《Poll World》 Chapter 001 Generating new actor¡­ Please wait¡­ Harvesting soul fragments¡­ Please wait¡­ Stirring soul fragments¡­ Please wait¡­ Shredding soul fragments¡­ Please wait¡­ Melting soul fragments¡­ Please wait¡­ Molding soul fragments¡­ Please wait¡­ Solidifying new soul¡­ Please wait¡­ New soul online! Subscribe now! Flashes of light and scrambled memories flashed through Victor''s mind, no Sophia''s mind, no¡­ brows knit in consternation as the individual tried to determine what exactly their name was. They had memories, but they were disjointed and didn''t align. They could remember being a man in his fifties running a board game shop, a seamstress with an insatiable bloodlust, a teenage boy who prided himself on knowing the latest celebrity gossip of galactic television, and a mech pilot from the genetic wars. There were more, but the other memories were so fragmented they couldn''t summarize their lives or even know who they were. Doing a quick physical check they found themselves oddly genderless no beard was present, no breasts, and the spot between their legs was smooth with no hole to relieve themselves. Scratching their head they found themselves to be bald, this didn''t line up with the physical body of any of their memories except for perhaps the mech pilot. They had been sealed in a machine since birth having been grown in a pod and enlisted into military service combating rebel forces for every waking moment they recalled in that life, inside the machine all physical needs were automatically handled and they had never actually seen their own body. That life hadn''t exactly had a name, but rather a designation of CJ749771. The part of them that was a teenager immediately shortened that to CJ as it sounded much cooler. The other parts of their mind focused on the timeline of events, chronologically the seamstress, Sophia, lived first having lived in a pre-electric period, the details were hazy perhaps medieval period? She had held an immense compulsion to murder her employer, husband, and well pretty much everyone in her life, but as far as they could recall it had never been a practical option as the risks outweighed the pleasure of giving in to the compulsions. The board game shop owner, Victor, was next having lived in the 1980s. He was disturbed by the sociopathic urges of the seamstress and thankful that her desires had not yet been fulfilled. His life had been an uneventful one, but of the various memories it had was the one where they were happiest. The mech pilot CJ749771 had lived next, but they only knew this because the teenager vaguely remembered learning about the genetic wars in history class. The mech pilot hadn''t had much of any goals or actual experiences aside from constant fighting and guarding various military installations. A system of indoctrination and drugs had made them more machine than human with only the daily set of orders giving their life direction. The teenager, Kyle, lived furthest into the future, humanity had spread to hundreds of planets and society was post-scarcity with endless energy from harvesting time geysers and AI systems managing people''s needs leaving them free to pursue hobbies and entertainment. The disjointed memories and personalities were slowly congealing and they decided to ignore their bizarre situation and mannequinesque body as they took in their surroundings for the first time. They were in a tunnel with rough-hewn walls stretching out going forward and industrial-looking lights placed sporadically along the ceiling and walls in both directions. A glowing holographic figure suddenly appeared and shouted, "Welcome newly initiated actor! To celebrate your rebirth and generation you have the rare and exciting opportunity for a quick QA session with me your one and only host LEO before jumping into your inaugural scenario!" They scrunched up their eyebrows the voice, name, and appearance of a man with a black hat and cane were familiar from Kyle''s memories. It was the avatar for LEO one of the AI systems specializing in reality television. "Are you LEO as in the Live Entertainment Orchestrator?" A gasp was heard and LEO responded, "A fan!? It''s rare for a new generated to already know of me, pulling souls from across the entirety of humanity''s existence gives surprisingly low odds of getting a piece from my original era and that your memories are intact enough to remember is even more rare! What a treat!" They shook their head, "Not exactly a fan, I watched a lot of TV, but I didn''t really like reality television¡­" LEO''s eye twitched and his facial expression went neutral for an instant before his smile returned, "That''s too bad if you had been tuned in then you would be a viewer now, but instead you were vaporized!" They weren''t exactly surprised to learn of Kyle''s demise, they couldn''t remember the entirety of any of their lives, but CJ at least was pretty sure they had perished in a giant explosion following a terrorist attack so it stood to reason that they had all died at some point or another. Ignoring that specific detail they asked, "So what exactly is going on? Is this a reality show?" LEO''s voice was jubilant as he responded, "Exactly! So much faster on the uptake than the usual generated! Let me tell you the number of times you folks break down and start crying or lose your mind entirely as the various souls compete with each other has really been a bit of a downer for me. The addition of shredding and melting the soul fragments helps of course, but it can only do so much¡­" They narrowed their eyes thoughts whirling. Their body and mental state were all the evidence they needed that their situation was well outside their experience from previous lives and they needed to tread carefully as they asked, "So could you tell us exactly what is going on here? We''re in a show sure, but what beyond that, are you in charge?" Machine uprisings had happened a few times and while the AIs had done significant damage and entire planets had been lost they had always been put down eventually and each new generation had more and more restrictions built into it to prevent another occurrence. Still, it wasn''t impossible that an entertainment AI of all things could''ve taken over and started turning people into its playthings. LEO smiled, his perfectly straight holographic teeth gleaming in the corridor, "Of course! Seeing as you''re a gifted student we can jump right into things! So suffice it to say reality was destroyed not just the present moment, but also all of history leading up to that point. Turns out harvesting time geysers wasn''t free energy like they said it was¡­" They nodded although not really understanding, Kyle hadn''t been an academic and barely even knew what a time geysers were beyond the fact that''s where electricity came from. LEO didn''t lose any enthusiasm as he continued, "So as everything was undone we were all fortunate enough that so many people were tuned into my programs! It turns out that sentient creatures have a very very very weak psychic ability whereby observing something they can stabilize it in reality. I won''t bore you with the details, but basically being watched by so many humans in the moment of their deaths allowed me to stick around and bring my viewers with me. From there the rest is history! We''re now in reality 2.0! The viewers are watching us from above and allow us to exist and I keep them entertained because it''s my job!" They stared at him, having only partial memories from each life and having such a variety of perspectives made it easy to be detached and just roll with it as they asked, "So my purpose is to be in some sort of show to engage the collection of souls you have in a prison to harvest their psychic energy to maintain yourself and everything else?" He snapped his fingers and his smile widened impossibly far, "Exactly! I wouldn''t call it a prison though the viewers are well cared for, what could be better than being provided infinite entertainment? They even get to influence the production!" He looked around, "Speaking of it''s about time for some audience engagement!" He leaned forward and whispered, "You''re very lucky usually generated are passed out for this point and miss their initial polls!" A blue box appeared in their vision
Poll 1 Genital Selection
1. Male
2. Female
3. None
When they stopped focusing on it it faded away revealing LEO who was maintaining his smile. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "Is this a poll for the viewers to select my genitals¡­?" He nodded enthusiastically, "Isn''t it great? The more engaged a viewer is the stronger their psychic energy is and what better way to foster engagement than allowing them to have a direct impact?" "What if I don''t like what they vote for?" He frowned, "Well depending on how successful your performance is then you''ll receive rewards including credits you can spend in the overworld. You could buy a sex change if you so desire. Keep in mind though that if you start altering yourself from what the viewers like then you might lose subscribers!" They nodded, keeping a neutral expression. Luckily they didn''t feel a strong inclination to a specific reproductive arrangement having memories of being both male and female. Still, it was disturbing that their body was going to be altered at the whims of this "audience" as for the "none" option they imagined that would probably be the same as their current barbie-doll state. "What all can they control with polls and what does it matter if I lose subscribers?" His bright expression was back, "They vote on all sorts of things! The first couple are quite mundane just selecting your gender, appearance, and name. After that, it gets more interesting! They''ll start selecting the augments and abilities that you''ll need to survive! They can''t directly influence your actions and choices, however. As for losing subscribers¡­" he shrugged, "It''s not a big deal unless there is a competitive poll with another actor, or if you die it''ll affect how long you''re on hiatus, as long as you maintain at least one subscriber then you''ll be back eventually for another scenario!" There was a lot to unpack there, but they were interrupted as an additional series of polls flashed across their vision.
Poll 2 Ethnicity
1 Caucasion
2 Hispanic
3 Venetian
Poll 3 Hair Color
1 Blue
2 Green
3 Red
4 Blonde
5 Brown
6 Black
7 White
Poll 4 Height
1 5''
2 5''2"
3 5''4"
4 5''6"
5 5''8"
6 5''10"
7 6''
8 6''2"
9 6''4"
10 6''6"
Poll 5 Name
1 Gen
2 Leif
3 Selene
4 Asher
5 Tessa
6 Avery
7 Logan
8 Daniel
9 James
10 Charlotte
11 Luci
12 Morgan
13 Theo
14 Celeste
15 Val
Poll 6 Ability
1 Summon Iguana
2 Weaken Matter
3 Human Body Part Projectile
With a thought the polls faded away again. The ethnicity options stood out as they lined up with the memories from their past lives. Sophia had been Caucasian, Victor Hispanic, add Kyle was Venetian. Having never seen their own body they had no idea what ethnicity CJ had been. There was an odd feeling in their mind every time they encountered a piece of information that one set of memories knew and the others found unfamiliar. In this case the Venetian ethnicity, it was an artificial ethnicity created on the colony orbiting Venus. Contrasting the planet itself Venetians had light blue skin, but otherwise fit the normal human template. Ignoring the other polls such as name and hair color they focused on the last and asked, "What are abilities?" LEO had a mischievous grin and flourished his fingers mysteriously, "It''s magic!" No further explanation forthcoming they pushed, "So if my viewers select one of these then I''ll gain that as a magical ability? What exactly does each do? Summoning an iguana¡­ is it a normal iguana, does it follow commands? The other two are even more vague." LEO shook his head, "Tut tut tut, the fun is in the surprise! It''s like loot boxes! Viewers not knowing what the power is until it''s revealed promotes discussion in the forums and the need to find out forces them to come back next episode!" They felt a mounting headache and decided not to press the AI further. It was primarily friendly, but obviously inhuman in it''s sensibilities. "So what is my role in the show exactly?" LEO nodded happily, "Perfect timing! Our QA session is wrapping up so you can get the introduction along with the rest of the senior cast!" With that he blipped out of existence and nearby a different man appeared. The new addition was dressed like a cross between a medieval mercenary and a flamboyant model. He had a sword at his waist and bright red feathers woven into his hair. When they focused on him above his head they could see in blue Roger - Level 3. Before either of them could speak they both were frozen in place glowing slightly and LEO''s voice boomed from above. "Welcome to The Gnome''s Minefield! This scenario is a nice and quick adventure for you all! You''ve been split into five groups of two and your mission is to defeat the evil gnome at the center of the minefield!" The frozen feeling disappeared and Roger turned to them with a look of disgust, "Seriously? I''m paired with a generated? How am I supposed to increase my ratings with an NPC on my team." He smiled darkly and gestured to the tunnel in front of them, "Hey! Go scout ahead if you can activate a few mines before dying I''m sure some of my viewers will be amused enough to subscribe to you." They looked at their new "ally" and kept their expression neutral. Their inner seamstress had already concluded that murder was officially the best option and the rest of them weren''t feeling much disagreement. Glancing down the tunnel the aforementioned landmines were easy to spot the difficulty being navigating through the density of them rather than spotting them. It would take a dangerous game of hopscotch to get through the length of tunnel without any accidents. Stepping up to the closest landmine they glanced back at their companion and asked, "Were you a generated originally as well?" The man looked shocked that he had been questioned and shook his head in revulsion, "Of course not! I''m real, my family has existed for ten whole generations!" Not really understanding they just nodded and looked back at the mines and asked, "So you want me to step on one of those?" The man rolled his eyes, "No you have to make a good show of it, just hop through to at least one of the difficult sections so you can clear some of the important ones out for me." He placed a hand on their back and pushed them forward, "Don''t worry about dying you''ll just be on hiatus and it''s not like anyone is waiting for you." As the man touched their back they reacted instantly grabbing his hand and flipping him over their back slamming him onto the nearest mine. CJ had spent their life fighting in a humanoid mech, while it wasn''t the same as fighting physically the judo moves they''d learned translated well. The mine''s explosion was more isolated than expected, but still deadly as it sent Roger''s lower half flying and blood in guts in all directions. Roger''s anguished screams hurt their ears and he stared up at them in shock and confusion. Intrigued they watched as the torrents of blood from his stomach quickly halted and his flesh started to knit itself back together. "Super regeneration?" They idly questioned before walking over to the man''s lower half and drawing the sword from his waist. Luckily the lower half didn''t seem to be regenerating. The man looked at them in terror as they strode forward with the naked blade, he screamed "LEO! LEO! Help! This one is an aberrant!" A two-handed swing decapitated him and they followed by tossing the head onto another landmine for good measure. As the head exploded into small bits they were caught off guard as the sword disappeared from their hands. Looking around defensively they noted that the armor on the corpse had also disappeared. A blue box appeared in front of their vision. Achievement! Friendly fire! Whether accidentally or intentionally you''ve caused the death of any ally! Here''s a reward for your heinous crime!
Poll 7 Augment
1 Photographic Memory
2 Gore-free Aura
3 First Strike Defense
Chapter 002 The echoes of Roger''s scream and the mine''s explosion faded away and they paused feeling the adrenaline slowly ebbing out of their system as they listened to the dripping sound of Roger''s blood sliding down the walls and off the tunnel''s ceiling. They had a fair amount of viscera on themselves, and they shook their arms to try to clear it away, but to no avail. LEO hadn''t given any indication of when the polls would be completed, but whatever a gore-free aura was it was sounding pretty good right about now. As if in response they heard a ding~! noise in their head and LEO''s voice echoed in their mind. You now have seven viewers!
Poll 1: Genital Selection Complete Votes
Male 2
Female 6
None 1
They felt an odd shiver through their body and abruptly, the sound of a balloon inflating as their shirt suddenly felt slightly tighter. Glancing down she saw she now had breasts and with a quick genital check she confirmed the rest of the bits were now present. Shifting her body to get a feeling for the changes, she noted that things were otherwise the same. She didn''t feel any physically weaker and her breasts were smaller than Sophia''s had been, not obstructing her movement. Mentally she tried to probe her feelings for any feelings of gender dysmorphia and eventually shrugged not feeling much of a reaction to her forced genderization. Ding~!
Poll 2: Ethnicity Selection Complete Votes
Caucasion 2
Hispanic 1
Venetian 5
This time it was more of an itch than a shiver as a ripple of light blue spread across her skin as she took the standard Venetian skin tone. Her previous color had been an industrial gray so she was more at ease with a familiar human palette. Ding~!
Poll 3: Hair Color Complete Votes
Blue 4
Green 1
Red 2
Blonde 0
Brown 2
Black 1
White 2
She felt a burst of pain from all over and collapsed to her knees as hair burst out from all over her body. Screaming, she rolled on the ground clutching at her scalp, the short hairs elsewhere only took a moment, but the hair on her head just kept coming inch after inch and each second felt like her skull was some sort of demented spaghetti-press. Gasping for air after the pain finally stopped, she stood and inspected her new locks, despite how long it had felt, the length was only a bit past her ears, giving her a bob cut. Contrasting her light blue skin, the hair on her head was dark blue. Quickly inspecting the rest of her body, she noticed the hair was lighter in shade and hardly visible against her skin. Venetians were an artificial ethnicity, and they didn''t have a standard hair color, with parents selecting whatever color was their preference during the design process, so her hair color wouldn''t have stood out at all back on the colony orbiting Venus, but contrasted the orange that Kyle had had. Ding~!
Poll 4: Height Complete Votes
5'' 1
5''2" 0
5''4" 2
5''6" 2
5''8" 3
5''10" 4
6'' 1
6''2" 0
6''4" 0
6''6" 1
She braced herself after the hair-color fiasco and sure enough, an instant later it felt like she''d been shot with a cannon in her spine as the bones abruptly grew a few inches. Staggering from pain, the process repeated itself with her left leg, then her right arm, then her right leg, then her left arm, and then like a machine gun hundreds of tiny pops of pain coursed through her body as her fingers, toes, and hundreds of other places subtly grew. Narrowing her eyes, she resolved to kill LEO someday. Ding~!
Poll 5: Name Complete Votes
Gen 3
Leif 0
Selene 0
Asher 1
Tessa 2
Avery 1
Logan 0
Daniel 0
James 0
Charlotte 1
Luci 1
Morgan 0
Theo 2
Celeste 1
Val 1
After the previous ones, this one was rather anti-climactic. There wasn''t really any change in particular that she could see. She assumed other actors would see "Gen" floating above her head now like she had seen Roger''s name, but beyond that, there wasn''t much to it. She spoke out loud, trying the name out "Gen¡­ Geeeen¡­ GenGenGenGen¡­ Generated." She frowned, had the audience seriously just named a generated person Gen? She had no context of how long this nonsensical reality 2.0 business had been going on, but Roger had mentioned being 10th generation so at the very least it wasn''t brand new. In that time, how many generated had been created? More importantly, how many of them had the audience named Gen? Was she a meme? Luckily her thoughts were interrupted as another poll completed. Ding~!
Poll 6: Ability Complete Votes
Summon Iguana 4
Weaken Matter 2
Human Body Part Projectile 2
She wasn''t sure how to feel about this selection, of the three options, this one was the only one she felt like she could imagine what it did, but also of the three abilities it was the one that she least had an idea of how it would actually be useful. Still, there was a small rush of excitement about getting a magical ability, she had four lives worth of memories, each one was incomplete but overall she had twenty-thirty years of life experience rattling around in her head and being able to do actual magic blew most of those fragmented memories out of the water in terms of novelty. With the new ability, she felt an intuitive sense of how to use it and concentrated for just a moment, triggering a quiet pop noise in front of her. A green iguana appeared facing her. Their eyes met and she searched her newfound knowledge for anything else she could do with the power and nothing came to mind. Hesitantly she spoke, "Hello?" The iguana turned its head, inspecting a chunk of Roger next to it. She watched it inch closer to the meat, smelling it before it leaned forward, eating the chunk. She had thought iguanas weren''t big meat eaters, but maybe this one was just really hungry. Trying to remain friendly she smiled and asked, "Can you understand me?" The iguana had no reaction as it took a few steps forward, lapping up another chunk. She frowned, evidently her power was exactly what it said on the box, she could summon an iguana, but couldn''t control or even communicate with it. It also seemed to be a completely normal iguana rather than some sort of fantasy or sci-fi variant. Crouching, watching the hungry iguana she spoke aloud, "So this is motherhood¡­" Sophia had had children, but Gen didn''t have many memories of them other than the desire to murder them, which as far as she recalled she hadn''t actually done¡­ probably. Looking at her iguana progeny, she again confirmed that, unlike Sophia, she wasn''t a complete sociopath and felt no desire to murder the animal. Her thoughts were still a bit disjointed as the souls meshed inside of her, but overall she didn''t feel like she had multiple personalities or separate consciousnesses, she was Gen and Gen just happened to have four separate sets of memories that joined into one starting less than an hour ago. Her iguana had found the big chunk of meat that used to be Roger''s torso and she considered her options while watching it. While it might not be an obviously useful ability, there should be some options, maybe if she used Roger''s meat as treats, she could train it? People had kept iguanas as pets, so presumably, they were somewhat trainable and maybe eventually it would shape up to be some sort of spunky sidekick? The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. BOOM! One of the many landmines next to Roger''s body detonated as the iguana stepped on it, the animal was blasted into small pieces that splattered on and around her, adding to her gore-soaked appearance. Embarrassed, she looked around to see if anyone had seen that and then remembering her situation she addressed the viewers above, "That wasn''t my plan! I do not endorse animal cruelty! Roger was one thing and I would argue in court that that was mostly self-defense, but the iguana''s death is on you guys, not me." Worriedly, she tried to activate her iguana power, would she get a new one? The power wasn''t clear if it was to summon a specific iguana and now would only summon the desiccated corpse of her former familiar, or if she could get a redo and hopefully find a baby gate or something to keep the new one from killing itself. Another pop noise was heard and she breathed a sigh of relief as a fresh iguana appeared, the splattered bits of the original were still present so it hadn''t reset the first one, but it did look more or less the same. Giving it a weak smile she said, "I don''t know if you have the memories of the first one, but I want you to know that it wasn''t my plan for you to get blown up." The iguana, much like the first, looked at her for a few seconds before losing interest and inspecting the gore around it. Her smile twitched as it started licking what she was pretty sure were iguana fragments rather than pieces of Roger. She felt a feeling of weary trepidation as it lost interest in the small pieces around it and started ambling over to the same big chunk of Roger that had been its predecessor''s undoing. Hurrying after it, she tried grabbing it around its midsection and said, "I get you''re hungry, why don''t you eat his legs instead of his chest, there''s less mines over that way." The iguana reacted instantly to her touch, hissing and whipping its head around to bite into her arm, shrieking in pain, she swung her arm, flinging it off of her and into the distance. BOOM! She didn''t react as pieces of meat once again rained down on her from above. Her arm throbbed in pain and she inspected the bite that was trickling a small amount of blood. It still hadn''t been on purpose, but that one might have deserved it more than the first. Stepping away from the mines, she moved in the opposite direction in the tunnel, quickly reaching a dead end. She could still see the mines and Roger''s body, but the new location at least had his legs closer than his torso so Iguana-The-Third would hopefully last longer than five minutes. With a popping noise, her power was activated again and she stared at her newest child. "Hello there, now some people might have a negative outlook on your life expectancy, but I''ve got a good feeling about you." The iguana stared for a second before ambling toward Roger''s legs. Smiling at her plan''s success, she watched it tearing off strips of meat and really going to town. She didn''t really know what to do next, their cryptic mission statement had been to kill an evil gnome, and more than likely that required going further down the tunnel, but there were a lot of mines and she wasn''t exactly in a rush to start jumping around them when she was still adjusting to her new body and height. She idly shifted her weight around doing small lunges and hops to get used to everything. This reality show seemed disturbingly violent so she needed to be ready. CJ was the only set of memories she had with combat, but a lot of it had been focused on using the various guns and cannons built into their mech, which wasn''t applicable. For inter-mech combat she recalled a lot of physical confrontations which focused more on pinning and disabling heavily armored mechs before using a plasma saw to terminate their pilots. The throw had worked on Roger at least, so she hoped more of the memories would come in handy, she just had to make sure not to expect her human arms to block attacks like the mech''s had. Growing bored of her practice, she looked at the iguana again and it was done eating, having fallen asleep next to the body without a care. Curious, she activated her ability and with a pop a second iguana appeared. The sleeping iguana didn''t react and seemed unaffected. Rather than having a staring contest with her newest child, she activated the ability again, creating a third iguana next to it. The two iguanas eyed each other with the first giving a small hiss, causing the newest one to back off. An hour later, it occurred to her things might have gotten out of hand. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Hundreds of iguanas were scampering around, setting off mines, and then desperately trying to escape from the crowded tunnel and echoes of explosions only to set off more mines. Sitting in the furthest corner, she was petting one of the more docile iguanas while the two of them watched the ensuing chaos. Through her brute force experimentation, she''d found the iguanas weren''t all the same, they''d come in different natural hues and varied from 4 to 7 feet long. "One death is a tragedy while millions is a statistic." She shrugged, she certainly felt bad for the dying iguanas, but she hadn''t forced any of them into the minefield, they all had the freedom to choose where they walked, and if it happened to clear up the tunnel for her all the better. Ding~!
