JESSIE : LEVEL 9
DAY 109 : E-DAY, SECONDWEEK, DEIMOS, YEAR 1
INTERIOR 6 : INVESTATIONSGATE 1 : RATS
I try to distract myself from the task at hand by looking over my spoils from the week before last. After I woke up from my post-dungeon sand nap, I exited, voted it up, and beat it again. And again and again and again. After all, it was just one enemy, and he gave great XP every time. I didn’t get a ton of loot that way. But, having traded quantity for quality, I did get some good-ass loot. Including the very thing I was grinding for by the time I realized it might be in the pool.
[ RARE KATANA: BLADE OF LONGINUS - 96 PHY - 4 MAG — WEAPON ART: TARGETING AN ENEMY WHILE EQUIPPED WILL HIGHLIGHT A RANDOM PORTION OF THEIR BODY. IF THAT SPOT IS STRUCK OR DISMEMBERED WITH THIS KATANA, TARGET IS AFFLICTED WITH IRREDUCIBLE HELD STATUS FOR 3 SECONDS ]
After walking in amiable silence for a little under 20 minutes, I’m not paying my usual attention to what I’m thinking versus saying as I silently ask myself a question out loud. “Am I really ‘me’?”
Ross answers with as much severity as I’ve ever heard him muster. “Yes. You have my deepest condolences.”
Rachel nudges him in the shoulder while Mich looks like he would absolutely high-five Ross if they were alone together like I know they desire nothing more than to be.
I roll my eyes. “Oh ha-ha. But for real, is the ‘me’ that’s talking, right here, right now, the same girl who died on Earth?”
Ross then adopts a way too all-knowing posture for someone who just threw out that grade-school-level comeback. “I know I’m me. Right here, right now, I’m thankful enough for that.”
Mich drops all high-five-esque pretexts towards Ross. “How enlightened of you” Then, he turns to me. “To answer your question, and it does actually have an answer. In the most literal sense, no. We all change every day. Especially when something big shifts in our status-quo. And this-” He gestures all around. “-is a pretty huge status-quo change if you ask me. I don’t think it’d be fair to say that any of us now are the same person we remember dying as, back on Earth.”
I blink at that complete and total lack of the actual answer he just promised. “Thanks, Mr. Johansen. But no, for real for real. Are we all just clones over here? Is this body just a copy of the one from Earth, memories and all? Am I even the same girl from before my last respawn? Did the real me just die on that boat and never actually experience any of this? Am I really… Her? Are any of you?”
Ross excitedly raises his hand. “I’m pretty sure I’m not her!”
I flip him off without looking, taking the extra subjective time to keep my body language otherwise unchanged.
No one else speaks. Guess we’re all thinking the same thing…
Eventually Mich breaks the silence. “‘Mr. Johansen’?”
I shrug. “One of my old teachers. Don’t worry about it. If you like it, keep it up with the philosophical schpeel when I ask practical questions and I’ll start calling you that for good. Asshole did that shit all the time…” I chuckle at a surprisingly pleasant memory from school, of all places. “The clock always turned so quick in his classes…”
Only one more awkward silence later, we do make it to the dubiously named abandoned town during the closest thing this world has to a sunset. Meaning the sun is directly above, as always. But its brightness is somewhat dimmed and casts more and more of a red sheen on the blue of daytime as night approaches, the horizon all around curving upwards into a traditional evening sky.
[ UNWELCOME TO INFESTATIONSGATE ]
I do what I could’ve sworn was only a mental eyeroll at what The System apparently considers to be the opposite of a welcome.
But, otherwise unprompted, Mich looks askance at me. “What’s got you so down, anyway? Philosophy aside, you’ve been sulking since we got this quest.”
I’ve been trying to distract myself from that very issue. Now entirely foiled in that endeavor, I piss-offedly glare at Mich. Then, at Ross. Then, back at Mich. I remain silent.
