Jacob dreamed in death. Dreams swirled around him, through him, slipped through his fingers. When he awoke, he remembered none of it.
He opened his eyes.
[CONGRATULATIONS, PRIME CANDIDATE USER! YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3]
[PLEASE ALLOCATE YOUR REWARDS]
Yes, good morning to you too.
He felt a sharp tug at his leg, and glanced down without moving his head. There was the wolf, an inky black silhouette in the night, eyes narrowed to red razors as it tore a piece of tough jerky flesh from his calf.
Pieces of him lay strewn all around, gnawed bones and half-eaten meat chunks, enough biomass to pile together into a carnivore-variety Jacob snowman. Despite that, he was relatively whole. He had both his legs again. He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to regenerate one normally, only that this had gone a great deal faster than it should have. Evidently, dying was good for him.
Well, question answered, at least.
Guess I can’t die after all.
Yippee.
The knowledge didn’t comfort him much. His Blessing’s description came to mind, unbidden.
Death is not the end, but beware its effects.
How was I affected?
He didn’t feel any different, aside from the wolf actively eating the flesh off his bones.
Right. Guess I’d better take ol’ Fido out back. He’s starting to get on my nerves.
But he was done underestimating the beast. He wanted every advantage at his disposal before he made his move. Remaining perfectly still, he called to his advance system that yes, he would very much like to level up now.
[CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING ASPECTS FOR YOUR BLESSING]
[ASPECT OF COLD]
Changes Blessing to Symbiosis/Aura Hybrid
Your foes will feel the chill of death.
…
…
…
[ASPECT OF RITUAL]
Changes Blessing to Symbiosis/Aura Hybrid
You channel the power of burial rites.
…
…
…
[ASPECT OF DEVOURING]
You draw life from the fallen.
…
…
…
[ASPECT OF TRUTH]
You glimpse the truth beyond death.
It was an important decision, not ideally one to be made under time pressure. But, then again, he was in no particular rush to get the wolf off of him this very instant—why not let it gnaw away for a while? The little twinges of pain didn’t bother him much.
Whichever aspect he chose, he would be given narrower and narrower class options at higher levels to complement that one. The first aspect choice was the largest crossroads, maybe even more so than class, for defining a User’s build.
The descriptions are fairly vague, as expected. I should pick something as widely applicable as possible. Don’t want to get stuck with an aspect that never comes in handy.
That last part had railroaded many promising heroes’ careers over the years.
The Aspect of Cold, at least, seems fairly straightforward, and looks to offer a combat benefit. The Blessing changing to an Aura Hybrid is a big tip-off there. It probably just lets me channel cold and ice. Probably at touch or at least close range, considering it would most likely be a symbolic extension of my current deathly cold body.
The Aspect of Ritual is a weird one. I could imagine it being something useful, but I don’t like the ambiguity. I would probably pick the Aspect of Cold over it if I wanted a nature shift.
The Aspect of Devouring also looks straightforward. Here, it is the lack of a nature shift that gives a hint towards its use. It suggests that I will not absorb energy or vitality in some abstract metaphysical sense, but that I will literally have to eat corpses to ‘gain life’ from them, presumably in the form of regeneration or increased physical attributes. A Symbiosis Blessing only extends as far as the body, after all.
The Aspect of Truth is also too vague. Truth isn’t a tangible concept that can be used in a fight. I can’t imagine it providing anything beyond an auxiliary benefit.
But then again…
Glimpse the truth beyond death. Is that as existentially significant as it sounds? Would it reveal the existence of god, tell me the meaning of life, show me some realm beyond this one?
Surely not. Surely it sounds more impressive than it is.
There’s no nature shift, so it’ll change my body in some way. To… what? I don’t know how that would work.
The wolf growled as it pulled and pulled and pulled, and eventually tore free another chunk of him. It chewed on the long strip with its back teeth for a while before letting it drop from its mouth and going back for more.
Sadistic little fuck. I bet I really do taste like shit, and he’s just chewing on me out of stubbornness.
Jacob returned to his deliberation. He was leaning towards the Aspect of Cold. It was the safest, most sensible choice, with the highest likelihood of being broadly applicable.
