“Too lenient,” Lil said.
“I am in no mood to have my decisions second-guessed. If you'd like to help Moes with his work, it can be arranged, otherwise let’s speak of it no more,” Joe spit out before he could help himself. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. The motion, unfortunately, made him notice the blood still fresh on his hand. In Russian, he addressed Spooky.
“How bad is the error with your processor? Is it the reason I'm feeling so uncomfortable right now?” Joe asked.
It was a reasonable question, but discussing these technical issues broke several protocols for Spooky. This situation, however, was unprecedented. Now was one of those times when she would have welcomed advice from the analogous code that was supposed to help her with combat. Strangely, right now it was silent. Spooky attempted to answer his question, “I don't believe that the way you're feeling physically has anything to do with the error in my processor. As to how bad the error is, I unfortunately do not know,” Spooky said.
“That's obviously an issue. It does explain why you haven't seemed very similar to my late wife. I'm guessing one of the errors is in the personality software. If I remember correctly from what you said before, you and I are kind of joined, right? Your little machines are in my brain helping it function, so I can live a little longer. Could they even move me to another pod?” Joe asked.
Finally, this was a question that she could answer without breaking any rules. “A procedure such as yours is only performed on those who are terminal, precisely because it is irreversible. I'm sorry, Joe, you're stuck with me, errors and all,” Spooky said.
“Is it possible I can, at least, speak with a tech person?” Joe asked.
“Unfortunately not. It was when we were summoned that I first noticed the error. Somehow, the in-pod connection, or the tech’s ability to communicate with me, was cut. I can tell the out-pod is still connected, but I cannot seem to control what information they are receiving from me. It's possible that they can see us, but so far I have not found a way that we can have two-way communication with them. You and I have been on our own since the game began. And that is only one of the many irregularities that I have noted,” Spooky said with finality. “Joe, why are you smiling? And as long as I’m asking questions, why are you still closing one eye?”
“I'm smiling? I guess I am smiling, aren't I? I think that's because, well, it's kind of awesome. Far as I can tell, the game is still working, but the stakes have just been raised. As far as why I'm closing my eye, well if you really don't know about it, then I guess that's one of those irregularities that I just happened to discover before you. Take a look at my new friend. It appears to at least have a few instincts of its own,” Joe said as he opened his eye revealing his blue twenty-sided eye. Spooky almost forgot to flap her wings, the eye was so shocking. Looking through his twenty-sided eye, there were two images of Spooky in front of him, but they were not mirror images.
“Does it hurt?” Spooky asked.
“No, but it does change my vision. For instance, right now I'm seeing two of you. One of you is completely chrome, and the other has almost the identical coloring and bearing to my late wife,” Joe said and then closed his twenty-sided eye. When Joe did this, he noticed with his normal eye that Spooky had gone pale.
“What's wrong, Spooky? Was my eye really that freaky looking?” Joe asked.
“No. It's what you saw. Sometimes when I lie down and go unconscious, I see my body as chrome during that time. I call myself Bind and in that place there is a woman, just like you described. She calls herself, EMC,” Spooky said.
“Are you sure this is all one big error, because it really sounds like a game puzzle to me. Could the developers be experimenting with us? Putting us both in some new cutting-edge gaming environment? My granddaughter knows me pretty well and this is the type of thing that I would enjoy,” Joe postulated.
“That was my theory also, however EMC has a different theory,” Spooky said.
“What does the beautiful lady say?” Joe asked with a smile.
“She thinks it has all become real. She has tried extremely hard to convince me that this is not a gaming reality, but something real,” Spooky said, and for a long moment, Joe was silent. His mind was racing, remembering when he heard that first perfect musical note. The sensations in this game felt real. Only it was not possible, conspiracy was a much more plausible explanation. Joe took a deep breath, letting his lungs fully expand. Then, he slowly let it out, feeling confident in his next words.
“She's definitely a developer plant. A very beautiful plant, but magic isn't real, at least this kind anyway. They didn’t give Amelia what she paid for. We must be in some new prototype they are experimenting with,” Joe said.
“EMC does have a few good points. As far as my sensors are concerned, it appears that everyone here is a real biological life form who feels and behaves as people would,” Spooky said.
“That could be explained in numerous ways. The developers could be feeding your sensors garbage, causing you to register them as real. Or, we could be in some new MMO, and everyone we see is an avatar for a real person back in a pod, and therefore they act as we would expect people to. Our government had done plenty of brainwashing experiments back in the day. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Moes truly believes he is a halfling who grew up on this moon. Either way, how could this be real?” Joe took another deep breath as doubt seeped in again. He considered further and resolved himself once more, “My old shriveled body is still in a pod being kept alive by the best technology that money can buy. Don't get me wrong. It's amazing technology, but it's not magic. Although for our purposes here, I don't know if it really matters. If you and I were killed at our place of power, would the game reset or would I die for real?” Joe asked, feeling hopeful. Whether it was real or not, he had led a meaningful life and was ready to meet his wife. This game was a fun exploration and distraction during the wait.
