Poll World [LitRPG][Reader Polls]

(Free vote chapter! Gen is up to 32 viewers!)

Gen angled her fluffy wings to adjust her trajectory as the rocket boots shot her forward.

Her weird half-alive body couldn't actually fly under its own power, but being able to move her wings and legs allowed her to control her flight path far better than just relying on her hat to make herself into a guided projectile.

The next time protagonists started taking potshots at her, she felt confident she'd be more than a sitting duck.

An explosion echoed out below as her gremlins shot a baby dragon with their railgun.

The UFO attack had been even more devastating than they had hoped, eliminating both the dragon nest and whoever the dragonrider was in a single move.

The remaining juvenile and baby dragons were still dangerous and roamed the area, but without anyone left to command them were easy pickings as the antagonists consolidated their control.

Jasper was miffed that the protagonists had retreated from the outer zones. As a result, his food tour was cut short as fusioncrack zombies swept through, destroying all the remaining restaurants G2n had mapped out.

A full seventy zones had fallen now, leaving only the final 30 in the center of the event map.

To help improve Jasper's mood, Gen had suggested putting together a dragon BBQ. Initially, she had no way to know if dragons tasted good, but if the king of mythical creatures tasted bad, then LEO had really dropped the ball.

With all the outer zones destroyed, the remaining antagonists had little to do before the final assault, and more and more people were gathering for the impromptu celebration as they planned for the final event day.

Some of the gathered actors displayed impressive cooking talents, resulting in an impromptu cooking competition with Jasper and his zombie brethren serving as judges.

Gen couldn't fully enjoy the festivities, however, as she felt things weren't going as smoothly as they appeared.

She'd been catching up on all the event news that she missed while Jasper had her phone, and the raw numbers looked terrible.

While she had been making big plays in zone 98, the protagonists had been systematically eliminating any high-level or noteworthy antagonist. Hundreds of headquarters had been purged, and the losses were staggering.

Solomon, at level 5, was their highest level remaining member, and they only had a handful of level 4 people below him.

On the antagonist side, the anarchy alliance hadn't been slacking. They'd staged a series of daring assassinations, whittling down the high-level protagonists. Despite that, the protagonists still had at least four level 5 actors and over a hundred level 4 actors.

For the lower levels, the disparity was much worse. Francine had put together some very easy-to-read pie charts, and they painted a grim picture.

Both sides had started the event with relatively equal numbers, but 80% of the antagonist side had already been eliminated. In contrast, the protagonists had only lost about 50% of their forces.

So while the antagonists temporarily controlled the majority of the event map, the remaining zones were overflowing with protagonists.

A cheer went up below as Jasper pronounced a brown sugar dragon steak "Delectable."

In the distance, she saw the giant UFO rapidly approach before stopping above the festivities and opening a portal.

From inside, dozens of antagonists emerged with Solomon in the lead. She saw Francine and Hon close behind him.

Flying down to meet them, Francine gave her a weary wave before breaking away from the group.

Gen felt self-conscious as she landed, and a couple dozen feathers drifted to the ground around her. She was constantly shedding the things, but she never seemed to get less fluffy.

Focusing on Francine, she asked, "Can you step away like this? Aren't you basically running things?"

Francine shook their head and smiled, "Not anymore. The Wardens' base was under heavy assault, but once all the protagonists started retreating, the communication lines opened back up."

Francine took a deep breath, "They still had me coordinating things in the portal room, but now that we have a brief respite, I'm getting sidelined for the moment."

Francine must have been able to see Gen's concern despite the bird face and floof because they quickly clarified, "I'm not bothered by it! To be clear, I don't think they initially realized the person directing such a big part of their forces was a freshly generated probationary employee… they seem to think I've done a good job and I think a full-time promotion is almost assured, but the top brass is putting more experienced people into the actual decision making roles."

Gen still felt a bit off, but it was about as good as she could hope for from a corporation.

Francine pointed at a group of two level 4s and a level 3 who were walking with Solomon to meet Jasper.

"That's Beth and Maurice, they're the husband and wife duo that lead the Fortune Wardens. The level 3 with them is their son Matthew. Nepotism aside, they seem to be competent at their jobs and not afraid to get their hands dirty."

Their conversation was interrupted by a harsh screeching sound.

Everyone's heads turned and saw a fishing boat with a dozen monster truck wheels approaching. Behind it was an unexpected sight.

