«You seem to have lost quite a few people.» Detlef, the Administrator, said in a discontent voice. “Alright, first things first, let me check what has happened here. Afterwards, I will show you a few images and you’ll try to remember the faces of these people. Alright? Good, then let’s start this.”
Detlef rubbed his temples while tapping about on his shining slate. After some time, he looked up again and continued speaking. “Alright you all, now think of your community. And now of your inventions. Interesting.” All the while, he tapped on his slate. This situation was simply unreal for Sarah. She was wondering again if she was dreaming all of this.
Detlef’s questioning continued for some time, and he asked many questions ranging from their daily diet to their relationships with each other. Nobody answered, but he seemed not to care. He most likely read their minds.
“So now, please take a look at these pictures, and try to remember, if you have seen these people before.” He said and rubbed his temple again, this time with a scowl on his face.
If Sarah could have controlled her body, she would have gasped at this moment. A person had appeared right in front of her out of nowhere. No, this wasn’t a person. This was an image. The memory of this concept came flowing back into her mind when the appearance of the person burned into her mind.
It was… a boy. A child. It was flabbergasting seeing one, considering she had only seen people her own age until now. The boy had long, silver hair, which looked rather unnatural. He wore the same white clothing as Detlef and was very slender. He would have looked cute if it hadn’t been for his eyes.
She had met her fair share of psychopaths up until now. The big, silvery irises looked beautiful, but they couldn’t cloak the boy’s personality. He was a complete lunatic, of that she was sure.
And as soon as the boy came, another image popped up in front of her. This time, it was a young man, probably the same age as all of them here. He was rather handsome and wore a carefree smile. He had brown locks flowing down to his shoulders and insanely green eyes. Upon closer inspection, they even seemed to be glowing, as if an intense fire was burning inside of them.
Contrary to Detlef and the boy, he didn’t wear white clothing. Instead, he wore a simple brown jacket, blue pants, and a white shirt.
“What a disappointment.” Detlef mumbled, and let the image disappear. “Well, it is what it is I guess. So onto the next subject, which is an important announcement.”
His gentle appearance faded and he looked at them disappointedly. “Due to the high casualties caused by intrusive and regulating soul abilities, we have decided to extract all subjects with corresponding abilities and to monitor every subject with open soul specialization slots. We are very disappointed with the misuse of your abilities and hope, that such steps won’t have to be taken again. I will now commence with a personal inspection.”
After saying this, he stepped towards them. He began to the left of Sarah, where some of the still tied-up people floated in the air. Sarah could see them out of the corner of her eyes, but not clearly. He looked at the first one, raised his hand, and… the person just disappeared. The next three also disappeared, but the one right next to her didn’t disappear for some reason. Detlef smiled contently and tapped something onto his glowing slate.
He then stepped in front of her and looked at her in surprise. “Have I seen you before? Please wait a moment.” He unnecessarily said. It's not like she could have run away. He tapped on his slate again and then shook his head. “There is no entry of you. It looks like you fell through the grid. Let’s take a look where you came from.”
He narrowed his eyes, and Sarah felt like her mind had been opened up. Memories from her time in the swamp started flowing through her mind until it suddenly stopped.
“Shit!” Detlef gurgled and made a strange move with his hands. Sarah felt like she was being squeezed by a giant hand. But what was even more shocking, was the sight of Detlef. Blood spurted from his eyes, nose, and ears, and his whole skin looked black and blue. After another retching gurgle, his eyes burst open and he fell to the ground.
You have earned the Achievement ‘Toxic Personality’. You have earned the Achievement ‘Slayer of >>redacted<<’.
Toxic Personality: Every damaging effect caused by a direct invasion of your mind, is doubled in its potency.
Slayer of >>redacted<<: You can hide your presence from >>redacted<<. Warning: This effect does not protect from the >>redacted<< abilities.>
Sarah was completely gobsmacked. At this point, she noticed, that she had gained back control over her body. But it wasn’t of much use, as the feeling of being squeezed tightly remained.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
But even so, she couldn’t help but feel the deeply rooted grudge towards the system rise again. They’ve had such a good run. Why did it have to insult her again? Why did it have to name this achievement ‘toxic personality’? After her class upgrade session, she had hoped that the system finally had enough of insulting her and joking around. But apparently, she wouldn’t get off the hook so quickly.
She clenched her teeth in anger and channeled it into something productive. She started to channel disintegrating energy in her surroundings. And to her surprise, the pressure lessened slightly.
But the energy sizzled out when she noticed the corpse in front of her twitching. She had seen lots of horrible things. But seeing something move, that should have been dead, brought up the horror to a whole new level.Detlef’s corpse twitched more and more until his arms and legs started moving. And then he stood up.
“Oh, man.” He groaned and spit out a lump of blood. She saw his eyes regenerating in real-time, and the blackening of his skin receded. He blinked a few times with irritation apparent on his face and looked at her again. It took a few long moments until he talked again.
