by J P Carver
When he reached the chamber, he found the doors were still open causing the orange light to paint a square on the floor.
He stepped in, not nearly as enchanted by the place as last time. His death had stolen all the magic from the view
He saw his orb sitting over by the tree then noticed Peyton sat in her chair, watching him. He ignored her and went to the orb. There was only a couple hundred in experience points and it was added to his counter under his health bar. He could still see the shattered remains of his armor and felt a pang of sadness over it.
“So you came back,” she called. He stood and turned to find her making her way along the path, the same spear she used to kill him in her hand. Her fox tail was swaying behind her. “I worried I had been a bit too harsh, but if you didn’t make it through that I don’t think you’d be of much use to me.”
“Be of use to you, huh?” he said and shrugged. “That’s not something I really care about.”
Her smile created dimples into her cheeks. “Have you grown some since the last time we met? Or did you just put on a little weight?”
“Maybe a little. We fighting or not?”
She shrugged and looked up to the ceiling. He followed her gaze to find the stone washed out by the bright light and he squinted against it. “I was hoping we didn’t have to.”
“Scared?” he asked and mentally kicked himself. He wanted revenge, but better to not fight someone who was a lot stronger. She took it with a laugh.
“It’s possible, the way you look at me is very creepy.”
“Not as creepy as knocking a guy out and putting a chip in his brain,” he said and tapped at the scar on his forehead.
She canted her head and her ears perked up. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”
Geo laughed and picked a piece of grass from the brush next to him. He twirled it so that the white puff on top broke off and floated toward her on the faint breeze. “No, not for a long while. Not that it matters.”
“No? You sure seem confident you’ll beat me.” She jutted out her hip and placed a hand to it. “Why is that? Are you so angry about being beaten by a woman that you’re determined not to let it happen again?”
“You’re kidding, right? I’ve been beaten to death by centipedes so many times that any pride I had is long gone. Being beaten by you is basically the same thing.”
She giggled. “So you’re comparing women to centipedes?”
“You aren’t a woman,” he said flatly and tossed the piece of grass to the ground as he met her eyes. “You’re an AI and honestly, I like the centipedes a lot more. They at least don’t hide what they are.”
“Oh, are we going to talk about hiding? Should be an interesting conversation since you are the master of that.”
His fists clenched. “This isn’t about me.”
“Oh, buddy, this is almost all about you, except for the parts where it’s about me,” she said and took a step forward. “But let’s talk about you, huh? What are you hiding from?”
“Nothing. I’m not here to talk,” he said as he drew his sword and held up his shield. “Let’s just get this over with.”
She looked him over and then placed a hand to his shield. “Want to make a deal?”
He relaxed. “What do you mean?”
She waved a finger at him. “Uh-uh, no asking questions. It kills the fun. You want to make a deal or not?”
He thought for a moment. There was no reason for her to make a deal that would harm him, she didn’t need it. Any deal they struck would most likely have at least some benefit to him. He dropped his sword more and stood straight. “Okay, let’s make a deal.”
“Hmm? You said yes? That’s strange, Amber’s analysis of your brain scan said you would never take a deal without knowing what it entailed. Oh, Geo, you’re already making progress!” She clapped her hands against the staff of the spear, laughing. “I knew the moment I met you that you’d do well.”
“Shut up. What’s the deal?”
She cleared her throat and settled. “Right, so the deal is thus: You get my health down to less than fifty percent and I’ll tell you a secret and let you pass. If you don’t, I’ll kill you and you’ll have to try again.”
“Why?”
“Because I am so far out of your league, you need the handicap. The reason for that will be explained if you beat me. Heck, I’ll even give you the first shot for free.” She gently put her spear down and then stood, her arms at her side. Her tail was swishing back and forth like this whole thing was amusing to her.
“You sure about that?” he asked and raised his sword, trying to keep in his grin.
“Uh-huh, go on, give me all you got,” she said and hit her stomach with a hand. “This is the weakest point, so make sure you hit it right.”
“No complaints, you decided this,” Geo said and aimed his sword. “Ready?”
“Come on, get on with it already!”
He lunged forward, aimed perfectly for her abdomen and between the plates of armor. Then, he was stopped before he was about to hit. Bewildered, he looked up to see the sword caught in Peyton’s gloved hand. She grinned and gave him a little wink. “You remembered to apply Kaeru’s poison, right?”
“Wha—what?”
“The poison, did you apply it to your sword?”
He twisted the sword blade from her hand and stepped back. “You knew?”
“Pfft, of course I knew. If you got it on the blade then come on, stab me.”
He looked at her, confused. “But you’ll lose.”
“Ah, so you aren’t just good looks and a bonehead. Yes, that’s the point.” She reached down and picked up the end of the sword and placed it against her stomach. “So let’s go. Stab me.”
“I’m not—”
“Stab me already,” she said and walked forward. The tip of the sword went through her clothing and a bloom of red appear in the surrounding cloth. She stared down at it before facing him, her face screwed up in shock. “I—I can’t believe you did it. Kaeru is right, you have no h—honor.”
