Crouching down next to it she said, "Are you the same iguana that was leading the iguanas in the first scenario?"
It looked up at her with a bored expression and yawned again.
Picking it up by the back it let out a tiny hiss as it flailed trying to bite her, holding it away from her she said, "I know you can understand me. My theory on the teamwork augment is that it makes you more intelligent and able to cooperate, but makes you loyal to the other iguanas rather than myself."
It stopped struggling and stared at her while hanging limply.
"I don't expect you to blindly follow me, but as you're one of my finalized abilities we're going to see a lot of each other going forward so if we could come to some sort of an agreement I think we would both benefit."
It held still for a moment, but grudgingly nodded its head.
She sat it back on the ground and kneeled across from it as she prepared herself for negotiations.
"Chuck's vibe ability said you were evil, but it couldn't read Billy correctly so it's not fully accurate and what evil even means is different person to person." She looked at the iguana, "So I guess my question is what are your goals so I can determine if it's something I'm opposed to."
The iguana met her eyes and she could almost swear it smiled at her.
What followed was a lengthy discussion that was crippled by the iguana's limited communication abilities. She would suggest ideas and theories and the iguana would shake its head yes or no and hiss when something was a strong no. But gradually she started to get a handle on things with only limited pantomiming.
She found out the iguana was male, his earliest memory was when she summoned him, after one died or the scenario ended the iguanas continued to exist in some sort of liminal space, and the iguanas could control which iguana would be summoned next so it was not a coincidence the evil iguana had been the one sent.
The iguana resented being called evil and she eventually concluded that Chuck's vibe ability hinged on how likely someone was to altruistically help him, the iguana had absolutely no interest in doing so without reason so it registered him as evil despite not having any particular evil plans.
She didn't fully take the iguana at his word, but until proven otherwise she was going to assume he wasn't some sort of contrived Disney villain. As for his actual motivations they seemed heavily influenced by the teamwork augment, he wanted to prevent the suffering of the iguanas as a whole and give them enjoyable experiences. What enjoyable experiences consisted of was a bit vague, but tasty food and nice warm areas to nap seemed high on the priority list.
Luckily she learned that the iguanas had no memory of their time prior to gaining the teamwork augment, so the whole minefield fiasco could just be her little secret.
It was hard to get the details, but the best she could understand wherever the iguanas were when not summoned was not real in a physical sense. They could communicate but didn't have bodies and time seemed to pass inconsistently. The iguana didn't dislike it but seemed to prefer existing in physical reality.
As part of her negotiations, she agreed to the following conditions.
- She wouldn't summon iguanas into dangerous situations where they would only suffer as cannon fodder
- She would do her best to summon iguanas when encountering things they would enjoy such as tasty food or scenic rivers
In exchange, the iguana agreed to "assist her when convenient". It had taken a long time to arrive at that exact phrasing and she didn't appreciate the ambiguity, but considering her side of the agreement didn't require much from her it seemed fair.
Ding~!
She tensed in anticipation of some new hellish transformation experience, but instead, her eyebrows just tickled briefly and a shiver went down her spine.
Taking out her phone she inspected the changes, she hadn't had her old face for long so it was hard to remember what they previously looked like, but they were now very dense and maybe a bit bigger. Luckily they didn't reach the point of being a unibrow and she felt they were probably cute in some people's opinions.
She rubbed them hard as the tickling sensation faded away.
Looking down at the iguana she said, "Only one thing left comrade. You need a name!"
Picking a name ended up taking almost as long as all the negotiations leading up to that point.
The iguana fiercely rejected Malakar, Vorrak, Draven, Zyphor, Kaelthorn, Morgrimm, Sethis, Xalvoth, Dreadmar, Varzoth, Nyxarion, Zarthisk, Korrvain, Threxius, Veyzor, Nocthar, Zorvok, Malphas, Vaelric, Oblivar.
At that point, she was forced to admit that maybe names that sounded like they were for an arch-villain in a fantasy novel wouldn't do.
Switching to more mundane names, but still with a bit of evil-flair she tried Victor, Damien, Cyrus, Lucian, Dorian, Silas, Ronan, Jaxon, Dominic, Vince, Talon, Drake, Blaise, Lucius, Isaac, Maximus, Thorne, Dexter, Kane, Vaughn.
