“Whatever, Chase, there is a word for people like you in Thulean, but I don’t know how to translate it.”
“Duly noted.”
“Whatever. I hate losing.”
“What now?” Lady C. asked as she cozied up next to me.
I smiled at her. “I’m glad you asked: now, you and I see about a little something different.”
Chapter Four: NPC and Me
It was just Lady C. and me this time, the two of us in an aeros moving to an office near Union Square.
“How about one hint? Just one…”
“I think you already know what it is.”
“No, I don’t; I wouldn’t ask for a hint if I did!” The Metican had a book in her lap that she hadn’t opened, a reverse dark fantasy harem called Digital Sorcerers.
“Well, if you haven’t figured it out already, I won’t ruin the surprise,” I told her as we sped toward the financial district.
We were well above Fifth Avenue, a street I had walked so many times in my youth. I preferred staying in Brooklyn, as did most Brooklynites, but when I was young, my buddies and I liked to bike in Midtown, skateboard too.
And inevitably get chased by security, after getting caught trespassing. Dealing with law enforcement was a way of life then, a rite of passage, at least for the group that I ran with at the time.
“You’re taking me to a nice restaurant, aren’t you?”
“You can’t eat here,” I reminded her with a smile.
A beeping noise and a flashing orange light on a holoscreen at the front indicated that we were dropping down to a different airlane; I felt the shift in gravity almost immediately.
“With a smile like that, this better be a good surprise,” she told me. “And believe me, Aya was soooo angry she couldn’t come.”
“I believe you; she’s always angry about something. It is sort of her personality.”
“Yes, it is, but that’s our Aya. Not much we can do about it, right?”
“I thought she was going to attack Keegan back there,” I said, recalling the loss we had just experienced.
“You have to hand it to the teeny girl. We came in thinking we were going to win, acting a little cocky. She beat us fair and square. Even though I don’t like that cyclops.”
“We’ll get her next time. Him too.”
Lady C. laughed. “I don’t know; they may have an even bigger dragon by then.”
Our vehicle landed right outside the square. We continued along the sidewalk to the east, stepping around a man sitting on the ground, using a plastic bucket as a drum. He laid out his rhythm, and I nodded along to the beat, definitely feeling the groove.
“Not everything is music,” Lady C. said.
“Actually, that is something I would debate,” I told her as we passed a shop selling frozen yogurt, then a vintage furniture place that looked well out of my price range, even if I was now technically a millionaire.
“You think that random drumming was actually good?”
“Yeah, if I’d had my bass, I would have been able to jam along to that. You would have been impressed.”
“It doesn’t take much for you to impress me,” she said, offering me a cute smile.
“You…” I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you sometimes.”
“You could just kiss me.”
“Actually, yes I could, and that will happen soon. Here we are,” I said, looking up at a sign in neon green letters that read: NPC and Me.
“What does that mean?” she asked, confusion growing across her face as a man walked an expensive poodle past us, grunted, and then tugged at his dog’s leash.
“Just follow me inside, my dear, and we’ll get this taken care of.” I bowed with my hand out, Lady C. placed hers in mine, and both of us stepped up to a sliding glass door.
As soon as it opened, we were presented with number of humandroid bodies, all motionless yet looking as real as anyone I’d ever seen before.
Spooky.
“No way…” she said, bringing both hands to her mouth as she looked around.
“I have the money now; let’s make this happen.”
A woman in a black dress and black high heels approached. Her eyes dilated as she saw me, her irises now the same color as her hair, which was pulled into a ponytail. “Welcome, Mr. Knowles,” she said. “Do you need anything to get comfortable?”
“How did she know your name?” Lady C. whispered to me.
“She read my data, and I also booked an appointment. Speaking of which,” I told the woman, who was clearly a humandroid, “I am a little early. I hope that’s okay.”
“That is quite all right,” she told me. “And your Proxima NPC is here as well, correct?” she asked, looking at Lady C.
“She can see me?”
“Yes, I can see you,” the woman said. “While using the Monster Hunt app is illegal, it is not illegal to view NPCs spawning in this world with the right access codes. When you entered this space, you moved under a sensor that triggered a query and resulted in an immediate approval,” she said. “Welcome, Lady Cassandra.”
“Thank you,” Lady C. said with a short smile. “I just wasn’t expecting someone else besides you and Iris to see me.”
“Will Iris be joining us?” the woman asked.
“No, just us,” I said, clearing my throat.
“Right, then let’s get more comfortable as we decide on a body for you,” she told Lady C. The woman led us past a few replicas into a room with plush leather chairs, dark wood flooring, and wood paneling. It was the complete opposite of the vibe in the lobby area, with its sterile white coloring, mannequins standing around, and futuristic feel.
This room was comfy, and I immediately took a seat in one of the chairs, Lady C. sitting next to me and crossing one leg over the other.
