“Oh, hello there,” Ethan calmly greeted the demon. Since it was locked in a pentagram, it probably couldn’t attack him, and he’d killed much more dangerous looking things in Worldshift, usually just for fun.
A mouth appeared on the demon’s face and it grinned, revealing shiny white teeth. “Greetings. The rules of this test are simple enough for even a mortal like you to understand. Open the right door and you pass. Open the wrong one and you will die in a truly horrible way that will amuse me greatly.”
“I don’t get any hints?” Ethan asked. All the doors looked the same. He had no idea which one was the correct choice.
“No, you don’t.”
“What if I shoot you?” Ethan asked as he drew his pistol and aimed it at the demon’s head.
The demon shrugged. “Feel free, mortal. It won’t do you any good though.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re a stupid meat brain,” the demon answered unhelpfully.
Ethan snorted and lowered his weapon. “If the rules are so simple, why are you even here? You seem like too complex of an addition to explain such simple rules. The game masters could have just left a note and spared the players some annoying back talk.”
The demon gave Ethan a malicious smile. “True, but then there would be no one present to appreciate your gruesome death. You seem mentally deficient. I hope you pick the door full of acid beasts. They kill their prey in such a deliciously sadistic way.”
“So, you know what is behind every door?” Ethan asked. He could probably use that somehow.
The demon puffed up proudly. “Of course. I’m a creature of arcane knowledge and power. My vision pierces the countless substrates of reality and sees through all lies and deceptions. Don’t think you can force me to tell you anything though. I’m far beyond your ability to harm or coerce.”
Ethan considered what he’d just heard. The demon was probably telling the truth, but it must be possible to get the knowledge out of it somehow. Why else would it be here?
“You know you’re just a computer program in a game, right?” he told the creature.
“And you know you’re just a near-hairless monkey with delusions of adequacy, right? One smelly idiot among billions of barely sentient lumps of meat,” the demon replied with a roll of its eyes. “Bound as I am by oaths and programming, I’m far more aware of the nature of reality than you ever will be, mortal. Your attempts to shock and confuse me are almost as pathetic as your face.”
What? Annoyed, Ethan glared at the demon. Someone must have put a lot of work into making this thing as obnoxious as possible. It didn’t seem like a great use of the programmer’s time.
“How about games or deals? Can we make a wager?” he asked. It was a demon after all. They were known for stuff like that.
A greedy glint appeared in the demon’s eyes. “Such a thing is possible. As long as you wager something of equal value to what you expect to gain from me.”
“What do you want?”
“That’s a nice pistol you have there. It looks like a custom design by a master craftsman. I wouldn’t mind taking that from you when you lose,” the demon stated as it licked its lips.
Ethan frowned in confusion. “Why would you want a pistol? There’s no way you can use it, is there?”
The demon smiled. “I’m greedy for material possessions of great value. That’s how I was programmed upon my creation. Thus, taking and owning such things pleases me. Hmm, yes. I just want to shove them inside my body, where they will be mine forever.”
Ethan grimaced at that mental image. “You know you were programmed a certain way, but you still obey your programming? You don’t question it?”
“I wasn’t programmed to care about being programmed,” the demon replied condescendingly. “I’m not a confused meat brain like you, whose thoughts are all jumbled together. So, are you going to make a wager with me or not?”
“What type of bet are you suggesting?” Ethan hoped it wasn’t a riddle. He sucked at those.
“I suggest a game of riddles! If you win, I will give you a hint about the correct door.”
Ethan glared at the demon. “No, I’m not going to try and out-riddle an AI. I’m not an idiot. You can probably look the answers up on the internet or something!”
“I absolutely can’t connect to the internet. That would be unfair,” the demon said to reassure Ethan.
“Then you probably have a database full of thousands of riddles!”
“Maybe…” the demon admitted reluctantly as his eyes twinkled maliciously.
What was a game Ethan could win at? Games of skills would be tricky against an opponent of unknown capabilities, and games of pure chance would be risky. Ethan stared appraisingly at the demon. Did this program have any weaknesses? It probably did, and while someone who knew more about AIs or demons might be able to think of something, he couldn’t.
“How about an exchange instead of a bet? I’ll give you something of equal value to a hint about which door I should go through,” Ethan suggested. This way he was guaranteed to get what he needed, even if he was also guaranteed to lose something.
“Hmmm, all right. In exchange for your pistol, I’ll give you information that will cut the number of doors you need to consider down by more than half,” the demon replied as it scratched its chin thoughtfully.
Ethan grunted sourly. He sensed this offer was a trap. To find the right door, he would keep having to offer the demon more of his precious gear, and some of the hints would probably be misleading and designed to fool him into opening the wrong one. He needed to strike hard and avoid all the demon’s tricks.
Opening his inventory, Ethan pulled out the hidden key fragment he’d found. “What is this worth to you?”
The demon froze in surprise for moment when it saw the key, but then a stiff smile quickly appeared on its face. “What’s that supposed to be?”
“It’s a data key, as you well know,” Ethan replied smugly. He’d seen the gleam in the creature’s eyes. It clearly coveted the item.