Mich eventually sighs in exasperation. “Yes, it’s Ross’s Quest. But we all agreed before he got it, to come here and handle whatever it was, together, as a group.”
I fold my arms. “I wouldn’t have agreed if I knew it was a rat thing. You know how I feel about rats… And quests to kill them…”
Ross calls back over his shoulder from a bit ahead. “No, he doesn’t. Neither do I, by the way. None of us do.”
I can’t help deflating a bit in what I really thought was righteous defiance. “R-really?”
Rachel shakes her head along with everyone else. “Sorry Jessie.”
I can only meet Rachel’s gaze at a loss. I know I mentioned it… But I guess I didn’t really emphasize how righteous I thought I was then, too? “Well, I hate rats. A lot. I’ve always hated rats. Remember last month when I killed an old NPC woman right before running back to you guys?”
Their faces pale a bit in recognition. Me showing up out of the blue to collapse on their moonlit picnic like that had to be memorable, if nothing else.
And I can’t help but feel relieved that they at least remember my trauma. If not its source. “I didn’t mean to kill her. But I did mean to attack her. Do you remember why?” I grimace at the general shaking of heads. “She gave me a quest. To kill rats.”
Ross jaw slackens as he stumbles away from me. “Sorry, I guess I wasn’t paying much attention or whatever, but seriously? You killed her for that? An NPC?”
“The quest had a big fat failure punishment and a ticking clock. And it was somewhere in the double digits of times she gave me that same stupid exploding rat quest. She kept dressing up as different people and tricking me into…” Noticing how flustered I’m getting, I hold my breath and take several subjective minutes to calm down.
I think it through from Ross’s perspective for long enough to get mad at how much of a dick he’s being right now. And about the only thing I’ve demonstrated any sensitivity on since I’ve known the narcissistic dino-nerd. Like, what is he, ten? “Hey, you know what? Fuck off, Ross. I don’t need to justify myself to you.” That said, I stop walking, summon my bed, and flop onto it, immediately going limp as I sink into the sand. “Whatever. I’m out. Have fun with your exterminator job.”
Rachel spreads her exasperated hands wide, as though to take in the town as a whole. “No rats yet, Jessie! In fact, the whole place looks deserted to me.”
I shrug, smirking as that only entrenches me deeper into the sand. “Not my problem anymore. They’re here somewhere. Go get ‘em, chums.”
Ross mutters to Rachel in a grumble I can barely hear. “Isn’t she supposed to be the highest level? The most capable of us?” He scoffs. “More like dead weight…”
I clear my throat from inside the sand bed. “You can have my share of the rewards, dino-boy! But I’m still here. If you really need my help with this, you only have to ask.”
Ross rounds on me, bed and all. “Alrighty then… HELP.”
I roll my eyes and arduously extricate myself from the warm sand. “Alright…” Once I’m out of bed, I make a point of looking around at every nook and cranny of the town visible from where I’m standing. “Whelp… that takes care of all the rats I can see.”
I flop back into bed. “Let me know if any more show up that you can’t handle.” I blow him a kiss before promptly ignoring his stream of worthless insults, and just lie back into the ridiculously comfortable bed-sand. Unmoving, I watch the sun, now faint enough to look at directly without too much strain. It continues to dim and redden until all at once, it fades into the moon. The transition from day to night is instant across the entire sky. Which is curious, given the speed of light. Or maybe it changed like 8 minutes ago? But no, I saw the switch at the top of the hour exactly. So why-
But my thoughts are interrupted when Rachel screams incoherently.
Ross screams incoherently.
Mich screams coherently. “JESSIE, GET UP!!!”
I really don’t want to. But then, the mist obscures my view enough to where I have nothing to look at. Wait…
I jump out of bed.
