So, Dan entered the Core Trial, skipped the instructions, and went right to forming a core. He formed it with no issues. Guess what it was rated?
[No.]
Uh, okay. Personally, after everything I had already seen, I was expecting it to be a huge surprise. Something crazy like ‘Very Good,’ or even maybe ‘Exemplary/Excellent.’
He formed a Pristine rated core. Can you believe it? A Pristine core at Level 0, Origin tier. How is that even possible?
We spend our whole childhood preparing to form a core, and after forming it, we spend the rest of our lives trying to improve it, the same as we do with our Soul-grade. I’ve never met anyone with a Pristine core. I know it’s a requirement for Fiend tier. My core is rated Good, and it took a lot of Stat points to get it there.
If what they taught us in training is true, even transmigrants don’t form Pristine cores. You’d know better than I do – was Dan’s Soul being S+ what made his core possible?
[I don’t know. I do agree that a newly formed core being rated Pristine is absurd and highly suspect.]
I escalated this as an issue again. Same results as before where I was told Dan wasn’t a transmigrant. They even told me to stop bothering them.
I was furious. I missed what Dan did next as I was messaging Zixy.
I knew for certain something was wrong. Dan was beyond abnormal. If I could’ve, I would’ve just washed my hands of my whole team or this whole Game. Since I couldn’t and I knew Zixy wouldn’t hesitate to throw me under the bus again, I made sure there was a rock-solid paper trail of all my thoughts and actions.
I went back and watched what I had missed. The SS reward for that Trial is either a personal Transmuter or a token used for something in a later area. He picked the token.
When a participant’s forming a core, they’re taken to some sort of pocket plane outside the Game. We lose access to our usual camera during this time. We don’t just get left out as we do with the secret tattoo room. There’s a special camera inside the Trial we can watch with. Two of the tutorial Trials are like this.
Once Dan’s core was formed, he went right to that hidden camera no one could possibly see or know about. He pried open that section of wall with his knife and carefully removed the camera, all the wires, and the transmitter.
Then he limped out of the Trial and hobbled back to the group. I think just having a core speeds up healing a little, even without having a mana-type. Or I assume so since Dan wasn’t hobbling around like such a complete gimp once he had his.
Dan stopped about 50 meters or so from the group and started stretching. Nick shook his head and walked over to him.
“Hey, Danny,” said Nick. “Little Carlos tried the Agility Trial. He entered the building, the door locked, it made some noises for a bit, and then opened again. Little Carlos ain’t never came out. We reckon he’s dead.”
Dan grunted. “I told y’all to hold off.”
“I know it and I told everyone else too. Just happened, is all. And I reckon none of them much care what you got to say. I told you to introduce yourself and you…oh, shit! What the hell’s wrong with your face, man? You get in poison ivy or something? Your eyes is all messed up too.”
“Ain’t nothing. Just blood vessels or something.” Dan handed Nick the camera with the wires connecting to the transmitter wrapped carefully around it.
“What’s this,” asked Nick as he inspected the device in Dan’s hand.
“A camera. If someone can figure out how to get it to output on a Profile Reader, I can bring it in the Trials so y’all can watch and see what needs doing.”
Nick took the device and said, “Goddamn. That’ll be great.”
After a few moments, since Dan didn’t reply, Nick said, “Seems like you’re doing better now. Talking and whatnot. Any chance you’re up for meeting everyone?”
“Naw. See if someone can figure that camera out.”
I should mention that I cut a lot out of this conversation. Nick had a bunch of questions about why Dan thought he’d do so well in the Trials, why he was acting so differently, and all such whiny drivel.
I condense these conversations down to what I feel is important, so if something doesn’t make sense, such as Nick just replying with, “Goddamn. That’ll be great,” and moving on, know that I am saving you from annoying whining that would make you throw up a little in your own mouth.
You’re welcome.
[Wait. Did Dan reply to the questions with anything helpful or important?]
No. Of course not. Give me a little credit here. If he had, I would’ve told you.
I guess I should also mention that my other team members weren’t big fans of Dan at this point. They saw him as a danger and a violent lunatic. Since they all liked Nick, they only spoke their true thoughts aloud when he was over talking to his fat brother.
After that annoying conversation I trimmed down, Nick said to Dan, “Everyone was wondering about food and how sleeping’s going to work. We ain’t seen nothing dangerous since those goblins and can’t reckon if we need guards or what.”
“I’ll take care of food,” replied Dan. “I need all the Orbment Fragments I don’t got. There’s at least three I’m missing. Then we’ll discuss sleep.”
Nick went in his pocket and pulled out two. “I got these. Here. I’ll go ask around about the other one.”
After Nick was done and went back to Dan, he said, “There was more than one. I got two more from Chet. Leena’s got one but said it’s hers and won’t give it up.”
Dan grunted. “That’s fine. I reckon she can use it to get her own food, but I ain’t helping her with shit.”
