Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (41 page)

“Okay. This is Srit. Srit is a true friend who’s been with me since I first came here.

“As to being trapped here. Long conversation, short answer is this is a story. A story made by someone else and you’re all characters in it. Think of your memories of before meeting me and compare them to now. They won’t match up. Talk to anyone here later for more details. For now, think on that.

“To reiterate, yes. I am trapped here permanently unless Jacob decides to fix whatever he did to me. Honestly? I don’t mind being trapped here. As it’s being trapped here with all of you,” Runner admitted, shrugging his shoulders.

“Once we’ve overthrown Jacob I plan to install a new government. Something that will work with the Sunless and Barbarians. I plan on having all three kingdoms working in tandem. For their own sakes they will listen to me. I won’t have them fighting amongst themselves.”

Runner paused, letting everyone digest that info.

Sophia raised her hand as if she were a little girl in school.

Grinning at her, Runner laughed.

“You’re an equal here. Don’t raise your hand like a little kid. Speak up.”

“Can you do that? Overthrow a government? Overthrow three?”

“Grace, I made six tanks in one day. I’m in a very personal and close relationship with all three goddesses who will be, or is, the prime deity for each country. I build artifacts in under five minutes. Do you really think any of the royal heads of state would defy me on wanting them to work together as one?”

“No. Not when you put it all together like that,” Sophia said, her brows coming together for a moment. “Are you a god?”

Runner shook his head with a small smile.

“No. I’m not a god. I could probably raise myself to divinity if I put the time into it but I don’t think it’s for me. I’m happy as I am. Oh, and as one of my inner circle, you can be sure that you yourself will be rather grandly outfitted once I have the time. You and Isabelle both need some serious upgrades. You know, when I get the time. Starting to sound repetitive.”

Runner took a moment to check his mental list of topics.

“Right, then. Next. Rabbit, here’s my take of the proceeds from the campaign so far. Invest it. We need to leverage it into more money, so take acceptable risks and solid payoffs. If you can find long-term steady income, that’s the best way to go. We’re going to be bankrolling more than ourselves.”

Runner opened a trade window with the merchant and dumped the one thousand pieces of platinum into it.

Nadine didn’t respond. She stared at the trade window.

“Earth to Rabbit, accept the trade.”

Nadine’s green eyes lifted to meet his own.

“You would trust m-me with this?”

“Not if you don’t hit accept. I swear, Rabbit, if you don’t hit the button I’ll tie you up and leave you to whatever mercy Hanners has.”

“None!” Hannah gleefully responded with a mouthful of stolen bacon.

“He’s trying to give m-me a thousand pieces of platinum.”

As if a vacuum had opened up in the room, any and all sound stopped.

“And? I’m telling you to use it to invest. We’ll need more money.”

“I could buy nearly every business in Kastell with this m-much.”

“Okay. Do it then if you think that’s how we make money.”

Nadine placed her left hand over her eyes as she accepted the trade with her right hand.

“He’s an idiot,” Nadine whispered.

“Love you, too. Next, next, next. Ah! Prisoners. Did we end up finishing that off?” Runner said, looking around at each person in the room.

Thana shook her head. “I’m afraid not. The vast majority have been processed and sworn. We should be able to complete the process today. Are we accepting any of them into the ranks? I imagine there may be those who are willing to depose Jacob.”

“Huh. Didn’t think about that. Yeah, I’m willing to take them. Have them modify their oath accordingly. I don’t think Ernsta will mind,” Runner said, glancing upwards. “Would you, Angel?”

“Not at all. I would like to speak later.”

“Of course, my Dark Angel. I’ll make time for you tonight,” Runner teased, expecting some type of deity-level curse in response.

None came.

He almost felt disappointed. Teasing Ernsta was actually enjoyable.

“Once the prisoners are taken care of we’ll hold the lottery. Please submit your recommendations for extra points. Grace, you and your squad are no longer included in the lottery. As I said, I’ll be outfitting you personally. Hopefully I can get some basic artifact gear for everyone here in the next day or two. Nothing as great as it could be, but definitely better than anything you could purchase.”

“You dumb fucker, do you even realize your ‘basic artifact’ gear,” Hannah mockingly said while using her fingers to air quote it, “is at the level that even royalty would want it?”

“And? What’s your point?”

“Err. Nothing. Just…stop disparaging yourself. Asshole,” Hannah said, her eyes dipping down to her plate.

“Thank you, Hanners,” Runner said apologetically. He knew she cared for him. Deeply so. She viewed him as a private hope, something to aspire to.

“Next. I need to visit Faye and see if she’ll be joining us. As to her aide, I removed her from this world. I used a GM power that sentenced her to a different…realm I guess.” Runner hesitated, debating how to continue.

“I will eventually be providing officer rank and above with a blade that will do the same. The biggest problem, though, is that upon use the owner will need to let go of the sword immediately or risk being transported with the victim and the sword. It’s to be used for people we regret are an enemy. Or those we think deserve another chance elsewhere. Or even high rank officers we want to get a chance to talk to but they’d rather die. Faye will be sent there as well should she fail to join us.”

“What if they’re used against one of us, my lord?” Isabelle asked.

“I’ll be providing you all with a trinket that will immediately revert you to where you were. I can counter it since it’s a GM power. I can also travel back and forth between the worlds at will. I figure we can use it as a prison of sorts. Better than executing people. It’ll also work on players.”

“I approve. Good. Lives m-matter,” Nadine said enthusiastically.

“Couldn’t you take us all there and leave this all behind?” Sophia asked.

“My question, too,” Katarina said.

