Poll World [LitRPG][Reader Polls]

(Free vote chapter for non-subscribers!)

The crowd of antagonists looked nervous as the six special zombies all staggered forward, crushing pavement and debris with each step. Jasper stood in front with his arms wide as he faced them.

Gen hovered while she observed. All the iguanas presumably had their own personalities, but she was only really acquainted with Jasper.

The one she had the second most experience with was the tan one she'd accidentally summoned when Jasper was first incorporated into the special zombie. It had lounged around the headquarters until being carted off for incubation.

She could just barely make it out still, as one of the fusioncrack special zombies had a tan undertone to its rotten skin.

Turning to face the crowd, Jasper shot Gen a look before saying, "Know this, my comrades! These proud creatures all have the wit and feelings equal to, if not greater than, humans. They deserve the dignity and respect accordingly! As such, they each have names that you would do well to remember!"

Going down the line, he announced their names one by one. He shot Gen a look, and she suspected he still had some sort of negative feelings about their initial multiple-hour naming session before arriving at Jasper.

"Flint"

"Beryl"

"Jet"

"Slate"

"Ash"

"Waldo"

Everyone stared at Waldo for a moment, trying to make sense of the naming scheme while Jasper stared at the crowd expectantly.

Francine stepped in before things got too awkward and led everyone in a round of applause.

Gen didn't try to understand the reasoning for the names, as it was likely the path to madness. She instead did her best to match the physical characteristics to the names.

Waldo was the tan one, Ash was the smallest, Jet had a darker skin tone, Beryl was the largest, while Slate and Flint looked identical with sharper features than the others.

Ding!~

LEO's voice echoed in her head, You know the drill! Your poll you break the tie, but a five-way tie? Haha sucks to be you!

Gen's eyes spun. She really didn't appreciate LEO showing up just to be snarky.

Scanning the poll results, she felt a bit bothered and could understand why LEO hated breaking ties so much. How was she supposed to interpret the viewers' will? It was like they didn't even care which option she went with…

She almost considered going with the blowgun just to spite them, as it was the odd one out with one vote instead of two.

Had her viewers conspired together to make a five-way tie as some sort of practical joke, or was it really a coincidence?

Her initial assumption was that they would choose the iguana hatchery as they were obsessed with iguanas previously, but it was no more popular than the rest…

She didn't think the overall iguana popularity had waned, as for what to do next, they overwhelmingly voted for Jasper's food tour.

Maybe the fact that she could technically repair it herself was making them hold back?

Going down the list, she tried to strategize. The cloaking device would be useful as their sneak attack on the mechs had demonstrated, but it didn't give them any raw combat power.

The Lazarus berry was interesting and would probably make the UFO into a potent healing machine, but it had the limitation of only being useful if she kept finding injured people.

As for her crown, she honestly had no idea what it would do, and she had put it as an option in a moment of mania. Based on its rarity, she suspected the result would be good, but would it be worth it?

The gremlin gloves had already proved they synergized well with the UFO when Hon used the combination, but would wasting the assimilation on something they could already do actually be a good use of it?

Her eyes lingered on the blowgun. She wasn't actively using it for anything, and it had a crazy high rarity. The result would probably be some sort of terrifying infection blasting contraption, and she would've gone with that if not for the single less vote separating it from the others…

Mentally sighing, she questioned if she shouldn't consult her viewers with important decisions in the future. In hindsight, they took away the one option her heart now longed for.

She considered ignoring the poll, but Alfred had warned them all over and over again about losing viewers.

From her conversation with LEO, she inferred that having more viewers literally gave her more control over reality, so it seemed frivolous to risk losing any of her personal psychos just to prove a point.

Making her decision, she flew over to Hon, who was having a one-sided conversation with Waldo.

Unceremoniously, she unequipped the crown and dropped it on the ground. All the options seemed potentially useful in niche situations, but the crown could hypothetically do anything if it looted the right ability.

If Victor's memories taught her anything about game strategy, it was that min-maxing was king. Eliminating Susan was a windfall, but without the hatchery, they had no way of competing with both the dragon nest and the mech factory.

Looting enough contribution points by herself was too slow, so she prayed that combining the crown with the UFO would provide them a miracle.

Hon stared at the crown and asked hesitantly, "Are you giving this to me?"

She rolled her eyes and booped herself against the UFO keychain on his waist.