But then again…
No. Stop that. Don’t even think about it. It’s stupid, Jacob. You have no idea what it means.
The truth beyond death…
Something instinctive drew him to those words, etched them in his mind. If he let that aspect go, if he picked another one, he would never know what it meant. The question would always be there, he was sure of that. He would always be burdened with the knowledge that he could have had the answer, but chose not to.
What is the truth beyond death?
It doesn’t matter. You never knew it before. Never bothered you. Just go on living your life the same way. Pick the Aspect of Cold. Be smart. Nothing good could come from having that sort of knowledge, anyway. Even if it’s as profound as all that, it’s most likely going to drive you mad. When you see that god’s a lie and the meaning of life is to eat shit and die and the afterlife is an empty black void of nothing. Or whatever.
He was starting to think he’d already gone mad, arguing with himself. But he was of two minds, and he could not reconcile the differences between his rationality and his instinct.
That was all it was, really. Instinct. A gut feeling. Telling him to pick truth.
I’ll regret picking it. When I’m stuck with a useless pile of talents and aspects ten levels from now, I’ll regret picking it as much as I would regret not knowing.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
Rationality lost. Curiosity won. All the bargaining in the world couldn’t quench that hunger.
He picked the Aspect of Truth.
[THANK YOU!]
[SELECTION COMPLETE]
[CHEAT THE HANGMAN]
Symbiosis Blessing
+ Aspect of Truth
Death is not the end, but beware its effects.
You glimpse the truth beyond death.
[ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR SELECTION?]
[Y/N]
No… Yes. Yes.
[INTEGRATING CHANGES WITH PHYSICAL MATRIX]
…
…
…
…
…
Jacob did not feel the usual amount of discomfort, just a passing malaise and a tickling sensation behind the eyes. Then, in just a few moments, it was over.
That had to mean nothing much had changed inside his body. He didn’t feel any different. Certainly the Pearly Gates did not open to him. God did not pop down to give a little insider knowledge about the meaning of it all.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
He was already beginning to think that he’d fucked himself over.
But he would withhold his judgment for the time being. He had a wolf to kill.
The beast had gotten tired of his leg and migrated to nibbling at his hips and sides, brushing a flap of the trench coat aside with its nose. It was a bit ticklish, which was funny to him in a morbid sort of way.
The animal was in convenient arm’s reach, so he just reached out and put a hand around its snout, clamping down hard. When it leapt back with a startled yelp, he held on and let its momentum carry him to his feet. The left leg was a bit mangled, but held his weight fine.
He followed the wolf’s movements, kept close. He swung his free arm over its neck and squeezed tight. He dug his feet into the dirt, and the two wrestled for control. The wolf was stronger, but not by much. And it was still flatfooted, uncertain what to do. Jacob capitalized on the confusion. He twisted its neck, prepared for a final pull to dislocate the spine.
Just briefly, their eyes met. Man and monster. One red eye glaring up at him side-on.
The world shifted all at once.
The wolf’s flesh sank in on itself, putrefying in Jacob’s hands. Fur came away in clumps and tufts. The eyes deflated, that startling red snuffed out and turned a tarnished brown. The wolf diminished in moments, all its mass sloughing off in sheets until only a polished yellow skeleton remained. He felt its cold, smooth surfaces against his fingers.
Then, at last, a scrap of a wisp escaped the remnants of the beast. Barely more than a lukewarm puff of air. Something that might be called a soul. Far more pitiful than he had ever imagined such a thing could be.
It was the end. The end for the wolf.
The way everything would meet its end. Bone and dust and breath.
Then everything snapped back to normal. He had the wolf in his grip, felt its fur under his fingers. Looked into its red eye. What he’d seen wasn’t real. Just an illusion.
Except he could tell by the trembling of the animal, the way its ears slicked back and its eyes went round, that the wolf had seen it too.
It stopped fighting him. It went limp in his arms, and Jacob wrestled it to the ground. There it pissed itself, and Jacob stood away with a curse and a grimace. It showed its belly to him, a low whine escaping its throat.
The hatred was gone from it. There was only fear.
“I… see,” Jacob said. “It’s not all I was hoping for, but… that sure was something. I guess I can do that now.”
