Quick word of warning - the first few paragraphs contain spoilers up to chapter 30 of Ryuugi's "The Games We Play." If you haven't read it, I highly suggest you do so.
Also - I've made a couple of important edits to the end of the last chapter. For anyone returning, you should go check them out before reading this one.
Gaia?
Yes?
I'm going to ask you a single question, and I'd really appreciate it if you gave me an honest answer.
...all right, shoot.
Did you give me this entire questline just so you could have an excuse to rip off The Games We Play?
What?
I mean, come on, I can't be the only one noticing the similarities between this mess and the White Whale arc. Main character gets recruited by group, group sends him on a mission to steal property of Atlas, mission goes sideways, main character makes off with whatever they're trying to steal, things continue to escalate, and eventually everything culminates into a fight with Penny here. The signs are all there. So tell me, miss "Mother Earth," did you do this on purpose, or am I just hallucinating connections?
Uh… well, I suppose the best way I could put it would be that I originally didn't include her in the grand plan for this deal, but then I saw Ruby's comment about Gepetto getting into Auratech, which interested me enough to do some investigating. I found out that Penny had been recently built and was in need of a field test, so I decided to pull a few strings and get her involved. I figured you also needed a reality check in the form of a good old curb-stomping. Thinking about it now, it does actually seem pretty similar to that White Whale ordeal, doesn't it? Only this mission won't cause you to accidentally awaken an ancient Grimm dragon and consequently get marooned on an island in the middle of the ocean. Could be w-
STOP! STOP IT RIGHT THERE! DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE, I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD! UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL YOU SAY ANYTHING ALONG THOSE LINES, EVER!
Whoa, jeez, calm down! I'm just saying that it could be-
WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY, DAMN IT?! IF YOU SAY SHIT LIKE THAT, YOU WILL REGRET IT SOONER RATHER THAN LATER! MURPHY'S JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO SAY SOMETHING THAT WILL LET HIM SCREW YOU OVER! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD, DO NOT GIVE HIM A REASON!
Alright, alright, okay! Fine! Sheesh, talk about paranoid…
It's not paranoia if I've experienced it - twice. I'm just trying to help you!
Yeah, sure, whatever you say, pal.
In other news, the fighting hadn't started yet. At the moment, I was simply analyzing my new enemy.
At the moment, she looked quite different from her canon counterpart. She still had her classic ginger hair and pink bow, only the hair was shorter and straighter than the curly locks displayed in her future appearance. The bow also rested neatly on top of her head, instead of hanging off to one side.
Her clothes were altered, too. Her sleeves stopped before the elbow, not before the wrist. Gone were her stockings, replaced by a pair of overalls fitted with black-colored shorts instead of a skirt, leaving her lower legs exposed. All told, her color scheme and its placement was pretty much the same, just with differing implementations.
Practically the only parts of her appearance that hadn't changed were her emerald eyes, shoes, collar, and weapon backpack.
But I wasn't just checking her on the surface. I'd also shot off an Observe as soon as I could, and was met with pretty threatening results.
Right off the bat, she was a Tanker - a base class, one tier above my trainee. With that came the stat bonuses expected of one, which automatically gave her a noticeable advantage over me. There was also the fact that she was two levels higher than me, further widening the power gap between us.
Her stats themselves were most definitely not to be dismissed. The only stat she had that was below 100 was her luck, and even that was sitting at a comfortable 96. She had one of the highest intelligence counts I had seen thus far, at a whopping 182. That was followed close behind by her amazing resistance, weighing in at 162. Hot on its heels was vitality, only two points behind at a robust 160, giving her a base health bar total of 3,200 to be later increased by the unique effects of 'Foe.' Her next highest parameter was charm, surprisingly enough, boasting a point count of 142. After that was dexterity, staying at a middling 133. Then strength, at only 123, somewhat less than what I had been expecting for an unbelievably expensive battle-bot. Finally, her agility, at a slightly sluggish compared to me but in no way slow 110.
Compared to my stats…
Zeiss Seven
Title: Child Cynic
Class: Drifter
Level: 21
EXP: 0
Level Up at: 4,100
HP: 1,150
MP: 850
BP: 120
VIT: 115
STR: 110
INT: 85
DEX: 147
AGI: 148
RES: 70
LUK: 50
CHR: 50
Points: 15
Status: Healthy
Lien: 16,350
...yeah. "Oof" didn't even begin to cover it. The only areas I had the advantage in were dexterity and agility, and while those were two of the really important combat stats, the difference wasn't wide enough to provide me with an adequate safety net. Of course, once I hit Resolve range it would be a different story, but that was playing with fire and to be avoided until necessary.