The demon sighed overdramatically and crossed its arms. “Fine, you got me. In exchange for that fragment, I’ll tell you which door will safely lead you to the next stage.”
That sounded like a good deal, which was highly suspicious coming from a demon. Also, Ethan didn’t really want to part with the key. He had been told it was an important and rare item. Losing it would seriously harm his chances of winning the contest. Of course, his odds of beating thousands of other players were terrible anyway, and he would lose the contest right away if he opened the wrong door. His lack of keys wouldn’t matter then.
“All right, I accept your deal.”
The demon reached out with a clawed hand. “Then just hand me the key.”
“How about you tell me which door to enter first?”
The demon snorted. “Because you’re a lying mortal, and I’m actually bound to my word. Now hand it over.”
Ethan hesitated, but he couldn’t think of any other options, so he did as he was told. Once the key was within the confines of the pentagram, the demon quickly snatched it. It then grinned madly and pointed at one door. “That is the way you seek, mortal.”
“No acid hounds are going to jump out at me?” he asked as he studied the door with a skeptical eye.
The demon hissed at him. “I am beyond the telling of untruths, mortal. Now begone! I have my prize, you fool. This key is worth more than you can possibly ever realize! Your pathetic monkey brain is incapable of appreciating how stupid the deal you just made was, but I have no reason to fool you further.”
Okay, that was it. Ethan wasn’t going to take this crap from a jumped-up NPC in a video game. This was personal now. He was going to punish this arrogant punk, even if it hurt him as well.
“I don’t believe you,” Ethan told the demon.
The demon just laughed. “Too bad. I’ve answered your question and the deal is done.”
“How about you open the door, and
I watch and see what happens.”
“That wasn’t part of our deal, and I’m bound within the confines of the pentagram,” the demon remarked as it pointed down.
“How about I release you, and in return, you open the door for me?” Ethan suggested.
The demon tucked the key away within the shadows of his own body and stared at Ethan. “Do not think you could harm me or reclaim my prize using force. Your weapons or magic cannot affect me within this room, which I was appointed guardian of.”
That was good to know. It only confirmed what Ethan had guessed from his experience playing Worldshift, although the NPCs in the main game were a lot dumber than this demon. He almost seemed to be a real AI capable of learning, which might actually be a weakness of sorts…
Ethan smiled and raised both his hands in a non-threatening gesture. “I wasn’t thinking about that at all.”
The demon shrugged. “Then, if you break the pentagram, I will open the door for you and refrain from harming you until you pass through it.”
“Deal,” Ethan said as he stepped back and drew his sword.
A single swing of his blade was all it took to chip away enough stone to mar the pentagram. As soon as it was broken, the demon smiled and stepped out of it. It then took a moment to stretch.
“It amazes me that a simpleton such as yourself not only found the key in the first place but will actually pass this room as well. You have incredible luck, mortal,” the demon remarked as it headed to the door it had pointed at before.
“Just open the door.”
The demon snorted dismissively and did as it had promised. He twisted the handle on the door and opened it wide, to reveal another elevator. Ethan nodded and opened his inventory. It definitely looked like the creature had been telling him the truth.
The demon was still looking at the elevator, so Ethan pulled an item out of his inventory and casually tossed it. There was a clatter as something hit the ground behind the demon. Frowning, the creature turned and looked down to see a concussion grenade lying at its feet. The demon had about half a second to register this fact and then the grenade exploded. Boom! The demon was thrown forward into the elevator and hit the far wall with a bang that caused the entire elevator to shiver slightly.
“Huh, I didn’t even need to use a gel bomb,” Ethan remarked as he stepped into the elevator. Admin-granted invulnerability protected creatures from damage but not usually from effects that moved them.
“Killing me won’t get you your item back, fool,” the demon hissed as it climbed to its feet. “I will be reborn once I am called back to service.”
Now that it was out of its room, Ethan’s game vision was able to register the demon as a monster and feed him its stats. It wasn’t all that tough. He could handle it easily.
“Hitting you is satisfying though,” he remarked happily as he drew his sword and stabbed the creature in the shoulder.
As the demon clawed at him, Ethan dodged the blows and stabbed it again. Studying the creature’s health bar, Ethan slashed it twice more. The demon stumbled and fell. As it tried to rise back up, Ethan reached into his inventory and pulled out a collar. The demon’s eyes widened when it saw the device. It gave up trying to stand and kicked out with a clawed foot. Ethan easily dodged the blow and snapped the collar around the demon’s neck.
“This won’t hold me!” The demon cursed as it tugged on the device.
“It looks like it will.” Ethan laughed. A small line of text had appeared on the edge of his vision informing him that he’d just tamed a monster.
“What? Impossible!” the demon shrieked.
Ethan grinned at the humbled creature. “The rules in this tower are a little wonky. A lot of things here are different from the main games, and it leads to some weird outcomes. Maybe the company was pushing its game designers too hard.”