Jacob expected the wolf to do something, to move or lunge at him, but it remained in that same position. Begging for mercy. He bent down and placed his hand on the wolf’s throat to signal that it was one stroke from death.
It didn’t move. It just watched him and licked its lips nervously.
“Stop that. I liked it better when you were evil. You know I’ve got to kill you, so why don’t you go ahead and fight back? I’ll feel bad otherwise.”
Nothing.
“It was that scary, huh? Well…”
He let go of the wolf and made a gesture for it to stand up. There was some confusion from the animal, but he eventually made himself understood and got it standing. He pried its mouth open and placed his hand inside.
“There. Yummy. Want a bite?”
The wolf did not bite. It just stood there with its mouth open, watching him cautiously.
Jacob sighed. “If this is some funny joke at my expense I will tear you limb from limb, got that?”
But he already knew why the wolf had stopped fighting him, and he already knew why it would never willingly defy him again.
To the wolf, Jacob was death incarnate. They had both seen what its fate would be if it went against him. For a creature to whom strength was everything, meeting someone stronger had cowed it into perfect obedience.
Jacob withdrew his hand and wiped away drool on his coat. He called Fenway.
“Hey, Jennifer. The assignment specified ‘dead preferable’, yeah?”
It took a while before Fenway’s voice came on. “Still alive, Mr. Sorenson?”
“Alive again, but yes. Let’s say I get the wolf back in one piece, does that work for you?”
“Yes, as long as it’s properly subdued. I’m sure the people at the Lodge could get some valuable data out of it. Are you saying you managed to subdue it?”
“Uh, yeah. In a manner of speaking. Look, I feel bad for the fucking thing. It’s looking at me all puppy-like.”
“Very well, Mr. Sorenson. I will make arrangements for your return. Even though it is three in the morning and I was sleeping until just a minute ago. Do you still require medical attention?”
“No, I’m good. You can send the triage-whatever-whatever home. I’ll be delivering one big old dog to you in a few hours. Get your beauty sleep until then.”
“Well done. I will. Don’t call me again before then unless there’s an emergency.”
“There’s always an emergency with me. I thought you would’ve learned that by now.”
She disconnected.
Jacob was left standing in the dark with an evil monster wolf. He sighed and looked over at the beast.
“Well, wanna get going? You’ll be coming with me for a while.”
He started walking, and the wolf padded close behind. It was a relief that it didn’t try to bolt on him. He descended the forest blindly, largely by feeling out the slight decline in the landscape and making sure he was always moving down it. The overgrown dog breathing at his back was freaking him out, but he affected an air of indifference.
After some time he saw a glimpse of the lights from the farmhouse through the trees. They left the forest and crossed the field, and Richard stepped out on his porch as soon as Jacob came onto the lot. The farmer had a shotgun trained on the two of them.
“It’s still alive,” he breathed. The gun trembled in his hands. “Why didn’t you kill it?”
Jacob grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its neck and shook it around. “We came to an understanding.”
The farmer stared at him in mute fear.
“I could use a chain, Richard. One with a hook or a clasp or something. You got one of those?”
He nodded and pointed to a shed away from the main house. Jacob went there and helped himself, finding a rusted old chain that he clasped around the wolf’s neck, leaving him a good ten feet of slack. Not the prettiest leash, but he was fairly confident it would hold in case the wolf decided to make trouble. He also wanted to make doubly sure that the “capture” condition of his assignment was met.
As soon as the chain was firmly around the wolf’s neck, Jacob received a message.
[ASSIGNMENT COMPLETED: PATIENT SHADOW]
OBJECTIVE 1: CAPTURE UNIDENTIFIED WOODLAND MONSTER, DEAD PREFERABLE] /// [CONFIRMED]
Optional: Complete before target reaches any major population center /// [CONFIRMED]
[REWARDS: 10 000fl]
Hmm. I don’t think Fenway did that. The timing was too precise.
Does the Hidden System know when I’ve completed an assignment? Can it update my status automatically?
It was widely believed that the AI that built and maintained Earth’s System—KATLA—had unfettered access to every node and every interface. The UEC insisted that KATLA was firmly controlled and limited in her access to the System, contained to her mainframes on Earth and its colonies, but no one really believed that. The creators had lost control of their creation, and KATLA did whatever she damn well pleased to whoever she pleased, with her fingers in all sorts of pies from politics to religion, subtly nudging events in ways that pleased her fickle machine mind.