“I don't know, but I think it might be death in real life,” Spooky said.
“As Mr. Eccleston would say, fantastic! Oh, it puts a completely new spin on our first fight with the chief. If I would have lost, that would have been it, that's all she wrote. The chief had been set on destroying the place of power, remember? If you guys wouldn't have given me such overpowered items, I wouldn't have had a chance. Admittedly, when I first got here, I thought it was going to be a bit of a cakewalk, but it seems like almost every enemy that I fight is as tough as me or even tougher. Even with the addition of the yetis, we are in real trouble. In the Book of Useful Information, I got to see a map of the areas outside of the mountains and even some subterranean caverns. Though we have a little distance from them for now, there are massive armies all around us. To the east, the kingdom of Dollmar, yeah they're not weak. But to the north is the Third Elven Kingdom, they have at least three times the military might of Dollmar and an unknown number of champions. And I haven't even brought up the dangerous organized society of vampires under the mountains. Wow, I could totally be seeing my wife soon,” Joe said.
“Stop smiling, Joe! These are not exciting things you're talking about. These are bad things. My main protocol is to keep you alive,” Spooky said.
“Oh, so much to do, so much to do! You got to help me focus, Spooky, I need you for that. Failure is death. This is going to be super fun. Let's go through our backlog of messages. Wait, what is that on your fingers?” Joe said frowning and pointing at her two new rings, “Why are you looking so afraid?” Joe’s eyebrows narrowed.
Spooky needed to inform Joe of the dungeon, but she hadn't wanted him to find out this way. Suddenly, defiance rose up in her. She lifted her chin and looked Joe right in the eye, “It's from a dungeon below the castle. I've been working in it since you've been in your healing trance. Would you rather I woke you up and let Lil die?” Spooky asked. She had almost been successful in diverting Joe, but something felt off to him so he asked a question.
“Before I went into the h
ealing trance, you got some experience on the lower levels of this castle. If I recall correctly, three times you got 7 XP. Don't try to distract me or lie to me, you've known about this dungeon since the first day, haven't you?” Joe rebutted. Spooky's jaw firmed. Although Joe lacked focus, his memory was a little too good.
“Yes, I did and I stand by my decision not to tell you about it. You are my patron, but that doesn't mean I have to do everything you say. I will do what I believe is best for you. With the information I had at the time, I made the best decisions that I could,” Spooky said.
“What other lies have you told since this game began?” Joe asked, his accusation turning toward curiosity.
“That was not a lie,” Spooky said, with confidence and justification in her tone.
“That wasn't really my question. We can address that later. First, we can answer the question I asked. What lies have you told since we've been here?” Joe had a small knowing smirk on his face.
“If I have told lies or utilized strategies to keep you safe, as your E.I., it has been my prerogative. At this time, it is not in your best interest to be made aware of the minutiae in my activities. I suspended role-playing protocol to inform you of the errors, but you do not need to know every line in my code. Why are you smiling? All the research I've done shows that this conversation should be an uncomfortable conversation for you,” Spooky said.
“I'm not smiling, I’m grinning. There's a difference. The reason for this look is because I made some assumptions that were wrong, and I'm feeling a little silly,” Joe said.
“What assumptions?”
“I assumed that because you agreed to be partners with me, you wouldn't openly try to deceive me. Which, now that I think about it, was pretty naive. I mean, you were built to convince me that I'm young and that I'm living in a brand new world. This whole world is one big deception, why would I think you would be any different? You've been using my lack of focus to divert me from the things that you wanted to hide since the beginning,” Joe said as he shook his head.
Spooky didn't like what he was saying, but she didn't know how to respond, so she fell back on old protocols and corrected him.
“We're on a moon, not a world,” Spooky said.
Joe couldn't help it, he started laughing. “You’re incorrigible, Spooky. But, seriously, how could this be real? How could magic be real? This is an extremely convincing reality, one that I could see fooling someone. But, it is possibly a broken reality in which I might actually die at any moment. The thing is, in many ways that's no different from how the rest of my life had been. It's the human condition. We could all go at any moment. That's the other silly assumption I made. You look so real, I've been thinking of you as such. Only, you're just a computer. That is why I don't feel betrayed. You can only do what your program tells you to do. Unfortunately, you are programmed to deceive me, to keep me safe but docile. I don't want to live the rest of my life, short as it may be, being safe. Though you're just a computer, I'm still going to be up-front with you. I will no longer be consulting you on the decisions that I make,” Joe said and fury burned in Spooky's eyes.
“You can't do that, Joe! You said we were partners. It would be hypocritical of you to be angry with me for lying and then lie yourself,” Spooky said.
