Otherlife Dreams: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (18 page)

“I-i-is AI g-god?”

“I suppose, in a way that’s true, but not really. The AI didn’t create the puppets, the puppet’s created AI. Created the AI and then joined it. The man I was speaking with at the gate views NPCs, or fish in this metaphor, as things. Things to make his story more interesting or fun. I was upset because he wanted to use one of you as a sexual plaything. I can’t really explain why I got so mad other than it really did.”

Runner gently rubbed Nadine’s shoulder as he finished his explanation.
What of my own views though? Are they just fish to me too? Are they real? Am I just giving her a false platitude to comfort her?

Runner patted her back awkwardly, unsure of himself now. He did what he could to assuage her as she continued to cry into his shoulder.

Am I fooling myself? I may not have the sum of my knowledge previous to this but I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t be handling my followers as I have been if this were reality. Have I been viewing them no differently than Ramsey? Am I truly any better?

“Nadine, you have a favorite color. You prefer certain foods. You can debate whether it’s lawful to steal from a thief or murder a murderer. I would classify all those things as having a mind of your own and the ability to dictate your future. To work towards your self interests and better yourself. The fishbowl has been revealed to you but that doesn’t make it any less real. For all I know, I myself am a man puppet in a manbowl using a fish puppet to play in a fishbowl. Come on, it’ll be alright.”

Waiting for her to wind down Runner could only wait as she cried. People would stop and stare occasionally but for the most part people kept to their own business. In this situation he was finally thankful to the selfishness of humanity as a whole.

After his own inner dialog Runner found himself wondering if he could keep treating his companions as he had been. Reviewing his actions he’d been quite forward with all of them. Much of what he did and said would have been considered extremely flirtatious and sexual harassment in a workplace.

“You’re r-right. I’m m-m-me. I m-make my choices and th-they are m-m-mine. I can on-nly be what I am. Dem-m-mand my due.”

Runner had to respect her strength of character. Not everyone would handle being told their life and the world they lived in was in truth a lie

“Gotta respect that attitude of yours Nadine. Want a beetle? They tend to cheer me up. They’re so weird to eat that they tend to Distract me. The taste really isn’t bad and after one they grow on you,” Runner offered lamely.

“O-okay. Why n-not?” Nadine muttered. Sitting up she scrubbed her hands across her face, wiping tears away before holding out her crippled hand.

Surprised at her sudden acceptance Runner pulled two beetles free from his inventory and handed them over to her. During the long journey here he’d managed to collect a veritable fortune in beetles. Nadine watched the clacking, twitching, insect, then shoved one into her mouth. Ranging from apprehensive to mild surprise she finished the morsel and then frowned at him.

“It really wasn-n-n’t that bad,” Nadine said. Putting the second one into her mouth.

“Nope. They’re pretty good after a while. I have no idea why. Kitten enjoys them too.”

“What do I enjoy now?” said the woman in question.

“Beetles my dear, want one?” Runner said disarmingly. She’d been rather quiet on her approach and he’d failed to notice her. Thana and Hannah flanked her on either side.

“Yes, yes I do.”

Katarina held out her hand expectantly to Runner who complied. Runner let his eyes find each of the trio and confirmed they appeared healthy and whole.

“I knew you’d be fucking early Runner. And Sure as shit here you are. See?” Hannah said exasperatedly, her head turning to Thana.

“I concede you were correct Hannah. Runner, we were able to acquire accommodations at a reputable inn. I’ve notated all that we spent and have receipts for each item. Unfortunately they only had one room and two beds available. Apparently there’s a large influx of people from the mainland. Supposedly there is the possibility of land being granted? I only overhead a bit of it,” Thana advised him. Katarina said nothing, still enjoying her beetle as she inspected the immediate area.

Holding out a piece of parchment to Runner Thana waited until he took it from her hand. Runner gave it a glance, found the sum at the bottom, and then dug out the amount listed. Placing the coins in Thana’s hand he crumpled the paper and executed the destroy item command.

“You didn’t even read it Master Runner. I’m not sure if I should be complimented or insulted that I wasted my time,” Thana said archly, quirking a delicate eyebrow at him.

“Complimented, Lady. Please, lead on. I know it probably goes without saying but I’m exhausted. I’ll bunk between the beds, you four can figure out who sleeps where otherwise.”

Runner stood and brushed his hands over his backside as the group began moving off. Falling in behind them Runner let his mind revisit the conversation he’d just had with Nadine.

Sprawled out between the beds on the floor, in a strange nest of blankets and pillows, Runner was reading over the classes and attribute descriptions. Hannah had managed to convince Katarina, Thana, and Nadine into a game of cards. Nadine was winning so far with Hannah right behind her, Thana pulling up a third, and Katarina a distant fourth. Stakes were small, nothing more than two copper being the biggest bet, and many of the bets were personal favors instead of coinage. Katarina owed Thana a promised switch on night watch, Nadine had suckered Hannah into taking her next cooking duty. Thana owed everyone at the table lessons in etiquette and manners after a series of particularly bad hands. It must have been something she offered to cover a bet since it didn’t really match up with what any of the other girls would view as valuable. The likelihood of anyone claiming that prize didn’t seem high either.

When they had asked him if he’d like to play Runner had declined but thanked them. Asking them to please invite him again next time though as he was interested.

Right now though, there was leveling, inventory to sort, and plans to be made.

“I call. I say you have n-n-nothing Kat-t-t-arina,” Nadine challenged.

“Fold. Fuck both of you,” Hannah grumped.

“Now now, don’t be vulgar. You got greedy and got caught red handed. Don’t be bitter that you’re losing now you don’t have an extra card. Though I must agree, I fold. Odds aren’t in my favor,” Thana said, laying down her hand.

