“Never again ... I’ll never kill again. I swear to all of you! I swear it on my life! I will never take another life, so long as I shall live. I swear it. I swear ...”
******
Sam spent the next twenty minutes staring at the stone snake totem in front of him, thinking about everything that had happened. His thoughts had quickly turned from sadness to bitter anger. He decided that Milner was to blame for the deaths of all the testers. If he had known, Sam would’ve put an end to his encroachments right away.
It just wasn’t right for Milner to turn on the Survival Mode and to not inform anyone. It was a deeply depraved decision. To put something like that into the game in the first place required an extremely sick mind, but to activate it in the middle of a high volume of player versus player matches was the absolute most detestable thing imaginable.
The bastard had planned all this from the very beginning. He had to. The Miyabi headgear had to have something in it that could do this, or maybe Milner’s staff had given them all some kind of drug. And what was worse, every tester was at that bastard’s mercy. There was nothing they could do inside the game. But there was something else that disturbed Sam. A question that kept gnawing at his brain.
Why haven’t the other designers called in on this wacko? Just how many people does he have helping him? What about Alex? The last thought pissed him off more than anything. He and the other players put all their trust into these people. Sam had listened to Alex and believed her when she said that his body was safe even when he was in pain.
He had trusted her and Anna and Alanna the whole time and for what? They had lied to him all along, manipulated him. It was all a game to Milner and his staff. They played with people’s lives as if they meant nothing and for what, a fucking videogame? Chelsea lost Robert over a fucking videogame.
“You lying bitch! I trusted you! I fucking trusted you! And you led me right to my doom! All of you should be ashamed! How could you? How can you live with yourselves? Using people like this! Liars!” Sam yelled out at the virtual universe. His voice echoed off the cave walls. As always, it was nighttime in the forest and the silence reminded Sam that he was alone.
“I won’t play your game! I WON’T PLAY YOUR FUCKING GAME! I’ll sit here until it’s all over! You hear me?”
“That’s not a good idea, Sam.”
Sam couldn’t believe his ears. It was really her, Alex. He immediately stood up and began pacing.
“You! You have some fucking nerve. You liar!” Sam spat the words at her, contempt in every word.
“I know, Sam ...”
“You know what? I just killed my best friend because you and your boss lied to me. Why didn’t you tell me we were killing each other?”
“I—I couldn’t. I’m sorry. But—”
“But what? What else could you possibly say? ‘I’m sorry, but I’m a liar? A manipulator? A murderer?’”
Her voice wavered as she replied.
“No Sam. That’s not what I was going to say. You can’t just sit there. There are protocols in place to prevent ... idleness. You have to play if you want to live and you have to win if you want to get out.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it! None of you told us about this and now we’re expected to just go along with it?”
“That’s just it, you don’t have a choice. I’m sorry Sam, but you’re stuck in there until the end. You have to progress and you have to get better. I know that you hate me, along with the rest of us, but you have to survive. You don’t want to die in there. In a videogame.”
“If you’re so concerned about us, why did you put us in here? What do you want?”
“There are things that I can’t tell you Sam no matter how much I want to, but believe me. I want to see you out of there. I’d like nothing more than to know that you escaped and got to use your bonus to buy yourself a nice steak.”
“I don’t want your fucking money! Just let me out of here! Let all of us out of here! I want to see my family! I want to bury Robert!”
He punched the cave wall with each sentence. His thoughts were unrelenting. Why did he die? Why did he have to die? Why did I kill him? Why am I not dead?
“I can’t do that, Sam. Please, just get through the game. Play it carefully, take it slow, be observant. Be as efficient as possible. It’s the only way, Sam. Don’t just play with your heart, play with your head too. Please, even if you hate me, please call me to help you. I’ll help you get through this, in what few ways I can.”
“I’m not playing this game! I’m not some sport for you psychopaths.”
“Sam please, listen to me,” she pleaded.
“That’s enough, Ms. Madura. You’ve done all you can do. He is just a fool that’s destined to die. That’s all there is to it.” Fulton Milner’s voice filled Sam’s ears just like Alex’s had. Soon after, Virtual Milner appeared from the same portal as before, only this time his eyes were focused intently on Sam. His mouth was upturned as he regarded Sam with disgust.
“We’re not in the business of saving those who can’t even help themselves. If he is already broken then we have no need for him,” Milner continued. “Sad really, but interesting nonetheless. I knew the lesser players might have their wills easily broken after my announcement, but I didn’t think one of the top players would.”
“Shut your mouth, you psychopath! Stop treating me like a lab experiment!”
Sam leapt at Virtual Milner and threw a series of punches right through his head. The insubstantial lab coated avatar continued on uninterrupted.
“Ahh, so you aren’t completely broken. That’s good. But, attacking my virtual avatar isn’t the smartest of decisions. I hope you’ll make wiser choices in the future. Now, will you finally move along? I’d like to see what kind of data a player like yourself can give under these circumstances.”
“I told you, I’m not your experiment. I won’t do what you want me to do.”