Thankfully, her weapons - christened "Toybreakers" by the system - only had a Might stat of 69 (I resisted the urge to make an obligatory 69 joke), which ensured that she wouldn't be doing outright oppressive amounts of damage. Only enough to constantly keep me on the back foot and wary of whatever direction the next strike may come from. The system also notified me that due to the fact that having ten swords allowed her to attack a lot faster than the average foe, her standard attack damage would only add half her strength stat to the weapons' power before subtracting my resistance for the final number.
When I checked her skills, things became even worse due to this little guy.
Steel Skin [Passive] (Level MAX)
You're made of iron, and it shows. All damage taken from physical sources is reduced by 40%. Grants immunity to Blowdown.
If nothing else, it really helped sell the idea that the system was going to do everything in its power to make sure that there was no possible way to win this confrontation. This was a war of attrition - the admins made sure that defeating Penny was something night-impossible in order to force the quote-unquote 'victory conditions' to become 'don't run out of HP before Ironwood or someone else calls her off.'
The rest of her enemy-exclusive skills weren't helping, either. Most of them were multi-hits, which while occasionally less damaging due to the target's extra chances of dodging the individual attacks, were also more dangerous owing to their ability to trigger multiple critical hits.
Doing the math revealed that pretty much all of them would deal over 200 damage at least if they hit, practically a whole sixth of my total HP.
Well, that will simply not do. Gaia?
Putting your points where your mouth is, eh?
Oh, yeah. Ten to RES, two to AGI, three to DEX.
Roger that.
I prayed that the admittedly small boost would make a difference, and closed out the windows.
But there was still something bothering me.
"Hey, uh, do you mind if I ask a few questions before we begin?"
Penny appeared to process that for a moment, and compiled an output.
"I would not. Ask away!"
I scanned her from head to toe.
"Did you… jump out of your skin this morning or something? 'Cause, y'know, your limbs are… looking kinda robotic. Are you a cyborg?"
Yeah.
Her face was as peach-colored as ever, still sporting those adorable little freckles.
Everywhere else… not so much. Everywhere that would have skin showing on a normal human was instead brandishing shiny Atlas-white metal. It actually looked kinda badass - I found myself subconsciously branding her a 'battle angel,' though I had no idea why.
"No, I did not jump out of my skin, and I am not a cyborg."
...right. Gotta be direct with her. Can't use euphemisms or exaggerations, or she'll take them literally and we'll get nowhere.
"Okay… better question: why are you not wearing artificial skin?"
She answered that one quickly.
"The synth-skin for my body has not been finished as of now."
That was better.
"Okay, that makes sense. But… wait. If you're not a cyborg, but you have metal limbs, then… what exactly are you? If you don't mind me asking, that is. And if it's not classified."
She booted that around for a moment.
"I believe the term used by Atlesian officials to describe me is 'combat gynoid.' If the archives do not lie, then I am the first recorded artificial being in history with the capability of generating its own Aura."
I pretended not to know this information, for obvious reasons.
"Huh… well, isn't that neat. You're telling me that I get to fight the first robot in history to have an Aura of its own? Wow. I'm… actually kinda honored."
Penny decided to go a little further.
"Not only that, but you also have the honor of being the subject of my very first field test. My internal cameras are recording all of this right now."
"Whoa… Wait, does... does this mean I might get my name put into a history book detailing the next great robotics revolution?! Holy sh*BEEP*t, that would be amazing!"
That actually made her laugh, for some reason.
"I do not know if the historians would find my first real test important enough to be worth mentioning, but I suppose that I will hope that they shall. For both our sakes."
"Well, that's awfully nice of you."
She was positively beaming at that statement.
"Thank you! My father did program me to be polite to everyone, so I am happy to see that he has done a good job!"
Awwww…
There was silence for a moment.
"So, uh… I think that's everything I wanted to know. Should, ah… are we supposed to actually fight now?"
I heard the sound of her backpack opening, and her signature ten swords removed themselves, split up, and spread out in their normal formation.
"I believe we are! Prepare yourself!"
You have been targeted by: Penny (Lv. 23)
Status effect "Foe" inflicted.
Skill [Perpetual Advantage] triggered. AGI/RES multiplied by 1.2.
I sighed, reached behind me, and pulled out Crimson Violet from my inventory, letting it drop and smash into the floor material at my side. I also made sure my hood was off, and placed my scouter over my right eye.
"I get the feeling that I'm about to get my *BEEP*ss kicked, but what the heck. If I'm going down, I'll make sure that it's in a blaze of glory. Oh, and for the record, my name is Zeiss Serven. Now…"
ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE
Track Cue: no3=NO. EX01 (Xenoblade Chronicles X)
"Let's get down to business."
