All the survivors but Dan were grouped up and chatting nervously near the Agility Trial in the southeastern part of the area, just north of the stream.
A few had light injuries but most were in good shape. Twelve of them, when it should’ve only been four or five at most by this point. My lucky group wasn’t turning out to be so lucky.
In case you don’t know – the whiny toddler didn’t count. Mothers with kids under six can’t be sent without them. Most areas have enough people capable of self-cultivation that mothers with young kids never get sent. They’re very low on the selection order. Only the sicks and the gimps rate below them.
Since we divide planets into small areas and draw participants from each, even though the selection order really favors the other side, it ends up evening out.
I had a low population area made up of most of Oklahoma, a little bit of Texas, and a small chunk of Kansas, so that’s why I only started with a team of 20, and why I got that mother and all the fats, olds, and crazies.
If I had the New York tri-state area or Shanghai or Mumbai, my team would’ve been at full capacity. A couple hundred fit and competent participants that purposely and knowingly selected Hell difficulty and the Lone Wolf Trait.
Of course, one of the fats on my team was turning out to be somewhat of an annoyance. Dan was at the Core Trial in the center of the area browsing through the Profile Reader. That’s important for later. It hurt my case.
He had already collected the useful loot off the bodies and had it all in a backpack. He buried a lot of stuff too, like extra shoes and shit. He had all but five of the Orbment Fragments. Nick and Chet had a couple each, and Leena had one.
The others were talking about what the Game was all about, whining, crying, refusing to accept their new reality, all the usual jibber jabber.
Dan had asked Nick and Ace to keep an eye on the guy I rated as my number two risk named Jamie, but I’ll call him Tattoo-face.
Tattoo-face had his knife hidden in his waistline. Chet, Austin, Becky holding her kid, and two olds named Leena and Winston were in one group. Off to the side was my number four risk, a giant named Mac. Pretty sad my number four risk was both a fat and an old. Mac was in his forties, a car mechanic, and a member of a pretend biker gang.
Across from Mac was Little Carlos, my number seven threat, Big Carlos, another fat and my number eight threat, and Luke, another old. Big Carlos couldn’t speak English.
Luke was close to fifty and in decent shape for his age but as stupid as they come. Definitely not a top ten threat. He spoke Spanish so was translating for Big Carlos.
“I was driving with Bonnie in the backseat when all those words appeared,” said Becky. “I thought I was going to crash and kill her, so I was freaking out and tapping everything just trying to get the words to go away. Then I showed up here and that little monster tried killing me.
“Some man showed up and killed the monster. I went to thank him, and he attacked me. Then the crazy guy ran up and killed that guy. I still don’t know what’s going on. A game for what? Why? None of this makes any sense. I’m still hoping I’ll wake up and realize this is all just a bad dream.”
Most of my team had a similarly dumb story of not knowing what they were getting into. Only the competent and the suicidal pick Hell difficulty on purpose.
Chet was a rare exception. He said, “I read a lot. I knew what was happening. The System was taking over. I’m not physically adept. Even my little sister beats me up. I surmised I had two possible outcomes – being red-shirted immediately no matter what difficulty I selected, or quickly becoming OP and saving humanity. I believe this difficulty and Trait made the latter more feasible.”
The old man, Winston, said, “What in the hell you talking about, son? And what’s all that crap all over your face?”
“Warpaint, sir. To intimidate my enemies. That goblin put up quite a fight, but I stand the victor. If this System is quirky, it may notice something like this and reward me as it will want to highlight its witty personality. Since going barefoot is far more painful in these woods than expected, I can’t give it much of a chance to lust after my succulent toes.”
I could tell Winston racked his brain for a response to that. He came up short and said nothing.
Nick didn’t admit it then, and I only found out later, but he picked Hell difficulty and Lone Wolf on purpose too. Like most, he thought everyone in the world was participating in the Game. He knew what his brother would select and wanted to be with him.
Chet noticed the Profile Reader attached to the Agility Trial and started looking through it. Austin and Little Carlos joined him.
The group continued to bleat out the usual inanities until Dan walked up and dropped a body a hundred meters or so away from the group. Breathing heavily and dripping sweat, he started running off again.
Nick called out, “Hey! Hold up, Danny,” and ran to his brother. “What’re you doing? You said you’d be right back.”
Dan, huffing, said, “One more. Be back soon. Watch that guy,” and continued running off, limping badly.
I rechecked Dan’s vitals and he was pushing himself way past what was smart for a fat to do. His mentals were still just as deep in the red. I wish I had used Sortilege right then on him, but everything pointed at him being a problem that would solve itself. I just couldn’t see him being an actual risk.
[He wasn’t fat. I’ve seen images of all 20 of these participants at initiation.]
What? I know he wasn’t all that overweight. He had a good-sized belly though, and that’s fat for the Game. He was extremely out of shape too. You could tell what the other participants thought when they looked at him. Even the other fats were like, “No way this fat slob limping all over the place, soaked in sweat, hasn’t lost his mind. He’s not just a fat – he’s also a crazy. And just look at his stupid face. I want to punch it.”
I feel weird not using a title. You sure you don’t want me to?
