48_Epilogue

Columns of people stretched across the land, while the Internet Metropolis at the far distance was engulfed in flames. The neutral zone teemed with the internet refugees, a massive migratory wave fleeing toward the recently destroyed wall and the green lands beyond.

Meanwhile, Polya had ran off to god knows where to chase after Flufy_Pink_Unicorn_16 and save her familiars.

At the same time, Heartsun had returned back to the worker camp and the rest of his kin.

The first thing the garden chieftain saw when he got home, was the shriveled from thirst vegetable plants face off with the hungry and tired worker gang humans.

It seemed that while he was gone, the fragile peace between plants and humans had fallen apart.

With the revelation of the plants sentience, the workers were unwilling to trust any thinking artificial beings. So instead of continuing to cooperate, they were now trying to subjugate the leafy beings.

The sunflower chieftain wasn't angered, but simply disappointed. Instead of escalating things, he quietly gathered his tribe and left the camp for good.

Of course the humans tried to stop them, but Heartsun had grown and leveled much since he departed. Not as much as his friend Herman, but still more than enough to scare the fight off from the leaderless worker gang.

He didn’t know what the humans would do now that their leaders were gone and their main sources of food, the inn and the garden, had abandoned them.

He wistfully remembered the time when he was just a baby dandelion puppy.

The time before his evolution was filled with warm memories spend with the humans. His role model Jimbo had inspired him to be so much more. He was the reason Heartsun had chosen his current form. It was to resemble the muscled giant human, who took care of him when he was little.

And yet, that same human had rejected him when he found out Heartsun was more than an unthinking animal. And later on he even tried to kill his other friends. Not for any other reason, but because of contempt and fear…

Heartsun shook his head, pushing the bitter memories aside. The feeling hurt, it really pained him that things had turned this way…

Still, he was a chieftain now, and he had to look towards the future, not revel in the past. What mattered now was the future of his garden tribe and everyone in it who looked up and depended on him.

And with that, the plants departed the camp for good, leaving the humans and all bad memories behind.

…

"So this is how it ends huh…"

Topo said as he flexed his newly installed arm this way and that, while Herman fussed around the robot like a worker bee.

He fidgeted and tinkered with various mechanical parts of the bot’s anatomy, until he was fully satisfied that the new body he had build for his mustached friend was up to specs.

Herman slapped the chassis of Topo with a gloomy smile. “Well, you are good to go.”

Staple involuntarily twitched at the sight of Herman slapping her husband’s ass, but chose to ignore her instincts. She could sense that something was bothering her human friend and she didn’t want to annoy him with a comical remark.

Herman had chosen to stay behind for a while, doing his best to restore both mechanoids to their full selves.

Ordinarily it would have been faster to just die and respawn, but all nearby respawn booths have met their unfortunate demise. Most being destroyed along with the wall. Which left the big one at Fence town’s main square. That one however, along with the square itself was now a toad shape hole in the town’s landscape, having the unfortunate fate of being at the wrong place during one of Larry’s hops.

And the single remaining pirate buss had been taken away to god knows where. Presumably somewhere where it won't tempt the Escaldian battle cruisers from breaking the fragile truce and blasting it to oblivion.

So in short, dying now meant you ended up at a random respawn point across the entirety of Generica.

…

Herman and Staple stood atop the ruins of the gate, gazing at the distant horizon of Generica Online. Mountain tops rose in the distance, with lush green fields stretching between them. The cold wind swept across the landscape, carrying the faint scent of the fertile land. A stark contrast between the life stricken irradiated neutral zone and the burning internet metropolis behind them.

Herman let out a long tired sigh… He wondered where his brother was, was he safe, what was he doing. Was he even alive…

And what about Larry and the Mayor, he was sure those two would cause problems in the near future…

"I am sure he is alright… He and everyone else from the queue have already respawned somewhere inside Generica. The System already confirmed it." Staple said with a compassionate tone, placing a hand on the man’s shoulder.

"I hope so… god knows how long it would take for us to find each other again though. He might be in the next town over, or in the other continent entirely."

"And… the way he died…" At the memory of his little brother’s screams of agony, Herman’s fists clenched, arcs of raw energy snapping and dancing across his skin.

Noticing the raw power he was burdened with acting out, he reluctantly calmed down, the energy slowly dissipating.

"We will find him, don’t have any doubts about that. Me and Topo are here for you. Not to mention the vast network of mechanical beings inside Slippy’s friend list. With all of that we are sure to succeed."