[ RARE WEAPON EQUIPPED: BLADE OF LONGINUS - 96 PHY - 4 MAG ]
Last time I looked, I saw my three companions and an empty, run-down dump of a town. This time though…The town is still the same, just draped in a dense fog. But where I expected to see the same three people annoying me on purpose again, I do, indeed, see them. Just standing there, getting gnawed on by… I gulp. Not three, not nine, but something like a hundred rats the size of pigs.
I’m so shocked and appalled that I don’t even think to stop breathing and try to cope with my new situation and the hellscape that accompanies it before my ankle starts to itch.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[ HP: 496/512 ]
[ DEBUFF GAINED: SEPTIC PARALYSIS ]
At that, I freeze. Literally. And upon freezing, I throw an extended instantaneous party in my own head. Another successful field test in the form of a weird variant debuff I’ve never even heard of. And it worked! Or else, I’d already be dead. A particularly fun part of any kind of paralysis is that it includes the lungs. Just over a month since I got Debuff Breathing, and I’ve lost count of the XP Debt it saved me from. Of which this is the sixth time. It’s pretty basic math, but I still haven’t done it.
As I learned the hard way, and repeatedly, The System seems to treat an inability to breathe on my part as something akin to dividing by 0. And when that happens, said System automatically corrects what it sees as an error. Which it is. Not like there’s any actual thing called ‘Time Breathing’. But that would be all well and good if not for the fact that the automated error-correction comes in the form of, if not subjectively, instant death. So it’s with exuberant relief that I use the cure-all for paralysis that I have hundreds of by now.
[ COMMON TALISMAN USED: CURE PARALYSIS ]
[ DEBUFF LOST: SEPTIC PARALYSIS ]
Smirking, I grab for my katana’s hilt. But my hand only gets a third of the way before-
[ DEBUFF GAINED: SEPTIC PARALYSIS ]
It’s with less relief, more frustration, and the same exuberance, that I watch and feel the rat gnaw on my leg while I just stand here and breathe about it. Like some kind of fucking mannequin. And only exacerbating my already-growing rage, is the all-important, inescapable fact that I, HATE, RATS. But, second-by-second, the time on my Paralysis Debuff counts down.
Then another rat joins in.
[ HP: 480/512 ]
[ DEBUFF STACK ADDED: SEPTIC PARALYSIS ]
Ready to scream, I belatedly remember that not only can I pause time, I can navigate menus as I do it. So I stop breathing and look up Septic Paralysis in the Debuff Guide the Archive sells for $1 in any town, and that I never bothered reading until now. Apparently, this particular disgustingly-themed flavor of paralysis gets its name from the ‘septic’ sub-category of the Void-attuned necrotic damage type… And that just as apparently signifies the debuff wouldn’t be affected by normal paralysis cures since the condition would just apply itself again anyway the next time the septic effect procs… So even if I cure the paralysis, I’ll just get it again less than half a second later.
Hm… I can’t use a potion since I can’t move to drink it. But that’s what Talismans are for. Also why they can’t heal. I only have two of these though… I got them both from different dungeons, which makes them an extremely rare general drop. So it’s not like I can’t get more, but I’d really prefer not to use one if there’s any alternative that doesn’t include XP Debt.
So it’s with the kind of regret that can only come from one destined to grow a massive hoard of unused high-end consumables, I do as close to a wince as I can manage in frozen time.
[ RARE TALISMAN USED: PREVENT NECROSIS ]
[ NECROSIS IMMUNITY: 32:00 ]
And then…
[ COMMON TALISMAN USED: CURE PARALYSIS ]
[ DEBUFF LOST: SEPTIC PARALYSIS ]
[ MONSTER TARGETED: INFESTATION RAT ]
I don’t bother with a callout as I draw my sword. Reeling it back, I waste no time stabbing down into, and through the rat that took god-knows-how-many bites out of my leg by now. My katana already driven through the rat and wedged into the ground, I grip the hilt tight and growl out a word. “Grow.”