The humandroid waited for a moment for us to get comfortable and began. “To give you a brief history, which you can read about in the documents I will be sending you, what you are doing if you decide to buy a humandroid’s body for your NPC is called ‘r-diving.’ This was a word invented in the 2050s by a scientist known as Sophia Wang, who was able to successfully bring a player character and an NPC into a humandroid’s body.”
“Interesting,” I told her.
“It is quite an interesting read, I agree. As I previously stated, you will find more information about it in the documents you will be provided with at the end of our meeting today. But I should say, in case it wasn’t clear, that this is also something available for an RPC, a reborn player character. This means that you, Chase Knowles, could die, respawn in the Proxima Galaxy, and then come back to this world.”
“Now I have read about that,” I told her. “But most people don’t do that, right?”
“Right. Usually, people who have an RPC set to respawn when they die don’t want to come back to this world. They may come back for traditional celebrations, or for weddings, but they generally prefer being in the Proxima Galaxy. From what I’ve heard, it is very flexible there.”
“Flexible?” I asked, looking to Lady C.
“I should clarify what I mean by ‘flexible.’ I mean that there are plenty of options there for a person to live, for a person to adventure, for a person to visit, to invest, to live the life they’ve only dreamed of. That type of thing.”
“I got it,” I told the humandroid assistant.
“But I suppose you can read up on the history later. Shall we select a body?”
“Sure,” I said, looking to Lady C.
The Metican bit her lip and looked between me and the humandroid, who now sat in a chair across from me, an emotionless expression on her face.
“Wonderful, then we shall begin. First, let me get some preferences from you,” she said, looking at both of us.
“Whatever Lady C. wants,” I told her.
“I kind of want to look like how I look now. I like darker hair, long, same proportions. I don’t really want to change that much.”
�
�In this world, you won’t be able to wear the same type of clothing you wear in your world. You are aware of this, correct?” the humandroid asked her.
“So I have to dress like Iris?” Lady C. asked me.
“No, you don’t have to dress like Iris, but you can’t go around wearing battle armor with two swords sheathed at your sides.”
“If you say so…” Lady C. said, a smirk coming across her face. The Lady C. I knew and adored was back, less apprehensive than she had been just moments ago.
“Okay, so you want someone who has similar proportions as you. That shouldn’t be very hard to put together. You have features that most people find desirable: nice-sized hips, C cups that are bordering on D, a good height,” the humandroid said.
Lady C. smiled awkwardly, and the humandroid noted something else.
“Dimples too. Let’s get some base forms in here, and then once we’ve done that, we can decide on the other parts.”
A naked woman stepped into the room, completely hairless, reminding me of a Barbie doll before they added hair to the line of toys.
“She looks too fake,” Lady C. said.
“And your opinion?” the humandroid asked me. “And please note, features have yet to be added to this model, so she will look a little less plastic once your choices are finalized.”
“Whatever she says is fine by me,” I told her.
The humandroid model stepped out of the room and another one came in, also naked, this one just a bit shorter, her cheekbones raised a bit, her nipples slightly erect and her shoulders pressed back.
“Do you mind?” Lady C. asked.
The humandroid assisting us nodded. “By all means.”
Lady C. walked over to the humandroid, standing next to it and noticing that they were about the same height.
“What do you think, Chase?”
“It’s kind of hard to picture her as you without any hair,” I told her.
“Not a problem,” said our humandroid assistant. “Grab one of the brunette wigs,” she told the humandroid. The nude woman obediently left the room and came back with several options. She tried them on, and once she found one that was long like Lady C.’s hair, she affixed it to her head.
“Does it look like me?” Lady C. asked. “I really can’t tell.”
“It doesn’t look exactly like you…”
“We will be able to make some final modifications before your humandroid is ready, Mr. Knowles. And the hair will not be a wig at that point either. We will take pictures and a digital molding of Lady Cassandra’s avatar, and do our best to make them look the same. They won’t look exactly the same, but they will be close.”
“I think this is totally possible,” Lady C. said, reaching out and touching the humandroid, her hand going through the woman’s body.
“Turn around,” our assistant humandroid said.
The model did as instructed, looking over her shoulder at me.
“Does this satisfy you?” our assistant asked.
“I… Sure, it looks fine,” I said as I took in the model’s nude derriere. There were moments in my life that I would never forget, things that would stick with me for years to come. And as each second passed at the NPC and Me custom shop, I realized that this would be one of those moments.
There was something sort of creepy about selecting a body, even if I was letting Lady C. do most of the heavy lifting. Still, for us to be together in this world, this was what was required.
I was aware of that; and I knew by making this decision that I was taking a firm action in what I wanted.
“If you think it works, I think it works,” I told Lady C. “I’m just stoked about you being able to come here and experience my world, the same way I experience yours.”
“You know, a lot of people have misconceptions about what we do here,” the assistant humandroid said. “Some people think this is just a rich person’s perversion; others who have gone through this process realize that it’s a way to bring a loved one back, a way to bring someone you love from another world into ours. I think that’s a great way to look at this. There will be people that may judge you, but this continues to become more of a normal thing, and you must remember that.”
