Hello? Can I take a seat?
[Of course.]
Uh, just in case you couldn’t tell because of how I’m shaped, I bowed before asking if I could sit. And I can’t see you or detect your presence. What title should I use?
[None. Proceed with the story. Start from the first day and include all pertinent details.]
You got it, Boss. I’m sure you’ll see I did everything right and I’m completely free of any blame.
The first day. Let’s see. I know I wasn’t the only one excited about the Second Cycle Game of Earth sponsored by Duke Agares.
We all knew this Game was special. Eight billion souls. I could possibly push through to Gold tier if I performed decently enough to secure a sizable bonus. And with eight billion souls, just my regular share alone would be…well, a lot.
Every other Game I worked on, the mortals of the world had found and destroyed the suppressors and initiated the Game early, entering it with some levels, tiers, and knowledge of self-cultivation. Not these fools. They went the full cycle plus some extra. Eight billion souls. May our Dark Master, the glorious Light Bringer, show mercy on the traitor for that.
But since this world did go the whole cycle, reward tiers were bumped up. I heard there was a sponsorship bidding war too.
So, I had spent the week prior to initiation studying the new rewards and changes. I showed up early on the first day and plopped down in front of my terminal filled with excitement, praying I’d get a good team. And, boy, did I ever.
I thought I had gotten very lucky. I only had 20 total in my team, and all but one were truly terrible. I had a couple children, some fats, a few crazies, and a bunch of olds. I even had a young mother with a toddler.
Only one participant was a real risk. There were a few others good enough for me to consider mediocre. Even as mortals go, every member of my team had an extremely stupid looking face.
Keep in mind, all 20 had selected Hell difficulty and the Lone Wolf Trait. Or, I should say, most of these idiots failed to read and select more appropriate options. Nightmare difficulty is bad enough. Hell difficulty is nearly impossible even with people joining parties and working together.
I laughed knowing my job would practically perform itself. All I’d have to do is enjoy watching them die.
I wanted to secure my regular share and standard reward as soon as possible, so I still made the usual deals during selection. There’s no reason not to. They hardly cost any Veil. And I get an extra bonus if only one member of my team survives the tutorial area.
[Explain this deal.]
You got it, Boss. I always rank the top ten threats in my team. During selection, I offer the top three threats a knife in exchange for a promise to kill the other nine members of my top ten list. For this world, if one succeeded, they’d earn a full Soul Gem. We…
[What? A Soul Gem? Are you serious?]
Yes. It’s always a great deal. For turd worlds, this reward is a Soul Gem Fragment. For garbage worlds, it’s a Grade-Enhancer.
Participants hardly ever refuse this deal regardless of world-type, though these mortals needed the reward explained to them. All us techs always make this deal. It really gets all the murdering going early and often. It also helps ensure the type of participants we want advancing are the ones to do so.
If the other side had representation, they could make a similar deal. It would probably be to save people instead of murdering them though.
[But how? Where do the Soul Gems come from? Those are the most coveted treasures on even the higher planes. These Game participants can just win one for killing nine people?]
I have no idea where they come from, Boss. I just work here.
I’m guessing you’re not familiar with how the Game works. For this specific Game, in the tutorial area alone, participants can earn a Grade-Enhancer for every Stat. There’s also another Soul Gem and a step increase to Soul.
It’s less dramatic than it sounds. The SS-rating reward for a Trial can only be claimed once on any difficulty. All the great rewards require Hell difficulty. And participants usually have to come back at much higher levels to have a shot at winning the good stuff. Almost everyone dies well before then, and it’s called Hell difficulty for good reason.
Our job is to ensure participants die quickly so they don’t earn anything. When’s the last time a world won a Game? Our side always wins.
[I see. Continue.]
Okay. Where was I? The first day.
So, Dan just wasn’t a risk. He wasn’t close to making my top ten list. He started with mentals about as red as they get. His other readings were also terrible despite his young age. He was out of shape, had a fat belly, and his face looked even more stupid than usual.
I wasn’t watching Dan when the Game initiated. I was watching the participant I thought was my biggest risk – a big, muscley, bald guy named Rick. His mentals were great. Gray across the board. No despair at all. Only joy spiked up white as he crushed his goblin’s head. That usually means they’re a psycho, joy spiking when killing.
