Chương 38: One For the Road

"These are the rules of the voting round," Razza said.

"The voting round consists of three phases: negotiation, voting, and resolution," Razza said.

"After the rules have been explained, the ten-minute negotiation phase will begin.

"Ability orbs may be used at any time, including the resolution phase.

"After the resolution phase, the player who receives the most votes will be removed from the game. They will not be harmed but will lose access to any trial rewards.

"In the event of a tie, the vote will be decided by cumulative prestige tokens collected by each side. If there is still a tie, the player ranked highest on the leaderboard will determine who is voted out.

"The vote will begin once the ten-minute negotiation phase ends, when three fourths of the players have already cast their vote, or if a round-ending ability orb is used.

"Those of you who have an interface will now see a screen that will allow you to select the name of the player for whom you would like to vote," Razza said.

"You may cast a vote at any point during the negotiation or brief voting phase. You may change your vote until the voting phase is done but not during the resolution phase." George saw a new button in his vision that said "Vote." He selected it and saw a list of the surviving players' names.

"The negotiation phase begins now," Razza said.

"You have ten minutes." When Razza finished talking, a woman stepped to the front of her enclosure and said, "Hey, red team. I'm on the blue team. Please vote me out. I don't want to be in this game. I don't care if I get the rewards." George's Identify supplied her profile. <Name: Kiva Race: Elfkin Level: 25, F-Grade Profession: N/A Abilities: N/A Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: N/A> She held out her hand and showed the room her blue team card. Pine muttered commentary under his breath, "Level 25?

No wonder she wants to get out of here. She's mincemeat." He looked up at George and said, "No offense." Lady Greesh said, "What makes you think the blue team will let that happen?" >>Indicating Greesh is on the blue team? >>Or she is messing with us by standing up for the blue team. >>Ugh. This makes me miss the simplicity of the first trial… >>Man turns into monster. Monster starts an evil experiment to suck out George's nanites. George is rendered inert. Nod impales monster's eyeballs. Nod saves day.

Monster explodes. >>Simple. Bloody. Black and white. >>This also illustrates the logic behind rule seventeen of Nod's 100 Rules for Life: Never trust anyone whose frontal lobe you cannot access. >>As the owner of the frontal lobe in question, I'd be interested to see the rest of that list. >>All in due time, buddy.

"You saw what ability orb I picked," Kiva said.

"I can quadruple the strength of any player's vote. So, if any of you people high up on the leaderboard are on the red team, vote me out. I will multiply your vote. It will work as long as a few more people on the red team vote for me. That will be one fewer blue team member, and you will be one step closer to winning this trial." She turned to Neco and said, "What about you, Prince? You are the only silver tier on the leaderboard. That's five votes. I can make them twenty."

"I could contribute my votes," Neco said.

"But that wouldn't let me keep you in this game as a plaything."

"Well, OK," Kiva said.

"How about somebody who isn't a crazy asshole?" >>I like her. She's got spunk. >>Not sure if this gambit is going to work, though. >>But it sure is making things interesting. >>Is she right about the votes? >>Might be. >>It is hard to say what could happen with these ability orbs in play. >>That orb would pack more of a punch if there were fewer people and the leaderboard leaders had a chance to climb higher. >>She might have played this card too early.

>>I think she is trying not to die when the violence ban is lifted. >>This is an understandable ambition and one that I share. Kiva tried to make her pitch again to the next highest person on the leaderboard and said, "What about you, wizard lady? Are you on the red team? Want your three votes to become nine?" George looked at the young woman Kiva was addressing.

<Name: Grey Race: Human Level: 101, E-Grade Profession: Wizard Abilities: Zimzalabim; Weird, Witchy Hoodoo; The Flesh Mound Where Your Mouth Used To Be House: Primus House Rank: Nine Guild: Aetherfall Academy Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: House Primus has only one guild: the Aetherfall Academy. The Academy was built on a mana wellspring, the Aetherfall, and has honed the craft of raising powerful wizards. It also has the unfortunate reputation of killing off its pupils.

The Academy fosters a highly competitive environment, and the mages who rise high do so over their fallen comrades. Only those able to excel in that vicious environment complete their studies, but those who do have a track record of victory. > Grey was in jeans and a plain-looking shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She wore checkerboard tennis shoes with bright yellow laces.

She looked completely normal except for a belt that carried various arcane implements including several wands of different materials.

"Sure, I'll vote for you," Grey shrugged.

"Why not?" Kiva seemed surprised at Grey's response.

"Ok, well, that's nine," Kiva said. She raised her voice and addressed the whole room.

