by Han Yang
Reward: 2000 points, plus 100 points per survivor, plus 1 point per supplies brought.
Quest 2: Reach Lornsto.
Reward: 1000 points plus 100 points per survivor.
Quest 3: Adopt an orphan.
Reward: 1000 points.
“What the hell?” I said with a grumble. “Adopt an orphan.”
I spent the next five minutes browsing my rewards. Eventually, I found the abandoned quest lines and boy oh boy, there were thousands. For instance, I could have gotten five points for kissing Yilissa a few minutes ago.
I would have earned two hundred for killing the two men who intended to rob the barge.
If I had stopped Binky from fleeing, there would have been another hundred points. If I looted more of Zed’s supplies, another hundred. On and on these options went wherever ever split-second decision became a reward chain.
I also delved into the quest deduction section. I lost points for not fighting Tarak. I lost points for not clearing my name. I lost points for letting the other group go without giving them supplies.
On and on the minor deductions went. They added up to a few hundred, and the biggest part was, all those options paid well if I had tackled the issues instead of dodging them.
I could see how some people would dive into the linker every decision time. They’d weigh the options, calculate the rewards, and decide based on a program an AI created.
Screw that, I was going to live my life in Snagglewood how I saw fit, and let the rewards roll in naturally.
“Top two hundred, hard to complain about,” I said with a sigh.
“Want some company?” Roma asked from behind me. I slowly turned and she wrapped me in a tight hug. “Thank you, Theo.”
“No thanks needed. You did fantastic. I’m proud of you,” I told her much in the same way I told Yilissa.
“Are you going to take my pants off too?” Roma asked. “You know, I could have checked her stitches.”
“Ah, you heard about that,” I said with a chuckle. “Careful, I remember teasing you about kissing girls and you stayed silent on the matter. Now you’re talking about taking off Yilissa’s pants.”
“Men,” she rolled her eyes with a huge grin. “Except, you’re different.”
“I’m rather fond of you both and it’s time I came clean about a few things. Where’s Yilissa?” I asked.
“Helping air out the stench in the hold. It's not going well.”
She hugged me tighter and fought my attempts to pry myself from her arms. “I’m going to get our bedding and set it up near the rudder. Who’s steering?”
“Hariet. She’s one of the unattached ladies,” Roma said, still not letting go. “Hey, Theo… Are we going to make it?”
“Not only that, but I’m going to tell you some secrets that might make you rethink how you see the world. I’ll tell you about Darcy,” I said.
She gazed up at me with those big blue eyes. I tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
“I miss them, Theo.”
“I could only imagine. My parents are… Let’s start when we get comfy,” I said, and she finally let go.
A pair of children played chase around the wheelhouse, and even though I felt I should yell at them to stop, I smiled instead. If a thousand webo’narocks stormed this ship, I’d never save them, maybe letting them have fun while they still could, made sense.
The ship jolted a bit and my hand shot to one of my dragons.
“Sorry, sorry. New at this ship driving thing and we’re moving kinda fast. I think I ran over a webo’narock,” a redheaded woman said.
“Children into the wheelhouse,” I ordered and drew my weapon.
I leveled the .45 and checked around the ship. The wet sides of the vessel remained devoid of crawling invaders.
When I reached the stern, a webo’narock stumbled onto the shore in a daze and we shared a giggle.
Yilissa came out of the hold with a sheet being used as a sack. “I figure we can use clothes as pillows for the kids. You fill a shirt, close off the arms, neck, and bottom, and you’re done.”
I smiled, helping her drop all the clothing and blankets under the shade that went from the wheelhouse to the stern of the boat.
“We will need the net atop the crane before we leave. We may even want to set it up to cover the hold without covering the hold,” I said.
“You wanna do that while we set up a better shade and sleeping zone,” Roma asked.
I smiled with a nod. “Yeah, makes sense. I’ll head up top. Thanks Roma, Yilissa.”
I checked the dagger attached to my boot, seeing the blade had survived the flight from Laro. When I approached the wheelhouse that the children shaded in, I noticed the wind shift.
“Hey, I’m Mark. Can you wind up that sail or whatever? It’s making it harder to steer,” the red headed man said.
I nodded, not sure how to do it on this specific type of ship, but I figured it’d be easy to figure out compared to the modern sailboats I’d trained on.
I reached the mast and started tugging on ropes. The third set I tugged on did the trick. I pulled hard, winding the sail up. I used a proper knot to secure the rope to a cleat.
“Thanks Theo,” Mark said.
“No problem. Try to keep it steady, I’ll be up top securing the net,” I told him and the others who watched our exchange.
If this guy heard I had killed Roma’s parents, he sure wasn’t showing concern. I just had to hope Gregory, Yilissa, and Roma trusting me was enough for the new people. Not that any of these additions seems like hardcore killers who’d shoot a man in the back.
I approached the wheelhouse from the front and used a short ladder that was built into the ship’s frame. After a quick ascension, I found myself on top of the ship where gusts of wind felt that much fiercer.
I used the opportunity to scan our route. The river gently curved as far as the eye could see and I figured most ship crews would anchor down at night if illumination were poor. I instantly figured if we had to, anchoring would be our best bet, but I sure hoped we didn’t have to.
