Otherlife Dreams: The Selfless Hero Trilogy Read online

  “I’m not insane, thank you. I will admit to being eccentric, but an NPC would never understand. You don’t even realize this is all a game. To you, it’s completely natural. Dexterity, Dexterity, Dexterity, Intelligence, Intelligence, Agility,” Runner continued. “And so, we who had become error, are now Win.”

  With a nod of his head, he tapped the Accept button with his thumb for emphasis. Losing complete control himself, he started to lean forward as the world swayed crazily. Collapsing to the ground he bounced once and came to rest on the wooden floorboards. Mobility and thought were lost in the turmoil that enveloped his mind.

  It wasn’t pain exactly, though extremely uncomfortable. His head felt two sizes too small. The large amount of memories twenty levels provided felt like too much to take at once. Like a light switch being hit, his brain shut down, and he was unable to control himself. Blitzing through the material as efficiently as it could his mind sorted and processed everything. It couldn’t keep up. A human mind wasn’t built for this.

  Memories settled into places that felt natural to him, Only now was he aware of how much had been missing. Distant memories of childhood, sunlight filtering through windows at his parents house back on Earth, watching bits of dust flutter through beams of light to disappear as they passed into the shade. Enrolling, and subsequently being expelled, from college. Joining the Corps and being promoted to a Senior Systems Admin after a brief stint Earth side. There were gaps here and there, but he could guess at his own history from the things he could remember.

  One memory stood apart from the rest by virtue of being the most recent. Boarding a capital ship bound for an outer colony that was in revolt. The travel would take years, count towards his deployment, and even be considered hazard pay. For a non-combatant, it was a dream job.

  He stared at the ceiling as he gathered his thoughts, trying in vain to put some order to his life. His life according to the memories he now possessed.

  Then his view was filled with Hannah, her black hair framing her face like a darkened halo against the muted light. Cold sapphire eyes appraised him like an insect. Runner could only track her with his eyes, unable to turn his head. As suddenly as her face appeared, she pulled away again.

  Realization settled over him like a wet blanket. Shifting his weight around was the extent of his control. There would be no cry of alarm, or defense of his self.

  It was no use, his brain felt like it’d been rewired by an apprentice electrician. Nothing was connected to where it should to be. He’d need time to let his brain rewire everything. Time was something he didn’t have.

  Metal rattled quietly, coming from the direction of the door. He guessed that Hannah was checking the lock, confirming it was engaged probably. The clatter was replaced by fabric whispering across the floorboards. Hannah popped into view, peering down at him once more.

  Runner figured this to be the end. When he’d explained the situation to the mayor, he’d informed him that thieves were hung. There was no jail,no willingness to put the community at risk for their eventually release. Runner had declined their invitation, stating that he’d escort her to a city for actual justice.

  The mayor emphasized this point forcefully when he mentioned Hannah was partially of the Sunless race. Runner hadn’t been sure how the Mayor had made that distinction, he hadn’t been aware of it himself. Did NPCs distinguish the Sunless race by black hair? Blue eyes maybe? His own hair was black though; his eyes blue. Did he not qualify since he was a player? Chalking it up to a distinction of Players versus NPC, he let the thought drop.

  Exhaling slowly Runner did his best to control his emotions. He waited, gaining a little peace in the acceptance of his expected end. It wouldn’t do to face her with fear. To go out with a whimper, so to speak. Truth be told, the worst part of this was not even being able to see her hands.

  “Try not to struggle, it’ll just make this harder,” she said. Leaning in towards him, Runner closed his eyes in response, accepting and waiting. Listening to his heart for several beats, no strike came.

  His head was lifted from the floor, then gently placed on what felt like wadded up fabric.

  Combed from his eyes with a delicate touch, his hair was brushed aside. It was done while avoiding touching him, as if he was made of poison, and contact would burn the fingertips.

