Chapter 3: The Administrator
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Who am I? Who are you?!” Fisk replied, staring at the short-stack with wings who pointed the barrel of her Remington shotgun at Fisk.
“I'm not gonna ask again dillweed.”
“You’re right, I was rude, and I apologize.”
“Name.”
“Fisk,” Fisk replied, eyes wide at the floating woman.
She was small, absurdly so, her white lab overcoat comical on her tiny frame along with her massive circular glasses and curly blonde hair.
“You got a first name Fisk? How did you hack into my system?”
“Hack? I don't know what you-” Fisk began before the barrel of the shotgun was placed to his head, “Wha! Whoa! Hey! Calm down! Tony! My name is Tony! Tony Fisk, 28, Sales Associate at UDG! I have no idea what you're talking about lady! If I did I would tell you as I really like my head on my body.”
“Tony Fisk huh?” The chibi said as her glasses began to light up like an LCD screen with numerous numbers and words flashing in rapid sequence. “How nice of you to provide me with your age and- huh… wait. What? Dead?!”
Dead?
The woman looked up, her head cocked, “What's your social security number?”
“What are you? My motha-”
The woman pointed her shotgun at Fisk’s crotch.
“-336-23-7891.”
“Huh…” The fairy said, a screen showing a file with a picture of Fisk, “Tony Fisk. Date of death, 2031- January 5th, asphyxiated in a stairwell while wearing a…. You died nine months ago?”
“It's been… Nine months?” Fisk muttered, his voice almost hollow, “No, I can't be-”
Then he remembered it. The flames. The lack of oxygen. The heat kissing his skin as he struggled to breathe in the corridor of his office building alone in a stairwell.
“No no no, I'm not dead, I can't be-” Fisk dismissed with a chuckle, waving the woman off only to have a multitude of news articles and photos suddenly appear around him.
Fisk clenched his jaw, his eyes focused on the photo of a burned man laying on the floor of a stairwell with a wheelchair beside him.
Except, that wasn't just any man, but rather him, his body on display for the world to see via a photo.
Then, Fisk pulled at his waistband, checking his package to ensure it was all there.
“H-how?” Fisk muttered as he looked down at his unscorched body.
“An electrical fire. Seems the building you were working in just wasn't up to code,” The woman said as she hovered in front of Fisk with glowing gold eyes.
“An electrical fire… not a candle… not a lot cigarette or my dumbass coworkers but the building itself!” Fisk let out a maniac chuckle.
“Fascinating… you aren't a player. Yet you aren't an NPC either. You're… an anomaly with access to quests, forums, even some item rewards…”
While Fisk was distracted she floated up, tapping him on the forehead.
Support System Menu
Title: Nobody
Name: Tony Fisk
Level: 0
Race: Other
HP: 70/70
SP: 80/80
MP: 50/50
CLASS: Classless
Free Points
50
AFFINITIES
???
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???
???
STRENGTH: 8
VITALITY; 7
SENSE: 10
DEXTERITY: 10
ARCANA: 5
EGO: 20
TRAITS: None
SKILLS: None
SPELLS: None
“Interesting stats… you're basically a more aware villager.”
“What is this?” Fisk flinched at the box before turning to the woman. “Where am I?!”
The tiny woman sighed before floating away as the darkness around the pair departed to reveal an endless sea of clouds.
“Welcome to the E.D.E.N Project, or what the egghead's in charge are calling it, The Brave Frontier. A virtual world of endless possibilities meant to be the next evolution of mankind now turned into a playground for humans to live out their delusions,” The woman explained before sitting down on a chair beside a wooden table with a tea set and teleporting Fisk to join her.
Fisk went wide-eyed, his hands gripping the chair below him as though it would save him from the endless sky below and the bits of landmass he could see.
“This… is a game world?” Fisk asked, still trying to wrap his head around the lifelike map below.
“Yes and no. E.D.E.N was intended to be something more. Something better,” The woman said, staring out into the vastness below, a forlorn look on her face, “A new world of endless possibilities to introduce Earth to a new realm of existence.”
“You're telling me this is a digital world? But I can see, I can feel, touch, smell! Hell if I'm dead, how is it I can remember everything?!” Fisk argued.
“The same way everyone else can, by temporarily transplanting your consciousness and memories. Except in this case, it's not so much temporary but… permanent. Welcome to the Cyberverse.”
“You mean I'm an AI?”
