by Cosimo Yap
Alan could hear echoes of what his AI would tell him. They would both advocate for leaving, running away to fight another day, to grind out levels and skills. But they weren’t Alan’s AI anymore, and Alan already knew the Titan was in orbit—he had held onto control of the Titan even when the Empire thought he’d handed it over.
Alan was a risk taker. It didn’t matter that the deck was stacked against him, that it was the poorest choice mathematically. He had a feeling that he could pull this off, no matter the odds. More than a feeling. This wasn’t a leap of faith, but a gamble on evolution. He could see the path ahead; he just needed to follow it.
“Why are you so scared of the Emperor, Phantom?” Alan asked. He walked over to Phantom, staring him down.
“I—”
Alan gripped his soulsteel knife and tore it through Phantom’s skull. Phantom tried to raise his arm, to react in time, but the knife cut through everything. Void stood to the side, still smiling, and slipped his helmet back on.
Messages appeared:
x10 Bonus XP for slaying an enemy over 1000 levels higher while taking 0 damage in the process!
x93 Level up!
Gained over 90 levels with one kill! +90 bonus ability points
Warning! You have violated the Black Rose guild contract. You will be required to pay a fine, face an inquiry, and your title of Phantom’s Squire has been removed.
Warning! You have murdered a servant of the Empire. Reputation with the Empire set to hostile.
The next moment two Predecessors had burst into the room. Alan raised his hands nonchalantly.
“You are under arrest. You—”
“I am to duel the Emperor. Phantom was unwilling to return my items,” Alan said. He shared the details of his Become Worthy quest with the guards. He didn’t tweak the text, as he suspected that they possessed detect forgery skills high enough to notice any changes. “I will become the Emperor’s servant soon, and if you make me miss my appointment I will hold you accountable.”
The guards hesitated, and clearly didn’t know what to do. They finally decided to run their problem up the chain of command. S entered the room a few minutes later.
“Alan, what are you doing? This is hardly the proper way to treat your fellow servants,” S said.
“I’m not a servant yet,” Alan said, “and I want to prove my worth. Care to join the fight?”
“No, I think not,” S said. “I bring a message. No more destruction of Empire property or personnel. Is that understood?”
“Yes, won’t happen again,” Alan said.
Reputation with the Empire reset to Neutral.
“For some reason, I don’t believe you,” S said, staring at Alan.
“You don’t need to; the Emperor wants me to put up a fight. I am obliging,” Alan said.
“We will follow him, make sure that he stays out of trouble,” one of the Predecessors said.
“No,” S said. “Alan is to be left to alone for now.” He departed the room with the guards.
“When Phantom respawns he will report you to the Authorities. Your secrets will be read like a book and you will be granted eternal rest,” Void said.
“Not if I kill the Emperor. That will make Phantom pause, stop him from making any drastic decisions, and the Authorities might grant me a reprieve,” Alan said. “There’s also the possibility that Phantom’s memory of the death will be wiped, or that other measures I’ve taken will come into effect. Where is the real Enigma, the android? As an item, it should be mine. I killed the owner.”
“Ah, the joys of hope,” Void said. “How foolish. How fresh. Very well, I will aid you in your duel against the Emperor. It will serve as a useful lesson in humility; there is no avoiding the gods now. The faceless man is stored nearby.”
Alan nodded and walked over to a capsule. “Let’s see if Aurora will help.” He pressed a few buttons.
Aurora was brought out of her coma. Liquid silver nanites poured down her body as she sat up.
She turned to look at Alan. “What’s going on?”
“We are on the Empire capital planet, Domus. Phantom,” Alan gestured at the dead body, “betrayed the Black Rose guild to the Empire. He kidnapped you as a hostage; I played along until I had the opportunity to kill him. Now, I am to face the Emperor in a duel to the death. I would be grateful if you would aid me.”
Aurora scrolled through a list of messages. “Where’s Sidestep? Why should I believe you? The last thing I remember is being in the Black Rose guild base.”
“I killed Sidestep, but I made a mistake,” Alan lied. “I wasn’t sure where his loyalties lay and wish that he were here to help us now.”
“I also wish that he were still among us,” Void said, using Enigma’s voice. “But all that matters is the present.”
Aurora blinked. “Enigma. What happened to my mother, what happened in the Abyss Labyrinth?”
“I wish I knew,” Void said. “I left early on a separate assignment. My forte is not my combat prowess. Phantom was also holding me hostage.”
Aurora thought for a few moments, and then nodded. “I will do what it takes to ensure the Black Rose guild’s safety. If that means getting revenge against the Empire that has betrayed us, so be it. What is the plan?”
“Well,” Alan said, turning to Void, “I assume you still have the two nukes…”
***
Four figures stood on the hill. The landscape was featureless, devoid of anything except the mound of dirt.
Kitana gripped her blade. The edge now contained soulsteel, the cost of her support. The weapon would do far more in her hands. Her heart raced, the world awash with color. The fearsome killing intent of a monstrous foe pressed down upon her.