  “There. Is that better? I can’t do much for you,,” she admitted quietly. “Your pack is full, and looks like a rats nest. Like someone upended a gods damned cellar into it. Very fitting for you, but not very useful.”

  Runner’s eyes snapped open and he fastened them to Hannah. She was bent over him, his head and neck now resting comfortably, her hands resting on her knees as she looked into his face. I’m not dead? How the hell did she get into my pack? She shouldn’t be able to, shes an NPC, and I’m not dead?

  “I’m assuming whatever you were doing backfired. Or something,” Hannah tilted her head to the side, watching him.

  “Uhm. Can you blink?”

  He blinked.

  “Ok. How about we go with once for yes, and twice for no?” She asked him.

  Yes

  “And to make sure you’re not blinking to blink, please blink twice.”

  No

  “Great. Did you manage to cast paralyze on yourself?”

  No.

  “Did you activate a curse or something?”

  No

  “Ok. Not paralysis, not a curse, maybe it's similar?”

  Yes

  “Was it a spell?”

  No

  “Are you insane?

  No, No, No.

  “What exactly are you? Who are you? You talk to yourself, you do things that contradict the laws of the world. You use spells, Stealth, and clearly can handle a weapon. You killed others, but want to punish me for my crimes. When they wanted to do exactly as I thought you wanted them to, you refused. You treat me like any other human though I’m not. You purchase meals for me that cost you as much as what you buy for yourself. You talk like an educated twat but you don’t talk down to me.”

  Yes

  “Yes what?”

  No

  “I guess you can’t really answer any of that since it’s not a yes, no, answer.”

  Yes, No.

  “You’re a real fucking shit, you know that?”

  Yes

  “Sleep, idiot. I’ll keep watch till this,whatever this is, wears off. It will wear off right?”

  Yes

  He closed his eyes.

  Unexpectedly, and like a bad made for web drama, Runner had fallen asleep. Coming back to wakefulness, he did his best to feign sleep. From his new memories he knew the technology that powered Otherlife was very cutting edge. One could have said it was nearly an adaptive AI in its base state. Clearly that massive resource boost had taken the game, and elevated it to a whole new level. NPCs acted like people for the most part. They accepted the rules of the game as if it were normal.

  The game’s original operating shell was supposed to sync with the user, nesting itself in the users mind, utilizing it as the hardware for visualization. This would leave the entire server to be able to process everything else. This still wouldn’t be in keeping with the amount of resources it was increased by though.

  Clearly, the difference between NPC and PC isn’t normal anymore either. Something has gone horribly wrong here. Hannah was actually digging through my inventory. My inventory! That shouldn’t be possible on any level.

  Opening his eyes he found he couldn’t distinguish the time of day, the darkened room offered no clues. Each room came with a few endless burning candles that did a fair job of lighting the room with a gentle light, but did nothing to dispel the shadows in the corners. He was covered by a blanket now, his head resting on what felt like an actual pillow.

  Hannah sat a few feet form him, not paying attention to him. She’d taken control over his pack and emptied its contents. Everything was now sorted and laid out on the floorboards. She must have worked q
uietly during his convalescence since she hadn’t disturbed him. Evidently, Hannah was the type of person that wanted things to be in a certain order, or done in a particular way. Even if it didn’t concern her.

  Left hand propping her chin, her right hand hovered over a mound of crafting supplies. With a smirk, he could guess she was troubled by the fact that some crafting classes shared resources, though they had different tools.

  Stretching his shoulders he tried to flex his back and gauge his control over himself. Gratified by the immediate response to the demands of his body, Runner felt normal. Letting his head roll to the side to watch Hannah, he ended up making eye contact with her instead.

  With a room that was silent except for breathing, he’d managed to alert her to his waking by shifting under the blanket.

  “Do I greet you with good morning, good afternoon, or good evening?” Runner asked.

  Hannah tilted her head and regarded him for a moment before responding.

