By nightfall, I’d managed to put myself back together.

  At the very least, I was moving again.

  Sern was dead. So was Axel. Junior and Rose were still alive.

  Nothing to be done about it. I’d get Sern back by tomorrow. And I’d have to explain things to Junior.

  He’d be sad for a little while. But that wouldn’t be so bad. I’d probably die sometime soon, and this run would erase itself anyway.

  I’d respawn to die again.

  And again.

  And so on.

  Maybe I wasn’t as put together as I thought.

  So, should I go home and rest up, or run to the first area and get Sern?

  Sern. How much must she hate me right now?

  My hands clenched tighter, then relaxed.

  I picked up my shovel and began walking home.

  {Notice}

  {Thirst XVI : Indefinite}

  [Get water to cleanse this effect.]

  [This effect severely hampers mental processing and physical movement.]

  [Failure to get water in (0:46:02) will result in (Instant Death)]

  “Fine,” I said. “Water.”

  The air around my hand fizzled, only to snap back into place.

  So I focused.

  There’s water everywhere. There’s water in my hand.

  “Water.”

  Nothing.

  {Notice}

  [You have undergone serious head trauma, due to an overextension of mental ability.]

  [Using (Second-area Command feature) will cause additional trauma.]

  [Your (Second-area command feature) has been temporarily disabled.]

  My gaze drifted to the screen, then a little ways beyond it, into the smoldering canyon.

  “Oh yeah. Forgot I did that.”

  I started walking.

  The desert stretched on, endlessly, in every direction. Sometimes it was rocky. Other times, sand piled up in dunes. Everything was hot and all of it was filled with monsters.

  And yet, by some miracle, not one monster approached me.

  I got to the Centiride station in record time. The official started asking questions, before putting the pieces together and shutting up. He even gave me a discount on my ticket.

  That was nice of him.

  Not that I had any money. Maybe I could sell something?

  “Inventory,” I said.

  A ridiculous number of screens appeared.

  {Notice}

  [Your inventory is full. Additional items have been converted into currency.]

  “Huh. Guess I do have money,” I said, fishing brass rings from my pocket. “How much is a ride?”

  The official swallowed hard. “We…ah…don’t take that kind of currency…sir.”

  Right. Reggie used a card for digital money. Digital money was used since you could summon real money. Which means really money isn’t actually money.

  I chuckled to myself.

  “Why don’t you go for free?” He asked.

  “That’s very nice of you,” I said. “Thank you.”

  The ride back was quiet, and lonely. It was stuffy too, with an uncomfortable heat.

  Suddenly, the Centiride ground to a halt.

  I cracked open the door and peeked out, not entirely surprised to find the entire tunnel pitch black.

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  “Am I getting robbed again?” I grumbled. “Go home.”

  The Centiride blew apart like shredded paper, splatting somewhere behind me.

  I dropped to the ground, wholly unaffected by the explosion of mana.

  Boots echoed.

  “Ah…Grind,” a figure began, walking slowly toward me. He wore a white suit and an expression I couldn't quite read. It seemed somewhere between smug and troubled. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  My chest suddenly tightened, pinning me in place.

  “Surely you’ve realized what’s happening,” he began. “You grabbed me, remember? Since any physical contact is considered an attack, I have been released. Who’s helpless now?”

  I glanced at the blackish smear behind me. “That was rude.”

  Master Reggie hesitated. “You…stand still. It’s not your turn. We can’t have your promise killing you before I get the chance.”

  That was bad. Was it?

  I shrugged, walking forward. There was an initial bit of cramping in my legs, but nothing more than normal.

  Master Reggie backpedaled. “How—”

  “From my perspective, I didn’t attack you,” I said. “So, using that, neither of us have attacked the other, and as such, it is both of our turns. And since you’re a monster, listening to you goes against my principles as a player, meaning I don’t actually have to follow you as a master if I don’t feel like it.”

  He was trying to find loopholes in our agreement. Two could play that game.

  I kept walking.

  The Core spun. “That is you, isn’t it? Grind?”

  “Unfortunately,” I sighed. “Sern and Axel died, by the way. Sorry for wasting your time.”

  “Did they? Hmmm…unfortunate.” Master Reggie clasped his hands. “Are you feeling well?”

  I thought for a moment. “Not really. Why do you ask?”

