The plan had one major downside. Boredom. Working on the same craft, hour after hour after hour, was incredibly repetitive. The game tried to make up for this by having a sort of logic puzzle mini game while you craft.
Depending on what you're doing, the mini game might be a matching game or connecting dots. Other times it was like Tetris. Which was fine... at least it was fine to begin with. After a few hours, though, it got very repetitive.
I had no idea how Argyle had managed to put up with the repetition for so long, but he seemed completely content. He even seemed to enjoy it. It didn't seem to matter to him that he was doing the same thing day in and day out. In fact, working seemed to brighten his mood considerably. At times he almost seemed to have a serenity about him as he just worked through a piece and handed it over to me to finish.
By the end of the second day of crafting, I was already beginning to have doubts about the plan. Not because it wouldn't work out mathematically. Argyle explained the math to me at length, but because I didn't know if I could stand spending that much time doing nothing but crafting. The next morning was worse. I was having nearly constant cravings to go out and adventure. Instead I was stuck. When we broke for lunch I made an excuse and said I had to go for a walk.
Even the town outside the tavern was boring. All paths were blocked except for the routes to the Adventures Guild and to the front gates. I definitely was not ready to face another defeat at the hands, or paws, of those horned hairballs, so I walked the main drag back to the Adventurers Guild.
I found myself window shopping for costume accessories. None of them would do any good until I defeated my first quest, but the distraction was needed.
I found myself thinking about who I wanted to be in this game. What sort of a character I'd like to play. Did I want to be tall, dark, and mysterious? Over the top goofy? Did I want to go full Fez and just buy a billion hats?
It made me wonder about who I was on the outside. What would real-world me be thinking about this? If I still had my memories, would I be making different choices? What really made me, me? Eventually, I had to give up on that line of thought because it was giving me a headache.
I should probably go back to the tavern. Argyle would probably want to get started again, but I wasn't ready to get back to it. Well, if I couldn't explore outside of the city I might as well explore the inside of the city. I decided that I would go into each of the shops at least once. Maybe there were social quests I could complete to pass the time. Even if I couldn't level up from them yet, it would at least break the monotony.
That's when I discovered something else annoying about my predicament. Nearly every shop came with an advertisement. Sometimes it was related to the type of shop, like the cookie commercial in the bakery. Sometimes it was completely random, like a teeth whitening ad in a dress shop. Over the next couple of days, anytime we took breaks I found myself exploring the shops and cataloging all the advertisements.
This had the added bonus of picking up a few Skills like the Dental Hygienics Skill from the aforementioned teeth whitening commercial. The Mixology Skill I got from a cruise ship commercial. Sadly, this one I learned at level 1. Apparently the bartender who was juggling flaming bottles of tequila wasn’t actually all that good at mixing drinks. Who knew?
Sometimes the products were for things I had heard about before, like when I found myself in an ad for a social media platform. When that one began, my view shifted to an ultra plush couch in a well-appointed pastel-colored living room. Several framed portraits on the wall would shift every second or so, revealing pictures of people: a group playing sports, a couple at the top of a mountain they hiked, brides kissing at a wedding, a man holding a giant fish, and kids having a water balloon fight.
The view shifted to a comfy armchair and floating above the armchair was a cartoonish figure with a bobblehead and no legs. It's fingerless arms gestured towards a nearby window and a news feed popped up, replaced by a contact list. The strange figure tapped several buttons on a list of names, and six other bobblehead figures all popped into existence. “Mega Home Space: get together with friends share memories.”
One wall of the room disappeared and opened up into a concert venue with a band on stage. “View live music share experiences.” The view cut to a birthday party framed by a pair of glasses. “New wireless VR technology allows you to record with your own eyes, creating deep immersion in the virtual experience.”
All of the bobble headed figures bounced up and down as a seven year old wearing a cardboard party hat blew out candles.
“New wireless VR integration allows for passive and active viewing.” My view cut to someone sitting in class taking notes, while in the lower left hand corner a chat feed scrolled on with a conversation about the professor's haircut.
“Explore your local dating scene and make new friends with our new connection features.” Another chat window popped up with a heart emoji and, from across the room, a pretty blonde girl winked in my general direction.
