I had a great nap — a whole peaceful hour while the drugs did their work. And they were some strong drugs. I yawned and fumbled for the water bottle, greedily drinking half of what was left, then looked at Bask to make sure he had made it through the hour. I thought about waking him up and giving him some water, but decided it was better not to rush him — I seemed to remember something about not giving people water for the first few hours after abdominal injuries. He could decide for himself once he woke up. I’m sure the system would warn him if it was a bad idea to drink water.
I grabbed my last nutritional cube from my belt bag and devoured it greedily, washing it down with the rest of the water. My stomach was fueled, but my hunger still wasn’t satisfied — my eyes looked around for a food room of their own accord. I decided to wait for Yorka, then go get breakfast.
Or maybe I could get a little more sleep?
No. It was already nine. The day would fly by quicker than I could keep up with, and I had to get something useful done. First I would read the last system message.
Plunar xarls exterminated
Prize: Game challenge for any party member. (O)
Amazing. So generous. One-time? So the next pluxes we killed wouldn’t net us prizes? Would it stop being considered heroism and just be seen as routine work?
I looked around and saw that the closest wall screen was right above our chosen ledge. Essentially, it was hanging right above our beds. All I had to do was carefully turn myself around, carefully arrange my injured legs, and push the plux corpses in their blood-soaked rags behind my back. I wasn’t worried about getting dirty, since I already looked like I had just crawled out of hell. The ceiling dome had already stopped above us twice, gleaming disapprovingly through its shields. I was sure that as soon as we stood up from the ledge, we’d be instantly forced into the showers. Hygiene first!
I moved, rested my no-longer-complaining lower back against the pile of corpses, straightened my knees, then dropped my left hand to my knee, gently bending and straightening the elbow a few times first. It wasn’t quite as blue and swollen anymore. The medicine was working.
I selected myself as the group member accepting the challenge. The screens in the hallway all flashed my number. Everyone around froze in anticipation — would Eleven be fast enough to accept the challenge? What game would it be? I had already noticed that these frequent game challenges were real entertainment for the zombies, goblins, and orcs living here. Maybe for any miraculously-surviving worms, these challenges were a rare source of joy. It’s always nice to look at a loud, fun image...
Nether Earth.
One round.
Select difficulty:
Easy.
Normal.
Hard.
This definitely wasn’t tic-tac-toe...
Difficulty?
I looked thoughtfully at the screen, took a few seconds to think, then shrugged and chose the highest difficulty level offered. Hard. The whole hallway let out a collective gasp, followed by openly vicious laughter and jeering comments about how I was about to get my ass kicked. There was a good chance they were right — I was taking a huge risk. Although... It was strange, but the name of the game seemed vaguely familiar, even fun. I made my choice based on this feeling, putting my trust in my guy recognition and intuition. Now I would find out how right — or wrong — I was.
The menu vanished. The screen got brighter. The game started. It took me a minute to get my bearings. I saw primitive graphics, heard jarring sounds that mimicked disturbing music. There was a rudimentary fortress on the screen with the letter ‘H’ on it, and a rectangle swayed in the air nearby... Some kind of levitating platform... Apparently, I could control it. I wiggled my fingers, trying to figure it out as quickly as possible, dragging the platform from side to side. When I brought it over the ‘H’, the menu changed, throwing me into some kind of factory that produced... combat robots... I could choose a chassis, weapons, electronics... And so many different weapons — phasers, missiles, cannons, nuclear weapons! I picked the cheapest equipment, built a robot, and looked further down the menu until I saw an option to give it orders. I could have it take over factories or enemy bases, wait for a direct order, or go on the assault...
It was a strategy game! And everything I was seeing told me it was real-time strategy.
