Surviving the Simulation: The Grand Crusade

Leaving the troll's body lying lifeless and still burning in the pit, the scene a grotesque macabre of twisted flesh, a testament to their desperate struggle, the pair slowly walked back towards the waiting group. The air was thick with the lingering scent of battle, and Xander's heart still pounded in his chest from the adrenaline.

Lucy stomped directly toward Xander as he rejoined the group. She looked like she was getting ready to complain to the police that the neighbor's birthday party for their five-year-old violated the homeowners association rules rather than someone who was just involved with a seven-foot-tall monster that wanted to eat her. Xander tried not to chuckle as he considered that the troll probably would have died from food poisoning had it eaten someone as bitter as Lucy.

"Look at us," she said, her voice trembling with exhaustion and frustration. "We barely made it out alive."

Xander, panting, was still clutching his hammer. His eyes were distant, lost in the fight's aftermath and the sheer absurdity of the discussion. He didn't respond immediately, which only fueled Lucy's determination.

"This isn't the first time we've faced death on this trip because of you," she continued, stepping closer to him. "And it won't be the last. Starlight is too far, and the dangers will only get worse."

Xander finally met her gaze, his expression hardening. "We've come this far, Lucy. We can't just turn back now."

Lucy shook her head, her voice rising. "I'm not saying we turn back. I'm saying we change our destination. Champaign is closer and safer. We can regroup there, gather more supplies, and stand a chance of surviving this."

Xander clenched his jaw and became animated in his rebuttal. "Starlight is the closest established safe zone. Math is math, and Champaign is ten to fifteen miles away. Starlight is five miles in the other direction, and we know it's secure! Champaign isn't closer, and it sure as hell isn't safer. It's a den of nightmares that would have everyone here dead before you got past the first block!"

Lucy gestured to the fallen troll, her eyes fierce. "How many more of these are we going to face if we keep going this way? We can't keep fighting our way through every inch of this journey. You're going to get us killed, Xander."

He looked away, the weight of her words pressing down on him, but his resolve remained firm. "We're sticking to the plan, Lucy."

Lucy's frustration bubbled over, her hands clenching into fists. "You're so damn stubborn," she muttered, turning away from him. She took a deep breath, trying to steady her emotions. "Fine. Have it your way. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Xander watched her, a mask of seething anger etched across his face, "You know what, I said I would force no one to go with me to Starlight. So if you want to head to Champaign, have at it."

A smug look crossed Lucy's face but quickly fell as he continued, "But let me clarify some things. Gary and the rest of the guard squad are going to Starlight. My team and I are going to Starlight. Would you like to guess who has most of the supplies that we've shared with no questions that you've been eating over the last day or two? You want to guess where those supplies are going?"

She glanced back at him, her eyes filled with anger and concern. "I hope you're right, Xander. For all our sake. You let that poor man die."

There was a heavy silence between them, filled only by the distant sounds of the city and the silent discussions of the rest of the refugees. Xander didn't trust himself to respond. Finally, Lucy huffed, turned, and stormed off as if she had magically won the argument for their survival.

Xander glared at her back as she departed, his eye twitching. "Fuck, I hate escort quests."

Jo joined him, putting her arms around his shoulder, "Babe, it's ok. She's just a bitter old woman whose sole purpose left in life is to make everyone else miserable. You're not wrong to care, but you can't carry them all, love. No one can."

"Ugh, I'd rather fight another troll than deal with her. That comment about that man's death being my fault was underhanded. Didn't take her long to figure out just how to push my buttons," Xander said as he forced himself to calm down.

"It wasn't just one person; check your quest updates. Somewhere along the way, we lost a pair of others," Jo said dejectedly. "Zoey went to scout around to see if we can find the bodies."

"What? We were at zero refugees lost when I looked as we came into Tolono. When did that happen?" Xander exclaimed as he checked the notifications that he'd been ignoring.

No Good Deed
Quest Update! Three of your charges are no longer with your group and unable to make it to the Starlight Oasis. 92% of your escorts remain. You must complete the mission with 75% of the refugees making it to the Starlight Oasis.

"Did they just leave and take someone's poor advice, or did they die?" Xander pondered.

"Or both. Did they take someone's advice and head north, only to run into something nasty?" Jo replied.

"We're not leaving here until we know. I won't make the same mistake again and make assumptions on something like this," Xander said with conviction.

"Give Zoey thirty minutes. She should have something by then," Jo said, taking a seat on a nearby bench.

"Gary! Thirty-minute break! Keep some guards out, but make sure they all get some rest. We're going to push straight through to Starlight after this," Xander hollered out to Gary, who nodded in reply.

