Game 17: Mr. Set

“Yes, actually,” Eileen told Takeshi and Rita asked they entered the lab. “Mr. Set had asked me onto the project personally. At the time it was just the three of us: Lazlo Cardona, who actually came up with the concept, T. C. Set, who wrote the basic framework, and myself.”

“I mean, all of this stuff is in the book, Ms. Stewart,” Takeshi answered. “We've at least read that far. You were primarily responsible for marketing and gathering funding.”

“I also did a lot of the worldbuilding,” Eileen continued. “My idea was to make the initial Game into a fantasy survival RPG. We invited a lot of people to beta test the game, except by now, The Game has been in beta testing for over ten years.”

“Sounds like most games these days,” Takeshi commented, “long development cycles and the final product ends up being lackluster.”

“Mr. Set was always a little eccentric,” Eileen went on. “We all were, to an extent. That's why we had been such good friends at first. But I didn't realize it would all fall apart so quickly.”

“That's a really nice story, Ms. Stewart,” Takeshi thanked her. “Now, can you tell us why we're still stuck inside The Game?”

•

“I suppose I can't get anything past the two of you,” Eileen realized. “Very well. This is a simulation of what would happen if Mr. Set were able to enact his plans.”

“Do you know what Mr. Set is planning?” Rita asked her.

“If the wording in his diary is anything to go by, he believes the energy generated by The Game can actually rewrite the Earth itself. That's what I suspect Transcendence is. He wants to upgrade humanity.”

“Upgrade humanity?” Takeshi asked. “I'm not sure if that's good or not.”

“Considering all the damage Mr. Set has already done,” Eileen explained further, “that would be very very bad. He's already ended countless lives due to his obsession with ‘essential energy’, which was never even supposed to happen! That was not in The Game's original code!”

“Can't you just delete that code, then?” Rita asked her.

“I would if I could, but I wrote none of The Game's actual code, and the rest of the Game Masters can't see past their own noses long enough to realize The Game's foundation is breaking at the seams. Any changes to the code need to be approved by all the Game Masters. And even if that were possible, Mr. Set going rogue means he can just re-insert that code into The Game.”

“So why did you bring us here?” Takeshi then asked.

“I was hoping I'd get to you first before Mr. Set did. And it looks like I did.”

Suddenly, the alarms all throughout the lab began blaring. Monsters were coming. Lots of monsters. Eileen, Rita, and Takeshi scrambled through the lab looking for anything they could make into a weapon.

“Wait!” Rita tried to say. “If this is a simulation, can't you turn it off?”

“Maybe if people weren't inside, I would! Otherwise, I have to wait for the simulation to end naturally.”

“How long is that going to take?” Takeshi asked.

Eileen pauses for a moment to look at a screen in the lab.

“Ten minutes.”

•

The three of them emerged from the lab ready to battle the monsters. But something strange was happening before their eyes. The monsters were too busy fighting each other to notice that they were standing there.

“This hasn't happened before,” Eileen said. “I must have run at least ten thousand of these simulations, and they all end horribly.”

All the three of them can do is watch in horror as the monsters fight each other.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” a flat, cold voice called out to them, seemingly using the disembodied game announcer. “My dear Ms. Stewart, why are you always trying to ruin a good thing?”

“Set…”

“I can't let you ruin the surprise I have in store for the kids, especially Mr. Ishida.”

“What do you want, Set?” Takeshi asked him.

“We want the same thing, Mr. Ishida. Freedom. Freedom from all of society's woes and ills. Freedom from sickness, freedom from poverty, freedom from death. And only I have the key to make that happen.”

“Your plan isn't going to work!” Eileen protested. “I've run all the simulations. I know you mean well, but your plan is always going to end badly!”

“I'm the scientist here, Ms. Stewart. All I need in order to complete my plan is more essential energy… and my daughter…”

“I told you, Set! I don't know where your daughter is!”

“Maybe, maybe not, but I know someone who might…”

A water puddle immediately began to form under Takeshi and Rita, causing them to fall out of the simulation and back into Innsbruck.

“I cannot have you poisoning the minds of young people with your nonsense!”

“You won't get away with this, Set! You can't keep throwing innocent lives away just for the sake of your own insane schemes!”

“Silence!” The voice ceased its transmission, and the monsters immediately began charging towards Eileen.

The puddle began to shrink, closing the link between Innsbruck and the fake Tokyo.

“Ms. Stewart!” Takeshi cried out. He quickly reached into the puddle, which dragged him back into the simulation.

“Takeshi!” Rita cried out as the puddle fully evaporated.

Takeshi was now trapped in who knows where trusting someone he barely knew, someone who had already lied to him once before. All of this because he disliked Mr. Set more. Mr. Set was the one who brought him here in the first place. Mr. Set was the one who ripped him away from his life, boring and mundane as it was. Mr. Set was the one going on about Creation Engines and essential energy.

But Takeshi's sudden reappearance forced Mr. Set to divert the monsters away from him and Eileen.

“No! No, no, no, no!” Mr. Set's stone-cold voice faltered for the first time, revealing a man who didn't like not being in control over everything. He then commanded the monsters to disperse, one each to the top of the nearest tall building.

“Are we done playing this game yet?” Takeshi asked him.

Mr. Set regained his composure. “You disappoint me, Mr. Ishida. Your friend was right about you. You like to toss yourself into dangerous situations for no good reason. You could have been very useful to me, Mr. Ishida.”

“Useful?” Eileen asked. “Useful for what?”

“That I cannot say right now,” Mr. Set answered. “When we first met, Mr. Ishida, I promised you your greatest desires if you could just win my game. You could live forever if you could just play by my rules. But it seems like all you really want is to just throw your life away. If that's your greatest desire, then I'd be more than happy to throw you into the garbage!”

He then sent the monsters back out to attack Takeshi and Eileen. For their part, Takeshi and Eileen did their best to fight off the monsters. But there were simply too many of them to fight all at once. But the two of them kept on fighting, Takeshi with his trusted blade and Eileen with her magic gun.

Takeshi then noticed something in the sky, something that he probably should have noticed before. A timer read 57 seconds, presumably meaning there were 57 seconds left in the simulation. 56. 55. 54.

“Eileen!” Takesh called out. “We just need to hold off the monsters until the simulation is over!” 47. 46. 45.

“Got it!”

The two of them kept on fighting. Mr. Set became aware of their plan and sent the monsters to swarm around them. 35 seconds.

“Takeshi! There's too many of them!” 25 seconds.

“Just hang on! We just got a few seconds left!” 20 seconds.

However, the monsters were now in contact with them, trying to damage their Life points. 10 seconds.

“Mr. Set!” Takeshi yelled through the tangled mess of monsters.

“What?” 3 seconds.

“You talk too much.”

With that, the simulation ended, causing all of the monsters to vanish.

•

Elsewhere on the map, Mr. Set was met with a huge surge of energy, rendering him unable to affect the situation.

He smiled.

“Well played, Mr. Ishida. Well played. As the young people would say, GG. Good game.”

•

Back in the lab, Eileen kept her words short, knowing Takeshi needed to be returned home. “I wish it didn't have to be like this, but now you know what's at stake here.”

“So, what's your gameplan, now?”

Eileen simply handed him two orb-like objects.

“Use these in an emergency.”

“What are they?”

“You'll find out when you get there. We haven't got much time. I need to get you back home.”

A portal appeared below Takeshi, sending him back to Innsbruck. Eileen smiled, knowing she had accomplished what she set out to do.

“That's Phase One complete.”