“It’s not about what I want you to do. It’s about what you need to do to survive. This isn’t a game anymore, Mr. Nagai. The death of your friend, Robert, should have shown you that. Alex here really wants to help you and I’ve instructed all of my designers to do what they can to assist you. There’s certain lines that they can’t cross and certain information that they can’t impart so there is a limit to their helpfulness, but it is there for you.”
“I don’t trust her or you. You’re nothing but liars and murderers.”
Milner simply laughed, the bastard.
“By all means, consider me untrustworthy and call me what you will. Hate me even. But listen up. There are worst things out there than liars and murderers. Remember that, if you survive that is. As far as Alex goes, she can’t reveal too much to you. I won’t hesitate to have her executed if she interferes with this phase of my project. On the flipside of that, I’ll have to have you killed too. So you see, Alex here has a very tough job. She wants to keep you alive and give you tips, but she can’t say too much or else you and her are both dead. Regardless, she’s your best lifeline out of here.”
Why was he selling her assistance so hard? Sam didn’t trust it and he didn’t trust Alex anymore. She was a puppet of Milner’s any way you looked at it and since she was participating in these tests and misleading players, she was just as much of a murderer as Milner.
“Compared to the rest, you have put on a good performance inside of the game, but it’s still lacking. You’d be smart to assume that the other players will improve greatly under the new conditions of the game, so you’d be wise to increase your skill level as well. You need to strive for greater heights if you wish to clear this game. Only the best will win and right now, you’re far from that.”
Was it a competition too? Milner’s words made it seem that way.
“I never said I would play your game.”
“Oh you will. Aside from the protocol that Ms. Madura briefly mentioned earlier, I believe you have other reasons to continue playing as well. We’ll keep that t
o ourselves, but in the meantime, I do have a reward for you. It’s a voice echo that you were tagged in on MediaNet. Shall I play it?”
A voice echo? From who?
“Do what you want. Not like I can stop you.” Sam said dispassionately.
Virtual Milner smiled at Sam and the message began to play. Sam began to cry again as soon as he heard the voice.
“I’m getting so sick of Airhead gamers. I would’ve already gone nuts and beat them all silly if I didn’t grow up with one. Love you brooooooo, even though you don’t ever answer your phone or reply to my messages! See you soon!”
Silence followed Rui’s message and Sam clenched his fist so hard that it hurt. He could hear someone sniffling in his ear.
“Silence your microphone, Ms. Madura.”
Virtual Milner and Sam stared each other down. There was a knowing expression on both of their faces followed by a smug grin on Milner’s.
“Well Mr. Nagai, it looks like you have some place to be. I take it you’ll be participating in phase two.”
All Sam could do was glare at the murderous designer’s digital avatar. He found it very easy to hate Fulton Milner.
26 Motivation
“What should I do, father?”
Yoshiyuki Nagai’s familiar expression popped into Sam’s head quite vividly. He had a stern look on his deeply lined face as he looked off into the distance. Sam would’ve bet any amount of money that this vision was of his dad fishing.
“Please father, what should I do?”
In Sam’s mind, his father finally turned to face him and his stern look was dropped for a deep smile of genuine warmth. Both expressions described the man his father was easily. Too bad he wasn’t here to offer his sound advice.
“I should stop asking dead men how to live.”
Sam huffed at these lingering feelings of frustration, hopelessness, and helplessness that would not dissipate. He had moved on from Barrington’s camp, but had only moved over to the area with the Stumpies. He sat under a tree, well away from the enemies, but just couldn’t bring himself to fight. He had too much on his mind to do anything effectively.
He thought about the protocols that Alex had mentioned earlier, Milner’s way of discouraging idleness. He wondered how long he could sit before the protocol kicked in and he wondered what the punishment for it was. It was instant death, no doubt but Sam wanted to make sure.
“Alex.”
“Yes, Sam?”
At least she was quick to answer.
“I need to know, what’s this protocol about? The one you mentioned earlier?”
“You have to ask your questions more specifically, Sam. I’m not allowed to give broad answers.”
He thought of how to get the information he needed.
“What initiates the protocol you told me about earlier?”
“Player idleness.”
“How long can a player stay inactive before this protocol kicks in?”
“I can’t answer that specifically. What I can tell you is that you are given enough time to strategize, to focus, and to rest.”
“Does browsing through my menu add to my idle time when I’m sitting?”
The line was silent. Sam guessed that Alex didn’t know the answer offhand or maybe she didn’t know if she could answer it.
“No, Sam. Menu browsing counts as active play.”
“What’s the punishment for remaining idle over the allotted time?”
“Death.”
“Instantaneous death?”
“Yes. It counts as a game over and all game overs result in the death of your real life body.”
“We get game overs every time we die?”
“No. Certain conditions must be met to get a game over.”
“What are those conditions?”
“I’m not allowed to tell you any of them, Sam. I’m sorry.”
“No, you’ve told me enough for now. I think I can puzzle out the rest. Than—”
He cut himself off before he got too comfortable. She was the enemy after all.