With a flare of understanding, he held up the UFO, "You want me to assimilate it?"

She flared her boots in affirmation.

He looked hesitant as he read the crown's description and gulped, "Are you sure?"

Annoyed, she flared her rockets aggressively. No, she wasn't sure! This was a lot of pressure to make the right decision, which is why she had tried outsourcing it to begin with! He was making her second-guess herself, so he really needed to just get on with it!

Shrugging his shoulders, he held the crown and UFO together, activating the assimilate ability.

From the mini-UFO, hundreds of cybernetic tendrils shot out, digging their way into the crown and quickly engulfing it.

Hon held it at arm's length, looking slightly disgusted at the process. Luckily, it didn't take long for the tendrils to retract and leave only the UFO behind.

The UFO's appearance had changed, and instead of the original chrome colors and stereotypical dome on top, it was now jade green, and the top looked like a crown with six points.

Hon and her both eagerly examined its description to see what had changed.

UFO

Size Change: Can alter size between 2 inches and five hundred feet

Self-Repair: Prior to complete destruction can regenerate any damage over time

Crown of inheritance: The UFO's tractor beam can loot any deceased actor. Antagonist actors will also have their contribution points looted and a single random ability without augments. Looted abilities will be incorporated into the UFO. A maximum of four looted abilities can be in effect at once. Swapping an ability will cause the removed ability to be permanently lost. Any number of potential abilities can be held in stasis while swaps are considered.

Healing Hour: Those inside the UFO passively regenerate. Creatures touched with the tractor beam will regenerate for one hour.

I see dead people: The UFO control room will show deceased actors in a five-mile radius. Additionally, the final moments of any actor in range will be available for your viewing pleasure.

Wormhole: A new gate room has been added to the UFO. A gate can be created once per minute, connecting the room with any area visible from the control room. A maximum of six gates can be maintained at a time, and they can be freely shut.

Hon was shaking with excitement.

"My vehicle's ability is still working with it, too! I can feel each of the looted abilities being enhanced by a further 10%!"

Gen felt a small measure of relief as she read through the description once again. She couldn't say what the other options would've done exactly, but at the very least, the crown hadn't been wasted, as it was even more overpowered after its combination with the UFO.

Having another active ability was huge, and the ability to store non-selected abilities until later was a nice quality-of-life adjustment.

Hon looked around hungrily, "We need to find some bodies and fill out the open slot!"

Gen watched him scurrying around to nearby bodies while feeling awkward. Unfortunately, she'd already looted everything nearby and discarded the unusable abilities prior to the limit being raised.

He abruptly stopped when he saw a bloodied figure entering the base.

He yelled while running over, "Solomon!"

Gen flew after him to watch the exchange.

Solomon hadn't escaped his fight with the Gundam unscathed. He was limping, and she suspected his leg was broken. He had large gashes and burns in his body and a piece of shrapnel embedded in his chest that was leaking blood.

Hon squeaked in surprise as he saw Solomon's state. Fumbling with the UFO keychain, he pointed it at Solomon and activated a little teeny tractor beam for just a second.

Gen realized he'd applied Healing Hour as Solomon's pale skin started to brighten, and he looked slightly less haggard.

Solomon had an obsessed look on his face as he looked at the UFO.

"Good job protecting it, lad. I got the smarmy bastard who shot it! They tried to run away, but Trank was too quick. Didn't expect the whole thing to self-destruct after disabling it…"

He glanced at Gen, "The saddle didn't make it… Trank and it took the brunt of the blast. I would've been splattered too if I hadn't used my emergency defense consumable."

Gen felt mixed. The saddle was very powerful, and they could've used it on one of the new special zombies, but at the same time, she was grateful she wouldn't have to witness another superspeed binge-eating session.

Solomon kept talking, "I got a poll reward still from beating it, or rather, in LEO's words, for not getting blown up. But either way, I got this."

He pulled a pair of boots from his inventory and showed them.

Blast Boots: Absorb explosive damage you would take, and the damage can be released to enhance attacks.

He continued, "Would've worn them myself, but I owe him for setting me on the right path." His eyes turned past them to Jasper, who was interpreting between Francine and the special zombies.

Solomon must have felt philosophical as he said, "I got an ability, Abacus of Fate, real sweet one that tells me how fortunate a given course of action will be, or at least I thought. I've been avoiding unfortunate choices with it for years, but something about him made me question how much I was letting it control me. I ignored it and sure the UFO got blown out of the sky, but…" he focused on the UFO's description for a second, "It's working out in ways it never would have if I played it safe."