[ RARE TOGGLE ON: EXTEND-O-SWORD — INTENSITY: 114% ]
The growing sword gradually slides its new length entirely through the rat like a makeshift sheathe. And then again as I spin in a quick circle, sliding the rat along that same length in reverse before it whips off the end of the blade in an arcing spray of blood.
Already dead by the time it starts flying, what's left of the huge rat just collapses in a bloody splat in the area triangulated by Ross, Rachel, and Mich. As a golden ‘1’ floats up out of the blood-drenched extended katana’s most recent arc, the nearby equally-sized rats get over their initial confusion and squeal in rage at one of their own being unjustly skewered. They’re soon joined by all the rats near them. And the rats near those. And so on, and so forth, until it spreads to the entire army of rats filling the town like the sand in my bed. Only grosser. Especially the big one in back. The next second, said town becomes a literal sea of angry rodents, ready to crash against me in one big wave for the afront.
I don’t resheathe my sword. I don’t even bother shrinking it. I just get to work.
I’m bitten a lot over the next few minutes. A LOT. First nervously as I dance back and around the rats to out-range them with my big-ass sword so I don’t get paralyzed again. Then hesitantly as I’m bitten anyway by a few I didn’t see. Then happily as my necrosis immunity keeps each bite from doing anything but taking 16 HP at a time. As far as damage goes, that’s more than manageable. Or is it ‘less’? Either way, my mood only improves as each bite leads to instant catharsis when the offending rat is inevitably caught up in my frantic blender of blood, viscera, and steel that can only technically be called ‘swordplay’.
Having politely waited for all its little friends to be slaughtered, the big one finally trundles over like the bus it’s the size of.
[ MONSTER TARGETED: GATEKEEPER RAT ]
Well, at least it isn’t just named ‘Gate’…
“Shrink.” And then… “DRAW!!!” Slicing into the industrial-sized rat with both hands, my sword gets stuck halfway through.
Over the next several subjective minutes, I flash a smirk. At the same time, I use all the pressure I built up over those minutes to rip, and then tear, and then slice my sword out the other side and through a particular spot on its flank highlighted in red.
Despite the fact that the rat stops moving towards me, that doesn’t kill it. Or the followup when I shrink my sword, spin around, and yell even louder to regrow it just in time to get it stuck again. The colossal rat doesn’t even go down when I rip the katana out its other side and through my sword’s newly marked spot. Or the next when I can’t see the mark. Or the next when I find it under the back-left ankle. But then I resheathe.
As the red gashes flash across the rat at all different angles, I can’t even make out the number floating up from the corpse. Thankfully, The System covers for what my eyesight lacks.
[ IAI QUICKDRAW BONUS DAMAGE: 6,039 ]
Just like that, I’m done. Hand on knees, totally out of breath, the world speeds by in a sort of fast-forward after the super-slow-mo of my rat slaughter. I look blearily over the three others.
They’re still frozen where they’d been since the moment I got out of bed.
I consider reassuring them with words. I can only manage one. “Clean.”
[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: CLEANLINESS — INTENSITY: 4%]
Once the rat mess finally disappears from every inch of my form, I wordlessly get back into bed. Having given in to exhaustion and laziness, I opt to just use the messaging system once I’m settled, looking up at the fogless moonlit sky with everything below my head covered in fresh, clean sand.
[ TEAM / JESSIE: HEY GUYS. KILLED THE RATS. TAKING A BREAK. LET ME KNOW WHEN THE NECROSIS WEARS OFF AND WE’LL GO. UNLESS YOU HAVE A TALISMAN FOR THAT ]
[ TEAM / MICH: AREN’T THOSE EXPENSIVE? ]
[ TEAM / RACHEL: GO WHERE? ]
[ TEAM / ROSS: I FEEL LIKE I’M CHOKING ]
Rather than answering the criticism, question, or complaint, I just try to relax. I try to cut out all the noise in my head. I try to hear the birds. There are always birds. You just have to listen. But I… Can’t. Not right now. Instead, the torrent of rage roils in my gut. The indignance. The victimization of it all. In the sand, looking up at the stars, listening in futility for the sound of birds, I stir. And stew. And everything I’m trying goes to shit. I’ll fucking kill that NPC…
Heading out as soon as everyone’s unfrozen, we backtrack a bit. About an hour later, we spot the NPC quest-giver.
