The card was beautiful. It shimmered as if it were encased with a show sleeve, all razzled and dazzled with specks of glitter and gold. It had the picture of a demonic beastman atop the head of a dead dragon, a sword stabbed half into its brain. Underneath was the simple text, ‘To The Victor.”
“That is one hell of a card.”
Doctor Kevin nodded, a pleased look flashing over his face and tugging up the corner of his face into a grin.
“It’s a masterpiece of last-minute programming. I had to shield my efforts as well to keep the damnable AI from getting a glimpse of what I was doing and putting a stop to it. It caught a glimpse at the very end — but by then it was well too late.”
“I mean, if you say so. The picture’s pretty small… but it looks okay. I’d give the artist a B+ maybe.”
“Cards are ranked in order of potential. Commons, uncommons, rares, mythics, and finally legendaries. The lower cards start with some weak effects, but can be combined with synergetic cards or copies of the same card to level them up and make them more powerful. And these top-tier cards have multiple effects and are more powerful at a starting level than most other cards will ever be once leveled up, and each level up will grant even greater power.”
I ran a quick inventory through my brain. Static Shock was common or uncommon and it had helped me quite a bit so far. This was a legendary. That meant, well, I had no idea what it might mean. A lot of power, surely.
I gave him a nod, my eyes suitably wide and impressed enough to keep him going.
“Explain about the cards then.” I cocked my head to the side a little, some stupid habit that I’d picked up as a kid. A habit that had me doing lots of pushups during my army life so long ago.
The other Kevin cocked his head as well. “You should’ve already been through the help sections–”
I stood up and left behind the comfiest chair I’d ever sat on. I thought better on my feet. I was starting to get that little roar through my brain. The one that told me I was losing my patience and just wanted him to get to the point now.
“I want to hear from you, the creator. Not through the cloud of what the game AI wants me to know. I want to know all that you know.”
He pursed his lip. “Clever. I never considered that. Yes. Okay, here goes. Each card has a card cost to it. You can equip as many cards as you have card slots for it. This number changes depending on your abilities yadda yadda I can see by your face you already know this part.”
I half-smirked.
“You’ve already dealt with character creation, so I’ll spare you that. But this card, it rewrites that anyways. It gives you a way to bypass the rules and essentially reset yourself when you equip it. Something hard that’ll keep you from getting killed.”
Killed. In a game. I could feel my eyes narrow on their own as I pinioned the man on the end of my gaze. “The Calamari guy mentioned death. Real death? Permanent?”
He caught my gaze and really grabbed my attention with the intensity of his stare. One that spoke of experience with hell and half a million other stuffty places. I knew the gaze well. I saw it in my mirror pretty much daily.
“Whatever else would he mean?”
Damn. No three lives and then you get a Continue. No 1-up mushrooms. I’d just launched into a fight with a frickin’ dragon and could’ve really died. I’d already seen two different people killed; one eaten by Chuck the cyber-dragon, one burned to death by Beyonce the redhead-loving pile of cinders now chilling in my inventory. Savage.
“Okay, amazing card you’re giving me, totally for free with no hidden catches. What makes this card so special?”
He flipped it expertly through the air and it jabbed me in the chest before falling into my hands. It had more weight to it than Static Shock, like five or ten cards glued together. It also had a holographic foil covering it, which shimmered and glinted when I tilted it this way and that.
“It’s a beauty, isn’t it?” Dr. Brightley said.
I took it and peered closely.
To the Victor!
Level 1 (Legendary)(3CP)
*+3 to all Attributes (Passive)
*+50 xp any time you gain experience (Passive)
*Gain +2 additional card slots past maximum (Passive)
*Aggressive Negotiations: Activate (3 times per day) to deal 18-36 force damage on any hand-to-hand or melee strike for 1 minute. Cooldown 3 minutes.
*Another Day, Another Me: Reset all ability scores to their base values and retweak them to fit your desired values (Once per week)
*Hard Core: When you defeat the leader of a gaming borough, you may change your class to Big Hero. (Unique ability)
‘With great power comes great responsibility. Save people. Save the world.’
I looked up at him in complete confusion. “What are you doing right now? What’s your angle?”
His face twitched with annoyance. “Did you miss the part where the AI has it out for me? The system knows who I am and what I’m doing. There are nine active primo-reward level quests right now, promising legendary rewards for whoever finishes. Seven are variations on ‘bring me his head’. You? You’re a nobody.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” I said, holding my arms out in the universal symbol of duh. “Dude, I’m not the guy you are looking for. Flaming lady was a piece of cake because water, or coffee, fights fire. It was easy to put together. A real no-brainer.”
“Shut up. You can do this right, before the system knows you’re any kind of threat. And listen to me. You are a threat. I saw you. You think fast, move fast, and have a decent sense of situational awareness. If you know somebody better, you give it to them with my blessing.”
He paused, watching me, and waiting for me to complain further. But I wouldn’t. I knew better. Sometimes good things happen and sometimes it was better to just accept them. Being stuck in a gamepocalypse and being offered primo swag were those times.
“Now, you asked about the catch,” Kevin continued. “It’s this: eventually you’ll get powerful enough that the AI will want you dead. You need to be powerful enough to resist by then. More powerful than I am.”
“And… I’ll be able to do that. With this.”
I waggled the card.
The card seemed absolutely overpowered. Static Shock had only gotten me through a scrape on a technicality. It was a piece of trash next to this gem. To add insult to injury, it was level 1, which meant that +3 to all attributes could go higher. All that could skyrocket in power for all I knew.
“There’s a chance. You’ll have to be smart and lucky. But yes, I think so. Yes.” The way he said it sounded very much like he knew what the answer was really and was trying to convince himself.
And me.
The ground rumbled, and a second later the distant sounds of an explosion drifted into earshot.
Dr. Kevin got to his feet.
“Lay low for a couple of days. Maybe start building up a base, get some industry behind you, save some locals. Get a feel for what’s possible and not. Learn the system. Remember that anyone who opposes you might be a real person, a real human, sure. But your mission is to save everyone. They’re hurdles on your road to ascendancy, and you might be forced to knock them over.”
I nodded grimly. “You gotta break eggs to make omelets.”
“I wish you didn’t have to.” He tipped an imaginary cap and ducked out.
“Good luck, Dirk Stone.”
