Twenty minutes later, after he’d transitioned to the swamps, Rick tried to restrain himself from jumping at every shadow. What did it mean that Ditto had disappeared? If the invisible opponent showed up again, he was fucked. How do you fight something you can’t see?

To see a standard bot in the distance was reassuring, if only because it signaled a return to normalcy.

He summoned the yellow light and slipped into empty mind as he approached. That it had become routine was a testament to how much his dishonesty with his wife had held him back. How long had it done that? Since the beginning?

The bot was a white man with a shaved head. It wore a standard white karate gi, though the belt it sported was a chain with a lock on it. Simple sandals and a red headband completed the look.

Rick stepped in to provoke a jab and got what he’d expected. He shifted into Ga Family Style switch stance, but slipped on broad, wet leaf along the ground he hadn’t seen.

The bot punished the mistake, coming down hard on Rick with an elbow that gouged him like a pickaxe when it connected with his traps between his neck and shoulder.

Ouch. He grunted and dashed backward, then gritted his teeth. Stupid mistake. The bot stepped in and Rick used Try Harder, the Ga Family Style move he’d picked up in the qualifier. His left jab was blocked, but the hard right hook and front leg kick both landed hard, knocking the bot backward. When Rick pursued, he got a surprise. Though he blocked the bot’s right straight, the bot then stepped on Rick’s bent front leg and climbed. Shock kept him from doing more than simply pushing the bot, and Karate took advantage of that, pulling Rick’s open hand, then slipping up and around with its leg, hooking his leg.

When Karate’s weight began to take Rick to the ground, he stopped fighting and embraced it, using his own power to pull the leg down faster. The bot hadn’t expected that, which meant it came down at an angle. He grabbed Karate’s leg so it couldn’t disentangle itself, then charged forward, putting it on its back.

He went to ground with it, but Karate twisted, forcing Rick to the side. Rather than fight to reestablish dominance, he rolled away. His instincts proved accurate, as the smaller-bodied bot moved quickly and would have rolled atop him and reversed his advantage entirely had Rick not retreated.

He finished his roll in a crouch. Karate’s attempt to reverse him had placed the bot closer to Rick, and face down. He performed a right hammer punch to its head, and it groaned. The hit didn’t stun it, though. Karate rolled away before Rick could deliver another blow.

He stood and Karate was on its feet a second later. Not bothering to brush the dirt from its gi, it dashed in again and kicked.

Rick performed Hard Angles, sidestepping, then rushing back in with a right elbow and tripping Karate, who rolled backward. Rick pressed toward the bot, ready for a low move than never came. The bot rolled back again, and this time more quickly, getting away in time to come up to its feet and fend Rick’s punches off with a flurry of blocks and counterpunches.

Stamina Camel kept Rick from bonking against the bottom of his stamina meter, which showed up as he got close to the last twenty-five percent of the bar, then dipped to about ten percent. He backed away, and predictably, Karate stayed put and panted, making it clear the bot had slammed into the bottom of its stamina bar. Rick readied Iron Fist, and grunted as Karate barely recovered in time to get out of its path.

If not for Rick’s speed boosts, Karate would have gotten him; Rick only recovered because of the Ga Style stat boosts, but nonetheless, he did slither out of Karate’s attempted throw. The failed throw put Karate off balance again, and Rick used Bear Says Hi, slapping Karate’s face with his left hand, then grabbing the bot’s head with both hands and tossing the bot to the dirt.

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Rick ignored the thunder in the background, though when it boomed, it was close. Karate leapt to his feet and got his guard up before Rick could follow through. He reversed to the Ga Family switch stance, then feinted a jab with his right hand in an attempt to draw the bot in.

Karate simply blocked the jab, then blocked the next one Rick tossed his way, then feinted, which caused Rick’s block to meet only air, leaving him wide open.

Karate slapped him, then spun and slapped Rick again before he could recover, then spun again and came around with a weird cross between a slap, an uppercut, and a haymaker. Rick blocked the attack and stepped in, still in Ga stance, then threw out a trailing left jab. He landed the punch, but Karate had braced for more. When it didn’t come, the bot hopped backward. Rick followed with his leading arm, now stronger than normal due to Ga Family Style.

Rick’s fist was faster than Karate’s feet, and the bot’s feeble block was insufficient to stop the punch. It knocked the bot’s face back hard, and Rick assisted it backward with a powerful front step kick to the bot’s inner thigh. As soon as the bot was down, Rick got behind it and twisted its neck until it faced entirely the wrong way.

Victory!

Two blue icons and a yellow were the result.

Cosmetic Item Acquired!

Purple Yoga Pants: What’s old is new is old is new again.

He threw the pants into his cosmetic item inventory. At least it’s not another tattoo.

Active Skill Acquired!

Dispelled: Middle front kick followed by whip punch. Five second cooldown.

Rick ran a preview of the move to be sure he understood how it worked, then moved on.

Active Skill Acquired!

Twinder: From a kneeling position, deliver alternating left and right uppercuts to your opponent’s midsection. Six second cooldown.

The thunder boomed again and Rick wasted no time setting back down the path at a pace.

***************************

Five minutes later, Rick had begun to breathe more easily as he moved from the swamp to the grasslands. In the distance, the first player character waited—as evidenced by his or her floating nametag, which showed up in Rick’s vision in a form large enough to read no matter the distance.

He did a double-take. The player’s name was Ditto. He stopped. Ditto?

There was no response.

Ditto? he asked again. His heart rate rose. The player ahead took note of him and approached.

What the hell? He walked forward. Maybe Ditto would explain what was going on.

The closer he got, the more wary he became. Though the floating tag and the avatar were an exact match for those of his AI friend, the bot’s manner of walking was entirely different. While Ditto’s gate, like all his actions, was deliberate and efficient, the way the bot moved now more accurately reflected what he recognized as military discipline. The bot’s strides were long but clipped—fierce, demonstrably powerful, and near to being a march. Ditto’s bearing reminded him of something, though it was something tucked away deep in his consciousness. He imagined the yellow light, but it flickered, as if the oncoming bot were a wind and the yellow light were only an unprotected candle flame.

Rick stopped moving. His heart raced and his breathing became faster. He grasped within himself for the yellow light again, and Ditto drew closer, but as Ditto approached, the nature of the way he moved scalded Rick’s calm like boiling water in his mind. That walk struck terror into him in a way that had no easy explanation until, as his heart percolated in his chest and his palms sweated, as his mouth went dry and his lungs rasped with the speed at which he breathed, an image superimposed itself over Ditto.

The bot walked like the guards who delivered him, daily and without any empathy at all, to the dark room and the reCon program. They’d all had that clip, that nearly robotic crispness that made the sound of their boots ricocheting in the hallways cause him to freeze and listen until they either passed his chamber’s door or, at a random time he couldn’t predict, drew up directly in front of it.

He tried to reconcile the conflicting input—Ditto’s face with the gait of the reCon guards.

Ditto? Come on, man… Rick stopped dead, then began backing away. The bot smiled and hastened its approach.

Ditto?

Ri— It was his friend’s voice in his head! Rick, I’ve— The voice cut out —dismant—can’t—sist.

Rick tried to listen more closely, but his own fear was a barrier.

—the anti-che—

There was silence.

—taken over my avatar!

The anti-cheat has taken over his avatar? Rick’s eyes went wide. Where are you?

Can’t— There was silence again. Reach you. Anti— Ditto cut out —is trying to—

But there was no more. No more messages from Ditto.

And no more time.