CHAPTER 215

Tom shrugged suddenly wary. “How am I? That’s a strange question.” He searched for things to say. ‘I’m upset’, ‘I feel you betrayed me’, ‘we were good together. Why did you ruin it?’ Lots of different thoughts flashed through his head. “This trial. It appearing like it did… It’s a bit unsettling.”

“Tom,” Everlyn interrupted sharply. “You know that wasn’t what I was asking?”

What were you asking then? he thought angrily. Do you want me to admit fault? Beg you to come back? Apologise? Tom bit down on his instincts to react and forced a weak smile to his lips and looked her in the eye. “I’m fine.”

“I’m asking about your emotions.”

“What’s to talk about? I eat, sleep, fight. I don’t have time to be emotional. Sleep’s poor, but that’s because of my skill.” He joked.

“You can choose not to be like this.”

“Like what?” he half shouted before forcing himself to take a deep breath. He had mentally promised himself not to do this. He was stronger than that.

“Treating me like I don’t exist.” Her eyes challenged him.

A modicum of calm reasserted itself. “I’m not targeting you. It’s just easier if I keep you at a distance.”

“Do you think this is easy for me? Because if you do, then let me assure you it’s not.”

His fists were clenched, but he forced himself to take a deep breath. “No, but that’s not my problem anymore because you’re not my girlfriend. I have an issue with the fact that you’re blaming me for something that’s beyond my control. You agreed with the approach, then after it’s done it becomes a concern. Don’t you realise I’m bound by that contract. Even if I wanted to act, I can’t.”

“It’s not like that, Tom.”

“It sure feels like it.”

“This is hurting me to.”

“I’m not your boyfriend. It’s not my problem.”

“You don’t need to ignore me all the time.”

They glared at each other.

“Everlyn, whatever you’re perceiving. I’m not doing it consciously.” Tom glanced up at the roof and closed his eyes to compose himself. “Listen, we’re on the clock…” he flailed for the correct words. “Can I just…” He snatched up the pamphlet and started reading, deciding that the conversation was useless and it would be better to get to work. The question formed a simple picture of what the rest of the team had been planning. It basically boiled down to risk versus reward. If the risk of death was high, they wanted a higher proportional prize. Tom read through everything and then finally put it down.

He committed the mistake of catching Everlyn’s eyes when he finished. She truly was stunning, and it pained him to see the hurt expression on her face.

“I care for you Tom. I really do and I wish things were different and I know I’m overreacting blaming you, but I can’t help it. Please don’t be so cold. It hurts.”

Tom rubbed his brow. The anger, the feeling of betrayal it was all-consuming. This was her fault, not his. He couldn’t keep it down. “I can’t.” Then he shook his head and bit the inside of his lip. He had a team to run and a mission to finish. “I’ll do my best but… But Everlyn you knew my history. I was twenty when it happened and then I was by myself for forty years.”

“Of course.”

“It fucking means I’m not of sound mind! How the fuck could I be!”

Everlyn recoiled physically and Tom realised he had stood and was looming over her. He forced himself to turn away. His hands as they hung at his side, alternating between his fingers stretched out before transitioning to a tight fist. The entire time, fury made both arms shiver and his breathing was erratic. He couldn’t tangibly interact with her, but he still grabbed hold of his iron will and stalked all the way over to the window before talking. Even then, he did not face her. Part of him knew he should smooth things over. Everlyn was an important part of his team, but he needed to say his piece first. “This bullshit you’ve pulled,” he forced the words laced with fury out. “Do you understand what it’s done to me. Well, I was fine. I shoved it to the side and was coping.”

“That’s not healthy.”

She was right behind him. She must have got up and followed him.

“Please listen.” He banged his head against the window. It was cold and hard. “Forty years. We got serious too soon. I get it. In some ways, it was sort of like a rebound.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“But what you did. It shattered my faith in other people. Don’t you understand.” He turned to look at her and wiped the tears savagely away. He didn’t even know if they were from anger or sadness.

She had streaks running down her face as well.

They made her look fierce, wild, and gorgeous. He hated the way he reacted to her presence. They had been good together and something so immaterial had… “It wasn’t very nice.”

“I’ll try to make it up to you.”

“But you just need time.” Tom said bitterly.

“I can’t help my emotions.”

He turned his back on her and looked out the window. With a thought, the mini-book that he had left behind appeared in his hands. Outside, a gust of wind caused the snow to swirl. All the glass rattled as some of the snow hit it. He checked that the pages he held were identical to the one he had read at the table. It should be, but for something as important as an Oracle question he was happy to take extra steps to make sure that it was not wasted.

