Chapter 114
The Catch
The demon cleared his throat again. “I apologize, but it is the rules. If you accept the money, you will lose any memory of what has happened during this game or of the choices you made before and after your deaths. On October 16th, you will be informed that you won a lottery. Your memories and wisdom gained from the game are a prize of their own. To keep your memories, you must reject any material reward.”
“I'm keeping my memories,” Leo said. “Without my memories, I'm nothing. I'd spend the money on Bio-Blessed and kill myself like a fucking moron.”
“I'm attached to my memories,” Charlotte said. “But that's a lot of money.”
“No shit,” Angie said quietly.
“The question,” Mr. Osmond said, “is which reward is more likely to keep us alive. If these aliens are planning to end the world again, any money we receive will be worthless.”
“No, no, no,” the demon said. “This time loop is played out. We might have continued for a few more go-arounds if you'd lost the game for a second time, but you won. The fact you're receiving your rewards is proof of that.”
“I distinctly remember you making a statement that you weren't ending the world right before you did,” Charlotte said. “What reason do we have to believe you now?”
“We never lied,” the demon responded. “We issued a misleading statement to throw confusion into the game. This time I'm telling you there will be no monsters, no end of the world. This game is over. Should you take the cash prize, you will be able to spend your money to your heart's content and live out your lives in relative peace.”
“I see,” Mr. Osmond said. “So you're saying you are no longer interfering with our lives?”
“I can't quite say that,” the demon responded. “Giving you this money, for example, is interfering. I will say the only monsters you encounter will be the human variety.”
“What about our implants?” Leo asked. “Will they gain more power on the 16th?”
“I cannot answer that either,” the demon said. “I can say that no one is turning into a monster from Bio-Blessed or implant. Ever.”
“So,” Mr Osmond said. “This game is over, but you might be starting a different game?”
“If we are, it will be very different, with no monsters,” the demon responded.
“If you take the money,” Leo said. “I would do my best to fill you in on what you've forgotten.”
“Indeed,” Mr. Osmond responded.
“Let's do this,” Angie said to Jason. “I take the memories and you take the money, and I'll come to you. I'd take the money myself, but if you came to me with a strange story, I'd think you were trying to get into my pants and kick your ass.”
“What do you mean, think?” Jason asked with a chuckle.
“Shut up.” Angie slugged him. “We're a team, Jason. We live as a team and die as a team.”
“If we do this, I'll be twelve,” Jason protested.
“I'll be fourteen,” Angie said.
“Physically maybe. Mentally you'll be like eighty,” Jason responded.
“Shut up. I'll still be fourteen, but I'll have the memories of a thirty-nine-year-old.”
“And you don't think that's creepy?” Jason asked.
“I think it's very creepy,” Angie responded, “but it's creepy with half a billion dollars. You were such a cute twelve-year-old Jason. And I'd be nice, I promise. Imagine all the video game playing we can do with half a billion dollars to pay for it all.”
“We could both go with memories,” Jason said.
“I've been poor, Jason. Poor doesn't work for me.”
“You thought I was a cute twelve-year-old?” Jason asked.
“I did,” Angie said. “I didn't say anything because I knew it would go to your head. This way we're rich, and we stay together. Live as a team, die as a team.” Angie held out her hand. Jason took it.
“I'll help you fill in Jason if you want,” Leo said. “That should make it more believable.”
Charlotte looked anguished. “If the aliens are telling the truth, my memories won't help much, but 5 billion dollars would change my life. I remember the rich bitches at school who'd brag about the presents their parents gave them. With 5 billion dollars, they'll be garbage compared to me.”
“The same is true for me, only more so,” Mr. Osmond said. “I'll be taking the money, and I would appreciate it if the two of you with memories fill me in and assist me in this transition. With 500 billion dollars, I believe I can make it worth your while.”
“I'll do it,” Leo said.
“You had me at 'worth your while,'” Angie responded.
“I'll give you both a set of words. A code from my childhood that will mean something to the younger me. That way, I'll take you seriously.” Mr. Osmond gave them both a list of words to memorize.
“Now, Aliens,” Mr. Osmond continued. “When you pay me, I'd like 10% gold bullion, 10% cash, 10% gems, 10% farmland in this list of countries... He went on for a while.”
“Remember,” said the demon, “you will get your memories or money on October 16th. The exception is Leo, who, due to his unique circumstances, will get his memories back on the day he received his implant. By the way, Leo, did you wish to remain a Guardian?”
“No,” Leo answered. “I only took the Guardian to save the world.”
