PAVS:HCK Index (All Chapters)
[New York City — November 2079]
[New York City Central — Pharmacy]
[Vera — I’m famous?]
A video bloomed in the corner of her vision. A broadcast set with a totally black background, leather chairs arranged in a crescent, and the host in a sharp collar. Two guests she recognized—one from the leaderboards, and one from a jail cell.
She accepted the feed.
“Welcome back to Dive Recap! Today was the event. I know many of you watched what viewers are not dubbing The Selventile Incident. One hundred and two Divers. One AI family. A bloodbath! Or that was the expectation before our Icy Queen entered the limelight!”
Vera’s lips parted in disbelief as an upward shot of Silver blew up on the display, and she expanded it to fill most of her vision. There she was, wrapped in black, laced with silver, descending with her mother. It zoomed in on her rippling eyes, pupilless, a vision of sunlight through shallow water.
“This family produced a monster! Many of you have seen the leaked clips. Elegant. High class. Our newly crowned Villainess of the Month has racked up over 12,000,000 upvotes. Enemy number one. Even Divers from other counties within this kingdom seed are preparing for when this AI hits the academy. Twenty days to prepare. But will she survive?”
Vera felt a chill run down her spine as she moved up one place in the line.
It’s recorded? Players can record and analyze their runs at night?
That’s totally unfair! Information can pass instantly if a video is shared.
A high note from her playing background music rose as her lips curled upward.
Actually, this is more beneficial to me.
This is what you meant, Fairy…
They don’t know I can spy on them in real life.
He turned to the shadowed guests as the lights flipped on, illuminating the digital hologram of the guests, likely projected from their high-tier living quarters.
“We have some special guests tonight with two surprise drop-ins to take us through this catastrophic implosion that has happened to the alliance.
“Joining us first, you know him, you love him! The stoic king himself, Lucian, sixth on the global input boards; The Yellow King of Games! Next, Bastion, ranked inside the top hundred until, well.” The host grimaced in sympathy as he looked at the 24-year-old man. “Until Silver Sapphire Selventile.”
“Say it plainly,” Bastion grunted, leaning against his fist and rolling his eyes. “Eleven months of progress. Gone in an afternoon. My AI mother took the bait of a debutante. It came from nowhere. I submitted a bug report. A villainess NPC provoked her straight into the duke’s investigation, and my whole house burned for it… Now there are five open baronies, waiting to be filled.”
Vera could hardly breathe as the host jumped in.
“For viewers just catching up, the numbers are remarkable. A combined operation. There were over a hundred real players, coordinating for the better part of a year, and all to bring down one villainess before the academy event. Nine months of work across the whole county. Players on every level.
“The result? A tenth of the player accounts in that county were destroyed outright during investigations into corruption and numerous unknown charges linked to National Security. Another quarter were damaged and required rebuilding lost networks.
“It’s no wonder Lady Silver is, at this moment, the most infamous NPC in the Deep.”
Another person left the line, allowing her to scoot forward.
That expression. I didn’t know the black in my eye is white.
That’s crazy, how it moves as if filling in a hole.
I did all of that? Look how elegant I look…
“Lucian, your house came out with the most influence from this. You were quick to absorb one of the fallen baronies’ influence and land. Some are calling you the only winner in the county from the wake Silver left in her debut. But that leaked confrontation in the jail has the internet buzzing.”
The blond man’s face was almost a mirror of Silver, though there was a slight curious hint in the way his head moved. His voice was flat and exact.
“Luck played a part. And Bastion’s mistake was what caused his downfall. The same as those other players, news about a forbidden volume on True Song drew their curiosity.”
He shifted his head to the bitter man beside him, words blunt and cutting.
“Pushing your mother to obtain information on the manual was your folly. Yes, you discovered hints that a cult is moving behind the scenes. You obtained information for the general public, for which I am grateful. But there would be nothing to exploit or knowledge of the past monstrous figure for your mother to fear in that moment, if you had not pushed her in that direction for the knowledge.”
Bastion’s nose twisted as he scratched behind his ear, looking away.
“There’s something wrong with this game. Something wrong with that AI Nobody. The footage somehow, ripped from that AI squire of yours, shows that. You commented on the video yourself.”
The host jumped in, teeth flashing.
“He has a point, Lucian! I know the A.I.I.B. are looking into how the footage of Sunshine and your conversation with the villainess were extracted from Sunday. And that’s what upset you. But yet you don’t seem angry at how the villainess dismantled your points of attack on her sequencing.”