"There are 18 of you reds. If even half of you pull your heads out of your asses and vote for me, that's one round in the bag for the red team." George looked at Neco and found that the prince was looking directly back at him. Neco gave his head a slight shake. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. >>Whoa. I think he just told us not to vote for the elf. >>Well, shit. I was hoping he didn't know who we were for some reason. >>Not very likely. These guys seem pretty well organized.

>>I suppose that means that Neco is on the blue team. >>That is bad for us. >>We're going to have to vote against our interest. >>Or remove him from the game. >>Without killing him. >>That will be hard if he stays on the leaderboard. If he takes that pinnacle spot, everyone in the game will have to team up to vote him off. >>Also, don't forget the "If the prince dies, you die too" clause built into the faustian bargain you are wearing on your head. >>That means we will have to protect him if we can.

That will get harder as he climbs the leaderboard, too. People are going to want to target him. >>Something tells me that guy will be able to protect himself. He looks loaded for bear and ready to party. >>So, let's just worry about getting him voted out without appearing to do so. >>One thing at a time. As always.

"No, don't vote for the elf girl," Top said, walking to the front of his enclosure.

"I say we vote out the slime or the necromancer guy. They're the swarmers. If we don't do it now, they will take over, and we won't be able to kill them."

"Don't bring me into this," Ezra, the necromancer, said.

"I say we vote for the elf."

"You just want to make us all vampires or zombies or something," Top said.

"I didn't have any specific plans along those lines, but that is rapidly changing in your case," Ezra said.

"What is it… Top of the Morning? What kind of a name is that?"

"It is my name, asshole," Top said.

"And if you want to come find me in the maze, I won't be the one dying!" Top brandished his gun it at the necromancer. He must have accidentally squeezed the trigger because the gun launched a glob of purple fire in Ezra's direction. Top flinched and dropped the weapon. The force field completely absorbed the shot. Ezra laughed. The gnacker looked up from the place on the floor where it had been licking its wounds and growled. Pine rubbed his forehead with one hand.

"Surely, we should remove the Cipher from the game. We may not get another chance." This was from Webb, one of the people Pine had pointed out before the hunting round. His voice was a low bass rumble and his artificial eye flashed as he looked around the room. The whole room looked at the bald albino man sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed.

<Name: The Ephemeral Flower of Victory Race: N/A Level: N/A Abilities: N/A House: The Concatenating Cipher House Rank: One Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: The Concatenating Cipher has stood at the top of the house ranking system since there was a house ranking system. Despite this, as the name might indicate, little is known about it. Some theories suggest their agents are the vessels for the consciousness of a superbeing that operates their bodies after the fashion of a hive mind.

Other theories contend the house represents an incursion from an entirely alternate dimension, with rules governed by a rival megatherium AI. Still, other theories postulate that the source of the house's power is one crucial rule-bending ability that could also be shared among its members. Whatever the true account of the power of the Cipher, its agents seem not to be bound by the same set of rules others are bound by, making them uniquely challenging opponents.

>"Hear, hear," Pine said, "We can never beat them in other trials, but we can in this one. He's got my vote."

"It would be more logical to vote him out once we have ascertained his team alignment," TLX said in his monotone voice.

"It doesn't matter if he's red or blue. He's still on his own team," Webb said.

"The Ciphers barely participate in the trials but always win." The strange bald man raised his hand, and a red team card appeared. He licked one side of the card and slapped it onto the forcefield in front of him, where it stuck for all to see as if it really were glass. He did all this with his eyes closed and a slight smile on his face. A message from TLX appeared in George's vision. [Do not vote against The Ephemeral Flower of Victory. Having a Cipher on our team is an immense asset. —TLX] >>I find it annoying that Screwloose the Floating Disco Ball can talk to us anytime, but we can't sass back. >>I didn't consent to this. >>Look who is talking. >>Zing! >>Good one. >>Oh, hey. Guess what just happened… Skill Upgrade Unlocked: Reduce 2 Choose your upgrade path: • Increase rate of reduction • Decrease cooldown of reduce • Enable reduction of selected portion of target only >>OK. Same logic as the expand upgrade, right? We'll get all the other upgrades faster if we decrease the cooldown.

>>I endorse this decision and hereby grant it official Nod-certification. Skill Selected: Reduce 2—Decrease cooldown of reduce >>Here is the current skill progress looks like on the rest of the skills: >>Hey, you know that warehouse of useless junk that Pine started in the last round? The nodling found it. It has a portal connected to the coliseum. >>Anyway. It is definitely not useless junk. There are all kinds of goodies in here.