“Is that all, Sam?”
“Yes.”
“Remember to call me when you need—”
“Okay.”
This time, he ended the call. He began to think.
I wonder why some of the people I killed weren’t in the video, Justinian89Thrills for instance. The game over state is specific, but what activates it? Think, Sam, think. Justinian was a crimson Spirit Walker when I killed him, so dying as a Walker doesn’t get you a game over or maybe it’s just when you’re encroaching.
He thought back to those he killed, igniting his self-hatred once again. It was necessary to figure out what they all had in common. Their avatars were as diverse as you could get, and so were each of the battles. Figuring out their commonality wasn’t working, so he instead thought of the ways they differed from the other players that he had defeated, but not killed.
He replayed every battle in his head, even the one with Robert. He felt the heat rise up to his face and tears welling up in his eyes. Each encroachment was a sin, sins that would not be easily erased. The way he saw it, his sins were permanent. He had collected them as trophies, Bloody Tearstones. He could count them all. They would follow him as long as he lived. Now though, the dead would give him the clues he needed to proceed forward, so he continued to concentrate.
“That’s it!”
The difference, he puzzled, was quite simple. At least he hoped it was. He needed to do some more experimentation. But what he noticed was that everyone in the video that he had killed had been in revenant form, so were those that Justinian and the others killed. Those who he defeated earlier that weren’t in the video, had been in human form. Sam recalled the envoy signs he had seen only a few hours earlier.
Revenant is Death!
Need Quintessence.
He wondered who had left such chilling clues. Had they known about Milner’s Survival Mode ahead of time? He also recalled all of Alex’s warnings about staying in human form earlier. Now that Sam thought about it, she was blatantly giving him the clues he needed to survive. He didn’t quite know how to feel about that. Sure, she made sure he was alive, but to what end? Entertainment? Data? To please her boss? It was probably all of the above.
Regardless, he had to stay in human form as much as he could. At least he knew that. It gave him an advantage and was the only way to ensure that he kept his life. He made sure to keep a close track of how much Quintessence he had at all times.
“I guess I’ll give you psychopaths what you want. Not like I really have a choice.”
Sam stood up and looked around at the Stumpies in the trees. They had provided him with a nice amount of Quintessence earlier, but now they wouldn’t serve that purpose anymore since the area boss was defeated. The only thing he’d get for farming them would be the Stim Plant that they dropped fairly regularly. If he needed to restock on that, he’d just return here, but he wouldn’t need any for a very long time.
“What the heck is that?”
Sam looked ahead, near the boss gate, and saw it once again covered in a spiritual barrier. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Once the area boss was defeated, the barrier was supposed to dissipate for good, unless ...
You Are Being Encroached Upon By IMMORtAL_Kalika
Oh no! Fuck no! Not now!
Sam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He had always told his friends that he had the absolute shittiest luck, but now, this one moment proved it. IMMORtAL_Kalika was confirmed to be the best player in the game, and Sam had already lost two duels against her before, duels he had an advantage in. What was he going to do now that Survival Mode was initiated? The improvements he had made to his playstyle seemed very insignificant now, when faced with a player like Kalika.
“Breathe, Sam. Don’t defeat yourself before you even get to the fight,” Alex said into Sam’s ear.
“I don’t need your advice,” he said sullenly.
“She’s not unbeatable and wha
t’s more, remember what I told you before,” she advised.
“I told you, butt out! I got this.”
Thankfully, she decided to remain silent. Her interruption was helpful though. It had snapped him out of his pity party. He moved back towards Barrington’s camp as he formulated his strategy. The best he could come up with on such short notice was to take Kalika by surprise.
As long as she still hadn’t seen him, he had a little bit of an advantage since she was so easy to spot as a crimson Walker. He also needed to go to an area with low visibility and very little to no enemies. If he could meet those conditions then he stood a very good chance of defeating Kalika. The last time they had met, she had even less total HP than he did.
As long as she hadn’t upgraded her HP, if he could hit her with two or more arrows, then he was almost guaranteed a win. But that was the key, he needed to exclusively use only mid to long-ranged attacks and he had to be quick with them. Kalika’s parry timing was godly when he faced her before and Sam was sure that it wasn’t a fluke.
“I know the perfect place,” he said to himself as he ran past Sedwin and Barrington, then through the ruined fort nearby. He stopped at the fallen trees that he and Sedwin had passed before and pulled out his bow. Kalika was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected. She probably wouldn’t reach him for a while, if she ever did. The best case scenario for Sam would be to wait her out, until she got bored and went back to her own plane. He steadied his breathing and waited with the patience of a hunter.
Kalika proved to be persistent. After ten minutes, Sam spotted her coming from the north, near the ruined fort. Her eyes glowed bright red and the tell-tale crimson sinner’s mist surrounded her body. He took aim, using the more powerful Army Arrows and pulled back on his bowstring with Kalika in his sights. She wasn’t moving very fast, so he didn’t have much difficulty leading his target.