The SongBird's Love

#5 Server

Feeling pure, fresh oxygen fill her lungs was an incredible feeling. Eden inhaled for a long time as Loir watched with a smile stuck on his face. The puppies were staring at her too, looking curious about what was going on.

This was amazing, almost to the point she felt her throat clearing up. Once she had enough, she reluctantly handed the mask back to Loir and took another deep breath in the sanitized, filtered air of the basement.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

"Thanks..." She sighed, looking down at the pups.

"...You're welcome. I mean, if you can send back the favor."

Eden frowned and raised her head, glaring at him.

"What?"

"I never said I'd lend it to you for free," he replied, tilting his head.

Eden was so shocked that she remained speechless for a while before suddenly standing up; the pups got down.

"f**k you, Loir! You never said I'd have to pay for that!"

"...I know."

His smile was annoying her to no end, but she should have known better. Loir was too calculating. It had felt strange he'd simply hand her something like that mask without asking for something in return. How much had she breathed? It didn't look like he had checked, but he was asking for a favor.

"You wanted to ask me something from the start, didn't you?" She hissed, her fists clenched.

"Yes. However, I knew you'd refuse if I simply asked. Don't worry, it's nothing you can't do."

"I bet."

Loir knew her abilities very well. Having someone like Eden was exactly what he needed. Although he was a hacker too, Loir was more of a watcher. He wouldn't dive himself; he'd send people in his stead and watch from afar. Eden didn't know why, but she knew it probably had to do with his SIN. Like most hackers, he was wearing a very corrupted one, so no one could get to him. At least half of the Zodiacs wanted Loir or another one of his names. Even the Government and some Military organizations had bounties on his head, probably much higher than Eden's, but she had no idea.

"...What do you want?" She asked.

"Information."

Of course. It was always about money, or information. Loir didn't lack the first one, despite his strange way of living. The fact that he had an oxygen converter mask and so much high-tech equipment was enough to assume that, despite his looks, he was probably the richest man a few blocks around...

"Do you know where it is?"

"Of course! I'd never send my best friend on a mission without some preparation!"

Eden grimaced. She wasn't his best friend, more likely his only one... She looked down on the puppies, who had begun playing with each other.

"...I'll do it," she said. "Under one condition."

"Yes?"

"You help me get what I need to take care of the puppies. Everything. Food, toys, whatever."

"Oh, of course! I'll order them a lot of carrots!"

"Ca-...? They don't eat carrots..." She sighed.

Either way, she could always make him pay later. Loir was a weird guy, but at least he never went back on his word once he had promised her something. This wasn't because they made a deal, and it wasn't the first time he sent Eden to dive and retrieve something for him either. She slowly took off her shoes and pants, revealing her legs.

The circles were located right below her ass, and from there down, it was nothing but metal and circuits. It was good technology, but she hadn't been able to properly take care of her bionic legs. The dark grey metal was perfectly lustrated, but it still had marks of use, a few scratches here and there. Now only wearing her bodysuit, Eden resolutely walked towards Loir, and he smiled.

"Loir, the bounty..."

"Don't worry. I'll give you a long enough window. You'll have time to get in and out before anyone notices *Eden* has disappeared. I already have all the coordinates ready. A piece of cake!"

"It's never a piece of cake..."

"Well, there might be a few Russians on the playground with you."

"What? Russians? f**k you, Loir! You never said..."

"Have fun!"

Loir moved quickly, extending a long cable and connecting the little device on her neck.

Eden went blind.

She woke up in what felt like half a second later. By reflex, she jumped on her feet and looked down.

Human legs. So he had sent her into the Dark Reality... She looked around, but it seemed Loir had sent her to a waiting cell. Everything around her was nothing but mirrors, sending her reflection hundreds, thousands of times. Eden stared at her other-self. A tall feminine silhouette, with shorter white hair and golden eyes, in a white bodysuit. Ghost had her traits and her body shape, but none of her imperfections. Ghost had no wrinkles, no bumps on her skin, no color on her cheeks.

Suddenly, a robot-like voice began talking around Eden. She frowned. It did sound like Russian, probably the Server automated welcome system. She agitated her fingers, checking everything worked. They moved exactly as she had tried to.

Eden took a deep breath and violently kicked the mirror.

