Chapter 57: Chapter 57 - Questions

The Gambler's eyes flashed like diamonds as he spoke.

“When you accepted the system, I received access to your brain and memories. Everything that was you, is now in me. However, for the sake of modeling accuracy, can you tell me in your own words why you accepted the system?”

Zoe reeled. No wonder the creature in front of her could manipulate her memories with a snap of her fingers. The flimsiness of her existence made it hard to focus on the question.

“If the world is ending,” she said. “What’s the point of living in denial?”

“Please don’t answer my questions with questions.”

Zoe frowned.

“I didn’t want to live in denial. Life is hard, but you can’t ignore the difficulty.”

“Didn’t you choose to join the system because you saw someone’s eyes melt out of their head when they refused?”

Zoe remembered the man on the airplane. His skin flushed before his eyes bulged and popped. Gore spewed down his cheeks as he slumped to the floor. She shuddered.

“I didn’t want to die.”

He nodded and made a mark in the binder.

“Survival is a powerful motivator in humans. Now, question two: why did you go into the dungeon?”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Hmmm. You were in a life-or-death situation, but rather than run out of the plane and into the woods you entered a dungeon. Arguably, this was a terrible decision. Did we use the wrong word when translating to your brain? We believed ‘dungeon’ would convey the danger.”

Zoe felt defensive.

“We panicked. There was no explanation of what would happen in a dungeon, but we did not know what would happen outside the plane.”

“Do you think it is accurate to say fear motivated you?”

“Yes.”

“Fear of the time you spent with the dogs in the forest?”

An icy finger trailed down Zoe’s spine, but she met the Gambler’s inhumanly human gaze.

“Yes.”

“If you could go back and do it again, would you enter the dungeon?”

“I don’t know what that ice mantis would have done. I survived the dungeon. Certain survivability is worth more than uncertain death.”

He nodded.

“What changes would you make to the dungeon door design?”

“You’re asking me?”

“Yes.”

Zoe gazed at the bourbon.

“Rue told me that nobody enters a dungeon before level 10 before they meet the smith. Can you put a lock on the dungeon?”

The Gambler shook his head.

“It goes against the system to implement such a change. I am in charge of rewards, and I reward risk taking. Look at your growth. Without the dungeon, you would be like most remaining humans: dead or boring. Instead, you have become a paragon of your species.”

“Most humans are dead?”

“Of course they are, but we have big hopes for those who survived the first few waves. Soon, the settlement polyps will launch and things shall become truly exciting.”

Zoe bit back the rage and horror rising within her. There was nothing she could do. Nothing she could say…

“I have a question.”

He looked up from his notes with excitement.

“Please, ask away.”

“Is it the goal of the system for me to become like you?”

“No. It is for me to become like you. Now, my next question: what is Bella into?”

“What?”

He double-checked his notes.

“You are in a party with Isabella Moore?”

“Yes…?”

“Well, what are her hobbies? Her interests. What do you think would make a good gift?”

The oddity of the question made Zoe feel as though she were turning inside out.

“You’re the one who gave her the Charm Of The Monsoon Fairy.”

“Which she re-gifted straight away. I also gave her the runeblade, but she doesn’t seem grateful for that either.”

“Why did you give her that blade? You never gave the rest of us any items.”

“That’s a fair question,” he slid a piece of paper across the desk. “This is the Maelstrom-Mubilashi Cursed Collection.”

The paper showed seven items: a helmet, a shield, a suit of armor, a spear, a necklace, a cloak, and a sword.

“This is a collection of world-ending items gathered from seven dead worlds. It’s an interesting collection because none of the items have anything in common, but, when they are assembled and equipped by the same user, the magical frequencies of the curses cancel each other out.”

“I don’t think she likes cursed artifacts of world-ending power.”

He leaned forward suddenly, his excitement filled Zoe with anxiety.

“So I will give her a way to remove the curse. I spawned these items, but they can’t be assembled into their collection because there are no Mubilashi’s on your world.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“What’s a Mubilashi?”

He waggled his eyebrows.

“If a dungeon is a theme park you go to, then a Mubilashi is a theme park that comes to you.”

“Are you asking my opinion on this?”

He paused halfway to poking an intercom button on his desk. The button hadn’t been there before.

“Yes, but I don’t think —”

“Please stop changing my world,” she placed her hands together. “Please, you can stop it. Let us live. Let us live in the world we knew.”

“I’m sorry Zoe, but that was never on the table. We awarded your world to Rue, and his value far outweighs all of yours. Of course, his potential value and yours are equal. So, I would advise you to take every opportunity you can get.”

He pressed the button and spoke into the intercom.

[Initiating Phase 9: Spawning Demons, Angels, Dragons, and Mubilashi.]

###

Rue stood on the edge of the canyon. The polyps were ready. He could smell the subtle space oil they secreted to keep them safe on their short voyage to the planet above them.

His mind remained buzzing with doubts. How many planets had he doomed now? Was it even doom?

Surely, the system brought benefits. Brought new opportunities. How could one compare living and dying alone on a rock in the void with the bounties of the interconnected universe?

But it wasn’t a question of numbers. It came down to feelings, and something within him had built for a long time. They say that metal does not feel, but even an iron heart pumping iron blood will corrode over the millenia. Rust had eaten a hole through him, and now everything spilled out.

His cohort joked about his elaborate suicide. At least, Esme did, and she had her problems. Was this anything more than a tantrum? The system didn’t seem to think so. They rewarded him with this world, packaged him off for a vacation and a safari, and told him to get over his mopes and return to the front lines.