Hon clasped him on the shoulder, and they seemed to be having a real bonding moment to the point that Gen slowly started hovering back to Jasper rather than keep creepily staring.

Francine was at the center and furiously typing messages while coordinating the group. Wallis and Hank stood on either side of Francine like bodyguards.

Francine relayed a recent update from their phone, "The cannon barn is stuck in a mud pit at the moment, so Frank's team is considering moving on to another target rather than trying to siege it down."

There was a brief cheer as people continued to debate which group to set up with.

Francine's voice grew concerned, "Dragon side things aren't good. The main nest has the adult dragon and dragon rider guarding it. The scouting team from the anarchists group was eliminated before they could tell much more. On the mech side, they're biding their time too. The factory has several hundred mechs on standby, and they just keep building up their forces."

Their voice turned a bit more positive, "On the overall event side, things are looking up. At the start of today, only six zones had fallen to zombies, and with the special zombies completing incubations all over the city, we've successfully taken down another fifteen!"

There was another larger cheer with that announcement.

Francine continued sounding serious again, "As a reminder, to win the event, protagonists only need twenty zones remaining. Their factory is in the very center zone, and our sources say they're fortifying thirty zones surrounding it. It doesn't mean they're giving up in the remaining 55 zones, but they're not prioritizing them and instead making us bleed for each inch before retreating with minimum losses."

Francine gestured to Jasper and his hulking brethren, "Unlike our iguanas, the other special zombies are mindless. Terry's group is trying to keep them alive, but they are very vulnerable to traps, so most of our efforts are focused on protecting them and shepherding them to higher priority targets. This is our most needed role, so if you want to sign up, raise your hand."

Some people started raising their hands when Solomon and Hon joined the group. Solomon stepped forward, already limping a bit less as the healing effect continued to fix his leg.

His high level drew everyone's attention, and he stood up straighter with the attention.

Speaking gruffly as usual, he said, "Howdy, folks. Not to interrupt your meeting, but my boy and I here have another little option for you all."

He gestured for Hon to hold up the UFO and said, "Behold! The pinnacle of alien technology, I'm not going to tell you the full specs of this bad boy, but what I will tell you is that this wonder contraption can open teleportation gates. We're going to go on a little sightseeing trip and open some portals at juicy spots. We will leave one here as a recruitment point for anyone who wants a fast pass to the front lines."

Francine froze as they tried to wrap their brain around the strategic implications. Gen saw in real time as Francine flickered through emotions and mentally deleted the previous plans the group had been working on.

Gen shot a glance at Jasper and confirmed he wasn't interested in the proceedings. Regardless of what antics Hon and Solomon were up to with the UFO, Jasper was dead set on his food tour.

Mentally sighing, she commanded her gremlins to drag Hon over to the wreckage of the iguana hatchery.

He didn't resist, and Solomon didn't save him as he was busy looking over a map of the event with Francine and plotting dimensional gate locations.

Once she had Hon in position, she transferred all 560,000 of her contribution points to him.

He went a little bug-eyed, but recovered quickly. Thankfully, he was quick in the uptake as he asked, "You want me to repair the hatchery if I manage to loot enough contribution points with the UFO?"

She flared her rockets in the affirmative and had the gremlins release him.

Not being able to talk was a giant pain, but despite that, she felt she'd managed to communicate fairly well.

Ding~!

Her eyes flickered down the options. Putting aside what exactly this would do to her face or what any of these looked like, she actually felt hopeful for once.

Based on the seemingly random timing of the poll and if her foot and nose polls were any indication, this would transform her plastic body in more ways than one! If feet had given her ankles and a nose had given her lungs, hopefully, a smile would give her a functional voice! Why it had such an absurd number of options and why so many of them were decidedly negative, she refused to think about.

Trying not to be too positive in case LEO did something to ruin things, she refocused on the situation. Jasper, Francine, and Solomon had finished their conference, and things were starting to move along.

Hon grew the UFO larger and it evidently was repaired enough to fly albeit slowly. Once high up the tractor beam activated for a moment and a portal appeared linking the location to the UFO's gate room.

Almost everyone went through, except for ten ill-fated actors who had chosen to join Jasper on his quest.