“That's what I suspected,” the demon responded. “Though your contributions in the game were minimal, you went through a lot of hardship and sacrificed a great deal. Because of this, I will reset your implant. Try not to do anything too foolish with your third shot at life. You're unlikely to get a fourth.”
***
The next thing Leo knew, he was standing on a cement walkway in front of the apartment door where he'd just received his implant from the old man and had put it on. He couldn't help thinking he'd been through this before.
His memories slowly returned. Sure enough, the apartment was empty, and his surroundings were identical to the last time around.
Hi! I'm Imp. The voice of a sprightly young girl suddenly appeared in his head. Short for Implant Interface. It is an honor to make your acquaintance. I am here to help you.
Curious, after telling his implant to replicate itself, Leo checked his stats.
Subject: Name: Unknown
Sex: Male
Age: 12
Strength: 5.2
Vitality: 6.3
Agility: 4.4
Intelligence: 5.1
Charisma: 4.9
Common Sense: 4.1
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Character Class: Undetermined
Qualifies for Swordsman/Epic, Garbage-Collector/Common, Housekeeper/Common, and Janitor/Uncommon. Assassin/Rare, Paladin/Rare, and Guardian/Common.
Special bonus: Add one level of rarity to any character class.
Special skills: None.
Demon Tears: 320
Corruption: 0
Leo laughed. So it hadn't been his imagination after all. “Hello, Imp. I'm Leo. And I would like to select Paladin/Epic for my character class.”
An excellent choice, Leo.
Leo's stat sheet changed.
Subject: Name: Leo
Sex: Male
Age: 12
Strength: 5.2 +4
Vitality: 6.3 +4
Agility: 4.4 +4
Intelligence: 5.1 +4
Charisma: 4.9 +4
Common Sense: 4.1 +4
Character Class: Paladin/Epic
“If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Demon Tears 320
You will notice your attribute levels are grayed out because it will take your mind and body time to catch up to the elevated levels of your new character class. Imp said. Exercise, training, and hard work will decrease the time needed for this to happen. In addition, you should know that many of the skills listed for you to choose from will provide little to no benefits. This may change in the future, but for now, I'd suggest you stick with two skills I've selected that will provide noticeable improvements to your physical and mental performance. As you level up, there will be more useful skills to choose from.
That was not advice Imp would have given the last time around. Leo was certain most of the skills implant wearers received had been pretty worthless until the Change.
The skills Imp had selected were.
Physical and Mental Enhancement:
Temporarily enhances your physical and mental stats. The amount and duration of the enhancement increase with the user's skill level.
Time Freeze:
Increases the speed of your thought processes. The world appears to slow down when activated, resulting in improved reaction time. The amount and duration of Time Freeze increase with the user's skill level.
The rest: Smite, Melee Weapon, Holy Armor, Concealment, Rally, and Group Heal, were grayed out.
So Leo picked the two selected skills and used his Demon Tears to raise them to level 2.
Remembering Brick and his two friends, Leo used the walkway to get to the opposite side of the apartment and slipped out the back way. He didn't feel up to fighting yet.
Walking home was much like the last time around, except Leo wasn't in pain. If the aliens weren't lying, and he didn't see why they'd bother, he'd saved the world. Or at least prevented it from getting any worse.
Leo had another chance at life. He wasn't about to waste it worrying about the future.
Arriving home, Leo checked to make sure Lydia was in front of the TV. Seeing that hadn't changed, he went to the garage.
The mountain bike, which was probably Leo's, was in terrible shape with rust and flat tires, but he thought he could fix it, given the right tools, a few parts, a lot of work, and some instructional videos. Dad's motorcycle was in pieces. Aside from the frame and engine parts, he had no idea where any of the pieces went. But he was going to get it working.
After working on his bike for a while, he went inside, cleaned up his room, exercised, and texted Jason that something had come up and he couldn't make it to his place to play School's Out. After living through the real thing, he had no desire to play the game and would refuse if he could.
When Lydia came sneaking into Leo's room to return what she'd borrowed, Leo was waiting behind the door again. “I thought I told you to stay out of my room.”
“Eeeep!” She jumped three feet. “You're not supposed to be here.”
Leo pretended to be mad, using his height to glare down at her. “If you ever come into my room again without my permission, I'll sneak into your room. Then I'll wait until you're asleep and shave your head so you're bald.”
“You wouldn't.”
Leo smiled a big evil smile and took back the VR glasses she was still holding. “Try me.”
Lydia ran from his room. “Mom!”
Leo laughed.
“Hey, Dad. What's the story of that motorcycle in the garage?” Leo asked when Dad dropped by his bedroom.
