Non Player Character

Chapter 19 - Level Three

Discovering there was a chance I could find my wife was a shock to my already fried system, and it took some time for me to regain focus and process the new information.

Val and I were still in the shadow of the cave mouth. Tara was still presumably crying behind the heavy door further in.

With all the betrayals, bodies, and bombshells I had to deal with in the last hour, I had completely forgotten this was a game. But a few flashing notifications brought me back to reality.

I had leveled up and appeared to have unlocked multiple new achievements. Plus, I still had some new items to inspect.

First, I focused on my achievements. One of the achievement notifications was in gold and had an iridescent shine, so I selected it.

NEW LEGENDARY ACHIEVEMENT

NINE LIVES: You broke one of the rare quests designed to kill you! Normally, Players complete a Trap Quest such as this by discovering the ruse early and escaping before the Quest Giver's evil machinations can be enacted.

But not you! You were stupid enough to follow it through to the end and get captured. You ignored every red flag and even killed the man who was your best hope of ending the quest peacefully.

Yet, despite your stupidity, you managed to exploit the system and save yourself at the last second. You even managed to kill a Special NPC!

Like an annoying cat, you inexplicably survived certain death, a death that was carefully curated by the system. Great job, cheater.

The next time you suffer a killing blow, you'll live! For example, if you are about to be beheaded, the swing will either miss or stop short. NINE LIVES only applies to a single blow that would lead to instant death and does not protect against cumulative injuries, poisons, diseases, a serious injury that would be lethal without aid, any other means of progressive death. NINE LIVES only works once.

"Holy shit," I said. "Val, do you see this?"

"Impressive." I could feel a buzz of pleasure emanating through my mind. "I've never seen anything like this before."

This was an amazing perk, and I was extremely grateful to have received it. However, I was slightly concerned about part of the description. "Is it just me, or does the AI seem a little hostile toward me?"

"Well," Val said. Her avatar was sitting on a nearby rock, legs crossed. "You did break the predestined outcome of a quest. It is obligated to reward you, but that doesn't mean it has to be happy about it."

"Great, the AI's attention is the last thing I need."

Val smirked. "Remember, you are interacting with a personal sub-mind of the Master Control. The sub-mind is annoyed with you, not the actual Master Control itself. There are millions of Players here, each with their own dedicated sub-mind. The Master Control doesn't care about you. Not yet, at least."

I had two more achievements and went through them.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT!

HARDHEADED: You used your noggin for a whooping. Your dumb, hard head is perfectly fine, but the person whose nose you smashed sure isn't! It was disturbing to behold. The 'crunch' of her nose shattering to bits will haunt my dreams. Anyway, congratulations: Your skull is now a teeny tiny bit stronger.

I swear, there was something wrong with my personal sub-mind.

I opened my last achievement.

NEW ACHIEVEMENT!