Taking a gander around the ship from this height revealed a vast expanse of space. Sure, the odd house dotted the terrain near the river, but I saw no activity near any of them. The sporadic trees, cactus, and large bushes broke up the monotony.
I saw a smoke trail rising high where Laro probably was. The city had long since faded from sight. I tried to see the barge behind us and failed. When I scanned the shoreline, minimal webo’narocks revealed themselves.
When we floated by a wooded creek, I could just barely make out a webo’narock nest. A surge of protective parents braced for an attack on their young. When we were swept away from the channel, they relaxed, and on we went.
Those rearing spots, which tended to be hidden, were the key to winning the war against the monsters. Kill the breeding or cut off the food. Those were the only two ways to win, and the saddest part was, the narocks were designed to conserve energy unless on the march.
I did see clumps of prog’narocks staging on the interior around the creeks and smaller river ways. A few carpet bombs later and you’d have a bunch of dead narocks, but that didn’t exist here, and you ruined the environment.
Flashbacks of humans unloading devastation around the world to combat the growing tides of narocks ran through my mind. The fact they never won, and the counter creations only worsened the downfall of humanity, both left me feeling dizzy.
I shook my thoughts free and walked to the swivel crane that held the net. Taking my time, I sat down at the rotating pylon. I pulled the pin, bringing the net over the crew station. If I wanted to drop it for fishing, I would have spun the crane to the stern instead of the bow.
Once I had the net in an easy to service area, I locked the main pylon back to the upper shading deck. The net had a quick attach-and-detach locking bolt. Thankfully, whomever crewed this ship kept the bolt only hand tight.
A few minutes later, I tossed the netting d
own to a section of the decking with a loud thud.
Mark said, “Why not use it for fishing?”
“Really?”
He shrugged. “Maybe we can catch enough of the bastards that we can stop the invasion.”
“I have a feeling another predator will come along, or some rune in the sand will stop them at a certain point. They won’t reach the major capitals. Or they might and that is the whole point of them existing in Snagglewood. Who cares if you’re spared a painful death? You still get a heavy dose of reality,” I said.
Mark frowned and replied, “Sir, I haven’t a lick of understanding to what you just done said.”
I smiled and replied, “I noticed the anchor up front. If these clouds don’t clear or this current keeps up, we may have to navigate only during the day. If that is the case, a fast part of the river makes the most sense to me.”
“Like, fight at night to survive?” he asked in a hushed tone as if the kids couldn’t hear.
“Every life matters, Mark. You all willingly got onto this ship in hopes I’d protect you. I’ll do exactly that,” I said, dragging the net to the tree fort style sleeping area. I studied the construction with a grin. “Well, this is impressive thinking.”
I saw daggers placed in between the decking at an angle. Someone poked eyelets into the sheets and threaded twine. The result was fairly tight sheets blotting out the sun in some parts but still letting the breeze in.
It was awful if we were attacked, but the narocks would also have to tangle with the sheets, and so far, they feared the massive vessel capable of running them over.
I knocked on the wheelhouse and said, “Permission to enter.”
A little girl giggled and said, “Denied.”
“Come on in,” Roma said.
I carefully stepped in and quickly learned field stripping the stinky fish net would happen at the front of the boat. I could rest easy knowing it was at least down.
I unlaced my boots, keeping them outside the nicely laid out sheets with pillows. No one stayed below the hold anymore and Gregory already snoozed against the ship's back wall. How he did it with ten kids having fun was beyond me.
I waved as I entered the fort area, seeing additional adults lying around Mark’s feet in the wheelhouse.
“My name is Theo. Sir is not needed. Theo works just fine. If you insist on being formal, Mr. Karo works. Since quite a few of us are sleeping, please fill them in at your discretion. I have a story to tell, a story about the Great Mother. Or as some of you call Mother Nature, I call her, Darcy,” I said, and gasps from the children brought a tension to the moment.
19
Snagglewood Day 17
Bewu River
“Mother Nature, or Darcy, controls many realms. Her power is not infinite, and the finite abilities come in measured costs we can call... limiters. You see, a long time ago, in a land far away, there was a place where Darcy hadn’t been born yet,” I said and paused.
An eight-year-old boy raised his hand. “You talk to the Goddess?”
“Frequently.”
“And this is her story?” he asked.
I shook my head and said, “It’s the story about Snagglewood and each of you. You see, I may have an opportunity to change your lives and free you of your rebirth cycles. To understand you must have an open mind. By no means, should you believe everything I say. But what I say is the truth.”
The same boy cleared his throat, not liking this line. “Then why tell us if we shouldn’t believe you?”
An older woman, maybe his mother, said, “Nate, he wants you to think. In all my years, no one has said they speak to the Goddess and mentions it so freely. To do so would bring the ire of the Goddess and yet, this man has survived the wilderness for a week, and even rescued his… friends. I’m his mum by the way, Beatrice.”
I blushed. “I hid in a bunker and escaped at the end of the attack.”
“Oh,” she replied.