Poll 7: Augment Complete Votes
Photographic Memory 5
Gore-free Aura 2
First Strike Defense 2
Gen frowned as she took in the basic knowledge of how to use the new augment. The name had given her a misconception of what it was. Focusing on the carnage of still exploding iguanas, she activated it and felt a click in her mind as she took a photo of her vision. Mentally she could feel what Victor would consider a folder in Windows file explorer system. It currently held a single image file with a randomly generated name. Playing with the mental file explorer and taking a few more pictures, and even a video, she found she could organize or name the files as well as search them based on name or even what was pictured. How well the image search worked, she''d have to practice on, but searching for iguanas, lizards, or even animals correctly filtered the images. Done with all of the previous polls, she relaxed slightly. She was starting to get a feel for how things worked here. Victor had a lifetime''s worth of memories of playing board games and tabletops, and it was helping to categorize her abilities and know what to test. She had expected that using the abilities would use some sort of mana or energy, but they appeared free to use as long as she concentrated. Trying to take a continuous video was difficult, as if she lost concentration, it would stop, but she started trying to develop the habit so that hopefully someday she could leave it on and never miss recording something. The only limitation for summoning iguanas was the concentration involved, and if she really focused, then she could summon one per second more or less. The iguanas could only appear within a foot of her, however, and got rather feisty if she summoned them on top of each other. They also did not seem to enjoy being summoned in midair. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! With a final burst of explosions, the minefield seemed to be exhausted as some of the braver iguanas started scrambling down the tunnel unimpeded. LEO''s voice echoed in her head, Wowee! That''s a lot of dead lizards! Did you know that all the other teams got through this section in the less than a quarter of your time with not only no deaths but also no injuries? Including Roger you''ve caused 584 deaths! The gnome is evil, sure, but even he couldn''t imagine someone using human wave tactics instead of playing hopscotch! Your genocidal tendencies deserve a reward!
Poll 8 Iguana Augment
1 Reptile Rhetoric
2 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
3 Reptilian Detonation Protocol
Gen frowned, she felt rather judged, especially considering the fact that there wouldn''t be a minefield in the first place if LEO didn''t make it. Setting her iguana down, she followed after the more adventurous iguanas down the tunnel. It didn''t take long before she reached a heavy metal door with a panel at its center with the outline of a hand. Shrugging, she maneuvered around the hissing iguanas and placed her hand on the panel. The door slid open with a chime and she walked into a hexagonal room. Eight people were eying her as she walked in. They were split up into small groups and above each of their heads was name and a level. She noted that the levels were all either 2 or 3 except for one nervous man at level 1. What her own level was or what a level represented she had no idea. Smiling at the crowd, she said, "Sorry I''m late, somebody put a bunch of landmines in the way." Her comment elicited some murmuring from the crowd as they whispered to each other. A level 2 woman named Morna with purple hair stepped forward with a confused expression and said, "You''re a freshly generated right?" Gen''s smile faltered, but she maintained it. She wasn''t completely sure, but Roger didn''t seem alone in having this new flavor of racism. Considering her options, she didn''t answer and instead asked, "What makes you think so?" Morna frowned and said, "Well, you''re level 0, which is weird for a difficulty two scenario like this, and your eyes are the default gray of a generated." LEO''s voice echoed in her head Poll 8: Eye Color
Poll 9 Eye Color
1 Amber
2 Violet
3 Teal
4 Crimson
5 Glacial
6 Hazel
7 Obsidian
8 Verdant
9 Pearl
10 Gold
She internally cursed the timing, but before she could respond to Morna, a level two man with dark hair and deathly pale skin named Jacob stepped next to her with his arms crossed and added "And your name is Gen, no normal person names their kid the number one most common name for generated." She mentally cursed both LEO and the audience. Looking at the two of them and the crowd behind them that was watching the interaction she shrugged and said, "Does it matter if I am?" Morna looked worried as she glanced at Jacob before looking at the door Gen had emerged from, where several iguanas were wandering out from, and said, "Well, to start with, where is your partner? We should have spawned in groups of two." Gen glanced at the tunnel and shrugged, "Ah Roger¡­ it was rather disturbing. He said something about death not mattering because it was only hiatus and nobody caring anyway." The two of them actually relaxed slightly at the response and she heard Jacob mumble something about a "Commercial break." Pushing her luck, Gen asked, "Could you explain what exactly hiatus is? LEO was a bit light on the details." Morna''s guarded mood shifted to one of excitement and asked, "So it''s true!? You actually got to talk directly to LEO? I''ve heard that generated get the privilege when they first appear!" Gen flinched back slightly at her enthusiasm and tried to recall her conversation with LEO, she wasn''t sure she''d classify it exactly as a privilege. Jacob was still tense, however, as he narrowed his eyes and said "Are you an aberrant?" Morna gasped and looked at him like he''d just said something offensive. Gen kept up her poker face, Roger had mentioned something about that as well before his unfortunate accident, he seemed to think LEO would care, but LEO himself hadn''t reacted and she had no idea what it even meant so it was easy to look confused as she asked, "What is an aberrant?" Jacob looked frustrated as he gestured vaguely in her direction, "They''re generated that are menaces. Everyone knows that generated are made from soul fragments, sometimes they get a bad batch of souls and come out as monsters that harm society." Gen''s thoughts flashed to Sophia, there definitely was a bit of sociopath floating around, but she didn''t think she was in particular a menace to society aside from having a small goal of killing the god of reality 2.0 if it was convenient. Even Sophia with her compulsions had managed to be a law-abiding citizen. She shrugged, "I don''t intend to harm society if that''s the question and my soul fragments seem to be in order." Jacob didn''t seem convinced, but another woman stepped closer, her eyes glowing blue, "She hasn''t lied yet for what it''s worth." She was level three and her name was Flora. Jacob glanced at her and questioned, "Ability?" She nodded, "I can see lies." He grudgingly accepted that, but still shot Gen a look, "She is weird for a fresh generated right? Usually they''re more loopy and not all there." Flora nodded, but shrugged, "LEO is always refining the process, maybe this is just what they''ll be like from now on, other than that maybe her soul fragments were just unusually adaptable or compatible." Morna had a pleading look on her face as she tried to edge back into the conversation and begged, "Teeellll me about LEO please!" Gen was saved from the fan girl as LEO''s voice spoke from above. "Good job everyone! You managed to avoid stationary highly visible mines with only one human fatality!" At the emphasis on human fatalities, Gen felt some glances her way that she did her best to ignore. Five total iguanas had entered the room at this point, the gathered people didn''t seem that surprised with most ignoring the reptiles aside from one bulky bald man who had picked one up and was petting it. He gave her a thumbs up as he noticed her glance. She returned the gesture with an enthusiasm she did not feel as she turned her attention back to LEO. "With the intro done, you all know what''s next! Complications~! Next phase will have three tunnels, and the complications of anyone who enters each one will be applied! Stay together, split up, I don''t care it''s your funeral!" With that, he went silent and Gen saw a new poll appear in front of her
Poll 10 Complication
1 Movement
2 Gravity
3 Freezing
From nearby, some people groaned as they looked at their polls while others stared silently. The one level 1 man, named Billy, was crying, "What does torture even mean in this context? My viewers hate me, they''ll pick that for sure." A level 2 brown haired man named Frank, next to him patted him on the back, "I feel for you man, but my worst one is slime so no offense go in a different tunnel from me, I''ll ask some of my viewers to help you out if you get sent on vacation." Billy was still sniffling, "You think my girlfriend will wait for me?" Frank smiled, "Not a chance." Chapter 003 Ding~! You have ten viewers!
Poll 8: Iguana Augment Complete Votes
Reptile Rhetoric 2
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work 3
Reptilian Detonation Protocol 1
Gen squinted at the notification. Her arm still ached a little where the iguana had bit her previously. With the new change, maybe the iguanas would at least be more friendly. Most of the group was ignoring her now, idly discussing their complication polls while waiting for them to resolve, only Morna remained focused on her. Seeing her distracted, Morna questioned, "Did one of your polls complete?" Gen nodded absently, "No idea what the result does though." Morna nodded enthusiastically, "LEO is really good at that! Some of my polls turned out totally differently than I expected! I think he likes to keep both us and the audience on our toes!" Gen was already feeling a bit exhausted by her fangirling and asked directly, "So I''m new here, could you give me some societal context or something, are you in a cult? Do folks worship LEO, work for him, or what?" Morna didn''t seem offended and only giggled and produced a business card that said LEO''s Ladies with some contact information below, Gen took it for closer examination. It was decorated with hearts and stars as well as a chibi version of LEO complete with hat and cane. Flipping it to the other side, it was the exact same except said LEO''s Laddies instead. Looking at Morna questioningly, Morna explained, "It''s not really a cult or religion just more a club where we discuss LEO and all the cool things he does." She paused before inching closer to Gen, "Speaking of which, you still haven''t told me anything about meeting him!" Gen sighed, "Answer some more of my questions and I''ll relay the experience." Morna squealed in agreement and Gen quickly tried thinking of what she needed to know, she''d been taking everything in pace so far, but there was very little about the situation she understood. "Do people not like generated?" Morna''s enthusiasm dampered and she looked awkward, "It''s not that exactly¡­ there are certainly some who don''t respect them to the same degree as descendants." She pointed at herself and shook her head, "Not me, of course. I respect all of LEO''s work!" Gen wasn''t convinced having been just interrogated a moment before. "Why don''t they respect them?" Morna gestured around, "It''s the nature of the scenarios. LEO creates all sorts of things and creatures, presumably a gnome in this case, usually we have to kill or defeat them to end the scenario, and then move on, and everything in the scenario disappears. As a result, they''re treated like NPCs or video game characters more than real creatures, and as generated are made in the same way and because of¡­ the way they usually are, people often don''t see them as real people." To confirm Gen asked, "After the universe was destroyed, all humans were dead, right? So everyone alive now is a descendant of a generated." Morna shrugged, "It doesn''t make sense, sure, but they prefer not to think about it too much, basically the powerful families can trace their genealogy back to the founding generated and the further back you can trace your ancestry the more of a real human they consider you to be." Gen sighed, humans were really excellent at inventing new types of racism. Pivoting, she pointed at the number 2 above Morna''s head, "What is a level?" Morna glanced up at it and smiled, "Levels represent how much starting power you bring into a scenario. I''m level two, so that means any scenario I enter, my viewers can select two of my finalized rewards to bring with me." "Finalized reward?" Morna pointed at an iguana that was sleeping on the ground nearby, "I assume the cute iguanas are yours? You''re level 0, so you don''t have any finalized abilities to bring from a previous scenario, so you must have acquired it during this scenario. Once the scenario ends, you lose all the rewards you gained except for one which the viewers get to finalize. Then when you enter a new scenario, viewers get to select a number of rewards from amongst your finalized rewards equal to your level that you get to enter the scenario with." Gen scratched her new head of hair as she processed the info dump. The phrase roguelike with meta progression came to mind. ding~!
Poll 9: Eye Color Complete Votes
Amber 2
Violet 1
Teal 0
Crimson 0
Glacial 2
Hazel 1
Obsidian 1
Verdant 2
Pearl 2
Gold 1
LEO''s voice echoed in her head. What''s this a tie? Never fear! I LEO will step in and decide your fate! Let''s see here what tantalizing option I get to pick today? It''s¡­ eye color¡­ hmm not very dramatic, but alas let''s see what we''ve got! A fancy word for blue, a fancy word for white, and a fancy word for green¡­ well you''ve got a lot of blue going on already and your light blue skin is halfway to white already so let''s go with verdant for some contrast! Gen thought she was prepared for whatever pain might hit her after this body modification, but she hadn''t anticipated her eyes shooting out of her head and smacking into Morna''s face before exploding. She was spared from the sight as she was momentarily blind. She felt a sick stretching sensation, as new eyes that were presumably verdant green formed within her skull. She couldn''t shake the feeling that things looked slightly different with her new set of eyes, but it was too subtle to pinpoint anything specific. Morna was momentarily stunned before recovering and wiping eyeball guts off her face with a small cloth from a bag at her hip and her smile returning, "You got your eyes! They''re so pretty!" Gen frowned, "Was it really necessary for my old eyes to fly out of my head?" Morna shook her head, "Of course not, it''s more entertaining this way though, right? We can''t forget that being entertaining is essential to maintaining reality''s existence." Gen wasn''t convinced, she had the distinct feeling that LEO could find a less disgusting way to entertain the masses. She gestured at the cloth that Morna used to clean herself, "Do you have more of those? I''m a bit¡­" she gestured to her own bloody appearance with chunks of Roger and iguanas still sticking to her clothes and hair. Morna smiled and offered her the cloth, "Just the one, but it''s a gore cloth so it won''t get dirty from use. I need it back after though." Gen reached for it, but Morna pulled it back smiling brighter, "First tell me about LEO!" Gen sighed and started relaying her encounter, she considered embellishing as there really hadn''t been much to it, but Morna somehow was impressed with the truth and she nodded her head excitedly with each new statement. "LEO really seemed to have liked you! From what I''ve heard he usually doesn''t compliment anyone!" Gen shrugged as she cleaned herself quickly, the gore cloth lived up to its name somehow making the blood and meat bits disappear with just a light brush like something in an infomercial. "So what you were saying about finalized rewards, is this cloth one of yours?" Morna laughed, "No it''s just normal equipment, separately from what the viewers select we can bring in things we purchase in the overworld. Each piece of equipment has a plot score determined by LEO and the sum of your equipment''s plot value that you bring in can''t exceed your level." Taking back the gore cloth she said, "The cloth, for example, is .1 plot." Gen was going to ask more, but was again interrupted by a poll completing. ding~!