Again he rejected them all. At that point, she just started trying to name any name she could think of.
An hour later she finally said a name that switched the iguana's dismissive head waves into an enthusiastic nod.
"Jasper?"
Jasper nodded again and she collapsed in relief. She no longer had opinions of names and was just glad to take a break from trying to think of new ones.
Her stomach rumbled and Jasper climbed back onto her shoulder while she headed out to get food.
Outside her room, she saw several generated milling around. Alfred was to one side answering questions. More and more the generated were starting to be indistinguishable from normal people, aside from their identical gray outfits. Their robotic expressions and movements were becoming more natural and they were analyzing the world around them rather than stumbling through it.
They were all also sporting new eyebrows. She spotted Francine standing defensively in a corner with their arms crossed. Francine's eyebrows were jagged like lightning bolts and gave them a fierce appearance.
Walking up to them Gen asked, "You eat breakfast yet?"
Francine looked distracted, but shook their head, eyes locked on Bo in the distance who had a small group of generated talking amably with him.
Gen followed their gaze and asked, "You and Bo haven't made up?"
Francine shook their head finally focused on Gen, "He told me not to talk to him unless I was done telling him what to do."
Gen made an awkward expression.
Francine sighed, "I know, I know. Just…"
Gen shrugged, "In one of my lives I ran a board game shop. We'd get new people all the time and frankly, many of them were terrible at the games I would try to advise on strategies, but the more I tried to help the more they'd insist on playing the game their way."
Francine shook her head, "Those are just games though. This is real life, some things are easier here, but this reality looks like it has its own cruelties and consequences don't always get reset when a scenario ends. Trauma sticks with you and I want Bo to avoid it."
Gen nodded, "The lesson I learned from the games is that when people found out that I was right all along they didn't come back. When they learned on their own they kept coming." She glanced at Bo, "They made the same mistakes either way, but they didn't resent me when they could learn it on their own."
Francine seemed to consider that, "So you stopped helping people?"
Gen laughed, "No! I couldn't help myself, but some things are more obvious in hindsight… my shop was never very successful." She looked toward the hall, "I say we get breakfast and play it by ear, Bo won't get fully traumatized in an afternoon and maybe some distance will make your advice less preachy."
Francine groaned, but let themselves get dragged to the cafeteria.
Breakfast was… spaghetti again. Jasper didn't seem to mind, but Gen was already sensing why people might be tempted to blow their savings on better food.
Francine ate quietly before saying, "Bo told me that my perspective was skewed by my memories… I personally think I'm better off than being naive like him, but I also can't suppress my suspicion of why you approached me and what you want. Every memory I have even my new ones with Bo has ended with people abandoning and betraying me."
Gen loudly slurped a mouthful of noodles while considering the question.
"I don't know why I approached you. I haven't been myself long enough to know if I'm just naturally gregarious or something, but everyone else was talking with someone and so you were the easiest to approach…" She hesitated, "Also I'm asking everyone how many viewers they have and you're the only one who I haven't gotten yet, except Alfred. He refused to tell me because it apparently is rude to ask, which I already knew, but I pretended to not know yet when I asked him."
She'd sent Jacob a question asking him as well in the end. He had given a very long reply about social norms and how you weren't supposed to ask but told her the answer in the end anyway that he had 65.
Francine stared at her blankly.
Gen took another mouthful and asked, "So how many viewers do you have? Mine went up to 11 this morning."
Francine's brow scrunched up, "How do you know? I only found out how many I had when LEO would mention it in my head sometimes."
Gen quickly had Francine pull out their phone and look at the viewer app which would display their current viewer count and historical trend.
Gen's past self Kyle had been a complete phone addict so her device had already been fully explored much to her disappointment.
Opposed to the eras she remembered that were full of "free" services that harvested your data, this reality seemed to only have paid apps and despite her urge to relapse into his addiction, she was too broke to splurge on social media apps.
"I have 16, it's down from 19 before."
Gen frowned, Francine still had more than her, but they were the first person to have lost viewers that she knew of.
Before she could say anything comforting a collection of polls resolved.
Ding~!