[Bullrush+]
My superior agility quickly proved its usefulness for the first of many times, blowing me towards Penny a little too quickly for her to block.
"Blowdown" resisted.
"Knockback" inflicted.
Her metallic composition prevented her from being sent flying back, instead forcing her backward a couple steps. Of course, since her puppet-swords weren't garden-variety weapons, she could still use them even in a disadvantageous position (or at least as long as the strings weren't cut). I suffered two slashes, dodging and blocking many more while backing off a bit.
[Primer Repeat+]
In the process of maneuvering my huge slab of metal to stop the onslaught, I squeezed off three shots. My aim was understandably hampered, causing two shots to miss. But the third one...
CRITICAL!
Smacked her right in the forehead, snapping her head back and causing the barrage of swords to briefly stop. Seeing the obvious opening, I charged ahead.
[Brave Sally]
A pommel strike to the head preceded three more slashes, with the final one hitting harder than expected.
CRITICAL!
Unfortunately, my finishing position left me open for a sock to the gut, which stunned me long enough for Penny to land a punch square in my face.
"Knockback" inflicted.
The force behind it sent me reeling backwards, leaving enough room for her to use her first combat skill of the fight.
[Pinwheel Blade]
She maneuvered her swords into a shape reminiscent of a shuriken, then sent it spinning towards me. I suffered ten separate instances of damage, with one hit dealing double the hurt.
CRITICAL!
In an effort not to suffer more punishment, I smacked away the swords and dashed towards the gynoid, letting rip when I got close enough.
[Powerslash+]
Now it was her turn again to stumble back, letting me wail on her more. I didn't use any combat skills, but I think that the five heavy hits I delivered in quick succession spoke for themselves. Especially the second and fourth.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
In return, she let loose with a flurry of slashes, forcing me to back off in order to have a chance at blocking or avoiding all of them. I was unsuccessful, receiving six separate cuts on various parts of my body. The final one hurt the most.
CRITICAL!
She pressed the advantage when my guard was broken, triggering another combat skill.
[Puppet Dance]
She split her weapons into two groups of five, sending them towards me and slashing away four times with a series of fluid movements. While it seemed like I was hit twenty separate times, my HP was only reduced after one group of swords completed its assault.
[Resolve] triggered. STR/DEX/AGI increased.
Ohhh-ho-ho, you're gonna get it now.
It was time to bring out the big guns.
[Sword Flurry+]
With my massively increased agility - about 2.5 times her score - it was almost easy to slip inside her guard and deliver the 8 dangerously powerful stabs. Three of them left more of a mark than the others.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
What, no bleed procs? Rnjesus, what the hell?!
My boosted dexterity allowed my mind to stop and think about that for a second without leaving myself open.
…then again, she doesn't exactly have blood in her body...
Returning my focus to the beatdown I was laying down, I also gave her a taste of my newest skill for good measure.
[Sol]
A blinding yellow-orange aura coated Crimson Violet, burning bright like the sun as I brought it down on my mechanized opponent.
+263 HP
[Resolve] deactivated.
The system didn't display a Knockback infliction, but it sure seemed like Penny had received one. I decided not to press my advantage - I didn't want to risk losing too much health.
Unfortunately, it seemed like my wishes were completely ignored.
WARNING!
LIMIT BREAK INCOMING!
What the hell - when did this become Final Fantasy?! I don't remember seeing anything like this in any of the last updates! Gaia?!
Now's not the time, dumbass! If you know what's good for you, heal! And make it snappy!
The advice was justified by what Penny did next. She lifted one of her arms to her ear, and made as if she was speaking into a communicator.
"This is Copper Zero-One! Requesting a bombing run on my position, grid AC four-six-eight-eight-three-seven, danger close, over!"
At her words, I spotted the bullhead that had carried her here begin to move towards us.
Oh, shit.
[Imbue]
[Potion]
I healed as much as I could afford. I didn't want to risk the cooldown for anything higher-grade than a potion screwing me over, so I simply used one that I had in stock. With my reserves shored up, I braced for the inevitable.
[Judgement Day]
Two rocket pods emerged from the sides of the aircraft, pointed directly at the city square that served as our battleground. Once it got close enough, it fired everything it had.
The next thing I knew, everything around me was exploding. While I tried my best to avoid as much damage possible, I still suffered 8 separate hits.
-544
[Resolve] triggered.
Jesus Fucking Christ, that erased nearly half of my health bar! What's she gonna do next, whip out her signature Shoop Da Whoop move?!
But that wasn't all.
[Recharge Subroutine]
Some of the metal bits on her arms and legs opened up, releasing plumes of steam while her aura visibly shimmered.
+7,077
...did she just erase all my hard work in an instant?
Fear the power of boss-exclusive skills, sucker.