Gen had only seen it in pictures, but they didn't do it justice as she identified the barn tank. It really was shaped like an oversized barn with hundreds of cannons and guns sticking out of it at odd angles.

It was still dripping mud and had been dragged here by dozens of heavy chains attached to the fishing trawler.

Hon's face lit up, "It worked!" He shot a look at Solomon and said, "I'm going to initiate the hacking!" Solomon waved him off as Hon scurried back to the portal leading to the UFO.

Everyone's eyes were still focused on the ship as people began to climb down chains to the ground. At the lead was a level 2 man predictably named Frank.

He strode up to the gathering group of leaders and eyed the many dragon dishes lined up for Jasper's consumption.

"Wee woo, you folks sure know how to celebrate!" Ignoring the atmosphere, he looked at Jasper and asked, "Mind if me and my boys join in for some grub?"

Jasper's face went still, and Gen saw him struggling with some inner turmoil before grudgingly nodding his assent.

Frank's crew quickly began lining up to eat, and the cooking competition evolved into a potluck.

Beth and Maurice seemed to want to discuss things with Jasper, or more specifically, the fusioncrack special zombies he represented, but Gen was unsurprised that Jasper insisted finishing the cooking competition took precedence.

Of the remaining major players on the antagonist side, most were now present, with the two missing groups being the Anarchy Alliance and Terry's Temp Agency. The anarchists were always being mysterious, so she had no idea what they were doing, and from what she read in her chats, Terry's people were busy corralling as many zombies as possible in preparation for the final assault.

The potluck was in full swing with only the shortage of dragon meat as a problem. From the UFO portal, hundreds of gremlins slowly exited, and Gen solved the problem by ordering her gremlins to show them the ropes of dragon hunting as they procured a steady stream of exotic meat for the feast.

Some dragons were destroyed too thoroughly, but that was the built-in cost of gremlin services.

Gen was watching events and keeping an eye on Jasper when a distorted digital voice surprised her from the side.

"I see you are a kindred spirit. Despite your fluffy pink exterior, you are a watcher and weaver of plots."

Confused as hell, she turned and saw a hooded figure had appeared next to her. Their hood was dark and she couldn't see their face. Even the normal level and name information were hidden.

"I appreciate the compliment… I think? But who are you?"

The figure gave her a dramatic bow.

"You may simply refer to me as Ace. I would not malign its name by calling myself the leader of the anarchy alliance, but I do hold some influence."

Gen nodded and inwardly thanked her viewers for not voting to send her with whoever this weirdo was.

Trying to remain diplomatic, she asked, "Umm, nice to meet you, Ace, what makes you call me a weaver of… ummm, plots?"

Ace laughed, their voice changer going up and down several octaves.

"My ability shows the threads of destiny. I use it to pick my targets, but it also shows how deeply you are embroiled in this event."

Gen gave them a quizzical look. She'd seen a variety of abilities, but some were certainly more esoteric than others. Ace's almost seemed similar to Solomon's, which let him see how fortuitous a given action was.

Magic wasn't real, though, and everything was just LEO simulating it under the hood. Based on that, how did destiny and fate abilities work exactly?

Shaking her head to not get lost in the details, she ruffled her feathers and said, "Well, I didn't weave them. I've just been trying to survive until things got to this point."

Ace didn't respond for a moment before saying, "Whether wittingly or not, I can see that things are reaching a crescendo and you are at the center of it. I'll be watching your performance."

Ace's cloak rippled, and they disappeared from next to her.

Gen kicked at the space they had been standing, double-checking if they were really gone or just invisible or something.

She was a bit annoyed. Did they just get off on being mysterious? She wasn't even convinced they had a fate ability or anything and weren't just pretending to get attention. They hadn't told her anything useful, and the entire meeting had just been them showing off how cool and mysterious they were.

She admitted she was a little jealous as they were pulling off the mysterious techno-shadow assassin anarchist thing successfully, and it was much cooler than whatever her current aesthetic was, but she still felt confident labeling them as a poser.

Still feeling disgruntled and considering grabbing some dragon steak for herself, she was interrupted by a poll completing.

Ding~!

She glared. Rosalina again? The first time, she could attribute it to LEO being a mess of a god, but twice seemed intentional.

She still had no idea what was going on, though, and all she knew was that Ghost Line sounded way cooler than her last reward of being fluffy.

