Chương 152: Chapter 151 [COMMS TAB UPGRADED]

Leo leaned back onto the couch, while the others got comfortable in their own way.

"We should send messages home," Brandon said.

"Haven't since before the festival."

"Yeah, good idea. How's everyone's mana doing?" Sam asked. They checked. All of them were close to full after two days of light use. Sam told them to take a minute and think about what they wanted to say before they sent anything; they'd had a lot happen in the last two days and sending messages was a pain with the mana capping message size. The flat went quiet while the lads focused.

Leo stared at the ceiling and thought about Jake and Olly, trying to work out what to say that wasn't just I'm still alive and things are good. It felt like wasting it. He'd start with him winning the tournament. The chime hit before he'd worked it out. Five pairs of eyes went glassy. [COMMS TAB UPGRADED] [STREAM FUNCTION UNLOCKED] [BROADCAST YOUR SENSORY FEED TO SELECTED CONTACTS IN REAL TIME] [SELECT VIEWERS — ATTACH VOICE TAG — GO LIVE] [MORE INFO]"Right," Sam said, checking the extra information.

"Startup cost is the same as sending a long range message. Big hit to begin with then it drops to a low continuous drain."

"So you need to be sitting high before you go live," Brandon said.

"Yeah. Once it's running, as long as your regen covers the maintenance cost it stays open indefinitely." He kept reading.

"Viewer selection. You can filter down to people you know personally so it's not going out to everyone who's ever received a message from anyone in town."

"Thank God for that," Phil said.

"Voice tag. You attach a message before you go live so they know what's coming and what to do." He paused.

"On their end they close their eyes for thirty seconds to join. Stream drops if they open them. They'd have to close them again to get back in."

"So they actually have to sit down and commit to it," Luka said.

"Can't exactly be walking around with their eyes shut," Phil said.

"Chat overlay," Sam continued.

"Their responses come up as transparent text in your field of vision while you're streaming. You focus on it to read it, reply by speaking. They hear you, you read them." He kept reading.

"Viewers don't speak out loud either. They think what they want to say intentionally and it comes up in the chat on your end. They can see it appear when it goes through."

"So they're not sitting there talking to themselves," Luka said.

"Just looks like they've fallen asleep," Phil said. Brandon grinned.

"It's just like Twitch. I'm about to become this world's version of Caedral." Sam closed the More Info tab.

"First time it's worked both ways." Phil sat forward.

"So they don't just hear our voices. They actually see us."

"Everything you see," Sam said.

"For as long as you keep it running."

"What triggered it?" Luka asked.

"Has to be the mana levels," Sam said.

"Ours have been climbing for months and the messages going back and forth from everyone in town have been building on top of that. My guess is both had to get high enough before it was viable." Brandon nodded.

"Makes sense." Phil looked around the flat.

"How many people in Monkhaven have family back home who've had a message?"

"A lot," Luka said.

"This is going to be huge," Phil said.

"Not just us." He paused.

"When people realised they could send messages they all started trying to get magic to work. This is that but bigger. Makes you wonder if the UI is trying to lead us into doing certain things it wants."

"Yeah. The rewards for spreading the town's name as well. Something's going on that we don't understand. I'd love to know more but I don't see us figuring it out any time soon." The lads nodded. The thought sat uncomfortably, something out there watching them, nudging them toward things they couldn't see the full shape of. But whatever it was kept leading them somewhere better than where they'd been. Leo figured that was enough reason not to pull at that thread too hard. You might be reading a stolen copy.

Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"I want to do it now," Leo said.

"For the kids." Brandon looked up.

"Same. It's going to help settle them more than the messages."

"You go first," Brandon said to Leo.

"I'll watch how it works then set mine up." Leo opened the viewer selection. A long list of names came up. He filtered to people he knew personally and it shrank to something manageable. He went through them and selected each one: his family, Tony, Chris, and Jace.

"There's a voice tag you attach before you go live," Leo said.

"Like one of those notification emails you get from Twitch, lets them know what's coming." He composed it the same way he had with previous messages. Hey, it's me. The communication thing has been upgraded, no idea how. If you want to see what I see in real time, close your eyes for about thirty seconds after you get this. Chat will come up so you can talk to me and I can talk back, just think what you want to say and it'll come up as text on my end. I'll be live for a while. Hope you're all doing alright.

He looked at the Go Live button and took a deep breath.

"Right. Going live." He pressed it. His mana dropped, a solid chunk gone at once, the same punch as sending a long message. Then it found its level, sitting in a slow oscillation. Ninety-three. Ninety-four. Ninety-three. The stream holding itself open on his regen. He waited. Names started appearing in the corner of his vision, transparent, easy to read. Tony was first. Then his mum, followed quickly by Jake and Olly within seconds of each other. Chris and Jace arrived last. Leo watched them come in.