“That old thing,” Dad said, finishing off his Bio-Blessed energy drink, crumpling the can in his hand, and then yawning. “I'd forgotten about it. An old bike someone gave me. I'll tell you what. If you can fix it, you can have it.”
“Wow. Really?” Leo said.
“Yeah. Why not? You won't be able to ride it until you're older and get a license, but if you can fix it, it's yours.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“And quit threatening your sister. I'll talk to her about sneaking into your room.”
Lydia glared at him during dinner, and they ate in silence. Leo let Lydia have the chicken like he had last time around, but found an old pair of scissors that he made a show of sharpening while the two of them watched TV.
That night, Leo woke from nightmares but went back to sleep again. “It's over,” he told himself, hoping very much it was true.
At school the next day, Leo received his first quest from Imp: to help Jason, who was being picked on by three eighth graders.
Leo activated his two skills. He felt stronger and faster.
This time, after knocking the pill bottle from the older mustache-boy's hand, he ducked to avoid the second boy swinging at him from behind. Then he went after all three older boys with everything he had.
Leo couldn't honestly say he won the fight, but he hadn't lost either, and considering it was three against one and they were bigger than he was, that was pretty good.
Leo felt drained when his skills timed out, but by then, the fight was over.
Of course, all four were taken to the principal's office. Listening to three eighth graders telling the principal how Leo had attacked them, Leo twisted his face up and did his best to fake crying. Eventually, they let him go to class.
As soon as Jason saw him, his friend mouthed “implant?”
Leo glared at him and put his finger on his lips, and the other boy nodded.
Leo waited until school was out to catch Brick and his cronies in the hall. It could have been his imagination, but Brick didn't look as large or scary as Leo remembered.
Leo stood in the hall, blocking the exit, until Brick and his cronies stopped directly in front of him. Leo activated his skills.
“What do you want?” Brick said, glaring.
“Brick, old friend. We got business,” Leo said.
Brick continued to glare at him, arms across his chest. “You're not my friend, Leo. What do you want?”
“I heard you're mad about some stupid shirt. Here.” Leo handed Brick an envelope.
Brick opened it, curious.
“It's thirty dollars. A good part of my life savings so you'd better appreciate it. And this makes us square. In the future, you don't bother me or my friends. Ever.” Leo walked over to a row of lockers and punched one as hard as he could, leaving a huge dent. “If you do, that will be your face.”
“Your hand is bleeding,” Left Crony said.
Leo looked at his hand. His knuckles were bleeding. “It's just a scrape.” He punched a second locker, leaving a bloodstain this time, in addition to the large dent.
Brick snorted. “You think I couldn't do that?”
Leo motioned to a third, un-hit locker.
“I got better things to do. You paid for the shirt you ruined with your grape soda, so I'll let you off this time.”
“Remember what I said.” Lucky for you, you were good to my sister in another life, or that would have been your face, Leo thought, as the three boys walked around him and left the school. In fact, he'd have done a lot worse.
“I can't believe he paid us,” Left Crony said as the three boys walked away.
“Lucky for him, I didn't kick his ass,” Brick said quietly to his friends. “But you guys better steer clear of him and his friends. I heard Leo's gone psycho. He attacked three eighth graders this morning.”
Leo chuckled as he left the school. He thought of looking up Trent but wasn't sure what he'd say to him. He suspected the man had taken the cash prize. Raising a family was expensive. He supposed he'd hook up with Jason later and see if the other boy could help him fix his bike.
***
“You should get a new bike,” Jason said, after hearing Leo's abbreviated account of the implant situation, Leo had left out most of the details, as they would have strained his credibility to the breaking point. “Not a new new bike, but there are decent used bikes for dirt cheap at garage sales and stuff.”
“You think so?” Leo asked, disappointed.
“Yeah. Your bike is rusted out, and it doesn't look like it was anything special to begin with. You could replace half the parts on that thing and it still won't work as well as you'd like. You're making me a 'plant, right?”
Leo nodded.
“You know what?” Jason said. “I'll lend you my bike--we're close to the same size.”
“You'd do that?” Leo said.
“Sure. My parents got it for me last year so I'd exercise, and I never use it. If you want it, it's yours.”
“Wow. Thanks,” Leo said. In the sixty-two years he'd lived, he couldn't remember the last time he rode a bike, or if he ever had.
***
The next day, Leo spotted Angie standing next to the school entrance. He walked up to her.
Angie looked up from her cellphone. “What?”
Leo stared in shock.
Angie had two arms.