Switching perspective~

***

Rosalina inspected her radio, which had been upgraded with the new ability. It had turned white and now had ominous skulls engraved all over it. She ordered Loquat and the others to stay in their room and locked it behind her as she moved to her own office.

She could only listen to so much of their whimpering and complaining before losing her mind.

If it weren't for the fact that she was only controlling the protagonists thanks to using them as proxies, she would've sent them off on suicide missions hours ago.

The new ability was straightforward, but she had no idea what to do with it.

Ghost Line: You've heard of phoning a friend, but how about phoning a dead friend! Resurrect a fallen participant in the event as a lich. You may issue them a single order.

She frowned. Who was she supposed to resurrect? She didn't even know that many people in the event, and the first two names that came to mind were Irving and Susan.

Both probably wanted her dead, and even with the ability to issue a single order, she wasn't confident that they wouldn't find a way to work against her.

Loquat and his fellows were constantly trying to edge their way around her commands, and she had been forced to steal their phones and order them to sit and do nothing to keep them from finding a way to order someone to shoot her.

Adding another unwilling participant to the mix was just begging for the whole thing to blow up in her face.

But what people she was on friendly terms with were mostly level 1s and didn't really have the teeth for being useful, even if they did turn into a lich.

She didn't know a lot about liches, but as far as creature types went, she knew they were near the top of the list that people complained about. They were undead magic users who not only excelled in defense and offense, but also had intelligence and adaptability.

Wracking her brain, she sorted through messages on the four phones in front of her, issuing dozens of orders while masquerading as Loquat and the others.

There were a lot of complaints about her passive strategy, but she didn't give a fuck. They had fortifications for a reason, and the longer they waited, the more and better mechs they would produce.

Zombies were flooding in from all the destroyed zones, but not even the special zombies could handle a fully fortified headquarters.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The event day was almost over, and if things kept going well, they would have the bulk of the zombies cleaned up with minimal losses and could go into the final event day with a huge lead.

Then they just had to sit pretty and hope the giant space cannon couldn't be fired too often.

She'd ordered all locations to spread out their defenses and made sure that no single location was a particularly juicy target like the dragon's nest had been.

They didn't need a fancy plan or a knight in shining armor. They just needed people to do their jobs and stay patient, and the event was a sure win.

She looked at the radio again. Did she even need to use it? She'd seen the numbers. The antagonists were dreadfully outnumbered, and as fancy as the UFO was, it was pitiful in comparison to the mech factory's production.

She shook her head. She had bills to pay and Irving as a wild card. She needed her contribution to be overwhelming.

Thinking of Irving's final moments, she realized there was a target for the Ghost Line she had overlooked.

Activating it, she heard the sound of an old telephone on the line.

Ring ring ring ring~

Connection to the underworld successful!

Screams of the damned erupted from the radio before abruptly transitioning to static and leaving her with a ringing in her ears. Cautiously, she slowly brought the radio closer to her ear and tried to listen through the static, and heard heavy breathing as something listened, waiting for her command.

Thinking hard, she formulated the command. She knew from testing on Loquat that long and complex commands were prone to failure, so she kept it simple.

"Kill everything outside of the center 30 zones."

The line went dead.

Switching perspective~

***

Gen had just managed to sit her floofy butt down and start pecking at some dragon meat when the rumbling started. Her gremlins, as well as new ones Hon had created, had run out of dragons and transitioned to blowing up random things for a while, so no one reacted at first, but when an ominous beam of black energy shot out of the collapsed cave that had formerly been the dragon's nest, everyone knew something was happening.

A giant cylindrical hole had been melted into the earth when the fathership had shot its doomsday device, and something was coming out of it.

Gen felt a shiver deep inside her plastic bones. Rocketing into the sky, she tried to get a better vantage point to see the approaching threat.

A massive bone-white creature was dragging its way up from the crevice. The size and shape matched the dragon from G2n's report, but its appearance had totally changed as all signs of flesh were gone, leaving it completely skeletal. On its bones were hundreds of black runes that pulsed with ominous energy.

As it pulled itself over the edge of the pit, the response was immediate as people started screaming, and she heard someone yell, "It's a lich!"

Their team was team zombie, so obviously an undead dragon should be an ally, not an enemy, but…

The lich pulled itself fully out of the pit, and a pulse of dark energy swept over everyone in the area. It did no damage, but as it swept over Gen, her sense of unease intensified.