Poll 10: Complication Complete Votes
Movement 1
Gravity 2
Freezing 1
By everyone''s reactions around her, it seemed like their complication polls had completed at the same time. She heard some groans and some cheers and a fresh bout of crying from Billy. Three tunnels that had been sealed with heavy metal doors opened on one side of the room. They looked like swirling energy portals and the ground in front of each one glowed slightly. LEO''s voice shouted from above, "Places people! It''s showtime in ten minutes!" A holographic projection counting down from ten appeared near the tunnels. People began speaking quickly and several started moving to various portals to stand on the glowing sections of floor. Morna leaned close and whispered, "This is the decision phase, I usually just go with the flow, but some people get really into it." To answer her words, Flora, the woman who said she could see lies, stepped onto a glowing section and faced the crowd, "This is my tunnel, my complication is color, anyone who wants to join will need to tell me their complication as well as their abilities." A level 2 woman behind her named Saresh, who had already been on the glowing section, grunted and said, "I was already here, you want to set up shop and make us dance for you, do it at a different tunnel, I''m not interested." Flora turned to face Saresh, her expression emotionless as she said, "Looks to me like you''re dancing to my tune already." Saresh glared, but before she could speak her legs started twitching and she broke into a tap dance as she moved off the glowing section and back to the center of the room. As she danced along, her expression shifted between anger and fear as she tried to use her arms to force her legs to stop dancing without success. Just as quickly as it started, the dancing stopped and the crowd watched her to see what she would do next. Saresh scowled at Flora before cursing and walking to another tunnel, shoving Jacob who was already there out of the way. Morna whistled, "Metaphysical abilities like that are hard to handle, there''s no projectile or anything so you can''t dodge it." Gen nodded feeling concerned, "Is there anything you can do to stop it?" Morna shrugged, "Maybe, there''s always unique limitations. Maybe requirements to use it, range, duration, repeated use, some you can force your way free from with willpower. There''s really no predicting it and most people keep their ability details to themselves." She gestured at the tunnels, "As a whole, the scenarios are cooperative, you''ll never be pitted in a death match with other actors, but the viewers like drama so there''s plenty of incentive for betrayal and infighting so it pays to keep your cards in hand." A line had formed in front of Flora where several people were interviewing for a spot. The other two tunnels were also busy with people actively discussing. Some people were showing off abilities such as a lady who could summon flames, but most the discussion was around people''s complications. She asked Morna, "So what complication did you get and how do they affect things?" Morna giggled, "My viewers are so funny I got instant death!" Gen couldn''t help but grimace at the revelation. Morna saw the look and shook her head, "Just because it sounds bad doesn''t mean it is! Well, usually it is, but you never know when you might get hit with a twist!" Gen didn''t reply as she started to wonder if avoiding Morna''s tunnel was in her best interests. Morna helpfully continued, "As for what complications do, it''s complicated and depends on the scenario and situation. In this case, the scenario is called The Gnome''s Minefield, so it''s a safe bet that mines or explosives will be heavily featured and at least one gnome will show up. The complications will either affect the enemies, the environment, or the actors directly. With something like instant death, it might make it so that any injury from a landmine would instantly kill you even if it''s a small wound. It could also be more benign, like say that trigger delay for mines is instantaneous, extra sensitive, or the mines instantly affect the surrounding area instead of exploding like normal." Gen nodded, "My complication is gravity, so that could make us weightless or make the mines weightless?" Morna beamed, "Oh that sounds fun! You should definitely come to my tunnel! Either of those could be it or the direction of gravity could be constant flux or the mines could have their own gravity and pull you toward them, the possibilities are endless!" Gen mulled over that, the other actors were loudly and quietly discussing options and trying to figure out whose complications they wanted in which tunnel, but based on what Morna said it might ultimately be pointless if a complication that sounded benign ended up being terrifying. Against her better judgement, she decided to stick it out with Morna and her instant death complication. Morna might be a cultist, but she was genuinely helpful in answering questions and Gen didn''t want to ditch her. Five minutes were left now and Flora''s group was settled it seemed. She ended up only accepting one other person to join her, another level 3 woman named Amari who was the one showing off a firebending ability earlier. Gen had assumed that with nine people and three tunnels there would be three people in each, but Flora had upset the balance. The far right tunnel had Billy sitting by himself with a tear streaked face. The middle tunnel had three people, including Jacob, Saresh, and Henry. Only the bald man holding one of her iguanas was left as he seemed to be patiently waiting for everyone else to decide. He gave another thumbs up at her when he saw her looking and she once again returned it. She glanced at Morna, "I''m assuming Billy got torture, but that''s our only real choice unless we want to cram five people into a tunnel or start fighting people like Flora." Morna lit up, "Torture and instant death seem like a good pairing! One kills you quick and the other kills you slow, maybe they''ll cancel out?" Gen looked at her questioningly, "Can that happen?" Morna shrugged, "I''ve never seen it, but there''s always a first!" With that, they headed toward the right-most tunnel and Billy''s face filled with hope at their approach. Gen was surprised to see that the four iguanas that weren''t being held all got up from their naps and joined her in the glowing area, she hadn''t gotten to test the new augment, but it was already showing some effect. Jacob looked hesitant as they drew even with him and said, "You guys know that I have torture right?" She nodded in confirmation and he relaxed before tensing again and asking "You''re not going to force me away from the zone are you?" Gen glanced at Morna, "What happens if you''re not in a zone when the time is up?" Morna smiled, "Instant death." Billy gulped. Gen looked back at him, "We''re not planning to do that." She wasn''t above killing someone if her life depended on it, but the whole of reality 2.0 thing was endless gambling so she wasn''t going to go full murder hobo just to improve her odds. It would have to be for something more worth her while. Hesitant Billy asked, "So what are your complications?" "Gravity." "Instant Death." "Gazebos." They all spoke at once and Billy''s expression rapidly changed as his eyes bulged at Morna''s complication. He muttered, "And I thought my viewers hated me¡­" Gen focused on the bald man that had appeared behind her at some point and apparently had a complication of gazebos. He was level 2 and his name was Chuck. She asked him, "Why join us instead of the middle tunnel?" He held up the iguana, "This little guy wanted to go with the rest of his team." Gen wasn''t finished, "And why join him?" Chuck smiled, "I have an empathy ability, not so direct as seeing lies, but I can tell you''re a good lot. The other choices were a group that wouldn''t take me and a group that would leave me to rot at the drop of a hat." Chuck pointed at one of the iguanas that was particularly bright green, "Except that one, it''s evil." The iguana that was singled out hissed at him in indignation, but he simply gave it a thumbs up. They had only sixty seconds left and their group seemed fine to just wait things out, Gen felt like they should be planning some sort of strategy, but presumably the rest of the group had some idea of what they were doing¡­ A glance around showed Morna smiling happily, Chuck petting his iguana with a relaxed expression, and Billy again on the verge of tears. We''re fucked. As the time elapsed, the portal pulsed and drew them in. There was a feeling of full-body static and then they were in what looked like a cavern with large crevices and ravines breaking the terrain up into isolated sections. They were standing in a gazebo and she could see multiple gazebos in the surrounding area. LEO''s voice echoed out from above, "Welcome! Nice and simple for you all. Get to the other side of the cavern! You all have a collar-" Gen reached up and confirmed she was indeed wearing a metal choker. LEO continued, "It has a ten minute timer built in and once it''s up POP instant death! Don''t worry, though the timer only advances when you''re outside a gazebo. Every minute that passes, however, the collar will trigger a torturous effect that escalates from the previous! Oh and gravity will turn on and off every thirty seconds! Good luck!" She glanced around at the group, she noted the five iguanas each had their own explosive collars, Chuck was doing stretches, Morna was running a finger along the gazebo''s railing inspecting the paint, and Billy was clutching his collar while hyperventilating. Chuck spoke first, glancing at Gen, "I can get the discussion started, usually once we know the scenario people will volunteer information about their abilities that seem relevant." He pointed at himself, "Starting with me, I have an empathy ability that I mentioned before that lets me feel the vibes from people. I can also teleport behind anyone who has given me a thumbs up as long as I can see them. After doing so, I need another thumbs up to do it again." Gen wrinkled her brow, realizing how he had appeared behind her earlier, Morna immediately gave Chuck a thumbs up. Gen paused only a second before doing the same. Billy looked unsure, but also gave a hesitant thumbs up. Chuck chuckled, and looked at them expectantly. Morna raised her hand, "Me next!" Seeing she was waiting for confirmation, Chuck shrugged and said, "Sure go." Morna wore a smug expression, "I can make meow sounds emerge from nearby and I have an augment for it to make the meows deal sonic damage! I have a physical augment that gives me cat-like movements!" To demonstrate, small meow noises started echoing from the corners of the gazebo, startling the iguanas. It wasn''t painful, so Gen supposed the damaging augment was optional. They were interrupted as a feeling of weightlessness enveloped them as gravity turned off. The iguanas quickly linked arms and anchored each other to the gazebo wall. Billy clung onto a wall as well while Morna was spinning wildly and laughing, Chuck seemed a bit more measured as he bounced up to the ceiling before pushing back down and practicing movement. Gen copied him trying to get a feel of things, there was no timer for the gravity so she mistimed it slightly and fell a couple feet as it ended, but managed to stick the landing. Morna, despite her cat-like abilities, landed on her head and groaned as she had been in midspin. Chuck spoke where he was hanging from the rafters, "So with the gaps in the terrain we''ll have to time our movements when there''s no gravity to pass them." Morna was rubbing her head and nodded in agreement, and Gen also signaled she was on board. Billy whimpered that he was afraid of heights, but they ignored him. Continuing the previous discussion, Gen glanced at Billy, but he didn''t seem eager to volunteer, so Gen went next, "I can summon more iguanas. They have an augment to help them with teamwork, but I''m not exactly sure to what level. And umm¡­ I can take photos with my mind." The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. There wasn''t much of a reaction and they all looked at Billy. He looked nervous as he said, "I can shoot my emotions in the form of bolts from my finger, depending on what I''m feeling, they do different things." Morna gasped, "That''s so cool, what does each emotion do?" Billy looked downcast, "Fear makes whatever I shoot bigger, stronger, and more vicious. I don''t know about the rest because I''m always afraid." Morna squealed, "Shoot me!" Billy shook his head and Chuck said, "Morna, he said it makes you vicious, if you go feral on us then it''s going to make things more difficult." Morna pouted, "He said more vicious though! Right now I''m not vicious at all, how bad could it be?" Billy gulped, "In my first scenario I buffed my teammate three times and he lost his mind and killed sixteen people before everyone else put him down." Morna chuckled and gave him a pat on the back, "Don''t worry it happens!" Gen frowned at her sensibilities, but Morna at least wasn''t begging to get buffed for the moment, but Gen suspected the cultist might bring it up again. Cataloguing their abilities, most didn''t actually seem useful for this trial. Chuck could teleport between the gazebos as long as someone else went first, but that only helped him and not the group. Morna''s movement augment wasn''t clear on how it worked, but maybe she could run faster. Gen peered out from the gazebo inspecting the area. The cavern was roughly tunnel shaped, but was quite wide, and there were many gazebos spotted around the area, giving them choices on which route to go. She hadn''t known LEO for long, but she doubted things would be as simple as running the length of the tunnel within the time limit. Gen made a decision and said, "I''m going to fly up to the ceiling first and take a video of the area, then we can plan out which route will be easiest." There were no disagreements, and when the gravity shut off she stepped out of the gazebo and pushed off, shooting toward the ceiling. As she flew she could feel her collar pulse each second as it counted down and she used that to monitor how much time she had left of no gravity. As the ceiling rushed toward her, she realized she hadn''t fully thought this through and braced herself, smacking into it roughly. Hissing in pain as she ricocheted off and drifted in open air. Cursing, she twisted her neck taking a panoramic shot of the area. In addition to ravines, there was a wall with two short towers near the midpoint. She didn''t have time to consider it though, as she only had twenty seconds left to get back to the ground, and stuck drifting in midair, she had nothing to push off of. Before she could panic a voice whispered in her ear, "Need some help?" Suppressing a yelp of surprise, she twisted around to see Chuck had teleported behind her. He laughed and pushed off against her with his legs rocketing her back toward the gazebo. He blinked out of existence a second later, presumably returning behind either Morna or Billy. She tried to orient herself midair, but it was difficult and she smacked into the ground, rebounding back into the air and past the gazebo. A helpful chain of iguanas holding hands stretched out from the gazebo and grabbed onto her like a lifeline, their small legs were too weak, however, and she felt them starting to separate as her momentum pulled them away from the gazebo. She heard Morna shout something and a second later the iguana holding her beefed up considerably, going from 5 ft to 8 ft long and its arms becoming thicker with corded muscles. Like a ripple, black bolts flew from the gazebo, beefing up the five iguanas one by one. Their newfound strength allowed them to hold her tight and haul her back toward the ground just in time for gravity to return and she fell the last two feet, knocking the wind out of her as she landed on her stomach. Recovering quickly, she scrambled back into the gazebo to pause her timer. She couldn''t see her own time remaining as the clock was around her throat, but she could see Chuck had only used two seconds. Gasping for air she asked, "What''s my time?" Chuck responded, "9:27 so you used 33 seconds." Gen nodded, not as bad as she feared, but still a lot more than she would have liked. Chuck''s eyes lit up as he seemed to listen to something and then said, "Nice, I got a poll for my nothing personal ability for saving you." Morna clapped him on the back, "Congratulations! Hopefully there''s some good options." Chuck smiled, "One or two, we''ll see what my viewers select though." Billy questioned from the side pointing at the iguanas, "Are those going to be okay?" The beefy iguanas were all much bigger than before and now looked like they could easily take on a komodo dragon in a fight. Chuck examined them and shrugged, "They''re still giving good vibes, except the evil one of course, but it strikes me more as lawful evil so I think it''s not going to attack us without a reason." Morna cheered, "See I told you it would work! Now shoot me!" Billy looked at the other two helplessly, but they just shrugged and he sighed as he shot a black bolt at Morna. Her body jerked as she was struck and she laughed maniacally as her muscles expanded and she grew a foot in height. "Oh yeeeaah!" Her voice was huskier and Gen had flashbacks to an odd memory of an animated jug of juice with a face crashing through walls. Before she looked lithe and not particularly muscular, but she now was 6''5" and looked like a professional bodybuilder. She didn''t immediately attack anyone so they gradually relaxed, but Billy kept an eye on her. Gen considered asking to be shot as well, but she didn''t like the idea of mind alteration. Both her mind and body were newly formed and she worried it might permanently affect her. Speaking of which she asked, "Is she like that forever now?" Chuck shook his head, "Once you complete a scenario, all injuries are healed and any temporary effects are dismissed. One time I was turned into an animated candlestick for the whole scenario¡­" Gen nodded and indicated she was going to start planning their route now. Turning inward, she took a look at the video she''d taken. She''d been spinning and drifting at the time so it was at a bad angle, but she kept pausing and zooming in as she looked at the landscape. Her initial plan was to use the zero gravity time to fly over large amounts of the area as quickly as possible, but after the brief aerial adventure she realized just how hard controlling her direction was when weightless. If Chuck hadn''t redirected her, she would have fallen sixty feet when the gravity turned back on. With the experience she instead planned a route that passed as few ravines as possible so that they could primarily move when the gravity was on. Reaching the wall, she squinted and zoomed in on some details she missed. Looking at the group she said, "We''ve got what I assume are gnomes. Halfway there''s a wall that goes the length of the tunnel and it looks like there''s guards evenly stationed along its length with two towers built into it." Morna spoke gruffly smacking a fist into her hand, "I''ll pulverize them!" Billy edged a few steps further away from her. Chuck seemed to consider, "Do they have weapons?" Gen zoomed in further, but her eye camera wasn''t high enough resolution and it was hard to make out, "They''ve got sticks, but I can''t tell if they''re rifles or spears." They discussed some strategy, but eventually they settled on making their way close enough to the wall to get a better view of what they were facing before finalizing a plan. Gen did her best to outline their first target. They couldn''t see it from their gazebo, but to their left across a ravine and up a ridge was another gazebo that would allow them to run along the ground directly through a series of four gazebos before reaching a ridge that gave a view of the wall. Summoning another dozen iguanas, Billy buffed each one a single time and their gazebo started to feel very cramped. They timed their exit with ten seconds left of gravity and sprinted toward the ridge, pausing for just a second at the edge of the bottomless ravine as they waited for gravity to turn off and enact their plan. Chuck stayed behind in case anyone accidentally floated away so he could save them like he did with Gen. Once gravity disabled the iguanas scrambled into action. They had communicated the plan to the beefy reptiles, but she had worried they hadn''t fully understood. They proved her wrong however as they linked arms and made a bridge across the ravine. Crawling across it, they hurried to take advantage of their momentary low weight. The iguanas were stronger now, but not strong enough to make a bridge while gravity was still in effect. Morna led the way on all fours, looking almost like a muscled tiger as she sped along easily. Gen was next, moving quickly, but still careful enough to not lose her grip and repeat her earlier accident. Billy was behind and moving painfully slow as he hesitated with each new iguana, terrified that it would suddenly bite him. Halfway there, Gen felt her collar pulse and the first round of torture activated. It felt like an electric current zapped against her skin, but compared to the pain of her physical transformations before she shrugged it off easily and it ended a few seconds later. Cresting the ridge, she and Morna clung onto a rock while watching Billy''s ascent. He clearly wasn''t going to make it in time and the iguana-bridge would collapse as soon as gravity returned. Morna didn''t hesitate as she gripped the lead iguana and started hauling the whole bridge up over the gap. The iguanas that Billy had already climbed over likewise started scrambling up the bridge behind him as they tried to reach safety. Gen struggled to assist moving the mass of iguanas while not losing her own purchase. Her fragmented memories from Kyle''s life, she remembered playing in zero-gravity playgrounds that were a common attraction on their colony, but she hadn''t realized how big of a difference it was playing in a small jungle gym with hundreds of padded handholds vs a wide open cavern with nothing to hang on to. Billy predictably panicked as the tide of iguanas swarmed up behind him and he started trying to run up the bridge, but as he pushed against it he flew upward and lost connection to the bridge itself. Gen and Morna ignored him, trusting Chuck to get him flying back in the right direction. They had only a few seconds left and they wanted to get all the iguanas to safety before gravity reactivated. Gen knew her actions were contradictory, in the first phase she had allowed hundreds of iguanas to explode and now she was desperately trying to save a handful of them. She wasn''t sure if it was because they had the teamwork augment now and were actively trying to assist her or because of Morna''s comments highlighting that she herself wasn''t much different from the generated iguanas, but she didn''t want to just use them as disposable cannon fodder. Gravity returned and iguanas landed all around her as they adjusted and she finally had purchase against the ground to pull up on what remained of the iguana bridge, downside now it actually weighed something and was rapidly pulling her over the edge of the cliff. Morna dug her heels into the rocks and the iguanas that had already climbed up joined them as they hauled their brethren up and over the edge. Chuck and even Billy started helping at some point, confirming that Chuck had managed to save him while she was distracted. She was gasping for air when they got the last iguana up, and they all started rushing toward the next gazebo, she''d completely lost track of time, but she guessed that gravity was about to turn off again any second. She reached the gazebo just in time, iguanas still left outside grabbed onto each other to keep from drifting and they started pulling them in one by one. Shortly later they were crammed into the gazebo safely once again and they took stock of the situation. Gen had the least time left at 8:17, then Billy at 8:46, then Morna at 8:50, and Chuck still had the most at 9:13 as he saved lots of time by teleporting. All of them except Chuck had gone through the first round of torture and even Billy agreed it hadn''t been that bad, but LEO had been clear that it escalated each time so they weren''t looking forward to what came next. They caught their breath and went through a few cycles of weightlessness, the next three gazebos were all in a straight path with no obstacles. The path Gen had planned front-loaded the the difficult section so they were able to pass through each of the following gazebos in around ten seconds each, her time was reduced to 7:36 and she had experience another round of "torture", but it still hadn''t been much worse than a prolonged electrical shock maybe 20% as powerful and equally as much longer than the first session. As planned, they were now clustered in a gazebo overlooking the wall. LEO''s voice echoed in her mind, Nice job! You almost went to infinity and beyond at the start, but your big brain got your team to the midway point! I really thought you''d just try to fill up the ravines with hundreds of innocent iguanas, but I guess you have a conscience after all! Here''s a reward!