Zombies again!? You guys never get sick of those do you? Well same as usual, but I'll explain for anyone who lives under a rock or was born yesterday!
Antagonists can acquire various infection sources at their headquarters. These can infect event NPCs or actors equally! Infecting humans will earn you contribution points which can be used to purchase event equipment at your headquarters!
Protagonists can also acquire event equipment and antidotes at their headquarters. Killing zombies or antagonists will earn you contribution points.
Friendly fire will lose you contribution points! So don't kill spies unless you're really really really really sure they're lying!
There are one hundred event zones linked together and a zone is considered lost if 80% of the population dies. Protagonists win if at least twenty zones remain at the event end!
Now go out there and get some brains!
Gen refocused and saw Francine had also been looking zoned out. She asked, "Did you sign up for the event?"
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Francine nodded, but looked at her suspiciously and asked, "Which team are you on?"
Gen paused, but shrugged, "I'm an antagonist."
Francine hesitated before saying, "Me too." They looked around, "We're not in an event zone right?"
Gen looked to the door half expecting a zombie to come lumbering through before saying, "We should go talk to Alfred."
They shoved a few mouthfuls in before hurrying back to the dormitory room. Jasper had a long noodle hanging from his mouth as she dragged him along with her.
A crowd was in front of Alfred as they entered, it seemed almost all the new generated had opted to participate. Even the taxman was listening in as Alfred spoke.
"Okay couple of reminders, remember to only act out the event when in the event zone. Even if you find out someone is on the opposite team out here you can't attack them without being arrested."
He gave them all a hard look to let that settle in, "To find the event areas use your phone's map app it will outline the event area and you can also use it to locate your headquarters."
The taxman interrupted asking a question, "Headquarter options were given before my side was selected. If my side was reversed how could my headquarter be the same?"
Alfred shook his head, "Headquarters are places that always have at least two in existence. If say your headquarters just says gym then your map will show you which of the many gyms in the city is your headquarters. It can be helpful to remember what the options were as you can search out other headquarters. You can interact with any allied headquarters you find and potentially destroy any enemy headquarters. If your own designated headquarters is destroyed you'll lose contribution points and have to find a new one yourself to resupply."
The taxman didn't thank him and Alfred moved on to the rest of his speech.
"Whether or not you should keep your role secret is up to you, being open about it makes it easier to team up, but also increases the chances that you will be hunted by higher level actors." He held up a warning finger, "LEO doesn't overly manage how you interact with the event, but make sure to act according to your role. Periodically people will try to betray their team in exchange for benefits outside the event itself, in these cases, LEO will intervene and a forced hiatus is the least of the punishments. So just approach it as if you are deeply passionate about whichever team you were assigned and remember that fundamentally we are actors!"
He held up his phone and it projected a map of the city for everyone to see, "So these areas marked with red are part of the event." The disconnected red blotches seemed to cover a good 60-70% of the city as well as some random places on the outskirts.
"As part of your orientation today's agenda to going to the markets, those happen to be part of the event area so things might get derailed, but I'm on the protagonist team so I will try to eliminate any zombies that start interfering." he gestured at them, "Regardless of your team you're welcome to join, I'm level 4 so eliminating level 1 antagonists would give me a very minor amount of contribution points." He gave them a warning look, "Please note that even if you are an antagonist the zombies will still try to eat you unless you receive specific event equipment. Also if any antagonists in the group try to eliminate me I guarantee you that it will be a very short event for you."
Aside from the taxman the group looked suitably hesitant at the warning.
They lingered for a short amount of time before heading off. As they went Alfred filled them in with various bits of information about both the city and the event.
They passed several groups running to the event area ahead of them. Alfred let them know that making teams for the events was common, anyone could lie about their side to infiltrate a group from the other side, but if they betrayed their friends they were unlikely to still be friends afterwards.
Gen nodded in understanding, Viktor had played numerous hidden role games and so she knew that victory in a battle often ended up losing the war. After he had successfully tricked people enough times in games they just started eliminating him first without any evidence ruining the genre for him.
They reached a street with a shimmering barrier in their way and Alfred pointed, "This is an event zone once we pass through the event will be live, if you're in an active conflict you won't be able to leave until it is resolved so don't try to escape through it. Within the event area, the city's layout will be shifted and all the different zones will be lumped together to make a new similar city, LEO will also sometimes add new locations and features that don't exist in the real city."
