“I don’t know if I like winning,” I said.

“Yeah, I get it, kid,” Selvaggi replied.

“Oh, communications are working again.”

“In between waves, we can communicate freely. Once the hand is dealt, we’ll be locked until the round ends.”

“Yes, the men die,” Coopman said. I turned to look at him. “But as with everything else, they’re protected, in a way. They’re conscripts from subjugated races. This is how they gain experience until they gain sentience.”

“Wait,” I said, shocked. “They’re not sentient?”

Branciforte laughed. “Does it make a difference? Is subjugation a lesser offense if the slaves are unaware?”

“I…” I stood and paced for a moment. The three bosses gave me time. “I don’t know. Slavery is terrible, obviously–”

“From your perspective. That is one which came from a time and place that did not have the System.” Selvaggi looked at me pointedly.

“Well, that’s true. But I can’t really think of when slavery is better.”

Coopman answered me. “Which do you think is better: genocide because a planet is too small and weak to withstand the changes brought on by the System, or slavery which is guided and controlled by the System to prevent abuse? In the second case, all the inhabitants of a planet that cannot support the influx of power and magic are enslaved until they are capable of making their own decisions. It’s basic things, such as shock troops, menial labor, mining… the sort of jobs most don’t want.”

I stopped and looked at him, then gestured at the blood stained field between us. “This is preventing abuse?”

Branciforte nodded. “They are unaware. No memories. Only the XP gained from what happens, and only until they reach F rank, which I’m certain is what you and your kind are at.”

“Do you mean humans?”

“Of course. You do not think we are all the same?”

I shook my head. “No, of course not, but these men are clearly human.”

Selvaggi laughed. “Kid, next wave, pay closer attention. They’re not as human as you think.”

I shook my head again. “I wasn’t expecting to get into a heavy existential debate with the bosses I was supposed to fight.”

“And still are fighting,” Selvaggi gently reminded. “You caught us in a good mood. That, and your early timing means we’re not quite ready. We’re required to fight you, but beyond that, it’s up to us. The rules aren’t fully in place yet.”

“Right,” I said. I walked back to my chair and had a seat. A deck of cards appeared, though it had to be some kind of illusion. It looked to be in the center of the field, but cards flew from the deck and hovered right in front of me, as well as the other three.

I watched as my hand assembled itself. Jack, six, eight, queen, queen. Not a bad hand to start with. I dropped the six and eight, hoping for more face cards. The old ones drifted into the center before puffing away, and two new cards flew in. A ten, and a three.

“Damn. Well, still, not bad. Pocket ladies. Alright.”

The hand slowly descended, then flew at the doors to my castle. I stood to watch as they sank into the doors. There was nothing else. I had kind of hoped for a bit of fanfare or something, but that would quickly become annoying.

I sat back down, trying to focus on the game. There was way too much visual spectacle to expect me to stay seated.

“Hey, can you guys hear me?”

No, but I’m pretty good at reading lips. What’s up, Kid?

I looked at Selvaggi. He nodded, confirming that it was him messaging me.

“That’s cool, I wish I could do that.”

In a few months, I won’t be able to, much as I’ll want to. What’s your question?

“Right. Uh, do you guys have any like, design control? I mean, can you change things or make suggestions to make the game work better?”

No. We can send suggestions up, but that is it. I don’t even know where it goes when we make the suggestion.

“Okay, well, there’s a lot of spectacle. I think that’s sort of the point. Even with the horrible things, I still want to get up and look around. Maybe you should try to change it so the players just have to be in an area, instead of in the seat. I know some of my friends hate to play games while sitting. They stand or pace.”

Your friends sound awful. I’ll get the suggestion sent up, though. It’s a good point. Anything else?

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

I shook my head and returned my attention to the game. The upgrade menu appeared.

Soldiers:

Speed: 2

Health: 10

Damage: 3

Quantity: 20

Soldier upgrades:

+1 cost per investment

Speed: 11

Health: 10

Damage: 10

Quantity: 10

Castle:

Health: 250

Repair: No

Archers: 1

Castle upgrades:

Health: 10

Repair (ability): 100

Repair: Cost dependent

Archers: 10

Unlocks:

Archers: 30

Mages: 75

Knights: 100

Bears: 100

Dwarves: 150

Griffons: 200

Dragon: 500

I checked my gold total: an even forty pieces. I selected the upgrade for Archers.

Unlock archers for 30?

I mentally accepted, and the option disappeared from the menu. Two new lists appeared.

Archers:

Speed: 2

Health: 5

Damage: 5

Range: 10

Quantity: 2

Archer upgrades:

+2 cost per investment

Speed: 10

Health: 20

Damage: 10

Range: 10

Quantity: 15

I had ten gold left, and while it was tempting to upgrade the archer’s speed, I thought it could be used more effectively elsewhere.

“Weird that I can improve practically everything except attack speed.”

I chose range, watched the last bit of my money drain away, then looked down below. Nothing happened.

“Probably need to wait for the others to finish their setup…” I sat back, looking at the three bosses. They were all silently staring into space, obviously making their own decisions.

