“Time dilation set to 15 minutes” the system’s voice said.

“You triggered this one ON PURPOSE” Cindybot yelled at me. Greenie appeared as a small handsome butler next to her agreeing to her every whim.

“You are a shithead confirmed young sir,” Greenie said while nodding and pressing a cool cloth to Cindybot’s forehead. Why did an AI need a cooling cloth? I thought.

“She’s broken, we don’t have time,” I argued. “And that’s really rich coming from you Greenie.”

Juli appeared on the other side as shaken as ever. Her AI took on the appearance of an exasperated old man. Her symbiote seemed to be one of those smaller macaque monkeys, but one that was completely black.

“Death comes,” the dark monkey kept saying in a loud whisper while running in circles around her.

My own symbiote pulled me aside. He had grown about a foot and his eyes shone with a fierce blue now. How much more would he grow as we went on this journey? I wondered.

“Master I don’t want to fight that little one,” he said with some concern in his voice. Which also sounded a lot like my own for some twisted reason. Its like when you had to call your own voicemail and face the horrors of your recorded voice.

“Yeah that little monkey's creepy as hell I get it,” I nodded. Juli looked at the monkey and seemed to be terrified.

“No master, besides that. This isn’t very fair is it? The last man was a challenge. This is…no fun.” My symbiote said.

“You consigned that girl’s death warrant the second you said that trigger word. Don’t regret it now,” Cindybot said to us.

“No, it’s more of a merge really,” I said trying to not think about it too much.

“Yeah let’s ask Dennis about this merge. Where is he again? It’s a loss either way…ugh I get it. How would we have been able to find that Alicia woman? Plus we need weapons. I understand why you did it. But you suck for it,” the AI girl said. I decided that I hated all of these people in my head.

The interface gave a ping.

Mind Game: 006

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Contest: The Great Detectives

Info: Someone working in our new factory is hiding a nasty secret. The first to find the secret wins. Symbiote usage permitted.

Result: The winner of this mind game completely consumes the other. The system will administer additional rewards for how quickly the secret is obtained.

Starting in 03:45

The time continued ticking down as I looked at the information explanation with confusion.

“Huh are we going somewhere?” I asked Cindybot.

“You are such an asshole!” Juli yelled at me in tears. It seemed that she was finally figuring out what was going on.

“You’ll be a part of me it’s not like real dying,” I tried to explain to no avail. It wasn't what she wanted to hear surprisingly.

“That’s weird as hell you creepy beach fuck I don’t want that either,” she replied and kept yelling a stream of creative obscenities.

“To answer your question,” Cindybot interrupted Juli’s incessant yelling. “The mind games system is on our main ship and is connected to millions of minds. You might actually be talking to real people who are stuck in a daydream for a moment. To them this is just a flash after all. You'll have to use Reflect mainly-”

“Yeah I’m going to win actually!” Juli was again yelling. “I don’t need you to save my mom. I don’t need anyone. Fuck it.”

I thought about what the system meant by symbiote usage earlier as I looked at Juli’s furious face. Her anger shifted my focus, I couldn’t afford to feel even more guilt.

“See this is why we open doors when people ask nicely,” I said.

“You’re such a creepy piece of shit,” she replied.

“No wai-“ Cindybot screamed.

“Begin”

As the disembodied voice said the words dozens of people popped up around us in orange and black uniforms that seemed way too big for them, like the Kwitle expected humans to be much fatter. Or maybe that’s how big they really are I thought to myself. Why did they even have to wear uniforms in the first place?

The AIs disappeared like last time and I still wasn’t sure what to do about my symbiote. The people that surrounded us were ignoring me which was oddly relaxing. Not having everyone look at me for constant guidance and attention was nice. They were working on some invisible machines that I couldn’t really place.

“Crap,” I realized something. “I never registered a trigger word for that ‘Reflect’ skill.”

The symbiote looked at me with its mouth open in shock. That was probably why Cindybot was yelling, not just her usual drama about how much I suck.

“This is going to be a lot more difficult master,” the gorilla symbiote said sadly. “I don’t need the trigger word but I can’t share the ability with you without the registered trigger. I’ll use the skill and explain things to you I suppose?”

Alien charades. This should be great I thought.

“This is dumb I already have access to the skill. I want to contact those lawyers. If Judge Judy is still alive its over for y'all," I continued muttering random drivel while my symbiote ignored me.

“Also,” the gorilla continued. “We haven’t used this skill so it’s going to be barely useful at first.”

I sighed and looked over at Juli. Her monkey was staring at a worker in the eyes and they seemed to be in a trance.

“How did her symbiote know immediately what to do?” I asked. I for one minute did not consider the fact that I might lose until this point.

“I guided you to use Tap at first master remember? Even if our hosts are weak, symbiote memories run deep,” the symbiote replied.

I did remember how easy that first Tap command was now that I reflected on it for a moment.

“Let’s start here then, what do you think we should be looking for?” I asked him while walking up to a short, stocky man tightening some bolts on a machine I couldn't see.

“Something that truly scares the host ship,” the dark gorilla said.