They followed him through and immediately there was a transition as Gen could smell smoke in the air and hear screaming in the distance. No zombies were visible, but the smell of decaying flesh was in the air.
A block of text appeared in front of her.
Event area entered! Abilities and equipment are at full power!
She glanced at Jasper, but he remained tiny.
Before she could question it she felt a rush of air as the taxman flew past her barreling toward Alfred. Alfred narrowed his eyes and watched the taxman approach, at the last possible moment he twitched his wrist and an iron maiden appeared engulfing the taxman, Alfred shoved the metal doors shut even as the taxman yelled.
Alfred then started running in a circle around the trap, a roll of tape in his hand wrapping around the iron maiden repeatedly holding it shut. As he went the whole trap violently shook back and forth as the taxman tried to force his way free.
A puddle of blood began oozing out of the iron maiden as Alfred finished exhausting his tape roll. He flickered his wrist and the empty tape roller was replaced with a handgun. He shoved it through an eyehole slot in the iron maiden and fired 17 consecutive shots.
He paused for a second with a disgruntled expression, "Wasn't lying about enhanced vitality…" Sighing he pulled out a red vial and dumped it in through the eyeslots before hurrying back. Immediately gouts of flames began spewing out of the slot and the smell of roasting meat replaced the dead smell in the air.
Alfred smiled in satisfaction and turned his gaze back to the event area's entrance. Following his gaze they saw the taxman reenter the event area behind them. His wounds were healed, but he was now opaque like a ghost.
Alfred pointed at him, "Anyone not participating in the event or already eliminated will take on a ghost appearance like that. Make sure to ignore event proceedings when in ghost mode as interfering will invite punishment from LEO."
The taxman had an irritated expression and stood with his arms crossed not responding.
Ignoring him Alfred started leading them to their original destination leaving the iron maiden behind, as he went he explained the equipment he'd used. "The iron maiden is a consumable trap of mine, the barrier tape is a favorite of mine. It can be used to seal or block anything you can put the tape on and is stronger than steel." He held up the tape roller from before and it was no longer empty having refilled with a few inches of tape, "The roller isn't a consumable and will refill over time. Likewise, the gun will slowly refill ammo. I won't detail all my abilities, but I have one specialized in regenerating equipment faster."
A zombie ambled out of an alleyway and started running at their group, Alfred casually shot it with his gun dropping it with a single shot. "The markets are just up ahead, the infection doesn't seem too bad around here so you all should be fine to browse. You can purchase things if you feel compelled, but don't forget to save enough money for food, and also keep in mind your active inventory can only hold items with a total plot equal to your level, if you buy too much you'll have to carry it. You can alter your active inventory from within an event headquarters or your room."
The taxman left the group first quickly moving into the market area. The rest of the group followed more hesitantly. Gen started wandering aimlessly, the stalls were primarily manned by actors most of which were low-level and all of which had ghostly appearances marking them as unaffiliated with the zombie event. She got her first look at several NPCs as well. Rather than having a name and level above their heads, there was just text that read NPC.
At first glance, they appeared to be the same as real people, but as she watched them carefully she saw they were cycling through a preset pool of actions like they were trapped in a time loop rather than being a conscious person. The NPCs were fulfilling typical roles for a city such as sweeping the streets, delivering packages, or hawking wares.
Taking a look at equipment for sale in various stalls she saw each one had a placard next to it showing its cost in emmys, plot value, and a description of its effects. Some examples she saw were
- Kinetic Boomerang: Moderate damage when thrown. Returns to inventory after 1 minute.
- 11 emmys
- .1 plot
- Knight's Helmet: Impact resistance
- 6 emmys
- .1 plot
- Heat Blade: Medium damage.
- 10 emmys
- .1 plot
- Bloodfill Bracelet: Recovers lost blood over time and promotes healing
- 50 emmys
- .2 plot
- Glock: Low damage. 17 shots.
- 6 emmys
- .1 plot
- Glock Refilling: Low damage. 17 shots. Regenerates one bullet per ten seconds.
- 30 emmys
- .4 plot
The last one the refilling glock looked identical to the one that Alfred had.
