We learned about transmigrants and metempsychosis during training. How to spot one, what to do, all that. I immediately escalated the issue. Within seconds someone had taken over my terminal.
I don’t know what they did or how they checked, but after a couple minutes, control of my terminal was given back to me, and I received a message saying Dan’s soul was his own soul and was a 100% fit. Zero chance of him being a transmigrant.
That still didn’t explain what I had just witnessed. The impossibility I witnessed with my own eyes. His SS-rating was impossible too, but the Spirit Nexus was impossible to such an extent that it defied comprehension.
They gave control of my terminal back to me and told me nothing was wrong.
Everything was wrong!
My heart sank. Even if Dan wasn’t a transmigrant, there was a real chance he was going to screw me out of any bonus. I was practically waving goodbye to my lucky team, easy regular share, the fat bonus I was looking forward to, as well as finally ascending.
I knew something was very, very wrong, so I messaged my supervisor. When she didn’t respond, I went to find her. Have you spoken to my supervisor, Zixy?
[No.]
She’s a dumb Asmodite broad. Those fools hate my kind, and she more so than usual. I don’t know if you can see me, but I’m a Kobalite, the best kind of demon. We hardly look stupid at all whereas Asmodites are extremely stupid looking.
About the only good thing I can say about Zixy is she’s a filthy whore. She’ll father anyone’s get. Well, as long as they aren’t a Kobalite. When I found her, she was getting it on with a smelly Furcite janitor.
That dumb broad whined about me interrupting her fornication all the way back to my terminal. I thought she’d turn hysterical and call in the big guns once I showed her what I had witnessed. Instead, she just parked her large bulk in front of my terminal, blocked my view, and hemmed and hawed like an incompetent fool.
No one can tell if an Asmodite is a fat or not. They’re all too big and stupid looking to tell. No one finds them attractive. Even the male ones are terrible. They’re real jerks and everyone hates them. We’re all happy they’re forced to be angel fodder in the war.
I don’t know how things work on your layer, but here, if I ever spawned get with an Asmodite, I’d never be able to show my face in any pub again.
You know they warp our brains when we do the Ethnological Observation for whatever world the Game is being held on?
[I would assume so. Only demons of the mid and higher planes aren’t subjected to such when traveling to a mortal world.]
Oh. I didn’t know that. For us, they keep it warped during the Game to help us think like participants and perform better. I don’t find Asmodites attractive at all, even with my normal brain. Having a warped brain makes them look truly repugnant.
I never really looked all that closely at Zixy before, but as her large bulk swayed in front of me, I noticed she had five orifices in close proximity on some lumpy area.
What could they be for? What function could those five holes serve? They swayed to-and-fro mesmerizingly along with her large bulk. All five leaked a very milky and interesting discharge too.
I’m not made of steel. I’m only a demon. As a Kobalite, when I see an orifice, my tentacles call out to explore it. Zixy knew this, and yet she shoved those five super compelling ones right in my face. She knew exactly what she was doing.
I swear to the Shining One, Kobal, Moloch, Beelzebub, and all that is unholy that what I did was meant to be friendly and completely platonic. In a kind and 100% nonsexual manner, I extended a few tentacles just to explore those holes and see what they were all about. Just sate my curiosity. The whole thing was completely devoid of any sexual intent or connotation.
Of course, that dumb broad says differently. She smacked me but good and dragged me to her office and made me wait while she wrote up a reprimand. She made the smelly Furcite janitor wait right next to me. After she was done inventing lies about what happened at my terminal, she wanted to finish fornicating with him. I must give her props for that. What a power move!
I, of course, refused to sign the reprimand full of dirty lies. I know signing is only acknowledging receipt of the reprimand and not an admission the events written within it are truthful or correct, but it’s the principle of the matter.
HR came down. Another dumb Asmodite broad that immediately sided with Zixy and believed her lies. No one cared at all that I had been ruthlessly and viciously slapped. I guess the rules don’t matter when it’s a Kobalite being violently assaulted by his boss.
I refused to talk to HR too. Not until my union rep arrived. And guess what? My union rep was another dumb Asmodite broad. Can you believe it? How did their kind infest the union too?
My union rep gave the usual line. “Do it now, grieve later.” I knew what was happening. I was being railroaded.
I’ve been a dues-paying member for many decades. Switch things around. If Zixy tried to platonically and nonsexually explore a few of my holes or smelly crevices and I got all butthurt about it and then violently assaulted her, guess whose side HR would take?
