Radical-9

CHAPTER 24: Inhumanity

MARCH 5^th, 2013

10:40 Am

I'm surrounded by darkness. I've been here before. In front of me are two balls of concentrated white light. Yeah, this was back with Gregor, I saw a memory of his. But...why am I here now? How do I keep coming back here? The ball closest to me shows the scene I'd seen before, I can peek inside and see Gregor's memory inside, playing just as it had the last time.

The second, however, is different. I look inside and feel myself falling in. I'm looking through someone else's eyes again, but this time I'm in a different kind of building. It looks like an office, I'm sitting at a desk with an older man sitting across from me. He looks to be in his fifties, he's got neck length blonde hair that looks almost silver. His face is gritty and gaunt. His features all angled, he looks like he could shoot you under the table and still down a shot of rum like nothing had ever happened.

“It is good to see you, Jack, I'm so happy you could meet me on such short notice, especially with how busy your schedule is,” the person who I'm looking through says.

“Why yes, Mr. Gupta, I had to just barely squeeze you in, but it is most fortunate our situation,” Jack says crossing his arms, not risking any kind of wrinkles on his expensive looking suit.

“That is good. What are your current plans? If we're going to work together I'm going to need some catching up, if I may,” he says.

“Now, would you believe that I came here empty-handed?” Jack asks, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulls out an envelope. He slides it on Mr. Gupta's desk and he takes it, examining it. “Those are the starter fees, all taken care of. The service is simple, the creation of a video game,” Jack says.

“A video game? You're a little old for those, aren't you Mr. Adata?”

“Lose the formalities, especially since you've done so earlier,” Jack grins.

“Right...”

“And I'm not having you develop for any old reason, I hope you understand that,” Jack says.

“There's always an ulterior motive with you, Jack, I swear...”

“I'm being serious here. I need your team to help me out with this, it's going to kickstart a revolution,” he says.

“A revolution? Over a video game?”

“I can promise you, if you do this job it'll be making headlines,” Jack says.

“What's so special about this game?”

“It's going to be my own special world,” he says. “Open the letter, alongside the money are the specifications for a piece of equipment you might find interesting,” Jack says.

Mr. Gupta opens the envelope and takes out a few stapled sheets of paper folded over on each other. I see the schematics for the Adatech laid out all on the papers.

“And of course, I would require your services inside of the game,” Jack says.

“Hm?”

“This world is going to be unlike you've ever seen. Those schematics are for a Virtual Reality helmet that will let you unlock your wildest dreams,” Jack says.

“And you're telling me that this will work?”

“I'm telling you that it will work with or without you, but I chose to speak to you first, as you've been a great asset in the past,” Jack says.

Mr. Gupta is silent for a few seconds, he is nodding his head ever so slightly. “And what would you have me do?”

“You would be the leader of a guild, hundreds of players under your direct control. You'd act as you would wish, do whatever you see fit,” Jack says.

“Is that it? Do anything?”

“Kill anyone, do anything. It's just a game, remember?” Jack says, a grin forming across his lips.

There is a buzzing sound coming from Jack, he checks his coat pocket and takes out a phone, stares at the screen for a second and begins to stand up.

“Well, that's my call, I've business with a few stray mice,” Jack says.

“W-Wait, we're not even close to finishing. I need to know a deadline and-”

“You've got a week.”

“What?”

“Like I said, you have a week. If I come back and there aren't results then there won't be a Benjamin Gupta left standing, capice?”

“You're threatening me?”

“You're slow,” Jack says.

“And if I refuse to do your job, then?”

Jack flashes a nasty smile, “That's funny, you think you have a choice.” And then there is a loud crack and Jack vanishes, two spits of fire are left where his feet were on the ground. He somehow teleported away.

The memory fades out and I can feel the skull-rupturing pain behind my eyes again. It screams in my ears, pounds on my brain, and I reach up to my head, reaching for the pain and ripping it out. Ripping it all out. I grab a hold of it and yank once, twice, and then at the third time a body comes with it. The light around me turns back on and I'm back in the desert, my friends are around me, Orochi is around me, and Siolence is in front of me, ripped from my mind.

I am Me again.