Bright lights from the CRT-style monitor reflected off a pair of glazed-over eyes that guided a pair of hands in perfect tandem with the figures that danced on the screen. Dodge that bullet, right, left, right again. Counter-attack, dodge again, and get hit. Wait, get hit? That wasn’t part of the plan.
A bold-fonted “GAME OVER” flashed across Kai’s screen as he hissed in frustration. It’d been about 15 minutes or so since Adilet had fixed the machine, and the young man had suddenly wracked up a pretty nasty losing streak.
He didn’t want to blame the technician for somehow making the game harder when she fixed it, but it looked like there was some kind of bad mojo at work here. Either that, or he’d simply lost his groove after the game unexpectedly broke on him. Oh well, might as well try again and get back into it in that case.
Kai pressed the Start button again and began piloting his ship through waves of enemies. He’d managed to make it through the first few waves in record time when the screen once again went black.
“Dammit, this thing just got fixed!” shouted Kai as he slammed his fists into the cabinet. In a fit of anger, he grabbed the device and began shaking it with moderate force. Kai didn’t consider himself a roid-raging caveman when he committed himself to the act, of course. Percussive maintenance always had a good chance of getting things to work again, and it might even work with magic! Yup, it was totally because he knew what he was doing.
By some miracle, the cabinet lit up once more, showing the intro screen. Kai sighed in acceptance, disappointed at losing his 3 minutes of progress but happy that the machine was working once more.
Before he could press the Start button again, the machine to his left went black. And then the cabinet to the left of that. While the young man wasn’t playing on either of those devices, the sudden slew of problems happening all around made him fear that something else was causing these issues. Something in the air, something that could ruin more than just a couple of magical arcade cabinets.
Kai took several steps back from his spot and surveyed the room, trying to figure out the source of the electro-magic catastrophe. He quickly spun around as he heard the sound of another machine powering down, and saw nothing particularly off about it. But above it, he could make out something that exceptionally stood out.
A white phantasmal figure in the vague shape of a human being floated above the arcade cabinets, casually swiping its left hand through the wooden casings as it glided through the air. Each motion of its arm brought a smile to the figure’s face, along with the death of the device.
Shit, was this thing… a ghost? It had all of the telltale features; the off-white color, semi-opaque consistency, and general incorporealness. But Kai had never actually seen one before on account of ghosts… not exactly being real, at least back on Earth. Unless you counted those bogus ghost hunting shows, but nobody really did.
The young man stood frozen in place, observing the creature as it continued to seemingly drain the cabinets, not really sure what to do. He could either confront it or tell someone else so they could deal with the problem, but the sheer novelty of the sight left him mentally paralyzed. Too bad for Kai, he didn’t have to decide.
The ghost, finally finished breaking its latest row of cabinets, turned to look for its next meal, but instead found the teen staring directly at it. The creature floated in place for several seconds, making eye contact with the young man while hosting a look of curiosity.
“Hold on, can you see me?” asked the phantasmal figure in a campy accent that didn’t quite fit its mysterious and intimidating presence.
Kai stood frozen, but his eyes widened as he heard the creature speak to him.
“Oh, you can hear me too, then?”
Kai’s lips stayed shut, but in a state of shock, he inadvertently took half a step back.
“So you can!” exclaimed the ghost with a pur in its voice.
Seeing as he was caught, Kai slowly nodded in response. Too late to make this solely someone else’s problem, then.
“Wait.” It dropped the accent and all but spat the word in a hoarse whisper. “If you can see me, you must be one of them. I thought this place would be clear so I could get myself a meal, but apparently not.”
“T-them?” stuttered the young man as he frantically looked to his sides to see if anyone else could see or respond to the ghost. Everyone was at the dance machines, leaving Kai completely alone with the monster. Even the most distracted of the tournament viewers, a somewhat overweight man who looked absolutely desperate to find anything else of interest in the room, completely ignored the two. “Who’s them?”
“Please, I’m not falling for that,” it replied as it slowly began floating towards the teen.
Kai continued to stand in place, unsure of what to do. He could definitely run and get some help, find someone who could do something about whatever the hell this thing was that was headed towards him. But as much as his brain screamed at his feet, he remained motionless. His legs were frozen in fear, not even his internal shouts for survival doing anything to make them budge. Just like back in the throne room…
“Now what could be inside of you?” asked the ghost, a sliver of its previous accent returning to its voice, but marked with a sadistic twist. “I wonder what it’ll taste like?”
“I’ve got no magic,” replied Kai, somehow wresting control of his lips. “I don’t even know a single spell, there’s nothing for you to eat from me, except for one thing.”
“Oh, and what would that be?”
“Deez nuts!” Kai arrogantly shouted as the specter swiped its ethereal claw through his head. The young man was filled with a strange numbness that forced him to flinch and lose balance as he laughed at the ghost’s expense for the meal.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
As the uncomfortable sensation faded, Kai noticed a strange glow on the ghost. Several glows, in fact. Green hexagons glowed with a bright intensity as it shuddered at whatever it gained from the teen, reveling in its morsel. The hexagons quickly flipped from brightly lit to completely dull in a strange sequence, the lights filtering upwards through its body.
“So Kai, is it?” asked the ghost with a curious smile. “Kai Freeman. Quite a sense of humor you have there.”
How did it know… Kai’s eyes widened in realization as the epiphany finally struck him. Those glows were the same color as the glyphs inside the cabinet, and the pattern looked like a travelling signal, just like how the logic gates Adilet described should work. And the fact that it only addressed him by his name after it took a bite out of Kai?