“I didn’t—” he started to say, but she suddenly screamed out and tumbled over.
She rolled on the ground, crying out in pain as if he had cut off her leg. “I’ve been penetrated already by some brute! I’ll never get married now! No one will want a soiled fox girl! I’m a disgrace! A disgrace!” She clutched the wound tightly. The bleeding had already stopped. “How could you do such a thing, Geo? I thought you were a good man—”
Geo stared at her, cringing as her acting was pitiful. He hit her shin with the broad side of his sword and got a real yelp from her. “Knock it off.”
She sat up and blew a few strands of her hair from her eyes. “Didn’t buy it, huh?”
“What was there to buy? If was faker than Cotora being nice to me.”
“Ooh, that bad?” She pouted and pushed herself to her feet. She looked down and pulled at the fabric of her shirt that was now stained. “That’s gonna be a pain to get out.”
“Why did you do that?”
Her eyes flicked to the right as if she worried someone watched them and then back to him. “You won our deal, so I can tell you. We’ve got a problem.”
Geo sighed, feeling more tired than he could ever remember being. “Like I said before, we’ve had problems.”
“Yes, but this one is at the root of all the others, it’s the reason I’m here at all,” she said and then turned from him. She started back down the trail and Geo hurried to catch up. “As you said, I’m not a human woman. I’m an AI, but not a normal one.”
“You can say that again,” he said and Peyton punched him for it. He rubbed at his arm as she continued.
“Don’t be a dweeb, I know that’ll be hard, but try not to.”
“Bite me.”
She grinned at him. “That’s for later. Right now, you need to know that this is my game system and I’ve lost control of it.”
Geo stopped in his tracks and Peyton took a few
more steps before she noticed. “Are you serious?”
“Yup, completely,” she said and faced the ground, her hands behind her back. “I lost control of the simulation on the cargo ship. Amber took over which is why I’m down here rather than at the top where I should be.”
“That’s why you’re so strong? How did Amber do… anything? She’s a sub-AI.”
“And now I am. She became the dominate personality, but the problem is she isn’t looking to help people.”
Geo walked around to stand in front of her. “The ship wasn’t damaged in hyperspace, was it?”
“Don’t act like you didn’t already know, dumb doesn’t fit you,” she said and patted his cheek which he flinched away from. She stared at him before speaking again. “Yes, we set a game up for the pilot of the ship and Amber decided that he didn’t try hard enough and so made the game even harder. She enabled the Darkness then because she wanted something to push him to try more.”
He thought back to when his psyche dropped. How that could push anyone to move forward was lost to him. “So this game is impossible to beat?”
She shrugged and kicked at a patch of grass. “The cargo pilot didn’t make it as far as you have. He gave up long before he got to the second safe room.” She chewed on her lip and her eyes dropped. “He made some sort of bomb in the safe room and blew himself, and part of the ship, up.”
“If I had the skills and items, I’d have done the same by now,” Geo said and she glared at him.
“But you don’t and you didn’t. That’s why, with my help, we can both get what we want.”
“And what do we both want?”
Her brows rose in surprised. “You do want this game to end, don’t you? I do too. My job was to help people regain themselves and show them that they can survive, that they’re not weak.” She placed a hand to his shoulder. “Just like you’ve realized.”
“What, that I am weak? That you destroyed me without trying?” He shrugged off her hand.
“I’m supposed to be the end boss, genius. Amber could move my floor, but I still kept my skills and levels. There is no way a level four would have a chance against me.”
Geo sat down on the root of a tree and picked at the fallen leaves. “How would you help me?”
“I’ll help you level and build your skills. I can help fight, but only if you make me your companion. My levels will drop, but the two of us should be able to push through anything she can throw at us.”
“What’s stopping Amber from making everything stronger?” he asked and twirled a leaf between his fingers. It looked almost like it had its own glow. “I doubt she’ll be happy knowing you’re helping me.”
“She can’t make it any harder. She has control, but the parameters have hard coded limits that even I couldn’t bypass. What she has it set to is as high as it can go.” She knelt down in front of him, frowning. “I’m sorry I helped put you in here, I didn’t have a choice, but I still believe I can help you and not just with the game.”
“I don’t want your help,” he said and watched a frown form on her lips. “But I’ll take it for this game. You sure you want to drop to my level?”
“Only other option is I go spend time with Amber, I’d rather spend a thousand years with you than do that. There’s another problem, though.”
“Of course there is.”
“When I become your companion, I’ll lose all knowledge I have of the inner workings of the game. I just keep my game skills and personal memories.” She puffed out a cheek while looking annoyed. “Which means while I could walk you through the floors right now, I won’t be able to once I down-level.”
“Figures. Well, I’d be glad for the help, but it’s up to you.”
She grinned and clasped her hands together. “Oh, that’s so awesome. You won’t regret it!” she said as she stood and opened a window in front of her. “Hmm, I think I’ll stick with the spear. You like magic so I’ll just take enough for a healing spell. Oh, should also… aw, not enough points. Why couldn’t you be a higher level?”