Gen's current equipment was the swimming pool and minefield scepter which totaled up to .9 plot so she only had .1 plot available without switching something out. After much hesitation, she bought the boomerang, of the items within her budget of both emmys and plot points it was the only one with higher-than-low damage and wasn't a melee weapon.
The fight against the RITA bots had left an impression when she had been powerless to actually damage the machines and she wanted something to defend herself.
Disappearing her neon orange boomerang into her inventory she turned her attention to clothes. Equipment and limited pools of plot points applied to things with special effects, but simple things like clothing had no limitations and she was tired of wearing the default gray of a generated. She wasn't ashamed of being a generated, but she didn't like people knowing just how fresh she was.
The clothing stalls were very eclectic with items from multiple eras likely a result of generated continually bringing whatever styles they were used to from their eras. Compared to the cost of equipment clothing was quite cheap and Gen had a brand-new outfit for just two emmys.
She elected for some loose fitting blue jeans, and a black denim jacket. She couldn't get actual body armor without it counting as equipment, but the denim material made her feel somewhat safer if a zombie did start biting her.
Alfred was wandering around the stalls advising other generated on potential purchases. Gen was unusual coming out of her first scenario with two pieces of equipment so the rest of the group comparably had more plot points to fill up. She made a mental note to always try to end a scenario in possession of plenty of equipment, even if she didn't need it she could sell it.
She was watching the taxman fiercely haggle with an NPC over a bag of oranges when something flying through the air caught her eye. Following its trajectory she saw it was a metal canister, it clattered across the concrete a couple of times before suddenly spinning and spraying green clouds of gas all around it.
A couple of actors as well as a dozen NPCs were caught in the gas and she saw them start clutching at their throats even as their skin rapidly started shifting shades to typical zombie green and gray.
Backing away she heard more clattering all around her as more and more canisters started falling around the market randomly. Turning to Alfred for guidance she saw black veins spreading all over his body.
The transformation was very fast as he immediately grabbed the nearest generated to himself which happened to be Bo and sunk his teeth into him.
Wincing at the fountain of blood Gen took off running, she'd had more questions, but with her guide dead she'd have to figure it out as she went. NPCs were running wildly around like they had never seen a zombie movie before while actors were beginning to form up and take defensive positions. Gunshots were echoing from all sides and Gen really hoped LEO had made her body with resistance to tinnitus.
She considered joining up with a group of level 3 actors who were using some knocked-over stalls as a makeshift bunker, but another gas canister landed directly in their midst. Not pausing to watch them transform she looked up to see where the canister had come from and saw a level 7 man flying above the market with rocket boots, he was laughing wildly while shooting out additional canisters from a large gun in his hands.
A brilliant meteor shot up from the ground exploding against the man and he distingetrated into flaming hunks of meat.
A hissing sound brought her attention back to ground level as Jasper bit her ear, whipping around she saw several zombies ambling their way toward her.
Panicking she retrieved her boomerang from her inventory and threw it at the closest one. The boomerang magically accelerated after leaving her hand and smashed into the zombie's head exploding it, the zombie's body collapsed to the ground. Her boomerang kept flying into the distance and she cursed as she pulled out her minefield scepter and placed a mine in front of the next zombie.
The mine exploded blasting off a leg, but the zombie kept crawling toward her.
"I should have expected that…"
The last fully mobile zombie was almost on top of her so she impulsively activated her swimming pool.
The chaotic market with many places already on fire turned even more chaotic as dozens of stalls, zombies, npcs, and actors all plunged into the olympic swimming pool.
An actor gasping for air swam toward her and started trying to climb out of the water. Gen saw that the woman was also level one and leveled her minefield scepter above her, "What side are you on?"
The woman looked up at her in fear and stammered, "I'm a protagonist!"
Gen didn't hesitate as she slammed the scepter directly into the woman's head crushing her skull. She'd seen Morna use the scepter as a melee weapon back in the scenario so she knew it was an effective club even if it was intended for summoning landmines.
Text flashed across the edge of her vision
Warning! Friendly fire! -100 contribution points!
Gen cursed, Jasper couldn't roll his eyes directly as he was a lizard, but he rolled his whole head in exasperation.