Solomon had given Jasper the boots at some point and gave him a firm handshake before entering the portal.

Francine gave Gen a wave, and Gen could tell they were nervous and flared her boots encouragingly.

As an afterthought, Gen flew through the portal as well and opened up her inventory, dumping its contents into the gate room.

The giant pile of gear attracted stares, but Gen ignored them. Hon still had the watt-a-waste gloves for summoning gremlins, and if they were going to be recruiting more antagonists, she was sure someone would find a use for the hundreds of weapons and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment.

Her inventory felt oddly barren as she flew back to Jasper. She'd kept a few things for herself, like the Lazarus berry, some oil slick launchers, the blowgun, the zombie lures, and other common items like antidotes.

Jasper looked over the group and smiled, "The journey begins!"

The trek was faster than she had expected. The iguanas were much faster than their lumbering movements would make you think and had no reservations about letting people ride on them.

It wasn't the blistering speed of the demonic saddle, but they were easily going fifty miles per hour, and it only got faster when one of the antagonists, a level 2 man named Harry, activated an ability called Speed Zone that made a thirty-foot radius around him have accelerated velocity.

She wasn't sure how much faster it made them, but she judged the group was now going at around 80 miles per hour. Her rocket boots only managed to keep up because of the reduced cooldown from her toe ring.

Very quickly, they reached zone 88 and just kept going until they encountered a fortified building.

Gen tried to understand what type of restaurant Jasper had led them to when she noticed the armed guards.

Jasper was riding on Beryl and pointed, "Fire."

All six iguanas opened their mouths, and the purple crystals on their bodies began arcing electricity before they shot out six purple balls of plasma in unison.

The balls exploded into the building, evaporating concrete and sending chaotic arcs of energy in all directions.

The guards couldn't even react as they were torn to pieces. The ones not killed instantly were bathed in the purple energy and quickly began transforming into fusioncrack zombies.

They weren't finished yet as the special zombies launched one volley after another and reduced the entire structure to rubble in under a minute.

Jasper jumped down from Beryl and led them into the center of the rubble. Their zombie ward amulets were still active, so they could ignore the fusioncrack zombies meandering about.

Jasper quickly located a glowing circle.

"Gen, activate it."

Still shocked by the course of events, Gen numbly flew into the circle and received a message.

DESTROYING HEADQUARTERS

CALCULATING DESTRUCTION TIME

BUILDING INTEGRITY 0%

PROTAGONIST FORCES PRESENT - NONE

DESTRUCTION TIME - IMMEDIATE

5000 CONTRIBUTION POINTS GAINED

Gen's mind reeled. Is this not a food tour??

The crowd cheered.

Jasper didn't seem to care as he inspected his tablet and said, "We need to move quickly. There is a Mediterranean restaurant two blocks over that we must reach before the fusioncrack zombies destroy it."

Ding!~

LEO's voice entered her mind. Wow, nice headquarters destruction, Gen! You really contributed to it! Don't know what the team would do without you! Here's your reward!

Ignoring his jab, she accepted her role as a mascot as the group quickly hurried to the Mediterranean restaurant.

NPCs were still going about their business, running the restaurant as if the whole city wasn't embroiled in a zombie apocalypse. She hadn't had much exposure to the NPCs in her first scenario, but at least the gnome king had starkly contrasted how basic the zombie event NPCs were.

It was a bizarre scene as Jasper gave orders to the actors to have huge containers of gyro meat, falafel, hummus, and baklava transported outside for the special zombies.

The actors didn't seem to question as they hurriedly followed his orders, still high in the success of their victory.

Jasper sat down in a chair himself and took off his suit's helmet before grabbing a fork and trying to scoop some rice off the plate.

The rice slipped off as he held it awkwardly, and after a few more attempts, he tossed the utensil aside in disdain and started scooping the food into his mouth directly with his hands.

Gen watched from the side, silently judging.

Jasper had learned to walk, sword fight, and speak the human language only a few minutes after taking over her body, but using utensils was somehow beyond his coordination.

The ensuing feast was only slightly less chaotic than Jasper's initial super-speed run. The other antagonists joined in as well, but the vast majority of the food was eaten by the special zombies who seemed to share Jasper's bottomless appetite.

Jasper looked at them enviously. Despite her body's new superhuman levels of fitness thanks to the suit, there was still a physical limit of how much food it could contain, and she didn't doubt for a second that he would be fantasizing about being Godzilla-proportioned once again for the rest of his life.