“Still, you’re quite correct. I do want you to think about what I’m telling you. Earth. Everything begins on Earth, not Snagglewood. Snagglewood is but one planet of many that Darcy controls. Unlike Snagglewood and the other planets I may visit, Earth is not controlled by Mother Nature.
“Actually, on most of the other planets that she does control, she is not the single deity the people worship. In Snagglewood she is, and I have my assumptions as to the ‘why’. She needs the people from the Earth realm to understand she is the savior of humanity,” I said with a sigh.
“So, she will save us,” Roma said with a smile.
I frowned. “Uh… no. Against the rules. Everything that happens in Snagglewood is governed by rules. Mother Nature is a creator of life, not a life saver. Technically, she is not supposed to interfere at all besides to set the theme.
“Let me return back to the main point. I come from the Earth realm. Clearly, I am different. But Roma, remember when I asked you about what you would think if I told you that I was four hundred years old?”
Her brows furled and she grumbled, “Uh, are you ancient?”
“No, but my last girlfriend was, and she only looked about ten years older than you,” I said.
“So, you come from another place, called Earth, and people live forever?” Yilissa asked. “Just trying to get this straight. Clearly, yer not from this neck of the woods. I can tell you’re different too. So, you will never die?”
“If I live in places like these, yes. And let me return to the beginning to explain how. The monsters invaded Earth. We had better guns, bigger walls, and some of the smartest people in the world working together to fix the situation. Everything failed.
“When humans realized they were doomed, they created something that could think smarter than them. A super-computer, but to make the analogy stick, they built a super-human named Darcy. To me, she is a human. To others, she is too different, just like I am to some in Snagglewood.
“Darcy strove to ignore the bad apples and worked to improve humanity. She also needed to save as many people as she could, in any way she could. My ancestors built ships that didn’t sail the water. They sailed the stars,” I said, and this hooked in the kids who were growing bored.
“The stars?” a boy over ten asked. “You left the planet? That’s not possible.”
“It is, and we did. Your name?” I asked.
“Lenny, sir.”
“Theo works. And, yeah, the monsters got that bad,” I said with a wince.
“So, this Earth. You couldn’t win against the narocks and brought them here?” Roma asked.
“No, we lost so badly, we gave up the entire planet to them. As to ‘did I bring them here…’ Well, this is where I have bad news for you all, minus the children, because… well, uh…”
Roma said, “Just say it. They’ve seen death and worse. No camp story will shake them to their core.”
“Fine. Let me give this theory that I’m not from Snagglewood a bit more context. I have a mission from the Great Mother to adopt a child. Who here is without a parent and would like a father until the day I die? I’ll never beat you, do untoward things, and try my best to keep you healthy,” I said.
The children looked at each other and then me. The boy who spoke earlier said, “You’re missing a missus.”
I flippantly tossed a hand in the air. “Not a requirement. I will be your dad as you grow up, even without a mom. Not saying I won’t ever find one, but yeah.”
The little girl who refused my entry earlier raised her hand. “I’m Lillo, Mr. Karo. My parents saved me by handing me to Hariet, but the monsters...”
“Can I be your dad?” I asked.
She glanced around and received nods from the others before saying, “I’m all alone. Hariet said we might find someone to take care of me. I’m only seven.”
I smiled sadly. “I’m so sorry for your loss and I can never be as great as your parents were. I can only try my best and maybe one day you will call me dad, pa, or father. If you need something, come to me,
” I told her.
“I don’t get the relevance,” Mark said from behind me.
“Give me a moment. This spot on my wrist contains an interface linker. The term will sound odd and not make sense, but it has a purpose. This is how Mother Nature interferes. She provides challenges to me… for me to overcome. The better I do, the better my reward. In this case,” I paused and opened up my menu.
I navigated my quests and then typed in Lillo Quests.
Quest 23: Manage to get Lillo to call you father and mean it.
Reward: 6 points.
Quest 67: Encourage Lillo’s love of the flute.
Reward: 4.4 points.
Quest 177: Explain to Lillo why you cannot have a pet bunny.
Reward: 2.1 points.
Quest 302: Dance with Lillo.
Reward: 0.6 points.
“Okay. Two of these will work. Have I ever met Lillo or know anything about her?” I asked. I was given a few hostile stares at this. “Lillo loves the flute, and I will encourage that. Lillo wants a pet bunny, but that won’t happen. Do you want a bunny and like to play the flute?”
She nodded nervously.
Roma said, “I believe him. The Great Mother feeds him information he shouldn’t know.”
“Okay, so you’re from a different place. Even the skeptical me can believe that,” Mark said in a snarky voice. “You have a messenger who tells you things?”
“Yeah, and there are others like me in Snagglewood. We compete in this environment to show who is the strongest among us. This won’t tell me a narock is coming around a corner or if I’m about to die. It will reward me if I escape death though,” I said.
Yilissa chimed in and asked, “Where do we play into this and who is Darcy to you?”
Roma leaned in, eager to hear the answer also. I told them the tale of my birth, of my near death as an infant, and how Darcy intervened when she wasn’t supposed to. She made me special on Earth, but here in Snagglewood, I was just another guy trying to survive. This part was accepted. Then I dropped the heavy stuff.