YOU CHEATING BITCHES!
Pot, meet kettle. He says you're black.
In my seething impotent rage, I didn't notice Penny's next move before it was too late.
Two groups of three swords were planted an equal distance away from me to set up her hardest-hitting regular combat skill.
[Slingshot Special]
What sounded like a whip cracking broke me out of my tirade. But by the time I turned my attention back to the fight, all I could see were the soles of the combat robot's shoes rocketing towards me much too fast to even consider dodging.
"Blowdown" inflicted.
As you can probably guess, that sent me flying off to bounce on the ground a couple times and slide to a stop a fair distance away.
And yet, even after delivering the most damaging drop-kick I'd ever seen, my opponent still wasn't done. She dashed over to me faster than I expected, grabbed me and pulled me up, then wrapped some of her swords' puppet strings around various parts of my body. I began to get even more of a bad feeling than I already was.
[String-a-Ding]
Fuck.
Once she finished tying me up, she turned on her heel and threw me away. Half a second later, she tugged hard on the strings restraining me, pulling my unfortunate self right back to her.
I correctly guessed at what was coming a moment before I saw the fist heading right for my face.
PA-KAFF!
I was certain that the sound of the impact could be heard from a city block away, at the very least. The hardest decking my schnoz had ever gotten laid me out flat on the ground, the puppet strings removed before impact.
Owwwww…
I rolled over, facing my chest to the ground, and started the arduous process of picking myself up after being utterly trashed. Penny was content to let me get up without interference. Eventually, I got to my feet and stood back up to my full 6-foot height.
"Are you prepared to surrender yourself to the authorities?"
I blinked, then gave a surprised and slightly disbelieving chuckle.
"I think your optics might need a tune-up. Can't you see that I'm still holding my weapon? My hands aren't going up in the air until you take it away from them, and even then, you might have to work for that a little more."
I grasped my gunsword with both hands, hefting it up at my side.
Penny, as expected, wasn't fazed in the slightest.
"I can assure you that my optics are not in need of repair. Though, I can see that you are still willing to continue your resistance. I must warn you that if you keep to this course of action, you may suffer serious injury."
Oh, if only she knew that was the least of my concerns. Literally, considering Gamer's Body.
"Oh, really? Prove it."
She just gave the android equivalent of a sigh and a shake of the head.
"Very well, then. Please do not blame me if you end up regretting your choice."
Was that… did she just sass me? Dear god, give daddy Polendina a freakin' medal for excellence! This is groundbreaking programming right here!
We resumed our combat stances, while I activated one of the few buff skills I had.
[Guard Stance]
This one had actually been changed by one of the updates, now simply reducing incoming damage by a percentage instead of increasing my RES. The health regeneration was also nerfed, now only restoring 2.5% of my maximum every second at level 1 instead of 5%, though I suspected that it would regain that upon reaching level 10. It still had a full duration of thirty seconds and still reduced my strength by half. As it was now, at level 5, every hit that I suffered for half a minute would have its power reduced by 60%, and I would heal for 2.7% of my max HP every second, in return for cutting my strength by 40%.
An instant later, we charged at each other.
FEVER TRIGGERED!
I fought much more defensively this time, wary of whatever my enemy might pull out of her silicon bag of tricks next. My 180 boosted agility and 150 dexterity helped a lot here, allowing me to maneuver my four-foot-six sword much faster than you would expect. Very few of Penny's ridiculously high number of attacks actually slipped past my guard, with the majority of them being dodged, blocked, deflected, or parried.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
That said, some still made it through, as I would occasionally lose track of one of the swords, which was somewhat hard not to do as there were ten of them, all moving at high speeds. Sometimes the gynoid would even mix in some hand-to-hand, landing the odd punch or kick here and there. I would only strike when an opening was presented, and didn't try to force anything that might result in further damage to myself.
CRITICAL!
As you might expect, the exchange took us all over the square. Bits and pieces of what I assumed to be cobblestone or concrete or some similar material were flung up whenever one of our weapons struck the ground, or sufficient force was applied from our feet.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
[Resolve] deactivated.
Some of the buildings that fenced the place also ended up scarred, whether from a missed swing from one of our weapons, a shot fired from my sword's rifle that didn't quite hit its mark, or one of us being thrown into them.
Hope the police evacuated everyone in the immediate area before our showdown started. Enough people have died today. I don't want needless civilian blood on my hands.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
All told, the square looked like a right proper war zone.
Once the Guard Stance wore off, I decided it was time to slow down, and forced my opponent to do so.
[Scope Shot+]
Tapping my scouter, I locked on, took aim, and pulled the trigger.
POOM!
The bullet struck her head in the middle of a dash, scrambling her focus and making her crash to the ground.