“Mega Home Space. The latest from Mega Socialmedia Corp.”
With how bored I was, I almost wanted to see if it was possible to create an account, but unfortunately the game didn’t have any internet browsing options.
Meanwhile, Argyle was still intent on getting the most out of our crafting sessions. He would talk about how much he wished we had better material to work with. He told me all about the gem exchange in one of the other cities where he used to buy material for crafting. “If we could just get our hands on a couple of gems, like or Ruby or Garnet, these pieces would be worth four, maybe five times as much, and they might even have magical properties.”
I didn't disagree with him, but I also didn't see any point in agonizing over what we couldn't control. We didn't have any gems. All we had was the basic material available at the crafting hall.
By the end of the third day, I found myself walking in and out of shops to watch the ad every time Argyle went back to get more material.
It was in an ad for power health gummies that everything changed. An aggressively muscled man in a stretched out tank top was explaining to me the importance of sports nutrition at a volume likely to give any listener tinnitus. He handed me a gummy. “Sure is a beauty, ain't it? It’s full of crystallized nutrition.” He casually mentioned at the volume of a jet taking off. “I don't know if I want to eat it or wear it.”
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I was so dumbstruck by the idea that I somehow forgot to eat the gummy. I just held it in my hand, mouth open wide.
“Mental Resistance Skill acquired. You have gained the ability to notice and resist compulsions and commands from an outside source. You are level 1 at Mental Resistance.”
I hadn't felt any compulsions placed on me, and I hadn't been resisting either. I simply wasn't doing what the ad wanted me to do. I pause to think and look at the gummy. Apparently the system thought that I was resisting some sort of a mental compulsion.
What's more, when the ad dissolved and I was left standing in a butcher shop, I was still holding the gummy. It was roundish, red, and translucent, like a Ruby. I had somehow brought it with me from the advertisement.
“Wait, you can't take things out of ads? It's like a different program, right? Also, what did it mean that the ads were placing compulsions on me?” I thought back to the cookie ad. How I hadn't even thought about taking a bite. I simply had gone along with it. The bacon ad and how I eat the bacon every time without thinking about it. Then I thought back to the candle lit classroom with the old Man.
“The hardest part is waking up realizing you're being manipulated. Like realizing you're in a dream. In a regular dream, actions can occur without your conscious control. You can find yourself performing the action without conscious thought. The more lucid and aware you are, the more you control the focus, the more power you have to choose.”
This would require some experimenting. I did my best Argyle impression and stepped out of the front door and immediately back in. The same workout enthusiast appeared and went on the same rant about fitness nutrition. “I bet he uses words like 'alpha male' and 'females' in casual conversation, gross.”
This time, though, I started looking around, willing myself to notice the background behind him, which seemed flat and lifeless. My head felt clearer, more alert. When he handed me the gummy I tried to remind myself, “Stay awake stay present, resist. Don't eat it.”
“Mental Resistance check failed.” And I was already chewing on the gummy. It actually tasted pretty good. Like, I might actually just eat that gummy as a snack.
“No. Focus. Let's try that again.” The second time I failed again. The third time was the charm. I managed to stay alert long enough to resist eating the gummy.
“Rank up. Your Mental Resistance Skill is now level 2.” And now I had two gummies. A few tries later and I had a third.
I had to tell Argyle.
First, there was one other thing I needed to check. “Hey Fez, what do you think about what just happened?”
“What do you mean what just happened?”
“I mean just now, with the ads in the meat shop.”
“Oh yeah, definitely do that more. I'm getting kudos from the system. Apparently ad revenues in this area have dropped off in the past few weeks. I'm being told to encourage you to do that more, so if you could please do that more, that'd be great.”
“Sure. But about the gummy?”
“What gummy?” I held it up for my companion to see. “That’s odd, its stats are undefined. Like the metadata is just empty. Like the AI who created it only gave it physical properties and nothing else.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t eat it, but it shouldn’t be to bad. Once you use it, the debugging AIs will probably be notified and give it properties.”
“I got a feeling Argyle and I are going to be taking in even more ads in the near future.”
“That's great news, buddy. You should definitely do that.”