Every second takes about five as my gaze pierces literally everyone we see. So it’s no surprise that I’m the first to spot him. I whisper as soon as I do. “Go.”
But before I arrive, Rachel apparently spots where my burst of speed is taking me. “Wait, Jessie, remember what we agreed? GIRL, STOP!!!”
I don’t stop though. With cold eyes and mumbled words, I whip out my sword, extending it in a smooth motion that ends in smacking the NPC across the back of the head with the flat of my blade. Then I do it again. And again. Aaand again for good measure.
The NPC flinches at each hit. Not taking nearly enough damage to worry anyone. But what doesn’t worry can still annoy. “OW… ow-ow-OUCH!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH… Oh.” The NPC winces as he registers just who came in unannounced to smack him around with a metal pole.
For my part, I don’t address him immediately. Instead, I carefully shrink and mostly resheathe my sword, leaving about a hand's-width of metal showing. Only then do I meet the NPC’s half-angry and half-worried eyes with a cheery smile. “Now then... Motherfucker…” My face goes blank. “This is where you convince me not to complete the Skill.”
The NPC’s eyes bulge as he puts together what I just did. What I could do on a whim. Or a nudge. Or a breeze strong enough to jostle my tiny frame. The NPC pales. And stutters. “Y-y-you’re back!” He starts dry-washing his hands. “I didn’t expect it to be… And so soon.”
Mich mutters under his breath. “Oh my god…”
Ross looks askance at him. “What?”
“The whole guilty-coward-hand-rubbing thing. I’ve never actually seen anyone do that.”
Ross examines the NPC more closely. “Oh yeah…”
Rachel steps forward, bending down and smoothly placing her hand along the back of my blade, firmly in the way of me completing my sheathe.
With my Physical Strength, I could crush her hand and do it anyway. Instead, I glare up at her.
Rachel throws me what looks to be her comforting smile before turning it on the NPC. “Now… I suggest you hand over those quest rewards before anyone gets any angrier.” Glancing down worriedly at the sword rattling around its slot from my tight, shaky grip, she looks back to the NPC with a grimace. “Or twitchier.”
The NPC barks out a sort of panicked pseudo-laugh. “I… Didn’t expect you back so soon. I don’t have the promised quest reward on me.”
I growl through gritted teeth. “This soon… You’re lucky we’re this late… If I’d already come back, you’d already be dead.”
Rachel puts her other hand on my shoulder, still presenting a thin veneer of a smile to the NPC. “I suggest you go get it then. The full reward.” She looks around to the severe faces of Mich and Ross. “For each of us.”
The NPC plasters on a wide grin of his own, even as he breaks out in a cold sweat upon putting together just what Rachel is implying. “R-right! Well then… You certainly deserve such an accolade… For…” He looks down at the clattering sound of my nearly-sheathed sword, now shaking harder than ever. “Er, that is, off I go to retrieve it-” Having apparently grasped how much shit he’s in right now, the blue man starts running.
I start following, my eyes still wide with unrelenting, somehow increasing rage. With my minmaxed Speed, I don’t have to strain myself to keep up with the fast-retreating NPC. I at least have enough presence of mind to realize how completely unhinged I must look as I follow exactly one step behind him the whole way. So I relish it, going out of my way to step on the back of his shoe a few times for good measure.
The NPC looks like he wants to protest. Especially after the first time. He wisely keeps it to himself beyond his constant muttering. “Keep it on the wheel, let’s just keep it on the wheel…”