The words that greeted him were identical. Tom glared at the window, ignoring the cold that radiated from it and the ice patterns forming near the bottom. No matter what it appeared to be it was a system wall. “I would like to use my oracle question to answer the question posed by this.” He waved the book the pamphlet and its magical equations around.

“The answer to the worded question is yes,” Dux’s voice echoed through the room.

Relief flooded through Tom. He had been worried that what that they had constructed was too conservative to get that response. The fact the answer was yes secured the result. No one would argue against this. He turned to face Everlyn. She was white. She looked like she was about to fall over because of the shock. Her tears and sadness forgotten.

“This was always destined to happen.” Tom said.

“I know, but… We’re probably going to die.”

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Tom waved the pamphlet in the air. “We are here to earn ranking points. Going into that portal is a gamble and I don’t know the exact odds of death because of how the question was structured. It might be a stroll in the park for all we know. But if True Dreaming is right and we’re being set up to die, then if we survive.” Tom nodded to himself as we recalled the equations and graphs used by the question. “If we survive, we will get a massive windfall of ranking points.”

“Tom. We’re talking about my death! Your death!”

He snorted. “Death?” He waved a dismissive hand. “Done that already. Not scared”

“Dying in the tutorial doesn’t count! We always knew it was going to occur. There is no safety net here, so don’t be so flippant. It’s a real death. I’ll never see my children…”

“Evie. That’s not… You can’t equate the two. The moment you entered this competition…” Tom trailed off. He didn’t want to do that to her, but being in the competition meant she was never seeing them again.

“I know.” She sighed. “It’s just that the prospect of death never really feels real. But this…” she shivered. “It should be the same. I understand thinking it is different is ridiculous. Logically, how is this dissimilar from the risks of entering a combat trial or even travelling in Existentia? On the surface or underground, a monster could emerge and kill me at any moment. I understand that logically. But… Tom… That dragon killed five rank hundred natives like they were nothing and it’s going to be waiting for us. That’s terrifying on a whole new level.”

“We go in with more information. We know her weaknesses and…”

Everlyn dropped her head into her hands. “No Tom. I don’t care if we have detailed medical records that doesn’t bridge the difference of her destroying natives three times our rank.”

“Please stop becoming angry. I’m just the messenger. And if the risk is really that high, the rewards are proportionately improved.”

“Proportionally.”

Tom shrugged. “Even higher, whatever the term is. Anyway, we need to brief the others.”

With a thought, he left and was in the real world once more.

“And?” Keikain demanded immediately.

“We’re entering the trial.”

“Really? Are we sure?” Jingyi queried Everlyn.

“Tom asked the Oracle to answer the question that we had written out. The answer was yes. We planned this. Debated and workshopped different approaches and arguments. We’re going.”

“The risk may not be as high as everyone fears.” Tom suggested.

“You said we had another question.” Jingyi said, looking at Tom. “If you wanted you can find out if it’s an almost certain death or only an unlikely one.”

“I’m not going to.” Tom answered him flatly. “Because I read the question, you guys agreed on. If we have a ninety percent chance of dying, which is what I’m assuming you’re afraid of, then it’s even more important we go. Because if you do, the mathematics, it means that in the ten percent of occasions when we’re successful. When we live, we earn a hundred times what our full lies would otherwise generate. That’s huge…”

“Your maths is a little wrong.” Michael interrupted. “It’s more like eighty.”

“Shut up, it doesn’t matter. My point is that the thresholds inserted into the question you gave me were ridiculous.” Tom let his genuine anger flow through into his tone. “Disgustingly selfish.”

“No, Tom!” Michael snapped angrily. “You can’t say that. It’s not selfish that we care about our own lives more than you care about yours.”

“Whatever. When I asked your question, I expected the answer to be no. I was surprised by the yes response. So, either this trial is lucrative beyond or measure or the risk is nowhere near what you’re imagining.”

“We’re just making an estimate on your dreams.” Jingyi said defensively.

“The problem with prophecy skills is that their benefit is not always apparent until later. The Oracle questions, on the other hand we all know how they work. They are precise and accurate and the question you gave me was watertight. I checked. It is clear we have to go.”

Jingyi shook his head in denial. “No. I think it’s worth a vote or we should at least see if we can get out first.”

“No.” Tom said quietly. “We’re entering. I can’t compel you, Toni or Rahmat, but the rest of us are going.”

“Are you serious? Tom?” Michael asked. “Don’t you think you’re stretching things too far?”

The answer was yes. He was pushing too hard, but sometimes in life you needed to go into places you weren’t comfortable. That was even more vital in Existentia. The tutorial had drummed the lesson home many times. “We need to go.” Tom chose his next words carefully. “I think it’s clear that entering this trial is critical to the mission.”

Tom could sense people checking their contracts testing whether they had a choice. They didn’t not with that wording.