Rick heard a woman scream for help. The mother, Becky. He picked the knife up, put it in his belt, and ran towards the screams. He ran the whole way and wasn’t even winded when he arrived. He killed Becky’s goblin in two seconds flat.
That’s no big deal. They’re easy to kill. Goblins are the most pathetic type of goblinoid, and these goblins were all level 0, the same for everyone in all difficulties, even Easy. Just a little welcoming present.
Becky didn’t even try to fight her goblin. She just picked up her toddler, a little punk-ass bitch named Bonnie, and ran around a big tree screaming and crying like a real wussy.
When Rick showed up and killed her goblin, I could practically see her falling in love. She was extremely relieved and thankful. She even tried to hug him with her kid in her arms.
Seeing all that thanks turn to horror as Rick grabbed her ponytail and whipped her around into a tree was absolutely hilarious. Seeing how she clutched her kid as she scooted backwards, her eyes big as saucers, filled my heart with glee. She knew she was going to get it. She should’ve kept her wussy mouth shut and just killed her own goblin.
As Rick was undoing his belt, I was combing through his files, seeing what Trauma I could start using on him. There was a lot there to work with. His mother would’ve been perfect as a ghost, but she was still alive. Ghosts must be from someone the participant knows is dead. I used one of his mother’s old boyfriends.
I had the ghost of the boyfriend appear behind Becky and say, “I’m proud of you, Rick. I always knew you’d grow up to be just like me.” Something like that, except creepier and scarier. It loses a lot when I say it. You’d be impressed by the creepiness if you were there.
Seeing the ghost almost made Rick shit his pants. I was checking what else I could use on him when I noticed two guys hauling ass over to Becky’s starting point.
Dan just plowed right into Rick like a train. Didn’t stop to talk. He attacked immediately. And his fat ass was about as out of breath as someone could get. I checked his vitals. He was all cramped up and done in, and the Game had barely even started.
Dan had rammed the big guy hard enough to knock him over. Then he tried mounting Rick, but Rick wasn’t having it. He got on top of Dan and started blasting him in the face. Dan was too winded to do much about it.
The other man that ran over with Dan, a guy named Ace, grabbed Rick from behind and dragged him off Dan, trying to stop the fight.
Just so you know, Ace wasn’t his nickname. I overheard him tell someone it’s a popular name for Jamaicans. Listen as I say it. Ace. Ace. Hear how it sounds? It’s wonderful! It just rolls off the tongue. What a great name. Simple, yet elegant and so powerful. I love it!
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Ace was still in pretty good shape for an old. He was in his early forties or so. He was sucking air a little, but nothing like Dan was. I had Ace down as my number five risk. He was a soldier at one point but had turned into some sort of sissy pacifist. That should tell you what scrubs everyone else on my team were if a filthy hippy was my number five threat.
Well, Rick tossed Ace off him like a ragdoll. As soon as Ace landed on the ground, Dan threw dirt in Rick’s eyes followed up by a rock to the dome. Got him good, right in the temple. A little blood splattered all over and everything.
Dan was still out of breath and just gasping for air like he was dying as he bashed that rock down over and over. His mentals were already in the red, but from what I could tell, killing Rick didn’t move any of them at all.
Becky had her hand over her kid’s eyes and was just screaming bloody murder. Way too late for it to help, Ace pushed Dan off Rick’s corpse and yelled out, “What the hell, man! You killed him! What the hell’s wrong with you?”
Dan, still completely winded, got on his feet and bent over with his hands on his knees as he sucked in big gulps of air. His nose was bleeding, so he took turns shooting bloody snot out of each nostril. It wasn’t hot out at all but sweat was just pouring off him like he had just gotten out of the shower.
Dan pointed at the corpse, then pointed at the mother and kid. It looked like he was trying to say something but couldn’t get any words out yet. He panted for a few more moments before patting down Rick, grabbing the knife, and sprinting off again.
Now I’m thinking, “What in the name of the great Kobal and the Shining One is going on here?”
Dan, a man that wasn’t a risk at all, just killed my biggest risk. He started the Game with his mentals about as deep in the red as they go. I knew it wouldn’t take much to push this fat idiot over the edge, and here he was, helping me out.
So, while Dan was sprinting away from Ace and Becky, I went back to his feed and checked out what I missed.
