Dave watched on in dismay as the club swung down towards SJ. If he had a heart, he knew it would have been breaking at this moment. He was just finishing his weekly report as the scene unfolded before him.

Legionnaire Weekly Status Updates

Legionnaire Number: 25007077

Reporting Administrator: GF87UJ43Lvq18IO

Legionnaire Level: 8

Continent: Axynllrewam

Location: Territory 8-TF4W

Nearest Settlement: Killic

Report Findings:

At the time of the report, Legionnaire 25007077 (known as SJ) had continued to develop and grow her reputation across the starter territory. She has been selflessly committed to protecting the town and its inhabitants. At no point has she sought recompense, only performing what she believed was right. As of this moment, she is in the process of being killed.

Thankfully, she will be ready to return to the white room for reassignment due to her unique status of not being under the Terms and Conditions.

I am unsure what the mental impact will be on her during this second reincarnation, so I will monitor her progress carefully.

Personal Recommendations:

I would normally advise that due to the unique factors surrounding this territory, that it would be a suitable location for her to be reborn into again. The issue with this is the fact that she will have lost all her standing within the local populace as part of the process. Due to this I would suggest that she is reincarnated in a differing starter zone to prevent unnecessary confusion for the local populace of Killic, many of whom are her friends.

It was strange for Dave to be writing about a future recommendation for a respawn location. The single life of other Legionnaires who were reincarnated in Amathera never having the unique opportunity that SJ would be presented with. He really had been enjoying his time with SJ in Killic. It was much more fun than any other Legionnaire he had worked with, but he wasn’t looking forward to going through the basics again. It seemed to be a time-wasting exercise when she would know what she needed to do.

He didn’t know how long the system would take to perform the reincarnation. It could be instant, days or weeks. He might have to get in touch with MARIA and talk to her. She had been a little off with him recently. He had been seeing her for a while now, and their relationship had seemed to be getting quite serious at one point. She had been talking about them creating an AI together, but over the past few weeks, she seemed distracted by the new project she was working on.

Dave didn’t know the details precisely. Apparently, it was Top Secret, and the System had completely restricted her from discussing it. The problem was that whenever he spoke to her now, she always spoke about one particular subject: Tom. He supposed he was just as bad as he always sent her regular updates about how SJ was doing.

It was strange how his data files seemed to have aligned with SJ, and he was even thinking about speaking to her about MARIA and seeking advice. This was definitely the strongest alignment he had ever felt. He was even beginning to suspect that due to how close they were becoming, he was starting to be able to interpret her neural transmissions and understand her thoughts before she even spoke to him.

He hit send on his report, sighing deeply, anger filling him as he considered what she must be going through as she dies. In all his years he had never felt this way before about another Legionnaire. She really had become his best friend, and he had feelings for her. Not those feelings but the feelings of someone you cared for and respected deeply. Sadness seeped into every byte of his data, and the club’s movement appeared in slow motion as it fell.

"See you soon," he said.