Touched by the unusual sense of kinship, the man simply nodded, unwilling to trust his own voice. He then steeled himself for the final challenge of the neutral zone. There was still one final thing he had to do before entering Generica.

___

"Next." The bored guardsman said, waving with his wooden digital pad for the family to move past him.

"Next! Come on move it, you are slowing down the queue sir." The bot said with a tired voice.

"Oh, yes, yes, I am sorry." The old man said, a mix of sheepishness and giddy excitement on his face, before taking a single step forward to approach the mustached border guard.

"Papers please." The bot said with a practiced tone, as if he had said those same words countless times before.

"Papers?!" The man exclaimed, startled at the unexpected question. Well am, you see, about that, those might be a bit difficult to get since…

"Sir… do you have papers or not? You are wasting mine and everyone else’s time." The bored/tired bot stated, tilting his head to the side to indicate the empty space behind the man, distinctly lacking of any people.

Herman briefly wondered if he could just make a run for it and simply walk around the remains of the gate and the guard station. After all there was nothing stopping him or anyone else from simply ignoring the border check and walking into Generica.

Still, that wasn't how Herman wanted to complete the challenge of the neutral zone. He would do this the PROPER way. Still, there was more than one way to pet a cat. If the straightforward way didn’t work, there were always “other ways”.

"Oh, I am sorry, how clumsy of me. Here are the missing documents." Herman said, nonchalantly passing the guard a credit chip concealed in his palm.

The, CHIEF border guardsman narrowed his eyes at the human, fixing him with a cold scrutinizing stare only a seasoned and very much incorruptible officer of the law could pull off.

"Herman you dingus, did you forget about me?! Hi Topo, your mustache looks quite bushy today. Did you wax it or something?" Slippy said, hopping off Herman’s shirt pocket and into his extended palm, cleverly hiding the bribe while proudly presenting himself to the guardsman.

Topo raised one equally as bushy eyebrow at the paper slip, choosing to ignore the bribery attempt AND the slip’s jab at his amazing mustache.

"The papers will refrain from talking during the inspection session." The bot said in a no-nonsense tone, giving the chatty slip a deep frown that made the baby AI huddle into his digital screen like a turtle.

After inspecting the digital slip for a while longer, the guard spoke once again. "Alright… everything seems to be in order sir."

"Phew." Herman sighed in relief, he was worried that after everything he wouldn't be able to legally enter into his retirement life after all, but it seemed he was worrying for nothi…

"There is one last thing though… That being the matter of the probing." The guardsman added.

"Probing?!" Herman exclaimed, his voice cracking at the unexpected complication.

"Oh yes, we at Generica border control station 1, take security very seriously." The bot said with pride as he pulled a blue surgical glove onto his metallic hand, the rubber making a distinctive squeak.

"Please bend over sir, this will take but a moment."

"Whoa whoa whoa, let's calm down here!" Herman said in a very uncalm manner, making a few steps away from the creepy guard.

"Topo, role playing aside, this wasn't how I imagined my entrance into retirement to be!"

"I am sorry Herman, but rules are the rules. Everyone is checked for contraband, no exceptions. Even your Super Duper Legendary ass isn’t exempt from this." Topo said, making one threatening step towards the panicking man.

"What?! I’m sure there was a bullet point about this somewhere!" He exclaimed, squinting at the slip’s screen, reading through the benefits of his super duper legendary package. However the point he was searching for was distinctly missing!

"I..I could swear it was there…"

"Mhm… everyone says that…" Topo said, resuming his stern border guard persona.

"Come on sir, this will take only, but, a moment." Topo said, emphasising the but part and pulling out a Vaseline tube, beginning to unscrew the top.

"OH MY GOD! Stay back you perverted bot, I am not letting you or anyone else probe me!"

"Stay back I said!" Herman warned, brandishing a newly summoned trout at the all too eager border guard.

"I’d rather be illegal immigrant than to endure whatever the hell you are intending on doing!"

Topo summoned all his chief guardsman authority and fixed the human with a piercing stare, his mustache bristling and his expression stern, making Herman sweat under the intensity of it. Then, in an instant, the whole guardsman persona collapsed, replaced by the cackling figures of Topo and his accomplice Slippy.

"Bahahah! You should have seen your face!" Topo guffawed, joined by the childlike excitement of Slippy, who could no longer restrain his giggles.

