Chương 46: This mama bear shit is going to get us killed someday.

George's first indication that something had changed was his ability notification. Ability Notification! Threat Level 2 Knickknack Savant - Level 3 >>Uh oh. Amber alert. George looked at the portal but it was quiet and still. His eyes flicked to the dark forest beside the cabin and he caught a glint of something in the trees. He leaned forward and saw it again—a shadow moving between the trees.

The shape passed through a patch of moonlight, and George saw the shape of a metal sphere gliding smoothly over the snowy ground. >>Ah ha. I recognize a certain floating robo-ball. Great… here we go. Cassie saw George's expression, caught his thought, and stood up to peer into the forest.

"You got something, kid?" Loveland said. Then TLX floated out of the line of trees and into the moonlit field beside the cabin. It moved silently to the front of the cabin and stopped just beyond the melted line in the snow that marked the edge of June's ability. George walked to the top of the stairs. The others stood up and came to the edge of the railing.

"Can your ability keep that thing out?" George said.

"Yes," June said.

"Why? You know him?"

"Yes, that is TLX. It found me during the first hunting round and threatened to let some sand snakes kill me if I didn't reveal my team card. When I showed it my card, and it found out we were on the same team, it saved me from the snakes instead. Apparently, that is its whole strategy. It is flying around uniting the Red team and killing every Blue."

"That is straight out of the Nexity playbook in a trial like this," Loveland said quietly.

"Well, as Cassie said, June and I are on the Red team. If she was being honest, and you two are, too, then we have nothing to worry about, yeah?"

"I am on the Red team," George said.

"Cassie is not." Four lights shone out from TLX, scanning each of them. George felt the same mild sunburn sting as the light passed over him.

"Reveal your team alignment," TLX said.

"Piss off," June called out in response. Loveland laughed. A robotic arm emerged from the side of the sphere and TLX's red team card appeared in its hand.

"I am on the Red team," TLX said.

"It benefits all of us to work together if we are on the same team."

"And what if we aren't on the same team?" June said. George looked down at Cassie and saw that she had her escape ability orb in her hand again. He also noticed that Loveland's hand was cupped around an ability orb of his own. >>How likely is it that the standoff will end in us teaching TLX how to play Tic-Tac-Toe with itself until it explodes? TLX was silent and George had the sense that it was calculating. It knew George was on the red team.

It also knew that George was inside the barrier with three other players and that they were not fighting. For all he knew, it had already done its "show me your team card" shakedown on half of the other players in the game and was on its way to piecing together the whole Red team roster.

"Your barrier is inconsequential," TLX said.

"New Nexity Hunter Seekers are equipped with an array of skills built to counter many abilities, including killbox-class shields. However, if I break your barrier in this way, you will be unable to use it for the duration of the trial, and you may be harmed. Be advised."

"Bullshit," June said.

"Weakening an ally would be statistically unwise, so I will repeat my order. Reveal your team card. I will leave you unharmed if you are also on the Red team. If you do not reveal your card, I will take it as an admission that you are not on the Red team." >>I am liking this robot less by the minute. >>Cassie, can I pass you my red team card? —They don't work like that. One person, one card.

>>Then tell June and Loveland to reveal their red team cards and then be ready to teleport out of here right away if it gets through the barrier. —OK, George. Loveland and June both glanced at Cassie at the same time as she relayed the instructions to them mentally. June looked back at George and said, "You sure about that?"

"Yes," George said.

"Just show it your cards, and you'll be fine." Loveland held up his red team card and showed it to the robot. June just held up her middle finger. >>And then, in the futile but time-honored gesture of defiance of all flesh against the implacable might of machines, the broken priestess raised her middle finger into the infinite night… George felt his mind running fast under the influece of his Knickknack Savvy, and then it snagged on something TLX had just said. It had said new Hunter Seekers. New.

"It is a kid," George said, almost under his breath, and he could feel his view of the robot shift as a new paradigm slotted into place. George raised his voice and said, "This is your first trial, isn't it?"

"That it is my first trial is inconsequential," TLX said.

"All Nexity are inbuilt with strategies and protocol from the accumulated iterative experience of previous versions. From the moment we awaken, we are equipped with faultless decision trees for every circumstance we might face in a trial."

"Cassie and June," TLX said.

