The first thing I saw after my recall was Lucas scared to death. As it worked perfectly, I had to smile at him and wave. If it wasn’t for the pointy ears, I wouldn’t see a difference between his body in reality and here. But what would a military-hardened body do for a mage? Poor Lucas.
“Lucas! I will try my best, so don’t worry.” The girl’s voice surprised me again, but I ignored it and walked towards him.
He backpedaled with a slightly blushing face and said, “Are you sure?” Real. It was so real. It’s no wonder people lived only in virtual worlds. “I mean, this is all cumbersome for you, isn’t it?”
“Nah, at first I was angry, sure, but my heart melted with my first kill. Although, I don’t know how to play Priest,” I added with a smile and shrugged my shoulders. I promised him wealth, but I couldn’t do that as a Priest. I knew how to fight as a warrior, but how to create a spell?
“Glad to hear that, John.”
“Call me Princess.”
Lucas raised his staff for a spell, so I watching him with a curiosity. “What? Why?!” He froze in his attempt and the mana just fizzled away; what a waste.
“Isn’t it obvious? That’s my name now,” I said and shrugged again. “ As you said, I must stick with it. So, call me either Princess or Charlie. To be honest, both sounds unfamiliar, but I guess other people will call me by those names.”
He tried to create another spell, but that was a pain to watch. “What are you doing? Haven’t you read the guide? You need to draw the runes as fast as possible, fill them with mana and shout!” During my testing years, I saw a myriad of mages, so at least I knew how it should look like and his moves for sure weren’t like that.
He snorted when I hurt his pride and immediately challenged me, “Do you think I don’t know that?! Try it, if you are so full of yourself!”
“Easy, watch me closely!”
With three confident gestures, I opened a spell window and examined the rune for healing spell, which consisted only of a few simple lines. Nathan prepared a video of an animated person performing the spell underneath, so I watched it closely. After a while, I was sure it will be a breeze.
I clutched my staff and mentally tapped into my mana, or at least I imagined something flowing inside me. A wave of warm feeling hit-and-surprised me; it differed from the warrior’s mana. Maybe that was because I used to play only at 50% of pain? Despite the surprise, I continued to pour mana as I drew the contours.
After I drew the second wavelet, something went very wrong, and the mana just disappeared. As the spell fizzled, I slightly tumbled backwards and reddened.
“Haha! I told you you’ll fail! You are only human. Human like me, Charlie!”
“Hmpf! I slew the most difficult Boss; if I could have a sword, I would be a master. The warrior is not dependent on mana,” I complained.
There had to be a solution. Lucy, my old QA colleague, was an excellent paladin, and during our break talks, she told me it helps her to imagine the symbols first, and then the system guided her hand. Lucas was looking at me like he never saw a girl, and abruptly interrupted my thoughts, “Charlie, I must tell you something.”
“Can it wait?” I dismissed him, “I think I remembered something that’ll help! The game must have a guiding system.”
He nodded and sighed, although I almost didn’t know that, because I focused at the picture of the symbol for five minutes. She said that I have to stare at the rune until I engrave it into my brain. Not helping, Lucy!
When I decided that was enough, I grasped the poor stick and focused on the rune. Yes! A faint outline appeared in the air, and I poured mana into it, while gently following its contours. It failed. Again and again.
After about a fifth or sixth fail I ran around the meadow and was smashing everything in sight with my glorious stick, including the laughing Lucas, on his head.
[Critical hit! Target lost 1HP.]
Oh god, please help me!
Somewhere dark, current simulation.
Jeffrey was sitting behind a computer screen in his room. John would say he looked like a fifteen-year-old punk in a brown coat, but he would be wrong, Jeffrey turned only 12 this year.
“John disappeared, as you expected, sir. The assassin broke into his old simulation, and it is only a matter of time until he will find out who he is and kills him. Sir, are you sure to trust this person?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Yes. In the last main simulation I was so close to the seed, that I could discern the simulation hash of the next. One of infinite possibilities. They thought they can stop me by giving me almost zero time before the game, but they were wrong. John will be the hero instead of me. I will be in the shadows, like the others are. No more running around the space stations three years after everyone started.”
“But why him? Sir, you could have chosen anyone who was a hero already. After the death of two of your competitors, there were more open positions among the heroes.”
“We tried that and failed. He is the key to win the game; to get us the seed. I hope he has his own ship already.”
“Sir, this time the game is a fantasy, like the third, but the setting is different.”
