“Well, I can help you with that.” he continued brightly. “All I need is permission to access your puppet and we can help each other out.”
Wait, is he suggesting he take over my body or something? I thought in alarm.
“Now don’t you get all paranoid,” he continued, probably sensing my hesitation.
“I’m not interested in being seeded into any puppet, let along your miserable goblin one. Doing that would repress my true self, I’d be forced to ‘act’ as the puppet.
No. I suggest a fair exchange, you help me, and I help you.”
I thought it over.
“How would that work?”
“Well…” he slowed as if pondering how to respond. “We will make a pact. You’ll grant me access to your puppet controls, and I’ll translate everything the game throws at you. I will become a sort of companion to you. We’ll be like soul pals,” he chuckled.
I frowned.
“Giving you control sounds like something I should be wary of. How do I know you won’t take over completely and screw me over?”
In a remarkable display of cloud-like indifference, the blob of light performed a shrug somehow.
“You don’t. But I would have already been behind your puppet’s wheel if that were possible. You’re the driver, not me.
Borrowing on that metaphor, what I’m suggesting is that you let me be your navigator. I’ll whisper suggestions and help you access your puppet's controls. Doesn’t that sound beneficial to you?”
I mulled it over.
“Does this means I’ll be able to access all my abilities and menus as before?
“Sure thing!” her replayed cheerfully “I’ll translate everything back to your human-normal displays, you won’t know the difference.”
“And I’ll be able to log out?”
“Ah, well…”
I could tell he was stalling
“Though it may hurt my case, I’ll be honest with you pal. Hopefully you’ll see it as evidence of my sincerity.
No, you won’t be able to log out.” Then he added hurriedly “But it’s not because I won’t do it. I’m pretty sure the option to do that no longer exists for your character.
“But why??” I asked plaintively.
“Because when that whole seeding-mess happened, dad deemed you an NPC, and NPCs don’t get to log out. So the option was removed from your default controls. To put it in layman terms, there isn’t any ‘button’ for me to press for you.”
Damn. I felt as if I reality slapped me again.
“So…” I continued hesitantly, “about that bond between us… all you want in return is just to make that connection with me, to avoid being alone?”
“Wellllll….” he stalled.
“That’s part of it. But there’s also a matter of a small payment I would like in return.”
I started to get a bad feeling about it.
“You didn’t mention that before. What sort of payment? I don’t have any money.”
“I’m not talking about money!” in a contemptuous tone. “What would an ethereal specter do with gold? No. what I want as payment is a commitment.”
“What commitment?” I asked skeptically.
“There are several people I’d like killed,” he stated calmly.
“Nothing you haven't done before in the game, I’m sure. Just promise me that if and when we encounter one of them, you’ll do all in your power to kill him. I promise you they’re all NPCs, and well within your ability to deal with. I wouldn’t throw you against a 500 level dragon or something like that. And to answer the next question you no doubt want to ask, all I’ll say is that some people simply need to be killed.
What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
More gibberish flashed across my vision.
I considered his suggestion. It sounded fishy. I’ve never before heard of the VIs he talked about. But it fits, sort of.
Some rumors attributed to ex-employees, claimed that Guy wasn’t directly controlling the NPCs.
If the creature before me was to be believed, he was a creation of Guy that was meant to fill the roles of NPCs, literally.
I still remembered that flashing alert message, something about ‘seeding failed’. So it made sense this entity would not suddenly ‘possess’ my body,
What choice did I really have?
I was completely cut off from the outside world, unable to use the most basic game functions, barely able to even control my own character. I was handicapped. No, I was drowning, and that creature just threw me a lifeline.
Exhaling loudly, I made up my mind.
“I accept your offer. What now?”
“Excellent.” It replied brightly, “I knew I could count on you. You’re an ok guy, for a walking, talking, meat suit.”
Now I was having doubts.
“Now let's see,” it continued, “what would please dad enough to grant us this small boon… hmm….”
I waited while the VI finally made up his mind.
“Ok, let’s begin.” His tone was excited. “First thing; draw some mana out into a ball.”
How did he know I could do that? I wondered, then shrugged it off as unimportant and started gathering my mana.
Luckily, I could still use my Mana Manipulation skill at will. A thin blue vaporous stream poured out of my outstretched hand into the air, slowly coalescing into a glowing sphere.
“More mana!” the ghost commanded, “It has to be enough to contain my consciousness.”
Clenching my teeth I increased my efforts, forcing more mana from me and into the sphere, which was now glowing a bright blue.
I had no idea how much mana I had poured into it, but it felt like a lot more than what should be available in my pool.
“That’s enough.” The ghost finally said.
I sighed in relief and unclenched my will, letting go of the mana flow.
