Game 29: The Cost of Betrayal

The city of Townsville, the new center of operations for The Game now that the Emerald City was in ruins. Here, Linda Hirono, the fourth Game Master, kept things running smoothly while her boss, Lazlo Cardona, was away on business. As she began another day of work, she entered The Game's headquarters to find that it had been completely ransacked. The office space was completely empty save for a single table with a note written on it.

If you GMs want to keep forcing us to play your game, come to the Kyoto-3 level tonight at 7pm. Let's have an honorable duel.

- Sejun

Thieves had ransacked the entire place and now they wanted to fight. Linda wasn't much of a fighter. Nonetheless, she was playing The Game as well, and Lazlo was away on business.

She needed to take matters into her own hands.

•

Proteus awoke to the sound of knocking at his door. He never got people knocking at his door. He opened the door, revealing Bingo, one of his old friends from the thieves' guild.

“Bingo?! What are you doing here?”

“It's Sejun… I think he's about to do something very stupid.”

Proteus was stunned to hear this.

At the center of town, Proteus and Bingo talked at length about the current situation regarding Sejun and the other thieves.

“I'd have to agree, Bingo, going after the Game Masters so recklessly is just a recipe for disaster.”

“I'm worried that the guild has lost its way,” Bingo explained. “Ever since we lost Jacques, things just haven't been the same.”

“I did offer all of you to join us here in Innsbruck,” Proteus reminded her. “What about Tommy and Javi?”

“They'll go wherever he goes.”

“And you want me to stop them?” Proteus asked her. 

“I want you to talk sense into them,” Bingo corrected him. “Remind them that they took a vow to not take Life unnecessarily.”

“Where are they?”

“I'll take you to their hideout. They're expecting one of the Game Masters to be there tonight.”

•

7:00 came and with it, the arrival of Mr. Set and Eileen at Kyoto-3. They entered the level at a parking lot, full of abandoned cars. The level always looked as if it were a busy city at night-time.

“I've always admired the craftsmanship of this place,” Mr. Set told Eileen. “Do you know why I chose this location?”

“I do not. I wasn't even aware this level existed.”

“This was the very first level I ever made for The Game,” Mr. Set explained. “Of course, this was before we made the switch to it being a fantasy RPG. I have nostalgia for it.”

A police chase happened behind them.

“Somehow this level feels even more real than all the others,” Eileen commented.

“Shall we begin?” Mr. Set asked her.

Eileen brought out her magic gun; Mr. Set brought out his tiger claw gauntlet.

“As long as you don't play any dirty tricks on me,” Eileen answered.

•

Likewise, Linda entered the level on the hunt for the stolen items. She was met by Sejun, the new leader of the thieves’ guild. They met on a bridge overlooking the downtown district.

“I wasn't expecting you to show up,” Sejun told her.

“Considering you stole basically my entire job,” Linda answered, “I had no choice in the matter.”

“You made it a whole lot easier for me by coming here.”

“Who put you up to this?” Linda asked him. “Name your price, and I'll make you a better offer.”

Sejun pointed to the city streets below. Mr. Set and Eileen were already fighting.

“Your comrades are turning against each other. One of them paid us very handsomely for this job.”

“I'll double their price if I have to,” Linda offered. “I need new bodyguards to defend me anyways. Being a lady, I'd prefer not to get my hands dirty.”

At that moment, Proteus and Bingo arrived on the scene as well.

“Sejun!” Proteus called out. “What are you doing?!”

“Proteus! Bingo!” Sejun greeted them. “You're just in time for the negotiations. The answer is no deal.”

“You didn't even let me name a price!” Linda protested.

Sejun pointed his gauntlet right at her. “I've been told everything. The Blue Moon incident, the fact that we're trapped here like animals, what happened to Jacques, Nikolai, and Kat, all of it. A lot of blood is on your hands, and I intend to make you pay for every last drop.”

“Sejun!” Proteus tried to reason with him. “We took a vow!”