  “Good early morning. You slept through the afternoon and well beyond the night,” Hannah explained. “Color me curious as to your plans considering the brand of justice by these inbred, farm tending, racist, fuck wits. They’d have you dancing at the end of a rope for being a non-human, even those who aren’t thieves. Humans are such gracious bastards.”

  And there it was. Her tone was light, despite the vulgarity, but had an edge of lethality to it. Runner had been wondering about her lack of, well, killing him. Now she wanted to know his plans. She hadn’t escaped during the night and had even taken the time to care for him.

  There was more going on here than he could reason out in the time he had to answer her. Her every action singled her out as a very unique NPC, beyond having five flags even. There was no telling what plans she had prepared for him while he blissfully slept the night away.

  Now the choice was here and his alone to make. Runner couldn’t deny that this world drastically veered away from his expectations the longer he spent here. Turning her over for the town’s version of justice would be the end of her. Perhaps explaining to her everything would placate her, or maybe not. Truth or lies.

  He was positive she was more than willing to try to kill him, given the chance, if his answer displeased her. After all, what did she have to lose?

  “My intention yesterday was to turn you over to the city, not the town. For actual justice that is. Let them mete out your punishment.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I’m unsure. Perhaps you could help me fill in a few gaps about the local culture? As you mentioned yesterday, I’m not exactly from around here,” Runner conceded.

  “That’s true enough. Well, the simplest answer is that out here in the frontiers, it takes a different type of person to survive. So it’s full of those dipshits you’ve already met. Life is cheap, those who can’t pull their weight, or aren’t part of the community, are unnecessary. You heard them, thieves are hung. What city in the world hangs thieves? Being half Sunless and half Human puts me pretty low on the worth scale to start for this bunch of these east of nowhere bumblefucks. Now add being a thief, an outsider, and involved in a murder with one of their own,” she said quietly. Fresh memories in hand of humanity, Runner felt it had the ugly ring of truth to it.

  “I see. Ok, that makes sense. Especially if I use that as a point of reference as to why you didn’t try to slit my throat and escape. They would have been more than eager to grab you. Would it be safe to believe that the closest oasis of civilization is more than a month away?”

  “About a month, a week shy of that perhaps, depends on how fast you can walk and what route you take. Most just take the trade road.”

  Coming to a decision, Runner cleared his throat and barreled ahead.

  “I propose the following. I employ you directly. Specifically, to help me get to civilization. More to the point, off this little island. My goal is to reach the larger island east of here.” Runner said. He’d briefly consulted the in game map the previous day to determine he was currently on an island. One that had been meant to bridge the gap between the starting island and the main continent.

  “We can consider the theft thing as if it never happened. I’ll provide funds, food, and whatever else travel expenses we incur. There is one further thing to note. I’ll need your assistance in becoming stronger as we travel. If we encounter a dungeon, a cave, a band of what the hell ever nasties may be there, it’s likely I’ll stop and smell the roses. And kill things. Then loot their corpses while smelling said roses. But hey, who doesn’t love money, right? Or roses.”

  Runner then did his best to present a winning smile at her. Thinking in the moment he tried to use whatever he could, mentally grasping at whatever social skills he had. Leaning heavily on his character’s ridiculous charisma he could only hope.

  You use Persuade on Thief

  Thief is not Persuaded

  You use Seduce on Thief

  Thief is Seduced

  Cursing himself in his mind, he managed to stop a groan from escaping. Seriously? Seduce? Now? The fuck is wrong with you Runner? The hell is going on with this game?

  During the conversation Hannah had decided on how to sort the crafting materials, separating them into two equal piles. Runner could only imagine her AI algorithm was processing everything at light speed while in accordance to whatever personality she had drawn up at creation.

  He’d have to be careful of how far he could push the system. Even with all its new resources, there was only so much it could handle. How rapidly it could adapt to changing circumstances and the needs of its players was a finite thing.

  Whatever Seduce did, it thankfully wasn’t what he originally feared. Contemplation and hesitation were plainly written across her face from his point of view.

