The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Your rage increased by 1.

“Who are you?” she said.

“I’m…Alastair?” he answered, only half certain. “Your husband.”

The character looked at him blankly. “I’m certain I’ve never seen you before. Now, if you don’t mind, I want to get a head start to the guild.” The character walked quickly away, leaving Alastair agape.

“I…am at a loss.” He sat on the ground in a puddle. What sort of glitch is messing with me like this? I’m just going to restart the day…

“Alastair?” He heard a voice call his name just as he had pulled up his interface to log out. He looked up to see a tall brick of a woman walking toward him. He stood and looked at her title: Flor, Brawler 0.

“I’m…dizzy.” He sat back down, getting more wet.

She ran to him and knelt at his side. “Alastair, stay strong. Look at me. It’s me. Flor. Your wife.”

“What, what is happening? You look different.”

“So do you. If only I had a mirror I could show you that you are no longer short and thin. You are now tall and thin…”

“What am I, then?”

She sat down on the ground next to him. “You look wiry but it still says Scribe 0.”

“So, our class doesn’t change but the skin does? You look cute with your hair in a bob.”

“Look at us, filling antiquated gender roles!?”

“Yes, it’s all very confusing. What happened?”

“My guess is as good as yours. Maybe we swap suits if we make it to the end of the day.”

“Are we going to try the log-out method, still?”

“I don’t know. I want to say yes, but I’m confused about something else. Did you get a rage increase notification?”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen any other indicator of rage. Like, it’s not an interface we have yet. I don’t think so. Let me double check…yep, not that I can see.”

“Are there any games you can think of with a rage meter? Is this something that might drive us bonkers if we reset too much?”

“That just breeds artificial deadlines. But, some fighting games have a rage meter that grants extra abilities if it fills up. And there is also the proverbial ‘rage at a video game.’ That usually occurs when a player thinks the system is cheating. So, maybe it could be one of those.”

“Yeah, I don’t understand that so I’m hesitant to log out. Otherwise, though, I don’t have any issue with it.”

“Do you want to discuss it at the tavern? We can get out of the rain and sit someplace other than a puddle.” He stood, then helped her up.

Together they walked the short distance to the tavern and stood in the meal queue. Horace looked grumpy as normal. They waited impatiently and then took a corner table.

Alastair started, “I’m still a bit overwhelmed by the change in character suit. And embarrassed that I didn’t realize that character wasn’t you.”

“What! You don’t recognize your wife of eight years?” she said with false outrage. “I don’t think either of us had any indication that would happen, so you are forgiven.”

“Did you also go to someone who wore my yesterday skin?”

She hesitated. “Well, I scanned his title before I approached him, at least. But I would have if it makes you feel better.”

“It does, a bit.”

“So, what factors should we consider?”

“Are our interfaces the same? Mine appear to be.”

“Mine are the same. Maybe we should call our daemons, not inside, of course, to see if they also change with the character suits.”

“True. I had almost forgotten about…dang, what was his, or was it her, name? Et al or Etc. Probably Etc. Other than recalling yesterday, the daemon seems underpowered.”

“I don’t have that knife anymore. The one from the thugs.”

“Oh, I don’t either. Maybe I left it in my other pants.”

“And health is full, coin pouch is empty, time is just after six, and energy is thirty-two.”

“My sub-interfaces match each of those. I’m outraged that we don’t have our few coins.”

“Is there anything else we should consider?”

“Rage meter. Also, do you know if you swapped skins on your first few days? Or did I?”

“I’m not sure about day one. I didn’t take a chance to look in a mirror, but I don’t think my clothes changed. Strange that it isn’t something I considered, but I don’t think it even crossed my mind to check. I recall that you remained tiny for the days I remember, until today.”

“Well, based on these factors, my initial impression is that we have nothing to lose to log out. Maybe we’ll wear a different skin, but we know to look for titles. We don’t have any persistent items we need desperately. Maybe our rage will increase, but we don’t even know what it does. And, if it works appropriately, we’ll end up back in Holst’s Solar Explorer. Or even in the real world.”

“Want to go check our daemons before we do?”

“Not really. Let’s let these skin suits sit at this corner table all day.”

“Okay. Well, if we’re back here, I’ll see you in a few minutes. Or at the base on Mars. Or I’ll call you on a video chat if we’re two levels up. Before we do, I want to ask Horace a question.”

Flor waved Horace over.

Horace asked, “I’m busy. What is it? You want a room?”

Flor said, “No, just a quick question. We overheard there will be a procession later today. Something about the Mayor going to the Lord’s Keep. Does that happen daily?”

Horace looked at them, especially her. His suspicion showed on his face, more and more, as she asked her question.

Your disposition with Horace has changed to suspicious.

“I don’t know where you heard that, but you should forget it. I don’t want the city guard coming round checking in on security concerns.”

“Of course. We don’t mean to cause concerns. We’ll forget we ever heard it.”

Horace left the two to clean an abandoned table.

“Where did that come from?”

“Just curious if it was a daily occurrence event. His secrecy indicates that either it is or he doesn’t know about it.”

“Fair. It’s better to leave that suspicion behind. So, ready now?”

“Yep. Hope to see you on Mars.”

“I love you, Flor. See you soon.”

“I love you too, Alastair.”

Logout? Yes/No?

Yes.