A large c***k appeared, and everything began blinking in red around her. The Russian voice became louder and more pressing, but Eden kept kicking until it flew. Suddenly, everything around her exploded in all directions. She began running before her feet touched the ground. A green pathway appeared in front of her, and a voice resonated in her inner ear.

"Welcome, Kitty."

"Stop messing up and help me!"

"Follow the white Bunny!"

"...What?"

Eden kept running on the green path, trying to look around. The environment was forming in real-time around her. Walls suddenly appeared in front of her, like the universe was building in an accelerated motion. Those walls kept glitching, making her think the environment was unstable. She followed the green pathway, realizing she wasn't alone. She really did have competitors... Eden accelerated and kept looking around. Wasn't it ready yet?

Suddenly, she noticed it. Like a bundle of pixels, a white rabbit was down there, below the green pathway, hopping around. Eden hesitated. This Server's defense system wasn't ready yet. Aside from this green pathway, there was nothing around her, just a dark universe. That rabbit looked like it was floating. As she felt more people coming behind her, she jumped down.

For a second, she got scared Loir had tricked her, but then, her feet met something hard. Eden landed a bit unsure, although she couldn't see, there was definitely something under her, keeping her from falling more. She raised her eyes. About thirty silhouettes were still on the green pathway above her, but the white rabbit was right there. She shook off her worries and ran after it.

A couple of seconds after that, the green pathway above her disappeared. All those silhouettes fell, most of them screaming. Eden ignored them and kept running, following the rabbit. The security system was almost done. She heard people falling on the path behind her, but she was in the top position and kept going.

That's when an alarm rang, and she stopped. The rabbit disappeared, but there was no need anymore. The environment was done.

Eden looked around. She was in an actual room this time, a small one, almost like a closet. She opened the door in front of her, taking a glance in the opening. It looked like a library... and just as silent. She glanced around, but her opponents had ended elsewhere. Eden slowly walked out of the closet, making sure no one saw her. She crouched down, making sure she was hidden behind a full shelf.

"...Loir?" She whispered.

"You're looking for row 34, the black book on the seventh shelf. Anthropology Aisle."

Eden nodded and moved slowly, glancing at what was going on on the other side of those books.

This library wasn't empty. People were studying, or at least they pretended to. Eden knew those weren't real, but they looked very realistic. However, some mistakes were visible. A girl kept taking the same book repeatedly, like in a loop, and they were all reading books with pages filled with fake text. Not only that, but there were also inconsistencies, like that adult woman wearing a school uniform, or the dog at her feet.

Eden quietly slid against the shelves and tried to look up at the names; They were are all in Cyrillic Alphabet, making her grimace. This was going to take longer than anticipated...

She froze upon hearing someone else move, a couple of shelves further. She crouched down, waiting for the other to walk by. She hoped they wouldn't get noticed and trigger more security...

Just as the thought crossed her mind, an alarm began ringing loudly. Eden grimaced. That i***t had been busted. All the fake people in the room turned their heads at once, some at an abnormal degree. There was no more time to be discreet. If it wasn't the case yet, she'd be found too in just a few seconds. Eden began running again, not caring to be seen anymore, and jumped up, climbing on one of the shelves to get a better view. She heard a scream below and glanced down.

The security system of the Server had been activated. The fake humans were slowly changing appearance, turning into some giant creatures. Three of them had just changed into monstrous spiders. A tall girl was now some large snake, with a long reptilian body and fangs. Eden shuddered. The lady in uniform took the appearance of a clown with a scary smile, and the dog, of a scary, growling wolf. Her heartbeat accelerated.

"Time for foul play," chuckled Loir in her ear.

Above her, a ruckus broke. Eden covered her head as debris began falling, the roof of the library opening to reveal a terrible storm. The wind blew her hair to her face, and the rain poured down in the library. She couldn't actually feel any water, but below her, it was starting to fill the room like a pool. Eden knew this meant she was going to run out of time. She looked around, ignoring the monsters down there chasing the other busted hacker or looking for more, and finally located a word on top of a shelf that could be Anthropology. It had to be it. She jumped down on the ground floor, ignoring everything going on.

However, the Snake caught sight of her.

"Careful on your left, Kitty."