Flopping down next to Jo, Xander took a moment to consider his next steps once they got to Starlight. He'd been spending most of his free time thinking about it. He still had the blacksmithing skill book he'd received from Morvinn Stoneheart as a reward in the Dusk Tunnel Mine Complex that he hadn't used yet. It was the age-old question: What did Xander want to be when he grew up?

In his previous life, he'd been a project manager working for a digital marketing agency. It sounded boring, but the job was mostly about leadership, logistics, and planning. He stopped for a moment to consider that line of thinking; let's be honest, he thought it was mainly a babysitting job to make sure people did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to. He didn't want to be in any leadership position again. He wanted to be what they used to call an individual contributor. Someone who was good at what they did but wasn't involved in managing other people or handling big-picture items. It didn't mean he was selfish and only looking out for himself; he wanted to be part of the team. Just not the one running the show.

This brought him back to the skill book. Did he want to use the skill book himself? There were pros and cons to it. Making things was always a passion for him as a hobby. However, he didn't want to be the lynchpin in anyone's plans. Starlight already had a blacksmith so he could take it up as a hobby instead of a profession. Besides, he didn't want to give up being an adventurer.

Checking over his character sheet, he noticed that he had also gained a level from the recent fight with the troll. Not to mention several skill gains over the past couple of days. Placing his stat point into Constitution brought his health up to an even three hundred.

Name: Xander Kell
Class: Lightbringer Crusader
Level: Eight
Health: 300/300
Mana: 140/140

Stats
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 14 (+10)
Intelligence: 7
Constitution: 7
Charisma: 5

Abilities
Taunt

Cat's Grace
Spectral Sight
Radiant Smite
Radiant Aegis
Crusader's Verdict
Judgemental Strike
Light Heal
Sanctify

Skills
Spear Combat: 15
Mace Combat: 13
Knife Combat: 1
Thrown Spear: 1
First Aid: 10
Analyze: 7
Light Armor: 14
Leadership: 4
Meditation: 2

Not bad.

Xander scanned the updated stats on his character sheet, the numbers settling into place like puzzle pieces he wasn't quite sure how to fit together. No one had logged anything about the Crusader class, let alone the Lightbringer variant, back when he last checked the Data Forge in Saint Joseph. That didn't surprise him. The Simulation had assigned it to him for dragging Jo out of that dungeon, not for filling out a form or checking a box. He didn't know what would happen if he shared the details, and he wasn't in a hurry to find out. Some secrets were better kept until he knew which direction the knives were pointed.

He closed the interface and shifted his focus to Jo, who sat a few feet away with her arms crossed, watching the horizon like she was expecting it to blink first.

"Jo," he said. "We haven't had time to really talk character sheets. I've got the option to take blacksmithing as a profession. Not a class shift, just something I could lean into. Thinking it might be worth it."

She didn't answer right away. Her gaze stayed fixed, but something in her posture stiffened for half a breath before she relaxed again. Then her eyes clouded over, the subtle tell of someone flicking through their interface, and the silence stretched just long enough to feel like a choice.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Probably not the best place for a theory craft session," she said eventually. Her voice stayed neutral.

He noted the dodge. She hadn't answered the question. Not directly.

Xander let it hang. Pressing Jo wouldn't get him answers, not yet. Whatever she was holding back, it wasn't coming out in front of refugees and half a dozen open wounds. He filed it away and started to shift the conversation, but a sudden weight landed on his shoulder, followed by a low, rumbling hum against his ear.

He turned his head slightly and found himself nose-to-whisker with Cabot.

The spectral cat looked smug, as always, her expression unreadable except for the glint of satisfaction in her luminous eyes. Xander exhaled through his nose, lips twitching despite the tension still coiled in his chest.

"Well, there you are. I was wondering where you had taken off to," Xander tilted his head to bump against Cabot's, scratching her chin with his free hand.

She responded with a soft huff and a flick of her tail across his face, equal parts affection and indifference. He didn't need her to speak to know the message that he should have known better than to worry.

Cabot was spectral, sure, but she was still a cat. All the sass and mischief of a regular feline, just wrapped in a shimmer of magic that made her edges flicker like smoke in torchlight. He had found her in the depths of a ruined dungeon outside Sidney a month ago. Bonded now, they shared a connection that let him sense her even when she vanished from sight. She hadn't shown herself since they left Saint Joseph, but he'd felt her around. Items knocked off crates, footprints in the dust where there shouldn't be any, that unshakable feeling of being watched with judgmental disapproval.

As if to punctuate the point, Cabot stretched across his shoulders in one fluid motion, her movements sleek and deliberate, then hopped down into his lap like she owned the place. Which, to be fair, she probably did.

Someone behind them let out a startled noise. Xander glanced over and caught one of the younger refugees staring, wide-eyed, like he'd just seen a ghost crawl out of the underworld and start making biscuits on a Crusader's legs.