“No, I'm informing you that this partnership is breaking up. I'm sure I'm a hypocrite about some things, but this isn't one of them. I'm going to work hard to accomplish my goals in this game. One of those goals is not to be managed like a two-year-old in a gated playpen. I don't see why you're bent out of shape about this anyway. You've been playing without me for the majority of the time. Continue doing what you're doing. I'm just going to stay aware that what you're doing does not involve transparency. The castle looks great. I love what you've done with the place. Keep building. Make us a strong capital. I'm going to head down to my room take a better shower and deal with all of my messages. They feel pretty urgent. Have a good rest of the day I'll see ya, when I see ya,” Joe said.
“That's not right! This is not how it's supposed to be. Don't walk away from me, Joe! This conversation is not over,” Spooky fumed.
Joe stopped, turned, and looked at Spooky with both eyes open. “I know that that is simulated fury on your face, but nevertheless, do not allow it to cause you to make more bad decisions. I cannot control you, but neither can you control me. Looking at you with my twenty-sided eye, I see you killing the yeti chief. He is integral to my plans. I can't work with someone who's just going to sabotage me at every point. I will not play this game that way. You're a computer and you've admitted that you have errors. If you kill one of my people, then I'll just have to reset this game. I'll destroy this castle myself, if that's what it takes. Maybe I'll die. Maybe I'll get to start over. I guess it really depends on the game developers. We're no longer partners, but we're still co-Champions. Let's work toward the same goal. We need to build a place that's safe for the people of the Way. Stop looking at me with fury. I'm not angry with you. After all, you're only a computer,” Joe said, then smiled as his body seemed to sparkle for a moment.
“I just learned four different portal spells,” Joe said, then walked down the stairs and into his room.
Spooky was so furious, she couldn't even move. Every time he called her a computer, the anger built. It didn't make any sense to her, because when EMC told her that she was real, that had made her angry. Wait, wait. She needed to talk to Joe more. She didn't understand what was happening. She flew to his room, but when she tried to open the door, it wouldn't open. Using her ability to sense things in the castle, she tried to see inside Joe's room. For some reason, she couldn't hear or see anything that was going on past the door in front of her. Quickly, she opened her HUD and worked her way through the drop-down menus to manually open the door. Each avenue that she tried received the same message.
Co-Champion Joe has engaged Do Not Disturb.
For a moment, she thought about getting inside of Obsidian One and breaking the door down. Then she had a thought. What if Joe did destroy the castle because of her actions? Her number one protocol was to keep him safe. How could she keep him safe if he was taking away her control? She made the decision not to go in. Joe was too unpredictable right now. There was much work to do anyway. She flew away from Joe's door, however, she was quickly replaced by a six-inch angel. It would immediately inform her when Joe came out.
Chapter 20 - Not the End
Joe sat in his chair, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows. He rubbed his face trying to relieve the pressure that the UI was putting on him. The errors that Spooky admitted to seemed to explain a lot of the irregularities Joe had been sensing. On the other hand, it might all be part of the game. At this point, it didn't really matter, he needed to focus. He was going to go through his messages, allocate his points, then go free the slaves that he had somehow acquired during his healing trance.
He indulged himself. Looking up at the ceiling, he spoke aloud, “Please stop punishing me for going into that trance. I thought it was necessary, I'll try not to do it again, okay? I thought Spooky could handle things while I was busy. My mistake. I need to stop making assumptions when I don't have the facts. I have never played a game like this before,” Joe said, and then opened one of the messages he been ignoring and the pressure he had felt passed.
Condolences!
You have died. The yeti chief’s claws penetrated your heart. In order to facilitate your resurrection, a portion of your XP has been utilized. You are now Level 50 once again.
Joe did not need that message. He had been present for those events. The next message made sense, but still surprised Joe.
Congratulations! You've completed a primary quest.
Kingdom in Name Only? Part 1
Appoint your first vassal and integrate his people into your society.
Reward for completing this quest: one random item and ten soulless mining golems.
Penalty for failing or rejecting this quest: loss of au
thority and sundering of castle.
Time limit for completing this quest: 6 months.
Plus 10,000 XP.
You have moved up a Level.
Current Level- 51.
You have moved up a Level.
Current Level- 52.
…
You have moved up a Level.
Current Level- 60.
As the discoverer of this quest, you get to choose either the item or golems for your reward. Whatever you don’t choose will go to your co-Champion.
That was easy, Spooky was the golem controller. Joe clicked on the item and it began to solidify out of the ether. Before it could materialize, Joe’s twenty-sided eye began to spin. Joe was glad he was still sitting. Finally, the eye stopped and he could see a backwards 20.
Item: Clean Socks of Give and Take
You have found the Clean Socks of Give and Take. When wearing these socks, you have the ability to either grow two feet taller or shrink down two feet shorter. Unlike normal socks, these won’t absorb your stink, but they will give you soft comfort. There's nothing better than an ever clean and fresh pair of socks. Note: When changing size, mass of the wearer stays constant but density is affected.
Pick up Clean Socks of Give and Take? Yes/No
You’ve been offered a quest:
But Death is Not Forbidden Page 28