[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Michael Kapok]
[Level: 1, Sub-Level: 02]
Michael’s chest was tight as he was led into the thrumming metal guts of a factory filled with thousands of moving metal arms, all taking apart and putting together all kinds of devices. Breathing was difficult, itching the inside of his lungs, but not enough that Air Poisoning had struck him again.
In front of him, Lucky Paine moved confidently, fingers skittering over the controls on the arm of her chair with practiced ease.
He had admitted the truth to her. Everything about the end of the world, the end of multiple worlds. The fires, the zombies, the metal men described by Asadullah. He had told her about the Console, and the Game it contained. Spilled the story about the people he’d found and was now depending on.
Once he had finished, she fell silent. She didn’t say anything the whole time, as she brought him into the factory, surrounded by machines and hydraulics.
Even still, she continued to mull over the information she had been given. Finally, she coughed and massaged her shoulders.
“Thank you.” She whispered, “For telling me the truth.”
“Of course.” Michael agreed, “It’s the least I could do. You think I’m being honest?”
“It’s a remarkable story, for sure.” Lucky agreed, “But, against my better judgement, I do believe you. Now, if you can show me these green panels, however, I would be much more willing to go along with this tale.”
“We’d need to give you the Console to do that.” Michael explained, “Or find some way to manually send you an Invite that will upgrade you from an NPC to a Player. That’s what happened with Asadullah.”
“Sounds dodgy.” She replied, “But you will figure it out, won’t you?”
“You want to become a Player?” He asked doubtfully, “This wasn’t part of our deal. We were just going to exchange information and then part ways.”
“Of course, you are under no obligation.” Lucky assured him, “It just excites me. The idea of saving all kinds of worlds. Running away from this life. Getting to do something… bigger and better than being a train engineer for some scummy cargo shifters.”
Yeah, he could understand the feeling. But that wasn’t enough of a reason to give her a near impossible promise. What he could offer, on the other hand, was something more tangible.
“How did this world end?” He asked, as gently as he could manage, “If we can pinpoint the cause of the apocalypse, we can figure out some way to counteract it.”
It was Jared’s favorite plan. He had been working on ideas for disaster shelters years before Wayside.
But, all that earned him was a strange look from Lucky, “My world isn’t dead.” She told him.
“Your world is covered with a layer of smog that is choking the life out of anyone who ventures into it.” Michael told her, feeling incredulity rising inside him. He’d say his world had a very harsh climate too, but it was never this bad.
“Yes, well, that is because of trains and stuff.” Lucky replied with a vague wave of her hands, “The rest of you are dealing with freaky, impossible stuff. Not us. It is just… smoke that we created. Brought onto ourselves.”
“You can’t possibly believe that.” He told her, “This- this is all very much unnatural.”
Lucky was obviously losing her patience with him, “Listen, lad, you were not there.” She hissed, “You did not see the slow invasion of the smoke. The way all the media said that we would be fine. But it did not dissipate, and we were not fine, and everyone here knows perfectly well that it really is all our fault for letting this happen to us. No disease, no disaster, no invaders. Just plain human stupidity that we can come back from, except we refuse to move past old grievances. Because we are humans; the only species petty enough to doom the entire bloody planet over stupid things.”
By the end of her rant, her chest was heaving wildly. Michael stared at her, stricken.
“Apologies.” She whispered, curling in on herself, “I suppose that that has been weighing on me a bit.”
“Yeah, I got that.” Michael replied, tongue dry in his mouth, “I just wanted you to know that… even if you think that the world was messed up just by you, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a doomsday scenario. We were sent here as part of the Game. And maybe, I’ll admit, I was just thinking of this as just another chore on the checklist that would lead up to saving my world, but this isn’t like that. This is something more. And it deserves to get that same level of respect and recognition.”
“A lot of words.” She noted, composing herself enough to narrow her eyes at him suspiciously, “But you’re not exactly saying anything.”
“Right, right.” Michael coughed, “What I was saying was: I’m going to help you rebuild your world!”
A beat, and then, “A bold declaration for a child.”
“Are you seriously being ageist right now? I’m trying to help you!”
“And I appreciate that, but I get the strongest feeling that you do not have a grasp on the sociopolitical situation of your own world, let alone this one. Trying to find the cure for the undead is one thing but this… it’s just not enough.”
“I’ll make it enough.” Michael swore to her. Instead of aggravating her further, it instead made a tiny smile crawl across her face.