I’ll give you a hint – not mine. And the union wouldn’t care at all. They’d just laugh at me. Same with the guys at the pub.
It’s just…just infuriating how unfair it all is. Wave five holes with such interesting discharge right in the face of a Kobalite and I’m the bad guy somehow!? There’s no justice anymore, I tell you. And they wonder why so many guys fly planes into buildings. This right here is why.
Since there’re so many ongoing unwanted-sexual-harassment cases against me, I had run out of floors to move my terminal to, so I was forced to move to the other side’s empty floor.
This whole building used to be the only building for Game staff. Now it’s just for worlds on their second and later Games, so the other side has no staff here. We took over every floor but that one. It’s freezing and smells like sissies and prudery. I hate this stupid floor so much.
Don’t believe one word that dumb broad Zixy says about anything. But if you do end up talking to her, maybe you could ask her what those five orifices are for and let me know? I just can’t let it go.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Why? Why five so close together? And what the Heaven are they all discharging?
[Let’s stay focused on Dan.]
Oh, right. Well, due to dumb Zixy and her stupid face and lies, I missed all that happened after Dan finished getting that full revelation tattooed. My new and empty floor was so frigidly cold my tentacles were constricted into little ice-nubs, and I was putting serious thought into taking flight lessons. Once I plopped down and got my terminal up and running, I became extremely distressed.
The freezing cold wasn’t distressing me. I wasn’t distressed because of Zixy and all her filthy lies. I was distressed because Dan had somehow formed a much better core than my own.
It was as if fatty Dan and that dumb broad Zixy were working together to ruin my life. Right then and there, I swore to do whatever was necessary to kill Dan. And Zixy.
I went back to watch what I missed. When Dan finished giving himself a full revelation, he just sat there shaking and whining, his vitals going wild. That must’ve been terrible torture, and I didn’t even inflict it upon him. He did it to himself.
He sat in that chair shaking for an hour or so before finally getting up and exiting the reward room and the Soul Trial. The Core Trial was on the route back to my other team members. I figured he was heading back to them.
Except he didn’t. He stopped at the Core Trial. I almost didn’t notice since I had another screen open and was checking what the rest of my team had been up to.
Nick had told everyone to hold off on the Trials until Dan got back. No one cared what fatso Dan wanted, but these fools were all very lazy so had no plans for doing anything useful anyway.
Chet, Austin, and Little Carlos were all still looking through the Profile Reader near the Agility Trial. The rest were in a big group, talking together. Bonnie, Becky’s horrible daughter, was playing with Mac and Big Carlos off to the side.
Do you know what a Karen is?
[No.]
It’s been making the rounds around this layer since we all got back from the Ethnological Observation. It’s what the mortals of Earth call a female with a specific personality type. Bonnie fit that personality type to a T.
Imagine being so entitled that when you pooped your pants, instead of being embarrassed, you screamed like a psycho until someone cleaned your own shitty drawers for you? That’s just nuts, right?
Imagine being hungry, and instead of being normal, you cried like a maniac until someone brought you food. But that’s not even enough privilege. You also forced that person to put the food into your mouth for you. I don’t even think the Shining One himself forces others to put food into his mouth.
“Oh, I’m Bonnie, and if I don’t have constant attention I’m going to freak out and cry and try to kill myself by eating a rock or something. Someone better give me their full attention and play with me!” That’s my impersonation of her.
I hate her so much it hurts. She’s such a filthy Karen. Just a pure Karen through and through, right down to her very bone.
Anyway, I could tell Nick had the hots for Becky by the way he kept looking at her. It was clear that Becky and that dumb bitch Bonnie were a package deal, so I found it hard to believe anyone would look twice at her. And I could tell Becky wasn’t interested.
Also, Nick kept giving Leena similar looks. I was hoping that would lead to some hilarity and/or murder.
Little Carlos was probably my favorite team member during this time. I was grossly wrong with his threat assessment. About as wrong as I could possibly be.
Little Carlos was almost 30 and had rich parents. All he did was smoke weed and play video games all day. He was baked off his ass when the Game initialized and had no idea what was going on. Whenever someone spoke to him, he’d just nod and say, “Cool. Cool. Right on,” and pretend he understood what was being said.
