Game 34: They Lurk at Night

“Is there a reason why you called me away from my official business?” Lazlo Cardona asked the person he was visiting.

“Well, forgive me for pulling you away from your busy social schedule,” the other man said in an icy, stony voice. “I'm sure the investors wouldn't mind if I stole you away for twenty minutes…”

The man revealed himself to be Mr. Set.

“... Mr. Cardona.”

“I assume you're wanting your old job back,” Lazlo said.

“We have similar goals in mind, Mr. Cardona. I am merely suggesting that we put aside our differences long enough to achieve what we wish to achieve.”

“You're lucky I haven't called the police on you, Set. You murdered two, possibly three of our fellow developers, basically in cold blood.”

“Not cold blood, Mr. Cardona, self-defense. They attacked me.”

“Do you really expect me to just take your word for it?”

“I expect you to put your feelings aside for the next four days,” Mr. Set told him.

“What's your offer?”

•

This mission was just Takeshi, Rita, and Mac. They were sitting in a fishing boat out somewhere in the vast expanses of the open ocean.

“Fishing?!” Rita complained. “The Tower of Power is in two days, and our big mission beforehand is fishing?!”

“Hey, do you want a big power meal before the big day or not?” Mac asked. “There's fish in this ocean that make the best meat back home feel too ashamed to walk outside.”

“I'll believe that when I see i- Ah! Rat!” Rita screamed as she spotted something running around in their boat. With nowhere else for her to go, she simply jumped into the water.

The rat looked over the side of the boat before turning into a human. It was Proteus pulling a prank on Rita. Clearly enjoying every single moment, Proteus told her, “You should have seen the look on your face, Rita! Priceless!”

“Ugh! Proteus, you idiot!” Rita yelled at him. “Don't you know it's not polite to scare people like that! That's not funny!”

“Oh, come on,” Mac told them, “it was kinda funny.”

But suddenly, all the noise in and around the boat ceased. Mac was all alone.

“Hello? Where did everyone go?”

•

Takeshi was already running in a very dark place. Despite it being midday on the fishing boat, it was already the middle of the night here. Maybe this part of the map is always like that, Takeshi thought.

“No! No! No!” an icy voice told him quietly. “That's much too loud!” A screen popped up in front of Takeshi, revealing three of the Game Masters: Mr. Set, Lazlo Cardona, and Jun Kitaoka.

“Mr. Set!” Takeshi yelled.

“Too loud!” Mr. Set whispered. “But yes, we're back, and we're better…? No, that's not right. We're back with another challenge for you and your friends. The six of you have been placed in different areas of this corn maze, and each of you must make it to the end of the maze without getting caught by THEM.”

“Who is THEM?” Takeshi whispered. 

“Now, if I told you that, that would ruin the surprise, now, wouldn't it?”

“How did you zap us all in here?”

“Now, that I can tell you,” Mr. Set answered. “We hacked into your save files and adjusted your location data. Now, you're here.”

The sound of roaring could be heard in the distance.

“If I were you, I'd try to find your friends before THEY do,” Mr. Set told him. “That might make this challenge a little easier.”

•

The first person Takeshi found was Sora. He appeared to have already been damaged by whatever THEY were.

“You alright?” Takeshi asked him.

“Yeah…” Sora answered. “Just a little hungry…”

Hungry…? That's a rather odd feeling to have in a crisis like this, Takeshi thought.

Having traversed some distance inside the maze, Takeshi tried to get to know Sora a little better. 

“So why exactly did you come looking for us?” Takeshi quietly asked.

“I told your friend, Rita, that I was looking for a team to join,” Sora explained. “Everyone's trying to do teams now, and your team looked like the best one. So far, I haven't been disappointed.”

“So where did you come from, anyways?”

Sora immediately stopped in his tracks. He said nothing.

Takeshi was concerned. “Don't tell me. You're secretly one of the Game Masters.”

“How did you know?”

“I didn't. You just happened to share a name with one of the Game Masters. Mr. Set's diary has him listed as ‘Sora Kanzaki’, but he's dead.”

“Well, kinda…”

“Kinda?”

“So… I'm dead, but only kinda halfway. Something happened to me two years ago while I was testing The Game. I'm not even sure what, but next thing I know, the others were holding my funeral and here I was… stuck here… hungry… I'm so hungry…”

Takeshi was starting to worry now. Sora was saying some absolutely absurd things, and then he heard Proteus screaming. He had no choice but to leave Sora where he was.

“Don't worry! I'll be right back!”

Takeshi found Proteus lying in the fetal position just thirty feet away.

“Proteus!” Takeshi whispered. “What happened? Did THEY get you?”

“Who's THEY?” Proteus asked. “I just heard a rustling in the corn, and I got scared. I'm really scared of the dark!”

“Well, you gotta try to stay quiet,” Takeshi told him. “If you get loud, THEY might hear you and try to attack you.”

“I don't know who THEY are, but that sounds really scary…”

•

Elsewhere in the maze, Rita had already found Aisha. They were quietly talking while trying to find the others.

“So you don't remember much of anything, do you?” Aisha asked.

“Nope,” Rita answered. “Not at all.”

“Do you think you might be forgetting on purpose?”

“Is that a thing?”

“Sometimes. A person undergoing serious trauma might try to cope with the pain by forgetting the experience happened entirely. Do you think that might be happening to you?”

“Even if it was, I've been here for so long, I couldn't remember.”

“Surely you haven't been here that long?”

“I've been here long enough that I can't remember how long I've been here. That's how long I've been here.”

“Do you… like… Takeshi?”

“Don't be silly, Aisha. Takeshi's a great friend, and I wouldn't want it any other way.”

“But you said -”

“Yeah, I know. I like to tease him a lot. It's what I do.”

•

Takeshi and Proteus were making their way back to Sora when they realized he was gone. To make matters worse, they could hear even more screaming a short distance away.

“That sounds like Makoto!” Takeshi said.

As they tried to look for him, they caught Makoto running in the opposite direction, screaming like his life depended on it.

Which… it did.

Makoto was being chased by a swarm of giant insects. These bugs were much too big for any of them to swat with their weapons, so Takeshi and Proteus had no choice but to run as well. The three of them eventually caught themselves in a dead end, with the giant insects surrounding them. Makoto fainted and Proteus morphed into a rat and ran off into the corn.

Takeshi now had to deal with these monsters alone.

Before he could reach for anything, Takeshi heard an even louder roar coming from the center of the maze. The monsters were attracted to the sound and flew towards it. But something didn't sit right with Takeshi.

“Something tells me something very bad is -”

A column of blue light appeared in the center of the maze, accompanied by a horrendous ghostly roar. The giant insects were caught in this trap, like moths to a flame, and would turn into dust if they flew too close. Perhaps against his better judgment, Takeshi ran towards the center of the maze to see what was happening. Fortunately for Takeshi, he was much slower than the insects.

By the time he arrived in the center of the forest, all he saw was Sora standing alone.

“You know, that wasn't very stealthy,” Takeshi scolded him.

“Sorry,” Sora smiled. “I was hungry…”

This was Sora's secret. He was some sort of half-dead data ghost who needed to consume essential energy in order to survive.

•

Back in the real world, someone was watching their movements very carefully. She appeared to be hiding from someone, perhaps a lot of people.

“Takeshi, I hope you know what you're doing…” she said. “You're messing with the lions now.”

She revealed herself to be Eileen Stewart, alive and well after the incident in Kyoto-3, but now desperately hiding.