“It takes a lot of spite to hold on like you do.” Lucky whispered, “I admire that, Kapok. I wish that was properly angry at you and your friends, and especially that little Jared gremlin. But, from your stories, you survived. You fought. You pushed against the stream, like… demented salmon children.”
“You don’t sound very impressed.”
“No, no, I swear I am!” She insisted, “Biggest fan of yours.”
“If you say so.” He sighed, “But still, let’s hash things out. What is the main source of pollutant, exactly?”
This must not have been a very smart question because Lucky covered her face with her hands, “Lord, give me strength, because where do I even begin?”
Before she could begin hashing out the entire system her world up till now had been on, there was a sudden creak of sliding hinges. It would have melted in seamlessly with the hissing and cranking and movement of all the machinery around them, if it was not for the beam of light that erupted from the spot where the sound had come from. A door from inside the factory had been opened.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
[NPC has Entered the Field!]
Michael didn’t even have time to react before Lucky’s metal chair legs scooped him up and slid him into a tiny crevice between devices. It was hot, suffocating, and humid, but he didn’t put up a fuss. Whoever this newcomer was, Lucky had decided to hide Michael from them. That made them dangerous.
Thankfully, the spot he had been placed him gave him an alright view of the altercation, though it was a little hard to hear over the ceaseless chugging of hydraulic arms.
The newcomer was a woman, tall and stately looking, wearing an ankle-length dress of all things. She was clearly important, with beautifully braided hair and a painted face, but that just made her seem even more out of place. A person like this wasn’t meant to be standing in the smoggy darkness of this factory. Or this world, as a whole.
She was talking, but he could barely make out a few faint words. Still, her words were making the crease between Lucky’s eyebrows even more pronounced, so whatever it was must be important. He strained his ears to catch a sliver of conversation.
“We need you to up your productivity levels.” He thinks the fancy woman said, “This simply won’t fit in the timeframe we’ve built up.”
He had gotten a vague understanding of who Lucky was over the few hours of them meeting, and even he had the sense to realize that she was headstrong. So why was she being so easily cowed by a woman like this, who even puffed up to her most intimidating didn’t have a shred of power in her?
“Listen, madam, I will try my level best.” She explained, fingers tapping out a symphony over the armrests, “But as it stands, even with my expertise, one person is not physically capable-”
“We are not recruiting more people for the effort.” The fancy woman cut in ruthlessly, “The only reason you were allowed on board despite all your… difficulties was because you promised us that you would pull your weight tenfold. And I am not seeing those results from you.”
A spark of impetuousness flashed in Lucky’s face, and her jaws tightened. Michael was sure she was going to lash out against the woman, for certain. Except then… the strangest thing happened.
Her eyes clouded over. Her face went slack. Just for a moment, she looked like she had seen a ghost. Or was about to turn into one. And then she nodded her head tightly.
“Of course, madam. I will pick up the pace.”
Then he heard it. A new chime. Low-pitched and ominous, signaling a purple panel.
[Unknown Player Used Compulsion Lv. 12]
This. This wasn’t good. Another Player? They hadn’t found any so far. Even all the people who attacked Jared had been listed as NPCs. What was the difference?
Going off the information he had, he was assuming that the difference was that the Player had a Console, just like them, and was aware of the Game. In that case, wouldn’t they be working towards a common goal? Saving the world?
Maybe he could talk to them, figure out what exactly they were doing here, and work out a plan together? Maybe they could even get this Mystery Player to join [Party(Main)]? It was a tad optimistic, but better that than straight nihilism.
Who was the Unknown Player, anyway? Someone who was in the room, and all signs would point towards the woman in the dress, except he very much knew her. She wasn’t an Unknown. There had to be some other unseen presence here, but where?
By that time, the fancy lady had left, carrying all her skirts with her as she went, leaving Lucky sitting there, chewing away at her lip. Once the door had closed again, she didn’t waste time in maneuvering over to him and helping him squeeze out.
“Who was that?” He asked, staring at the faint outline of the door.
“The woman I work for.” Lucky answered shortly, “Heiress of some Fortune 400 Company, I believe. Or, at least it was listed as that before the internet gave way. Now there isn’t any way to check.”
“And you’re sure your world hasn’t been broken in a way that’s fixable by the Game?”
“Yes, and I will believe that until my dying day. But we cannot be arguing about this right now. We have other problems to be dealing with.”
