"FWLS53" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

A Future We'd Like to See 1.53 - God ASCII
By Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne (Copyright 1994)

"What time is it?" I asked my seatmate.

"Eh? Oh. It's around seven, void standard. Why?"

"Thanks," I thanked, pulling my computer out of the overhead
bin. I quickly clicked it on to doublecheck the time; 6:59. I had
one minute to go. Better hurry.

"What's supposed to happen?" the little kid asked, pulling at
my elbow (not a difficult task considering the width of economy
shuttle seats).

"I gotta play a game," I summarized, pulling the trode band on
and entering the Nowhere Land.

*

"User Robin logging onto Nowhere Land," I announced to the
void of cyberspace. I drew my sword, the only weapon you could
start out with.

"Greetings Robin, and welcome to Nowhere Land!" the announcer
gleefully said. I hated that tone. I had it memorized, every
little whiny inflection, each skitter on the pitch range. Every
day I heard that voice, at seven sharp. "Here's your daily hint."

"Robin? Get help! You can't do it alone!" she cried out,
from seemingly everywhere. Early on I chased that voice, hoping
maybe that I could find a back door to the source... to no avail.

"Who?" I asked. "I tried all the gamers we used to know!"

"Have you called Fr--"

"Happy gaming!" the announcer interrupted, after the mandatory
five second taunt was finished. My only link to her, a five second
conversation, once a day. It was like a drug you couldn't get more
of.

I'll have to figure out who she was talking about later; I've
got a job to do now. The doors to level one opened wide. I
stormed in, cutting at the poisoned mushrooms and rabid turtles.
Level one was easy. So was level two, and level three, and level
four.

I've been playing Nowhere Land for a full year now. It's not