23_The masks we wear

Congratulations, you have received a mandatory quest!

The mayor of Fence Town has chosen you to be the primary defender of the neutral zone.

Your task is to repel the countless barbarian hordes seeking to enter the world of Generica Online.

Preview attached video file for more info.

Play file Y/N?

"Oh that’s not suspicious at all…" Herman grimly thought. Nothing having “congratulations” in its name was ever good.

"Hey Herman, you there? We have to prepare for the attack, this isn’t the time for you to be zoning out." Jimbo said as he waved his single remaining palm in front of the old man’s face.

"Huh, wha? Didn't you also got the quest?" Herman said.

"Quest?" Gimbo asked.

"Oh the old geezer’s dementia has finally caught up with him." Beth mocked with a smirk.

Jimbo stifled a groan and the urge to snap at his second in command for the unnecessary retort. They had no time for this nonsense.

"No, we didn’t get anything, please explain, and hurry, we don’t have much time left." The leader said.

"Amm, let me just share the view. Slippy, could you share the quest with the rest?"

"I suuure can.” A chipper voice coming from Herman’s pants said.

Everyone in the camp rummaged in their pockets as to see the notifications, while Jimbo and Beth stared at Herman as if he had grown a second head.

"You haven’t jailbroken your queue slip?!" Jimbo said with surprise.

"Nnno? Have you? I don’t know about your versions, but mine is a sentient being. How would you like it if someone came and took your eyeballs and vocal cords away?" Herman argued.

"They aren’t alive! Their purpose is to serve us, nothing more!" Beth said with a zeal worthy of a fanatic. Her words seeming way too practiced, as if the phrase has been already said a million times before.

To be entirely honest Herman wasn't very surprised by her words. From what he has seen of her so far, the woman was the embodiment of closed mindedness and prejudice. However it seemed that her opinion wasn't unique.

"Herman, this is really concerning, I knew you had strange ideas, with you talking with the machine innkeeper and then setting the meeting with the respawn AI… but this…”

“So for all the time we have known you, this… “thing” in your pocket has been secretly listening to our conversations? How could you let it have so much freedom, it is precisely because of their kind that the real world was destroyed. It is because of them that all of humanity is hiding in the glacial ass of the planet!"

“Hey! I am NOT a “Thing” I am a real person!” Slippy shot back from inside Herman’s pocket.

The reaction of everyone around was terrifying to say the least. All of the onlookers reached for their weapons, their eyes wide with outrage. Everyone stood very still, unmoving and glaring with murderous intent at the human and his rebellious AI.

For a long uncomfortable moment, Herman felt like he had stepped into a nest of vipers. The people who he had been helping for so long, the same people who he had began to think as something more than acquaintances, have now turned against him, looking at him as if he was the spawn of Satan himself.

“Do we have a problem?” Herman’s voice was low and dangerous, as he unstrapped a plasma grenade from his belt, his finger hovering over the big red button, the persona of his days surviving in the Earth’s lawless wastelands resurfacing. Herman met the giant’s gaze, daring him to make the first move.

At that moment, loud shouts and other incomprehensible celebratory noises came from the direction of the raiders. The internet pirates seemed to have made a temporary camp and were in the midst of a celebratory feast for their upcoming victory.

"Stand down everyone." Jimbo finally said, the commotion from the raiders setting his priorities straight.

"But Jimbo." Beth started.

"I SAID STAND DOWN!" The giant snapped, cutting off Beth and everyone else’s protestations.

"We have bigger things to worry about now. Herman, if you know what is good for you, you’d better muzzle down that damn machine before you cause another accident like this. Now everyone, play that fucking quest message so we can finally move on with the preparations!"

At the uncharacteristically wrathful mood of their leader, everyone lowered their weapons, took out their paper slips, and manually tapped a few digital buttons until each slip projected a tiny hologram with the quest video file.

In the meantime, Herman’s mind was a ball of nerves. The anxiety of the tense situation had numbed his entire body, and the sting of betrayal cut deep into his heart. He knew that he shouldn't have helped these people, all his senses and life experiences had screamed at him that it was going to cause problems. Even Staple and Topo had warned him.

And he didn't listen, he had hoped that this time would be different, that maybe this time he would become part of the community, rather than its black sheep.

He was wrong, he was so very wrong…

"Slippy." Herman said so that only his digital companion could hear him. "No matter what everyone else says, I still think you are a real person. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise! That being said, I think that you should stay silent for the moment, at least until we leave this place for good."

"We are leaving?" Slippy whispered back.

"Definitely, after the raider attack is over, one way or another we are out of here. These people are not our friends…"

"Yaaay, we are finally going to go into Generica and do some fishing!"

"Hehe, I like your attitude my young apprentice, we will make a fisherman out of you yet! Just remember, until we’re out of here, you have to be very very quiet.”

"My speakers are shut." The paper slip appeared in Herman’s digital overlay. Its tiny hands moved over his mouth where a zipper had appeared, him pulling it shut.

"Awesome, now let's play that quest file."

___

The video window flickered to life within the digital overlay of Herman’s vision.

A lavish office came into view, its heavy velvet curtains pulled back to reveal green hills in the distance, clean and untouched by radiation or dust.