The following hours were quite straightforward. Jasper would lead them to a headquarters and destroy it without contest, and then they would go to another restaurant to celebrate.

After the third headquarters, the protagonists had evidently caught on as the 4th, 5th, and 6th headquarters were all deserted.

With every protagonist headquarters in zone 88 destroyed, the march continued. Jasper took them North and repeated the process in zones 87, 86, and 85. They didn't encounter much more than token resistance, with the majority of headquarters being empty and a few being rigged to explode, or other various traps being set up.

They had collected several dozen more antagonists over the course of their pilgrimage. One woman named Xara had an event item, which was a trap radar.

When they encountered something that registered as a trap, Jasper would just have the fusioncrack zombies detonate everything in the surroundings, turning it to ash and rubble until the warning disappeared.

Aside from visiting restaurants, they stopped in at several antagonist headquarters to recharge their amulets and spread the word about the location of the portal back in zone 98.

Right before they would've entered zone 84, where she had first encountered the UFO, Jasper veered the group East and took them into zone 75.

Xara immediately held up a hand and showed Jasper her scanner, which was registering a large number of traps ahead.

As usual, he began the demolition process and had the fusioncrack zombies unload in the surroundings. Gen's gremlins joined in shooting their railgun and cackling as a building exploded into fragments.

Gen had become complacent with the process and was caught off guard as mechanical figures jumped out through the dust and charged their group.

The fusioncrack zombies could fire quickly, but there were still a few seconds between volleys, and they were caught off guard as the mechs closed the distance.

Gen's plastic eyes hardened as she recognized M-12 models. CJ had piloted an M-15 model, but it was almost the same as these earlier machines.

The M-series specialized in destroying other mechs, unlike the P-series, they were highly mobile and had a variety of melee-engagement options. Of the twelve charging their group, six had the plasma chainsaws CJ had favored, while the other six had bunker-buster hammers, which would detonate on impact with enough force to likely fatally wound even a special zombie.

People were yelling and shooting weapons or abilities, but the highly armored mechs ignored the attacks entirely as they pushed forward, beelining for the fusioncrack zombies.

Gen didn't hesitate as she shot into the air and released gnomes. After the M-10 model, every M-series mech was entirely armored with no windows. Pilots relied on nerve-plugins to connect to sensors and perceive their surroundings.

This was a huge benefit for getting detailed information from all directions at once, but it came with a fatal weakness that wasn't fully corrected even in CJ's model.

Each gnome flew with heat-seeking precision and hit small sensor boxes on the mech's shoulders, turning them to plastic.

The mechs immediately began falling over themselves and collapsed one after another onto the ground, flailing wildly.

With the nerve plugins installed, the pilot's bodies were completely numb, and without the sensors, they had no way to even tell which way was up, much less what was in front of them.

Jasper, who had been about to leap into a charging mech, eyed the spectacle and said, "Message Francine, their people would likely have some use for these things."

Leaving the mechs behind with a group of antagonists to guard them, they hurried forward to the next target.

Gen hatefully stared up at the sky. She got a poll for being useless, and now she had a badass moment and didn't get a poll?

Their rampage continued, and Gen was sure her body had gained 20 lbs by the time LEO's end-of-day announcement came.

Frozen as usual, they listened to his spiel that started with a funeral dirge.

LEO was sobbing, "A great one cut down before her time! A hero amongst the people! The final hope in this dark zombie-infested timeline was brutally murdered! And for what? Some lizards! You should all be ashamed of what you did! Shame! Shame! Shame!

"Anyway, good job, antagonists. You guys finally remembered how to play the game. Two days left in the event, and the destroyed zones spiked to thirty today! I'm loving the focus on binge eating and desecrating the dead! Real evil energy going on here!

"Protagonists, you know you don't have to just hide, right? Like, sure, it's a good strategic decision bunkering down, but I will very seriously remind you all that this is a live broadcast, and you bunkering down is terrible for ratings! Do me a favor and go get eaten in style!"

Gen reappeared in her room and immediately checked her stomach, breathing a sigh of relief that all the food Jasper had been force-feeding her in the event didn't appear to carry over outside of it. The six-pack his armor had given her also unfortunately didn't carry over…

Jasper gave her a lazy look and laid down to sleep. Shrugging, she stepped outside and hurried to the conference room where they had a strategy meeting before. Along the way, she saw many of her fellow antagonists who had died during Susan's assault.

