Maxi never dreamed that she’d find herself in hot water for outperforming everyone who had ever completed the first Paranormal Investigator trial, but here she was waiting in a holding room while the five Paranormal Investigator mentors argued on the other side of the door. She heard things like:
“She is the only one to survive the dragon ever!”
and
“That dragon is going to cost billions of credits to capture again!”
plus
“She’s a loose cannon! A liability!”
and finally
“She did the impossible! Who cares what it costs?”
From what she could gather, each of the twelve rooms had different combat challenges ranging from zombies, berserk coworkers, to PVP, but most were survivable and level appropriate. The Dragon, on the other hand, was designed to see how a person would perform in a no-win scenario. Players weren’t supposed to survive.
It was devised to see if people would crack under pressure or throw their teammates in the line of fire to save themselves. Maxi was never meant to survive the Dragon, much less free the dragon. Had she let the thing squish her against the wall, there was a good chance they would have invited her to complete the rest of the tests after being the one to survive the longest.
Furthermore, all the recruits would have eventually been subjected to the Dragon, as the mentors would have herded all the survivors of the other tests into the dragon room to test their resolve. It was a rite of passage for a Paranormal Investigator. They were all killed by the dragon and regenerated by their chairs to test them when all hope was lost.
Maxi, in an act of either brilliance or stupidity, had screwed that whole system up, and cost the Paranormal Investigator Branch of the company a lot of credits in the process. The ordeal pissed her off even more about the Company. The rules were too obscure, vague, or obfuscated to plan for anything.
However, if she threw her hands up and decided to do nothing at all, she’d underperform for a month and then be murdered. If she decided to play it safe, she’d get stuck in some low-level job just working for her next payday, and if she took risks, she’d find herself stuck in an empty room while five people argued her fate right outside the door.
In stories, doing the impossible would make her the hero and people would be writing tales of her adventures. In the Company, it would get her slapped on the wrist, docked pay, have some pencil pusher lecturing her about corporate responsibility, and then murdered. Whoever was in control of this place was out of touch with the reality of what it was like at the bottom.
Still, she had to admit that setting the dragon free had been awesome, and worth a fair number of levels. She was now level 19 for defeating a foe so well beyond her own level, but decided on waiting to spend any of her points until she knew if she could continue the trial. Luckily, she wouldn’t be assigned to the Worker class if she went beyond level 20 during a trial, assuming she passed. However, if she didn’t pass, and she gained her 20th level, she’d be stuck as a Worker.
It meant that if they decided not to let her proceed, she’d have a chance at one more trial that she’d have to pass to avoid getting stuck with a shit class. Likewise, if she could go on to trial 2 and 3 of the Paranormal Investigator trials, she’d have to complete the tests to not get stuck as a Worker. She had only one chance to get it right or be forever stuck doing menial labor for a company that would kill her for having a bad month.
After a while of yelling at each other, they decided to take the case to upper management, whatever that meant. The voices disappeared down the hallway past the motivational posters she had seen when they brought her here, like “A good PI is always watching” with a silhouette of a man and his third eye, and another with a woman holding her hands to the sky and the words “You are your own salvation.”
Since she was no longer eavesdropping, she pulled out her phone. She had learned Basic Climbing and Dodge, gotten some more Luck and other stat points, and her shirt had gained more abilities. It was now +7, had Quickness I that gave her a Speed boost, and gained Mythical Beast Taming that could one day be used for gaining a beast companion.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
However, the ability checks to tame a dragon for a mount were well beyond her level. However, there were a few mythical beasts she might be able to tame such as the Fanged Bunnies of the Whisper Woods, the Spidercorn of the Darkening Caves, the Kittykorn of the Hillthrop Hills, the Llamacorn of EastWestland. There was also a guy named Bill who had an ad on the Free Market for a lizard, free to a good home (needs Mythical Beast Taming to adopt).
Bored with the company app, she used the coupon for free WiFi the PIs gave her when she had complained about being stuck in a room by herself. It was only good for an hour, but considering WiFi access was surge pricing, not that she could afford it even if it wasn’t ballooning in cost. She was still in the negative credit wise. Maxi decided to check the feeds for a dragon soaring over the Brooklyn Bridge or wherever it went to.