  He flexed his hands and my arm twisted backward, probably bruising if not breaking something or another.

  I frowned. “Stop that.”

  Master Reggie bristled. “Nothing? Nothing?! Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for this?! You had the audacity to actually trick me! I’m going to kill you, Grind! Isn’t that worth some sort of a reaction!”

  “You’re tired,” I said. “Go home.”

  “We’re fighting, Grind,” Master Reggie licked his teeth. “I’m going to kill you and everyone you hold dear, Grind. Don’t think I’m some sort of pushover—”

  His arm shattered.

  Blood trickled out of my nose. That had used up too much of my mental energy.

  Wasn’t I not supposed to use it?

  Master Reggie stared at me.

  “Fascinating,” he finally whispered. “Grind, I’m serious. What are you? Physically, I mean.”

  “Human.”

  “Not in the slightest. You can’t be. Grind, you're not actually you, at the moment, not by any real sense I can detect. The brain is part of the body, you see, and as the dungeon of the body, skimming the mind is relatively trivial.” He smiled. “What is happening inside your head?”

  Master Reggie leaned closer. “You ought to be unconscious right now. Not to mention dead for attacking me.”

  I punched myself in the face.

  There was a flash of pain, but it triggered absolutely no reaction. I could tell I was hurt, but the hurt was disconnected, belonging to a person that I was not. Like slapstick comedy, it was almost funny.

  “GRrrriiinnnnddddd!” Master Reggie hissed, snapping his fingers. “Wow you’re lost.”

  “This is becoming something of a recurring phenomenon,” I explained. “Sometimes I’m loopy for a day or two. But once I remove the trauma, I’m fine.”

  Master Reggie blinked. “You haven’t already done that?”

  I glanced up, summoning a flashing red notification, before tossing it over a shoulder. “No.”

  He was in shock. “Do that.”

  “Eh?”

  “Pull up another screen.”

  So I did.

  “Grab it.”

  I did.

  When I looked back at him, Master Reggie was trembling. “You grabbed it. You grabbed…a screen.”

  I summoned it up again, tapping the edge. The plate crystalized, and I could toss it from hand to hand, or just stick it back in the air, when it would return to normal. “So?”

  He was hyperventilating now. “Do…you…HAVE ANY IDEA—how ridiculous…that actually is? If you could just stop any notification from triggering—can an effect even cause you to terminate, or could you ignore that—GRIND!” He shouted, spinning around, realizing that I’d started walking away again. “GRIND! I’m sorry, I didn’t know what came over me. I’m not mad at you anymore! You’re valuable! I can make you immortal! DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?!”

  “I’m already immortal, Reggie,” I grumbled. “Go home.”

  “Immortal?” He squeaked.

  “It’s a timeloop thing. Should you know that, mind reader?”

  He nodded. “Oh.”

  Maybe it’s more like a true or false kinda mindreading.

  I waved goodbye, heading down a tunnel and into the capital city station. My vision went red and I heard the sound of chimes.

  {Notice}

  {Thirst XXI : Indefinite}

  [You have failed to cleanse this effect.]

  [This effect severely hampers mental processing and physical movement.]

  [Failure to get water has resulted in (Instant Death)]

  [You have been inflicted with (Instant Death)]

  What had Reggie been talking about? Ignoring affects?

  I grabbed the notification, causing it to crystalize, which, of course, didn’t do anything.

  {Notice}

  [You have been inflicted with (Instant Death)]

  I grabbed that notification too. “So, am I going to die now?”

  There was a cold sensation, like running water, and one hand went limp. But other than that, I felt perfectly fine.

  When I let go of the notification, my entire side went limp, so I grabbed it again.

  “Oh,” I said, rolling my eyes. “If I force an incorporeal notification into the physical world, whatever process it was doing stops working.”

  Obviously.

  I tossed the plate onto the ground, expending a modest amount of mental pressure to keep it from returning to its normal state.

  “Well that’s good to know,” I stated. “But I doubt it’ll be anything useful.”

  And then I went home.

  Rose was giving me a weird look, so I explained the situation, and she just nodded. I think Junior started crying, but it would have been hard to tell now that my vision was distorting.

  From that point, nothing made sense. The bed was the wrong size, the building was too small, the lights were too red, I couldn’t taste, or hear or think, my heart faded in and out, and I slept very little that night.

  // {Notice} //

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