They gave her waves, but avoided conversation now that they had been eliminated from the group, not wanting to risk violating any rules.

In the conference room, she found Hon waiting, and no one else.

"We really the only ones left?"

He shrugged, "Technically, on the protagonist side, there are still a dozen or so alive, but obviously we can't coordinate with them."

She nodded and massaged her jaw, feeling weird speaking after a full day of communicating through eye rolls, rocket flares, and, least effectively, gremlins.

Hon looked tired as well, and she asked, "How are things on your end?"

He nodded, "They're good. Thanks again for the crown, it's insane. Like literally insane. Solomon is losing his mind. We've got six teleportation gates set up, but we might switch the location of some. Francine is running a full operation from the gate room, using it as a field hospital and barracks. We've got hundreds of antagonists coming in and out and gremlins out of the wazzoo. The protagonists are catching on, though, and they're not shooting at the UFO anymore if they're not sure they can hit, so we're not making gremlins as quickly…"

She digested the information, but he wasn't done.

"We've been looting abilities, too. We've got six good ones that are active and another three in reserve. As it was your poll and your crown originally, I figured I'd let you make the decision if we should swap any."

He held out his phone and showed her the description of the newly incorporated ability.

Thermal Lance: Mannable turrets are added to the UFO's exterior that fire precision lasers to eliminate targets. Turret quantity is based on UFO size. Maximum 500 turrets.

It certainly seemed useful and was a step up from the improvised murder holes they'd made before by literally blasting holes into the UFO for the gremlins to shoot out of.

Hon showed her another long list of abilities they had looted that were in standby.

He finished by saying, "The looted abilities only show their name, so we don't have a lot to go on. The ones we have incorporated right now are working well, so we haven't risked swapping them, but if you want to swap any of them, I'll convince Solomon. Just don't swap the wormhole, one, I think Francine would go insane as their whole operation revolves around it. The rest of them aren't essential."

Gen scanned the abilities and decided to give the viewers one last chance to actually make a decision. Picking out ones that had potential, she made a new poll.

She really hoped they correctly understood the poll and that the three options with the most votes would be used. If any of Healing Hour, I See Dead People, and Thermal Lances weren't selected, then they would be permanently lost and replaced with the new, unknown abilities.

With the poll made, she asked her burning question, "How's the contribution points going?"

He shook his head, "We're up to a million, but it's slowing down. We swept around areas where a lot of antagonists died earlier in the event, but most people didn't have a lot of points. In our fights right now, it's weird to say, but not enough people are dying on our side, so there's not a lot to loot. I'm asking for donations, so a hundred thousand of the points is from that."

She nodded, "Check out the area where I fought old Gen. She killed a bunch of antagonists and stacked them up, some were high-level level so hopefully they had some contribution points banked."

She showed him on the map where it was, and he nodded. He was looking nervous, though, and she felt he had something to say.

"What's up?"

He averted her eyes and said, "Umm, nothing really just wanted to check in on how you're doing. I know I'm not a generated, so I can't imagine coming into existence in the middle of a scenario only to be stuck dead center in a zombie event for a week straight. The flamingo thing is funny, but I've heard having your body messed with like that can be really hard on your mental health."

He took a deep breath, "I just wanted to let you know that you don't need to push yourself too hard. Events are like lotteries, so some people win a lot, but it's not worth messing yourself up for by trying too hard. You've seen how Solomon is."

She paused and looked at him. Hon initially seemed like an idiot, and he might be one, but there was more going on there than she'd realized.

She gave him a smile and said, "I appreciate it. Honestly, you're right, the whole thing is kind of fucked up, but in a way, it's been nice following Jasper around instead of having to plan everything. The event is nice because it's giving me something to focus on rather than trying to come to terms with the whole existence thing. Once it's done, I figure I'll have a mental breakdown like a normal person."

Hon looked concerned, but was rescued from replying by the door slamming open and Morna crashing into the room.

She was out of breath, but gasped out, "What's up losers!"

They both stared at her, and finally, Gen asked, "Are you still alive in the event? You went flying off with Sarah, and nobody heard from you since…"

Morna scoffed, "Still alive? Obviously, who could take me out? That katana weirdo? No way!"

Hon laughed and said, "Hell yeah!"