Once the message was relayed, Leena approached Dan with a big smile on her face. Her trauma profile was nearly non-existent. The little in there was just fluff and silliness. I don’t consider her to be a real person. There was no way she was going to make it far in the Game. Like, at all.
She was wearing yoga pants, a tight t-shirt, and sneakers. At 43, she was officially an old. No one finds olds attractive. That’s just science.
Surprisingly, all the males on my team thought she was hot stuff despite her extremely elderly age. Keep in mind, Earth never found the suppressors, so they age much faster than other mortals.
When I wear a skinsuit during my Ethnological Observations, I, of course, have never once found an old to be attractive. Because I believe in science. You believe in science too, right?
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[I believe this will go faster if you stop asking me questions.]
True, and that reply seems pretty scientific to me, Boss.
So, Leena walked up to Dan with a smile plastered on her super old face. “It’s Dan, right,” she asked.
Dan nodded.
“I’m Leena.” She stuck her hand out but quickly yanked it back and asked, “Are you okay? Is that a rash? Is it catchy?”
“Just blood vessels or something.”
“Oh.” She extended her hand out again. After shaking it, Dan went back to stretching his arms.
“You really like stretching. I do too. I’m an advanced yoga instructor. Keeping a body like this at my age requires work. If you need help stretching or want to do yoga with me, I’m…my schedule seems to have just opened up. Ha!”
Dan kept looking at his dead kid, hardly paying attention to Leena.
I had caught up with what I missed and was watching in real time again. Zixy hadn’t replied back to me, so I figured I was on my own. And I was laying hard into the Trauma options, not even considering my Veil. The dead kid was moving his mentals the best, which meant hardly at all, so I decided to keep her as a permanent fixture. Ghosts cost the least amount of Veil anyways.
I was definitely going to use my Sortilege on fat Dan, but it had to be done at the right moment. Sortilege can be garbage or great. I could only use it once in the tutorial area. I had to be smart about it and use it intelligently and at the best time.
It seemed to really bother Leena that Dan hadn’t laughed at her joke. She was used to guys acting a certain way around her, and Dan wasn’t. She said, “I hope me saying ‘at my age’ didn’t make me sound old. I doubt I’m much older than you.”
Dan was 24. She was way older than he was. She had two kids about his age.
Still smiling, Leena said, “Um, if…it will stretch better if you…let me help with that.”
Dan pulled away from her touch and said, “I got it. Thank you, ma’am.”
“Ma’am? God, I’m not ma’am material yet. I wanted to talk about that little thingy you want. I got it from a goblin I killed myself. I earned it myself. It’s not that I don’t want to give it to you, but I was hoping we could make a deal for it.”
Since Dan kept stretching without replying or even looking at her, Leena continued. “Listen, it looks like it’ll get dark soon. It’s getting a little chilly. I don’t want you to think I’m offering something I’m not, but you’re the only guy here that hasn’t looked at me like…like how guys usually do. Your brother didn’t come out and say it, but he hinted that something happened, and you haven’t been dating or interested in women for a while now.”
Leena looked back at the group. “All those other guys seem nice, but I’m not interested. In anyone. Anyone here. I want to live through this. I want to see my kids again. I want my ex-husband back. I know how I seem and how I come off to guys. I don’t want to be mean or hurt anyone’s feelings.
“Since neither of us are interested at all and since it’s already starting to get chilly, I think we should sleep next to each other tonight. Send up a flag and nip future issues in the bud before they even begin.”
Dan’s dead kid continued to ask why he killed her and why he didn’t love her as he put his arm across his chest and pushed on the elbow with his other arm.
“So, Dan, we have a deal?”
“Naw. I ain’t aiming to sound rude, but no deals. You part of the group or you ain’t. If you part of it, hand over the Orbment Fragment.”
The smile on Leena’s face disappeared as her brows furrowed. She angrily rummaged through her purse before throwing the fragment on the ground. “You don’t have to be an asshole about it,” she snapped out before storming off.
Dan picked it up and ran back to the Core Trial to buy food from the Profile Reader there. He waited for the food crate to parachute in. Food isn’t expensive at all, but Orbment Fragments don’t come easy. People that try to hide out in the tutorial area don’t last long. Not without someone buying them food or fighting off the later attack waves for them.
Ten fragments get a crate of 400 ready-to-eat meals, five for a box of 150, or one for a small box of 20. He got the crate with 400.
You’d figure a crate with 400 meals would weigh a ton. The crate is surprisingly small and light. These meals don’t gain much heft until one is opened.
Dan grunted as he hefted the crate and ran back to his usual spot 50 meters from the group. Nick approached as Dan was cutting the box open.
“I’m grabbing some meals,” said Dan. “Mind bringing this box over to the others?”
“No problem, man. And thanks. I’m starving. We all starving.”
“I ain’t earned all these fragments myself, so no thanks needed,” said Dan. “Sleep where y’all are. The Profile Readers shows the time. Nine adults, so we’ll sleep nine hours. One roving guard staying real alert switched out each hour. Guard wakes the relief up five minutes before the hour’s up. Sound good?”