  At least she’s considering it and didn’t turn me down flat.

  She’d made no secret of the fact that she believed he was disturbed on some level. He couldn’t really argue that he wasn’t from her impressions of him. His offer would give her a very real way out, a way to remain clothed, fed, and taken care of. No stipulations attached. Other than being a tour guide and provide assistance in combat.

  She continued to noticeably work her way through the question. Giving her time, Runner stood and began stretching himself out. Stretching did nothing for him but it was comforting at least to his mental health. Mental fatigue could always be relieved in repeating habits, or routines, that brought on normality. Normality and routine calmed the mind for him.

  “I accept. My fee is four copper a day, not including food.”

  “Fantastic. Please take twelve copper from my purse over there. Four for today, four for yesterday, four for the last day. Consider it a security deposit,” he said gratefully. She’d asked for a pittance and he wasn’t about to argue with her. Four copper was truly nothing to him, but she only knew the world based on her storyline.

  “As for your meal, help yourself to whatever fare I have in my pack, I’m getting pretty good at finding things.”

  Runner decided to put action to works and go through a rotation of his abilities. One by one, he activated them. For safety’s sake, he only fired off those that would be safe to do indoors. Forage went off without a hitch, producing yet another beetle. Without pausing to consider it, he popped it in his mouth and devoured it.

  “Ugh. Do you have any idea what a lovely fucking surprise it was to find beetles in your pack? Why the hell are they still alive? You don’t actually expect me to eat those as my ‘meals’ do you?” she berated him. Beetles weren’t on her menu it seemed.

  “Not always? Sometimes I find wild vegetables and fruits. You remember those strawberries, right? Good example that. No?”

  “No.”

  “Fine, fine. I’ll buy travel rations and you can eat those. Missing out though. After the first one, the beetles actually go down easily and have an interesting taste. As to why they’re alive, I’m afraid they’ll go stale if you kill them. They might not have that same crunc
h.”

  Runner shrugged and then started stuffing everything into his pack, uncaring to the piles they were put into. Squawking noisily at him, Hannah slapped at his hands in an attempt to stop him from ruining her neat and orderly arrangements.

  “Arrange your own pack Hanners, mines just fine as it was. Thank you regardless.”

  Hannah said nothing more, sulkily giving him the silent treatment. Having stolen her inventory back from his pack during the night she made herself ready. He honestly didn’t want to know where she got a pack from since she didn’t start with one, so he didn’t bother asking.

  Minutes later, they stood outside the inn, contemplating what to do next. The rain of the previous day had muddied the roads and paths, but the sun was warming everything as it moved further from the horizon.

  Runner had no luck previously in his attempts to get a quest from anyone he came across. He’d come to the conclusion that it was either reputation, or faction, that was preventing him from receiving anything from them. For most games, players would have spent many levels getting here, and building the normal relations with the kingdom and its people.

  “Right then. Despite being higher level than the area, I can’t get a single quest from anyone. I honestly was hoping there might be some stupid SovEx fetch quest. ‘Oh dear Hero, please deliver this worthless letter to my Aunt in Bendover, just east of here. Let me mark it on your map for you, because I’m secretly able to read your map perfectly, and know exactly where we are despite never having seen one before.’ Kind of thing, ya know?” Runner said, turning his head to look at Hannah.

  “I understood maybe a third of what you said just now. This is just a frontier town. Only reason people come this far out is for trapping, hunting, or exploring old ruins.”

  “I’d like to do all three of those things, preferably at the same time, and in the same direction as the nearest city. Which according to my map,” Runner said, opening his in game map with a flick of his fingers. After a moment he closed it again. “Is to the East, by North East. Any thoughts? Normally villagers are supposed to give you a clue, some gossip, or an indirect quest without meaning to, but everyone around here just stares at me till I walk away. Maybe it’s my breath? Do I have beetle breath? Maybe part of a shell on my teeth? Bad beetle death breath?”