I got back to the tavern to see Argyle pacing and muttering to himself.
“There you are, man. I was worried that maybe you tried to fight the Jackalopes again, on your own, or maybe you'd gone off. Where have you been?”
“Forget all that, you are going to love this.” I held up the gummy.
He looked at me suspiciously, then his face brightened. “Oh, sweet, a gummy. Thanks, man. Haven't had those in awhile,” he said as he popped the treat into his mouth.
“No, no, no! Fine,” I took out another gummy from my inventory. “What does this remind you of?”
“Playing guitar? Midnight movies? Munchies?”
“No, no. It's red. It's transparent. It's shiny.”
“Christmas lights?”
“A gem. It looks just like a gem.” He still had the look of a high school football player asked for the quadratic equation.
“Which means…?” I tried to encourage him.
“I don't know. You got me. Looks pretty cool though. Tasty too. You got another?” he asked, popping the second one into his mouth too.
I pulled out the third gummy, glad that I had gone back a few times. “Alright, this is my last one, so don't eat it. But what if we tried to set it into a ring or maybe if we put it as the centerpiece on a tiara?”
“Why would you want a gummy tiara? That just seems sticky.”
“Yeah, it does, kinda. But, like you were saying, if we had gems to put in them, or better materials, then they'd be worth more. Maybe even have some magical properties, right? Well, here's some shiny ornamentation to put on the front.”
“Maybe? All right. I guess it's worth a shot. But how?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have the Jeweler Skill, but I guess you imagine it’s a gem, and try to use it the same way you would a Ruby.”
“Here,” he said, handing me a circlet that he had started. “Why don't you try and work on that. I guess I'm gonna see if I can make this into a setting that we can put on there.”
“All right.” I said.
At first it didn't go so well. “No can do, man. The system doesn't even recognize this. A lot of its properties are just question marks.”
“All right. Just pretend it's a Ruby. It's red. It's shiny. It doesn't matter that it's the wrong shape and is squishy. Just think of it like a Ruby and try and set it into the tiara,” I said handing him back the now nearly completed tiara.
“All right…” Argyle concentrated again, but then blew out an exasperated breath. “No good man. It just won't work.”
“Focus. Breathe and think of nothing, except putting this Ruby,” I held up the gummy, “into this tiara.” I held the two concepts in my brain, “Ruby, Tiara. Tiara Ruby. You can do it. put the Ruby in the Tiara.”
He placed the Gumby in the center of the circle of wire. I held my breath. Swirls of red particles floated around the piece. A Nimbus of color.
“Crafting successful. You have taken part in creating a Ruby inlaid Tiara. Gem quality poor, moderate success. Use better quality materials for a better result. Ruby inlaid Tiara: This tiara is imbued with the power of Fire Resistance. Wearer receives 5% Fire Resistance.”
“I can't believe that worked!” yelled Argyle as we high-fived. “How did you know that would work?”
“I didn’t. I was just testing a theory.”
“Keep those theories coming. At this rate we might even get some gear worth using along with the stuff worth selling. Man, this is just too much I can't believe it's working so well.” He smiled and laughed. “I might actually make it. It's going to work.” I could see his whole posture changing, like stress he had been holding onto the entire time we had known each other was finally being lifted off his back. “At this rate, I'm definitely going to be able to do it. It's gonna work, man. So, where did we get the gummies?”
I explained it to him. He didn't believe me. “You can't take things out of advertisements, man. It just doesn't work that way.”
“But I did! Just try it.”
It took him 16 tries to get it right. He had almost given up by the third. By the eighth he was getting increasingly skeptical. And I almost had to bribe him to get him to go in the 15th and 16th times, but it worked. Sure, he didn't gain the Mental Resistance Skill, but at least now he believed me. For some reason, I could tell that something about Argyle just meant that he was more susceptible to the game's manipulations. Then again, maybe it was me. Maybe it was part of what I had been learning from the old man coming back to me. Even if I was the only one who could pull things out of advertisements with reliability, it still meant that this gave us a huge advantage. “Soon my boredom would be over. Soon.”
“What about the other advertisements? Can we take things from them too?”
“Probably! Maybe we should try?”