"You have thirty seconds to comply. If you do not comply, I will enter the barrier."

"June is on the red team, but Cassie is not," George said.

"She is under my protection, and you are not going to harm her in any way," George said.

"That is irrational," TLX responded.

"No action raises our victory percentage more than the removal of an enemy."

"Cassie is not an enemy," George said. >>Twelve seconds. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. —June says she has a trap ability called Bitch, Please that amplifies and reflects damage back at the attacker, and if the robot gets in, it will trigger the trap. —Or something like that. —June's thoughts are pretty confusing and jumbled right now. She's angry and really stressed out. >>Five seconds.

The snowy clearing in front of the house went very still and then a narrow-barreled arm rose out of the TLX's body and shot four glowing tracers that stuck in June's barrier like darts in a dartboard. The darts were arranged in a square slightly larger than TLX's body. The space inside the square rippled like water and became visible. Ability Notification! Threat Level 3 Knickknack Savant - Level 5 The instant TLX sped through the permeable doorway, several things happened at once.

June's barrier became visible as a transparent sphere all around the cabin, and then the whole thing shattered and disappeared like a glass firework. TLX's narrow gun barrel arm shot what looked like four tiny lightning bolts at each of the four humans in quick succession. When the bolt hit Cassie, her body convulsed, and she dropped to the floor. Her ability orb spun out of her hand and fell into the snow below the porch. George's bolt hit his armor and diffused in a crackle of static light.

The bolt that hit June bounced back at TLX and sent the robot careening sideways through the air, leaving June unharmed. The bolt that hit Loveland seemed not to affect him either. He crushed the ability orb in his hand, and George got a notification. Ability Orb Activated (Loveland) Pawns On A Chessboard: Lock down everyone in your current hunting room so that they cannot move from a two-foot by two-foot square for ten minutes.

No physical, magical, or ability-based actions they initiate can leave the square for the duration. A black or white square appeared beneath all of them, just like a chessboard. TLX's body was wider than the square and the invisible barrier immediately halted the robot's momentum and held him fast. George touched the walls of the square around them and found the invisible barrier both cold and solid as metal. >>9: 56 on the ability orb. >>12 minutes left in the hunting round.

Cassie was bent over with her hands on her knees. She was taking deep breaths, but she straightened up and nodded at Loveland and then glared at TLX. Loveland said, "You OK, sweetheart?" Eight arms grew from every part of TLX's body and he hammered on the walls of his barrier.

"Release me!" TLX said in a loud voice.

"I have identified five members of the red team and eliminated two members of the blue team. We have nearly crossed a threshold of statistical inevitability if you vote as I instruct you."

"Your strategy is flawed," George said.

"People aren't programmed like machines. We don't have decision trees. We don't count percentages."

"That is why you must do what I tell you to do," TLX said.

"I have access to a host of metadata on the likelihood of any outcome in a given scenario. I can…"

"Your decision-making skills are not your problem. Your problem is that you're an asshole," George said.

"And we don't like you. And you're bullying people. And you threatened a child."

"You are being irrational. Your feelings are irrelevant," TLX said.

"Our feelings are going to become pretty relevant when the ability orb wears off and these two hit you with whatever weapons and abilities they have up their sleeves," George said, nodding at June and Loveland.

"This is how people work. If you hurt their friends, they aren't going to like you. If they don't like you, they hurt you back. Got it?"

"Is that a threat, George?" TLX said. George was silent for a moment, then he said, "Yes. That is a threat. Cassie is not on the red team and that doesn't matter. If you hurt her, I will do everything I can to see you removed from this game one way or another. I will oppose you in every possible way."

"You would do this even though obeying my orders is the surest path to victory?" TLX said.

"Yes," George said.

"Even if she has used her mental abilities to sway your opinion of her?" TLX said. George looked at Cassie, who raised her chin and said, "You're good, George. I am, too." George looked back at TLX and shrugged as if to say, " There you go."

"Even if your opposition to me makes you my enemy?" the robot asked. Instead of answering, George summoned one of his ability orbs into his hand and crushed it. Ability Orb Activation I Am Your Father: Link two players. The linked players will always begin in the same room in the hunting rounds. If one is killed during the hunting round, the other is removed from the game with no rewards. You have been linked to Cassie Junipera. >>George. What are you doing? If she dies now, we're out of the trial.