The chat started moving. [Tony] Holy shit. This is like VR or a lucid dream. [Chris] Hey man. Glad you're going well. Holy fuck is that Brandon? [Tony] Woah, what the fuck. He looks ripped. Leo, look at the others please.

"Yeah, sure." He looked at his mates, slowly staring for a few seconds before moving on.

"Yeah, that's not weird at all. Make sure you get my good side," joked Phil. [Jace] Jesus man. What happened to all of you. I mean I know what happened but hearing about it once in my head is different to seeing it. Why the hell am I going to the gym when you pricks get all that for free. Fuck my life. [Karen] Leo? Is this working? Can you hear me?

"Hey Mum. Yeah, I can see the messages. You doing okay?" [Jake] Dad! [Olly] Woah this is mint. Leo laughed.

"Hey Jake. Hey Olly."

"This is pretty cool. I wonder how they're going to react to..." Phil said, more to himself. [Karen] Are you okay Leo? I've been worried sick.

"Yeah Mum, I'm good. Honestly, I'm doing better than I have been for a long time. I miss you all though." [Jake] Go look in the mirror Dad. I want to see what you look like now.

"Yeah, okay. Two seconds." Leo got up and walked to the bathroom. [Chris] Woah, this is weird. It's like I'm moving but without the feeling of moving if that makes sense.

"Yeah, I hope no one starts to feel sick. I know that's a thing for some people with VR and this is probably like that but more realistic." Leo arrived at the bathroom and looked into the mirror. [Tony] Holy shit dude. You look like a bodybuilder or something. That's awesome man. Good for you.

"Cheers dude. It's taken a bit to get used to. I woke up about a week after we came here looking like this. Well mostly. I've gotten bigger since then with all the training." [Karen] You've lost so much weight. Are you eating properly?

"Yeah. It's the weird system we have, Mum. It improved us a lot. I think it's so we can protect ourselves. We've been fine so far." [Jake] You look massive, Dad. [Olly] Mum's going to freak if she finds out about this... [Jake] Why would she? It's not like anyone outside of people who got messages know this is going on. I'm not going to tell her. [Tony] Yeah, she'd be pissed off. Kind of makes me wish she could see it. [Jace] Forget about that. Did you really enter a tournament with swords and shit?

"Yeah, man. I won it as well. Beat Sam in the final and Phil in the semi-final. He spent the days before it acting like he'd already won."

"Fuck you, man. I'd beat you if we did it again," shouted Phil from the other room. [Chris] Some things never change, do they? [Karen] That's amazing Leo. Well done. You weren't hurt, were you?

"Nah. It was wooden weapons and we have leather armour on. It was held in a kind of mini-coliseum which was pretty cool. In front of hundreds of people as well. I have a crown to prove it." [Jake] That's so sick, Dad.

"Cheers, son." [Olly] Show us some magic. He held his hand out in front of himself and purple lightning crackled between his fingers. [Tony] Woah. That's amazing. [Karen] Does that not hurt? [Jake] That's so cool. [Olly] Cool as fuck, Dad.

"Thanks." He laughed and walked back into the front room.

"Nah, it doesn't hurt, Mum. Our magic can't hurt us." [Karen] Language Olly! Is it true there are dragons there? That sounds awful.

"Yeah, it's true. We've seen a few of them. There's one that's about the size of a pet cat our friend has, he's called Growlie. Honestly, he's like a dog with wings. We saw some bigger ones pulling carts as well. They're cool as. Luka has a dragon egg as well; he got it as a reward for getting so far in the tournament." [Jace] He's got a dragon egg? Holy fuck.

"Yeah, man. It's pretty sick." Brandon had gone live alongside him at some point, talking quietly to his brother, his own chat running in parallel. The lads had two of them going now, watching both hold conversations with people none of them could hear or see. The door opened. Shai came in with Rika behind her, Torren ducking slightly through the frame. She looked at Leo, at Brandon, at the three lads watching them both.

"Hey babe," she said.

"Hey," Leo said with a smile. He remembered half a second later what he was doing.

"Oh, fuck." [Jake] Dad. [Jake] Who's that? [Karen] Was she talking to you Leo? Who are they? Why does she have cat ears and a tail? [Tony] Holy shit. Nice, dude. [Jace] You lucky bastard. [Chris] You fucking weeb. Hurry up and figure out how to bring me over. Leo sighed.

"Everything okay, Leo?" asked Shai, who came over to him, a confused look on her face.

"Yeah, all good. We unlocked a new thing in the UI. I'm talking to people back home. They can see what I see." [Karen] Leo, tell her I said hello. Don't be rude.

"My Mum says hello."