Gen looked down and focused on Jasper and his brethren. As intimidating as the lich was, it shouldn't be a match for all six fusioncrack special zombies. What she saw, however, made her heart drop.

Jasper had thrown his food aside and was focused on the fusioncrack zombies. His normal non-plussed expression was gone as he yelled.

"Flint! Beryl! All of you! Fight it!"

The fusioncrack zombies were standing ominously still, but when she looked closely, they were straining. Purple energy fluctuated from their crystals, and they were rocking back and forth like they were on the verge of attacking not only Jasper, but the rest of the antagonists in the area.

No one else seemed to notice the fusioncrack crisis, as the necrotic pulse had also animated the skeletons of all the dragons they had just finished feasting upon.

Actors scrambled for safety as the smaller dragons began to tear into flesh. The first actor to die didn't stay down for long as their flesh rotted away, and another skeleton joined the ranks.

Frank was yelling, and his crew was running back to his ship. Solomon was blasting skeletons with his eyes while fighting his way to the UFO.

The Fortune Wardens had started magically generating impromptu fortifications, and she saw Francine ducking behind a barrier as they shot wooden spikes at the nearest skeleton.

The lich started bombarding the crowd with necrotic spikes, lancing one actor after another and raising a dozen more skeletons one after another.

The lines almost collapsed into panic when the sound of hundreds of blasts reversed the situation.

The barn tank that had been sitting idle roared to life, and hundreds of bullets, cannon balls, and missiles all unloaded on the lich in an endless volley.

The lich flinched back from the barrage, some of its rune-inscribed bones cracking under the onslaught. It stopped its assault and instead conjured dozens of black stained glass shields that hung in the air, blocking the barn tank.

Gen saw her opening and launched an endless stream of gnomes targeting each shield individually. Her gnomes didn't directly deal damage, but they had proven themselves capable of nullifying magic before.

Sure enough, as each gnome made contact with the shields, they transformed into black plastic and fell out of the sky to shatter on the earth below.

The dragon turned to face her, its empty eye sockets glowing with necrotic energy as it split its attention, summoning more shields and a single spike of dark energy straight at her.

She zipped to the side using her new mobility to dodge the attack, but was caught off guard as a hundred more blasts followed.

Screaming, she cartwheeled in midair, trying to fly erratically as possible even as the hits drew closer and closer. Some glancing blows hit her, but the floofy feathers absorbed the strikes; each hit only managing to turn a single feather to ash.

With newfound confidence, she resumed her return fire, matching the dragon's insane fire rate as hundreds of gnomes flew out of her butt one after another.

Below, the antagonists had rallied and were now coordinating their attacks.

The Fortune Wardens' impromptu bunker housed the majority of the antagonists and gremlins as they pelted both abilities, projectiles, and lightning.

The skeleton dragons lost their momentum, and one after another, they crumbled to dust under the concentrated fire.

Frank's fishing trawler had entered the fray as well, displaying a shocking mobility it drove at high speed, circling the dragon and shooting cannon balls and chain shots at a steady rate.

One particular cannonball managed to slip past the shields, and the crowd cheered as it snapped one of the dragon's ribs in half.

The UFO shifted positions and moved directly above the dragon as Solomon's laser vision shot out of the porthole as a continuous devastating attack. The dragon was forced to stop shooting at Gen and erect even more shields above itself to block him.

From the UFO, 12 mechs appeared, dropping fast to land on the shields. The M-12 models they had captured had been hacked with the Five-Finger Discount upgrade, and Gen's plastification on the sensors had been repaired with contribution points.

Their heavy hammers and saws tore through shields and forced the dragon into melee combat.

Thrilled Gen glanced back at the fusioncrack zombies and confirmed that things were still in a stalemate. The dragon clearly could control the undead, but with Jasper blocking their way, the teamwork augment prevented them from losing their minds.

Gen gradually started to relax. It was still an intense battle, but the lich's injuries were compounding, and it was too occupied defending itself to go on the offense.

Abruptly, energy started condensing in the dragon's chest, and it turned to face the Fortune Warden bunker. Victor had played more than enough tabletops for Gen to recognize a breath attack when she saw one.

Inspiration striking, she flew to the side of the battlefield and waited for the breath attack to fully charge before dropping one of the high-rarity zombie lures she'd looted off of Susan. The dragon wasn't a zombie, but she had to hope that whatever bullshit logic things worked off of here, that it was close enough.