“Fascinating.” He whispered and wildly tapped on his slate. Sarah blinked and the blood on his clothes and around him had vanished. She blinked again, and a woman stood next to Detlef. Just like him, she was dressed in impossibly white clothes.
“Is it true?” She said in wonder and looked at Sarah with wide, blue eyes.
“Yes! Yes, it is! I can’t comprehend how this is possible, but it is. Look her in the eyes. She is still sane!” Detlef excitedly exclaimed and stepped closer to Sarah with the woman behind him.
“Amazing.” The woman said, after studying Sarah for some time. “A specimen with two corrupting energies inside of her. And it is still sane.”
“Let’s take her with us!” Detlef excitedly said but was hit on his head by the woman. “Are you insane? Do you want the corruption to disrupt our atmosphere?”
Detlef’s expression sobered up, and he shook his head. “Sorry, still a little dizzy from dying. Field research then.” He said and sighed heavily.
“Come on, hurry up. Let’s finish this section and get back to tell everyone.” The woman said, without turning her gaze away from Sarah.
Detlef nodded and the excitement returned to his face. He stepped to the next person and hastily tapped away at his slate.
Meanwhile, the woman had stepped even closer. Sarah only now noticed, that she had dark hair and eyes, and an unusually sharp face. She glanced over at Detlef and bit her lip. Sarah’s mind was completely blank from the situation just now. The implications were too big to process. Not to mention Detlef, who just came back to life without caring at all about dying.
The woman in front of her seemed to have come to a decision. She grabbed Sarah’s head, and she had the feeling of her mind splitting open again.
Information about her stats and skills came flowing out and Sarah realized, that this woman intended to find out everything there was about her. A sudden rage blossomed inside of her. No one had the right to look into her mind. Never again.
She didn’t know what she was doing, but she pumped disintegrating energy over their connection towards the mind of the woman.
This time, the horrible process happened even faster than with Detlef. Her eyes burst open right in front of her, and Sarah was showered in blood and things she didn’t want to think about.
The woman sagged to the ground and she heard Detlef’s annoyed moan from her right side. “You idiot! Isn’t it enough that I had to make this mistake? Why do you do this consciously? Ah damnit, you can’t hear me anyways.” He grumbled and crouched down to her.
He gently touched her shoulders and waited a few seconds. But nothing happened. “What the…” He mumbled and touched her with both hands. He groaned in pain but didn’t remove his hands. “Ohh this is not good.”
The woman suddenly wheezed and coughed and sat up. Detlef stood up again and massaged his temples. “What the hell is wrong with you? Are you a fucking idiot? Do you know what would have happened, if you’d have returned with this corruption fragment inside of you?”
“What happened?” The woman asked confusedly. She was completely clean again as if nothing had ever happened.
Detlef sighed in exasperation and took her by her hands. “Let’s get you back and take a look at your memory. Maybe we can salvage something.”
The woman nodded confusedly, and then they were gone. Just like the woman had appeared out of thin air, they both disappeared again. Afterward, the pressure also disappeared, and Sarah fell to the ground.
She gasped and shook from the experience just now. But the people around her were completely silent. Until Melissa started shouting.
“Sarah, what happened?!” Sarah felt Melissa's hands grab her and she started checking for injuries. “You are… not hurt?” She said in confusion.
Sarah looked up at her in confusion. “That’s the blood from the administrators.”
Melissa furrowed her brows. “What do you mean the blood from the administrators?”
“Did you not… see it?” Sarah asked in bewilderment. Melissa just shook her head. So Sarah told the story as best as her turbulent mind could recall the recent events.
“They must have somehow… blocked our senses or something.” Melissa said with fear in her voice. “Why did you hear and see it though?”
“Put that on the long list of questions I have.” Sarah said with a snort and gratefully took the cloth, which Melissa offered her. She frantically wiped away the blood and bits on her face and shuddered in disgust.
She then looked around to check, if her closest people were still there. To her relief, Neil was also safe and sound. Xavier was also still here, though he was deathly pale. Apart from them, only three of the tied-up people remained. They had fallen to the ground and had woken up. They looked around in confusion and tried to free themselves from the ropes.
Neil and Xavier went over to them, probably to start the questioning, before deciding what to do with them.
Sarah sighed in exasperation. Every time she thought she started to gain some control over her life, everything was smashed to bits again by something she had never thought possible.
She looked up in the cloudy sky and wondered if they were only toys for the administrators. If freedom was just an illusion. While having these bleak thoughts, a single snowflake flew down and landed on her face. The cold snow melted and ran down her face.
Sarah snapped out of her daze when she felt a warm touch on her right hand. She looked down and saw the loving eyes of Melissa.
“Do not despair. We may be subject to the whims of the administrators, but we still have each other. We are not alone.” She gently hugged her and continued speaking. “Let’s find a way to freedom together. There has got to be a way to escape their control.”
Sarah hugged Melissa tightly and felt a fierce determination blossom inside of her.