So went the theory, anyway. A theory that contained shades and layers from fairly rational to full-blown tinfoil hat territory.
Jacob had never spent much time thinking about it. It didn’t affect his life either way. There was always someone fucking the little guy—whether it was man or machine made no difference to him.
Still, it would be nice to know if he was actively being watched. Maybe being a User marked him as someone of special interest to the AI.
Richard had locked himself inside his house and wouldn’t come out, so Jacob said goodbye through the window. He loaded the wolf in the back of the van, thankful for the extra storage space, and set off towards Arcadia.
The wolf was perfectly well-behaved in the car. The red-eyed glare in the rearview mirror was still unnerving, though. He kept the chain firmly looped around his wrist while driving, not wanting to give the beast too much slack.
“I’m not naming you,” Jacob said firmly, as though the wolf could understand him. “I’m giving you over to those lab coat types at the Lodge. They’ll have lots of fun experiments cooked up for you. Maybe they’ll melt you into goo or something, I dunno.”
The wolf tilted its head this way and that while he talked. An active listener, if a little lost on the words.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m sure you’ll have a fun time.”
*****
Jacob was a little worried that entering the city would retroactively violate the ‘complete before target reaches any major population center’ objective, but nothing like that happened.
Jacob parked in front of the main gates of the Lodge and led the wolf out of the van. The two guards at the front did an admirable job playing it cool, but he still caught them casting worried glances towards the furry black beast at the end of the rusted chain.
“It’s all right, you can pet him,” Jacob joked.
One of the guards met his gaze to utter a reply…
And instantly fell down, eyes gone wide. He let out a scream. One moment he was a pile of mossy bones, then he was back to being a man.
Jacob looked to his closest comrade. “Well, that was a bit of an overreaction.”
The man went much the same way, the both of them scrambling away from him on all fours.
“Right. Guess I’m the problem here.”
Foreseeing that this would be an ongoing issue, Jacob sat down in the grass and the wolf padded over to join him, curling into a ball next to him with its big head resting on its tail. It was at least past dawn at this point, so Fenway had lost her right to complain about sleeping. The unfortunate side effect of his new aspect seemed to trigger whenever someone looked him in the eyes, so called her up and asked her to bring out a pair of sunglasses.
To pass the time, Jacob called out to the two guards as they slowly regained their wits. To his slight disappointment, they had not been rendered as pliable as the wolf by the experience, and even threatened to shoot him, which he felt was a bit rude. As soon as they trained their guns on him, Jacob’s new best friend got up and raised its hackles, head low in a toothy snarl.
Guess it affects animals and people differently. Or maybe the wolf was a special case.
At least I can’t complain about the aspect not doing anything.
“Slow down, fellas,” Jacob said, pulling the wolf back by the chain. He made a point of not looking at the men directly. “We’re on the same team, see?” He pointed to his crest with a thumb.
They weren’t convinced.
It was a tense few minutes—mostly because Jacob didn’t want the wolf to go on a killing spree and get him in trouble. More guards got called in, and he was soon surrounded by guns. But Fenway eventually came out, radiating annoyance, some middle manager trailing behind her. The manager had the guards stand down while Fenway came up to Jacob, carefully stepping around the wolf.
She thrust a pair of folded-up black sunglasses at him. “There. I don’t know why you need them, but there you go. You’re lucky you didn’t get yourself shot. I swear, you’re turning out to be more of a problem case than Tom—Mr. Farraday.”
Jacob put them on and looked her in the eye. She didn’t run away screaming, so he considered that good progress, even though the glasses probably clashed with the outfit a tad. “There was a bit of a development. I got my aspect and it seems to make people a bit anxious when I look them in the eye. Worked wonders on this fella, though.” He yanked at the wolf until it finally laid back down with a reluctant huff.
“You’ve… tamed him?” She looked skeptically towards the beast.
“Sure. Maybe. He’s a tricky bastard, so I’m not completely sure he won’t try to bite my head off. But I don’t think he will.”
“Because?”