FEVER END!
She quickly pushed herself back up and used a new combat skill.
[Macross Massacre]
This time, the metallic bits on her visible limbs opened up to reveal pods of miniature rockets, which were subsequently launched at me.
The missiles were actually directed to impact over a wide area, leaving me with almost no room to dodge whatsoever. Five were direct hits, while the rest were narrowly avoided.
I retaliated with an AoE skill of my own.
[Spray-n-Pray+]
In a ridiculous display of RNG shenanigans, only five of the ten shots actually hit Penny, yet every single one of those five shots…
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
...what kind of divine fuckery is this?! What the hell are the odds of that happening?!
I capped it off by using the recoil to propel my sword into position for my next trick.
[Blade Beam]
My gynoid enemy was a little too slow on the draw to stop the purple arc of energy from cutting into her a fair bit deeper than I had expected.
CRITICAL!
When the dust cleared, we took a bit of a breather.
Which was advantageous for Penny, since I assumed that she didn't need to breathe. (Which makes no sense in hindsight, since her built-in lie detector makes her hiccup, and you need a diaphragm to hiccup, which requires lungs to be of any use.) Anway, she took that time to deliver one more message.
"This is your final warning, mister Serven. If you do not lay down your weapon, I cannot guarantee that you will survive what happens next."
That tipped me off to the idea that she might still have another trump card, but I didn't let it show.
"I'm willing to take my chances. After all, I've gotten this far. Would just be a shame if I stopped now, when I'm almost at the finish line. And call me Zeiss, if it's not too much trouble. Adulthood's a myth, and I'd like to feel young while I can."
Her expression shifted to 'resigned' at my insistence to keep fighting.
"Understood. Then please, try your best not to die, Zeiss."
WARNING!
LIMIT BREAK INCOMING!
Shit, not again!
[Imbue]
[Hi-Potion]
I wasn't taking any chances this time, restoring my health pool to the max.
When I saw Penny's swords begin to circle around in front of her, pointing towards me, I knew I made the correct choice.
[Soul Beam]
When a green light appeared in the center of the sphere of blades, I also knew I was screwed.
Oooohhhhh, noooooooo…
I subconsciously knew that there was no chance of dodging this. It was a continuous laser - even if I tried to avoid it, she'd just maneuver it around and end up hitting me at some point. So I figured that the best I could do was brace for impact and prepare myself to tank an attack that would slice right through bullheads in a few years.
WreeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIII-
Gaia? Sometimes I really fucking hate you.
Noted. NOW PERISH.
YOU LOUSY GOD DAMN STUPID PIECE OF-
BZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRTT!
The bright green beam of pure energy slammed into me with what felt like the force of a hundred airships.
Needless to say, it hurt.
A lot.
Especially the latter half of the attack.
[Resolve] triggered.
It felt just like when I had been Forward Aerial'd by Rudger's flaming fist a few days ago, only cranked up to eleven, then multiplied to the power of infinity.
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
CRITICAL!
Not fun.
Not fun at all.
When it finally ended, I was on my last legs.
-1,100 HP
Zeiss HP: 50/1,150
(Track Cut)
My attire had been torn to shreds by the attack. The hoodie was in tatters, revealing the purple shirt underneath, which was also heavily damaged. A few sections of the pants were completely gone. Thankfully, my shoes were unscathed.
I was left lying on my back, with only a small sliver of HP left and next to no motivation to get back up again. Amazingly, I had managed to not let go of Crimson Violet - my right hand was still clutching the handle in a white-knuckled death grip.
I figured that if I could shoot off another Sol, I might be able to work out a little more time. So I tried to slowly stand back up, lifting my upper body as I did so…
...only to be stopped by the sudden appearance of a black and green sword pointed at my throat.
"Please, for the sake of your well-being, do not resist any further."
I blinked at the instrument of death… then sighed and let my head drop back down.
...damn it all. Guess that's game over, then. At least I tried my best. Hope the girls won't be too mad at me.
"All right, all right, fine… you win. I know when I'm beaten."
I finally let go of my weapon.
Penny slowly began to walk toward my broken form. But right before she got to me, she stopped and raised her hand back up to her ear.
After the person on the other end stopped talking, she responded.
"Understood, sir. I will be sure to bring him in."
She turned her attention back to me.
"Well, Zeiss, it seems that General Ironwood would like to have words with you. I suppose congratulations are in order for your successful prolonging of your avoidance of prison."
Quest Complete!
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em
Rewards received:
4,000 EXP
3,000 Lien
It took a second for my brain to process that, and when it did, I felt a wave of relief and satisfaction wash over me.
"Freakin' finally… took you long enough, ya stupid metal snail."