Daisy stood behind, at the center of the hill, prepared to administer medical aid. She knew that it wouldn’t make much of a difference, not in this fight. But she would do what she could, for Earth. The Emperor did not respect diplomacy, only force.
Aurora spread out her hands and made clear walls of ice. They wouldn’t do much, but a fraction of a second could be the difference between life and death. Still confused, reeling at the betrayal and self-implosion of the guild, she wasn’t sure what to believe. So she focused on the ice, and the familiar cold.
Enigma stood still, constantly analyzing and reanalyzing the surroundings to determine if he should act. The checks cycled: a monotonous loop that would continue forever if nothing changed.
“Where is Alan hiding? He went invisible an hour ago,” Daisy said.
“Focus on the battle at hand. It could be over in an instant,” Kitana said.
Aurora glanced at the blade Kitana wielded. “None of us can withstand a single strike; I do not see how we win this fight.”
A dot appeared in the sky. Enigma readied himself.
Next to them a figure in power armor with a railgun deactivated its invisibility, and said, “We’re the bait, the sacrifice.”
Then the Emperor was upon them. It crashed through the walls of ice, barreling into the center of the formation before any except Enigma could react.
Enigma flipped a switch, but too slow, too late. The Emperor swept Enigma off his feet and crushed the android like a trash compactor. The nuclear bomb activated; the Emperor let it explode and leapt backward.
But there was no explosion, no burst of radiation. Instead, there was a flash of steel, and the Emperor’s life decreased by 5%. A diagonal line appeared on its chest.
Kitana lifted her sword to swing again. The Emperor raised its hand and blades of soulsteel shot out. The Emperor’s life decreased by 2%, but the soulsteel went through Kitana’s head.
An explosion sounded in the distance. A mushroom cloud expanded above the catacombs. The Emperor froze, and then chuckled madly.
Aurora tried to encase the Emperor in ice to stop its movement. It shrugged the ice off, and a series of soulsteel blades went through Aurora’s head as well.
Daisy desperately tried to repair the damage to Kit
ana, to bring her back to life. She was killed almost as an afterthought when a flick of the Emperor’s finger crushed her skull.
The railgun fired, and a soulsteel needle pierced through the Emperor’s thigh. It still had 90% of its health.
“This is all you could—”
And then the Titan crashed into the Emperor, with all the speed and force of a meteorite, its engines running full throttle. Void, wearing Alan’s armor, was instantly crushed to death.
Alan stood in the control room, focused on the void crystal in his hand. Hypercognition activated, Alan connected with the Game itself, forcing his consciousness out and into the fabric of reality with data interaction. He was just detecting the Game, but had woven himself in as part of it.
Time seemed to slow down a step beyond even what Eve had been capable of. Every detail of Alan’s surroundings was absorbed. He was suddenly able to see. New senses burst into being like he’d stepped out of a dark cave and into the light.
Messages popped up. Alan already knew what they said; he didn’t need to spend the time to read them:
By becoming aware of everything within your perception, you have gained a new ability, Minor Omniscience!
+500 Perception
ERROR, you have gained a new ability, Minor Precognition!
+100 Intelligence, +100 Perception, +100 Willpower
The precise force the Titan was crashing into the Emperor with, the Emperor’s health and damage resistance, the amount of energy that would be released by the abyss crystal, it was all as clear as day.
And it wouldn’t be enough.
The Emperor would survive, with 2% health remaining.
Alan froze, trying frantically to figure out what he could do. He knew all the variables, though. All of his energy and his entire health bar were being used up by data interaction. It took everything he had to reach this point and he still needed to use data interaction to release the void crystal’s antimatter. Even then, it wasn’t enough.
The only thing that Alan had left to burn was his consciousness. The lights, the mind that traversed Cyberspace, the part of the Game that made up himself. His soul.
Was a single kill worth the risk, the sacrifice?
No. Alan wanted to live on. To exist.
But Minor Precognition was active, and Alan could see down the branches of the future. He would become a slave or be banned from the Game. Even if he returned to the Game he would not make a difference in time—Earth would fall under the Empire’s control. Millions, perhaps billions, would be deleted fighting against the Game itself. No progress would be made. Only war and destruction.
On the other hand, Alan would die. A true end. The Empire would crash and burn in the Extinction Event. Earth would be given room to grow, its future uncertain. A path toward a new hope revealed itself.
But that world would not contain Alan.
It was funny, now, how Alan felt like he had the most freedom from the Game’s influence on his mind when he was most intertwined with its systems. It didn’t try to change him, because he was part of the Game.
And Alan realized he didn’t care as much as he thought. Everyone died. If all it took was the press of a button, so be it. He’d kill himself. The pain, the joy, the sorrow, everything would end. There would only be nothingness, or he’d find out there was an afterlife.
That didn’t sound so bad. Alan made his choice. To save others, but also because he couldn’t be bothered to continue living.
A tiny shard of soulsteel was created mid-air as the Titan crashed into the Emperor and the void crystal exploded, releasing all its energy in a massive explosion. As if it were preordained, the Emperor was sent flying, straight into the soulsteel.
The Emperor died.
And Alan vanished, erased from existence.