Rocketing away from the lure, she wasn't disappointed as the energy in the dragon's eyes dulled for a moment and its head snapped to point at the lure.

A tide of necrotic energy flooded across the battlefield, failing to hit anyone on their side.

A second later, the energy flared in its eyes again, and it focused on the lure, shooting a black bolt blasting it out of existence.

Gen breathed a sigh of relief as it didn't immediately start charging another breath attack. If its strongest attack was on cooldown, then the rest of the fight should be easy.

Even far away, she heard Jasper scream.

Whipping her head around, she realized that when she'd activated the lure, it had also mesmerized the fusioncrack special zombies for just a moment.

They'd trampled past Jasper trying to reach it, and now that he wasn't there to block them, the lich's spell took effect.

Six blasts of purple lightning tore into the back of Fortune Warden's bunker. Gen watched in horror as the energy arced through the crowd. Gremlins exploded, and actors zombified on contact.

Even worse, as the new fusioncrack zombies rose, their eyes glowed with black energy, and they completely ignored the zombie avoidance amulets.

The lich didn't miss the opportunity as it dropped all its frontal shields and transitioned to offense.

Black chains made of runes spread along the ground, grasping for the mechs. Whenever a chain made contact with a mech, the runes would spread across its surface like wildfire. When fully engulfed, the mechs would collapse lifelessly.

The mechs tried to dodge the runes, but Gen could see the pilots were inexperienced, as one by one they misstepped and fell to the same fate.

The lich then began firing an endless stream of black bolts at the UFO above. The UFO's metal exterior corroded and melted under the assault. Solomon's laser abruptly stopped, and a second later, the UFO zipped away, moving out of range.

The fishing trawler was left exposed, and it fired a parting volley of cannonballs before immediately retreating at top speed.

The barn tank lacked the same mobility, so it was cornered as the lich summoned a dozen more shields and flew directly at it, enduring the concentrated cannon fire. With a touch, the lich engulfed the tank in the same runes used on the mechs.

Horrified Gen watched as the antagonist ranks collapsed in on themselves, and panicked people started running for their lives.

Only the gremlins stood fast as they battled the rising undead and gleefully escalated the chaos with dozens of explosions.

Her three remaining gremlins were in the thick of things, and she saw a railgun shot explode Maurice's zombiefied head before another volley of fusioncrack shots exploded in the middle of the melee, and she felt her gremlin connections sever.

The special zombies hadn't regained control, and Gen saw Jasper fighting his way to them only to be sent flying with a sweep of Beryl's massive tail.

Her ploy had clearly backfired. The breath attack would've been devastating, but it still would've at least hit the fortification from the front instead of the surprise attack from behind that ended up happening.

Trying to find a way to rectify the situation, her mind came up empty. The lich was heavily damaged with multiple broken bones and fractures, but even weakened, all the abilities and equipment she had accumulated were nothing in the face of its power.

LEO's voice echoed in her ears. Wow, Gen… is it a coincidence that the second you get control of your body, you get all your teammates killed again? Anyway, good job stopping one attack and losing both the battle and the war! Here's a reward!

Gen was used to LEO's jabs, but this one actually hurt because she agreed. The antagonists were already at a disadvantage, and the losses were already crippling even if she ignored the fact that people were still dying.

Shaking herself out of it, she focused.

The entire event was likely lost already, but she wasn't the type of person to give up until the last card was drawn.

She had five zombie lures left. The first one had been a mistake, and while they couldn't reverse the damage, they could keep it from worsening for the moment.

Flying at top speed, she placed the first lure in a ruined building. The effect was immediate as the fusioncrack zombies and skeletons halted their assaults and started rushing toward her.

The lich's runes had finished engulfing the barn tank, and its cannon fire had halted.

It tried to resist the lure but only managed to launch a few hundred more lances of black energy before unleashing a roar of rage and launching itself in the air, flying straight toward her.

Gen didn't wait to see how long it took the lich to destroy the whole building and immediately started flying away, and went about half a mile before placing another lure. She flew much faster than the lich, and she needed to buy as much time as possible.

She repeated the process twice more, leaving her with just a single lure left. Keeping it in reserve, she flew back around in a wide arc, avoiding the zombies and returning to the battlefield at top speed.

