Author's quick Patch notes:
Ann's territory in the Wade household is now a full homemade micro-loft because she's an architecture honors student that basically lives in the local hardware shops, of course she would have made a perfect extra section for herself. Plus the tiny staircase makes a perfect 'Off-limits' area. (I really should have thought of that ages ago)
Early extraction key also heals everyone using it on transit, so nobody came into Earth with mana necrosis. Bael and Medy no longer need to off themselves in order to reset.
Thank you all for working with me here! Now, back to the story!
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Wade could sniff out the subtext: This was the System giving them both firsthand information on how PvP quests would look to both sides.
First bit of info was an immediate one: Medy had been named in Wade's quest in full. As in her entire unredacted name.
And if it had shown up on his side, there were high chances it showed up on Leon's as well.
He'd just been extremely lucky Leon hadn't name dropped the demoness right in front of Bael. Yet.
Wade didn't believe Medy's identity as Xan would be that difficult to handle, but he still felt like it should be her choice to reveal that to Bael rather than have that choice done for her by accident.
He had to figure out how to let Leon know not to spill the beans, while Bael was right in the same room.
The answer came to him almost immediately: He swapped straight into English instead of Demonic, which isolated Bael out for a moment: "If this quest description works how I think it does, don't use her full name." Wade said, keeping his tone light. "She's undercover. Long story. Just call her by her normal name, got that?"
He tried very hard not to look at Bael while he said all that. Dumb luck on his part that he hadn't gotten around to giving Bael the Wade Employee starting bonus, like he had with Medy.
Leon shrugged, giving a sheepish smile. "Okey, I keep name simple. Works better, long mouthful."
If Bael had anything to say about the abrupt swap to English for a few words, he didn't mention it.
Wade might have thought himself sly, but the reality is often those with multiple languages swapped mid-way constantly, and Bael wasn't a stranger to such things from mortals. He'd lived too long for this to not be a regular occurance.
Plus, Wade hadn't noticed he'd been using English words interspersed into Demonic constantly for almost all drink or food words.
Demons only recently began eating food, the language itself hadn't caught up with dedicated terms.
Wade had been saying coffee out loud in English each time and Bael still had no idea what that meant, but he knew it was mortal food and of no consequence.
"Also, no way the System's just trolling us to troll us here." Wade continued in demonic, still hoping to throw Bael off track, despite there not being an issue at all in the first place. "We're in the perfect position to compare notes. In a controlled environment where both ends of the quest could be read together."
"Ah, I see. You plotting to stall me with words, eh?" Leon laughed. "Good luck. I too can be very convincing with words."
Wade rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I already know you're way smarter with words. Your broken English lures people into thinking you're all muscle and no brains."
Or was it English?
Wade considered it further. Leon had been speaking proper Demonic and yet some part of his mind was translating all that back into Leon's usual half-broken English that he'd first heard the Russian as, complete with the accent.
"Lures people, eh? Is grave accusation." Leon mimed a hand over his chest, gravely attacked.
But the shit-eating grin was there and Wade knew what to look for. "I'm onto your tricks mister."
Leon might as well be a maxed out normie to Wade's senses. All the charisma of a dedicated bard, running around with a full barbarian's body along with all the intelligence of an honors student.
Life truly wasn't fair. And it would have been so much easier to dislike him if he wasn't so goddamn nice about everything.
Case in point, he was perfectly happy to swap the full quest text on his end in English.
The entire pair of quests were simple on the surface, but what the System revealed to both players was asymmetrical.
'Convince or stop a rival player.' came up on Wade's quest.
Not 'stop Leon Devoski' just a generic 'rival player.'
"It's keeping some anonymity at least, so I think it's telling us so long as we don't leak our names out there, it won't either."
Objective might be well described to both sides on the other hand with Medy's full name revealed on both quests.
