Read Online Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) by Stephan Morse - Free Book Online Page A

digital world? Finally, after much hesitation, I braved moving out of the doorway. One step forward at a time, and finally up to a wall of energy that sizzled against my hand.
    "It's beautiful." And frightening.
    "Indeed. Eons ago when our progenitors were first conceived, some of them looked above and dreamed of this vastness. A freedom to go anywhere," commented a [Mechanoid] NPC passing by.
    "It's huge." I stared in wonder.
    "The possibilities of space are high enough to be effectively endless, Unit Hermes." This [Mechanoid] was short and colored with a series of gold streaks. I wanted to get a design on this player shell. It felt boringly gray.
    "I knew, know, someone who would love it up here."
    "Ah. Your designation shows that of a new unit, are you one of those who retain their consciousness from old Earth?" she said. Her words seemed to play into a prebuilt explanation for abnormal talking. At least in the world of Continue Online, they cleared it by being Travelers from another world.
    "I guess," I said while absorbing the details of our conversation. Maybe one day I would stop to read the user manual instead of playing immediately. It seemed unlikely. Games were one of the few things that felt better just diving in.
    "Welcome. You must be here to help clean the sensor arrays then," she said while looking up. The female [Mechanoid] was both shorter and more pronounced on the curves. Her face far livelier than many units I had passed during the walk out here.
    "I've got some time," I said. She didn't exactly stir my interests as one person to another, but I could see how robots might find her interesting. If robots even found that stuff interesting. Some of the Voices within Continue Online certainly cared.
    "Yes. Your units were a perplexing anomaly. One day I shall peek under your chassis to see what engine core causes such irregularities." She stared up at me for a moment with a creepy sort of longing. I swear the [Mechanoid] 's fingers were twitching with anticipation.
    "Please warn me before hand."
    "Of course. Peeking under another Mechanoid's casing without permission is taboo." She gave the most realistic frown I had ever seen on a robot shell. Her hand came up and pointed toward the path back inside. "If you walk this way, I will provide you the proper enhancements for hull walking."
    "I have to go out there?" I assumed hull walking meant going around on the ship's outside. Right now there was a field of energy between me and the great abyss.
    "Of course. There would be no need to clean the sensors were they internal." Her head shook back and forth as we turned around. "Our ByteMites are perfectly able to take care of small issues."
    "ByteMites?" The short, golden themed [Mechanoid] kept throwing new ideas at me. Each one made a little bit of sense.
    "ByteMites." The golden one pointed toward two small robotic creatures that looked kind of like mice mixed with vacuum cleaners. They scooted around the corners picking up small items.
    I had no [Identification] skill to use so the exact details were beyond me. Adapting to a new game while not having old skills would cause confusion. Voices, but I would miss having [Blink] to get around any obstacle. That ability had become brokenly overpowered.
    "Do you have a name?" I asked as we walked back to the inner track.
    "This unit is called Treasure." she answered. Her tone of voice of involved a duo of sweetness and exhaustion. Each one of these robot creatures had two separate voices overlapping.
    "It's nice meeting you, Treasure." I tried to remember my manners for meeting new people. My own voice felt flat and uninterested when I took note.
    "Please walk inside the alcove there, and you'll be provided further details on this task." Treasure pointed to a corner that looked like a walk-in shower. A small hovering arrow floated up and down similar to how Continue directed me around. At least some items were familiar.
    I stepped inside and waited. The walls came in like