But in a system that grew by domination, the front line only ever grew.

He wobbled on the edge of the canyon. Weariness urging him to fall. Some last vestige of his mortality, some aspect of his lizard brain, believing that a drop such as this might kill him.

It couldn’t even harm him.

He wanted to abandon it all. Leap into space and keep floating. Eventually, hopefully, the cold would sap his Skein. He might even float into a star.

Surely that would kill him.

But what a waste of a glorious warrior…

He sighed again, louder, longer, and a wind blew dust through the polyp canyon as he tried to exhale the negativity. As though it were a phlegm he could simply cough up.

But there was no such luck.

At least out here on the edge of the system, he had a chance to collect his thoughts. If not today, then soon, he could figure out what it was he truly wanted. Without the constant intervention of the system, without the constant attention one felt in the core worlds or the active battle sites, he could think for himself.

And so he returned to the path he set himself upon. Time to announce Phase 6. Time to release the polyps and truly welcome Earth into the Crimson Armada System. The poor bastards.

He connected his mind to the system with the ease of centuries. For these following seconds, he could announce himself to the world.

[Attention Earthlings. I have incorporated your world into the Crimson Armada system, and now you have a genuine chance to join our civilization. Settlement Polyps will launch toward your planet. They will land within twelve hours. By accessing these polyps you will build safety and order amongst the chaos of the system’s other changes. I will disable all safe zones upon the launch of the polyps. Should you find a polyp and activate it, you will generate new safe zones. Good luck.]

He had debated whether to announce his true goal: to raise a warrior that could kill him, but he decided to wait. Let them find their polyps first. Better not to give them too much to think about.

His mind drifted to Zoe. She was still alive somewhere beyond the fabric of this reality. Had he pushed too hard? What was it within him that made him pin his hopes on a singular individual? It completely went against the whole point of hijacking a planet. He should try to find more of them. There had to be more worthy humans. There just had to be.

Esme threw a bottle at his head. A blade whipped out and sliced it into atoms as he turned to face her.

Her eyeless grin infuriated him. What right did she have to be happy after the things she had done? Though drinking that much wasn’t exactly a sign of happiness…

“I’m not in the mood,” he said. “I offered to remove your alcohol.”

“You forgot to announce the phase.”

He pinched his nose.

“Damn. Sorry about my tone.”

“It’s alright.”

He cleared his throat and connected to the system.

[Initiating Phase 9: spawning Demons, Angels, Dragons, and Mubilashi.]

Esme started laughing.

“I thought you weren’t drunk?”

Rue’s eyes were wide.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then who did?”

His mind raced, but he already knew the answer. With a weak voice, he continued.

[Initiating Phase 6: launching Settlement Polyps…]

But what little joy he felt was gone. This world was no longer an escape from the system, because Earth had captured the attention of the Gambler.

###

A ripple passed out from the Gambler’s intercom button. Something seen, something felt, something known. Reality rearranging itself into a new pattern. The pattern became old. The world had always been this way, and the button disappeared because there was never a reason for it to be pressed.

The Gambler rubbed his hands together.

“Wonderful, now I can activate the Maelstrom-Mubilashi Collection Quest. Bella will be so pleased.”

“What is your obsession with her?”

He tapped his chin.

“What a wonderful question. I feel as though you and I are finally starting to gel,” he interlaced his fingers as he spoke. “The expression ‘noblesse oblige’ comes to mind. Is she perfect? No. Is she powerful? No. But she strives for humanity in a way that many simply cannot.”

“You think I cannot be human?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You looked at me when you said others can't do what Bella does!”

“Where else would I look, Zoe? We are the only ones in this room.”

Zoe’s heartbeat rose. The chair was uncomfortable. Sweat trickled down her skin. This wasn’t the physical brutality of the Smith’s forge, but somehow it felt even worse.

“What about Anton?”

“Who?” the Gambler laughed. “I kid, I jest, of course, I know who you’re talking about. But the universe is not starved of cold, calculated individuals who are ready to run at a moment’s notice. Just as your personality type is not special,” he mimed fangs with his fingers “Roar, snarl, I want to burn it all down.”

“Then why am I here?”

“You are here because, believe it or not, we don’t control everything,” a dangerous glint entered his eye, like a spinning coin catching the light. “At least, not yet. You have gained enough power that you have become a potential investment. Since investment invariably involves chance, I have deigned it fit to have this meeting. My brother and sister do not believe in the powers of chance, but they are both fools, and I have vetoed their decisions for this meeting.”

Zoe narrowed her eyes.

“The smith builds our bodies, you said he creates things anew. The witch offers magical knowledge for a price. But what do you do?”

“How rude!” he laughed. “No, it's a great question! See how much fun we’re having? What I do is the same as what I am.”

“And what are you?”

“When you open a chest, I am inside.”

“You’re treasure?”

“And now I’m blushing. Yes, I am loot and I am the chance of loot, just as I am failure and the chance of failure.”

“But you said you don’t control everything.”

“Not yet, but you can help with that. I want to offer you an opportunity. It would have been a straight reward, but that’s no fun!”

He shrugged as though to say ‘what do you want me to do?’

“If you play my little game — such a small game, barely an inconvenience — then you have the chance to receive glorious rewards and potential great tragedies.”

Zoe shook her head.

“No thanks. Send me home, please.”

He steepled his fingers.

“I expected that response, so let me list some potential rewards: you become a princess of the system, everyone on Earth gains a level, hmm, you’ll like this one,” he leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. “I give you a chance to kill Trinch.”