Jacob smiled. “Just kindred spirits, I guess. Oh, have someone park my car while we’re inside.” He tossed Fenway the keys, who immediately passed them to someone else.
The wolf was quite the hit in the Lodge. The weird and wonderful was commonplace around there, after all. Workers stopped in the halls to look, and one person even leaned in to pet it. She nearly got her hand bitten off, but still. The wolf was taken into a stark white containment chamber, where Jacob left it. He was able to look inside through a wide one-way viewing port. As soon as it was left alone, the wolf sat down and looked right at the door he’d gone out through, ears forward.
“What exactly did you do to that thing?” Fenway asked, standing next to him.
“I could show you if you want.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
Gas was released into the chamber through hidden nozzles in the ceiling, and the wolf soon collapsed on its side, eyes flickering shut. Two sciencey types came in wearing metallic protective suits somewhat reminiscent of hexagonal chainmail, and approached the animal with prods.
The wolf leapt up as soon as the doors closed behind them and savaged the two men bloody. Their muffled screams could be heard through the viewing port.
Pretending to be asleep. Clever boy.
Too clever for your own good.
Jacob sighed. “He’s a bit of a problem case too, isn’t he?”
He was sent in to retrieve the two men, seeing as he was the only one with a handle on the beast. He dragged them outside and admonished the wolf for being a very bad boy.
It was decided by some head researcher that the wolf wasn’t worth the effort, and they released another gas into the chamber to kill it. When that didn’t quite take, Jacob was given the job of injecting it with an oversized syringe of some clear liquid, which was meant to put it down for good.
He got as far as kneeling down beside the animal and putting the needle to its skin when he hesitated. The wolf watched him, attentive as always, and let its tongue loll out of its mouth with a happy—albeit terrifying—dog’s smile.
Aw, fuck’s sake. What are you smiling about?
“I’m not doing it,” Jacob said, standing up. “Sorry, but he’s kinda growing on me.”
The lead science man kept telling him to do it, and Jacob kept refusing. That went on for a while with the threats escalating in magnitude. Then the chamber doors slid open and Director Thatch came in, hands in his pockets. He was wearing an ugly blue tie with sailboats on it.
“Hello there, gentlemen. I hear we have a bit of a problem on our hands.”
The wolf stalked over to him, hackles raised. The director got on one knee with a groan and put his hand out. The wolf sniffed it, gave it a tentative lick, then spun and returned to Jacob.
“I guess he likes you,” Jacob said. “He likes bastards like himself.”
“Charming fellow.” Thatch let his gaze wander across all the blood trails and errant spatter about the place. “What do you want done with him?”
“I don’t know, sir. I like him, that’s all I know. And he’s a good little killer. He could be useful. Shame to put him down.”
“You think you could get him in line?”
Jacob shrugged. “Never owned a dog.”
“This is a bit different from a dog.”
“Is it?”
Thatch laughed. “He got a name?”
“No. Once you give an animal a name, you’re attached. I know that much. Got attached anyway, though. Dumb fucking mutt.”
“It’s awful risky, this.” Thatch wandered over to the wolf, bent down, reached a hand out. The wolf lowered his head away, but let the man pet him. Just barely. “Mr. Sorenson, you’re lucky I like risky ventures. Here’s what we’ll do. Take the wolf home with you. Get him trained properly. I’ll have some instructional materials sent to your node. If he kills or maims or so much as lightly chews on anyone, especially a civilian, I’m putting the blame on you. That thing is dead, and your ass is in court. If you make it work, though…” He shook his head and smiled. “Imagine the marketing opportunities. The undead wraith with the demon dog. I’m seeing dollar signs.”
Jacob glanced at the wolf. It glanced back at him.
Such a bad idea.
But his day had been full of bad ideas, so what was one more?
“Sure thing, sir. I’ll get it done.”
Jacob was seeing dollar signs, too.
Thatch stood with a nod. “Good. By the way, I hear you’re calling yourself the Hanged Man now. I like it. It’ll sell.” He turned and headed for the exit, hands back in his pockets. Over his shoulder, he called: “But for God’s sake, give that thing a name!”
Jacob stood and pulled the wolf up by his chain. “Happy now, boy? You’re going to get me in so much trouble.” He sighed. “But Becca will love you.”
In the end, did anything else matter?