“Oh? I haven’t been following the news. Interesting, others might not be so resourceful. We must wait a few of years; if he survives the assassin, I will contact him.”
[John - Employee Profile (15th year after the start)]
[John’s ability to find exploits is beyond normal. After the year 10 (when the AI replaced the programmers), most testers found no weakness in the system. John found countless of bugs. AI is developing a system of on-the-fly fixes during John's plays. DO NOT FIRE JOHN even if he doesn’t report any exploit.]
My hand flowed through the air, and the rune glowed with a golden light.
“Heal!” I screamed when I finished and directed the energy to Lucas. A golden mist flew fast towards him, but I had to focus until the magic reached him, because it wasn’t instant.
[Player Lucas healed for 3HP.]
“It worked! That was… beautiful,” he said with a weak smile.
“Yeah! Let me help you!” I ran next to him and grabbed his hand. “Do you have the rune in your mind? I mean that can you imagine it?”
He absentmindedly stared into my eyes, and only after I pinched his cheek he responded, “Yeah, I think I can.”
“Focus, I know I am girl, but it’s still me, and that’s not enough!” My glare forced him to open the menu, and he briefly glanced at the rune. After only a few seconds he turned his head at me, but my stare scared him and he didn’t say a word. Ha, my presence was still intimidating.
“Great! Then you need to focus on that rune intensively, and the outline should appear shortly. Lucas, I will never let you down. I might not have the valor of a warrior, but that doesn’t mean I will be useless.”
He uttered something with a sigh and focused on the spell. After a few more attempts, he was still failing most of the time, but I decided that was enough, because there was no time to waste it like this. All the spells depleted his mana, so we had to sit and wait.
“The game is fun this way, isn’t it?” I said and looked up, where the trees joined and blocked a sky, creating this beautiful shade. “You need to work hard, but the game will reward your efforts!”
Lucas sat on the ground and the glared at my boobs. Damn, is this my new normal? After a while he shook his head and said, “No, you are insane, why is the game so demanding? I don’t understand, isn’t the point of games to be fun?”
“Blame the evil creator, Nathan. Although, I disagree with you. This is amazing, don’t you think? What’s the fun without a challenge? The system was lenient for warriors and let me do those crazy things. I could jump a few meters high; I could smash a wall! Aren’t you excited to see what the magic will look like? I can’t wait for our first boss fight. The technique will be detrimental, the godly mages will cast spells faster, work on that.”
“I understand. The game feels… real.” He rose and touched trees around us with his staff. The clang response sounded exactly the same as it would in our reality. Simulation. Whatever. “It feels more real than the reality, where the painful memories are. I want to say that this is the future, this game might be the answer. I think the people who will oppose that idea would just disappear. Vanish without a trace. No, it already happened. Charlie! The truth is-”
He surprised me with his predictions, so I stopped him with my hand and said, “Lucas, please, stop. I understand.” He was on the point - everything will happen like that. ‘People will vanish without a trace’. Was that how he died? Did he poke where he shouldn’t have? “Hey, Lucas, do you know the ring of smiling people? I heard they are-”
He rose, his face horrified, and grabbed a hem of my poor robe. “Where the hell did you hear that? Did you read something at my place?” He shook me like he was trying to wake me up from something, but thankfully his strength wasn’t high. “This is not something you can take lightly! These people can harm you!”
I slipped from his grapple and walked backwards. “I heard of them from one punk at the bar. He told me to contact them, if I want to know more about the simulations.”
“Of course, at the bar.” He threw his hands into the air. “Where else would you? Don’t. If you hold your life dear, don’t.”
“All right! Jesus, I was only asking!”
“Even asking is dangerous and people are dying. Forget about them. I want to…” his voice became weak and his eyes watered. Then, he quickly changed the topic and said, “You desperately wanted to play the game, right? You look so energetic, happy. Usually, you are this normal only after the fourth beer.”
I blushed. After I returned to this time, I was not like myself. I felt so different, like my entire brain was changing, but that was nonsense, right? It was probably because the punk gave me a chance to live once more.
I jumped up and measured the sun. We had to go before the nightfall. “Lucas, focus on what’s important. We are poor level one noobs; we need a plan.”
“So? What’s the plan? Aren’t you the expert?” He still stood where he tried to shake the life of me and didn’t look like he wanted to go anywhere.
“Hmpf!” I grasped his hand and ran. “Onwards! My job was to find bugs, so let’s do exactly that. Why should we level as regular players? Let’s exploit!”