The gynoid moved her swords to her back, then collected and collapsed them, replacing them inside her weapon backpack. She then directed the hovering bullhead to land in the middle of the square, and started towards it, then looked back to me.
"Please, follow me."
I stared at her for a short minute.
"Ah… sure. But, uh…"
The pain was gone by now, but I still mentally felt like a walking corpse.
"...could you help me up? You did kinda do a real number on me…"
She gave me a blank look for a few seconds, then responded.
"...roger that."
Some hours later, I was sitting back in the Eisenberg home.
Penny had taken me into her support bullhead and transported me to a meeting with General Ironwood, accompanied by Gewehr and the rest of the family. We discussed how everything had gone down the way it did, with no small amount of political jargon and bullshit that I really didn't care much for. I still listened, in case I had to deal with situations like this in the future.
I kind of ended up in a bit of a grey area, for a number of reasons. On one hand, I had saved who-knew-how-many people from having their souls drained out of them in order to power a superweapon of dubious functionality, but on the other hand, I had also killed a few people in cold blood and stolen a bunch of top-secret Atlesian tech (though they were still stumped on how I'd managed to hide it so well), not to mention destroyed hundreds of police androids and seriously injured a high-ranking officer.
Admittedly, there were a few other ways we could have tried to resolve this whole thing in a slightly more peaceful manner, but what was done was done. We'd made our bed, and now we'd have to sleep in it.
It ended up working out a little like this: in return for keeping all of the stuff I swiped from the facility, I would have to pay a percentage of the damages that I inflicted. Which… ended up being a pretty hefty sum. A lot more than I had on hand, actually. To work around that, we devised a plan. I would end up doing some work for the Atlesian government on the side whenever I traveled to an area with available jobs, and I would send a portion of the payment received from them to the government to pay off my debt. If, at any time, I refused to take on a job, I would have to provide a sufficient reason why, or face arrest. I figured it was actually a pretty good deal, all things considered. I'd still probably get the full amount of the rewards from quest triggers anyway.
Regarding the murders… that was understandably more of a touchy subject. I decided to have some techies investigate the profiles of the four security guards I'd killed, and… well, it was a bit of a consolation, but it didn't lessen the impact. The men had all been hired from a company called MurLoc, which I recalled from the electronic keycard locks that had been present on some of the doors inside the facility. MurLoc was actually owned by a puppet CEO that was completely within the pocket of one of the heads that had orchestrated the entire cannon mess, and the guys they'd sent to patrol the R&D facility were all former criminals who had been bailed out of prison when nobody was looking. They were there both to ensure the safety of the people working on the cannon, and the secrecy of the project.
How nobody had noticed that they weren't exactly trustworthy, I'll never know.
Maybe because they offed everyone who did and were really good at covering their tracks.
In any case, I was kind of extraordinarily lucky that the men I killed weren't just upstanding security guards doing their best at their job. I suspected that Gaia had a hand in that, and when I asked, her answer was this.
Because I like to think of myself as a good entity at heart - or whatever I have that passes for one - I decided to give you a solitary 'get out of jail free' card. But this will be my first and only warning: next time, think before you pull the trigger. If you do this again, there will be consequences. Remember that.
And… well, that admittedly scared me a little. I didn't exactly have a spotless track record back on Earth, or at least, I liked to think I didn't. I never really trusted myself to do the right thing, whether that be because of apathy, discouragement of getting involved, or just laziness. Compiling all that together resulted in a healthy amount of fear concerning the fact that I might end up disregarding that advice some time in the future, at the exact moment that I should, by all accounts, do the exact opposite.
And that was disregarding all the red 'Foreshadowing' flags that it was raising.
In the end, though, everything ended up working out… all right, from a certain point of view.
Surprisingly enough, the old Prof ended up inviting me back to his place for a bit of a debriefing, which ended up being more of a 'we actually pulled it off' celebration. Or, not really a 'celebration,' per se, but more like an acknowledgement that we all made it out alive and well, and that everything went mostly smoothly.
Speaking of his place, the government hadn't wasted any time in bringing up the ravaged residence back up to code. I was seriously impressed at how fast they had managed to repair all the damage that had been done due to the failed kidnapping of Petra. The walls had been replaced, the lawn was refilled… hell, it even looked like they had gone through the trouble of sweeping it and doing some house cleaning.
Anyway, at the moment, I was sitting alone in one of the guest bedrooms, perusing the various menus of the system, when I came upon the chat again.
Oh, that's right - I should probably let everyone know I'm fine.
What happened next… well, I'll let you see for yourself.
