I selected ‘Yes’, of course. Yorka did, too. The green prompt disappeared, and new text appeared.
Group leader:
Eleven / Ninety-One.
I selected “Eleven”. Once Yorka picked me too, that would seal the deal. The prompt blinked, then disappeared. No other message appeared, and I checked the menu. I immediately noticed something new:
Status.
Physical Condition.
Finances.
Jobs.
Group.
I selected ‘Group’ and found a submenu:
Group status.
Group members.
I selected the second option first.
Group members:
Eleven. (ORL). Group Leader. Status: normal.
Ninety-One. (ORL). Group Member. Status: normal.
Everything was clear, and not particularly interesting. I clicked my line — no reaction. Then I clicked Yorka’s line, and the system asked if I wanted to make her a leader. There were only two options: leader or member.
Unavailable.
“Why is group status unavailable?” I asked Yorka, unwillingly taking my hand off her warm shoulder.
I didn’t expect an answer, but got one anyway:
“There aren’t enough of us,” she replied. “It’ll be different once there’s at least three of us. I don’t know what, exactly, but I heard that option activates. I’m a loner, though, so I don’t know much about groups.”
“You
“Do you really think I can fall asleep? Are you joking?”
“I can.”
“You’re a weird goblin!”
“An orc. Orc sounds so much more dignified! Hmm... What perks do we get for forming a group?”
“Right now we get nothing. There’s only two of us. Well, almost nothing. You can accept a game challenge for me if I don’t accept it in time or something. When the countdown ends, the system will send the group leader a prompt. If they say no, the GC gets send back to the number lottery.”
“That’s not bad... You can play for me if I don’t know the game.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Only the leader gets the prompt. If I don’t accept it, you get the prompt. If you don’t accept in time, it goes back into the lottery.”
“That’s not fair!”
“Well, that’s life. We’re not in paradise.”
“You’re mistaken.” I looked at her. “Very mistaken.”
“Look around, goblin! Just look! Does this look like paradise to you?”
“It does,” I nodded. “Paradise isn’t some garden of golden fruit trees with quiet music coming down from the sky. If there’s a place like that, they’d never let us in, anyway. We build our own paradise. But we’ve had enough for today. Tomorrow is a beautiful new day...”
“Tomorrow they’ll end us...”
“They’ll definitely try,” I agreed. “But they won’t end us. They might cripple us — me in particular. And if they manage to do something terrible to me, then they’ll beat you up or punish you some other way to teach you a lesson. Then they’ll send you back to work. That’s why I told you to stay silent. If anything happens you can always say I was forcing you to go along. But...”
“But what?”
“But I won’t let them do anything bad to us,” I smiled serenely and stood up. “Let’s head to the capsules, bruise-eyed beauty!”
“Blue-eyed?”
“Bruise-eyed...”
“Fuck you! Die!”
“We’ll all die eventually. But I’ll be last! Now go to sleep.”
Chapter 6
STATUS:
Number: Eleven.
Rank: Nullform (volitional).
Current status: ORL. (three standard meals per day and standard water ration).
Balance: 0
Debt status: in debt.
Total debt owed: 16 sol.
Current time: 03:30.
MY DEBT HAD INCREASED since yesterday. The limb lease wasn’t going anywhere — I still had to pay four sol a day. And yesterday I had decided to skip showers to save a little more.
“Why did we get up so early? This is like, so early it’s still nighttime!” Yorka shivered from the cold and leaned her head back, yawning fiercely.
“We made a few enemies, remember?” I reminded her. “And we have harder orc jobs today, so we should get them done as soon as we can, before anyone decides to get in our way.”
“And they will, that’s for sure.”
“I know. But right now they’re fast asleep, dreaming of punishing us. Did you get your job for today?”
“Yeah.”
“Read it, then tell me. I’ll take a look at mine.”
Job: Collect gray slime.
Description: Collect and deliver eighty standard containers of gray slime to the receiver unit.
Job location: Zone 3, Block 6.
Deadline: Evening end-of-work alarm.
Compensation: 15 sol.