Pine either didn't know what was right in front of him, or he was blowing smoke up our asses. >>We've got to find our way back there. The draw nodling saw a few prestige tokens Pine must have missed. >>I'm also happy to report that the nodling can basically fly. >>It is light enough that when it casts draw on a dense, stationary object, instead of the object moving toward the spider, the spider moves toward the object.

>>We only have a sensory relay, not an emotional relay, but I'm pretty sure he's feeling overjoyed he has gone from being stuffed down the front of your pants for an hour to swinging around these rooms like Spiderman. >>Very funny, Nod. Just tell him to keep searching the portals. Knowing how to get around and what rooms not to go into will be very important. A few more players offered thoughts and accusations on who to vote for as the final few minutes of the timer on the negotiation round ran out.

Still, the consensus was gathering around Kiva, Ezra, and the strangely-named Ephemeral Flower of Victory. When the timer on the negotiation phase ticked down to zero, Razza spoke up.

"Cast your votes now. You have 60 seconds. Any vote after the 60-second time window has elapsed will not be counted. After the voting phase, the resolution phase will begin." [Vote for Kiva the elfkin. She is the only member of the Blue team we have 100% certainty of. —TLX] A screen with all of the names appeared in front of George. >>What's it going to be, boss? >>I say we sit this one out. >>Better safe than sorry.

"I will now reveal the votes, and the two-minute resolution phase will begin," Razza said. Suddenly, ghostly blue arrows stretched between everyone who voted and the person they voted for. Another notification popped up in George's vision. Resolution Phase—Vote Ranking The Ephemeral Flower of Victory: 18 Kiva: 12 Dragonmaw: 9 Ezra Deathmantle: 6 Pine: 2 Aeternum: 2 >>Wait. Dragonmaw? >>That's the name of the slime. >>You should read all these Identify profiles.

You could be missing crucial information, not to mention critical characterization. The whole room was momentarily silent while people figured out who had voted for whom. The concepts, the voidling, the gnacker, the slime, and Aeternum had not voted. Sure enough, the young wizard called Grey had voted for Kiva. Though he had gathered the most votes, the Ephemeral Flower of Victory had not voted. >>Are you tracking all this, Nod? >>Yep. Got it. >>And identifying potential reds by who voted for Kiva. And who didn't.

>>I don't see anyone suddenly seizing up and dying, so we can also assume that Neco's two other agents are on the list of people who did not vote for Kiva. The weird purple crystal structure had voted for Aternum. The crystal golem remained stoically still in the enclosure next to Pine. >> It's interesting that Ezra voted for the slime instead of Top. I thought he would throw his votes at the person who called him out.

>>I bet a floor slime that grows exponentially is pretty counterproductive if you are trying to drum up a zombie horde. June had put her two votes on Pine. Pine looked over her and raised his hands in surrender. She flipped him off and spat on the ground. >>She seems pretty revenge-y for a grandma-looking lady. >>Seems like they have a history. >>And little ol' George and Nod caught between. >>What could go wrong? When 20 seconds were left in the resolution phase, Kiva activated her ability orb.

Ability Orb Activated (Kiva) The Most Powerful Pulpit: Quadruple the strength of another player's vote. The line between Kiva and Grey flashed, and Kiva's name appeared at the top of the vote ranking list. Resolution Phase—Vote Ranking Kiva: 21 The Ephemeral Flower of Victory: 18 Dragonmaw: 9 Ezra Deathmantle: 6 Pine: 2 Aeternum: 2 Kiva's eyes darted around the room, waiting for someone else to activate an orb, but no one did.

When the timer was down to five seconds, Kiva withdrew a second ability orb and crushed it in her hands. Ability Orb Activated (Kiva) One For the Road: If you are voted out, you still get the trial rewards if your team wins. Then the timer hit zero, and she disappeared. Scoreboard: Red Team: 18 Blue Team: 17 Total Players remaining: 35"Well, I'll be damned," Pine said and clapped his hands.

"Clever girl." Razza said, "Kiva is eliminated. The second hunting round will now begin." Pine stood up and returned the table, chair, and tea to his storage space.

"Remember, Top," he said.

"Find us some prestige tokens. And don't shoot yourself with that g-…" But before Pine could finish the sentence, the round ended. George and Nod suddenly found themselves floating in the middle of a large sphere. George tried to take a step, but the moment he moved his legs, his whole body spun in lazy revolutions. Entering Hunting Room: Everything Floats Down Here >>Nod. >>Where did the gravity go?