[Chat Logs - Session 22]
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Hey, everyone. I pulled it off. Somehow.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Though now I'm kind of a contractor for Atlesian government-sanctioned jobs, and if I refuse any, I get the slammer. I'm also pretty deep in debt since I have to pay for a bunch of the damages I caused.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: But at least the cannon's gone, and any physical traces of it having ever existed have been erased. Or at least what couldn't be salvaged and repurposed for more benign goals.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Soooo… not quite the flawless victory I was hoping for, but it's still a victory. And at this point, I'll take what I can get.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Uh… hello?
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: Zeiss… why?
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...could you elaborate?
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: Why did you kill those people?
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...ah. Well…
[All] SSJ Mercenary: I suppose I'll find out how you know about that sooner or later, so… just give me a second to gather my thoughts.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...all right, here we go.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: I'll be the first to admit that I don't actually have a 'good' reason for shooting those people. Remember how I told you that I used to play a lot of games before I became an orphan? Well, I was no stranger to first-person shooters. I know that believing that a video game can desensitize you to violence is ridiculous, but… I don't think my head was ever screwed on completely straight, even before I got this weird power.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: And when I did… well, you already know how that story goes. I believe that the quote-unquote 'culprit' here is my Gamer's Mind Skill. The one that supposedly allows me to always make clear, logical decisions, without fear of my emotional state hampering my judgement. If I didn't have that, I may have hesitated to pull the trigger the first time.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: But you know what the scary thing is? It's not that it gave me the ability to pull the trigger. It's the fact that when I was faced with that first guard, my mind defaulted to the 'kill him' solution. Not the 'punch him' solution, not the 'knock him out' solution, the 'kill him' solution. And you know why? It's because at the time, I subconsciously determined it to be the most logical option. If I shot him, I wouldn't have to worry about him potentially waking up and sounding the alarm later, or somehow overpowering me in hand-to-hand. If I killed him, that was a 100% guarantee that he would never become a complication again.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: And if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that that kind of thinking paves the way towards the dark side. In fact, the idea that I might not have hesitated to kill that first guard even without Gamer's Mind by itself should be a massive red flag for my mental state. If my old self could have pulled the trigger completely on my own, then… what happens when I have an ability that lets me disconnect my emotions from my actions entirely? If I remove the one thing stopping me from potentially becoming a full-on murderer?
[All] SSJ Mercenary: What… what happens if someone somehow gives me a good enough reason to kill you? Or Yang? Or Tai, or Qrow, or h**l, ANYONE I even remotely give two s**ts about? Furthermore, if I do end up pulling the trigger without any reservations, does that mean that I never actually cared about you in the first place?
[All] SSJ Mercenary: I don't know. I just don't know. And now that I think about it… if I had the chance to go back and do it all over again, I can't say that I wouldn't take the exact same course of actions, and I haven't the slightest idea why I believe that. Is it because I've always been a coward on some level? That I always prefer the easy way out? That I don't have the courage or the incentive to try harder? I'm not sure, and I don't think I ever will be.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: But you know what's funny? I'm not even sure if I actually believe everything I just said. For god's sake, half the time I don't even know if what comes out of my mouth is true or just a bare-faced lie. Am I really sure that I wouldn't have hesitated if I didn't have Gamer's Mind, or am I just deluding myself into believing that I'm a heartless freak? Or is this all just a big front and I'm just being a regular old superpowered teenager going through one h**l of an identity crisis? I mean, I've always known that my thought processes weren't exactly normal, but it's impossible for me to figure out what's actually abnormal about me.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: And you wanna know something else? I'm pretty sure that I'm subconsciously trying to phrase all this to get you to feel sorry for me when you really shouldn't. Seriously, I ended the lives of four different people in cold blood today. Even if they were hired criminals and may or may not have had it coming, that's still a major offense to life in general. I'm honestly kind of surprised that Atlas ended up overlooking it somewhat.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...actually, you know what, I'm going to cut it off here. Sooo, TLDR, I only killed them because it was convenient, and that's not good. Feel free to hate me, disappointed in me, whatever you want to do. I won't stop you, or say that I don't deserve it.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: Zeiss…
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: Okay. I won't say that what you did today wasn't wrong. But I also won't condemn you for it. If you've thought about this and found out that it wasn't the right thing to do, that's reason enough for me to believe that you can still change.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Uh… Wow. You're… being very mature about this.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: This isn't something to be childish about. I've read about the kind of assignments that huntsmen are sent on. Not all of them deal with Grimm. Sometimes, people forfeit their right to live, and have to be put down. I don't think my mom or dad were any stranger to that, and I know that if I become a huntsman someday, I'll have to do things like that, too.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: But, Zeiss, you need to understand - killing people the way you did? That's just not right. You didn't even give that one in the security room a chance to fight back. You just opened the door and shot him before he even knew you were there. You even knew that it probably wasn't a good idea, and you did it anyway. This isn't the kind of thing you can just not care about. Remember, "with great power comes great responsibility," and the power to take lives is the greatest one out of all of them. You have to treat that power with the respect it deserves, because if you don't... you're no better than the people you're putting down.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: But… the fact that you know that what you did was wrong tells a lot about you. It means you have the capacity to change. All you need to do is commit to being a better person. If you put your mind to it, I think you'll be able to do a lot more than what you think you can. All you really need to do is try.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...I want to argue that there are a lot of things wrong with that, but honestly, I'm too tired to care. So… alright. If you really believe that I can be a better person with nothing more than a little elbow grease, I guess I owe it to you to at least give it a shot.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: That's all I'm asking for.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...you know what, Ruby? Thanks. For listening to me rant about all that, I mean. I don't think I've ever said that to anyone else, not even my parents. I'll admit, it actually feels kinda nice to get that off my chest. I don't know why I didn't do that before. Maybe it was some misguided sense of pride, or unwillingness to involve other people in my affairs that obviously meant nothing to them. But anyway, thank you. For… everything.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: I'm just doing my duty as a friend.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Right… as a friend.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: ...so do you still want me to get you that autographed part for Crescent Rose?