“YAH!” shouted Katarina triumphantly, laying down a flush. “Unless you can beat that, you owe me two beetles!”

Runner looked up at that, confusion written plainly on his face. He hadn’t heard them betting beetles but couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

“You’re seriously betting beetles?” Runner queried.

“Yes, and Katarin-n-na is right. I owe her two,” stated Nadine, sighing heavily as she threw her cards into the center of the table.

“Ah ha! Hear that Runner? Pay me her beetles!” Katarina shouted, chortling boisterously.

Shaking his head Runner closed the ability window and pulled open his inventory as he stood up. Retrieving eight of them he gave six to Katarina and two to Nadine.

“Here then. Extra currency I suppose. You’re lucky. I foraged these in the hundreds on the road. It seemed like they were all I could find,” he explained.

Katarina immediately ate one of the beetles and started pushing the rest of them through what he could only guess was her inventory. To him it was as if they disappeared.

Katarina had put in some true time and effort to not just learn but understand all the commands he gave her.

“Ugh, how are they not disgusting to eat? I mean, you’re eating a bug. I will admit I have preference to eat things that were living but I think I draw the line at bugs,” uttered Thana.

“Not a-t-t-t-t all, they’re crun-n-nchy. A little odd, yes. But they’re good! The first on-ne was odd, but after that th-they were easy,” answered Nadine.

Katarina nodded her head in absent minded agreement while she fiddled with an unseen window.

Runner had given Nadine a few more on the way back to the inn after she pestered him about wanting another.

Thana didn’t argue further though she was unquestionably unconvinced. Pulling the cards back together into a deck she began the next hand.

“Mm, well, don’t forget to level up tonight. If you have questions about your abilities, the classes listed in the wiki, or anything else, hit me up first. I’d rather we made sure we get it right than have you regretting it later down the road,” Runner said. Moving back to his little nest he sat himself down and started rechecking his choices, wanting to be absolutely sure of his selections.

Jolted awake from a nightmare, Runner looked around the room, confused and unsure. Blinking rapidly he rubbed at his face with one hand as the world started to make sense.

Levering himself up with his other arm he got himself into a sitting position. Checking the clock he saw it was deep in the night and the lights were all out. To the left Katarina and Thana lay cuddled against one another in one bed while to the right Hannah and Nadine slept back to back in the other. Placing his head to his fingers he closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

“Dreams can’t hurt you but they leave their marks. I don’t know how much it’d help but I’d listen,” whispered a voice to his right. Tilting his head to peer in that direction he found a pair of dark blue eyes staring at him from the bedsheets.

“Thank you Hanners. I might take you up on that some time. For now I need to heed my own advice and level up. Would-would you keep an eye on me? In case, err, in case I end up paralyzed again? Oh, did anyone else experience anything like that?”

“Yes, I’ll watch you. No, no reactions. We all talked to Thana before we made our choices but nothing happened when we leveled up. That’s what you called it, right? Thana spent a lot of time reading those shitty ability and attribute definitions. For everyone. They just made me mad honestly with their convoluted circle speak. She helped everyone, made sure we were doing the right things.”

“Good. Good. Remind me to thank her. Right, no time like the present.”

Runner grimaced and called up his leveling screen. His leveling and class goals remained the same as previously. From slaughtering the fort he’d gained three levels and now sat on three level ups, which on completion would put him at twenty-four.

Focusing on three abilities would give him the best result. Duelist, Scout, Blade, Doctor, and Elementalist, all had a subclass at the second promotion that built their abilities off Dexterity, Intelligence, or Agility. Much like last time, Runner accepted the four three and placed the points accordingly. Bracing himself he laid himself back into his blankets and pressed the accept button and waited.

Memories filtered in and took their place, filling in holes in his mind, clearing questions but creating more with each one. Not being destroyed by the level up process this time Runner was thankful.

He now knew his ship’s administration password. It happened to be his account login password for the game too.

May0r0fFailT0wn

Fighting back the excitement he pulled up the game console to give it a try.

/Permissions

Please enter Password: ***************

Invalid Password

Groaning he let himself relax into his sleeping bag. He’d hoped, hoped it would be correct.

As he lay there recovering from the failure, one memory stood above the rest, demanding his attention.

“I’m fine, nothing wrong this time, thank the Sovereign. It’s hard, every time I level up I get more memories back of my life before this world. Before being trapped here.” Hannah didn’t reply but Runner could still feel her eyes on him.

He could finally answer at least one question that had been nagging at him though. Dinner several days before the mission started. A private dinner, in an apartment, alone with a woman. Feelings were attached to it but they ran counter to his expectation to the setting. Love, joy, passion, anger, hurt, sick, distrust, jealousy, hate, and finally betrayal. He was seeing someone. Had been seeing someone.

Struggling against the missing blocks Runner fought with his own mind. Ultimately he could call nothing else up. Not a name, an end, or even what happened after. He knew she was on the same task force he was on though, even if it was nothing but a vague intuition. Knowing she was part of the mission helped, it meant she was here in the game with him. Even if he couldn’t put a name to her yet, perhaps he’d run across her? It was probably too much to hope, but it was all he had at the moment. With any luck she could provide him with a better picture of himself, their relationship if they still had one, what happened to the ship even. Maybe she was in IT with him?

If she isn’t in the graveyard.

“Thank you Hanners. Goodnight.”

Adjusting his sheets Runner did his best to sleep.

Chapter 9 - Conscience -

06:18am Sovereign Earth time

09/08/43

Pachelbel’s Canon in D woke Runner from his sleep; his mind coming to a slow state of wakefulness. Blinking, Runner let the alarm play on as he stood up.