And third was more a tangential item; that the System had resorted to this kind of quest offering in the first place. It hadn't simply given them a tutorial quest or something more direct and in his face.
It once more felt like it was sneaking information behind someone's back.
What was going on in the background? Why was the System acting like this, and was it equally helping the Nathir in the same way?
"The enemy System." Wade muttered to himself. That's the better question: Was the enemy System helping the Nathir to the same amount that his side's System was helping him?
"Enemy System?" Leon asked, head quirked to the side.
Wade didn't answer, his head was in deep thought.
Was it the same System, with the same intelligence on both ends, or was it each entity responsible for implementing their own System? What if the Nathir System was dirt stupid while theirs was more clever? Were the rules equally shared? Where was the leeway?
"Wade?"
He felt he was close to the answer. And the only way he'd actually get that answer was to complete the eldritch one he'd gotten.
##ERROR_ñûll_pöîntér_ëxçëptî0x3F3F3F.
That would be the first quest that was more directly related to the System itself. And the garbled quest name was a hint by itself.
"Wade?" Leon asked again, looking over to his quiet companion.
Bael on his part remained silent, watching, with very little understanding of what was going on here. He knew this was to do with the primordial game these mortals were currently involved in. Best not to distract them while they were on the cusp of something.
All he was here for, was to keep an eye on this new human who claimed to be friendly.
They would be done speaking to each other eventually, all mortals stopped talking at some point.
"It's smart and it's on our side for sure." Wade concluded, opening his mouth with no context. "Whatever the System is, it's predicting what we do, and trying to steer us in an underhanded way. There are rules it's following, but it's being very careful with how it's applying those rules to us."
And it felt… different to Wade compared to how it was when he first met it.
As if the System was picking it's own favorites or putting its bets on who would be the dark horse and getting more personally involved with those choices.
Maybe because he'd tried talking to it directly once before? Or the way Wade thought about how to play the game was different from the other players?
No, he reconsidered.
The System was watching everyone at all times, making judgement calls at it's leasure. It wasn't favoring Wade over others, it could favor all humans equally.
How many of the one hundred players on Team Earth knew about video games as deeply as he did?
"Wade? Wade. Blyat, Wade!"
It could be that the System would have wanted to assist other players just as much, but Wade was the only one who was meta-gaming hard enough to pick up on these kinds of hints.
And he'd probably need to go the distance in convincing the rest of Team Humanity to not to kill each other first, and to combine arms against the enemy team first.
New Persistent Quest: Avengers Assemble - Bring together 20 or more players under a signed communal alliance against the enemy team. Rewards: Significant Leveling Experience. Greater Storefront Options. Legendary Lootbox. Twenty Storefront Coins.
Wade started laughing.
If he needed any confirmation, this would be it. Without a doubt the System was trying to steer them in this direction. Which meant the PvP quests that had them fight each other might be something it was simply forced to hand out, and was trying to be tactical about it.
"I will be flicking forehead if continuing to ignore me." Leon huffed, leaning back into his chair, watching as Wade hyperfocused on some odd tangent.
"I wouldn't seek fights with this mortal needlessly." Bael warned. "I've seen him kill things he had no hope of killing in any respectable manner."
"Oh I knowing that all too well. Should have seen Lapushka. But when he tunnel vision hard like this, someone needs to snap him out."
"You will be doing no such thing so long as I have a hand on the hilt of this blade, mortal."
Wade realized further revelations while the other two bickered - The System was also telling him he needed to meta-game harder. This was a game to the System itself as much as it was a game to Wade.
"Whoa, whoa, no one needing any threats today here, friend."
"That remains to be seen." Bael calmly replied, hand not moving away from his blade. The mortal was clearly not paying attention, and if there was any time for an assassination, it would be now. While Wade was hyper-focused in his thoughts, Bael was being hyper-vigilent in counterbalance.