“That vow stopped mattering the moment the Game Masters conspired to kill my friends,” Sejun told him. He then stood up, telling Linda to start running. “This is for Jacques…”

“I have a better idea.” Linda reached into her coat, revealing a magic staff.

Sejun smiled. “You're going to make this interesting.”

“Light up!” With this command, Linda donned her own magical armor, which granted her the ability to fly. She promptly used this power to flee the scene.

“Fly all you want, but you still cannot escape me!” Sejun told her, before immediately giving chase.

“Go find Tommy and Javi,” Proteus told Bingo.

“Where are you going?” Bingo asked him.

“After them,” Proteus answered before turning into a four-winged pigeon.

•

On the streets below, Sejun and Linda had already begun their fight. Armed with two gauntlets, Sejun was able to neutralize much of Linda's magic.

•

Elsewhere, the fight between Eileen and Mr. Set was too evenly matched. Neither was able to get an obvious advantage over the other.

•

Linda attempted to keep running from the fight as opposed to defending herself. However, a wall of energy sprouted up in front of her, preventing her from progressing further.

“Did you really think I was working alone?” Sejun asked her as he approached from behind. He went for the attack, but was blocked by a tiger's claw gauntlet. Mr. Set had intervened in the fight. Or rather, the two separate fights had merged into one full-on brawl, as he was still being attacked by Eileen at the same time.

Nobody was really sure who to attack next.

Sejun assumed the three Game Masters were working together. “Three versus one? I've had worse.”

“Eileen?! You came back!” Linda was actually very happy to see her.

“Only until I take care of a certain someone,” Eileen answered, referring to Mr. Set. For the first time, Eileen swapped out her magic gun for a magic cannon, aiming it right at Set. He barely managed to escape its blast.

Sejun smiled, knowing that the Game Masters were fighting each other would make it easier for him to take them out.

Mr. Set tried to go for his finishing move, but Linda stopped it by chanting “Confine”, robbing him of his gauntlet.

This opening gave Sejun the opportunity to launch his own finishing move. He charged forward, spinning straight at Linda and Mr. Set, who were struggling in the middle of a street. However, his finishing move was blocked by a pair of antlers. It was Proteus in his deer form.

“Proteus!” Sejun yelled as Proteus returned to his human form. “What are you doing?!”

“What are you doing?!” Proteus yelled back. “This is not the proper way!”

“Forget the proper way!” Sejun countered. “I am avenging all the deaths these Game Masters have caused: Jacques, Nikolai, Kat, and all the others. And you… you want to protect them?!”

“Jacques wouldn't want this!” Proteus insisted.

“Are you saying that if the roles were reversed, that Jacques wouldn't be trying to avenge my death, Proteus?”

“I'm saying Jacques would look for a better way,” Proteus concluded. “This is not justice. This is revenge.”

“Boring!” Mr. Set told them, this time armed with Eileen's magic cannon. “I expected this level to have lots of death and destruction. Am I going to have to do everything myself?” He fired off a single shot. Everyone else at the scene managed to dodge the blast, all except for Sejun. No matter how many Lives Sejun had remaining, a direct hit from a blast like that would have been fatal. His body began to vanish, right as Bingo had arrived at the scene with Tommy and Javi in tow.

They could not do anything to stop what happened next. Sejun handled his fate about as well as anyone could. “Catch you on the other side…” Within seconds, he was gone.

“You cheater!” Eileen protested. “That's my weapon you stole!”

“Cheating?” Mr. Set answered. “Not in the slightest.” He then aimed the cannon at the rest of the group, corralled together by walls of energy. “This? This is cheating.”

He fired off a second blast. Only Tommy's quick thinking protected them from a direct hit. The resulting explosion still sent all of them flying in different directions. However, Linda had taken too much damage, and she vanished in mid-flight. Her final words were “I just wanted to be beautiful!”

Mr. Set decided his work was done, and ran off. His parting words were “I still have big plans for all of you!” He left behind Eileen's magic cannon.

Nobody else was quite sure what to do next.