Gen rubbed her brows and asked, "Then you killed her? And why are you out of breath?"

Morna took a deep breath, "I had to find Twen and taunt him for dying! He's holed up reviewing data from the event, trying to plan ahead for the next one. I told him that was dumb, and he kicked me out!"

She hesitated for a moment before continuing, "As for Katana Girl, she's not dead, but I've got the upper hand! Couple more rounds and she'll be a corpse!"

Hon laughed, "Bet it would be easier if you still had arms."

Morna shot him a glare, "No way! Those things just slow me down! My boots and these luscious legs are all I need!"

Hon looked doubtful. "So why not chop them off outside the event?"

"Maybe I will!"

Gen held up a hand before it could get even more ridiculous and asked, "Wait, so you're still fighting Sarah? It's been like twelve hours in the event…"

Morna nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah, I bashed her egg thing to pieces, and we crashed. It had some like airbags so she didn't die, and then I tried to smash her and then she blocked and then I flew up and made a crater, she tried to run and then double backed and slashed at me again and then--"

Gen shot her a look and held up her hand again, "Morna, if it's a twelve-hour fight, I'm not going to listen to a play-by-play of the whole thing. Honestly, it's wild that you'd remember it clearly enough to give a play a play… just summarize it, please."

Morna rolled her eyes, "Well, yeah, I have an eidetic memory. If you want the boring version, yeah, we're still fighting. We took a couple of breaks as we got too tired and were falling all over the place, but tomorrow I'm ending this one and for all!"

Gen had to mentally collect herself for a moment before managing to ask, "Where are you? I can just fly over and take care of it."

Morna looked scandalized. "Gen, this is a duel! Do you have no sense of honor?"

Gen rolled her eyes, "Morna, we were fighting her together before! Where was your honor when I turned her sword to plastic??"

Morna chuckled, "Gen, that was a fight, not a duel, totally different. We stopped by a protagonist's headquarters, and I let her buy some new swords so she'd stop bitching about it not being fair. The ones sold there suck, though I've broken like forty of them, they've got nothing on my boots!"

Gen just stared at her while Hon gave Morna a high five and said hell yeah again. Gen decided she didn't care anymore. It sounded more like the two of them were becoming friends than actually fighting at this point. She wouldn't be surprised if the next restaurant Jasper raided, they'd stumble on the two of them having a lunch date.

"Well, Jasper already went to bed, and I think he had the right idea about things." She looked at Hon, "I made a poll for the UFO options, I'll let you know when it resolves."

Morna looked devastated. "Sleep!? Gen, what are you, an old lady? You just keep going to bed after the event each day! We should party, or harass Twen! You haven't even looked at your dungeon! I heard it has crabs! Do you think I could eat one of them?"

Gen gave a long groan, "Yes, I'm an old lady and I need sleep. How old even are you guys? It's hard to tell people's ages here with the remix machines and everything."

Successfully distracted from the dungeon line of questions, Morna leaped on the new conversation train as she flashed a coy look and asked, "How old do you think I am?"

"13"

Morna stamped her foot. "Gen! Remixers only let you look younger than your biological age, not older!"

Gen shrugged, "I don't know, you've got like a free spirit thing going on, so for all I know you're a sixty-year-old hippie."

Morna beamed, "Exactly! I'm actually 68!"

Hon interrupted from the side, "She's 22."

Morna dove for him and started chasing him around the room. Hon screamed and managed to say, "Do me next!"

Gen scratched her head, "Umm, 20?"

Caught in a chokehold, he couldn't respond, so Morna did, "He's 19."

Gen nodded. She was a little relieved they were as young as they acted. Not that she was sure how to classify her own age. She had memories of being in her seventies as Victor, but she didn't feel that old in her heart.

Giving them a wave, she headed out to her room. Morna screamed after her, but appeared unwilling to stop murdering Hon to actually chase.

Entering her tiny room, Gen lay down next to Jasper, who was making miniature snoring noises. He was only a few inches long with her diminished ability outside the event, and it starkly contrasted with his commanding presence while possessing her body.

She lay back and stared at the dark ceiling. Hon's concerns stuck in her head.

Was she okay? The event wasn't stressing her, but there was something under the surface…

Not knowing what she wanted or who she was was easy to ignore when she was busy shooting gnomes out of her butt, but stuck in a tiny room with only a sleeping, moody iguana for company, she struggled with the question.