She assumed there would be news stories about a dragon ravaging the land, or reports of a strange beast in the sky, or at the very least, crackpot UFO sightings, but there was nothing. None of her socials, no news outlet, nothing. She had unleashed a dragon onto the world and was locked in some creepy company basement, and there wasn’t a mention of it.
There wasn’t even a story that would indicate a memory wipe, like a gas pipe explosion or a train derailment. For once, there was nothing happening in the entire world that could have easily served as the cover story for the dragon. It was like she had unleashed the beast, and it just disappeared. There weren't even any missing hikers on mountain tops. It was as if the thing vanished.
Which didn’t make sense to her. She heard the people arguing about all the money it was going to cost to recapture the dragon. One of them had even voiced concern about the thing harming innocent people. How could a creature vanish without a trace?
The answer that kept coming back was that she was in a simulation. She had to be in some warped rich guy’s experiment about how to build a better world. The problem with all the warped rich guys is that they always thought about what would build a better world for them and not about how that world would be for everyone else.
It was Pharaohs building pyramids for themselves. Sure, it was a cool place for their afterlife, but what about all the poor saps who toiled through their short, brutal lives so some prick could have a foosball table in the great beyond, or whatever it was Pharaohs did when they were dead. This was probably some wealthy guy's retirement scheme where he could live in a playground where he would want for nothing, while the rest of the people toiled away to make him cash.
Even if the menial labor was the only way that the Company made money, by doing taxes or pay-per-click contracts with other companies, and all the murderous printer quests were just playgrounds for the elite stuff, then it would be profitable. Paying pittance for people to do your digital work for you was a way to make money.
However, the simulation theory didn’t add up. Why clone a digital copy of her mom, or mind wipe people? If Maxi really was just a brain in a vat living a simulated reality, why had no one come looking for her? Even if they sent texts to her mom masquerading as her, that would give them a day at most.
Maxi had ditched school one time for a video game release, and her mother was waiting for her at the game store. If Maxi hadn’t shown up at all last night, there would have been a missing person’s report and posts on social media. Maxi closed out her social apps and browser to save time on her free hour of WiFi. She didn’t have to use it all at once, and figured it may come in handy later.
Since the company app was always free to use, she decided to open it again and research other classes in case the PIs kicked her out. If they were going to do it, she’d rather they do it now while she had time to join another trial. Unfortunately, because unmodified stats were the only way to meet the prerequisites for a class, her shirt’s ability boosts wouldn’t enter some of the more interesting ones. She needed Adaptability for Hacker, and better Emotional Intelligence for Sales Associate. There wasn’t anything else, except Generalist.
There was a part of her that was intrigued, being able to do a little bit of everything. But Yancy was right, what good is a healer that could only treat a little damage at a time? Judging by the way the raid boss sucked the life out of the higher-tiered players, the healers were working their mojo full time to keep the others alive. The same could be said for attack abilities. If she was stuck doing 1 damage to high level enemies because they had resistances beyond her damage range, what good would she be?
Speaking of combat, she needed a way to find something better than the longsword. Her non-legendary gear was going to become a liability, if it wasn’t already. She could slice through paper bats, but she imagined that the enemies would just get tougher.
Before she could think of a plan, the lead Paranormal Investigator came back into the room, and said, “I’m sorry, but we can’t let you become a Paranormal Investigator.”
“What the hell?” Maxi blurted. He had been one of the ones advocating for her to join, from what she heard when they were arguing. “I completed the first trial.”
“I know, but the higher-ups think you’re too much of a risk,” Trevor said apologetically.
“Risk nothing, gain nothing.”
“Slow and steady also wins the race.”
“Look,” Maxi said in a last-ditch effort to save herself, “I did the impossible today. I heard you say it. No one has survived that dragon. I’m willing to bet not even your precious three of the Power Twelve. Are you willing to squander what could be number four on a technicality?”
She could tell that she was getting to the man, but he just went cold and didn’t meet her eyes. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”
He didn’t meet her gaze and scurried from the room.