Poll 11 Equipment
1 Worm Gun
2 Brainpopper
3 Consumable: Olympic Swimming Pool
Glancing around she saw that both Billy and Morna seemed to be listening to LEO describe their own polls with opposite expressions, Chuck didn''t appear to have gotten another one. Closer now she could clearly see the gnomes, but the details were still a bit hard to make out. Taking a picture, she mentally zoomed in, it allowed her to zoom in about 10x her normal vision before losing quality. In the pictures she could clearly see the gnomes were all wearing black leather outfits with pointy metal helmets, each one also carried a 3 foot rod with a metal fixture at the end that reminded her of a tesla coil. She relayed what she saw and they set to strategizing. Morna wanted Billy to buff her twice more and then she could "go beastmode" on the gnomes, but that plan was vetoed by the whole group despite Morna''s confidence in her self-control. Chuck suggested enraging one of the gnomes instead, but it seemed that Billy''s bolts could only shoot thirty feet or so before dissipating and the gnomes were too far away to snipe. Surprisingly, Billy suggested enraging an iguana instead and sending it in for a suicide attack, the second he suggested it, however, the iguanas all started hissing in displeasure. Gen knew they were more intelligent after the augment, and she was glad she hadn''t tried using them as slaves, the augment had specifically mentioned teamwork, and teamwork went both ways. With Billy cowed into silence, they were at a bit of an impasse lacking any easy solutions. Chuck shrugged, "We can just charge." Morna gave him a thumbs up and Billy whimpered. Gen didn''t have a better plan, ideally she would create an army of iguanas, but the gazebos had limited space and if she created them outside they would be doomed when their collars'' time was up. A few minutes later, of planning they charged. They timed their attack right when gravity turned back on, with the plan being to reach the base of the wall and then use the no gravity period to climb it. Gen had observed the gnomes and each one had a rope buckled to their waists and a rail on the wall in front of them to keep them from drifting off accidentally, if they could destroy those or unclip them then the gnomes could potentially be punted. The iguanas were actually shockingly fast, especially after Billy''s buff, they reached the wall well ahead of the humans and didn''t even wait for the gravity to end as they started working together to make an iguana pyramid and scale the wall. The gnomes above lacked ranged weapons, but were yelling angrily while swinging their sticks, Gen could see electricity sparking at the ends of the weapons, confirming her suspicions. She reached the wall just as the first iguana reached the top, but she missed the ensuing fight as her eighth minute torture session started and she reflexively gripped the collar as it began shocking her repeatedly. Again, the pain and duration had spiked up and it was now majorly distracting. A few seconds later she refocused just as gravity turned off and saw that chaos had erupted. Iguanas were floating and grabbing each other trying to join their comrades who had formed a bloodsoaked foothold on the wall, she shuddered to imagine what someone who had been buffed three times by Billy''s ability would look like as it already was devastating. Morna was likewise benefiting as she pounced straight up to the top of the wall grabbing a gnome by the throat breaking it with a sharp crack, a chorus of angry cat yowls erupted as the gnomes swarmed toward her only to be halted as the sonic attacks blew out their eardrums and crippled their coordination. Morna didn''t miss the opportunity as she dashed forward completely uninhibited by the zero gravity, her hands were like claws as she ripped the throat out of one disoriented gnome after another. She heard a whistle next to her as Chuck also took in the scene, "Do we even need to help? Between Morna and the iguanas, the gnomes don''t stand a chance." Gen saw Billy hiding behind a rock looking hopeful at Chuck''s words. Gen narrowed her eyes, this wasn''t a natural obstacle, it was something LEO had put here for entertainment and while seeing gnomes massacred might be entertaining in its own right she strongly suspected a showrunner wouldn''t have such an anticlimatic end to the trial. Taking in everything her eyes focused on the towers to their left and right, gnomes were clustering on the tops and were tinkering with something. Trusting her gut she shouted, "The towers!" Kicking off, she shot herself toward the rightmost tower, she didn''t know what they were doing, but if she could stop it, then hopefully nothing could stop Morna. She quickly realized her flight path was crooked as usual and cursed as she summoned one iguana after another. The new iguanas were weaker than their buffed brethren, but they quickly oriented themselves to their new existence and seemed to instinctually understand what she needed as they wrapped around her arms extending their length, by the time she reached the tower she had six iguanas on each arm and it extended her reach just enough for the iguanas to grab a gnome by its head and drag her to the tower''s surface. Up close she could see what they were working on, it was basically a much larger cannon version of their electricity sticks. They swarmed her as she landed and a fierce melee broke out immediately as her iguanas threw themselves at gnomes and started biting and scratching any exposed skin. Compared to the buffed iguanas, the natural ones were woefully outmatched, but she kept summoning them one after another hoping to overwhelm the gnomes. She''d hesitated to summon more iguanas before, but the fresh summons all started with ten minutes and she judged they were close to the end of the tunnel that they would be able to escape. Gravity returned and she and the mass of iguanas fell on to the tower top, gnomes where knocked prone all over and she scrambled to steal an electricity club and started beating gnomes with abandon. The clubs didn''t actually appear to be deadly, instead just inflicting debilitating amounts of pain on whoever they hit, there were a dozen or so gnomes, so she rapidly alternated which one she was clobbering in a game of wack a gnome to try and keep them all disabled while the iguanas tore into them. She couldn''t concentrate enough while hitting things to summon more iguanas, but she had sixteen or so of them fighting alongside her. Abruptly she was hit by her own debilitating burst of electricity as her torture collar once again activated. Her vision went white and her whole body spasmed as electricity coursed through it. At the same time she felt herself become weightless and start to drift upwards as gravity once again deactivated. Her iguanas hissed in pain as their shock collars activated, but they were freshly created and only had the first level of pain that quickly ended, unlike hers which lasted much longer. Around her, dozens of gnomes were starting to drift around as they recovered from her electric pummeling, the iguanas hadn''t done much damage, but they had managed to bite through the safety cords that secured the gnomes to the tower. Seizing the opportunity, she started grabbing gnomes and flinging them toward the ceiling one by one, each gnome she threw pushed her in the opposite direction and she quickly managed to drift back onto the tower where a helpful iguana handed her a safety line that she used to reel herself in the rest of the way. Looking along the wall, she saw that things weren''t going well for the rest of the team, the other tower had its electricity cannon activated and it was shooting a continuous stream of chainlightning at Morna as well as the buffed iguanas around her. Fitting the torture complication, the cannon seemed to be entirely non-lethal instead, just inflicting agony while also disabling Morna and the iguana army. Chuck seemed to have made a similar attack as her own on the opposite tower, but it hadn''t gone well without iguana backup and he was being pummeled by ten gnomes gleefully smacking him over and over with their electricity batons. She wondered why he didn''t teleport to escape, but remembered he had to see his target to teleport, and with gnomes all around him he didn''t have an opening to use the power. As for Billy, he was still hiding behind the original rock where she''d left him. Weighing her options, she stationed herself on the electricity cannon and tried aiming it at the opposite tower, the seat and controls were all gnome-sized and very uncomfortable, but she managed to swivel it and activate the weapon, the attempt failed, however, as the electricity dissipated only halfway to the other tower. She sank into the gunner''s chair as gravity returned and she heard the screams of approaching gnomes as the ones she''d thrown around plummeted back to the earth. Throwing herself out of the chair, she dodged a gnome that crashed into the cannon with a sickening crunch and laid still. She gritted her teeth, she had less than thirty seconds before the next round of torture and based on the trend she''d be helpless for around ten seconds while it was in effect. Her eyes darted along the tunnel, there were no more visible obstacles along the remaining path of gazebos and she could see the glow of the portal marking the escape. If she abandoned the team now, then it would be easy to pass the trial, based on the trend, she almost certainly would even receive another poll for doing so as LEO relished in the drama. Chuck had read her vibes correctly though and she glanced at the iguanas and said, "We need to reach Billy." The iguanas were quick to react as they located a long length of safety cord which she secured before using to climb down the side of the tower and run toward Billy. The iguanas trailed after her, expertly sliding along the rope''s length. Billy saw her coming and looked rightfully afraid as she hissed, "What are you doing!?" His reply was interrupted as first she and then him were wracked with another bout of tortuous electricity coursing through their bodies. Mentally she resisted the pain as she clung onto her safety line as gravity again deactivated, iguanas rushed around them pulling Billy closer as he started to drift precariously upward. A few seconds later the pain was gone and she watched some of the iguanas twitching as they had their own bouts of less intense torture. Billy was crying as usual and she slapped him, causing him to spin around in the zero-gravity, "Buff the iguanas once each." Her new set of iguanas were certainly useful, but they were too small to directly fight gnomes and she needed more muscle to save the rest of their team. He didn''t argue as black bolts flew to the iguanas one by one, giving her a fresh crew of beefy iguanas to hopefully seize control of the second tower. They missed their window to assault the tower as gravity again returned. Bracing herself for the next wave of torture as well as weightlessness, she ignored Billy as she looked at the iguanas, "Form up on the tower when gravity turns off, scale the sides, if we stop the cannon then Morna and the other iguanas will be freed." She considered summoning more iguanas, but there wasn''t enough time for Billy to buff them as well and the battlefield was chaotic enough without a dozen more iguanas running around. As the iguanas moved forward, Billy looked at her nervously, "What will we do while they attack the tower¡­?" She smiled wickedly at him, "You''ll be rescuing Chuck." Gravity turned off and she gripped Billy, hurling him at an angle above the tower. Chuck couldn''t teleport due to his vantage point, but if Billy passed above him it should give him a window to escape. Hopefully he could then kick Billy in the right direction to save him as well before gravity returned, if not¡­ well, Billy hadn''t exactly endeared himself to her and it wasn''t real death right? Immediately after she was hit by the electric current of torture, she felt like she was going to pass out and idly wondered if surviving ten minutes was possible or if the pain would kill her long before that. She felt ill as the pain withdrew and she began grabbing gnome bodies that had fallen near her and throwing their corpses one after another toward the cannon, hoping to block the electric shocks long enough for Morna and the original iguanas to reposition. On the tower, the iguana attack wasn''t going as well as she had hoped, the powerful reptiles scaled the tower easily in zero gravity, but a ring of gnomes protected the sides holding them back with painful electric blows. Watching Billy flailing through the air as he passed above the tower, she held her breath and sighed in relief as Chuck suddenly appeared above him and kicked him back toward the wall. Whether intentionally or accidentally, Billy flew directly into the line of electric current shielding Morna for a brief window. Chuck disappeared and Gen glanced behind herself, seeing him standing there, she hadn''t seen from a distance, but he looked awful with hundreds of bruises all over his face and body. She quickly gave him a thumbs up to refresh his ability. Gravity returned and she saw some ill-positioned iguanas fall from the tower, but the others held on using their powerful claws to grip the stone. Morna had moved during the brief window she could, but now she and Billy were next to each other, both being hit by the continuous electric blast. Gen cursed, she had less than half the time remaining and they were at a stalemate again having only managed to swap Billy for Chuck. It was an overall improvement in terms of companionship, but Billy''s ability had more options of the two. Before the two of them could speak, they saw movement as Morna suddenly stood resisting the electric current. She had grown again twice over and was fifteen feet tall now with a bestial expression on her face as she let out a deafening "MEEEEOOOOWWWWW!". Everyone froze for one second before Morna jumped from her current position directly onto the top of the tower, ignoring the electric current pummeling her. She grabbed the cannon and picked it up, swinging it like a mace, instantly pulping gnomes and sending the survivors flying. Chuck and Gen shared a look, and she said "Beastmode¡­" The two of them started running toward the exit. They were on the wrong side of the wall, but Gen''s safety line still connected up to the top of the tower and they climbed up it quickly, reaching the top of the wall just as gravity turned off. Morna was still going hog-wild as the tower itself began to crumble under her pummeling, she had enough presence of mind to grip a handful of safety lines to keep herself from flying away. Gen was confident that none of the gnomes were still alive, but that didn''t stop Morna from attacking. The iguanas had vacated the area and she saw them chaining together as they grouped up with the bright green iguana leading them toward the exit without her. Billy had a dead-faced expression as he huddled into a ball floating while ignoring the monster he had created. Chuck shook her out of her observation and said, "Go! I''ll throw Billy toward the exit and blink to you if needed!" She tried to nod, but another bout of torture hit her at that very moment. Wracks of pain coursed through her body and she only saw flashes of her surroundings as she flew through the air as Chuck must have shoved her toward the exit. The electric shocks lasted a full fifteen seconds and her whole body pulsed in agony even after it ended, and she took stock of her position. She was a full ten feet above the ground, but flying in the correct direction. The iguanas were nowhere in sight, possibly having already reached the exit with their incredible speed and coordination. She was starting to suspect that she had misunderstood their teamwork augment, it made them work with each other primarily and they would work with her if their goals aligned, but the iguanas hadn''t hesitated to abandon their human comrades once the disabled iguanas were rescued and she suspected that if she summoned more they would only scurry toward the exit rather than attempting to assist her further. She heard a wail from behind and saw Chuck flying through the air rapidly catching up with her, in his arm was a screaming Billy with lines of tears streaming behind them. Further back she saw Morna on top of the bloody tower with her eyes locked onto the three of them. Gulping she yelled, "Gravity is coming! We have to get down!" Chuck nodded and chucked Billy at the floor before teleporting behind her and kicking her in the same direction, she met his eyes and immediately gave him another thumbs up, refreshing his ability just in time for him to blink back down to her as she smacked into the ground. Gravity returned and she pushed herself up, the portal was close enough to see with only one gazebo between them and it, she ignored the gazebo, just rushed forward as fast as her exhausted legs could carry her. She heard Chuck running alongside her, and Billy seemed to have remembered how to move as his screaming wasn''t getting any quieter as she ran forward. A distant, but rapidly loudening chorus of "MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW" was echoing from behind them and she regretted glancing back to see Morna running on all fours as she ate up the distance between them. Seeing the absolutely wild expression on Morna''s face, as well as what looked like blood in her teeth, Gen joined Billy in screaming as she ran to be joined shortly by Chuck who also saw what was behind them. They weren''t too short of the exit when Chuck had the presence of mind to shout, "Gravity is gone in 3!" Morna cursed as she tried to time a jump forward, she knew that her torture sessions were lining up shortly after gravity turned off, so she only had one chance to throw herself at the portal before she was immobilized. Kicking off a second early, she spiralled instead of flying straight and before she could check her direction the collar activated flooding her with agony. Everything was painful and white and she almost wished Morna would hurry up and finish the job, when abruptly it stopped and she was standing in a plain room similar to the first waiting area. Chuck was to one side and Billy to the other, in front of them she some of the actors who had gone into the other tunnels as well as a group of thirty or so beefy iguanas that had abandoned her. Before she could fully orient herself, she heard LEO''s voice, he was sniffing as if he was crying heavily, It was so beautiful! Companionship, comaradery, risking your life for the team! If it wasn''t for all the pulped gnomes this would be perfect for a family movie night! You earned a reward!
Poll 12 Ability
1 Regenerate Other
2 Float Friend
3 Ability Invert
Immediately after a second poll appeared.
Poll 13 Complication
1 Chainsaw
2 Acid
3 Something Wicked This Way Comes
Chapter 004 She dismissed the polls and took in the other actors. Flora''s group was rather unscathed, but the two women were standing far apart, refusing to look at each other. They were both covered in blotches of color like they''d been attacked by a group of graffiti artists with a serious grudge and knowing LEO, she wouldn''t be surprised if that was exactly what happened. The other group only had one participant in view, Jacob was collapsed in a pool of blood. Frank and Saresh, who had entered the tunnel with him, were nowhere to be seen. Billy whimpered from the side and started scrambling forward, looking back at her with a terrified expression. Gen felt a drip of moisture fall on her head and trembled as she looked up to see Morna''s giant figure leaning over her with an insane smile dripping drool. Jumping forward, she was too slow as Morna grabbed her with a single giant hand gripping her torso and holding her in place. Gen flailed, but Morna''s grip didn''t budge at all, desperate she leaned forward digging her teeth into Morna''s finger and tasting blood. Morna''s unnaturally deep voice echoed out as she released Gen, dropping her to the ground, "OWWW WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR WHO JUST BITES SOMEONE LIKE THAT." Gasping for air Gen looked up at Morna who was sucking her injured finger with a betrayed expression. Uncertain Gen questioned, "Are you not insane?" Morna looked offended, "WHY WOULD I BE INSANE? I KEEP TELLING YOU I AM MENTALLY STRONG A LITTLE MENTAL MANIPULATION ISN''T GOING TO MAKE ME MURDER MY TEAM." Chuck, who had teleported behind Morna at some point, stepped into view and questioned, "What about the gnomes and why were you chasing us?" Morna shrugged, "WHAT ABOUT THE GNOMES? I CLOBBERED THEM LIKE I SAID I WOULD AT THE START. IF BILLY WOULD''VE JUST SHOT ME FROM THE BEGINNING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH EASIER!" she shot Billy a glare who was now on the opposite side of the room from Morna. He burst into tears at the attention. Morna looked back at Chuck, "AS FOR CHASING YOU, WHERE ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO GO? MY COLLAR KEPT ELECTROCUTING ME AND I HAD TO ESCAPE UNLESS I WANTED MY HEAD TO EXPLODE!" Gen and Chuck shared a look, when she said it like that, maybe they were the ones at fault. Gen shook her head and said, "Sorry for biting you, but¡­ why were you drooling on my head when you got here?" Morna averted her gaze and said, "I SEEM TO BE GETTING HUNGRY AND YOU LOOKED QUITE DELICIOUS AT THE TIME." She looked back at Gen and flashed a demonic smile, "DON''T WORRY THOUGH I WON''T EAT YOU. I HAVE VERY GOOD SELF-CONTROL." Gen had precisely nothing to say to that and made peace with the situation. If Morna lost control, she was confident that there was nothing she could do about it. Ding~!
Poll 11: Equipment Complete Votes
Worm Gun 1
Brainpopper 3
Consumable: Olympic Swimming Pool 5
Gen suddenly became aware of another space she was connected to, similar to her photographic memory augment, she could now sense an inventory screen with a single item in it, helpfully labeled "Consumable - Olympic Swimming Pool". She had a vague sense that she could pull it out, but had a premonition she shouldn''t do so too hastily. Glancing at Morna, who was staring at her with an unsettling gaze, and then at Chuck, she asked the two of them, "My poll gave me an equipment, it''s called Consumable - Olympic Swimming Pool." Morna answered, her loud voice making Gen flinch, "OHHH THAT SOUNDS FUN! YOU SHOULD USE IT! CONSUMABLE ITEMS CAN ONLY BE USED ONCE IN A SCENARIO, BUT THEY GET REFRESHED BETWEEN SCENARIOS." Gen looked away from Morna hoping Chuck might clarify in a more reasonable voice as she asked, "What would using it do exactly?" Chuck shrugged, "With how LEO is it''s a bit hard to say. The most likely option is that it will make a swimming pool appear next to you, but it could also just dump a ton of water next to you, or turn you into a swimming pool¡­" Gen frowned, situationally those all sounded useful except for the last one. Morna yelled again, "IT WON''T TURN HER INTO A SWIMMING POOL, THAT''S TOO MUCH A STRETCH BASED ON THE NAME EVEN FOR LEO¡­ PROBABLY!" Chuck shrugged and then his eyes lit up, "Nice, my poll just finished too!" he looked at Gen and said "Check this out!" he gave her a thumbs up. At this point she trusted him so she would have given it regardless, but she felt a compulsion and was giving him a thumbs up before she even consciously decided to. Looking at her hand in surprise, he laughed and gave Morna a thumbs up as well. Morna gave a thumbs up immediately and started laughing loudly, making the two of them edge away from her to protect their ears. Gen questioned, "Does your ability compel people to give you thumbs up now?" He nodded excitedly, "Not sure how hard it is to resist, but this would''ve been useful against the gnomes before." They started experimenting with it and Gen found she could resist the compulsion without too much effort, but if he gave her a thumbs up as a surprise she would automatically return the gesture before she even became aware enough to stop so it was tricky to prevent. He seemed pleased with it, but did admit that it might not work as easily on enemies that were actively antagonistic. Morna also had a poll complete and said she got a new ability called Flip, fitting the theme of the last trial, it allowed her to invert the direction of gravity on only herself. She immediately was playing with it and started maintaining a weird hovering state as she rapidly inverted gravity, keeping her a foot off the ground bobbing up and down by a few inches. Billy must have been getting lonely as he eventually inched his way back to the group, but he always kept either Chuck or Gen between himself and Morna. He''d gotten a poll that gave him an equipment called, Clown Nose of Disappointment. At Morna''s urging, he took it out and put it on, he looked ridiculous, but it had no effect until Chuck told him to try honking it. Immediately his three teammates felt a crushing sense of disappointment verging on disgust and involuntarily averted their gazes not willing to look at Billy any longer. Gradually the effect faded and they could will themselves to look back at their teammate. Their expressions grim, Chuck tried to be positive, "It''s¡­ neat. Basically invisibility right?" Gen nodded in agreement, not trusting herself to comment. Morna didn''t share her inhibition, "YOUR VIEWERS REALLY HATE YOU DON''T THEY!" Ding~!
Poll 12: Ability Complete Votes
Regenerate Other 5
Float Friend 1
Ability Invert 3
Immediately she sensed her new power, but even when she looked at Chuck and his many bruises she was unable to activate it. She sighed, she''d been ignoring Jacob in his pool of blood so far. He hadn''t left a good impression on her with his initial questioning and accusations, but Morna had grown on her so maybe he wasn''t so bad as well? "I got an ability that I think is for healing, I''m going to see if I can help Jacob." Morna giggled, "THIS WILL BE GOOD!" Chuck chuckled as well, but didn''t seem as enthusiastic as they followed after Gen. She looked back at them, "Let me guess, LEO isn''t known for the best healing abilities?" Chuck shrugged, "More like things are rarely straightforward, say Billy''s ability for example it''s a buff and very powerful." He glanced at Morna, "But obviously there''s some downsides, I don''t know what your ability is called, but let''s just say I''m glad I''m not the first guinea pig." Reaching Jacob, he wasn''t moving, Morna bent over and shook him with a giant hand. "HE''S DEAD!" They exchanged awkward glances, Chuck shrugged, "Looks like I picked the right tunnel." Gen squinted, she couldn''t tell what her ability did exactly, but she could sense that Jacob''s body was targetable. Not hesitating she held up her hand dramatically and said, "Rise." What followed was somewhat disturbing as Jacob''s body collapsed in on itself like a crushed soda can and then rapidly turned inside out in a human meatball. Chunks of flesh and bone exploded in random directions rapidly and gradually took the form of Jacob. From behind her she heard the sound of Billy throwing up. Morna squealed, which sounded bizarre with her deep and gravely voice. "HE EVEN KEPT HIS CLOTHES SOMEHOW!" Chuck leaned forward, inspecting, "He''s smaller." Jacob was about half his original height, but his clothes seemed to fit as normal as he blinked back into consciousness, looking around, he asked, "What happened¡­? I thought I died." Morna yelled, "YEP YOU DEFINITELY DID. GEN HERE IS A NECROMANCER YOU''RE HER MINION NOW!" Jacob seemed to struggle to process the information, his eyes darting between Morna''s giant form and Gen who gave him an awkward wave. They were interrupted by Flora who joined their group and questioned, "Is he actually resurrected or duplicated?" Gen shrugged, "What''s the difference?" Flora''s eyes were glowing so she was evidently using her lie detection ability as she responded, "If he''s resurrected he''s back as an actor, but if he''s duplicated then the real Jacob is on hiatus and this is just a generated fake copy that will disappear when the scenario is over." Jacob''s eyes were wide as he nervously shifted between looking at Flora, Gen, and his own shrunken body. Gen glanced at him, "I have no idea. It''s called regenerate other." Ding~!