"Herman, you are way too easy to trick." Topo said between laughs.

"Slippy just hid the point from the screen, you are indeed exempt from that. And even if you weren't, I sure as hell wouldn't do that to anyone. We have scanners for that."

"See." Topo said, waving his wooden pad over the human. Holographic projections scanned him, and the display flashed green.

"There, easy peasy."

"Welcome to Generica Online." Topo said as he stamped the corner of Slippy’s digital paper, indicating it with his official stamp of approval.

"You asshole!" Herman shouted back, throwing the fish he had just summoned at the guardsman’s head.

The bot quickly dodged the attack, the aquatic projectile passing him by and colliding with the closed gate behind him. It blasted through the wooden gate, making a fish shaped hole in it. Then whatever remained from the gate slowly began to tilt and fall down, destroying the final remains of the once great wall.

"Ups…. I am sorry, I really don’t know my strength anymore…" Herman said with a sheepish expression, startled from the display of strength and the fact that he had nearly killed his friend.

"SORRY." He shouted at one of the massive battle dragons hovering directly above them in the sky.

The oversized lizard squinted his eyes at the puny human below, scoffed, then resumed staring the internet battle cruisers at the distance, putting all thoughts of the human away.

"You okay?" Herman eventually said, after the dragon had shifted his attention off him.

"Urgh…" And I thought all those jokes of guards dying 1 day away from retirement were funny… Topo said as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

"I am sorry for that…" Herman again apologized, gesturing at Topo, the remains of the wooden gate and the startled refugee onlookers around them, who were doing their best to maintain a healthy distance from the overpowered freak.

"It's fine… I suppose I deserved that, nobody likes being probed." the bot said, guilt flickering across his face.

He shifted his gaze to the fully demolished gate lying on the ground. "Well, this is it then." the bot said, his voice heavy with finality.

With a swift motion, he unstrapped his guardsman vest and tossed it onto the ruins of the guard station.

"You my friend were the last person I checked through. Now, I am officially retired, just like yourself."

"Come, let's check if the bakery is still in one piece. I owe you a box of mumbo juice for springing that joke on you."

"Yaay mumbo juice!" Slippy excitedly squeaked.

"Sure, sounds great." The old man responded. "But, let's keep this incident between us okay?" Herman said with hesitation. "I don’t think it would be safe for either of us if Staple finds out how her husband came this close of being killed by a stray fish, especially after everything we went through to save and rebuild you."

"Agreed." Topo nodded sagely.

…

And with that, Herman finally entered past the gate and into the world of Generica Online.

Things had certainly unfolded in completely different direction than the old man had imagined. He had faced and overcome numerous difficulties, met with new and old people, both good and bad. And through it all Herman was left with conflicted feelings.

From one side he was disappointed that he had gotten to this point through the power of cheats… And that is exactly what his Super Duper Legendary package was. A blatant cheat class that trivialized every win and achievement. And winning for the sake of winning wasn’t something he enjoyed. In fact he considered it a fate far worse than death, a curse he wouldn't wish to his biggest enemy.

And yet, thanks to those cheat powers, he had made good friends along the way. It has been so long since he had interacted with anyone beside his family, that he had forgotten of how exciting it could be if you happened to stumble on the right person. And in this regard he seemed to have landed on the jackpot.

Well of course there were always people like Beth, Jimbo or the Mayor who tested his trust in people. But then again there were people like Staple, Topo, Polya and Slippy who wanted nothing more than to be his friends and help with whatever they could.

Or was it just a matter of time till they showed their true colors and betrayed him along the way? Maybe he should leave them behind before they could stab him in the back? After all he didn’t come here to make friends, but to make his own adventure in this new world.

The sudden grim thought passed through the old man’s mind, resurfacing his deep seated fear of letting anyone close enough to hurt him. He remembered all too many encounters where seemingly friendly companions met on the way, had betrayed him at the first sight of valuable loot. It was human nature after all…

And after giving Beth and Jimbo a chance, they inevitably betrayed his trust at the first opportune moment…

Herman shook his head with frustration, forcing those and other troubling thoughts aside.

He had carried these fears for most of his life, and the days of surviving in the wastelands were now long gone, and so was the time of him hiding in his lab like a hermit.

Living in constant fear of betrayal was no way to move forward. It was time for a new beginning, a chance to embrace his new life, with a clearer mind and an open heart.