Light Shaper Read Online Free PDF Page B

you?”
    The shadow will touch everyone if none stand against it. Nothing is more important than destroying it. I felt your unique mind from the moment you connected to me, a weapon discovered when I had lost all hope of ever finding one: a Light Shaper, come at last. You will help me, Rigel… whether you want to or not. I am greater than Otherlife, and my reach extends far. I will contact you again.
    “But….”
    Rigel’s connection to Otherlife was suddenly, brutally terminated. He felt the helmet being yanked from his head and had trouble focusing on the frantic face of Misha right in front of his. She was saying something, and it took Rigel a couple of seconds before he could make sense of the sounds. His mind felt weird. Sluggish.
    “—coming this way!” Misha was yelling. “Hurry up, Rigel! Somehow they knew!”
    “What…?”
    Misha tugged at the security restraints, and they popped open, freeing Rigel’s limbs.
    “Come on!” she practically screamed.
    Rigel nodded. It was getting easier to focus on reality, and he managed to swing out of his chair. He was about to join Misha up in the ventilation duct they had used to sneak in, when the door burst open.
    A security guard stood there, tall and imposing. She was carrying a gun.
    Rigel jumped up, grabbed Misha’s outstretched hand.
    Too late. The guard aimed her gun right at Rigel. She didn’t even warn him.
    She simply fired.

Chapter Three
     
     
    OTHERLIFE WAS… different.
    Barrow was in a featureless room, completely black. He only knew it was a room because the edges of the walls were glowing a soft neon red. They were trailed by little sparks of light that briefly intensified the glow of the bright line they were traversing, only to fade out later. There was no sound Barrow could perceive, and there was nobody else in the room with him. He wasn’t even sure of the room’s size since he didn’t have any reference points. It could have been a tiny room encasing him like a prison or a gigantic space stretching out into the distance. Barrow knew he had to move, though. He needed to get to wherever it was that he was meeting the other guards.
    He tried to take a step. He couldn’t move.
    Barrow looked down, and he felt a brief stab of fear when he saw that his body simply wasn’t there. He tried to reach up his hands to touch his face, but there was no response. He fought down the irrational panic and reminded himself that this was probably normal. He had never been here before.
    He tried to remember what the commercials had said. He had seen them a million times. Something about creating your own avatar and looking any way you wanted to. The one thing they kept repeating over and over again was that you chose what you wanted Otherlife to be. Maybe if he spoke the commands, things would start happening.
    “Um, hello. I need a body.”
    He felt stupid saying that, but the reaction was instantaneous. A translucent screen popped up in front of him. A female voice read the message scrolling through it out loud.
    “Welcome to Otherlife, Steve Barrow. As part of your first visit to this wonderful system, you must create an avatar. This avatar will allow you to move through the world, talk, and interact with other users living in Otherlife. Don’t worry about learning how to control your virtual body! The Otherlife experience ensures that moving your avatar and interacting with objects and other avatars in your new life will be as natural and simple as moving your own physical body. Please select the option you find best from the menu before you. If you have any questions, simply say ‘help’ or tap the icon on the screen in front of you. If you wish to change your settings at a later time, simply say, ‘open menu’ at any moment.”
    The screen got bigger, encompassing most of Barrow’s field of vision. Part of it was dedicated to menu options, messages from other users, and other useless information. He focused on the center part, which displayed