Finally, the creak of wood told me the setup phase had ended.

Target randomly chosen.

“Crap, I forgot to select a target again.” I looked and found the arrow above Branciforte’s castle. I stood and looked over the wall at the men below. My units marched proudly onto the field. I had twenty-two soldiers and two archers.

“Wait, why do I have twenty-two soldiers? I wonder if that has something to do with the hand I drew. Didn’t I have twenty last round?”

I half expected a message to pop up from Selvaggi, or maybe one of the other bosses, but no answers were forthcoming. The men all charged into battle, standards waving in the breeze. Remembering what Selvaggi had said, I looked closer at the soldiers before they were too far to see clearly. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, then looked again. My eyes were not fooling me. At least, I didn’t think they were.

“Are those… mannequins?”

Their skin had a plastic sheen, obviously artificial. More telling were the exposed joints. I could see how they moved. It was like watching a stop-motion, after paying attention.

“That’s wild. I guess he was telling the truth.”

I was pleased to see the archers kept up with the soldiers. It seemed the base stats were universal, which helped. They closed the distance to the other forces, which again seemed to all be running at the same pace.

Selvaggi had ten soldiers with one archer. That surprised me, because their shields had been replaced with a larger model. It was more like a buckler instead of a bracer. They moved at the same pace as everyone else, which seemed surprising, despite the increased weight. I did find it interesting that despite the higher base speed, his archer stayed behind the main force of soldiers.

Coopman had obviously invested in damage. The short swords used by his men had been swapped out for a slightly larger one. The differences in visuals were an excellent clue to watch out for.

I finally turned my attention to Branciforte’s men and nearly threw a fit. He had forty-four soldiers!

“Well, that’s just unfair. Them’s the breaks, I guess.”

My forces were first in, again. I was worried the number advantage would be too much for my men, but the archers were savage. They loosed arrows from what looked to be about a hundred-fifty feet away, or about forty-six meters. Soldier after soldier fell, struck true by large arrows. I marveled at the archer’s ability to fire on the move.

“That is completely unrealistic. But so damn cool.”

By the time our two units had met, his was down to a third of the original size. My men quickly cut them down. The archers changed to the nearer of the other hostile units when my men engaged Branciforte’s in close combat. I marveled as men fell like wheat to a thresher.

“This seems too easy.”

Another stroke of luck appeared: Coopman and Selvaggi had selected each other as targets, so their units ignored my archers cutting them down. I watched as one of Selvaggi’s soldiers spotted an incoming arrow and turned his shield to deflect it, only for the arrow to punch straight through. It pinned his shield in place, causing him to go down to the next strike from one of Coopman’s soldiers. I idly wondered if the arrow meant I got part or all of the credit for that kill.

Before long, my remaining men cleaned up the last of the hostile soldiers. I watched, sadly, as the last of my men marched toward Branciforte’s castle. I halfway expected my archers to target the one on his castle, but they never did. Twelve men swung swords, two archers fired arrows… then five, four… I felt numb as I watched the mannequins fall. They might not have been sentient, but their screams still sounded human.

Finally, the round ended. I had earned sixty-four gold from the fight. I didn’t even look at the other three men. This experience was a weird combination between standing at the edge of a war zone and playing an immersive VR game as a battlefield commander. I shook my head and pulled up the upgrade menu.

Soldiers:

Speed: 2

Health: 10

Damage: 3

Quantity: 20

Soldier upgrades:

+1 cost per investment

Speed: 11

Health: 10

Damage: 10

Quantity: 10

Archers:

Speed: 2

Health: 5

Damage: 5

Range: 15

Quantity: 2

Archer upgrades:

+2 cost per investment

Speed: 10

Health: 20

Damage: 10

Range: 10

Quantity: 15

Castle:

Health: 250

Repair: No

Archers: 1

Castle upgrades:

Health: 10

Repair (ability): 100

Repair: Cost dependent

Archers: 10

Unlocks:

Mages: 75

Knights: 100

Bears: 100

Dwarves: 150

Griffons: 200

Dragon: 500

I shook my head. The cries of my dying men still rang inside my mind. Even if I chose well and they survived the fight, they would then go die against whatever castle I targeted.

“Relax, kid. You’re actually doing pretty well. And you’re doing those men a favor. At this rate, a bunch of them might evolve out of the game.”

“Right. Thanks,” I said. I swallowed, and turned back to the upgrade menu. I wondered what would be the best choice to make.

I could upgrade the archers to be more deadly, the soldiers to be better killers, or my castle to increase my chances. But I could see a fourth option. Increasing the speed of my soldiers early had given me a big head start, and adding the archers had further increased that lead. I was just shy of being able to make a much larger upgrade in the form of new units. I hesitated, unsure if I wanted to commit to my current course. It would mean my men would be going up against improved soldiers without any new upgrades to defend them.

A timer appeared to let me know my time was almost up, and the new wave would begin soon. This game made me feel my choices, and I hated it.

“Gah, I haven’t felt this shitty about a choice in a video game since Mass Effect.”