“But I won’t force anyone apart from Clare and Keikain,” Tom said finally. “So you don’t need to check for loopholes. I said what I did because I know the four of you.” He quickly scanned the group his gaze meeting each of those who had voluntarily linked with the contract. “I know that while you have reservations, you’ll come because the rewards are too rich not to.”

“I’m in.” Rahmat said firmly. He wasn’t bound by the contract but Tom had known he would support the position. “I’m here for humanity and going into the tutorial is the right choice for my species.”

“Me too.” Toni said quietly.

Tom glanced around at the people who hadn’t yet verbally nominated what they were intending to do.

Everlyn would come. Tom understood how she ticked. Thor was the same. Harry gave a subtle thumbs up when he looked in his direction. That left only one other person. “Well Michael, what’s your choice?”

“I’m coming. No question about it. If the answer was no, I had a different question with lower thresholds that I had resigned myself to accepting.”

“So we’re all in agreement.” Tom concluded. “Apart from Jingyi. Are you going to stay here by yourself, or will you come with us?”

“Can I use your question?”

“No. It would be a waste and you have more than sufficient information to make your choice.”

“I’ll stay.”

“Seriously.” Everlyn asked him.

“There’s enough food. I have the skills to escape the underground. If you fail, I’ll take the information back to the rest and let them know.”

Everyone looked shocked at the decision.

“Why?” Everlyn demanded, eventually.

“I joined you guys to provide support. My calculation was that I could safely generate a lot of ranking points by helping you, but…” He waved at the portal. “I’m not committing suicide over it.”

“It’s unlikely to be suicide.” Tom said, exasperated. “That carefully worded question with all those terms and explanations. The answer was yes.”

“I know.” The scout said. “I’m still not coming.”

“But you’ll be here all alone for months.” Toni said in a worried voice.

“I was alone for years. It won’t bother me.”

“But it’s different now that we’ve been around other people.” Toni continued. “In the tutorial, I built up barriers to ward off the crashing spectre of loneliness. But here, with those barriers worn down by being near people. I don’t think you should do this to yourself Jingyi.”

The scout shook his head. “I’ve been considering what I would do if we found the trial for days. Being trapped in a room for months was not one of those scenarios, but it doesn’t change my decision. I will endure. I have a chunk of experience from the last couple of battles, so I can buy some cheap skills. They will be the ones that I had in the tutorial and I can practise with them. Raise their levels back to what I am used to. The time won’t be wasted and I’ll be occupied while trapped.”

“This is crazy.” Michael said. “I thought our team was unified.”

Jingyi laughed. “No, we weren’t. You just admitted you had another question prepared. It meant you were willing to split the group. Plus, the question we created made allowances for people choosing not to go.”

“Well, I expected the party to fracture with a no vote. But for the yes answer. I thought we were aligned.”

Jingyi appeared frustrated. “I’m not the bad guy here. You were the one who refused to include the provision that the chance of death couldn’t be higher than an eighty percent probability.”

“We discussed that. We all agreed that even if it was that high, the upside increased enough to justify it.”

“He won’t change his mind. Michael.” Everlyn said quietly. “He’s not the type of person to flip-flop on issues once he’s decided.”

“Exactly, which is the only reason I’m here. Otherwise, when I learnt about them.” Jingyi pointed at Clare and Keikain. “I would have abandoned you.”

Tom went over to the portal and confirmed that they had almost half an hour.

With a wave, he gathered everyone over to listen. “There’s no point debating further with Jingyi. While I’m disappointed about him not coming into this trial, he is a good man. We can all agree that he has been an asset and when we emerge, I’m sure he’ll continue to be. Honestly, it takes a lot of courage to take a position against everyone else. While I vehemently disagree.” Tom forced himself to smile to demonstrate he wasn’t angry. “With his decision, you have got to respect the strength of will that saying no represents. Now that’s said let’s discuss tactics. We’re not going to rush the centre. In fact, we’re going to do the opposite of rushing. We will go slowly as possible to maximise our gains on the outer levels.”

They spent the next fifteen minutes. Strategizing what they were going to do.

It boiled down to a simple order of priority. First was to raise class levels and attributes to meet the threat of the current zone. After that, experience would be directed between rounding out their build, and gaining the artefacts or skills that were necessary to defeat the dragon’s breath.

On a best case basis, Tom would continue to get allocated extra opportunity to sleep to let him gain information about the plans of everyone around them.

“We can do this.” Tom told everyone quietly. “We know there’s been an attempt to stack the odds against us, but you can guarantee one thing. The fact that DEUS is pushing us into the trial… it means she thinks we have a chance. For now, purchase the levels you can and then we’re going.”