Game 18: Advance

“I am grieved to hear of this happening, Eileen,” Lazlo, the leader of the Game Masters, told her. “Mr. Set was a… charismatic character. To hear that he has betrayed us is troublesome to say the least.”

“If we could lock out his access to The Game's code,” Eileen explained, “it might buy us more time to fix the code before the Blue Moon.”

“Unfortunately, it might be too late to do so,” Lazlo admitted. “The Blue Moon is only a few days away, and with only one actual programmer left on the team, finding his malicious code is like finding a needle in a haystack.”

“We cannot risk any more innocent lives being lost,” Eileen insisted. “Postpone the event, do something!”

“Eileen, we've postponed this event several times over the last few years,” Lazlo continued. “Our investors are getting very impatient. The event has to proceed as planned, otherwise this whole thing goes up in flames.”

“Understood.”

•

It has been several days since the encounter with Eileen and Mr. Set. Takeshi cannot stop thinking about the incident. The very people who made The Game were now working against each other. He glanced at the table next to his bed; the two orbs (one green and one white) given to him by Eileen were still there.

“Greetings, players!” The disembodied announcer's voice called out. “I have an important announcement from the Game Masters.”

“That's weird… The voice has never done that before.”

Anyone who was still asleep was forced awake by the sheer loudness of the voice. The entire village of Innsbruck sheepishly emerged from their homes to listen to the message.

“... shall have the honor, the privilege! to face off in a special tournament in front of the Game Masters. The winner of this tournament will be given a special prize by Lazlo Cardona himself! All each community in the map needs to do is select one representative to send to the Emerald City within three days. Let's celebrate the Blue Moon together!”

•

“So what is our plan, here?” Makoto asked the group. Each of them seemed worried about this randomly announced tournament, just in time for the Blue Moon. Each of them, except Aisha, of course, who seemed rather disinterested as usual.

“I say we do absolutely nothing,” Rita told him. “It's obviously a trap set by the Game Masters, who, need I remind you, definitely want to kill us.”

“Hey, so I've been meaning to ask, since this keeps getting brought up,” Takeshi asked, “what is this Blue Moon thing, and why is it so special?”

“The Blue Moon happens occasionally,” Makoto explained. “Just like in the real world, it's the second full moon in a month. What makes Blue Moons different in The Game, however, is that they cause huge boosts to the abilities of players, especially of magic users.”

“That's probably why the Game Masters are doing this tournament now,” Rita noted. “More power means the fighting is a bigger spectacle.”

“Each village is likely to send their strongest player,” Proteus said. “Who's our strongest player?”

“Doesn't matter,” Rita insisted. “We are not playing into the Game Masters' grubby hands.”

“We have to send someone,” Takeshi reminded them. “If we don't send anyone, or if we send, I don't know, Giorgio down the street, they'll know something is up. And yes, Rita is right, the Game Masters want to kill us, except maybe Eileen. So we really shouldn't be doing anything to get even more on their bad side.”

“But if we only send one person, that's going to leave the group in a weakened state if they end up dead,” Rita insisted.

“Then why don't we send everyone?” Proteus asked.

“What?” Rita asked.

“Don't all these villages have, like, an alliance thing going on?” Proteus continued. “The announcer didn't say the contestants had to live in the village that they represent. So there's five of us, we can each represent a different village.”

“Did the announcer say what kind of tournament it was?” Makoto asked.

“He did not,” Takeshi told him. “So if this tournament were some sort of battle royale, we could just be shooting ourselves in the foot anyways.”

“So either way, we could be walking into a trap,” Proteus realized.

The five of them stood around in awkward silence. Each one glanced at each of the other teammates. Each one looked incredibly nervous given the current situation.

Finally, Takeshi spoke up. “I have an idea.” He then went over to Proteus. “I just need a little bit of help from a ragbunny.”

“You're not suggesting we cheat, are you?” Proteus asked.

“Technically, yes,” Takeshi answered. “But given the circumstances, I don't think we really have a choice. It's either one of us walks into a potential deathtrap, or one of us walks into a slightly less potential deathtrap with a ragbunny in our inventory.”

“Very well,” Proteus said. “On one condition.”

“Name it.”

“I'll only partner with you, like we did against Slicer.”

“Done.”

The two sealed their deal with a handshake.

“I cannot believe you seriously suggested cheating to win a tournament,” Rita scolded Takeshi.

“Normally, I wouldn't,” Takeshi insisted. “But if the Game Masters want to change the rules, then we're just playing along.”

Suddenly, the five of them heard screaming in the distance, followed by a wretched snarling sound. A monster had stepped foot in town.

“Looks like we'll be able to get a practice round in before we head out to the Emerald City,” Takeshi noted.

•

Takeshi and Proteus (in his ragbunny form) ran out to meet a juvenile man-eating spider chasing after villagers.

“Looks like this one will be easy,” Takeshi said.

He started with his usual, a straightforward running charge at the spider. The spider's legs were sharp enough to cut through flesh, so Takeshi needed to carefully avoid them and attack the vulnerable center of the spider. The spider would try to swat at Takeshi with its legs. Thanks to Proteus’ ragbunny boost, Takeshi was able to better protect himself from those attacks. However, the underneath of the spider was very well-protected. Takeshi needed to attack from above.

He leaped out from under the spider and ran to build up some distance between them.

“Ragbunny Leap!” Takeshi called out, as if this were some magical attack. Thanks to the ragbunny boost, Takeshi was able to jump high into the air, flip a couple of times, then slam his sword straight into the center of the spider. Direct hit.

With the spider vanquished, Takeshi and Proteus seemed ready to tackle the Emerald City.