As soon as the Game started and he appeared, Dan jolted forward and snapped his goblin’s neck like a pro and started sprinting north without missing a beat.
He got to Ace’s starting area while Ace had his goblin in some sort of hold and was trying to reason with it. Dan slowed down and twisted the goblin’s head around. He was already winded badly but managed to wheeze out something like, “Come. Follow,” before taking off running north again, hugging the wall.
One of those goblins and Rick dropped an Orbment Fragment, the other goblin dropped two. Dan ignored them all.
I went back to Dan’s current feed. He was running for all he was worth, which was very little, and so out of breath I thought he’d pass out and die any second. He didn’t. He just kept going.
One of the kids was at the next starting point. Austin, the youngest on my team. Thirteen or so and a huge asshole.
Austin was halfway up a tree, kicking down at the goblin climbing up after him, making grabs at his foot. Dan ran up and stabbed the goblin. A good stab. Got the spine. I remember being impressed because Dan was so out of breath his face was purple and he had no relevant training I could see in his profile. This goblin dropped nothing. You’ll find out why soon.
[If they were level 0, none of them should’ve dropped anything.]
I’ll explain that in a bit. It works differently in the Game than how it does for us.
Now, where was I again? Austin stayed up the tree crying like a wussy while yelling questions down to his savior. Dan was way too winded to answer. After sucking in air for a minute, Dan pointed south, I’m guessing towards Ace and Becky. He managed to get out some sort of strange noise before taking off running again. This time, he was really dragging ass and more trotting than sprinting.
I had three death notifications I checked out. My number two risk killed my number six risk. One of the other kids and an old lady were being eaten by their goblins.
Do you know what the tutorial areas look like?
[No.]
They’re all the same walled-off circle in a forest. For me, all participants started right near the edge of the circle about a half mile apart. We’re supposed to use kilometers for this world. It being half a mile was just a coincidence. The circles are 16 kilometers around, so it just worked out that way with 20 on my team.
Chet was at the next starting point Dan reached. Real petite kid. At 16, he wasn’t officially counted as a child, but he looked younger than Austin, so I considered him a kid.
Chet’s about as physically capable as a gnat. He killed his own goblin though. Dan arrived as Chet was dabbing his fingers into the goblin’s blood to use as warpaint he was applying to his face.
Dan was just spraying sweat everywhere. He seriously sounded like he was having an asthma attack. He put his hands on his knees and sucked in air near Chet. The boy continued applying warpaint as he said, “This doesn’t seem so difficult.”
Dan pointed back the way he came and made a strange noise again. Then he took off half-running, half-limping to the next starting point. I checked his vitals, and he was looking bad. His muscles gave up on him a while ago. Keep in mind he had only run about 2.5 miles so far. He was almost dead just from running four kilometers. It was impossible to see this slob as any sort of threat.
The next starting point was empty of a participant. Dan ran right through it without checking or looking around.
The participant of that empty starting point was my number three risk named Pete. He had walked east and was talking to the guy at the next starting point named Nick, number nine on my risk list.
Now, telling mortals apart isn’t easy since they all look like half-melted candles to me, but Nick’s stupid face looked familiar, so I checked. He was Dan’s brother. At 23, he was one year younger than Dan.
Pete had his shirt off with his knife wrapped in it, hidden and held in his left hand. He was smoking a cigarette along with Nick as they chatted. I checked his vitals and could tell he was trying to psych himself up to stab Nick.
Nick heard Dan first. It wasn’t hard since Dan wasn’t trying to be quiet. He wheezed loudly and stomped on every twig as he limp-trotted through the woods like a rabid bear.
Nick shouted, “Hey, Danny, you alright?”
“That’s your brother,” asked Pete.
“Yeah. Nice. Glad we ended up together, but he looks messed up, don’t he? Maybe he had to fight something besides what we got?”
Nick yelled out again, “You okay, Danny?”
Dan ignored the yell and kept charging forward. Nick started walking toward his brother. When they met, both men clasped and held each other for a second before Nick laughed, moved away, and said, “Jesus, Danny, is that all sweat? That’s disgusting, man. Your goblin put up one hell of a fight or what? You got blood all over your face too.”
I remember thinking Dan was looking at his brother crazily, with eyes full of murder. I really thought he was going to kill him. Or maybe his eyes were filled with lust, and they’d begin to kiss each other with their mouth orifices.