“I guess you aren’t one of them after all,” the white phantasm shrugged. “Too bad that’s not going to stop me from doing what I want to you.”
It wasn’t eating magic, it was feeding on information! Computers were all about information, after all, so it made sense that it would target the largest collection of computers around that wasn’t heavily guarded; the arcade.
“And it looks like you just got here yesterday too!” purred the ghost. “I don’t blame you for running away from home, that place looks like a dump! Too bad you’re just in time for me to start taking my revenge, so there won’t be much of this place to enjoy.”
Kai knew he had to get help now, and internally cursed himself for not being able to sooner. Whatever the creature did to his head dislodged whatever was keeping him in place, and the young man quickly turned towards the large crowd in the distance and began to run.
“Don’t bother, dear Kai,” said the creature with a cold, inhuman chuckle. “Nobody else here can see me, and I doubt they would believe you that there’s a ghost haunting the arcade! You’ll look like a complete idiot and get yourself kicked out for being crazy! Or maybe they’ll just tie you up and throw you in a padded cell? Haha!”
Kai’s feet froze once more. It was fear that once again bound his steps, but one that he was forced to at least consider as possibly valid. Would they call him crazy for what was happening in front of him? Maybe he was crazy? But if that were the case, this entire isekai fantasy would’ve been more likely to be a delusion than something as comparatively mundane as a ghost.
“Anyway, once I cause enough chaos here, I think I’ll head to Earth to cause even more trouble for everyone here,” continued the ghost. “And maybe I’ll start with you? You seem to have such a lovely sister, that I’m sure I can have plenty of fun with.” He smiled a devilish grin. There was no good happiness behind it.
Kai froze even further. His body was already motionless, but his face became frigid, all of its features becoming statuesque. The young man took a deep breath and exhaled. He slowly turned around and made eye contact with the creature before him.
“Huh? Did I strike a nerve?”
Kai’s eyes were filled with a wild energy, one that he’d only felt in life-or-death situations before. When it was life-or-death for others. His friends and family. And it was all focused on the monster that dared to show itself.
“Hmm, I did!” It let out another unearthly laugh. “So what are you gonna do about it, kid?”
“I’m going to fucking kill you to death right where you stand, you piece of shit!” growled the teen. He wasn’t exactly experienced at making one-liners, especially under stress.
“Kill me to death? Oh ho ho, that’s rich! And so stupid! In fact, I think that was dumb enough to give me a headache!” It continued to laugh, before quickly clutching its head with its left arm. “Ow, I think it really did hurt! Wow, you’re an idiot.”
The anger in Kai’s eyes faded and was replaced with surprise. Its reaction wasn’t just an act. His statement actually hurt the thing! The creature was made of information, after all, maybe that was its weakness? It was a being that fed on logic and knowledge, maybe paradoxes and inanity were its achilles heel, adulterating the very substance it was made of? Only one way to test that out.
“Hey, asshole!” shouted Kai. “What’s 2+2?”
“Now what are you on about?” It asked with a bored sigh. “Stalling? I’d say that’s unbecoming of you, but we both know that you’re-”
“It doesn’t matter, I’m still going to shove both of these arms and feet down your throat!”
“Now that doesn’t even make any sense, how are you going to do anything to a ghost, especially when you can’t even float like me- gRahh!” It clutched its head in pain again.
“Holy shit, it’s working!” whispered Kai to himself, before continuing his nonsensical tirade. “What did the barber say to the brain surgeon?”
“What are you-”
“No soap, radio!”
“How the hell does that even make se- Aah!” The ghost screamed in pain as it gripped its head with both of its hands, bending its back forward as its supposed muscles began to fail it.
“What’s tomorrow?”
“I swear, Kai Freeman, I will make you regret whatever it is you’re doing to me!”
“It’s irrelevant, the current meridian system of time is entirely farcical and has been hidden by our educators! The Time Cube (trademark) is the correct mathematically pristine way to measure the passage of time and it’s being hidden from everyone!”
The creature simply screamed again, the green hexagons on its body beginning to grow dim. A piece of its head began to fade out, replaced with a series of white lines that flip flopped with what was actually supposed to be there, like a computer monitor going haywire.
Kai knew it was time to drive this home. He cleared his throat and looked straight into the monster’s remaining eye with a cold gaze. “This statement is false.”
The ghost froze. The anomalies forming on its body remained in place as it stared blankly at the teen. It simply stood where it was, floating in place above the ground, as if it were simply a hideous part of the scenery.
Kai breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever that thing was, it finally stopped. “Fucking second day this is turning out to be,” he whispered to himself as he sagged his shoulders and let a dumb grin shine through his weariness.
“Hey, what are you shouting?” came the voice of a child.
Kai turned to his side to see that a small crowd had gathered around him. Part of the audience of the dance tournament broke off during the intermission and were looking at him with bewilderment.
“I’m exorcising a ghost!” shouted back Kai, puffing out his chest. “You’re welcome, now get back to playing.”
They did just that, leaving the strange teen and turning their attention towards the next set of competitors on the dance floor.
“Haha…” came an ethereal laugh.
Kai jerked his head around to see the sound come from the ghost, still frozen in place.
“You’ve got me good today, Kai. But you haven’t finished me off, you obviously don’t know how. You can’t kill that which has no life!” shouted the creature. With a final cackle, that sounded like a garden hoe on a chalkboard, the creature began to float down while its body was still otherwise frozen in place, through the floor and out of the room.
“Well,” said Kai as he stared at where his enemy was. “I guess I got my adventure after all.” He continued looking at the spot, and cleared his throat. “Yeah, maybe Rafael was right. The adventure really does feel overrated so far.”