Epilogue
Time stopped, and beings descended. They examined the frozen scene. A Predecessor in the midst of death, a Traveler erasing himself.
Wipe the entire server. It’s time we started from scratch.
No. There are too many ongoing storylines, too many resources already devoted to this project.
Reverse time. Fork it.
No. The Gam3 will not be restored by backups. Play with a copy on your private server.
It’s not the same. You never provide true copies.
Who gave the Traveler this ability?
The Weaver. They will be reprimanded.
How do we balance this?
A mind wipe, a few restorations.
The Traveler still succeeded. The Predecessor still died. They should each reap the consequences.
The Traveler was deleted.
We could make an exception.
No. Once one exception is made, many will follow.
Why not? He proved himself a Major Player. Maybe even Ascendant material.
It is a unique circumstance, brought upon by one of our own.
No. We are to be objective. Rules must be followed.
Lighten up. What’s the point of being gods if we can’t take advantage of it?
I agree.
He is corrupted. The information provided is not reliable. Let him remain deleted.
Restore him, but remove the corruption.
Fine. An exception will be made. This is the only one.
That’s what you said last time.
Quiet. The rest of you return to your games, I have work to do.
Time resumed.
***
Alan awoke in his Home. Or at least, that’s where he thought he was.
Alan tried to connect to the Administrator, but couldn’t. His implants were missing. No, not only his implants. Everything was gone: his abilities, his stats, his equipment. He was standing there naked.
“What’s going on? Where am I?” Alan asked.
“Greetings, Anomaly, you are currently on the Main Network,” the Administrator said.
“What happened to me? Where are my levels, my equipment?” Alan asked.
“Error. I do not have permission to access the required files. Please wait a moment.” The Administrator’s head twitched, and then its eyes glowed red. Something else had taken over.
“The Traveler Alan has been deleted. You have been restored from the latest backup and given the memories of Alan before his self-deletion.”
“I’m, I’m what? A copy?” Alan asked.
“You are a perfect restoration. No more, no less, than the Traveler Alan moments before his death,” the Administrator said.
“What happened in the Game? Did the Empire collapse, are my parents okay?”
The Administrator gave Alan a questioning look. “You have never entered the Game, Anomaly. Only the Gam3, the third simulated version of the Game.”
“Explain to me the difference. Didn’t the Lords of Life win the Game?”
“No. The primary Game, technically the Gam1 though no one calls it that, has never been won. It expands outward too quickly for any to take complete control of space, the necessary requirement to beat it.”
“What are the different copies of the Game, then? If I was in the third, what about the others? How many are there?”
“Five main simulations, with many smaller versions. The primary Game, the arbiter of reality, may only be entered once by sentient life. Once you die within the Game that is it, you may not re-enter. No respawns.
“The Gam2 is the military boot camp required to enter the Game. The majority of combat is dictated by drones and spaceships firing lasers at each other from vast distances. A minimum of Major Player status in the Gam3 must be reached to be eligible for the Gam2.
“The Gam3 is the main entertainment simulation designed to be humanoid friendly. It is also designed to discover the Travelers that are worthy of cultivation and those that are to be deleted.
“The Gam4 is used to simulate specific battles or setups within any of the previous Games. A single city or solar system might be tested extensively in many different aspects. A sandbox, as you might cal
l it.
“The Gam5 is used to experiment and create new life and technology. Seed worlds are hosted on this server, as well as many educational facilities.”
“Okay,” Alan said. “Tell me about the Gam3. Has the Extinction Event ended? What happened to my friends, my family?”
“The Extinction Event ended thirty-two days ago, Gam3 standard time. I am uncertain who you would consider a friend, and have no record of any family,” the Administrator said.
“No family? The Traveler Alan’s family, then,” Alan said.
“As punishment for breaking the rules of the Gam3 the Traveler Alan and all associated data was removed. Non-essential data is routinely deleted.”
“Deleted? What do you mean? You can’t go around and delete people. My parents were on a ship to colonize hospitable planets. From Earth, my home planet. You know Earth, don’t you?” Alan asked.
“The seed world Earth is functioning normally. Non-travelers not connected to an active Player are deleted on a set schedule.”
Alan stopped. He grabbed the Administrator. “What is a seed world?”
“A seed world is a world created to populate the game servers.”
“No, no that can’t be. Earth… Earth can’t be a simulation. If that’s true, that means that I’m, I’m an AI?”
“By your definition, yes,” the Administrator said. “The vast majority of Players and Travelers are AI. Information is hidden to ensure they perform as intended.”
Alan started laughing uncontrollably. It was a sick joke, but the Gam3 turned out to just be a game after all. Only, it wasn’t for Earth, or humans, or Travelers. It was a game for Ascendants. Beings with such power, such scale, that they were able to act as gods and do as they pleased.
Alan was a mother-fucking NPC.
The long flights in real life, those were loading screens. Alan hadn’t been traveling between galaxies, but networks. Everything in “real life” had always felt fake, and now Alan knew why. It was fake, a simulated version of reality.
“What am I supposed to do now? Is there any way to restore deleted data?”