“Because someone made the game stupidly hard?”
“Hmph. Okay, what do you think of this?” She turned the window around to face him. “Think it will help?”
He shrugged as he was not the best person to ask, but he read the stat sheet.
Name: Peyton Ania
Level: 4
Health: 615/615
Mental Status: AI Complex (0)
Body: 7
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 8
Stamina: 180/180
Psyche: 100/100
Affinity: 6
Experience: 0
Skills
A Thousand Needles
The battle is lost not in the big blows, but in the many tiny hits one takes every day. A catastrophe provides direction while a heavy rain storm blurs together and the damage is only found after.
Attacks target with 100 hits that do a maximum of 3 damage a hit. Scales with Dexterity and level to a max of a 1000 hits and 5 damage.
Spells
Comfort
To turn away the touch of comfort is to turn away the touch of hope.
Restores 35% of health over six seconds. Scales with Affinity to 65% of health.
Affinity req: 6
Charges: 3
“Looks good to me, I guess. I don’t know much about this system,” he said and she sighed. “What?”
“Nothing. Okay, I’ll send you a request and once you accept it, the stat changes will apply.”
A status window popped up in front of him asking to accept Peyton as a companion. He hit yes. The window disappeared and there was a flash of white light from in front of him that he was blinded by it for a few seconds.
“Shoot,” he heard Peyton say. “I forgot about the stat requirements.”
He blinked a few times until his vision cleared and he found Peyton standing a few feet from him in her underwear. She didn’t seem particularly concerned about her state of dress, but Geo quickly turned away.
“Hey, you got any low level stuff I can wear?” she said, but he didn’t answer. “Hello? I’m talking to you, Geo.”
“N—no.”
He heard her laugh. “What’s wrong? It’s not like I’m nude or something. You’re gonna hurt my feelings.”
“You’re doing this on purpose, armor doesn’t have stat requirements. Stop being an asshole and put your armor back on.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t think I was cute” she said and her voice was right beside him. Her hands took both sides of his face and turned him to face her. “I know I’m not a real woman, but I look the part. I don’t mind if you look, so don’t be embarrassed.”
He pushed her away, but stayed facing her. “I’m not embarrassed. Just, most girls would be pissed about some random guy looking at them when they weren’t wearing clothes, all right?” He looked past her so she was blurred slightly. “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re being an ass.”
“But you aren’t some random guy,” she said and tapped his nose. “But you think I’m being an ass because armor doesn’t have stats, right? Floor 1 armor never has requirements so you can get equipped faster. From here on out, everything will have a stat requirement that you gotta meet,” she said as she adjusted the shoulder strap of her bra and stood. “Guess it’s not a big deal. You sure you have nothing I can wear?”
“Positive.”
“Fine. Hey, Kaeru? Keep an eye on Geo while I go find some armor. K?”
Geo looked away from Peyton and at the room, searching for the giant frog. Instead he saw a toad about the size of a pumpkin hop out from behind a bush.
“As Mistress wishes. I’ll make sure he does not get himself into trouble while we wait.” The glare from the toad’s golden eyes actually pained Geo.
Peyton kissed Kaeru on the head. “Don’t kill him either.”
“Mistress—”
“You were considering it. He’s already paid fo
r what he said, so be nice,” she said and patted Kaeru before walking to the white chair.
“Uh… hey,” Geo said.
“I do not speak with flies.”
“Right…”
A status window popped up.
You’ve lost a status!
Loneliness
Psyche is 84
Floor 2: Staff Living Quarters
Rainy City
“Just climb up?” Geo asked as he stared at the hole at the top of the ceiling.
“Yup, once you get to the opening we can travel using the center tunnel and reach the second floor,” Peyton said. She was wearing light leather armor and her spear was much simpler looking than her first one. The armor took some alterations because of her tail, but she looked comfortable in it.
“Right… I’m guessing something is stopping us from going further.” He reached out and tried the stone that made a handhold on the wall. They were slim, he could just get the top part of his fingers on the ledge.
“I assume so. I don’t know,” she said with a tone of sadness in her voice. “Like I told you, I know nothing about how this all works anymore.”
“I know, just, I have a lot of questions.”
“It’s well planned out so that it’s seamless for you. That’s all I remember. Wanna go first?”
“You should go first, if I fall I’d crush you.”
“Uh-huh, you can be honest with me, Geo. You just want to stare at my ass.”
“What ass?” he said before he could stop himself. He was knocked back by the staff of her spear, but it wasn’t actually painful. He stood straight and chuckled. “Sorry, use to dealing with Cotora.”
She gasped and took a step back. “No—no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, it’s just…”
“I get it, but you’re still going first,” he said and motioned to the wall. She nodded slowly and put the spear away in her inventory. She started to climb, and he followed soon after. It was a struggle and Geo almost fell twice, but they made it to the top where there was a lid.