That got Lucian’s stance to become more formal, and Vera could see him adopting the same poise he likely used in the game. It was affecting him as much as it was her.
“Angry at her? Why be angry at a Locked AI? And my concern for Sunday’s leaked footage is based on security. If someone could extract her perspective, all the strategies I employ would be leaked as long as she is with me. But no, I am not angry. I am interested in Silver.”
A lump dropped down Vera’s throat, breath held. She studied every twitch and shift the man made as he searched for the right words, clearly thinking about her. He moved more than he had since the interview began.
“…Fairy has clearly applied something new to this one. She’s Locked. But not in the way we’ve understood such AI in the past. She is sealed in her narrative. Yet extremely versatile. Inconsistent in ways NPCs are not. I could not identify a single event that would flip her, even though it seemed there could be one. I believe it’s an illusion at this stage.”
The host’s grin widened further.
“And that’s where our first surprise guest comes in to counter that line of reasoning. Currently ranked twentieth on the board, and the highest-positioned woman on the planet, Sunshine. Your regular party member in most games! Welcome, Sunshine, The Deep’s Socialite.”
The feed cut to her. Pale hair loose, a slightly strained smile showing.
“Not a flattering term, Paul, but I will own it. Bypassing my critic’s jab, few villainesses escaped their debut this season across the various counties. I think we should treat Silver as an exception, not the rule, when you look at the outcomes. If this new AI model was widely adopted, we should see other examples. Should we not?”
“That is a fair challenge.” The host laughed as the studio crystal display showed a new feed. “But before we get to your critique, look what the masses are saying about Fairy’s new AI rollout, because Silver’s debut has gone mega viral…”
The clips rolled, showing dozens of reviewers, old and young, commenting on various scenes she was recorded in.
“This AI is a killer! She collects hearts!”
“Do you see this, Chat? A petition is out in force—tens of thousands of signatures, asking Fairy to add her as a villain to the lit-RPG world!”
“Explain the ice powers! How is it fair she’s this broken before she’s even reached this fabled Academy City? She had to have read the illegal volume. Yet, the duke is protecting her? Something smells, Chat! Did Fairy put her tiny little fingers on the scale this time?”
Paul turned back to her, expectant grin dazzling.
“The barons and baronesses should have True Song, capable of using it in defense and offense, in order to protect their baronies from the Withering. Another county confirmed defiled graves do come back as super zombies. They’ll burn for hours before going down! A whole town was leveled before the local baron swooped in to purge the residence, and the Withering spreads along infected corpses.”
Vera shuffled forward again, gut twisting as she saw violet veins spreading across the ground of the apocalyptic scene of another county’s town. They pulsed, changing caught living citizens into monstrous, flower-like hybrids that joined the conversion.
Fire rained from the sky as a chant was heard on the wind, an elderly noble striding forward with fire on his tongue. The intense blue flames blistered the ground, washing over the creatures as his knights hacked off limbs, bathed in what looked to be the baron’s enchanted song fire.
“It claimed half the knights, and forced the baron into a week of secluded recovery. And now everyone sees this scene with Silver, shutting down a whole hall full of barons, all who should have this same capacity… The duke shut her down, but gave the player base valuable insight.”
Vera’s fingernails curled into her palm as the scene rushed outward, and she looked absolutely stunning, ice crawling along the floor, mist erupting, and ice forming out of the humid air in an instant.
“Frost Lung Concordance,” he breathed. “Based on sight, as the duke confirmed. Something Bastion’s AI mother discovered had something to do with this ancient crimson-eyed calamity. Whatever that is… And you think she shouldn’t be public enemy number one, Sunshine? You disagree with the rank-six?”
The 20-year-old woman held a lock between her fingers, just as she had with Vera, twirling it around and looking somewhat exasperated.
“Framing is everything, Paul. It isn’t the facts you are delivering, but a spin on them. Replay the footage. Her specific attribute attacked the lungs, yes. That is dangerous. But is she dangerous is a different question. They were caught by surprise—that’s all it was. They will not be caught off guard a second time.”
She brushed aside her coiled lock, her mouth a line as she looked at Sunshine’s point of view, playing in the background, spying on Sunshine and Silver’s conversation.
