Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 8 - Chasing Phantoms

K-Rox was lost in thought as he contemplated what it was that reminded him about Amorphia in Jemima, perhaps it was the fact that he had barely spoken to another woman since, since . . . His mind flickered back to the present situation with Ziper.

“Hmm, it was pretty strange, one minute she was telling me she had discovered a Youtube file that I might be interested in. The next Empires was getting evacuated and she was gone.”

“Gone? Where did she go?”

“That’s just it, I don’t know, even the Ai-bot waitress didn’t seem to see her, claimed that there was nobody of her name in the entire game.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I know, I’ve never seen anything like it; and then the story of the strange glitch in Empires.”

Ziper looked solemnly at K-Rox as he spoke.

“Look Kay, I think Veritum have stepped up their activities, I think that this woman you met was working for them and she used the same tech to sneak in and out of Empires that Malcraft used. If you see her again you have to let me know straight away, she could be the key to all of this.”

K-Rox was confused, a couple of days ago none of this existed, he was grieving, but he was moving on, now, now he didn’t know what was real, and Amorphia’s murder seemed like it was just yesterday.

“I’ve got something to tell you now.”

“Really; what’s that?”

“I got a message from what I think is a bot; called aZorl_291, it wants me to find an ancient bot called Isaac.Asimov; at first I thought he wanted a file referencing the bot, but it seems like he wants me to find the actual bot itself.

It said it was asking me because I’m an advanced level grey. The file is an old Steemit file from around the time of the Great Confusion, so is only accessible via Empires.

The weird thing is, he is offering a lot of money for me to find this ancient bot, and there’s another thing.”
“Go on . . “

“As part of his message he sent me a map, it’s to a version of Krusher9, he says that the version sits on the MarsChain, and within the game is where I will find Isaac.Asimov. None of which makes sense, as like I said, Isaac.Asimov existed as an ancient piece of code, and perhaps not even that.

Anyway, he, or rather it, was connected to Steemit, I don’t see how what aZorl is referring to as Isaac.Asimov can possibly be it.”

For another brief second K-Rox wished his empLink wasn’t being dampened, the look on his friends face was inscrutable, and he seemed to be searching for what to say.

“Have you replied to the message?”

“Yeah, I accepted, there’s a minimum payment threshold; as long as I can prove to him I have taken the steps he requires in order to complete the mission, he has to pay fifty percent, whether I find this ghost version of Isaac.Asimov or not.”

A wry smile crept across Ziper’s face;

“I guess we can call you the ghost hunter from now on, first Malcraft, and now Asimov’s ghost, perhaps it won’t be such a surprise if their paths somehow cross.”

K-Rox stared at Ziper but was seeing right through him, a flickering image burned deep somewhere in his mind. The last moment of Amorphia’s life, punctuated by a metallic scream, replaced momentarily by the grinning face of Malcraft backlit by the soft glow of the Empires’ entrance portal.

Asimov's Ghost Previous Chapters:

Asimov's Ghost -Chapter 0 - Alone In The Game

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 2 - Phantoms In The Chain

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 3 - The Storms Of Malcraft

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 4 - Ghost In The Machine

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 5 The Reality Dilemma

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 6 - The Confusion Labyrinth

Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 7 - Alone In The Dark

Original artwork by @nekromarinist

Words by Cryptogee