“And what happens when she’s not with me?” I asked, realizing the oddity in the question as soon as it escaped my lips.
“You mean when you’re out and about? Please explain.”
“I mean if Lady C. is in the Proxima Galaxy, what happens with the humandroid’s body?”
“That’s entirely up to you. They need to rest every twenty-four hours or so to recharge, but what happens in the meantime is really up to you, Mr. Knowles. Some people have their humandroids just go around as their personal assistant when their NPC isn’t inside. Others deactivate them, and others always have their NPC with them. That’s entirely your call.”
I nodded, wondering what Iris would say about this. Maybe I would have to keep it from her for just a little bit, to see what it was actually like.
“And remember, there is a return policy. If she does not satisfy you, or you can’t handle it, which is something that happens from time to time, you will be able to return her. The return policy is thirty days, and it will come with a ten percent penalty, which we consider our reprogramming fee. Does that sound reasonable to you?”
I looked to Lady C. “What do you think?”
“Let’s try it,” she said, her cheeks turning red. “Why not?”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“We really need to visit the Steeple,” I told Lady C. as we took an aeros back to my hotel. I had already arranged to have a salad delivered to the room, some bread too. I figured I would be logged in for a good amount of time, so it was good to get some fuel.
We were in a crossover vehicle, something between an SUV and a sedan. It was sleek, and much roomier inside than I would have originally anticipated, German-made, with all the bells and whistles. Definitely an upgrade from the SUV we had been in earlier.
I didn’t know if Lady C. appreciated all this, and I was pretty certain that she didn’t, considering she couldn’t actually feel the texture or understand the vibe the interior supposedly gave off.
Still, she seemed content, which was another reason I liked her.
Her humandroid body would be ready the following night; I really couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be with her here in the real world, in a tangible form. Maybe it would be good, maybe it would be bad, awkward, enlightening.
There was only one way to find out.
“We could go to the Steeple tonight, after we finish up in Kingdom Ignis,” she suggested.
“Not a bad plan. I really don’t know why I want to go back, I just…”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go back,” she said. “It was a mystery that you solved, but the mystery is still in the air there. Don’t you agree?”
“I guess I should reframe what I was trying to say. I meant to say that I don’t know why I want to go back, considering that I am planning to sell the place anyway.”
“For nostalgia?”
“Maybe.”
“In a book on Tritania by Lothar, he said that nostalgia was often toxic. What do you think about the statement?”
I pondered the sentence for a moment as we road along. “I really don’t know what I think about that statement.”
I looked to Lady C., seeing her staring out the window, a soft smile on her face, her reflection visible. She looked back at me, the corners of her lips lifting just a little higher.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Too many things,” I told her as the vehicle landed on top of the hotel.
We made our way down to our room and I said goodbye to the Metican warrior, letting her know I would log in in a moment.
“You sure you don’t want me to watch you eat?”
“No, that I’m fine doing alone,” I told her. “Besides, Iris is already logged in and training with Aya, so you may be helpful to
them if you log in.”
“I can’t log in, you can only send me…”
“You know what I mean,” I told her as I focused on the Monster Hunt app, or rather, I focused on the location on my pane of vision where the Monster Hunt app normally sat on my iNet desktop.
It blurred into existence, and I signed off, Lady C. disappearing immediately.
I ate in silence, quickly, ready to log in and start what was probably going to be a pretty long night.
As I lay on the bed, just about to put the NV Visor over my face, I stared out at the city for a moment, feeling foolish for staying in this room. Here I was paying an ungodly amount of money to stay in this hotel, yet I wasn’t enjoying the views, I was logging in to a digital world.
It was time to go back to my own home, I knew that, and I would make this happen sooner than later. I wouldn’t live there forever, but I could at least stay a few more days as I figured out where I wanted to go next.
The Brian Eno tone sounded; it wasn’t long before EverLife took shape all around me. I stood on the field of our dojo, watching Iris move quickly with her ukulele, skipping to the side and firing off a blast of music at Aya.
The Thulean warrior let out a battle cry as she brought her buster sword down, cutting an arc of energy toward Iris. Singing and strumming at full throttle, Iris was able to block the attack, Aya’s epic energy attack ricocheting off to the side.
“Come out from behind your music and face…” Aya smiled. “Face the music!”
Iris started laughing so hard that she nearly dropped her ukulele. “You really need to work on your shit-talking!”
“What is there to work on?” Aya huffed. “It gets the job done.”
“You won’t get a hit in,” Lady C. said.
The Metican warrior stood on the sidelines in her fancy battle armor, her hands planted on her hips.
“Quiet, Lady Cassandra.” Aya scowled at her counterpart. “You are distracting me.”
“You want in?” Iris asked me as my blonde bass guitar appeared in my hands. I played a quick note, smacked my thumb against the lower string, performing a little slap bass riff.
“Looks like it’s all you for now,” I told her.
Monster Hunt NYC 3 Page 8