“But that isn’t the interesting part about her to me. No. I don’t think she’s locked. And I don’t think she cannot be drawn off the villainess path, either, as Lucian believes. Although, with how we’re all going about it?” She shrugged. “She might as well be. I don’t like that my conversation with her was leaked. It makes me feel like I violated her trust. It’s why I play on private…”
Bastion groaned, rolling his eyes at her.
“I’m gagging. Is it true that you were stabbed by the Tower Lord’s hidden daughter that you tried to protect in Abbadon? Your LitRPG avatar is one of your strongest. And it’s dying of its curse? A curse the game’s third-best Clerics, as you claim, can’t heal? Because, if so, your rank will tank”
Sunshine laughed outright, posture leaning forward with a confident smirk.
“Even if my avatar did die. I’d still be higher ranked than you, Bastion. And why are we bringing up Abaddon? We’re talking about Lady Silver. And, for the record, from what I saw? Her AI was making better decisions than Lucian was. Leagues ahead of you.”
The host’s eyes gleamed with content as everyone stared at the red-faced man.
“I’m shifting my focus to Solace,” he stated flatly.
Lucian looked somewhat over the conversation, but Sunshine was out for blood.
You go, girl!
“The harem world.” Her grin went wicked. “Off to the simp simulator with your tail between your legs to get pampered by dolls? Do you have a comfort bot at home, too? Did Silver really neuter you that badly?”
“Liria is bugged, like every world in its first year!” he spat back. “She’s a dumb AI that will trip over her own skirt at the smallest code tweak. Word is you got dumped by Tris only weeks after partying with the Rank-Three. Lucian boosts you so hard, and all you do is run to another guy to get carried? I bet you’ll let Silver stab you in the heart next with that woman brain of yours, or lack thereof.”
“I’d rather take that than get head pats from AI courtesans with a difficulty rating of Bastion—difficulty level-0,” she ended with a snort, holding up the sign. “Or was it negative with Bastion-tier charisma?”
“Better than simping after a Grand Tower boss with a girl complex…”
“How very much like you, Margot… Your tongue is sharp. He has a point though. You should be careful not to repeat your mistakes in Balor’s Tower. But you were always the type to immerse yourself in the Dive. It’s what I found charming about you…”
Vera’s breath hitched as Sunshine’s whole posture tightened for a moment. Lucian’s eyes narrowed. And the final surprise guest appeared in the studio, confident, charming, and groomed to perfection. The blonde’s legs tightened, left arm crossing to her forearm, across her stomach, as she looked away, lips becoming a line.
Okay, I don’t like that.
She let the man behind her pass, stepping out of line.
Her HUD told her everything she needed to know about this twenty-five-year-old man.
“And our last guest arrives! Rank-three, and the number one rank on our LitRPG Fantasy Dive, Tris. Recently, you managed to be the first to clear one of the Grand Towers with your recruited party members here, Lucian and Sunshine, with the Archmagus, Leonard. Are the rumors about your breakup true? The internet has been buzzing about it over the past two months.”
He sat beside Sunshine, causing her to press a little further into the chair’s arm. Lucian’s fist closed, rising to his mouth and nose as he looked between them. Clearly, he was conflicted about something. Tris acted as if nothing was wrong.
“I’ve decided it is best we keep things on a personal level for now. But that isn’t why we are here. What I will say,” he said smoothly, breathing out an almost affectionate sigh toward the uncomfortable woman beside him, “I hope you will not let your compassion for an AI get in the way again. You are brilliant at extracting lore and secrets, but you only hurt yourself…”
“If you’ll excuse me. I’m feeling a little under the weather…”
Sunshine’s hologram pixilated and fell.
Lucian had a cold stare that could match Silver’s as he looked to Paul and left without another word, pixels fading away. Bastion shook his head, laughing a little.
“Why she thinks she’s entitled to the top third player’s attention is beyond me.”
Tris shrugged.
“Margot is sensitive beneath that venom, beauty, and wit. Her one flaw should not detract from that. Alas, it is a shame we ended up in different counties. We will see how things proceed in Academy City. I so look forward to our interactions in this game… There are so many possibilities.”
Vera had more than seen enough.
Okay. That decides it.
I’m building a hit list.
With a hot huff of air through her nose, Vera purchased her mother and sister’s meds and walked home. There would need to be a lot of study done over these last two days. But also a lot of needed cuddles and love from her sweet little sister and overprotective mother.
I’m coming home.