Subject Ryder was barely more than a rabid beast.

Inspector Tahummondiwich didn’t quite understand how it had come to this. Subject Ryder had been quite an extraordinary human before bonding with the prototype, and the shade was an ancient, intelligent creature. So why did their union turn out to be so … twisted?

Most Scientists believed that perfect synergy depended largely on the existence that the individual shades had led. Although strictly speaking the shades didn’t have a personality of their own, they retained much of the characteristics of the people they had possessed; their personality was fluid, with the most recent traits coming out more vividly. The rigorous experiments had proven so. What they hadn’t answered however, was Subject Ryder’s behavior.

“Disappointing.”

Tahum watched Subject Ryder as he swung his black blade to cleave another helpless villager in two. His tattered clothing was already drenched in fresh blood from killing indiscriminately, all in the hopes of getting more experience points from the system.

As the observation room’s main monitor continued to track the Player, Tahum opened another screen to look at the analytics of Subject Ryder’s Transcension Device. No surprises there; the only thing that occupied the man’s mind was getting stronger. A short-sighted, illogical fixation. The shade had decided that to be able to take revenge on every Pheilett, its host needed get more powerful. It had never occurred to the creature that getting stronger in a Pheilett-made system wasn’t going to lead anywhere.

Tahum theorized that it was the prototype and the sudden need to care for its mortal body that caused the shade to go insane—but it was only just that, a theory. He also suspected that the host’s mental resilience mattered a lot too. Subject Ryder had impressive qualities for a Human, but apparently his mind wasn’t up for this challenge.

“I have no stomach for this,” Tahum telepathically said. “Assistant, notify me when Subject Ryder finished killing the villagers. In the meantime, patch me in to Subject Randel’s observation channel.”

“Understood, Inspector.”

Tahum leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and trying to relax. The cool water currents entering his gills felt as refreshing as ever, but this wasn’t enough to rid him from his disappointment. At times like this he sorely wished that the Pheilett were able to change their mood as swiftly as Humans. He would need to visit a simulator tube after he was done with Subject Ryder just to get the bad taste out of his mouth.

“Connection established, Inspector.”

“Thank you, Assistant.”

At first Tahum had denied it, but eventually he had stopped hiding how jealous he was of Inspector Shiraksavalirin. Everything she touched seemed to turn into a success story. She was young, attractive, ambitious, clever—and most importantly, very lucky. Not only had she received the privilege to initiate Project Shadebound, but she was also the one who had sent the most stable Test Subject to the Game of Ascension so far. Her success with Subject Randel solidified her position as the lead figure of the project, making Tahum play second fiddle to her. It felt truly irksome. Shiraksava had a lucky streak, and now even the Scientists were referring to her as some kind of genius.

In some ways, Subject Randel was much like his Inspector; bothersome and vexing. Although interfering with other Inspectors’ test subjects was forbidden, Tahum kept a keen eye on Subject Randel’s profile. It would have been foolish not to. Out of the seven shadebound Players, it was Subject Randel alone who had not one, but two shades in his possession—and if that wasn’t enough already, he also seemed to be able to retain his sense of self much better than the others. Just watching him interact with the people around him provided so much valuable data.

“Sorry, I’m late,” Subject Randel on the main monitor spoke to a woman called Erika. An information panel readily supplied the necessary context for Tahum; the two Humans were inside Erika’s office in Fortram’s bountyhouse, and it had been Randel who asked his boss for a personal meeting.

“Don’t worry about it, I was going nowhere,” Erika said. “It’s good to see you again, Randel. I wasn’t sure that I would, after what happened in the lower ring.”

Tahum took a single glance at Erika’s profile, just to make sure that she wasn’t a Fake.

“Yeah it was wild,” Randel said as he took a seat. “That’s partly the reason I’m here, actually. I have two things to say.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

Heart rate steady, mind clear. Randel felt slightly nervous about what he was about to say, but he hid it well.

“With how things turned out, I won’t have much time to come to work,” Randel said. “So I’d like to turn in my resignation.”

“I see,” Erika said, adjusting her glasses. “Not unexpected, and quite understandable. We’ve worked together only briefly, but I have to say Randel that I am pleasantly surprised. You’re the most humble Player I have ever met.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Randel said. “I’d prefer if you viewed me a person instead of a Player, but I appreciate the compliment.”

“That’s—I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Erika said. “My apologies if I offended. So, um, what was this other thing you wanted to tell me?”

“Ah, the other thing,” Randel said, scratching his chin. “Would you be willing to get a new job, if it paid better than this one and you could help a lot of people in need?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’d like to hire you as a manager,” Randel said. “I need someone with accounting skills to handle my income.”

“Randel, is this a joke?” Erika asked, her tone reprimanding. “You were working right here a few weeks ago. There’s no way that you’d have—”

“I have a few hundred thousand credits that I want to invest in this city,” Randel said. “Surprising, I know, but somehow my passive income as a Player just keeps getting higher. I saw that you did really well in this office, so I figured that asking you to handle my money might not be a terrible idea. It’d mostly be about buying properties to build new homes in the lower ring—if you’re interested?”

Erika just sat in stunned silence.

“One hundred thousand credits?”

“Not one,” Randel said. “I don’t know precisely, but it’s about at four or five at the moment. Keeps getting higher even as we speak.”

“That can’t be right,” Tahum muttered into the cyber space. “Assistant! What is Subject Randel’s popularity rank in GoA?”

“He’s in the seventeenth place, Inspector.”

“What? Ridiculous! Last cycle he was 124th!”

“That was before he went back to the Dungeon,” came the Assistant’s reply. “Moreover, I heard that Inspector Shiraksavalirin pushed hard to get Subject Randel’s image on the front page.”

“Since when does she bother with marketing too?” Tahum grumbled to himself. “That woman is clearly up to something. Gaining traction for a second generation of shadebound Players, perhaps?”

Tahum couldn’t let that happen. After his failure with Subject Ryder, he was unlikely to be allowed to oversee the new project—and worse yet, it would set him further behind Shiraksava. Tahum turned back to the monitor – where Subject Randel was about to convince Erika about his plan – and thought over his possible avenues of attack. A direct approach against Shiraksava could easily backfire, so the best tactic would be to undermine her schemes little by little.

“Assistant,” Tahum said. “If a fight happened between Subject Ryder and Subject Randel, who do you think would win?”

It took his Assistant a couple of moments to reply.

“In terms of power level, Subject Ryder surpasses Subject Randel greatly,” the Assistant said. “He also has stronger Abilities. Even if Subject Randel’s Domain counters them, in raw strength and skill Subject Ryder is superior still.”

“Your opinion, Assistant. I’m asking for your honest opinion.”

“It could go either way, I think.”

“But if you had to bet on one of them?”

“I … would bet on Subject Randel, Inspector.”

Tahum sighed, clenching and unclenching his hands. Disappointment. Yes, he was certainly going to need to visit his SimTube after this. But—it could go either way, right? Tahum supposed that wasn’t actually a bad thing. If Subject Randel died, it would be a blow to Shiraksava’s plans. And if Subject Ryder died, Tahum would finally be free of supervising that brute. A win-win situation, really.

Tahum would have to manipulate events carefully so that this didn’t appear to be a personal attack against Shiraksava. He was confident he could do it, though. The Committee would not be averse to make the Game of Ascension a little bit more exciting, and setting the shadebound Players against each other guaranteed a good story. Tahum would meet little resistance from the Committee members, he was sure of it. He chuckled a little as he imagined Shiraksava’s reaction.

“Let’s take this to the next level, shall we?”

The show had to go on, after all.

End of Act 2: Pairing up