Gen shot him a look, "That wasn't my fault! She shouldn't have lied!"
A slew of additional notifications suddenly flew past.
Warning! Friendly fire! -17 contribution points!
Warning! Friendly fire! -14 contribution points!
Warning! Friendly fire! -21 contribution points!
Warning! Friendly fire! -67 contribution points!
Warning! Friendly fire! -51 contribution points!
Warning! Friendly fire! -32 contribution points!
…
Confused, she suddenly realized she was being penalized for all the actors drowning or being eaten in her pool. Dumbfounded she couldn't help but question, why are they all on the same team as me!?
Statistically, she really felt that at worst it should've been fifty-fifty distribution, but she didn't see any notifications actually giving her contribution points and her current score was -558.
LEO's voice echoed in her head, Wow you again! You really keep killing teammates huh? Looking at the logs it really doesn't look like it was on purpose this time so here's a reward!
Around her, the battle was starting to get cleaned up as the zombies were being eradicated and groups of actors organized. One woman ran up to her, she was level 8 and looked almost exactly like Lara Croft from Tombraider and even had Akimbo pistols. Her name was Susan though.
She clapped Gen on the back, "Great thinking with the pool! It handled the worst of the fires and gave us a beachhead to push back the zombies!"
Gen had a tight smile as she nodded.
Susan looked at the woman Gen had brained as well as the dead actors floating in the pool who were being gunned down by actors before they finished reviving as zombies. "How did you know they were antagonists?"
Gen looked confused trying to think quickly, "Sorry this is my first event. How can you tell they are antagonists?"
Susan glanced at her, "You a generated? You look a bit old for it being your first event and your name is Gen…"
Gen frowned, but nodded, not having much of a choice.
Susan smiled and pointed at the dead woman, "After actors die you can see their affiliation if you squint at them."
Gen squinted and sure enough she saw text above each body that read antagonist.
Susan holstered her two pistols as the fighting dwindled down and more people started gathering up. Among the survivors, she saw Francine who looked grim likely having witnessed Bo's demise, the only other person she recognized was Rusty one of the other generated from her group with whom she hadn't interacted with much.
Susan focused back on Gen, "So how did you know?"
Panicking Gen Ed glanced at Jasper who was giving her a withering look before she smiled and said, "My ability lets me have a helpful iguana, then I have an augment called lie-detecting lizard, he signaled me."
Susan whistled and there were murmurs in the crowd even as some people started backing away from the group. Susan held up a hand and shot them a glare, "Nobody move. Hidden role events like this are easy if you have a lie-detection ability. I think we'll have our lizard friend here do a series of interviews to clean up the group."
Gen shot Jasper an innocent look as Susan started forcing the twenty or so actors to line up. She was much higher level than the rest with the next highest being only level 4.
One actor tried to run and Susan shot a smaller version of the meteor that had eliminated the flying antagonist earlier from her forehead blasting him into pieces. She glanced at the rest of the group and said, "Any more runners?"
Gen nervously walked up to the first person in line and asked, "Are you on the antagonist team?"
He shook his head, "No!"
She looked at Jasper and he gave her a long stare before looking back at the man and shaking his head side to side.
Gen glanced at Susan and said, "He's clear."
They repeated this process going down the line marking each person as clear one by one including both Rusty and Franince. She didn't know Rusty's role, but Francine was definitely giving her a deer in the headlights look as the charade played out. If Jasper just said everyone was a protagonist then technically they wouldn't know she was lying until someone betrayed Susan. It would be a bit suspicious but…
At that moment Jasper made the decision to shake his head up and down enthusiastically when looking at a level 4 woman who had just claimed to be a protagonist. She shot him a look and Susan eagerly stepped forward, "Is that the yes signal?"
Gen collected herself and hesitantly said, "Yes?"
Jasper kept shaking his head up and down excitedly and a gunshot rang out as Susan shot the woman in the head.
Gen immediately squinted at the body seeing that it indeed said antagonist.
Susan cheered, "Good job iguana!"
Gen felt very confused as they finished going down the line without Jasper identifying any more antagonists.
Finished Susan looked them over, "Who's ready to hunt some zombies?"
Ding~!
(See author's note for polls to vote!)