"It's fine," Xander said, deadpan. "She only eats the lazy ones."

The kid blinked, then took an instinctive step back.

"That was a joke," Xander added, not bothering to hide his smirk.

Cabot, of course, didn't even acknowledge the attention. She curled up tight in his lap, tail twitching once before settling. Her presence radiated calm, or maybe just arrogance, but it was a comfort either way.

Jo looked over with one brow raised. "You know she's going to nap there until we're ready to move, right?"

He rested his hand on Cabot's side and felt the familiar thrum of her purring, steady and grounded. The world could wait a minute longer.

"I guess we won't be going anywhere for a bit," Jo smirked as she watched the scene unfold.

"No, no, it doesn't, but you didn't answer my question either," Xander replied, stroking Cabot's fur.

"It's something we should discuss in private. Now, if you're asking for my opinion on blacksmithing, yes, I think it would be a good choice for you. You've always enjoyed creating things. Though I would wait until we get this quest done to do anything about it so you can spend some time looking through the Data Forge," Jo said once again, dodging the question of her status sheet.

Xander was going to press the issue of Jo's status sheet, but Gary ended the discussion by running up.

"Holy shit, what is that thing?" Gary said, looking straight at Cabot and placing his hand on the hilt of his sword with a look of shock.

Cabot casually raised her head, huffed again in Gary's direction, and promptly disappeared in a spectral puff of smoke.

"That's my bonded companion, Cabot. It's a long story, and I'll explain it better later. The short version is that we rescued her from a dungeon. That's not why you came running up, though; what's up?"

"Right, right," Gary said, looking around to see if he could find where the cat had gone. "Zoey's coming up the road. She's got one of the missing refugees with her. She looks hurt, and she might need some of your healing magic."

Sighing heavily, Xander heaved himself up from the bench before responding in a deadpan voice, "Yes, the excitement never stops."

Supporting one of the missing refugees with her shoulder under his arm, Zoey slowly made their way up the street. The refugee was limping badly and covered in blood. His clothes were even more tattered than what most of the refugees had been wearing. Xander wasn't entirely sure how that was possible.

Meeting Zoey halfway, Xander helped lay the man out on the ground before casting several light heal spells. The refugee would live, but he wouldn't be running marathons for a while.

"What happened?" Xander questioned. The man was in pain, and Xander was trying to sound soothing and supportive, but he was tired of everyone trying to fight him every step of the way as he tried to save their lives.

"We tried to… to make it to Champaign… by ourselves. N..Nick… Nick said that it made the most sense. The fight… we slipped off…" the refugee explained in short, broken breaths.

"He's out," Xander said as he picked the wounded man up to carry him to the rest of the group. "We need a litter and a couple of volunteers to carry this man."

"The guards can carry him; they're the strongest," Lucy sneered.

"And who is going to protect the rest of you from monsters? Lucy, are you stepping up to play guard? No, I didn't think so." Xander snapped, shutting her up before she could get a head of steam going, "We need volunteers from the refugee group, please. Otherwise, we will compromise our ability to defend against fresh attacks."

"We'll do it," Ryan said, stepping up with two other younger boys.

"Thanks, guys, I appreciate it. Now, let's move out! We'll still press for Starlight by the end of the day."

As the rest of the group packed loose gear and prepared to head out, Zoey stepped closer to Xander, Jo, and Gary.

"I found them just on the north end of town. A couple of rodentia had them cornered. One took an arrow to the chest as I closed the distance. There was nothing I could do for that one," Zoey explained with a tone of disappointment in herself.

"Good work on bringing back this one. If you hadn't found them when you did, neither would have made it. Let's get moving before more drama ensues." Xander said, placing his hand on her shoulder in support.

The sun beat down hard as the group pushed forward, dust rising with every step. The wounded man lay motionless on the litter, blood soaking through the fresh bandages despite Xander's best efforts. Healing magic had stopped the bleeding, but it hadn't fixed the damage. Ryan and three other boys shared the burden of carrying him, keeping pace without complaint, though sweat clung to their skin and their arms trembled under the weight. They'd have to rotate out soon or risk collapse.

Xander's focus locked on Lucy as he moved ahead. She was walking beside the main cluster of refugees, her posture tight, jaw clenched. Frustration and exhaustion radiated off her like heat from concrete.

"This is on you," he said. "If the troll's death lands on me, this one is yours. Your doubts, your constant second-guessing, they got in their heads. They thought they had a better shot going off alone because you wouldn't shut up about Champaign."

Lucy stopped and turned, eyes flashing. "I didn't tell them to go," she snapped. "They made their own call. And what were they supposed to do, Xander? Just follow you without question? They felt scared. They wanted something that felt safer, even if it wasn't."