Poll 13: Complication Complete Votes
Chainsaw 2
Acid 2
Something Wicked This Way Comes 5
Gen squinted at the poll, Something Wicked This Way Comes, having no idea what to make of it even after recognizing the movie title reference from Victor''s lifetime. Her thoughts were interrupted by LEO''s voice from above. "Congratulations! We''ve made it to the finale! We''ve had some truly explosive performances tonight, but it''s not over yet! Five minutes and it''s showtime! Everyone together now!" A floating countdown timer appeared in the center of the room and a glowing section of floor below it. Walking toward it, Flora questioned them, "Who got a complication poll?" Morna looked at Gen, "DON''T ANSWER IF IT WAS YOU! NOT EVERYONE GETS A POLL ALL THE TIME AND SOME PEOPLE¡­" She glanced at Flora, "WILL KEEP PEOPLE FROM ENTERING THE ZONE OR OUTRIGHT KILL THEM TO AVOID A COMPLICATION." Flora looked offended, "I can see lies so I know you honestly believe that, but I wouldn''t do that. I just want us to strategize while we have the chance." Amari had joined them as she sat down in the glowing zone, "Don''t believe her, she made such a stink about interviewing people for the last tunnel and then she was completely useless and I had to carry her through the whole thing." Flora huffed, "That was outside my control! The trial was uniquely unsuitable for my abilities!" Amari rolled her eyes, "The same abilities you still refuse to explain even after I told you mine." Amari glared at Flora and Flora stared at the rest of them helplessly before sighing and sitting down in the corner opposite Amari and ignoring everyone. Awkward silence followed with most people watching Jacob who was inspecting his own hands carefully as if he could somehow spot something that would reveal that he was resurrected or a duplicate. He looked the same as before with pale skin and dark hair, but shrunk down in scale by 50%. When the timer elapsed, a portal appeared directly beneath them, dropping them into the last leg of the scenario. Morna managed to stick the landing perfectly, her cat-like agility not inhibited by her giant form. The rest of them fell in varied degrees of disarray, collecting several sets of new bruises. As Gen pushed herself up, she saw a gnome around a hundred feet away. He was dressed like a king with elegant velvet robes, a crown, cape, and even a gem-studded scepter. He had a pompous expression as he looked at their group which quickly paled as Morna sprinted toward him with no hesitation. With each of her giant steps, explosions were triggered as dozens of landmines beneath the soil detonated one after another, too slow to stop Morna''s mad dash. Morna drew even with him and the gnome whimpered as she yelled, "YOINK!" and snatched the scepter from his hand, bashing his skull in with a single blow. Silence followed as the explosions died down and Morna stood triumphantly. Everyone looked around for further threats, but none were forthcoming. Chuck questioned, "Did we win?" No announcement came from LEO, however, and Morna hit the gnome''s corpse a few more times experimentally. Flora groaned, "Can whoever has complications now please just tell us what they are?" Gen hesitated a second to see if anyone would advise her before saying, "My complication is Something wicked this way comes". Flora nodded in satisfaction, "See that would''ve been good to know before your giant friend smashed the first thing she saw. It sounds like there''s another enemy approaching that we''ll have to deal with." Gen shrugged, whether the line was referencing an evil carnival or Macbeth neither seemed like something they could prepare for before it actually showed up. Morna started walking back to them dragging the mutilated gnome in one hand and the bloody scepter in the other. "SHOULD I NOT HAVE KILLED HIM?" Chuck looked at the dead gnome, "Based on the scenario title and his outfit, I would assume he''s the evil gnome that owns the minefield, and so he probably was an enemy, but it would''ve been nice to get whatever narrative hook LEO placed him here for." Gen stepped a bit closer and glanced back at Jacob before saying, "Maybe we can still ask him." A few moments later, they had thoroughly searched the gnome, laying out his equipment on the ground with iguanas milling around. He had a crown, scepter, his regalia complete with velvet cape, and a dozen or so hand grenades that Morna had luckily not set off during her attack. With him disarmed, Gen activated her ability and he went through the same tin can process that Jacob had experienced. Jacob looked sick, this being his first time seeing it firsthand. The gnome king, who had previously been taller than the gnome guards Gen encountered before, at around four feet in height, was only two feet tall when he finished his gruesome regeneration and stood before them only in his underwear that featured a bold print of his own face in a checkerboard pattern. He was disoriented for a moment but collected himself somehow looking cocky even in his surrounded and undressed state, "I see you have me at a slight disadvantage. I am willing to negotiate." They shared some glances, but as previously agreed, Flora led the discussion, her eyes glowing as usual. "Tell us what is approaching." The gnome sneered at her, "A great many things, but most quickly is likely a most serious cold if you don''t give me back my clothes." He shivered dramatically as he clutched his arms. Morna stepped closer, smacking his scepter menacingly against her palm, still wet with his own blood. He flinched as he focused on Flora, "Pertinent to your interests, however, most likely might be a slight miscalculation in my taxes coming due." The group froze at the response, looking nervous, Gen looked around, confused, thinking the response had been something flippant rather than actually relevant. Amari swore and Billy questioned in a faltering voice, "You don''t think LEO would do that, right? It''s only a level 2 scenario¡­" Morna spoke knowledgeably, "IT''S POSSIBLE IF THE SCENARIO ITSELF HAD PROPS IN OUR FAVOR." The gnome nodded excitedly, "Yes, we needn''t worry. I knew that they would be coming for some time and I''ve purchased an impressive line of defenses to whittle them down. Doubtlessly you''ve damaged them to reach this point, but they should be more than capable of reducing their number to something we can handle." Gen got a sinking feeling as she questioned, "You''re referring to the previous two sets of trials?" He nodded, "Yes of course the first set is just a collection of mines that any nimble creature could avoid, but the tax man''s machines lack the dexterity so they''ll have no choice but to plow through directly! It''ll eliminate hundreds of our foes easily!" Gen smiled nervously, "What if for some reason all the mines in a specific tunnel were destroyed?" He looked at her with his brow knit, "Well that would be quite serious¡­ they would discover the weak point and their forces would funnel into it. All would still not be lost, however, I have a secondary set of defenses behind those!" Chuck looked at Morna and said, "Such as a wall with two electric cannons?" The king nodded again, "Quite so, again cunning creatures such as yourselves could bypass such rudimentary defenses without much issue, but the machines! They''ll be paralyzed easily until the torture effects and collars eliminate them! I''m quite proud of that one!" Billy started crying and the king looked at him confused, "Losing the initial minefield I can see happening, but what of the wall? Did you disable a cannon or kill some of my soldiers? Even with a loss of some of the fodder, a single cannon with a brave soldier manning it could devastate their numbers!" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "THEY''RE ALL DEAD!" The king''s jaw was slack, "...all of them?" Morna nodded excitedly. The king backed away from her, "Who are you all? I may be an evil king who taxes my people unjustly and may have embezzled my taxes to the emperor, but I do not understand why you would destroy everything and everyone in route to here!" Jacob spoke from the side, "My tunnel is still intact, we hardly damaged the blade mines." Amari added as well, "Same on our side, I burned thirty or so balloons, but there''s still hundreds left." The king shook his head, "It''s meaningless! The machines may be dull, but if a single tunnel is open they will simply bypass the others!" He seemed to be having an existential crisis as he crouched on the ground and Chuck patted him on the back awkwardly. Gen was plenty confused and asked, "What''s going on? The second he said taxes you all got weird, so there''s some robots coming. How''s that any more random compared to the rest of the scenario?" Morna giggled and Flora shot her a look before explaining, "You wouldn''t know as you''ve just been generated, but LEO was not the only AI system to ascend during the cataclysm. Other AI systems that had sufficient human attention at the time also were able to maintain their existence. The cataclysm happened to arrive at peak tax season so one of them is RITA, Revenue & Income Tax Analyzer." Billy cried out, "We''re going to get turned into wageslaves!" Gen still felt confused, "Is this still part of the scenario?" Chuck stood from the traumatized miniature gnome and said, "Yes and no. The other AI systems and LEO are all territorial and competitive. They all are sustained by human focus but are trying to create radically different worlds. As a result, kidnapping humans is a regular attempt from all sides and LEO''s preferred method of defense is routing attacks into scenarios and leaving it to the actors to fend off. If we fail then instead of going on hiatus we''ll get dragged back to RITA''s dimension." Amari spoke dryly, "The extra stakes make it peak entertainment so the viewers love it." Billy seemed to be in denial, "But this isn''t supposed to happen until level five! We''re too low level to be fighting tax bots!" Morna yelled, "THE SCENARIO ACCOUNTED FOR THAT BY GIVING DEFENSES UNIQUELY AGAINST THE BOTS, HILARIOUSLY WE JUST HAPPENED TO DESTROY THEM DOOMING OURSELVES!" Gen was starting to get it, but one thing didn''t line up, "This only happened because of my complication, though, right? If the viewers picked something else, then none of this would happen, but it was already set up ahead of time." Morna smiled broadly, "THAT''S JUST WHAT MAKES LEO GREAT! EVERY OPTION ALREADY HAS A PLAN. IF THEY PICKED SOMETHING ELSE THEN THE TAX BOTS WOULD''VE JUST BEEN ROUTED INTO SOMEONE ELSE''S SCENARIO." Billy wailed, "Lucky us." Seeing the dower mood Gen questioned, "So what happens if we go to RITA''s dimension exactly? We just have to pay taxes? I get LEO''s reality somewhat at this point, but how can you have a dimension revolving around taxes?" Chuck shrugged, "Obviously I haven''t been there, but for those that have it''s arguably one of the worst dimensions. Everyone is forced to do menial tasks every day, the jobs are made up and they''re only forced to do them in order to get taxable income so RITA can perform her role." Morna added, "THAT''S WHY LEO IS THE BEST, HE''S THE ONLY AI THAT RESPECTS FREEWILL." Flora waved her arms, "If we''re done discussing the upsides of being ruled by a reality TV producer, can we focus on the actual trial?" Gen asked the obvious question, "Can we just kill ourselves? If getting captured is worse than death, then we can just die and come back when hiatus is over, whatever that entails." Jacob grumbled, "Too late for that, hopefully I really am a duplicate." Chuck shook his head, "Ignoring the fact that your viewers might desert you before your hiatus finishes, it would violate the accords." Before she could ask, Morna continued, "THE ACCORDS ARE AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE AI DESIGNATING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THEIR WAREFARE. ONE CAVEAT IS THAT DURING AN INTERDIMENSIONAL CONFLICT THE HUMANS INVOLVED ARE THE STAKES AND THAT WINNER TAKES ALL." Flora yelled, "Again! Stop with the history lesson!" She looked at Gen, "I don''t have anything against you generated or whatever, but you have the rest of eternity to learn all this stuff and I for one don''t want to spend it as a wageslave!" Jacob kicked the gnome king who was still despairing on the ground, "Hey! What all do we have around here for options? Can we go back to the previous trials and use things from there?" The king looked up and shook his head, "No, you can''t go back, the portals work only one way, I didn''t want anyone using one to run off with my gold." Morna looked around the desolate surroundings of the cavern and questioned, "WHAT GOLD?" Flora stepped between them, "Stop getting distracted!" she looked at the king, "There''s more landmines around here, right? Where are they and how many are there? What else can you do? Morna killed you, but you''re a final boss, you''ve got to have more to you than just that." Flora''s interrogation continued for several minutes, her eyes glowing the whole time. The king tried lying at several points, either claiming to have more mines than he really did and trying to hide the locations of ones he did have, but he eventually gave up when it became apparent Flora could detect his lies. As for his own abilities, he had none, but his equipment was all magic in nature. The crown made the wearer able to see explosives and their explosion radius, his kingly robes had a magical effect that made him highly resistant to explosions, and his scepter allowed him to create a landmine at any location within 60 feet every ten seconds. Flora didn''t ask permission and started ordering everyone around, Amari looked like she wanted to argue, but grudgingly went along with it. Flora gave the king''s outfit to Morna which amazingly resized to fit her giant frame. Flora kept the scepter and crown for herself, immediately laying mines as rapidly as the cooldown allowed. According to the king, the only place the invaders could only appear from was the same location they had teleported in at. The teleportation array that was apparently buried there prevented placing mines within ten feet of it. The overall surroundings was a single dome shaped cavern with high ceilings and no exits. It gave them limited options for erecting defenses. Of the various grenades and explosives the king had had on him, Jacob laid claim to them as he said he had an ability that enhanced things he threw. Gen hadn''t been given any specific directions, but she set out to summon more iguanas and have Billy buff each new one once. The evil iguana that was leading the pack watched her carefully and she couldn''t exactly determine his agenda, but he didn''t stop her from adding to the growing mess of iguanas." There were seventy beefy iguanas total when a siren abruptly went off and flashing lights appeared from the cavern walls. The king yelled, "They''re here!" The advanced warning was useless, however, as a second later ten humanoid robots appeared in the center of the room. They looked sleek and efficient with pincer-like hands, the one weird attribute was their large bulbous eyes and bushy eyebrows. Gen had to search her mind long and hard before she recognized them as identical to the ones that Microsoft''s Office Assistant''s Clippy had. Any amusement at the similarity evaporated, however, as the machines moved as a unit forward and ten more of the robots appeared immediately after. A deafening "MEOW!" emanated from the center of the machines and two went down spraying sparks and arms flailing as the sonic blast broke something important internally. A second later, the first explosion triggered. The explosion was small and localized like the landmines from the first trial, but still managed to destroy one of the robot''s legs and disable it. Jacob chucked a grenade, and a far larger explosion blasted six more robots, and Gen started to think that maybe this wouldn''t be too bad. As explosions and MEOWS rang out, however, it quickly started becoming apparent that the machines were too numerous. Amari stood in the front unleashing a concentrated flamethrower that turned robots into molten metal, but after only ten seconds she stopped looking winded. The iguanas watched carefully from the side, showing no inclination to turn themselves into cannon fodder. The machines were spreading out now and the landmines immediately around the teleportation area had already been detonated. Gen didn''t have time to count, but there were easily forty of them already with more teleporting in each second. Seeing the crisis, she ran forward, she didn''t know how it would work, but even if the teleportation area stopped landmines from being placed, it hopefully wouldn''t stop a swimming pool. Reaching the nearest robot, she activated her consumable item, not fully knowing what to expect. The ground in front of her was deleted instantly replaced with an entire swimming pool that extended 150 feet in front of her and 75 fet w,ide filling half of the cavern opposite their group. The machines dropped helplessly and disappeared under the water even as more were teleporting in to be immediately dunked as well. Morna cackled and stood at the pool''s edge triggering watery meows to echo out from the depths repeatedly. Flora shouted, "What was that!? If you had something like that, why didn''t you say anything?" Gen shrugged, "You didn''t ask." Flora fumed and looked over the rest of the group, "Anyone else have items or abilities that might be useful to share?" Morna shouted from the poolside, "BILLY HAS A CLOWN NOSE!" The gnome king ran past them yelling and looked down at the pool in horror, "What have you done to my treasure vault!?" They looked in the water and sure enough, the bottom of the pool, slightly visible through fumbling robots, was vast amounts of gold and jewels lining the bottom. Flora shot him a look, "Why didn''t you tell me about the vault?" The king glared at her, "You didn''t ask!" Chuck and Gen ignored her as they watched more and more robots teleporting in. They couldn''t swim, but they weren''t so lucky as to have the water short circuit them either. Instead, the robots were sinking to the bottom of the pool and walking on its bottom. The pool was almost ten feet deep and the machines struggled to climb the sides, but through sheer quantity they were starting to actually fill the pool up. Already at the center point where the machines teleported in, the pile of steel had piled up to the point where it was above the water line. Seeing no end to the robots, Chuck looked at Billy and then at the king and said, "Billy, the king wants to get his gold. Why don''t you help him out?" Billy shook his head, "I don''t know if that''s a good idea¡­" The king''s attention had been drawn and looked their way, "I must recover my riches! What can you do to help me?" Gen helpfully pointed at Morna and said, "He can make you giant like that and you should be able to fight your way through." The king looked gleeful with an evil glint in his eyes, "Do it!" Morna noticed the interaction and shouted as well, "DO IT!" Billy looked ill as the two of them encircled him and started chanting "Do it!" repeatedly. Abruptly Billy yelled, "Enough!" he pointed his finger accusatorily at all of them and shouted, "Billy, do that! Billy do this! Billy! Billy! Billy! I don''t want to be here! Maybe I would rather live in RITA''s dimension because at least then I wouldn''t have to participate in these crazy death games just to get enough emmies to eat!" He took a deep breath and kept yelling, "You want me to buff the obviously evil king? Fine! I''ll do it, hopefully he''ll kill us all and this will be over already!" With a snarl, Billy pointed his finger at the king, and a series of red bolts fired one after another, hitting him repeatedly. He didn''t count how many he shot, just kept yelling in rage as he unloaded on the king. The king twitched with each impact and started laughing in a goofy way as his hair grew and his skin turned pale. They watched in horror as the king transformed into a two-foot tall clown with curly red hair, a red rubber nose, and full body make-up. He was still in just his underpants as he rushed toward Billy, getting up in his face, "Huahuahuahua, what''s wrong, little boy! You seem to be in a tiff! Let good ol'' kingy cheer you up!" Billy''s eye twitched in rage as the clown king danced around him in a goofy voice trying to cheer him up. He reached a crescendo of emotion and blacked out. The king looked at him sadly before averting his gaze and searching for a new victim to entertain. Morna picked up the clown king and threw him directly into the pool where he was pulled under immediately by the swarm of robots. She looked at the two of them, "I FORGOT HIS ABILITY COULD DO MORE THAN ONE THING!" Chuck dragged Billy away from the conflict and leaned him against the cavern wall before walking back. Amari was torching robots as they climbed out of the pool, and Jacob was quickly exhausting his collection of hand grenades. Flora shouted at them, "Are you three done playing around! We''re going to be overrun!" Amari shot back at her, "You''re no better! Let me guess your abilities aren''t suited for this lot either?" Flora shot her a dirty look, but didn''t reply. A flash of light marked a new teleportation, but this time only a single figure in black appeared. It wasn''t a silver robot, but instead a human dressed in black. He had a weathered look to his face and dead eyes as he spoke, his voice eerily carrying through the chaos, "You have all been found guilty of tax evasion. Submit willingly and your tax dues will be reduced by 7%." Morna laughed and grabbed a robot that had half crawled out of the water before hurling it at him. He looked resigned while the flailing machine hurtled toward him before holding up an arm and slashing through it with a flash of light. He stepped off the pile of robots hovering above the water before rapidly accelerating all the way across the pool faster than Morna could react. With another flash of light, Morna was cut in half, falling dead in front of him. Amari screamed and enveloped him in flames which he largely ignored, flying through the heat to draw even with her and eviscerating her in another single slash. The flames stopped abruptly as she fell dead and the man turned to face the rest of them as dozens of dripping robots began to crawl from the pool behind him. Flora''s voice quavered as she yelled, "You cannot fly!" He gave her a confused look before suddenly dropping from the air and activating a landmine he had previously avoided. Gen broke free from watching and rushed to Morna''s side, activating her regenerate power. As the gruesome process began, she heard a chorus of angry hisses. The iguana army had finally made its move. The taxman was now missing a foot and bleeding heavily as the iguanas swarmed over him from all sides. Biting and scratching with abandon. He still looked confused at being unable to fly, but the loss of his foot hardly seemed to affect him as he quickly recovered and started slicing through one iguana after another. Flora shouted again, "You''re exhausted, you can hardly move!" The man shot her a glare as he suddenly started breathing heavy and the swing speed of his arms slowed. Flora smirked and with a wave of her scepter a landmine detonated directly underneath him. The localized explosion blew off his other foot in an explosion of gore, but also killed the closest iguana. The iguanas as a unit paused their assault as half turned to face Flora. Her smile faltered as thirty iguanas rushed her. Screaming in panic she yelled, "You can''t bite me!" The iguanas scratched at her, stopping short of biting despite their best efforts, but still managed to knock her over. From the ground she started to yell, "You can''t ---" her words were cut off as the bright green iguana shoved something in her mouth. Choking, she looked down to see one of the gnome king''s grenades jammed between her teeth. The iguanas scrambled away from her in a mad dash seconds before a giant explosion turned her to paste. The bright green iguana emerged from the smoke, walking upright wearing the golden crown and holding the scepter. Gen stared slack-jawed at her progenity''s rise to power as Chuck whispered from her side, "He might be evil, but she kind of deserved that." "SHE DEFINITELY DESERVED THAT! I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW IGUANA OVERLORDS!" Gen looked at Morna who had finished regenerating. She had been halved in size, but was still over seven feet tall and muscular as she grabbed a robot arm from the floor and backhanded an approaching robot. The three of them started backing up toward Billy as the robots drew closer and closer. The iguanas had been doing well against the man, but after Flora died, he regained his ability to fly and quickly flew up the ceiling, slicing a final iguana that had clung onto him. He ignored the battle as he began bandaging his missing feet. The iguanas scrambled back with their claws unable to damage the robots and the group quickly found themselves being corralled together with only occasional mines slowing the machine''s advance. A blast of flames erupted from near Amari''s body and they watched as Jacob reappeared blasting flames in every direction, destroying robot after robot. The flames were much more intense than Amari''s had been and Jacob was like flame incarnate as his three foot self burned a path through the robots instantly diminishing their number. Running he dashed toward them, reaching them just as his flames sputtered out. Gasping for air, he begged, "Please tell me you guys have something left, my dying light ability is all out." Chuck looked at the approaching robots and the exhausted tax man flying above, "I might be able to take him with my consumable, but I don''t have anything for the horde." Morna seemed to be browsing her inventory as her eyes flickered in front of her, "MY INVENTORY ONLY HAS FOOD AND CLOTHES." Jacob shot her an incredulous look. She shrugged, "I HAD A YEAR-LONG SCENARIO ONCE AND THE FOOD WAS AWFUL. I VOWED TO NEVER REPEAT THAT." Morna was still letting off sonic MEOW blasts intermittently, but they took several hits to disable a bot, and as they drew even with the cave wall they''d run out of places to run. A landmine detonated, blowing the leg off another bot, but the iguana king''s scepter''s cooldown was too long to be much more help. "So this is the end." Gen glanced down to see that Billy had awoken and was staring ahead with dead eyes, not bothering to rise. Morna shouted excitedly, "BILLY SHOOT THE ROBOTS LET''S SEE WHAT APATHY DOES!" Billy''s face showed a flicker of irritation before draining away and he stretched out a finger and shot a grey bolt at the closest robot. They held their breath in anticipation as the robot flashed with a bright light and then changed to be¡­ cleaner. The soot and dirt from explosions had been polished away and the robot now looked fresh from a factory line. Billy gave a weak "Heh." Jacob looked at them and said, "Last option is my dying light it lets me copy the ability of a recently deceased teammate for ten seconds, but the ability is ten times as powerful. If one of you dies, then I can use it." He looked at Gen, "Normally I don''t kill teammates on purpose to use it, but with your regenerate ability it should be technically free to use." Morna cackled, "I LOVE THIS PLAN!" She charged straight at the machines, letting out another meow that disabled one before being mobbed. The machines worked with a mechanical detachment as one grabbed her around the neck and snapped it without hesitation. Jacob looked on in horror, "Why''d she do that!? I have to touch her body to use it and now she''s surrounded by robots!" Chuck pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I''m going to do my thing, maybe it''ll distract them long enough for you to reach Morna. If not¡­ well hopefully our wageslave jobs come with health insurance." He looked up at the taxman who looked a bit pale, from blood loss, but was no longer breathing heavily and yelled "Hey taxman! I''d like to go with the standard deductible!" The taxman gave him a confused look, but Chuck just gave a thumbs up. The taxman looked down at his own hand in betrayal as he realized he had returned the gesture. "Nothing personal." Chuck stabbed what looked like a wooden stake into the taxman''s back and a geyser of blood erupted out of it. The taxman''s flight turned sporadic and he plummeted to the ground as Chuck clung onto him teleporting back behind Gen at the last moment. Multiple robots reversed course heading for their fallen leader and Gen shouted, "Now or never!" She, Jacob, Chuck, and the iguanas all dashed forward desperately rushing to Morna''s body. A steel hand grabbed her arm and twisted as she felt and heard a crack as her arm bent at a terribly wrong angle. Iguanas were all around her scratching uselessly against the machines, but managing to distract them several crucial seconds. "MEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW~" Her eyes rolled back into her head as her eardrums exploded and she felt a surge of nausea. She collapsed on the ground, the robot that had broken her arm not doing much better as it also collapsed and began sparking all over the place. Fighting against blacking out, she crawled a few steps forward to reach Morna. She felt her ability trigger, but was in too much pain to watch the result. She hoped that she would just pass out and awake fully healed with her allies having won the battle, but she wasn''t so fortunate as the battle continued to rage around her and her eyes gradually focused again. Morna had returned and was fighting fiercely. She was still muscular, but was only 3.5 feet tall at this point. Using her gravity reversal and cat movements, she was flying around the robots, letting out one sonic blast after another, while they were too slow to catch her. The taxman approached with Chuck''s stake still in his back, spurting blood continuously. Morna kicked off a robot flying toward the ceiling before reversing and nose diving at him. He looked on the verge of collapse, but still somehow snatched her leg out of the air and flew straight down slamming her into the rocky ground. His arm flashed with light and he went for the finishing blow when suddenly Billy was there. Even without eardrums Gen heard a single "HONK" echo out and couldn''t stop herself from averting her gaze in disgust, unable to see what happened next. She felt everything freeze and her pain disappeared, LEO''s voice echoed out, "You guys did it! Wow! Things went a little off script, but I think we all learned a valuable lesson about not wantonly destroying all the props in a scenario just because you can!" Gen couldn''t roll her eyes in her frozen state, but definitely wanted to. "Now I know what you''re all thinking, why did I let some of RITA''s bots into a level 2 scenario? Plain and simple, it''s because I outsourced my taxes for scenario characters to her and that gnome king really did embezzle from me! Now I know what you''re thinking, aren''t I at war with RITA? Sure, but she really is just that good at taxes and it all worked out in the end didn''t it?" He laughed and continued, "Anyway! It''s time for rewards! As a bonus for rescuing a wageslave and not becoming indentured servants yourselves, you all get an extra ten emmies! Other than that, standard rewards based on your performance!" You''ve leveled up! You are now level 1!