The blue orb continued hovering on its own above the ground, a misty tendril of mana still connected me to it. The light from it was so bright, it lit the entire expanse of the cemetery.
“Good,” the ghost said in satisfaction. “Now, be a dear and slash one of your wrists, will ya?” he said in a matter of fact tone.
“What!?” I exclaimed, “You never mentioned that requirement before.”
The ghostly shape grunted and talked slowly, as if addressing a child.
“What did you expect? We’re binding our souls together. Our souls. A little bit of blood is in order, don’t you think?” It let the words sink in with me.
“Besides, I’m going to need a little bit of substance in me, to be able to interact with the physical world and pure mana just doesn’t cut it. Sure it’s great for pyrotechnics, but not as useful when you try to open a door or hang a coat. A little of your blood should be enough to give my essence a corporeal form.”
I couldn’t argue with that logic. If I didn’t like the way the blood-thing was going, I could stop it by putting pressure on the wound.
I took out the bone dagger, held out my right hand and cut into my wrist, wincing.
Damn, it hurts! What’s the deal with the pain levels lately?
Blood started coming out of the open wound on my wrist, but to my surprise, instead of dripping to the floor, the blood flowed over my wrist to the mana tendril and sort of fused with it. The mana tendril turned a dull purple color, and as the blood continued to pour out, the purple color crept toward the blue orb.
I started feeling dizzy from blood loss as the orb changed color gradually, turning a deep shade of purple.
Some more gibberish characters flashed by again.
“A little more,” the ghost said encouragingly “Just a little more”.
I started seeing black spots in front of my eyes, and tried to stop the blood flow, but the blood wouldn't stop.
More gibberish flashed by.
“No!” the ghost said sharply “we’re nearly there, just a little more.”
What the hell, what’s one mor
e death, I thought bleakly, and let go of the wound. Dizziness overtook me, and I sat down.
The purple orb now started to glow brighter and brighter, until…
“Yes!” The ghost stretched out a tendril of its own toward the purple mass of mana-and-blood. As it touched, the ghost’s ‘body’ deflated, as if it was being sucked into the orb. Then the ethereal ghost disappeared completely, leaving only the still floating orb pulsing a bright purple.
The mana and blood tendril that connected me to the orb disengaged from my body, and was absorbed by the orb.
I looked at the wound and found, to my surprise, that it was completely healed.
Meanwhile the orb was continuing its transformation. The pulses coming faster and faster, nearly reaching a continuous rhythm, looking like it was about to blow, then stopped abruptly. The hovering orb fell to the ground.
A tentacle grew out of the orb. Then another, and another and another. Soon a mass of writhing purple tentacles replaced the orb.
Oh god, I gave birth to a tentacle monster, I thought wearily to myself.
“who is talking to me?”
In a few heartbeats a miniature purple goblin-like creature, about half my height, stood in front of me.
“Tah-Dah.” He exclaimed theatrically, raising its hands in victory. He chuckled and raised his purple arms to inspect them closely.
“Amazing,” it chortled “It actually worked.”
“What?!” I exclaimed, “You weren’t sure?”
He turned to look at me, then mockingly bowed low.
“Sorry master but it was just a theory.”
I started having serious doubts, considering his attitude.
“I thought we agreed you would be my companion” I said carefully, “one would expect a little more respect be shown to its ‘master’ as you put it.”
He snorted.
“Please, you were desperate and you know it.”
He saw my alarmed face and his expression softened.
“Don’t worry, we made a pact, and I intend to keep my end of the bargain. But it doesn’t mean I’ll be your slave. If you want me to show more respect, you’ll have to earn it.”
I could live with those terms.
“Did you speak in my mind earlier?” I asked apprehensively.
“Ahhg! You did, Holy shit!”
“Chill dude,” the miniature purple goblin chuckled.
“It's just a side bonus of our partnership. Should prove to be pretty useful on occasions, don’t you think?”
I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of hearing voices in mind, but I had to admit it could prove useful down the line.
“So… what do I call you? Calling you ‘The Ghost’ is a little inaccurate now.”
“I have a name, of course” he stared at me and cocked his head.
“But the true name of a VI is a powerful thing. I think I’ll keep that to myself for now.” He stared directly at my eyes, as if daring me to object.
“However,” he continued, satisfied I wasn’t going to challenge his proclamation “as I’m technically your companion, the system requires you to name me,” he raised one arms, brandishing a small fist, “but don’t come up with something stupid, I hate some of the names players give their pets. Call me ‘fluffy’ or ‘shadowCat’ and we’ll have a serious problem on our hand.”
He crossed his arms over his chest.
My brows knitted in a frown. All I knew about him at this point was that he is a VI. VI…V…V…Vi…Vic!
“How about Vic?” I asked, “does it violate your ‘stupid names’ rule?”