"They would've made it if they stayed with us," he said, stepping closer. "Starlight is within reach. Instead, one's dead, and the other is going to carry that for the rest of his life. Do you get that? Do you understand what your doubt costs?"

She faltered, just for a breath. Her gaze dropped, then flicked away before she caught herself. She lifted her chin again, defiant, but something in her eyes had cracked. Not enough for an apology, but enough for the truth to get through.

"Don't put this all on me," she said. "I spoke up because I care. I didn't want to follow you blindly, and I didn't want anyone else to feel like they had to. You think I don't feel it? That I don't know what happened because of what I said?"

Xander opened his mouth, but Zoey was already stepping between them, like she was defusing a live mine.

"That's enough," she said. "We can settle blame after we survive. Right now, we get to Starlight. No more arguments."

Heavy silence followed, filled with unspoken words and irreparable losses. Xander looked at Lucy one last time, saw the tension in her shoulders, the flicker of something behind her scowl that looked a lot like guilt. Maybe she understood, even if she couldn't say it yet.

The group's eyes were on them, the weight of their loss palpable in the air. Xander took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "You're right, Zoey. We need to move. But this conversation isn't over, Lucy."

Lucy nodded tersely, her eyes blazing. "I don't answer to you."

With a last glare, Xander turned and began issuing orders, rallying the group for the last leg of their journey. Lucy fell in step beside the rest of the refugees to share whispers.

"I can't believe that woman," Xander fumed at Zoey.

"It's almost over, and then we can be done with her," Zoey replied. "Just keep it together for a bit longer. If you two have a total knockdown drag-out argument, I see the group splitting, and we'll have a bigger problem."

As the team moved out, the makeshift litter swayed gently with each step. Everyone was dead on their feet, but barring any further interference, the finish line was almost in sight.

Glancing at the flashing notification icon, Xander debated just ignoring it. He wasn't in the mood for any superfluous updates. He finally relented, in case it was something important. That was always something that had annoyed him about some of the literature he'd read. The main character rarely checked their notifications and thus missed vital opportunities to address small things while they were small. Xander held no illusions that he was the story's main character, but he still saw the lesson as important. It was the same mantra he had as a project manager: deal with small things while they're still small.

No Good Deed Quest Update! You have recovered one of your lost charges. Two of your charges are no longer with your group and unable to make it to the Starlight Oasis. 95% of your escorts remain. You must complete the mission with 75% of the refugees making it to the Starlight Oasis.

While Xander had been describing that notification as somewhat superfluous, the next one caught his eye.

Greetings, Players! Simulation patch incoming! The administrator has been monitoring feedback from players in several areas and will make the following changes:
1. World Event Areas will now provide a simulation notification upon entering them, in addition to the notification when the event starts.
2. During the Simulation's restart, a large amount of cultural significance became inaccessible. Therefore, additional items will be available in the loot and crafting tables that allow access to music, movies, and other entertainment items. Items will be limited to entertainment.
3. Additional bug fixes and balancing adjustments.

We encourage all players to proceed to the nearest Safe Zone, as a soft restart will occur at 00:00 system time.

The notification flickered at the edge of Xander's vision, and for once, it didn't carry a warning, death toll, or soul-crushing reminder of how screwed they all were.

Music. He hadn't realized how much he missed it until now. The brutal quiet of the Simulation had filled every gap with tension and threat, leaving no room for melody or rhythm. But the idea of songs returning, of hearing something that wasn't gunfire, growls, or the scrape of boots on pavement... that meant something. Even if it came bundled with the usual Simulation patch notes and vague system threats.

Then came the kicker. A soft restart warning. The announcement instructed everyone to move to a safe zone before the system reset at 00:00 system time. Which was great, except for one minor detail.

"What the hell does 'system time' mean?" Xander muttered under his breath.

"Probably means midnight," said one boy carrying the litter. Xander didn't catch his name, but the kid had a head of dirty blond hair and a haunted look that didn't quite reach his grin. "Or lunch. Could go either way."

Xander glanced back. The kid was red-faced and sweating, but still joking. Still holding the litter steady with the others.

"Let's assume it means soon," Xander said, raising his voice for the rest of the group. "Patch is coming, and the system's throwing a soft restart. No clue what that means out here, but I'm not interested in being the beta test for a Simulation crash while knee-deep in nowhere. We move."

"Hate to do it, folks, but we need to pick up the pace," Xander announced to groans. "Yeah, I get it, but if you will all check your notifications, there will be a patch applied to the Simulation. While it mentions a time, we do not know what that time means. So we're going to hustle our butts to Starlight."

"How much longer, you think?" Jo asked from Xander's side.

"About two hours at this pace. I don't think they'll be able to hold it, so figure on three if we don't run into anything else."