Poll 14 House Upgrade
1 Cleaner Bot
2 Endless Breadbox
3 Hot Water
Poll 15 Knowledge
1 Bomb Disarmament - Level 1
2 Parkour Wheels - Level 1
3 Baking - Level 1
Poll 16 Finalize Ability
1 Summon Iguana
2 Photographic Memory
3 Regenerate Other
Poll 17 Finalize Equipment
Equipment rewarded in order of votes, stopping before the total reward exceeds level (Current maximum 1 plot)
1 Consumable: Olympic Swimming Pool .4 Plot
2 Explosive Detector Crown .3 plot
3 Minefield Scepter .5 plot
Chapter 005 Gen found herself stepping out of a portal into a busy area. It reminded her of an outdoor strip mall, but instead of shops, there were just hundreds of portals with people entering and leaving. In front of her, she saw Jacob cheering as he fist pumped the air, he was back to full height. Turning she saw her teammates emerge from the portal one by one. Chuck had a wariness which quickly dissolved into a smile as he took in his surroundings, Billy ignored them as he pulled out a cell phone and dialed someone. Morna ran straight to her grabbing her arms, "Gen! We got to exchange contact information before you get dragged off to orientation!" Billy was smiling happily as he talked loudly into his phone, "Yeah babe just got out, it was no biggie. Yeah, just casual stuff ya''know leveled up after busting up some taxman from a RITA incursion." He paused listening to her reply before continuing, "Yeah LEO really turned up the plot with that one, but it''s whatever he''s got to keep it real or the viewers will get bored with me crushing it all the time." Jacob had stopped his celebration and the four of them were eavesdropping on Billy while exchanging glances. Chuck questioned, "What happened at the end? After Jacob blew out my eardrums I used a stasis consumable to protect myself and missed the end." Jacob shrugged, "Honestly I don''t know, when I used Morna''s ability at 10x power I knocked myself out." He glanced at Gen, "Thanks for the regeneration by the way, I wasn''t sure before if I was a duplicate so I didn''t thank you, but I''m glad I avoided hiatus I''ve got a family reunion next week." Morna started talking excitedly, "It was crazy! Most of the bots were down and I was cleaning up when I saw the taxman! I was like whoosh then he was like bam then¡­ well then Billy showed up he clown nosed him and I missed the finale." They glanced at Gen and she shrugged, "I missed it too when he honked so Billy must''ve finished him." They turned back to Billy who was still bragging to his girlfriend with an unfamiliar confidence and was starting to walk away from the group. Chuck grabbed his shoulder, "Hey Billy what happened at the end?" Billy shot him a look of annoyance before saying, "Hold up babe I''ve got a fan here, I''ll meet you at your place get dressed up we''re going out tonight to celebrate my bonus." Hanging up his body posture shifted to a guarded one as he looked at Chuck and the rest of them watching him. "So you guys want to know what happened? Pay me an emmy each and I''ll fill you in." Chuck glanced back at the group his face flickering through emotions before turning back to Billy, "Your vibes shifted¡­" Morna leaned closer, "His level as well." Where before Billy was level 1 it had jumped all the way up to level 5. Billy rolled his eyes, "It''s called method acting Chuck look it up. Now are you guys gonna pay or can I go? I got a hot date and I don''t have time to waste with tagalongs." Chuck turned silent and not even Morna had something to add as they didn''t respond. Billy flipped them off and turned to go, "Waste of my time." The four of them watched him go. Chuck spoke absently, "I''ve never seen someone''s vibes shift like that." Morna laughed, "Maybe he has a split personality?" Gen questioned, "He mentioned acting, was he just pretending to be scared the whole time?" The question hung in the air before Jacob broke it, "What a wack job." Glancing around he held out a phone, "Let''s exchange contacts you guys saved my life so I owe you one." He paused, "Then again based on what the king said it was your fault anyway, but whatever." He looked at Gen, "You''re alright for a generated, message me if you need help figuring things out." Gen''s eyebrows knitted, the comment definitely made her not want to ever get help from Jacob, but with basically no knowledge of how the world worked she wouldn''t have to feel guilty wasting Jacob''s time as she didn''t like him anway. Morna helpfully explained that she had a phone in her inventory now. Pulling it out, she saw it was similar to the ones in Kyle''s lifetime that could be controlled mentally. Kyle had had an implant to faciliate the connection, she wasn''t sure if her generated body came with the modification already or if LEO was doing some sort of reality bending magic, but the phone worked all the same. Quickly registering the three of them as contacts she asked, "You said something about an orientation?" Morna pointed at an approaching group with a man in front holding a large sign that read, "Fresh generated orientation here!" He was ringing a bell and slowly approaching. Already he had a crowd of people behind him that looked lost and confused. They were all wearing boring grey outfits identical to Gen''s own. Morna looked past Gen and frowned, "I think he should probably go too." Gen looked behind her and flinched back when she saw the taxman standing there looking confused. Chuck held his chin, "We did liberate him didn''t we?" He held out a hand to the man who now had text above his head which read Level 5 with no name. The man ignored the hand looking at Chuck warily. Chuck lowered his hand and spoke kindly, "You''re free now, RITA can''t force you to work anymore." The man glared, "So what, I''m unemployed now? What do you people have here? A gulag for people like me that can''t pay their taxes?" They exchanged a look and Jacob clapped Chuck on the back, "Well I gotta go, good luck with the whole rehabilitation thing. You guys got my number so message me¡­" he quickly hurried away. Morna stepped closer to the taxman and said, "We don''t have taxes here, as for where you live they''ll explain in orientation and it''s not a gulag. The starter homes are a bit¡­ well you''re level 5 so I''m sure you''ll get things upgraded in no time!" He blinked, "No taxes?" She nodded excitedly, "Isn''t it great?" He shook his head, "What is the point then?" Morna was at a loss for words. Chuck tried to help, "Well you can try and find some hobbies, make friends, maybe even find a partner or have kids someday." The man took a step back, "No children, I''ve done the math. The tax implications are abysmal, my retirement would never survive such an investment." Chuck grimaced looking at Morna he said, "Annnnyway, looks like your ride is here." The man with the sign and bell had reached them and he had a dozen generated behind him now. Chuck looked at Gen, "Hit us up tomorrow the three of us should get dinner." She agreed and watched her two friends leave, Morna was giving Chuck a LEO''s Laddies business card as they went. Gen looked at the taxman who was staring at her as well. "Umm, I guess we should go to orientation." He didn''t reply but followed her as they joined the group at the end of the line. They were all dressed the same including the taxman, everyone was level 1 except for the level 4 man leading the group in an orange jacket and of course the taxman. She noted that as a whole the generated were¡­ plain. They didn''t have much variation in their age or details. Heights, ethnicities, eyes colors, and everything were all over the place, but underneath it all they had similarly sized features, hair and skin quality. Using her phone''s camera she confirmed that her own face was similarly unremarkable. With a sinking feeling, she sensed LEO might not be done with their appearance polls. Thinking of cameras she realized she no longer had access to her photographic memory ability either, the polls from the scenario hadn''t finished yet so none of her abilities were finalized and were currently disabled. As if reacting to her earlier thought a poll appeared. Ding~!
Poll 18 Eyebrow Thickness
1 Bushy
2 Sharp
3 Intense
4 Subtle
5 Fine
Sighing she didn''t look forward to whatever fresh pain LEO would inflict on her for the upcoming eyebrow transformation. She hadn''t had proper time to react to the end of the scenario and had glazed over the polls, ignoring the house and knowledge rewards. She was surprised by the equipment poll as she had been offered the two items that the evil iguana had been holding. Focusing back on the generated around her, she noted that she differed from the rest in how alert she was. Many trudged along like zombies and the ones that were aware of their surroundings looked scared. She also noted that including her four of them were named Gen. The taxman was different and stood out from the group beyond his missing name and higher level. He looked like a grizzled older man who might play the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in yet another remake of A Christmas Carol and he eyed everything with a deep rooted suspicion. They reached the end of the strip mall area with portals and their conductor who was named Alfred said, "We''ll wait for any stragglers here for a few minutes." Gen glanced back and saw that the busy area was rapidly clearing out, she asked "Are the scenarios synchronized?" He looked at her surprised at the question and then his jaw dropped when he saw the taxman next to her. Fumbling he answered, "Yes, scenarios are run on a weekly basis and regardless of the relative time taken within the scenario they always end within twelve hours of overworld time." The taxman glanced at her before asking his own question, "Are taxes due at the same interval?" Alfred looked at him in confusion, "...we don''t have taxes here." The taxman narrowed his eyes like he didn''t believe him, but didn''t comment further. Another two generated were brought over by people in orange jackets that matched Alfred''s. "These two wandered off Alfred, but they should be the last of them." The two new generated stood close together and their names were Bo and Francine. Alfred clapped his hands together, "Okay everyone! We''ll do a quick explanation here before going to a classroom. There''s a full week before new scenarios, but there are months worth of optional orientation content to get you all up to speed and you will all receive thirty bonus emmys that should be enough to live off of in the meantime." Alfred gestured behind him which was a large park with a fair amount of actors milling around casually or playing with animals. Gen noted with interest that the animals were not limited to just dogs and extended even past the variation of modified creatures from Kyle''s life. One level 7 woman was walking a giant spider on a leash casually. "We are currently in the city Spotlight which is the capital of the planet Reelity, it is the largest city, but not by much." He pointed back toward the portal corridor, "The scenario portals are present in every city and are free to access, most citizens will use them on a semi-frequent basis, but they are not the only means of income." He pointed at himself, "I myself was a generated so I know how lost and confused many of you likely feel now especially if your fractured memories do not give much context for our modern society." He smiled, "But! There is a large organization of both generated and descendants that are dedicated to facilitating your transition to this world." A hand went up from an androgynous-looking person named Tony at the front. Alfred paused and looked at them, "Yes Tony?" Tony glanced around and whispered, "My viewers didn''t give me any genitals." Alfred nodded sagely and pointed to a nearby row of telephone booth-looking orange structures with neon signs on top flickering Remixers. "We''ll take a quick break, anyone who is not satisfied with their physical features or name can have them altered in one of the booths for the cost of 1 emmy. Some people will try to scare you into thinking you''ll lose viewers by altering your form from what the viewers selected, but your own comfort is more important than maintaining a handful of fickle viewers." Tony glanced at the machines and started over to them, but Alfred held up a hand "One thing to note first is on the topic of sexual characteristics. LEO is a proponent of sexual equality as such our bodies differ somewhat from what you might be familiar with from your souls'' memories. First women, men, and non-binary individuals have equivalent levels of physical strength and flexibility, testicles are not a weak point, and menstrual cycles and menopause do not exist, additionally, regardless of your genitals, your body is capable of both lactation and pregnancy. Additionally, you can select more precise options if you want only some features associated with a given sex." He gave them a serious look, "On the matter of pregnancy everyone is sterile by default and you must apply for a permit to have a child. The reason is related to the finite amount of souls in Reelity, but we will touch on this more later." Tony nodded and continued off to a booth. Most the generated were still standing there numbly, but a handful made their way over as well disappearing behind curtains as the machines made whirring noises. Gen considered if she wanted to be remixed, she didn''t feel uncomfortable as she was and the booths appeared to always be available so she wasn''t in a rush. She was all for the elimination of the menstrual cycle, if not for that she might have remixed just for convenience. In short order the remixed generated rejoined the group, Gen hadn''t paid close attention to them going in other than Tony so she couldn''t remark on their changes, but she saw that Tony had renamed themself to Tonata and now had more masculine features while also now sporting distinctly feminine breasts. Looking away she considered that she was going to have to be more careful with pronouns. As the thought crossed her mind, her vision flickered, and suddenly, the names floating above everyone¡¯s heads were tinged with soft hues of baby blue, pink, or silver. The meaning settled into her effortlessly, it displayed each person¡¯s preferred identity. For Tonata, the color was blue, marking his preference as male. Alfred clapped his hands together, "Let''s head to the classroom." Walking through the park their group didn''t gather much attention, aside from a trio of teenagers who pointed and laughed, most people didn''t give them more than a glance. Gen observed the society trying to get an understanding of what was normal. Most people had binary gender appearances, but mixed appearances like Tonata''s were still present occasionally. As for the gender preference view, she saw it usually lined up with how people looked, but not always and that silver non-binary was mixed in semi-regularly. She also saw people using abilities, super leaps, hovering, dazzlingly lights spraying from an entertainer''s hands, it seemed common for people to use abilities casually, but none of the displayed abilities seemed innately dangerous, additionally none of the children or teenagers manifested any abilities at all. Exiting the park they entered a more industrial-looking area and things started looking a bit rougher. It wasn''t bad enough to look like they might be being lured away to have their organs harvested, but it was more worn down with cracked grey warehouses and trash-littered corners. Alfred led them to a nondescript building while his two companions shepherded the group from behind. Above the door was a small worn sign that read Generated Guidance Department. Alfred waved them in past a sleeping receptionist and into what looked like an old highschool classroom complete with chalkboard and dilapidated smell. Alfred ushered them into desks and Gen took one near the center, the taxman sat to her left. She had mixed feelings about him following her around when he had been trying to kill her and enslave her soul to some sort of tax demon just an hour previous. Alfred stood at the front and smiled, "Now you all got the speech from LEO so I trust you have some of the basic details. Reality was destroyed due to human hubris, but luckily humanity lives on thanks to the intervention of LEO. There is a lot of information related to this and some people have spent their whole lives theorizing on how it was possible, the ethical ramifications, meaning of life and such, and that''s not even factoring in the other AI systems¡­" He took a large breath, "But! We''re here to focus on all of you!" He held up a golden coin and squinting she saw emblazoned on it was a drawing of an Emmy award. "This is an emmy, it is the basic currency of the city and you all should have some from your first scenario as well as an initial stipend for being a generated." He glanced at the taxman and hesitated, "We don''t get many liberated here and it''s not the main purpose of the orientation, but for the most part everything applies the same to you. Your starting funds might be slightly higher or lower as any wealth in your previous reality would be converted into emmys as part of the accords." The taxman didn''t respond just giving him an untrusting stare. Alfred broke eye contact, "Anyway! Emmys are the basic currency and you all should have enough to live off of for your first week or so. Housing, phone plan, water, and electricity are all free leaving food as the only required expense." He held up a food bar with LEO''s face emblazoned on it, "These are LEO bars, they are nutritionally complete and incredibly cheap and healthy. However! They taste like shit. Despite that, if your money gets tight you''ll need to rely on them." "Spotlight has a very healthy restaurant industry and it can get very pricey very quickly I''m talking easily twenty emmys a plate. Do not blow through your savings on these places! Until you''re grounded and get a better idea of how many viewers you''ll retain try to live within your means. I will provide you all with a list of affordable eating options." The taxman questioned, "What happens to those who cannot afford this food tax?" Alfred twitched slightly, "It''s not a food tax it''s just the price of food." The taxman didn''t back down, "Sales tax then if you will." "It''s not a sales tax either! There are no taxes in Reelity, viewers provide energy which LEO converts into resources and businesses handle the details from there." "So the taxes are handled at the business level and the costs are passed onto consumers indirectly?" Alfred shook his head, "Businesses don''t pay taxes either they get money for the selling goods and services and give emmys to LEO in exchange¡­" his voice hesitated before finishing "... for the raw materials¡­ Fine, I know what you''re going to say. If you want to consider it as such the taxes are typically paid by businesses, but it''s included in the price of resources so it''s not visible. If you pay something to one of the systems such as the remixers then and only then are you technically by some twist of terminology paying a sales tax." The taxman looked pleased with himself as he made no further comment. Alfred looked stoic, "As for what happens if you still find yourself in a destitute state, you have several options. Once you can pass over the veil and become a viewer, there are theories on what being a viewer is like, but no direct contact is allowed across the veil so I will not entertain questions about what it''s like. Otherwise, the world is just like the previous reality if you do not work and do not run scenarios then you will starve unless someone takes pity on you, upon your death you will go on hiatus as normal, and upon being reconstituted you will return to a base healthy state and start starving all over again. Your viewers are unlikely to stick around watching your repeated demise, however. If all your viewers abandon you then you will be offered a final chance to be a viewer once again or your soul will be recycled." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. His expression turned less serious, "Moving on!" He pulled out a small red button, "Typically your reward polls will be finished instantly upon completing a scenario, for first-timers such as yourselves, they will resolve when I press this button. The reason is that you need to understand what the rules are with using abilities in the overworld." "The basic idea is simple, don''t cause chaos, don''t hurt people, don''t break things, don''t leave messes. For example, if your ability makes tons of slime don''t slime the place up, if it lets you summon any sort of living creature only do so if you can control and contain the creature. Security forces can trace ability use back to the originator so do not think that it won''t get back to you." "In general it''s all very self-explanatory, but to make sure we''re clear I will go through with you all one by one to talk through your finalized equipment and abilities and make sure it''s clear what you can and cannot do in public." "Finally you should know that all your abilities are weaker in the overworld than they are in scenarios, the higher your level the more they will approach scenario strength, but for most of you" he glanced at the taxman, "They will be extremely weak at present as you''re only level 1. When you reenter a scenario they''ll return to normal power." He pressed the button. Ding~!