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: You can do that tomorrow. Get some rest. You've earned it.
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Yeah, I guess I have. I did get my **s kicked by a superpowered robot a few hours earlier, after all.
[All] Gunblades 'n Roses: Wait, you WHAT?!
[All] SSJ Mercenary: Oh, s**t, I forgot that's supposed to be classified. Sorry!
We continued to chat for a little after that. Yang eventually joined in, and we had the same talk I had with the reaper in red. She was a little harder to win over, but in the end, she said that she trusted Ruby's judgement. If she said I wasn't a lost cause, then she would believe it.
She also said that I got off easy this time, but if I pulled another stunt like this and broke Ruby's trust, I'd have to answer to her. I was more than happy to accept those terms.
It took a while for the waterworks to stop completely. I really couldn't believe that Ruby, of all people, had decided to stick by me and support me, even after witnessing what I had done. But… for what seemed like the first time in my life, I felt like I actually mattered.
Of course, being myself, I immediately used that as an excuse to kick myself for taking my parents for granted.
In all seriousness though, she was right. If I kept treating this thing like a game and everyone that wasn't a main character as an NPC, bad things would happen. Today's events really hammered that in. I realized that, up until now, I hadn't really been taking anything as seriously as I should have. Like actually training, for instance. One of the few reasons I got as much done on Patch as I did was because the sisters were around to pester me into actually putting in the hours. Without a constant source of encouragement, I would stagnate.
And now that I thought about it, I had a lot of sources for encouragement. For one, Qrow. If he was level freaking 115, then how strong would Raven be? Hell, I couldn't even see Ozpin's level, and Maiden Cinder practically stomped him without breaking a sweat in canon, however ridiculous that actually was. Compared to the shit I'd eventually be going up against, right now I was seriously underpowered. I doubted I'd get any more important quests like these for a while, and I didn't think the admins would stop the EXP limitations, but that didn't mean I couldn't grind my skills.
Yeah… yeah, that's what I'll do.
Look out, you damn crapsack shithole of a world. Zeiss Serven's about to show you what a little bit of the right motivation can do to someone.
And so I got comfortable in my quarters and prepared to go to sleep, bearing a brand new, completely unfamiliar sense of resolve.
...man, remind me never to speak about myself in the third person again. I love being hammy as much as the next guy, but that was a little too over-the-top.
Right.
A/N: Hooo man, what a doozy that was.
So, how did you all like the new battle notifications? Good? Bad? Should I remove the crit notices? Tell me your opinion.
Anyway... I'm not really sure if I'm happy with the way that last conversation turned out. Like I say in my profile, I'm not a psychologist, so I don't actually know what the real Ruby's reaction to this would be. The animated series never really has any of the characters go through a 'first kill' bit of character development since nobody is ever explicitly shown to die at the hands of one of the MCs - which actually doesn't make a lot of sense when considering their actions at various points where they fight human mooks (Junior's, The Breach, Raven's Bandits). It's never shown if they have aura or not, and even then, I'm pretty sure a lot of White Fang members were blown off the train to die by the approaching horde of Grimm. But it's not my place to discuss the inconsistencies of the source material (well, actually it kind of is, but I need to stop before I rant too much).
That said, how do you think I did? Should I have had Yang join in? Was Ruby a little too forgiving? Should she have been a little more childish? How can I improve this? If you have anything to say, type up a review and let me know your feelings on the matter.
Thank you, and good day!
[TRANSMISSION ENDED]