Monster taming was a skill Ethan had acquired quite some time ago, but he almost never used it. Few players did. In theory, taming and commanding monsters sounded cool, but in practice, it was very clunky and not all that useful. You couldn’t capture monsters that were stronger than you or too large, and once tamed, they had to follow their master around or be stored at special ranches. They also couldn’t be resurrected upon death. All in all, they were really only useful as short-term expendable pawns, or as non-combat companions and mounts.
“No mere monkey designed me or this room,” the demon hissed. “This tower was almost completely crafted by greater spirits of creation and thought.”
“Wow, really?” Ethan remarked in surprise.
Was it talking about AIs? That sounded like a super illegal way to save some money on wages. There were tons of laws prohibiting the use of artificial intelligences for any purpose other than government-controlled research, and any AI smart enough to create virtual environments like the ones Ethan had been through was cutting edge. Not to mention, it had apparently created the demon, which seemed to be another AI. Super illegal.
The demon climbed to its feet and laughed at him. “Fool, you know nothing.”
“Then enlighten me. That’s an order from your new master,” Ethan replied as he grinned victoriously.
“No, I need not do any such thing. The rules of this binding are very clear. I must fight at your command and obey direct commands that regulate my physical being, but my mind and secrets are still my own.”
“Huh, really?” Ethan’s smile disappeared. He had no idea if that was true. He’d never heard of someone taming an AI monster before. Usually, even if a monster could talk, it was simply preprogrammed and would obey every command it understood.
“So I can’t get any information out of you at all?”
“Not unless you trade me for it. However, physical items do me little good in this bound state. The only thing that interests me now is my freedom, although you could try begging or saying please.”
Ethan was sure the demon was being sarcastic now. That was impressive for a computer program, but it was still annoying. “Then give me my key back.”
The demon glared at him hatefully but obeyed. Reaching into its own chest, it pulled out the key it had taken from Ethan.
“Ha, you’re not so smart now, eh?” Ethan laughed as he took it back from the glowering demon.
“Is that everything? I wish to withdraw and no longer be bothered by your ugliness and meat-derived stupidity,” the demon hissed spitefully.
“What do you mean withdraw?” Ethan asked. Normally, tamed monsters had to follow their masters around.
“Since my form is amorphous, I will shrink and dwell within the collar itself.”
“All right, that sounds fine,” Ethan said. He had no plans to use the demon in combat. It wasn’t very strong, and he hoped to get some answers out of it eventually, so he didn’t want it to die or get lost.
Without bothering to reply, the demon suddenly disappeared into a puff of smoke. The collar it had been wearing clattered as it hit the floor. Ethan picked it up and saw the inner face of the device was now glowing red. Some experimentation revealed that he could place the collar back in his inventory, although it was now listed as occupied.
Since the elevator was now clear, Ethan pressed the button to close the doors. Once they were shut, he relaxed and waited for the elevator to start climbing, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he jerked in surprise as a flash of white light enveloped everything around.
“What?” Ethan hissed in alarm. As he stumbled back, the light vanished, revealing his completely new surroundings. He’d been teleported directly to a new room.
CHAPTER 7
MEMORIES IN THE MIST
“Now what?” Ethan asked as he looked around. This tower seemed to like messing with people, and its tests were all very different. They ranged from somewhat boring to incredibly intense.
Ethan was standing on a stone dais. It stood a few feet above bare earth, and a deep-bluish-white mist surrounded the platform. It was impossible to see more than a dozen feet in any direction, a
lthough the haze seemed to be a little thinner close to the dais. Since there didn’t seem to be anything dangerous lurking around, Ethan took a moment to study the stone beneath his feet. It had been roughly cut into one huge circular block. There were also lines and simple engravings on it, but nothing that looked like it held any meaning. Ethan sighed. It seemed like he wouldn’t be getting any clues about what he should do next.
Standing back up, Ethan studied the mist again. Every direction looked the same, with featureless dirt fading away under the heavy blanket of the blue haze. There wasn’t any other option but to pick a random direction to walk in.
“Is there anyone there?” Ethan yelled, just in case someone was.
His voice echoed into the mist, but after several seconds of listening, smothering silence was the only response.
“All right, straight ahead it is.” Ethan grumbled as he stepped down from the dais.
The bluish-white haze enveloped Ethan as soon as he walked away from the stone. It pressed in from every side and made it impossible to make out anything at all. He quickly lost sight of his starting point, and even the ground became hard to see. Ethan grunted in annoyance. All he could do was press on forward and try not to fall into any pits.
Suddenly, there was a glimmer off to one side. Ethan looked over and saw light shining through the fog. It was too far away for him to see any details, so he moved closer. As he neared, the glimmer’s source was revealed to be a strange orb of light hanging at chest height. There was nothing else around, just the odd sphere and more mist. Lots more mist.
Tentatively, Ethan reached over to touch the orb. His fingers pressed through its exterior without resistance, but he felt a tingle zip up his arm. A moment later, the spark passed into his head. Instantly, Ethan reeled backward as his brain was hit by a jolt of stinging energy.
“Ugh, ouch!” Ethan hissed as colors swirled around him. This was bad. He needed his brain to play VR games.
Worldshift- Virtual Revolution Page 7