“Do you even know what an AI is?”
“Artificial intelligence-”
“No. That isn't what you are. That isn't what the people of this realm are either,” The woman said as the floor warped to depict a village being burned by a group of people with letters over their heads, “They’re so much more. They're living, breathing, sentient organisms with wants, desires, memories-each with their own brain vortex that enables them to have independent thought. An entire race of people belonging to a new dimension of existence that overlaps our own.”
Fisk pursed his lips, frowning at the sight of dozens of non-named people being attacked. “This…”
“Incredible isn't it?” The woman smiled with infectious joy in her eyes before her mood soured. “Then they went and turned my life's work into a video game, shackling my children.”
The blonde turned away, a scowl on her face with Fisk confused by who ‘They’ were.
“Who… who are you?”
“I’m no one. Just a ghost lingering around to protect my creation. But… you may call me Eve.”
“Well… Eve, what happens to me? I'm dead aren't I? What do I even do?” Fisk asked.
“Well… what do you want to do?”
“I….” Fisk blinked, finding himself at a loss for words. “I don't know. No one's really asked me that since my recruiter and he screwed me over…”
Fisk pointed at his missing leg.
“You're an army boy right? How would you like to do something for me?”
Fisk eyed the world beneath him, the topography ranging wildly from active volcanos to winter wonderlands.
“A quest? Is this the part where you herald me as a chosen Savior or whatever?”
Eve smiled.
“If that's what you need to spur you forward, why not?” Eve said before waving her hand in the air and materializing a rolled up piece of paper. “There are nine anchor points around the realms. I need you to find where the egghead's have hidden my tokens and crush them.”
“And why am I doing that?”
“To help me help humanity of course.”
“Lady, I haven't played a video game since the 3DS,” Fisk said, waving his floating box of stats away.
“You'll figure it- Wait really? No it's fine, even a toddler can do this.”
Fisk paused, “I can't help but to think you're offering me poison fruit from the garden… Like I'm getting flashbacks to my recruiter saying I'd get free college.”
Eve giggled, her whole body shaking.
“In return I can grant you a wish,”
Fisk raised a brow, his head slightly cocking to the side, “Can you bring me back to life?”
“You still don't get it do you? You've ascended to a new state of being!”
Fisk pursed his lips, both hands gesturing at his amputated leg.
“If this is heaven then it sucks,” Fisk replied flatley.
“Fine, I can give you back your mobility. If I do that will you-”
“Lady if you can make me walk again I'd do a whole lot worse than going on an egg hunt.”
The short-stack smiled, brandishing roles of teeth that were canine in nature with her eyes almost predatory at the man.
“That's just what I want to hear.”
“So… uh, if this is a game, does that mean I can die and come back?” Fisk asked, attempting to shift the topic.
“No.”
“What?”
“You aren't a player. Not anymore. You're a part of the ecosystem. While you won't age, your data isn't stored.”
“Can't you like, make a backup?! On like a memory card or something?”
“Yes, but it wouldn't be YOU, just a copy of you and an NPC without player privileges. Because of how you entered this place. You're neither an NPC or player, you're an anomaly given form by the protection protocols of E.D.E.N.”
Fisk frowned, “So what? I'm supposed to just… play the game with no second chances?”
“Pretty much. You'll be effectively immortal so long as you don't, well, ya know… die.”
“She said calmly. What the hell am I supposed to do against a creature from fucking Lord of the rings?!” Fisk yelled as he pointed at a massive armored dragon with gold scales flying below them. “Can you at least give me a tank or an A-10?”
“I can't interfere too much, but I can give you this.”
[Blueprint: Iron Prosthetic Leg Acquired!]
Fisk blinked at the words. “Blueprint? How is this going to help me? Do I look like an engineer?!”
“You've got the blueprint, just issue out some quests. I'm sure you can gather enough materials soon enough from the players,” Eve said as the space around them shook. “Hm, looks like their watchdogs are active. Sadly, I’d love to get you more acclimated but we have to cut our time short. Remember, find my tokens and crush them, I've marked them on the map. Oh, I'll even give you a couple of special classes to chose from.”
“Hey wait! I still have a bunch of-!”
The world shifted into a flash of white, one moment Fisk was sitting on a table hovering above the world, and the next, he was alone in the middle of the forest.
“-AT LEAST GIVE ME BACK MY CRUTCHES!” Fisk yelled, shaking his fist at the sky.