>>And did you think to ask her if she wants to get ejected with no rewards if we die? >>She's on our team. —It's OK, Nod. >>Jesus Christ. >>This mama bear shit is going to get us killed someday. >>You do know that, despite what that ability orb is called, you are NOT this girl's father, right? Cassie laughed.

"That ability orb linked Cassie and me. If she dies, I am ejected from the trial. If I die, the same happens to her. If you kill her, you'll lose me too." >>3 minutes left on the ability orb timer. >>6: 30 left in the round.

"So, what are you going to do when the timer runs out?" George said. The machine did not respond for half a minute, and George started to think it would not respond. Then, it said, "I will not harm the girl. You are a low level and likely to die anyway. If you die, then a member of the blue team is also removed." >>There is that trademark emotional sensitivity we are coming to know and love.

TLX went on, "If your relationship with the girl serves to subvert her vote in service to the Red team, then I will also have achieved an advantage."

"If you can ensure that your comrades will not attack me when the ability orb runs out, I will depart and take no further actions against you," TLX said. George looked at Loveland, who shrugged.

"Free passage lasts five seconds," June said.

"If you are still here in the time it takes to pick up my staff, I am going to use it on you." >>And just like that, the benighted, underdog father linked himself to a child who was barely more than a stranger, changing the course of her destiny in an ill-advised projection of his fraught relationship with his own mysterious past.

"How did you acquire an emissary shard? And how did you acquire the armor of one of the highest-level players in the trial?" TLX said in an abrupt change of subject.

"When the signal from your implant changed, I thought that your node spider had finished taking over your body." June and Loveland turned to stare at George.

"It is a long story," George said.

"You have a node spider?" Loveland said, his voice a curious mixture of condolence and something that sounded like awe.

"It's OK," Cassie said.

"It isn't a normal node spider." >>You'd think if something was literally hiding inside your skull, you could keep it secret, but nooooo… not with telepaths and x-ray robots floating around everywhere. Suddenly, the contents of one's cranium are a topic for public discussion.

"Is that how you killed Webb?" June asked.

"I didn't kill Webb," George said.

"The slime did. I just took his armor."

"You should know that Webb had a partner in the trial, another Moa," June said.

"Her name is Sarala. She is a bounty hunter and a flenser class. I do not think she will have a good reaction to seeing you wearing his armor when he does not show up in the voting round."

"I don't suppose she'll allow me to explain the situation?" George said.

"Good luck with that," June said.

"If you are truly allied with the node spider infesting you, it will be able to integrate with the armor's security protocols to aid your defense," TLX said.

"The shard in your hand will enable a suite of offensive and defensive capabilities and voidmetal can withstand most kinetic and magical force." >>Except slime to the face, apparently. >>Sorry again for breaking our best chance at survival, George, but a Nod had to do what a Nod had to do. >>Also, that ability orb ends in about 20 seconds. We'll see what Johnny Five does once he's free. I suggest you use Draw on Cassie's teleportation ability orb the moment you can, just in case.

A white line appeared in George's vision, identifying the location of the dropped ability orb. It had rolled off the edge of the porch and disappeared into a pile of snow.

"The members of the Red team that I have identified in addition to you are the feral gnacker, Tinntannabel, Carthage, and Misco Narisco," TLX said.

"I have eliminated two members of the blue team, the players Vesper and Lorelai." Then the ability orb timed out and TLX immediately zipped off toward the portal without another word. Ability Notification! Threat Level 1 Knickknack Savant: Level 1 George used Draw on the ability orb and it caught in in mid-air as it flew toward his hand. You have acquired an ability orb! The Better Part of Valor: You and all players within five feet of you are teleported to random rooms in the hunting maze.

He walked over and handed it back to Cassie. Loveland walked back inside the cabin, presumably to put his armor back on before the round ended.

"Thanks for letting us into your cabin," Cassie said. June just grunted in response. —I can't talk to you two mentally in the voting room. Reading minds doesn't work there for some reason. —But I guess we will see each other in the next hunting round. —I'm glad I hid in that room in the manor house. —This is exactly what my parents told me to do. Find good people to team up with, lay low, and fry everyone else's brain if they mess with me. >>Kids grow up so fast these days. >>See you around, Cassie.

Then the round ended and they were suddenly back in the voting room.