[I’m certain.]
Well, please note down that I asked twice, and I mean no disrespect, Boss.
[Show me Dan’s record at initialization.]
The…I can’t show all the stuff I have at my terminal. The vitals, mentals, and trauma profile. I can show you what he could see at the time. His status. Nothing at all was out of the ordinary.
Name: Daniel “Dan” Branigan
Difficulty: Hell (Increase XP by 100% and drop chance by 30%)
Tier: Origin (0)
Level: 0
Soul: F+ Grade (0-Star)
Mana-type: NA
Core: Unformed
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Stats (capacity for and amplification of intrinsic qualities)
Agility, F Grade (10 Max): 0
Mana, F Grade (10 Max): 0
Reaction, F Grade (10 Max): 0
Speed, F Grade (10 Max): 0
Strength, F Grade (10 Max): 0
Attributes (intrinsic qualities averaged)
Durability (physical and void resistance): 1
Health (disease and poison resistance): 5
Spirit (mental and primordial resistance): 2
Class: NA
Class Restrictions
Orbment Bonus (0 of 0)
Slot Bonus (0 of 0)
Traits (2)
(1) Lone Wolf: Pick an additional Trait. Increase XP by 50% and drop chance by 25%. Joining a party removes this Trait. Fighting within 13 meters of a friendly participant inverses Trait bonuses.
(2) Stalwart Soul: Your Soul-grade is increased by one step (F to F+, F+ to C, etc.).
See? Normal. Besides Spirit being 2. It started at 1 for nearly all humans but a ton of them started with a 10 in health. I didn’t see it as too abnormal.
[Where’s the rest of the status? The innates and intrinsics? The full list of Attributes and resistances? There’s just an average score of those three Attributes? And each of those listed governs far more than two resistances. Health governs stamina, constitution, resistance to illness, etcetera.]
Uh, certain progression elements aren’t shown yet, but none are what you just said. Those three Attributes are the ones that go up ascending tiers. We don’t have the rest, Boss.
[Why?]
Uh, that’s just how it is? All the demons of my layer have the same type of status as participants minus the difficulty block. Every world of every Game I’ve worked on has had this same exact status. I’ve never seen it work any other way or list anything you just said.
I heard the status can be upgraded somehow, but it’s supposed to cost an absolute fortune and only the fancy hotshots have it. You see more stuff in yours? You have an upgraded status?
[Is it common for participants of the Game to receive Stalwart Soul as a Trait? And why does the grade jump from F+ to C in the Trait description. Where are E and D-grades?]
When a world destroys their suppressors, they get Traits how we do and start the Game with those. The artificial environment makes them difficult to acquire. I’ve seen a handful of participants strong enough to acquire a Trait in the Game naturally, but just the easy and common ones.
These participants got to pick a Trait since they went the whole cycle. Just one. Unless they picked Lone Wolf, then they could pick one more. If they lose Lone Wolf, they keep the other one.
Dan was the only member of my team to pick Stalwart Soul. None of these fools had any way of knowing how coveted that Trait is. There was no way for them to know. These mortals started with zero knowledge of anything. I assumed Dan had just made a lucky guess.
And grades are truncated for the Game. It goes F to SS with no E and D-grades. I’ve never seen a world make it past this phase of the Game, but I heard the second phase has normal grading up to SSUR++.
[Why didn’t you use Trauma on Dan as you did the man you assessed as your top risk?]
I didn’t think it was necessary for him at the time. As I said, everything indicated he was a problem that would solve itself. All Trauma costs me some Veil. And we use Trauma to try and push mentals into the red. All his mentals were already in the red. Deep red. Even so, I still used some on him a little bit later that day.
Want me to continue from where I left off? I can skip ahead to the Trauma part if you want.
[No. Cover all events and your responses to them.]
You got it, Boss. Where was I? Um, I was saying something about Dan being such a stupid fatty, right? Oh, I remember. Dan carried a different body back while all the other participants were standing around and still yammering like idiots. He dumped it near the other body and waved Nick over as he held his knees and took in big gulps of air.
Nick walked over and said, “You fixing to tell me what you up to? Everyone over there thinks you gone crazy.”
Still bent over holding his knees, Dan said, “Don’t matter none.”
“What’s the bodies for?”
Dan ignored the question and said, “Bring that guy over.”
Nick sighed. “Which one?”
“One you watched. With the face tattoos.”
“That guy’s a prick, Danny, but he seems harmless enough. He ain’t done nothing I seen, and I ain’t seen no knife on him neither.”
Dan started stretching out his legs. “Trust me,” he said.
Nick sighed again and walked back to the others. When he arrived, Mac said to him, “That’s your brother? What’s he up to with them bodies? He’s scaring the ladies and kids.”
“I know it,” replied Nick. “He knows something though. He’d never hurt no women or kids, or no one that don’t deserve it none. Believe me. He’s a real decent guy. Just been through a lot in the last few years. Last six or seven years, truth be told.”
Nick continued on to Tattoo-face and said, “Hey, man, got a second? My brother wanted to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Don’t know.”
Tattoo-face scoffed. “Well, here I am. If he wants to talk, I ain’t hiding.”