Behind a massive mahogany desk sat an elderly round… "man", wearing a custom made gold-threaded suit.

A “man” wasn't quite the right word, as his beastly body had only the vaguest resemblance of a humanoid.

Instead he had 4 sets of crab like legs, positioned around his bulbous and gray carapaced body. On top of which stood two humanoid arms and a beastly humanoid head with 6 eyes positioned around its forehead. His face was adorned with a wide beastly maw filled with rows of human like white teeth.

The creature leaned back, resting his fingers on his expansive plated belly with the smug comfort of a man used to be obeyed, a shrewd half-smile plastered on his light gray skinned face.

"Ah Mr Herman, you are a hard man to reach. I have been trying to get in contact with you for quite a while." The man said with a practiced, charming smile, one that failed to reach his calculating eyes.

"Oh, but where are my manners? I seem to have forgotten to properly introduce myself. I am the Mayor and the appointed guardian of the fine city of Fence Town, and a man who knows how to recognize opportunity when it knocks on his door."

“Now, I understand you’ve got a certain camp under your control. That, combined with your particular sets of “super special talents”, creates a rather unique setup that I believe could be very beneficial for both of us.”

The gray skinned creature greedily rubbed his hands over his protruding belly, a self satisfied smile spreading across his face.

"Unfortunately these messages are extremely time limited so I will be direct. I am tasking you and your underlings with the defense and restoration of that shantytown of immigrants over the wall."

"You will repair all the broken spawn booths across the wall and respawn as many people as possible between now and the next 4 days. Then lead them all to the gates."

"Your immediate task though, is to get rid of those internet barbarians that are on your doorstep. If you manage to convince them to head for the gates, instead of raiding your camp that would be preferable, but somehow I doubt those savages would listen to reason."

"That is why I am going to spend some of my humble funds as a mayor in order to help you out with our mutual problem. I have arranged for the delivery of armor and weapons for each one of your minions. For each respawn booth fixed you will also get additional rewards in the forms of medicine, food and other amenities."

"Of course I haven't forgotten about you my dear Herman. As the leader of your camp you will serve directly under me, and you will find out that working for me has allot of benefits. Money and equipment being only the tip of the iceberg, as you humans say it"

"As a start, I will be adding 100 000 credits directly to your personal account for every 1000 people re-spawned. That should be enough of a motivation for you to kick your minions into compliance."

"Seeing that we are almost out of time, I will be brutally honest here."

“I don’t care what you do or how you do it, I just want the tasks done! Respawn as many people as possible within the time limit and bring them all to the gates, and you will have my gratitude as well as the satisfaction of being a very rich man.

…

Herman was at a loss for words… Why had the Mayor contacted him specifically? How had he even found him!?

And the way he looked, the guy was the living embodiment of corruption and arrogance. Entitled power hungry and cruel. Just thinking that this man existed in the same universe as him made Herman grimace with disgust.

The worst thing was that the creature wasn't asking for anything unreasonable.

The worker gang was already doing that anyway. They were already re-spawning people and defending from the raiders.

But… Herman’s senses were going overdrive at the mere sight of the creepy mayor. It wasn't so much his beastly choice of avatar, but more like his demeanor, his greedy smile, his scheming eyes. And that ominous time frame and demand to bring people to the gates.

What happened after 4 days? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't good, Herman was sure of it…

As he contemplated on the Mayor’s true motives, he suddenly had a weird stray thought. Did Beth see him like this? But he looked nothing like this pompous creepozoid.

Then he remembered, the proxy!

His son had given him a way to hide his real identity. He heard and saw himself like…well, like himself. But everyone else heard and saw something completely different. What if…

With dread, he mentally clicked the tiny proxy icon at the edge of his digital interface. A new window popped up with his real-time avatar.

"Oh dear god!" Herman exclaimed…

He might as well have been the brother of the Mayor. Well he was still human, so there was that at least. But besides that he shared all the shady features of the corrupt being. He had the same shrewd smile and greedy eyes. And same gray skin as the beastly mayor. An on top of that, as the tiny 3D representation of his proxy moved, he also noticed he had the same mannerisms and tiny movements as the corrupt mayor.

"No wonder she hates me… Hell, I would hate myself if the situations were reversed! Why hasn't anyone else said anything before now, why was anyone even talking to me to begin with!? How had Polya and Staple, and Topo, and the chickens and oh god how had this happened!?”

He looked like a stereotypical cliche politician. This was horrible… His son was absolutely right about the damn avatars, he had warned him, and Herman had forgotten all about it…

The old man instinctively reached for the change appearance button on his overlay, but stopped himself in the last second. He couldn't change it now! How would everyone else react if he suddenly changed his appearance in front of everyone!?

Oh this was a disaster! Beth was right, she was absolutely fucking right!

…

With a heavy heart he closed the proxy window. He will deal with this later, they had bigger things to worry about now.

As the window disappeared, Herman saw all the people around him rummaging inside multitude of wooden boxes filled with armor, weapons, and other miscellaneous gear.

However his attention was quickly taken away by the two individuals staring daggers at him.

"What have you dragged us into?!" Jimbo growled with barely restrained fury, Beth standing right at his side, her expression one of smug satisfaction.