“Hmm….Vic...“ he considered it for a moment. “I like it.” he declared. “Well done.”
A few more gibberish characters flashed in my vision.
“Oh, right” He smacked his forehead, “I promised to translate all the game feedbacks. Here you go.”
The gibberish characters reappeared, but this time they didn’t flash by. They stayed, superimposed in front of my eyes. Then they started to reform. Gibberish became alphanumeric characters, and reorganized into familiar patterns...
+10 reputation with Vic. Current rank: Distrust. Points to next rank: 990
You should strive your best to appease and satisfy Vic because he is awesome!
It worked!
“I got the system messages back on.” I happily exclaimed.
“It was a piece of cake,” Vic replied modestly “See? I held up my side of the bargain”.
“But… er… what’s with the weird message? Does the game actually think you’re so awesome?” I rubbed my chin.
“Well,” he replied modestly, “I might have added a little bit of coloring to the text, just to keep things interesting, you see.” He gave me a not-so-subtle wink.
I facepalmed.
Great, looks like my new soulmate, is a megalomaniac. I wondered if I’d have to get a divorce.
“Ack! You can hear all my thoughts?”
He shrugged, “I thought we made it clear already, you amnestic meat suit.”
It also seemed that he didn’t hold me in high regard either. I guessed that my ‘Distrust’ reputation with him explained his attitude and why he wouldn’t trust me with his true name.
Wait a second… I suddenly realized something. System messages are working again! Eagerly, I tried to open my inventory.
“Sure thing boss” Vic responded immediately and my inventory screen popped open.
I stared at it, and pumped my fist into the air, it worked.
I checked the other game commands and they all worked as before. It was a relief to find that this weird bonding experience was worth the risk.
I held my breath and carefully thought the next command; Contact Administrator
“Err... Looks like you don’t have the standard player’s controller interface anymore.”
My heart sank at hearing those words.
“However,” Vic quickly added “You’re in luck. NPC’s do have internal messaging capacities, mainly to inform the system of bugs and glitches in the game.
I can piggyback on that and send a message directly to the admins.”
Relieved, I nodded my understanding. A second later, a somewhat different ‘contact admin’ screen appeared before me.
Normally, a message would be sent to the general admin group. Instead, I selected admin SuperWolf#23 from the list.
It was my friend Tal’s admin username. His company compelled all employees, even those with unrelated positions, to operate in support capacity from time to time, to make them more sensitive to the customer and maintain touch with the gaming experience.
Luckily, I remembered his username.
Opening my minimap for my exact coordinates, I wrote a short message.
New Era Online [Internal messaging service]:
To: SuperWolf#23
Subject: You told me so
Stuck in the game.
Coordinates. A3.F5.P9. Please come asap.
Oren.
I mentally hit the send button and hoped Tal would respond quickly.
Considering the time differential from the real world, it would probably take hours before he’ll answer back.
“Message sent boss.” Vic informed me energetically.
I nodded.
“Thanks, Vic”.
“So,” he continued brightly “Now that we handled t
hat business, let me take a moment to check your logs, see what else I can translate for you.”
He closed his purple goblin eyes in concentrating.
“No…no…damage sustained…boring…you’ve received blah blah boring…”
It didn’t feel right having Vic deciding what was or was not interesting to me, but for now, I decided to go along with it.
“There.” he said after several long moments.
“It took a while since a lot of that stuff was not intended for players, so I had to get creative to translate them. But I got the gist of it now, future messages should be translated instantaneously.”
Then, to my joy, system messages were popping into view one after the other, and staying. And not in gibberish:
Level up! You have reached Character Level 5. You have 1 ability point to allocate.
Congratulation! You’ve become one of the select few to become strong enough to lead and influence the future of your race.
You are now classified as a Boss I [Totem].
New Skills and abilities have been unlocked.
New Trait Unlocked: Boss Boon I [passive, monster race, boss]
As a boss you’re naturally stronger than other members of your race, you receive bonuses based on your boss level and boss type (awesome, right?)
Attributes: As a Boss I [Totem], you receive +2 for Mental, +1 Physical, +1 Social (gnarly dude)
Health: character level * 5 (who wouldn’t want that?)
Mana: character level * 10 (what? that’s so OP, it’s nearly cheating.)
Mana regen: character level counts as Mental attribute when calculating mana regeneration.
Bonus Skills: Blood Wrath, Mana Shield
“Ah… Vic?” I asked tentatively, “Would you mind toning down your personal comments in the messages?”
He shrugged
“Sure thing boss”.
The system messages continued:
Due to your new Boss status, the skill ‘Mana Manipulation’ has been upgraded.
Skill effects have been replaced.
Base mana pool: +30%,
Base Mana Regen: +50%
Base spell effect +10%
New Spell acquired: Mana Shield(M) level 10 [active, monster race]
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