This was more like how I wanted things to go. Tattoo-face had killed my number six and ten risks already. He kept eyeing the other ones he needed to kill to get the Soul Gem. There were five left – Mac, Ace, Nick, Little Carlos, and Big Carlos. Once he killed them, I could finish wrapping up my team, secure my reward, go to another team, and start working on a nice bonus.
Nick walked back to his brother. Dan was still stretching out his legs. “I’m getting tired of being a messenger. He said you know where he is if you want to talk.”
Dan looked at his brother and said, “Tell him it’s about these two he done killed.”
“How you know it was him? Go tell him yourself.”
“I…please,” said Dan.
“You know you’re scaring those ladies and those kids, right? Why not just go introduce yourself and show them you ain’t no threat and you ain’t lost your mind?”
“I need that guy,” replied Dan as he stretched his hamstrings. Both brothers just stood there for a couple minutes. Nick finally scoffed and walked away.
When he arrived back at Tattoo-face, Nick told him, “He wants to talk to you about those two bodies he said you done killed. Looks like a guy and a big lady.”
“Ha,” laughed Tattoo-face. “He’s the only one we know killed two people. Fine, that crazy bastard wants to talk, I got words for him. You stay here though. This is private.”
Tattoo-face strutted up to the still stretching Dan. “You got something to say to me,” he asked.
Dan grunted and said, “You killed these two.”
“I didn’t kill shit, buddy. Keep pushing me and that’s fixing to change right quick.”
“You got a knife.”
“Don’t you worry none about that,” replied Tattoo-face. “You got one. I see it right there on the ground. I seen you take it out your belt and put it there too.”
“They offered you a deal?”
The brows of Tattoo-face furrowed. “None of your business what I was offered. Or what I have, what I do, and why I do it. Why’d you kill those guys you killed, huh?”
Dan kicked his knife a little further away. “Let’s get this over.”
“What? You don’t want this, tubby. I got four or five inches and twenty pounds on you, and ain’t none of it fat. Look, I did make a deal. I only got to kill a few more guys and I get a big reward. Something that’ll make me a lot stronger. I don’t want to kill no one I don’t got to. I got no problem with you, man. Not yet. Keep on like this, and I will, and right quick.”
Dan put his hands on his hips and began stretching his calf muscles. After about a minute went by, Tattoo-face scoffed and said, “Well? You still got a problem with me?”
“Yeah,” replied Dan.
Tattoo-face smiled, reached behind his back, and took his knife out. “You’re one crazy bastard, you know that?”
Dan didn’t reply or stop stretching his calves. With his back so straight and his hands on his hips, his chest made a big target. Tattoo-face lunged in trying to stab that big target.
Dan’s arm snaked out and grabbed the knife hand, twisted the arm, and jabbed the knife into Tattoo-face’s eye. Deep in the eye, killing the man instantly.
Dan bent over and retrieved the Orbment Fragments. Three dropped, all trash grade. The goblins and my team were all Level 0, so seeing an increased drop wasn’t all that common. He had also gotten lucky with the inverted bonus still letting Rick and Pete drop frags.
Dan pulled out and cleaned the knife on Tattoo-face’s clothes, retrieved his own knife, and went back to stretching his calves.
All the other stupids were pretending they cared Tattoo-face was murdered. I didn’t check the mentals, but I could tell. Mac and Winston were about to go and have a talk with Dan, but Nick talked them out of it and went himself.
“Hey, Danny, we done with all the killing now?”
“Think so. Take this knife to Ace.”
Nick sighed, put the knife in his belt next to his own, and lit a cigarette. “We all seen he attacked first, but for the women and children’s sake, they’re just hoping it’s all done and over.”
Dan just grunted and continued stretching.
“Your legs okay,” asked Nick.
“Yeah.”
“Look, Danny, it’s good seeing you…uh, you know…living again, I guess you could say, but something’s going on with you. You know you can talk to me, right? About anything. Tell me what’s going on, bro.”
Dan’s reply to that plea was, “Just trust me.”
After a couple drags and nothing but silence, Nick asked, “So, we doing any of these Trials soon?”
Dan stopped stretching and stood. “Naw.”
“What’re we doing then?”
“Learn what y’all can through the Profile Reader.”
“And you,” asked Nick. “What you going to do?”
“What I got to.”
Now, I knew for certain Dan wasn’t a threat. He just wasn’t. Still, I started testing him. Once Tattoo-face walked up to him, I had Dan’s dead daughter appear in front of him and ask, “Why’d you kill me, Daddy? I loved you so much and you killed me. Why, Daddy?”
Dan saw the girl. He stared right at her. Neither his vitals nor mentals moved a smidge. Outwardly, he didn’t react to her at all. He just looked at her like seeing her wasn’t unusual. Like he saw her ghost all the time and he was used to her asking him that.
That made him much less of a threat. Dan was a pathetic, out-of-shape fat, and I just verified he was legitimately a crazy. Not just a hyperbolic crazy.
Being a crazy might seem like it could be beneficial in the Game. And it is, but only up to a point. A very finite point. The legitimate crazies never remain for very long.