Wade on his part shifted his thinking: If he was the dungeon master looking down at the game board and had to assign PvP quests like this while trying to get all the players to work together instead, then he'd be doing some easy ones first mainly to get the right players to intersect with one another.
Ones with the behavior and personality that would lead them to working together instead of going for each other's throats like the initial quest might suggest for them to do.
Which meant a player like Wade that was aware of the enemy team, knew the goal was to combine arms first, and was already doing so - that would be the perfect nexus point.
He would have started throwing the quests to drag others at that nexus point.
Players like Leon. And Illy. Who would - and had - joined forces with Wade.
"Fine, you flicking him in forehead for me, is good compromise?"
Bael grunted back. "He'll return eventually."
Leon simply sighed and gave a few choice curses in his mother tongue.
Quest would likely be seen by the System as an easy method of moving Players along to different locations. Like it's version of a carrot on a stick to get the horse moving. Like the quest Illy had gotten at the very start: To attempt escaping through the sewer of the Nathir city.
Not because they had any chance of making it outside - but because they'd run into Wade by going into the sewer.
Leon waved a hand from his seat at the ex-retail worker. Despite waving like he was hailing a particularly distant taxi, Wade didn't snap out of his spiral. "Maybe tap shoulder instead? It work same. Or I snap finger in front of his face, da?"
"Move your hands anywhere in his direction and I will cut them off you."
"Uuu suka, Wade, your pit bull is very dangerous here. Wade. Wade!"
Wade woke up, head snapping up, mind reaching a conclusion: "Shit. Leon, we're going to be running into players real soon."
"Eh?" Leon had zero idea what this guy was talking about.
"But that might not be a bad thing. If this is working how I think it works, the ones drawn here won't be completely unfriendly at the start, they might be baited here for us to pick up into the team." Wade continued, "They'd be the ones most likely to listen to reason. Right?"
"Uh, sure?"
"Exactly." He waggled an excited finger at the Russian. "So the very last ones thrown in our way would be the ones that would actually try and kill us."
Wade knew one thing: Their cthulhu Entity had contact with Play and learned from that troglodyte directly. And while he hated to ever admit this out loud, Play knew how to play games. Which meant their Entity likely got all of it's tricks and tips from that NEET directly.
Wade wasn't certain but he could feel his brain frying at the thought. There was something buried here. A meta-game the System was playing against the enemy System.
He just didn't know enough information yet to come up with theories.
"Wade. You needing to explain reasoning here first. You staring hole into carpet muttering to yourself for past minute or three. I fear your mind is ushyol, gone."
That and Bael was getting very protective over him and that worried Leon.
"I have?" Wade frowned, brain booting back up on track.
"Your mortal friend speaks the right of it." Bael said, eyes still never leaving Leon.
"Oh. Woops." Right, he hadn't even told Leon yet about the enemy System or anything at all. Of course he'd be confused.
"Is this high level distraction to keeping me away from coffee?"
"Coffee? Oh, coffee. Right. The coffee quest."
"Da, I having maybe fifty minutes left to complete." Leon stood up from his chair, patting his legs. "Okey, so, where is your coffee maker? I go make cup while you think through the rest of what you're thinking on." He also wanted to get out into the living room away from here because that Demon sitting next to him was still armed and very clearly acting the part of a loyal guard dog.
"First of all, I don't have a coffee maker, those are expensive and I don't drink coffee."
"What? You don't?" Leon seemed actually surprised. "Really?"
"Of course not, who do you take me for? A sucker?"
"Would have thought diet ninety percent coffee. Am surprised you have at least one healthy habit. Good for you!"
"I didn't say I don't use caffeine."
"Ah blyat, and here I was so hopeful."
"Come on, I'm not a psychopath, Leon." Wade huffed, insulted.
"If no coffee maker, then how do you make and drink coffee?"
Leon was dead certain Wade would never in a million years outright buy coffee anywhere when he could be mak-
"Caffeine pills are far cheaper and more effective."
Leon started laughing.