I was wrong on both counts. There was no murder or kissing. Dan just grabbed his brother again and held him tightly. Nick tried pulling away until he noticed Dan was silently sobbing.
“You okay, Danny? What’s wrong, man? What’s going on? You fixing to fall apart on me?”
Dan's sobs stopped like a faucet was turned off. Pete had walked up to join them and asked, “Everything okay with you two?”
Nick let go of Dan and said, “Yeah. My brother, Danny. Dan. Guess me and my maw are the only ones that call him Danny still. Hey, Dan, this guy’s pretty cool. Name’s Pete. I reckon we need all the friends we can get in here.”
Pete put his cigarette in his mouth and held his hand out. Dan was sucking air hard and wiped his hand on his jeans before going to shake. He grabbed Pete’s hand and yanked the man to him as he withdrew his knife from the back of his belt and stuck Pete in the neck.
Nick began to freak out in a an overly dramatic and very wussy-like manner. “Jesus, Danny! What the…oh, God, he’s dead! You killed him! Jesus, Danny! You just killed a guy. Jesus Christ! Goddamn, what we fixing to do now?”
Dan ignored his brother’s pathetic bleating and pulled the shirt out of the dead man’s hand while wheezing uncontrollably still. He unwrapped the shirt and found the knife. With shaky hands, he cleaned his own knife on his victim’s jeans and put it in his belt behind his back again.
As his brother continued to whine at him, Dan noticed a bulge in the dead man’s pocket. He felt his own pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Fomods, the same brand I smoked during my Ethnological Observation on Earth.
Dan’s hands started to shake even more. He smelled the pack like it was a fine wine. Then he crushed it and threw it on the corpse.
Nick snatched the crushed pack of smokes up and said, “What the hell are you doing? I reckon there ain’t no gas stations here, Danny. We need these. What’s going on with you, man? You just murdered a guy!”
Dan stood and handed his brother the dead man’s knife. He bent down and grabbed the Orbment Fragment Pete dropped. He went over to the dead goblin and did the same. He held one up and wheezed out, “Important.”
After pocketing the fragments, Dan said, “Come. Follow. Need to help,” but imagine a lot of heavy breathing between those words.
Before Dan could take off running again, Nick grabbed his arm. I was certain they’d start making out this time, but I was wrong again. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not the greatest at recognizing what emotions I see mortals display.
I hate to give spoilers, especially this early on, but prepare to be very disappointed if you’re hoping Dan and Nick kiss at some point. Their relationship’s completely platonic. I don’t see that changing either, especially after what I just did to Dan yesterday and the rift it caused between the two. It’s a real doozy.
I can’t wait to get to that part so you can fully comprehend my brilliance. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if upon hearing of my deed you stood and gave me a slow clap. A very dramatically slow clap where your eyes are watery. In fact, I’ll be surprised if you don’t do so.
Anyhow, after Nick grabbed Dan’s arm, he said, “Hey, man. Seriously, what the hell’s going on? Talk to me. Is it part of this…,” Nick looked around, “…this contest or whatever? If it is, we shouldn’t murder people. I ain’t murdering no one. Figured you wouldn’t want to neither. Maw wouldn’t be none too happy if she knew what you just done.
“You hit your head or something? Why you acting so strange? Seriously, why’d you kill this guy? I ain’t never seen you cry before. Not even when Paw or Amanda died. Help me believe you ain’t gone and flipped your lid.”
Dan jerked his arm free. “He was bad. Trust me. Come. One more knife.”
Now, Dan saying that piqued my interest. Far more so than pointing out Orbment Fragments were important. Any idiot could guess that items dropping from corpses were probably important.
Up to this point, I had just assumed Dan was a crazy doing what the crazies do, just a lot more of it since he was also a fat, and the fats usually don’t exert themselves so much.
I’m pretty good at judging risks. I always come up with a top ten risk list. During initialization, I always make the knife deal since it barely cost anything. Just 2% of my Veil for each. I can make the deal with three participants. All us techs make these deal. As I said before, it really gets all the murdering going early and often.
Even if someone rejects the knife deal, they have no way of knowing if I only made the offer to them or five other mortals or everyone else.
So, how’d Dan know there were three knives?