In case you’ve never heard of weed, I really went down the drug rabbit-hole during my Ethnological Observation, so I’m very familiar with all of them, including weed. But, like any true drug aficionado, I mainly stuck to smoking crack. After I was sent to prison, getting my hands on crack wasn’t so easy, believe you me. The things I had to do…
[Enough. I don’t care. Continue with the story I’m here for.]
Well, I won’t lie – you just hurt my feelings a little, but your wish is my command, Boss.
Okay, so once the weed was wearing off, Little Carlos smoked more and offered some to Chet and Austin, though both refused. A little later, after Chet left, Austin somehow convinced Little Carlos to give the Agility Trial a try.
As you might suspect, that ended in hilarity. He lasted zero seconds. The very first laser got him. He didn’t even try to avoid it. He watched it come at him with a smirk on his face like it was just a cool lightshow at a rave or something.
As you also might suspect, the other participants all made a big deal about Little Carlos dying. Austin lied and said he had tried stopping him from entering the Trial.
So, Big Carlos went back to being just plain old Carlos.
That’s when I noticed Dan wasn’t headed back to the others. He entered the Core Trial.
There’s a specific order Trials are usually completed in. The Class Trial first, then the Core Trial, then the others.
The Core Trial isn’t very deadly. It gives a lot of instructions on how to form a core. Decent instructions too. Better ones than I had for forming my own core.
Keep in mind, only the children of garbage or turd worlds don’t start the Game with a core formed already, so it’s not much of a Trial.
In every difficulty besides Hell and Nightmare, this Trial is nonfatal, just like the Class Trial. If a participant fails to form a core, it just affects the Trial’s rating when the core is successfully formed on subsequent tries. Too many tries, they get an F.
In Hell difficulty, once a participant selects to form a core instead of receiving instructions, they get one chance to succeed, or they die. Nightmare gives three tries.
There’re only two possible ratings for both Nightmare and Hell difficulties – S and SS. As long as the core formed is rated ‘Acceptable,’ the Trial is completed with an S-rating. ‘Average’ gets an SS-rating. If a participant ever upgrades their core to ‘Average,’ they can come back and collect the SS reward.
[Are the core ratings the same for them?]
Yes. Unacceptable/Failed, Acceptable, Average, Good, Very Good, Exemplary/Excellent, Pristine, and Perfect.
[Is it a real core or an artificial one?]
It’s the real thing.
[How does artificial qi form a real core?]
Maybe the core’s artificial but I doubt it. It works just like real ones, but artificial qi works like real qi too. I think it’s real because it’s not formed in the Game. Participants are taken outside of the Game when forming a core, so I think it’s formed with real qi. Sorry, I just don’t know more than that, Boss.
[Understood. Continue.]
----------------------------------------
Dan had been practicing his techniques for a long time.
Manipulating the fake qi within the Game was easier than real qi, but only early on. That would change, especially if someone refused to die. And kept refusing to die.
He was used to qi deprivation. He was used to endless battle. Nearly every day he was forced to use up every bit of mana within his core. He had no choice but to master mana usage and efficiency, to master gathering techniques, to do more with less. And then even less.
He knew cores were formed outside of the Game. He’d be taken to a pocket plane with an abundance of potent qi. He’d abuse that.
He forwent instructions and selected the option to form a core. He knelt and closed his eyes. Once he felt real and rich qi all around him, he immediately began pulling it all to himself. He grabbed as much as he could from as far out as he could and pulled. And pulled.
The potent and wild qi tried disobeying him. He wouldn’t allow it. With an iron will, he forced the qi to bow to his mastery. When he had control over enough of it, he began to form a core. As the core formed, he force-fed it more qi. And more qi.
After his core was fully formed and he was returned to the Game, a small part of him wanted to check a reader and see what it was rated. But he wouldn’t. It didn’t matter. It was what it was. He’d make do and remain regardless.
His task weighed heavily on his shoulders. He wished hate and vengeance still burned hotly within his chest. It was easier that way. Feeding off the fire and hunger of hate. He no longer did. He no longer could.
For a long time, he hadn’t felt anything besides the same few terrible emotions he couldn’t prevent himself from always feeling. He had been alone for too long. Alone with no one and nothing besides the cold dread of duty and the heavy weight of responsibility. His only and constant companions.
That also didn’t matter. It was how it was. He’d remain regardless.
That’s what he did. That’s all he did. As the angel Aphariel once told him, he was like a cockroach.