Things were a mess, but the chaos had abated. Frank's trawler had returned, and his crew were gathering wounded and transporting them to the UFO.

Jasper was nowhere in sight, so she flew directly up and into the UFO's opening.

Inside, there was a terrible smell of blood as the wounded and dying were all around. Healing Hour was in effect, so most wouldn't die, but it was slow enough that their suffering wouldn't stop anytime soon.

Ignoring them, she rushed to the command room and found Solomon in the captain's chair with Hon's body on the floor next to him.

Shocked, she asked, "What happened to him?"

Solomon glanced at Hon, his expression stiff.

"Lich magic, I don't know. He was piloting the barn tank when the runes engulfed it his heart stopped, even though he was remotely piloting it. Same thing with the mech pilots." He held up a hand before she could ask, "It's persistent, too. Next would be hero who climbed into the pod, died immediately as soon as the connection formed."

Pulling her eyes away from Hon's body, she tried to stay focused.

"I used the lures to get the lich and zombies away from here, but we need to evacuate ASAP before it gets back."

Solomon shook his head, "It doesn't matter."

"What do you mean?"

He gestured at Hon and then everything around them.

"The event is over. We've already lost. My ability says every choice is a dead end."

Gen felt a sinking feeling. She had the same suspicion, but having a magical prediction ability, spell it out…

Solomon shrugged, "It is what it is. Hopefully, we did enough to get some good rewards. I vote we take this old tin can and go attack the remaining zones. We'll die obviously, but a couple more points might be all we need to get on the leaderboard."

Gen strode forward and slapped him with a wing, sending feathers flying. The fluffy hit didn't phase him as he stared at her and said, "What? It's realistic. I didn't reach level 5 by chasing pipe-dreams."

She shook her head, "Where's Jasper? Do you need another pep talk? Isn't this the same conversation as last time?"

Solomon laughed, "No idea where he is. He used his grappling hook to latch onto one of the special zombies when they ran off. Lich probably ate him alive by this point. This time and that time aren't comparable. It's the difference between chasing a coin flip and winning the lottery. Jasper was right that I had been being too cautious, but this isn't a question of how we win. Now it's a question of choosing how we die. You saw that thing! We had the bulk of our forces here, and it still tore through us!"

Gen shook her head. "It doesn't matter if it's a one in a million, we play it out. We still have a whole day of the event left, and LEO is going to try to keep it entertaining so there can always be a reversal."

She looked at Hon again before forcing her eyes away. "Loot the bodies, a lot of people died, we might have enough to repair the hatchery."

Solomon waved a hand in front of her face. "Hellooo! Were you even paying attention? It's a damn lich, master of the undead! What? You're going to summon it more minions?"

She looked at him. He wasn't wrong, but it didn't matter. "Look, right now we're at a disadvantage. I don't know how we can come back from this or if it's even possible, but the more cards we have in our hands, the more options we'll have. The event day is about to end. We need to loot everything and then come up with a new plan."

Solomon didn't look convinced, but he stopped arguing as he activated the tractor beam and started to loot the battlefield.

Taking a breath, she asked, "Did Francine make it?"

Solomon shook his head, "I don't know, but I doubt it. The Wardens weren't as fortunate as their name would suggest. Them and their underlings are basically all dead."

Gen didn't react. The lich was quick, and they likely only had a few more minutes left before it returned and they had to focus.

What followed was a frantic scurry of looting bodies and rescuing survivors. Within five minutes, they'd left the battlefield behind, and she compiled a list of their spoils.

2.2 million contribution points, most of which had been looted off of Hon's body. Hundreds of new potential abilities for the UFO, and a warehouse worth of random items.

The massive haul felt empty in her hands.

LEO's voice echoed out as she froze in place, marking the end of the event day.

"Okay, folks, so I'll start by saying good job, antagonists! You've destroyed 70 zones! 11 more and you'll win the event! Not that you'll destroy even one with a dragon lich on the playing field. Honestly, that one is on me. No way you guys stood a chance, well, you did, until a certain someone messed it up, but you're all only human, so being a failure is expected! Anyway, high fives all around, if you all just want to skip the final day and call it for the protagonists, let me know!"

She reappeared in the clubhouse. Jasper was on her soldier, and he looked tense.

"Are you still alive in the event?"

He hesitated, but nodded his head.

Steeling her resolve, she said, "Help me come up with a plan."