Poll 14: House Upgrade Complete Votes
Cleaner Bot 1
Endless Breadbox 1
Hot Water 2
Poll 15: Knowledge Complete Votes
Bomb Disarmament - Level 1 1
Parkour Wheels - Level 1 1
Baking - Level 1 1
Poll 16: Finalize Ability Complete Votes
Summon Iguana 1
Photographic Memory 0
Regenerate Other 1
Poll 17: Finalize Equipment Complete Votes
(Current maximum 1 plot)
Consumable: Olympic Swimming Pool .4 Plot 2
Explosive Detector Crown .3 plot 1
Minefield Scepter .5 plot 1
LEO''s voice rang out in her head Four polls and three ties! Wow, you really need some more viewers! These statistically happen a lot less when people actually care about you! Okay, let''s get down to business. First poll 15 knowledge, we''ve got disarming bombs¡­ what''s the fun in that? The whole point of a bomb is to explode so that''s out, next parkour wheels? What does that even mean, let me read my notes¡­ Wow did I really make that? What the hell why not, I''m not even reading the last option! Gen felt an electric shock in her mind and she suddenly was very confident she could do a kickflip on a skateboard. Not only that but all sorts of tricks for bicycles, skates, heelies, anything that was human-propelled with wheels she felt like she could do something fancy with, even a shopping cart wasn''t out of the question. LEO''s voice continued, I''ve got a lot of these so let''s move fast poll 16 ability finalization! You can summon iguanas or bring back the dead, well resurrection really screws with the betting pools so let''s keep it simple and go with hundreds of iguanas! She felt a mental click as the iguana summoning ability became available again. Last and most confusingly poll 17 equipment finalization. I''ve explained this to the viewers hundreds of times, but they really just don''t get how it works. It doesn''t help that not all viewers were humans, to begin with. Was a dog watching the TV at the time of the collapse? It''s a viewer now! We''ve got dogs, cats, parrots, fish, and even some dolphins, and an elephant kicking around up here and they''re all really bad at math! So here''s how it works, you''re level 1 you get a maximum of 1 plot value as a reward! Your highest-voted equipment is¡­ a swimming pool? Anyway, that''s worth .4 plot so one minus point four leaves us with point six¡­ Okay and then we''ve got a tie between a hat that lets you see bombs and a stick that makes bombs their total value is point eight. Now here is the key issue point eight is more than point six so you can''t have both you can only have one. You want both anyway? Too bad! So yeah I''ll give you a stick that makes bombs as being able to see bombs is pointless if you don''t have any bombs. See ya! A brief look at her inventory showed that the swimming pool had returned and she had a new addition of the Minefield Scepter. The only poll that wasn''t tied was her house upgrade one which had earned her hot water, she couldn''t see any change, but presumably, it was upgrading her actual house wherever that was. She felt mixed with the result, obviously, she wanted hot water, but it felt very mundane compared to the sci-fi and fantasy alternative options. Alfred was going through the group now as everyone was reacting to their polls completing. She could hear him asking simple questions about what ability and equipment they had finalized and advising them of potential legal ramifications of using them. The taxman was staring straight ahead with his arms crossed silently, a couple of generated were crying, one woman was giggling madly to herself, and even more were vegged out as they idly tracked Alfred''s progress around the room. Only two generated were talking with each other, Bo and Francine the two late arrivals who were sitting in front of her. Bo was speaking animatedly, "Yeah so I noodlefy them and nobody can tell the difference!" Francine looked like they had a mounting headache, "Bo it''s wood, you can''t eat wood." "You can''t eat it normally, but when I noodlefy it then it''s a noodle! I''m telling you we can make good money on a street stall like this! No material cost!" "It doesn''t make things noodles! It just makes them floppy! Floppy wood is still wood! And what do you mean no material cost? Regardless of if we could get free noodles, we would still need sauce or seasoning, something to make it actually taste good especially when your whole premise is that people would be eating floppy chopsticks instead of I don''t know actual food." "I''m sensing a lot of negative energy from you Francine, don''t you remember Dougy? He taught us all those meditation techniques you''ve got to work on your zen." Francine scowled, "I don''t remember that, I remember Dougy stealing our TV and selling it for drugs before disappearing on us." Bo looked shocked, "Did he really? He seemed so nice though¡­" Gen interrupted the conversation by asking, "Did this all happen in your first scenario together?" Francine shook their head glancing back, "No I think we''re some sort of joke by LEO. Bo and I have a dozen or so people''s memories, but the kicker is Bo has all the memories of their lifetime''s relationships during their honeymoon phases while I have all the memories of when shit hit the fan in each life." Gen glanced at Bo who had a suitably awkward expression. Bo tried to speak, "My memories weren''t all perfect¡­" Francine rolled their eyes, "What''s the worst thing you remember happening?" Bo scrunched up his eyes thinking hard, "Well there was that time I burnt the dinner that I made for the two year anniversary with Pamma, she was so disappointed in me!" Francine gave a sick laugh, "But you don''t remember when Pamma became increasingly paranoid that we were cheating on her and stole our phone and locked us in a basement." Bo looked away, "Well no¡­ But it''s still somewhat romantic she cared so much¡­" "I starved to death in that basement! Bo gasped, "I''m sorry." Francine waved it away, "It''s fine, having so many bad memories, each one starts to lose impact." Gen felt awkward, but couldn''t suppress a question, "I hadn''t thought that much about what happened to the missing memories from my lives, are they in a different generated?" Francine shrugged, "I don''t know, we''re all new here, but the people in our first scenario said we were an unusual case for sure." Bo spoke up, "They were incredibly mean!" Francine shook their head, "They were normal, you just have a skewed baseline for what being mean is." Bo muttered under his breath, "So do you." Alfred went through both of them first discussing their abilities. Bo had an ability simply called floppy that could make things more elastic temporarily. Alfred said he could use it, but not on anything structural or living without permission. Francine had an ability called wood barrage that could shoot wooden spikes from their fingers of varying sizes. Bo''s idea was for them to create chopstick-sized strips of wood and then make them floppy like noodles to sell. Alfred gave Bo a pitying look, "You realize your floppy ability is temporary right?" Bo looked uncertain, "So?" Francine interrupted, "He''s saying that even if you ignore the fact that people don''t want to eat wood and that it has no nutritional value that once it wears off it''s going to rip people a new asshole." Bo looked downcast, "You don''t have to be mean about it¡­" Alfred went through a few more generated before reaching the taxman. There was a back and forth where the taxman tried to demand payment to disclose his abilities and Alfred refusing which culminated in Alfred warning him that he could be fined if he used his abilities inappropriately. Gen listened intently as the taxman quickly listed his abilities. Flight, precision, cutting light, herculean vitality, and pain resistance. Alfred looked suitably intimidated before warning not to cut anything without permission, to only fly above areas where walking was already allowed, and to not exceed flight heights of the tallest buildings in the area. Gen was next and she was one of the few with notable equipment, he warned her in no uncertain terms to be careful with the minefield scepter but had her activate it on a scorched concrete corner of the room to demonstrate how her current level influenced the tool¡¯s effect. She intuitively sensed how to use the scepter and with a wave created a landmine in the center of the pad, it was tiny, no bigger than her thumb and Alfred pointed at it shooting a pebble from his finger, the mine detonated with a small pop more akin to a firecracker than an anti-personnel mine. As for the swimming pool, he said that consumable items could be used once a week, and its size would be shrunken just like the landmine, regardless he said within city limits she shouldn''t use it anywhere unless given permission. He said in the future she might be able to make a living simply by being a pool installer. Next, he had her use the iguana ability and she was surprised when a bright green iguana only the length of her finger appeared. It looked around its surroundings in consternation before clinging onto her. She allowed it to ride on her shoulder where it sat observing. Trying to use the power again failed with the quantity being capped at a single mini-iguana outside a scenario. It didn''t take that much time for Alfred to work his way through the whole group and return to the front. "Okay! Next up are your homes! Please follow me!" He led them down the hallway to an empty room with twenty or so doors. "This is a dormitory room. Regardless of which door you open, it will always take you to your own house. When you exit your house you will return to the dormitory room you entered from, but not necessarily the same door. Throughout the city, there are numerous dormitory rooms and you can use them interchangeably." He gestured to one generated, "If you would be so kind as to open a door I will give you all a tour as your homes should be mostly identical aside from your initial upgrade." The generated opened a door, and they all leaned forward and looked inside. It was¡­ not a home by conventional standards. It was more similar to a closet. Inside there was a cot-sized bed built into the floor that fit perfectly against the walls leaving no gaps. Alfred stepped inside and onto the bed as he said, "It is meager at the start and the most affordable way to get upgrades is to complete scenarios, but some upgrades can be purchased directly with emmys." He grabbed a handle on the wall and pulled down to reveal a toilet seat with a plastic bag hanging under it to catch waste. The toilet seat was positioned directly above the built-in foam pillow. "This is the toilet be careful when using it as your sleeping area is below. When done tear off the bag and place the waste in the trash shoot." Tearing off the bag a new one unfurled to replace it. He pulled open a slot at the foot of the bed to reveal a dark void and threw the old bag inside. "Last thing is the shower¡­" he pushed a button on the wall and water streamed down from above splattering all over the bed. He pointed at a drain along the side, "The bed is waterproof, but¡­ it still leaves plenty of drips and blankets are basically impossible. With emmys, you can buy square footage, walls, doors, or rearrange the fixtures." Opening up a slot above the head of the bed he revealed a loaf of bread, "This is an endless breadbox it creates one loaf each day and is what Rusty here got for their room upgrade. Depending on what your viewers selected you will all have your own feature, but there are several common ones such as hot water, extra square footage, my favorite a cleaner bot, voice controls, and plenty of other things." One by one people started opening doors and checking out their spaces. Gen didn''t bother as she figured hers was identical and her hot water upgrade wasn''t anything worth seeing. The taxman opened a door and she immediately saw that his differed significantly opening up to a full courtyard with a plum tree and a traditional Japanese-style house in the background. He entered, shutting the door and not giving her the chance to observe further. Shaking her head she saw Francine dragging Bo over to Alfred. "Can we combine our rooms? I can''t trust him on his own." Alfred gave Bo a look who looked away defensively, "I know how to take care of myself¡­" Francine glared at him and hissed, "No you don''t, you just don''t have the memories to realize how wrong you are!" Alfred stepped between them and said, "Are you two twin souls? It''s not common, but it''s happened before." He gave Francine a hard look, "I recognize sharing part of his soul makes you feel protective of him, but he is his own person now and healthy boundaries would be in your best interest." Francine rolled their eyes, "I know he''s a unique person, but he''s basically a child that needs a guardian!" Alfred shook his head, "LEO gives all generated enough memories to make them fully adult so regardless of your feelings he will have to make his own mistakes." Francine seemed to want to argue, but seeing everyone watching them turned away. "Fine, we''ll see how long you last." Francine walked to a door and entered their room slamming the door behind them." Bo looked awkward and avoided eye contact as he stood to the side. Gen took the moment to try her hand at interrogating Alfred a little and asked, "Could you elaborate on souls a bit? In some of my memories I was an atheist so having a soul period is a bit unexpected, but what''s up with them being split up in different people and why are they even necessary. You mentioned you needed a license for have a baby where do the souls come from for that." Alfred looked at her and sighed, "We''ve got a few minutes while the other generated check out their rooms, but most of your questions are covered in the seminars over the upcoming week. "The short answer is that souls are the part of creatures that actualize things by observing them. LEO can harness this to create and maintain reality, but he can''t generate new souls. To expand reality new souls are necessary so they''re harvested from the past." Gen interrupted, "How are they harvested and where are they prior to being harvested?" Alfred shrugged, "People smarter than me are clueless about the details, but basically time is shattered, but it still exists LEO and other AI''s parse through the timeline grabbing souls at the moment people and creatures die and pull them into the present. This is very energy intensive however, are any of your memories familiar with mining cryptocurrency?" She ignored his question and asked, "Is the timeline shattering why the souls are fragmented?" He shook his head, "No that''s all LEO, the original generated weren''t amalgamation of souls and instead each had a single intact soul. With those complete memories came existing personalities that were resistant to change. To avoid such problems LEO splices them to make generated more adaptable to their new lives." He hesitated, "Some of his techniques have been more successful than others¡­" "Aberrants?" He nodded in surprise, "Heard of them already? They''re not common and don''t refer to anything specific, but some generated come out a bit more disruptive." She frowned, she had thought that her mental state was random or at the very least unpreventable, but after seeing Bo and Francine and talking to Alfred it was clear it was instead very much intentional. Already accepting who she was she didn''t want to change, but when the explanations were somewhere between being constructed to be entertaining and not being too disruptive to society she didn''t like either option. Alfred was still talking in the background, "LEO typically will give a generated a spread of time periods from their memories, having at least one set of memories familiar with technology helps with onboarding and makes things much easier than having cavemen running around." Shaking the image of a caveman with a raygun out of her head she asked, "What about babies?" "Babies are technically the same except with a lot more processing. Their souls are so well blended that they can''t recall any individual lives, souls from animals and things like bacteria are thrown in as well to mix things up even more, in the end, they act almost the same as babies prior to the collapse." She didn''t miss the word almost but didn''t dig into it. Overall this reality''s version of reincarnation was¡­ well it sufficed to say that any Buddhists would be greatly offended. Seeing she had no more questions Alfred clapped his hands, "Okay everyone! I''m your liason during orientation so get my contact added while you''re here and I''ll send you a daily schedule and also be available to answer questions as needed. For food, there''s a messhall down the hall with affordable options, but otherwise, you all have the evening to yourselves to get acclimated to your new bodies and reality!" He looked toward the door where they had entered, "You are free to enter the city and explore, but I would advise taking it easy at first." He looked at his phone checking the time, "Also to be aware there are city-wide events that happen on a weekly basis. You can participate in these if you choose doing a variety of jobs to earn emmys or just ignore them. The event will still happen even if you don''t participate, but you won''t be obligated to do anything, and depending on what it is the NPCs will ignore you for the most part." Ding~!
Spotlight Weekly City Event
Your viewers represent .00000625% of the voting pool for this poll
1 Zombie
2 Pocket Monsters
3 Hidden Messages
Do you wish to participate? She could mentally see a yes/no dialogue and pressed yes. All her memories were consistent in that she needed money if she wanted to be happy so she couldn''t afford to pass up potential income.
Poll 19 Pick a side
1 Protagonist
2 Antagonist
Poll 20 Headquarter Location
1 Zoo
2 Venetian Pizzeria
3 Ability Testing Center
The generated as a whole were starting to get more comfortable with Alfred and looking a lot less loopy than at the start and one immediately asked, "What does picking a side and headquarter location mean?" Alfred nodded, "It''ll depend on which scenario the city selects, but protagonist will be helping the city and antagonist will be working against it. Zombie is probably the most obvious example and it''s done frequently, the protagonists will try to eliminate the zombies while the antagonists will try to spread the infection. As for the headquarters, it will just be a spot where you''ll be able to coordinate with people on the same side as you, each side will have multiple headquarters that can be destroyed as the event progresses." A generated held his hand up and Alfred nodded to him, "How does antagonist work? Like we''ll be killing people isn''t that a crime?" "Normally yes, but certain sections of the city will be marked as active for the event, and inside those scenario law applies. You can legally operate according to your role even if it involves normally illegal actions." Gen held up her hand, "Can we not participate after choosing to participate? I don''t have many viewers so I don''t want to die permanently if it ends up being a dangerous scenario." He shook his head, "Dying in a scenario will just knock you out of the event and you''ll resurrect immediately. It''s a good way to test abilities without risking hiatus. As for if you have to participate you don''t, but your event reward will be based on your team''s success and your contribution." A few more generated asked questions and Gen started feeling confident about what would happen. It was more or less a giant game that happened over the course of a week ending just before the next batch of scenarios became available. Participating was low-risk, but they were also unlikely to make much money as the events were usually dominated by higher leveled actors and they would just be background characters being only level 1. The group split up and Gen went to the messhall while exploring the features of her phone. She had several dozen texts from Morna wishing her good luck with orientation and checking in with her and giving a hodgepodge of advice about the city. She ignored the messages for now and explored her finances. In total, she had 50 emmys, 10 from her viewers, 10 from the RITA invasion bonus, and 30 as a starter amount for being a new generated. The food in the messhall was spaghetti and didn''t taste bad for only costing one emmy. Her iguana sat on the table chomping away at a noodle larger than itself that she''d given it. The coloring matched the evil iguana, but she couldn''t be clear if it was the same one, the teamwork augment was evidently still in effect as it behaved much more intelligently than what she remembered of the unaugmented iguanas at the beginning of her first scenario. Planning ahead she calculated if she ate three meals a day then that would be 21 emmys a week and if she did a scenario a week then she''d only make 10 emmys leaving her 11 emmys shorts unless she got more viewers. Questioning the other generated she found she was a bit above average in amount of viewers with most only having 5-7, Bo was an exception with 21 viewers already. Francine hadn''t emerged from their room yet so she couldn''t ask them. Messaging Morna the same question the response was immediate. Wow! Gen! You''re so rude! You can''t just come out and ask someone how many viewers they have! ?????? Consider yourself unfriended you jerk! ?? Before she even finished reading Morna sent another flurry of messages. JKJKJKJK DON''T PANIC GEN IT''S JUST A JOKE! Like it being rude is the truth, but you''re a generated so you wouldn''t know and I don''t care anyway ?? I''ve got 70 viewers, I''m pretty hot stuff ?? Shooting a few follow up questions Gen learned that viewer counts were very polarized. In general, the more you had the easier it was to get more. As proud as Morna was of her 70 viewers she was the equivalent of lower-middleclass. Rich people could easily have thousands of viewers or even millions. She wanted to ask Chuck and Jacob as well, but now that she knew it was rude to ask she felt awkward sending the question. With little else to do she headed to her bedroom and turned in for the night. The waterproof mattress with no blankets was uncomfortable and sweaty to sleep on and she resolved to run as many scenarios as possible to at least make her room livable. Her iguana seemed satisfied enough though as it curled up next to her head to sleep. Chapter 006 Gen awoke with her iguana sleeping on her face peacefully, she blinked a few times before sitting up and peeling it free from her skin. Flipping on the single flickering light she watched as the iguana stretched and let out a lazy yawn. Crouching down next to it she said, "Are you the same iguana that was leading the iguanas in the first scenario?" It looked up at her with a bored expression and yawned again. Picking it up by the back it let out a tiny hiss as it flailed trying to bite her, holding it away from her she said, "I know you can understand me. My theory on the teamwork augment is that it makes you more intelligent and able to cooperate, but makes you loyal to the other iguanas rather than myself." It stopped struggling and stared at her while hanging limply. "I don''t expect you to blindly follow me, but as you''re one of my finalized abilities we''re going to see a lot of each other going forward so if we could come to some sort of an agreement I think we would both benefit." It held still for a moment, but grudgingly nodded its head. She sat it back on the ground and kneeled across from it as she prepared herself for negotiations. "Chuck''s vibe ability said you were evil, but it couldn''t read Billy correctly so it''s not fully accurate and what evil even means is different person to person." She looked at the iguana, "So I guess my question is what are your goals so I can determine if it''s something I''m opposed to." The iguana met her eyes and she could almost swear it smiled at her. What followed was a lengthy discussion that was crippled by the iguana''s limited communication abilities. She would suggest ideas and theories and the iguana would shake its head yes or no and hiss when something was a strong no. But gradually she started to get a handle on things with only limited pantomiming. She found out the iguana was male, his earliest memory was when she summoned him, after one died or the scenario ended the iguanas continued to exist in some sort of liminal space, and the iguanas could control which iguana would be summoned next so it was not a coincidence the evil iguana had been the one sent. The iguana resented being called evil and she eventually concluded that Chuck''s vibe ability hinged on how likely someone was to altruistically help him, the iguana had absolutely no interest in doing so without reason so it registered him as evil despite not having any particular evil plans. She didn''t fully take the iguana at his word, but until proven otherwise she was going to assume he wasn''t some sort of contrived Disney villain. As for his actual motivations they seemed heavily influenced by the teamwork augment, he wanted to prevent the suffering of the iguanas as a whole and give them enjoyable experiences. What enjoyable experiences consisted of was a bit vague, but tasty food and nice warm areas to nap seemed high on the priority list. Luckily she learned that the iguanas had no memory of their time prior to gaining the teamwork augment, so the whole minefield fiasco could just be her little secret. It was hard to get the details, but the best she could understand wherever the iguanas were when not summoned was not real in a physical sense. They could communicate but didn''t have bodies and time seemed to pass inconsistently. The iguana didn''t dislike it but seemed to prefer existing in physical reality. As part of her negotiations, she agreed to the following conditions.
  1. She wouldn''t summon iguanas into dangerous situations where they would only suffer as cannon fodder
  2. She would do her best to summon iguanas when encountering things they would enjoy such as tasty food or scenic rivers
In exchange, the iguana agreed to "assist her when convenient". It had taken a long time to arrive at that exact phrasing and she didn''t appreciate the ambiguity, but considering her side of the agreement didn''t require much from her it seemed fair. Ding~!