It sounded great to me. A perfect opportunity for Sortilege.
“I’ll tell them and see what they say,” Nick answered. “Hey, what happened with Leena? You got your eye on her?”
“Naw.”
“What about Becky? She hot as hell too.”
“She got a ring on her finger, Nicky.”
Nick lit up a cigarette and took a drag. “That? She a widow. I know, her being so young makes it seem weird. Her husband was killed on deployment a couple years back. About the same time…well, never mind that. Sorry for mentioning it.”
Dan grunted and said, “You need to take this place serious. Don’t let them goblins give you a false impression. No room for hooking up or love here. You need to quit smoking too.”
Nick laughed. “I reckoned you would’ve broke down by now and bummed one off me. Don’t know how you doing it. This is a bad day to quit, man.”
“Ain’t no good days.”
Nick laughed again and put the cigarette in his mouth so he could lift the box with both hands. Before he bent down to grab it, Dan said, “Hold on. I forgot something. If I give you 30 Orbment Fragments, mind buying 10 blankets through the reader? Becky and her kid can share one, right?”
“I reckon so. Yeah, I can do that. Wait.” Nick thought for a moment before saying, “That’s still one short even with those two sharing. You buying your own?”
“Naw. I’m good.”
“Suit yourself,” said Nick as he pocketed the fragments. He flicked the ashes off his cigarette before putting it back in his mouth and lifting the box. “Damn, this looks like it should be heavier. Maybe it’s my Trait.”
Nick had taken the Strong Trait, so that was a small part of it. He said, “See you around, bro. Oh, what guard shift you want? First?”
“Naw,” replied Dan. “Let one of those ladies go first and last. Or that old feller.”
“Winston? You got it. Now let me go see if my charm’s up to snuff.”
As soon as Nick walked away, Dan stopped stretching and opened a meal. He ate while watching his daughter. She asked him, “Why’d you kill me, Daddy? Why don’t you love me?”
[One moment. I have a few questions before you continue. I assume you’ll tell me if something works differently in the Game, such as Transmuters. Personal Transmuters are the only way to save on Orbment Fragments. Did Dan know this? Was information provided?]
I’ll, of course, point out and explain major differences. The Transmuters work the same as ours besides that the drop chance applies when breaking down Orbments. It’ll make more sense after I explain how the drop chance works.
As for what information was provided, there was plenty given for the personal Transmitter. That’s the reward we want them to pick. The token is more valuable. When you see what it’s for, I know you’ll agree.
[I see. What was the message you sent your boss?]
Let me check. I don’t know if I…no, I do. I can access my messages from here. One second. Here it is. It says, “You stupid…” I’ll just skip ahead to the relevant parts.
“We need to put our irreconcilable differences aside for this. This Daniel Branigan is a major issue. I know your kind are very stupid but even a dumb Asmodite broad has to see something’s wrong here. His Soul is S+. Now his core is rated Pristine. He’s still Origin tier. It’s been confirmed twice now that he’s not a transmigrant. What is he then? A time traveler? Maybe some type of reincarnation where the soul somehow still fits right or something?
“The only thing I respect about you is what a giant whore you are but stop thinking about fornicating for two seconds and focus on this major problem. Our major problem. Not just mine. I’ll stomp on your brood…” Yadda, yadda.
Let’s see. I sent another message soon after with some more ideas and unlikely possibilities. I also told her that Dan somehow knew exactly where the hidden camera in the Core Trial was. Oh, I end both messages by restating the truth. That it was just a platonic, completely nonsexual, and friendly probe. Just to sate my curiosity. It meant nothing!
[What was her reply?]
Just more lies! The unwanted-sexual-harassment case is still ongoing! Unjustly, may I add!
[Regarding Dan.]
Oh. She hadn’t replied yet. She leaves at five every day. The regular share and bonus replaced set hours, wages, and overtime for us techs. The union really screwed us there but made it sound like they had won a big victory. You put the time in killing your team or say goodbye to any bonus. The regular share can be lost, reduced, or deducted too.
I wasn’t going to leave my terminal until Dan was dead.
I also began planning out exactly how I’ll murder Zixy. Let me tell you, it sure won’t be a quick murder. There’ll be lots of torture and screaming and it’ll last for days, if not weeks. If I can get the time off, that is. There’s something pleasantly ironic knowing she’ll approve the vacation time I’ll use specifically to murder her.
[Did she ever reply?]
Yes. The next day. She laughed at my concerns about Dan. She told me to use the tools at my disposal to kill him and that everyone knows time travel isn’t possible. True enough. She said reincarnation, even in a womb, would still leave noticeable and measurable resonance and Dan had none. She shot down all my ideas.
She did send me a picture of those five curious holes oozing their milky discharge. I often look at it and ponder their function. Would you like to see it? I have it right here.
[No. Continue.]