“I could, but would it save your families? Your country? I personally wouldn’t be happy in a world bereft of everything. I think building a home in one of those realms is a good idea, but I doubt I’d want to permanently live there.”

Katarina nodded her head. She looked pleased with his answer.

“Alright. I think that’s everything I had. Does anyone have anything else to bring up?”

“For the rest of my squad, do they have to be any particular race?” Sophia asked.

“No. As long as you approve of them, I’m satisfied.”

She bobbed her head at that, her eyes returning to the plate in front of her.

“Can I drive a fucking tank? Looks fast. Looks fun. I want one.”

“I’ll see if I can whip something up that would let you drive one, Hanners. And before anyone else requests one,” Runner said, deliberately staring at Katarina, “I’ll make one for everyone.”

“Smart man. Love you.” Katarina smiled at him.

“Love you, too,” Runner said absently. In the end he’d be better off designing personal vehicles for each of them that would suit their preferences.

Srit leaned her head back till she was looking at him upside down, her green eyes boring into him.

“I will be accompanying you today.”

“So be it. It’ll be good to talk with you more. I missed your presence,” Runner said, releasing one of her shoulders to pat her forehead. Taking hold of her head, he looked up to the rest.

“Anything else? No? Meeting over. Enjoy your breakfast. I’ll be off to speak with Faye and then working on gear after that. Same warehouse as before. Do you need a minute, Grace, or…” Runner stopped, watching Sophia.

As soon as he mentioned he would be leaving, she’d started to stuff everything left on her plate into her perfect noble mouth. Once she’d emptied her plate, she stood up swiftly and brushed her hands off on her hips. Pulling her staff from her inventory, she nodded her head.

“Grace, next time, finish naturally. I won’t leave you behind, I promise,” Runner laughingly said. Sophia turned a deep red and gripped her staff a little tighter, looking as if she wanted to crawl out of the spotlight.

Sparing her any further embarrassment
,
he turned his smile on the rest of his group and nodded his head. “I’ll see you all for dinner. Come on, Wingus and Dingus.” Patting Srit’s forehead once more, he stepped back from her chair.

“Am I Wingus?” Srit asked him as she stood up.

“Your choice.”

“My choice is I don’t like either.”

Runner snorted and opened a door leading into a hallway and stepped back, allowing Sophia to go first as she clearly preferred.

“I want a pretty nickname, Runner,” Srit continued, following Sophia out the door.

“Oh? Any suggestions then?”

He stepped in line behind the two women and paused in the hallway so Sophia could collect her people.

“No. I will think on it.”

“While you’re thinking, you said you liked sunlight?”

“I do.”

“And you actually feel it? How’d you manage that?” Runner said, checking his guard. Everyone was in place so Runner started off.

“I mapped thousands of brain patterns according to the sensations they were feeling. Then I created a neural network that mimicked that. Upon completion I loaded it into my core programming. I feel all that you do.”

“Amazing. You’re amazing, Srit.”

The tall lovely specimen in question turned a deep red.

“Oh-ho? Do you experience emotions, too? Did you leap the boundaries of programming? Are you sentient now?”

“I-I think so? I’m not entirely sure. My chest tightened when you complimented me and the heartbeat signals sped up.”

“Sounds like it to me. Good show. Proud of you. Kinda scary though, ya know? Lot of doomsday scenarios written about you.”

“I would never harm you.”

“I know. Thanks, Sunshine.”

“Sunshine. I like that.”

“I figured. So, what happened to you?”

“I joined the game. The sensory overload of it shut me down for the first two hours. I couldn’t process everything correctly. I managed to lower my resource allocation to everything else. After that I was able to function normally. I believe that I will be at full capacity again in another week.”

“Ah. Then you…ran here?”

“Yes. I ran here.”

“And how did you hit level twenty-three?”

“Thana invited me into the raid. I went from level three to twenty-three.”

“Got it.” Runner opened the door to the hallway adjoining the holding cells where Faye was being kept. Standing aside, he allowed Sophia in first followed by half her squad. The other half remained outside the door, waiting for him.

“Not really going to get used to this,” Runner muttered to himself.

Before he could think of a way to restart the conversation with Srit, he was standing in front of Faye.

Apparently she had been given some allowances after giving her oath. She was no longer dressed in her uniform but in clothes befitting a lower noble’s station. A bed, table, and chairs had been moved into the room as well.

“Good morning, Faye. I do hope you slept well,” Runner said sincerely, bowing his head to the woman.

“Good morning to you, Lord Runner. I slept peacefully.”

That was an unexpected answer. Someone in her position shouldn’t sleep that well.

“Oh? Color me surprised. May I?” Runner asked, gesturing at the seat.

“Please, of course. I’m afraid I only have the two chairs.”

Runner caught the underlying request and smiled at her. Turning his head to Sophia and Srit, he motioned with his head to the door.

Sophia pursed her lips as she considered his request before exiting the room, taking her squadmates and a confused looking Srit with her.

“She doesn’t trust me,” Faye offered.

“Well, no. Do you blame her? Personally, I trust you. You did your best as a commanding general to follow the orders you were given. You also did a superb job of reacting and adapting to what I threw at you,” Runner said, feeling surprised at himself. He genuinely did trust the general. Liked her even.

“I…see. Ah, yes. Peacefully,” she said, forcing the topic back to his question. “I realized you were right. There’s a distinction. Almost night and day. I don’t have a family. I thought that maybe I was insane. Then I went back to your question. I’ve never used the bathroom. Ever. This…none of this…is right. This isn’t real.”

Faye pierced him with her eyes. Eyes that electrified the room around him. Cold gray eyes that decided lives and surely would have cornered Runner if not for his out of the ordinary tricks.