said. "Or the game."

She turned toward him while Red Hound remained silent.

"If Powerforge lets her practice Oracle’s Glimpse without putting the same strain on her real body, she should have that chance."

Lauren’s lips parted slightly, but Luke continued before she could respond.

"I don’t mind entering alone if that’s what it takes. I need to become stronger. I can’t depend on Reinforce staying at this level, and I can’t keep making mistakes while expecting her visions to save me."

His gaze dropped to his hands.

"When we’re back in the real world, Lauren can still guide me with Oracle’s Glimpse. She doesn’t have to risk herself inside Powerforge just because I need to level."

"Silly."

Luke looked up.

"You are not going there alone," Lauren said.

Her tone left no room for negotiation. She placed the blindfold on the table and turned fully toward him.

For a moment, Luke could only stare. He had expected concern, another warning, or perhaps an argument about the strain Oracle’s Glimpse had already placed on her. Instead, Lauren sounded as though the decision had been made before he finished offering to leave her behind.