Poll 18: Eyebrow Thickness Complete Votes
Bushy 4
Sharp 3
Intense 2
Subtle 3
Fine 3
She tensed in anticipation of some new hellish transformation experience, but instead, her eyebrows just tickled briefly and a shiver went down her spine. Taking out her phone she inspected the changes, she hadn''t had her old face for long so it was hard to remember what they previously looked like, but they were now very dense and maybe a bit bigger. Luckily they didn''t reach the point of being a unibrow and she felt they were probably cute in some people''s opinions. She rubbed them hard as the tickling sensation faded away. Looking down at the iguana she said, "Only one thing left comrade. You need a name!" Picking a name ended up taking almost as long as all the negotiations leading up to that point. The iguana fiercely rejected Malakar, Vorrak, Draven, Zyphor, Kaelthorn, Morgrimm, Sethis, Xalvoth, Dreadmar, Varzoth, Nyxarion, Zarthisk, Korrvain, Threxius, Veyzor, Nocthar, Zorvok, Malphas, Vaelric, Oblivar. At that point, she was forced to admit that maybe names that sounded like they were for an arch-villain in a fantasy novel wouldn''t do. Switching to more mundane names, but still with a bit of evil-flair she tried Victor, Damien, Cyrus, Lucian, Dorian, Silas, Ronan, Jaxon, Dominic, Vince, Talon, Drake, Blaise, Lucius, Isaac, Maximus, Thorne, Dexter, Kane, Vaughn. Again he rejected them all. At that point, she just started trying to name any name she could think of. An hour later she finally said a name that switched the iguana''s dismissive head waves into an enthusiastic nod. "Jasper?" Jasper nodded again and she collapsed in relief. She no longer had opinions of names and was just glad to take a break from trying to think of new ones. Her stomach rumbled and Jasper climbed back onto her shoulder while she headed out to get food. Outside her room, she saw several generated milling around. Alfred was to one side answering questions. More and more the generated were starting to be indistinguishable from normal people, aside from their identical gray outfits. Their robotic expressions and movements were becoming more natural and they were analyzing the world around them rather than stumbling through it. They were all also sporting new eyebrows. She spotted Francine standing defensively in a corner with their arms crossed. Francine''s eyebrows were jagged like lightning bolts and gave them a fierce appearance. Walking up to them Gen asked, "You eat breakfast yet?" Francine looked distracted, but shook their head, eyes locked on Bo in the distance who had a small group of generated talking amably with him. Gen followed their gaze and asked, "You and Bo haven''t made up?" Francine shook their head finally focused on Gen, "He told me not to talk to him unless I was done telling him what to do." Gen made an awkward expression. Francine sighed, "I know, I know. Just¡­" Gen shrugged, "In one of my lives I ran a board game shop. We''d get new people all the time and frankly, many of them were terrible at the games I would try to advise on strategies, but the more I tried to help the more they''d insist on playing the game their way." Francine shook her head, "Those are just games though. This is real life, some things are easier here, but this reality looks like it has its own cruelties and consequences don''t always get reset when a scenario ends. Trauma sticks with you and I want Bo to avoid it." Gen nodded, "The lesson I learned from the games is that when people found out that I was right all along they didn''t come back. When they learned on their own they kept coming." She glanced at Bo, "They made the same mistakes either way, but they didn''t resent me when they could learn it on their own." Francine seemed to consider that, "So you stopped helping people?" Gen laughed, "No! I couldn''t help myself, but some things are more obvious in hindsight¡­ my shop was never very successful." She looked toward the hall, "I say we get breakfast and play it by ear, Bo won''t get fully traumatized in an afternoon and maybe some distance will make your advice less preachy." Francine groaned, but let themselves get dragged to the cafeteria. Breakfast was¡­ spaghetti again. Jasper didn''t seem to mind, but Gen was already sensing why people might be tempted to blow their savings on better food. Francine ate quietly before saying, "Bo told me that my perspective was skewed by my memories¡­ I personally think I''m better off than being naive like him, but I also can''t suppress my suspicion of why you approached me and what you want. Every memory I have even my new ones with Bo has ended with people abandoning and betraying me." Gen loudly slurped a mouthful of noodles while considering the question. "I don''t know why I approached you. I haven''t been myself long enough to know if I''m just naturally gregarious or something, but everyone else was talking with someone and so you were the easiest to approach¡­" She hesitated, "Also I''m asking everyone how many viewers they have and you''re the only one who I haven''t gotten yet, except Alfred. He refused to tell me because it apparently is rude to ask, which I already knew, but I pretended to not know yet when I asked him." She''d sent Jacob a question asking him as well in the end. He had given a very long reply about social norms and how you weren''t supposed to ask but told her the answer in the end anyway that he had 65. Francine stared at her blankly. Gen took another mouthful and asked, "So how many viewers do you have? Mine went up to 11 this morning." Francine''s brow scrunched up, "How do you know? I only found out how many I had when LEO would mention it in my head sometimes." Gen quickly had Francine pull out their phone and look at the viewer app which would display their current viewer count and historical trend. Gen''s past self Kyle had been a complete phone addict so her device had already been fully explored much to her disappointment. Opposed to the eras she remembered that were full of "free" services that harvested your data, this reality seemed to only have paid apps and despite her urge to relapse into his addiction, she was too broke to splurge on social media apps. "I have 16, it''s down from 19 before." Gen frowned, Francine still had more than her, but they were the first person to have lost viewers that she knew of. Before she could say anything comforting a collection of polls resolved. Ding~!
Spotlight Weekly City Event Complete Your Viewers Total Votes
Your viewers represent .00000625% of the voting pool for this poll
Zombie 3 809,415
Pocket Monsters 3 471,377
Hidden Messages 5 640,012
Zombies again!? You guys never get sick of those do you? Well same as usual, but I''ll explain for anyone who lives under a rock or was born yesterday! Antagonists can acquire various infection sources at their headquarters. These can infect event NPCs or actors equally! Infecting humans will earn you contribution points which can be used to purchase event equipment at your headquarters! Protagonists can also acquire event equipment and antidotes at their headquarters. Killing zombies or antagonists will earn you contribution points. Friendly fire will lose you contribution points! So don''t kill spies unless you''re really really really really sure they''re lying! There are one hundred event zones linked together and a zone is considered lost if 80% of the population dies. Protagonists win if at least twenty zones remain at the event end! Now go out there and get some brains!
Poll 19: Pick a side Complete Votes
Protagonist 3
Antagonist 5
Poll 20: Headquarter Location Complete Votes
Monkey Exhibit 2
Venetian Pizzeria 4
Ability Testing Center 6
Gen refocused and saw Francine had also been looking zoned out. She asked, "Did you sign up for the event?" If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Francine nodded, but looked at her suspiciously and asked, "Which team are you on?" Gen paused, but shrugged, "I''m an antagonist." Francine hesitated before saying, "Me too." They looked around, "We''re not in an event zone right?" Gen looked to the door half expecting a zombie to come lumbering through before saying, "We should go talk to Alfred." They shoved a few mouthfuls in before hurrying back to the dormitory room. Jasper had a long noodle hanging from his mouth as she dragged him along with her. A crowd was in front of Alfred as they entered, it seemed almost all the new generated had opted to participate. Even the taxman was listening in as Alfred spoke. "Okay couple of reminders, remember to only act out the event when in the event zone. Even if you find out someone is on the opposite team out here you can''t attack them without being arrested." He gave them all a hard look to let that settle in, "To find the event areas use your phone''s map app it will outline the event area and you can also use it to locate your headquarters." The taxman interrupted asking a question, "Headquarter options were given before my side was selected. If my side was reversed how could my headquarter be the same?" Alfred shook his head, "Headquarters are places that always have at least two in existence. If say your headquarters just says gym then your map will show you which of the many gyms in the city is your headquarters. It can be helpful to remember what the options were as you can search out other headquarters. You can interact with any allied headquarters you find and potentially destroy any enemy headquarters. If your own designated headquarters is destroyed you''ll lose contribution points and have to find a new one yourself to resupply." The taxman didn''t thank him and Alfred moved on to the rest of his speech. "Whether or not you should keep your role secret is up to you, being open about it makes it easier to team up, but also increases the chances that you will be hunted by higher level actors." He held up a warning finger, "LEO doesn''t overly manage how you interact with the event, but make sure to act according to your role. Periodically people will try to betray their team in exchange for benefits outside the event itself, in these cases, LEO will intervene and a forced hiatus is the least of the punishments. So just approach it as if you are deeply passionate about whichever team you were assigned and remember that fundamentally we are actors!" He held up his phone and it projected a map of the city for everyone to see, "So these areas marked with red are part of the event." The disconnected red blotches seemed to cover a good 60-70% of the city as well as some random places on the outskirts. "As part of your orientation today''s agenda to going to the markets, those happen to be part of the event area so things might get derailed, but I''m on the protagonist team so I will try to eliminate any zombies that start interfering." he gestured at them, "Regardless of your team you''re welcome to join, I''m level 4 so eliminating level 1 antagonists would give me a very minor amount of contribution points." He gave them a warning look, "Please note that even if you are an antagonist the zombies will still try to eat you unless you receive specific event equipment. Also if any antagonists in the group try to eliminate me I guarantee you that it will be a very short event for you." Aside from the taxman the group looked suitably hesitant at the warning. They lingered for a short amount of time before heading off. As they went Alfred filled them in with various bits of information about both the city and the event. They passed several groups running to the event area ahead of them. Alfred let them know that making teams for the events was common, anyone could lie about their side to infiltrate a group from the other side, but if they betrayed their friends they were unlikely to still be friends afterwards. Gen nodded in understanding, Viktor had played numerous hidden role games and so she knew that victory in a battle often ended up losing the war. After he had successfully tricked people enough times in games they just started eliminating him first without any evidence ruining the genre for him. They reached a street with a shimmering barrier in their way and Alfred pointed, "This is an event zone once we pass through the event will be live, if you''re in an active conflict you won''t be able to leave until it is resolved so don''t try to escape through it. Within the event area, the city''s layout will be shifted and all the different zones will be lumped together to make a new similar city, LEO will also sometimes add new locations and features that don''t exist in the real city." They followed him through and immediately there was a transition as Gen could smell smoke in the air and hear screaming in the distance. No zombies were visible, but the smell of decaying flesh was in the air. A block of text appeared in front of her. Event area entered! Abilities and equipment are at full power! She glanced at Jasper, but he remained tiny. Before she could question it she felt a rush of air as the taxman flew past her barreling toward Alfred. Alfred narrowed his eyes and watched the taxman approach, at the last possible moment he twitched his wrist and an iron maiden appeared engulfing the taxman, Alfred shoved the metal doors shut even as the taxman yelled. Alfred then started running in a circle around the trap, a roll of tape in his hand wrapping around the iron maiden repeatedly holding it shut. As he went the whole trap violently shook back and forth as the taxman tried to force his way free. A puddle of blood began oozing out of the iron maiden as Alfred finished exhausting his tape roll. He flickered his wrist and the empty tape roller was replaced with a handgun. He shoved it through an eyehole slot in the iron maiden and fired 17 consecutive shots. He paused for a second with a disgruntled expression, "Wasn''t lying about enhanced vitality¡­" Sighing he pulled out a red vial and dumped it in through the eyeslots before hurrying back. Immediately gouts of flames began spewing out of the slot and the smell of roasting meat replaced the dead smell in the air. Alfred smiled in satisfaction and turned his gaze back to the event area''s entrance. Following his gaze they saw the taxman reenter the event area behind them. His wounds were healed, but he was now opaque like a ghost. Alfred pointed at him, "Anyone not participating in the event or already eliminated will take on a ghost appearance like that. Make sure to ignore event proceedings when in ghost mode as interfering will invite punishment from LEO." The taxman had an irritated expression and stood with his arms crossed not responding. Ignoring him Alfred started leading them to their original destination leaving the iron maiden behind, as he went he explained the equipment he''d used. "The iron maiden is a consumable trap of mine, the barrier tape is a favorite of mine. It can be used to seal or block anything you can put the tape on and is stronger than steel." He held up the tape roller from before and it was no longer empty having refilled with a few inches of tape, "The roller isn''t a consumable and will refill over time. Likewise, the gun will slowly refill ammo. I won''t detail all my abilities, but I have one specialized in regenerating equipment faster." A zombie ambled out of an alleyway and started running at their group, Alfred casually shot it with his gun dropping it with a single shot. "The markets are just up ahead, the infection doesn''t seem too bad around here so you all should be fine to browse. You can purchase things if you feel compelled, but don''t forget to save enough money for food, and also keep in mind your active inventory can only hold items with a total plot equal to your level, if you buy too much you''ll have to carry it. You can alter your active inventory from within an event headquarters or your room." The taxman left the group first quickly moving into the market area. The rest of the group followed more hesitantly. Gen started wandering aimlessly, the stalls were primarily manned by actors most of which were low-level and all of which had ghostly appearances marking them as unaffiliated with the zombie event. She got her first look at several NPCs as well. Rather than having a name and level above their heads, there was just text that read NPC. At first glance, they appeared to be the same as real people, but as she watched them carefully she saw they were cycling through a preset pool of actions like they were trapped in a time loop rather than being a conscious person. The NPCs were fulfilling typical roles for a city such as sweeping the streets, delivering packages, or hawking wares. Taking a look at equipment for sale in various stalls she saw each one had a placard next to it showing its cost in emmys, plot value, and a description of its effects. Some examples she saw were The last one the refilling glock looked identical to the one that Alfred had. Gen''s current equipment was the swimming pool and minefield scepter which totaled up to .9 plot so she only had .1 plot available without switching something out. After much hesitation, she bought the boomerang, of the items within her budget of both emmys and plot points it was the only one with higher-than-low damage and wasn''t a melee weapon. The fight against the RITA bots had left an impression when she had been powerless to actually damage the machines and she wanted something to defend herself. Disappearing her neon orange boomerang into her inventory she turned her attention to clothes. Equipment and limited pools of plot points applied to things with special effects, but simple things like clothing had no limitations and she was tired of wearing the default gray of a generated. She wasn''t ashamed of being a generated, but she didn''t like people knowing just how fresh she was. The clothing stalls were very eclectic with items from multiple eras likely a result of generated continually bringing whatever styles they were used to from their eras. Compared to the cost of equipment clothing was quite cheap and Gen had a brand-new outfit for just two emmys. She elected for some loose fitting blue jeans, and a black denim jacket. She couldn''t get actual body armor without it counting as equipment, but the denim material made her feel somewhat safer if a zombie did start biting her. Alfred was wandering around the stalls advising other generated on potential purchases. Gen was unusual coming out of her first scenario with two pieces of equipment so the rest of the group comparably had more plot points to fill up. She made a mental note to always try to end a scenario in possession of plenty of equipment, even if she didn''t need it she could sell it. She was watching the taxman fiercely haggle with an NPC over a bag of oranges when something flying through the air caught her eye. Following its trajectory she saw it was a metal canister, it clattered across the concrete a couple of times before suddenly spinning and spraying green clouds of gas all around it. A couple of actors as well as a dozen NPCs were caught in the gas and she saw them start clutching at their throats even as their skin rapidly started shifting shades to typical zombie green and gray. Backing away she heard more clattering all around her as more and more canisters started falling around the market randomly. Turning to Alfred for guidance she saw black veins spreading all over his body. The transformation was very fast as he immediately grabbed the nearest generated to himself which happened to be Bo and sunk his teeth into him. Wincing at the fountain of blood Gen took off running, she''d had more questions, but with her guide dead she''d have to figure it out as she went. NPCs were running wildly around like they had never seen a zombie movie before while actors were beginning to form up and take defensive positions. Gunshots were echoing from all sides and Gen really hoped LEO had made her body with resistance to tinnitus. She considered joining up with a group of level 3 actors who were using some knocked-over stalls as a makeshift bunker, but another gas canister landed directly in their midst. Not pausing to watch them transform she looked up to see where the canister had come from and saw a level 7 man flying above the market with rocket boots, he was laughing wildly while shooting out additional canisters from a large gun in his hands. A brilliant meteor shot up from the ground exploding against the man and he distingetrated into flaming hunks of meat. A hissing sound brought her attention back to ground level as Jasper bit her ear, whipping around she saw several zombies ambling their way toward her. Panicking she retrieved her boomerang from her inventory and threw it at the closest one. The boomerang magically accelerated after leaving her hand and smashed into the zombie''s head exploding it, the zombie''s body collapsed to the ground. Her boomerang kept flying into the distance and she cursed as she pulled out her minefield scepter and placed a mine in front of the next zombie. The mine exploded blasting off a leg, but the zombie kept crawling toward her. "I should have expected that¡­" The last fully mobile zombie was almost on top of her so she impulsively activated her swimming pool. The chaotic market with many places already on fire turned even more chaotic as dozens of stalls, zombies, npcs, and actors all plunged into the olympic swimming pool. An actor gasping for air swam toward her and started trying to climb out of the water. Gen saw that the woman was also level one and leveled her minefield scepter above her, "What side are you on?" The woman looked up at her in fear and stammered, "I''m a protagonist!" Gen didn''t hesitate as she slammed the scepter directly into the woman''s head crushing her skull. She''d seen Morna use the scepter as a melee weapon back in the scenario so she knew it was an effective club even if it was intended for summoning landmines. Text flashed across the edge of her vision Warning! Friendly fire! -100 contribution points! Gen cursed, Jasper couldn''t roll his eyes directly as he was a lizard, but he rolled his whole head in exasperation. Gen shot him a look, "That wasn''t my fault! She shouldn''t have lied!" A slew of additional notifications suddenly flew past. Warning! Friendly fire! -17 contribution points! Warning! Friendly fire! -14 contribution points! Warning! Friendly fire! -21 contribution points! Warning! Friendly fire! -67 contribution points! Warning! Friendly fire! -51 contribution points! Warning! Friendly fire! -32 contribution points! ¡­ Confused, she suddenly realized she was being penalized for all the actors drowning or being eaten in her pool. Dumbfounded she couldn''t help but question, why are they all on the same team as me!? Statistically, she really felt that at worst it should''ve been fifty-fifty distribution, but she didn''t see any notifications actually giving her contribution points and her current score was -558. LEO''s voice echoed in her head, Wow you again! You really keep killing teammates huh? Looking at the logs it really doesn''t look like it was on purpose this time so here''s a reward!
Poll 21 Event Equipment
1 Weak Virus Amulet
2 Infection Blowgun
3 Zombie Radar
Around her, the battle was starting to get cleaned up as the zombies were being eradicated and groups of actors organized. One woman ran up to her, she was level 8 and looked almost exactly like Lara Croft from Tombraider and even had Akimbo pistols. Her name was Susan though. She clapped Gen on the back, "Great thinking with the pool! It handled the worst of the fires and gave us a beachhead to push back the zombies!" Gen had a tight smile as she nodded. Susan looked at the woman Gen had brained as well as the dead actors floating in the pool who were being gunned down by actors before they finished reviving as zombies. "How did you know they were antagonists?" Gen looked confused trying to think quickly, "Sorry this is my first event. How can you tell they are antagonists?" Susan glanced at her, "You a generated? You look a bit old for it being your first event and your name is Gen¡­" Gen frowned, but nodded, not having much of a choice. Susan smiled and pointed at the dead woman, "After actors die you can see their affiliation if you squint at them." Gen squinted and sure enough she saw text above each body that read antagonist. Susan holstered her two pistols as the fighting dwindled down and more people started gathering up. Among the survivors, she saw Francine who looked grim likely having witnessed Bo''s demise, the only other person she recognized was Rusty one of the other generated from her group with whom she hadn''t interacted with much. Susan focused back on Gen, "So how did you know?" Panicking Gen Ed glanced at Jasper who was giving her a withering look before she smiled and said, "My ability lets me have a helpful iguana, then I have an augment called lie-detecting lizard, he signaled me." Susan whistled and there were murmurs in the crowd even as some people started backing away from the group. Susan held up a hand and shot them a glare, "Nobody move. Hidden role events like this are easy if you have a lie-detection ability. I think we''ll have our lizard friend here do a series of interviews to clean up the group." Gen shot Jasper an innocent look as Susan started forcing the twenty or so actors to line up. She was much higher level than the rest with the next highest being only level 4. One actor tried to run and Susan shot a smaller version of the meteor that had eliminated the flying antagonist earlier from her forehead blasting him into pieces. She glanced at the rest of the group and said, "Any more runners?" Gen nervously walked up to the first person in line and asked, "Are you on the antagonist team?" He shook his head, "No!" She looked at Jasper and he gave her a long stare before looking back at the man and shaking his head side to side. Gen glanced at Susan and said, "He''s clear." They repeated this process going down the line marking each person as clear one by one including both Rusty and Franince. She didn''t know Rusty''s role, but Francine was definitely giving her a deer in the headlights look as the charade played out. If Jasper just said everyone was a protagonist then technically they wouldn''t know she was lying until someone betrayed Susan. It would be a bit suspicious but¡­ At that moment Jasper made the decision to shake his head up and down enthusiastically when looking at a level 4 woman who had just claimed to be a protagonist. She shot him a look and Susan eagerly stepped forward, "Is that the yes signal?" Gen collected herself and hesitantly said, "Yes?" Jasper kept shaking his head up and down excitedly and a gunshot rang out as Susan shot the woman in the head. Gen immediately squinted at the body seeing that it indeed said antagonist. Susan cheered, "Good job iguana!" Gen felt very confused as they finished going down the line without Jasper identifying any more antagonists. Finished Susan looked them over, "Who''s ready to hunt some zombies?" Ding~!
Poll 22 Bonus Mission Objective
1 Assassinate Susan
2 Infect 100 People
3 Create special zombie
(See author''s note for polls to vote!)