She turned her head just in time to jump to the side, avoiding the nightmarish bite. The beast stood tall above her, hissing furiously. Eden glared at it. She wasn't afraid of snakes, and she wasn't afraid of such basic security systems. Those were dupes meant to have the server win time, have the hackers leave their own, or trap them here. She turned around, ignoring it, and ran towards that shelf, trying to locate the black book. She glanced at the full rows.

"There's no f*****g black book!"

"Oh... Did they camouflage it?"

She didn't have time to look a second longer. A scream came up from a nearby aisle, and Eden began running again, circling in that area. The Snake's yellow eyes were still following her. She wasn't afraid of the simulation, but she knew the real deal would be coming soon. She didn't intend to stay for the security to increase. Rather than being kicked out, she was scared of being trapped and caught here.

She ran towards a wall in front of her, checking the sounds coming from behind, making sure that Snake followed her. Then, she stepped up on the wall, jumping high enough to spin backward. She fell behind the Snake, right on its tail. The beast that was going at full speed towards the wall suddenly stopped, frozen in motion, right in front of the wall.

"Oh, nice one, darling."

Eden turned back, running back to the shelf. She looked over again, checking the seven rows of books.

"You've got company, Kitty."

"What? Who?"

"Mh... One has a Chinese SIN. The other... Italian."

"Fuck."

Either they were coming for her or for what she had come for. Eden looked over the books again. None of them were black. She grabbed one of the books, and just as she touched it, the colors of the full row changed.

"A f*****g trick..."

This time, there was a black book. Eden grabbed it.

"What now?"

"Destroy it."

"What?"

"I said, destroy it."

Eden frowned. She usually had to retrieve information, not destroy it! It wasn't easy to destroy something in there. She took the book with her, but suddenly, someone began yelling in Cantonese.

She turned around. She had to figure out how to destroy that thing and get out of there. The Snake was still stuck and glitching, so she ran past it, going back to her starting point. If the Chinese hacker had encountered the monsters, she had no idea what of the Italian one, and she didn't like it. Eden moved quickly between the shelves. She ignored the water, now up to her knees, walking as if it wasn't there.

"You! Ghost!"

She looked back, nervous for a second.

"Loir?"

"Nope. Your camouflage is still activated, darling."

Eden nodded and kept running, ignoring the man pursuing her. If she could find how to destroy that thing, she would be out of there in a flinch.

The Italian was still running behind her, but before that, something loudly creaked on their left. The two of them stopped, enough to see that the storm was getting worse, way worse. Eden grimaced. They were trying to shut it down. She looked down and opened the book, ripping the pages violently. They disintegrated into thin air as soon as they were ripped out of the book. She kept going, going, until the cover itself suddenly vanished.

"Loir!"

"Alright, extracting you in three..."

"Ghost!"

Eden turned her face, seeing the Italian hacker. He was too far to get to her now, but she still stepped back, cautious.

"...two..."

"The Tiger wants to meet you!"

"One."

Eden blinked.

She was on the floor of the basement, feeling a bit numb. She let out a long sigh, and Loir's face appeared above her.

"Thank you," he said with a large smile. "How did you escape the Snake, by the way?"

"Data glitch. I figured the simulation would try to save both the Snake and the wall and would be stuck if it had to make a choice between the two..."

"Oh, that's my girl."

He disappeared from above her, and she heard him roll his chair back to the keyboard. Eden sighed and touched her SIN, still hot.

"...how long was I in there?"

"Less than fifteen minutes. You're not far from your personal record. That wasn't such a big server, anyway... Oh, they really shut it down. A phobia simulation... Oh, so middle-age, are they?"

"They looked real," sighed Eden, sitting up.

"Did they? It looked like an amateur job to me... I bet I could do better."

"Of course you could," groaned Eden.

The pups suddenly made some cute attempts at barking and walked to her, sniffing her. Eden smiled and grabbed the two pups, petting them. They began playing on her lap, but Eden's eyes went past them, on her legs.

"Hm... Having regrets?" Asked Loir.

"...About the puppies. You promised, Loir," she retorted, ignoring his question.

"Of course, of course. Just send me the bills... They are so cute! Do you know what you're going to call them?"

Eden chuckled, looking down at them.

"Yeah. Beer and Bullet."