Chương 7: Red Button

Ghost Laugh Boros was a jolly man. He laughed as a kid, as a man, then as a ghost. Haunting the streets of Trent, he never harmed anybody, only scared them for a good laugh. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 69784 Ghost laugh lets the wielder make an echo of their laugh and suspend it in the air, which pops after a set amount of time. My first silver skillcard. Now I hope it does what I think it does. I assimilated the card inside me and focused on activating it.

Magika flowed towards my mouth, and I laughed, but no sound came out. I moved two steps to the side from where I stood and started counting. One, two, three, "Hahahahaha," a laugh erupted right where I stood before. It worked exactly the way I wanted it to. It was a distraction card. I would laugh while standing in a spot, delay it with the amount of magika, then move somewhere else. After some time, the recorded laugh will start playing. distracting whatever enemy I was facing.

I could use that moment to escape or launch an attack. I took a sigh of relief, because I was really scared of the second possibility. Delay and snicker would merge to produce delayed snicker, which would just be snicker but delayed, a brown card with no use whatsoever, and it would also be a downgrade of delay, from affecting the whole body to only the mouth. Does this mean that merging will always produce a better card? I can't be sure; it would need further experimentation.

But right now, I need to test more with Ghost Laugh to know its limits. I focused again on activating the skill but realized that my magika pool had bottomed out. I rested until it recharged, and then started testing again, through which I found that I can only make a maximum of three at a time, with a seven-second echo and a three-minute delay. One parameter can be increased by sacrificing the other two. What was setting these limits was the amount of magika I possessed.

Increasing it should increase the limits too. Magika could be increased by bottoming it out again and again, then letting it refill naturally or using elixirs. It was already night, so I decided to cook another packet of instant noodles and went to sleep. The next day I woke up early, packed my things and walked to the rift. On the way, I decided to go to the food stall. I did not have the money to afford another bowl, but I wanted to see the stall. It was open, and the chef was serving the customers.

All the seats were filled, and three more were waiting for their turns. I couldn't spot Pyia; she must be resting at home.

"When did you leave last time? You did not come out until my shift was over." I was at the Riftwalkers Association's booth. The boy at the desk was how someone who is supposed to be from an organization made to help you should be, completely opposite of the girl I met before. He was also here when I first entered the rift.

"When did your shift end?"

"At 7p. m""Then we just barely missed each other. I left at eight." I lied because for someone to be in this rift for seventeen hours was unusual and would raise questions. Well, technically, they have the records of it, but this clerk shouldn't have access to them, saving me the hassle of answering his questions.

"What were you doing in there for eight hours? Did you get lost?"

"Yeah," I put my backpack onto the autonomous cart after taking out my sword and fanny pack. It drove into the back of the facility into a safety locker on its own.

"How can you get lost. All of it is mapped?"

"I am bad at reading maps."

"Oh, that makes sense. Well, good luck for today." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Thanks," The blue tear was high enough for three of me to stand on top of each other. It swirled like a vortex. When I took a step through, the world around me started breaking apart, running past, coming to a stop, stretching and swirling. Then I was inside the rift. The chamber I was in had white flooring, white walls and pale orange lights. It split into two separate paths; the left went towards the children's bed chambers, where I had found my Skillmerge card before and the right towards the maze.

Last time I took left because I had read about the props there and wanted to see them myself, to get a better grasp of this rift's story. This time, I don't have time for it. I took the right path and walked straight. The hallway was long and silent until I reached the playground. The exact same sequence of events took place again, laughter emerged all around me, and the Strange Toy dropped from the ceiling, but this time I had something else in mind. Who was Lania, who made this toy?

How bad could her superpower be to get bullied by other kids like her? Who was her sole friend, and what happened to her? I wanted to know. The Strange Toy lunged at me. I gathered my magika and activated Ghost Laugh. After crafting the echo, I lunged sideways, but it had already locked onto me and followed me, swinging its wide arms.

"Hahahaha," laughter emerged, distracting it. This was the moment to get on top of it and kill it to get my reward. But how would Lania feel to see her last toy getting destroyed again? I sprinted towards the other side of the playground, towards the entrance of the maze. I ran for half an hour, taking random turns, not trying to remember any turns that I took. One can't encounter Pyiari just by standing in one place in the maze; one has to be truly lost in it. I sat on the ground and waited for her.

Time passed, and the anticipation kept getting to me.

"Lalala," the sound of singing sprouted from the distance into the long hallways, growing closer every second. Pyiari stopped right in front of me, her eyes changed from jolly to scared.

"Um.. ahh…I was going to the toilet, I wasn't strolling. I swear." She forgot about me. I wasn't surprised, just a bit saddened. NPCs don't remember anyone once they exit their bounded area, maybe last time was the only anomaly, and the system has already fixed itself to not let it repeat.

"Don't worry Pyiari, I am not one of the doctors." Her eyes softened a bit, then brightened up, regaining the life they had before.

"Really, then you won't tell them that I was strolling outside at night? Not that I was doing that."

"Yeah, I won't."

"Yay!" She jumped up.

"Thank you, mister." She made a small celebration, then asked, "But what are you doing here?" We were following the same script as before. I am supposed to answer 'I got lost' here, and Pyiari will help me to get out, but that's not what I am here for.

"I brought something for you," Pyiari had an expression of confusion now. I opened my fanny pack and pulled out a small sewing kit.

"I can fix it," I pointed at her teddy. She looked at me, at the sewing kit, then at her teddy, then back at me. Her eyes had changed yet again; they now held intimacy.

"Mister, you really came back." She wrapped her hands around my neck. She remembered, I made her remember. I wrapped my hands around her, "I am back""Mister,""Yeah?"

"Can you let go of me now?"

"Ah, yeah" After that was an awkward silence.

"Mister, you are the first person I have ever met who doesn't work here. It is nice to see you again." She had guided several walkers out of this maze, but she remembers none of them; she only remembers the time she had spent with me. Why? What changed? Did me saying I can fix her teddy bring the changes? Was that enough to make her remember? Did no one try this before?

"I did say I would come back, didn't I?" I opened the sewing kit, grabbed a needle which already had a thread fixed in it and a button.

"Now give me your teddy."

"Here,""Sorry, I wanted to gift you a new one, but I am tight on money right now." She shook her head left to right, "Even if you were to do that, I would have refused. This teddy is special to me."

"Is that so?" I patched the button in place of the missing eye.

"So, what have you been up to after I left. Did you get in trouble after what we pulled at the pharmacy?"

"Well, after you left, I… that's weird. I can't remember what I did after you left. But if there wasn't any treatment to be done, I must have slept." That proves the theory that NPCs do not have an existence outside of their set script. But I want her to have one.

"Done," the red button had now taken place as teddy's left eye. It was not the finest work, but Pyiari did not say a word about that.

"Teddy can finally see with both of his eyes, thank you very much, mister." She jumped up and down in happiness. I want to see her always like this. What I am going to try is a long shot, but I will do it anyway.

"Pyiari," she turned to look at me.

"Do you want to leave with me?"

"Mister, as I said before—""No, I don't want that. I want to know whether you truly hate that superpower of yours? Do you really think what you have is a disease? Have you seen any other kid suffering because of it? Do you really think they are trying to heal you here?"

"I…umm," Pyiari was just a seven-year-old girl. My questions were heavy for her, but I had to ask them.

"Pyiari, do you want to be here?" She opened her mouth several times, then closed it again until she finally made up her mind.

"No. Mister, please take me out of here," a drop of tear fell from the corner of her eyes. Quest: - Superpowers: A gift or a curse