“Like the manpower problem.” He supplied.
“Like the manpower problem.” She agreed, though with a tightness to her voice that almost made it seem like it pained her to admit it, “I specialize in engineering, even before the smoke situation reached this level. Trains, I like for the speed and the thrill, but any machine will do the trick for me. You could probably guess, with my chair.”
Michael nodded, taking the moment to appreciate the marvel of craftsmanship she had been sitting on.
“You made that yourself?” He asked, “How old were you?”
Lucky barked out a laugh, “This is barely three years old.” She snorted, “I used a wheelchair before it for practically my entire life. But when companies started privatizing more and everything became so much more exclusive, I realized that I couldn’t let myself be more dead weight. Something had to be done. Hence, robotic spider-limbs attached to a chair that can move faster than a train.”
“That’s still amazing.” Michael told her, skin itching just a little. Was this an appropriate thing to say to someone who just confessed to feeling obsolete?
It seemed to be, as Lucky bobbed the chair up and down, flexing all the legs, “I guess it is wicked.” She mused, “But compliments won’t get you to the top, boy. I need your help, so you better buckle down and get to work. How skilled are you at handling an acetylene torch?”
“I am.” He replied. An overstatement, really. Jared had taught him to use one to help construct the Epicenter’s underground bomb shelters. He had been kicked off from the program after he ended up melting two support beams together.
“Well then, Micky, strap in. I have every intention of working you to the bone.” Lucky told him excitedly, throwing a welding mask and equipment at him. It was only from years of experience that he snagged the items out of the air. At the same time, more panels appeared in front of him. These ones the regular green instead of the weird purple one.
[Personal Challenge Established!]
[Reward: Gear Exchange]
[Participants: Michael Kapok]
[Additional Characters: Lucky Paine (NPC)]
[Terms: Stock 3 Armories in 1 Day]
“Three whole armories?” He asked, “Isn’t that extreme?”
“How did you know that?” Lucky asked, blinking in surprise, “I have not told you yet what we were meant to… oh, it was those panels of yours. I didn’t know they could do that.”
“Can we go back to the issue at hand?” Michael begged her, “They want you to fully stock three complete armories? If both of our worlds have the same standard inventory for an armory, that’s a lot of weapons. You can’t mass produce that in such little time.”
“You can when you hire a mechanic for that explicit reason.” Lucky replied, already resigned to her fate, “Besides, they want me to do forty a month, and I rigged the entire factory to work nigh autonomously to create it all by themselves. But this time we are falling short by exactly three, even as the deadline approaches tomorrow. We need to pick up the slack ourselves.”
“If you say so…” Michael muttered disbelievingly. This would be a tiring job, he could feel it. If only he could dip into his two thousand Exp right now. Wait, actually…
He projected that want out into the ether, as hard as he could manage. For a moment, there was silence.
[Applying Computer Affinity…]
[Accessing Points Management Page…]
The panel appeared in front of him, exactly the same as Verity and Asadullah’s.
[Use Exp Points!]
[2,028 Exp Points Available]
[Overall Level: 6 (+)]
[Power Stats:-]
[Durability: 3 (+)]
[Strength: 6 (+)]
[Agility: 4 (+)]
[Charisma: 3 (+)]
[Abilities:-]
[Melee Lv. 9 (+)]
[Hoarding Lv. 5 (+)]
[Computer Affinity Lv. 7 (+)]
He frowned, thinking through his choices. The mystery ability he’d been given wasn’t displayed here, but it weighed on his mind. Level 8. He had to make it there. That was his top priority.
[500 Exp Deposited into Overall Level!]
[Level Up to Lv. 7!]
[Level Up to Lv. 8!]
[All Stats Boosted by 0.5]
And then, at the end, at long last, came the Ability that had been itching away at him.
[Unlocked Ability!]
[Loading…]
Excitement beat through his heart. What was it going to be? Something incredible and strong that would finally set him aside from the people around him? The possibilities were endless, and yet he was still surprised when it finally revealed itself.
[Sorcery Lv. 1]
[Updating Player Class...]
[Class: Human Mage!]
“Holy shit.” He whispered, taking a step back.
“What happened?” Lucky asked, “There’s no time for dawdling, man, stop staring into space!” Then she got a better look at his stricken face and gave him some space, “Did something happen with the panels?”
He looked down at her, unsure how else to explain it, except… “I think I might be a sorcerer.”
[Player Log End!]