I shuddered and took a deep breath as I felt my mind return to my body. Sitting upright from the kneeling position I was in, I realized my legs had started to cramp and had to do a weird roll to make the uncomfy feeling go away.

  “It’s over?” Makesi asked as he rose as well.

  “Remind me never to enter your mind again,” I groaned from the ground next to him. “That was the worst.”

  Fuck, that guy needs therapy.

  “Agreed. You will not speak of what you witnessed within—” Makesi started, before cutting himself off mid-sentence.

  Looking up, I noticed Aisling was sitting cross-legged nearby, already done. That made sense; we had taken a while. She waved politely at me.

  “Yeah, yeah, gotta keep the mysterious stoic leader vibe up. I gotcha,” I said, shooting him a mock salute.

  Aurin was still down, and her giddiness from before had turned to frustration. Which was fine, as long as it wasn't abject misery and suicidal ideation like Makesi had gone through for his trial, she should be able to handle it. Vivi, on the other hand, was twitching, and the web in her mind seemed tense. I wasn’t good enough at reading her mind to know what her emotional state was, nor was I interested in ripping that knowledge out of her.

  I turned back to Makesi, wondering why they had just been standing there quietly for so long while I reviewed the other two, only to see he was still in the process of getting up. It had taken me barely an instant to get a read from those two. My mind was apparently a lot faster than it had been several hours ago… wait, how long had that trial been?

  “How long did you perceive us being in there together?” I asked Makesi.

  He glanced towards me, then did a double-take, “Twenty minutes at most, it was relatively short as these things go… You appear different? What happened to your body?”

  OH NO! MY TIME PERCEPTION!

  “Yeah, sorry I didn’t get a chance to tell you yet since… Well, you were kind of busy. I accepted the Contract, that’s why I entered your trial, I wanted to talk to you about it. I haven’t gotten used to having a different appearance yet, so the form I took was my old look before I added a few Stat points,” I said with a sniff.

  “Are you crying? What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I only put two points in Noesis. My mind is moving so quickly that everything feels way slower than it actually is. I thought that took at least an hour. I’M GOING TO BE SO BORED ALL THE TIME NOW!” I bubbled out and wiped the tears streaming down my face with my sleeve.

  “Aisling, you have a sped-up perception of time as well, correct? Do you mind helping her?” Makesi asked, glancing at Aisling, who shrank slightly under his attention

  “I, um… found meditation helpful for that. Celerity affects me in almost the same way. Since you’ve got System access now, you could buy the music player. Listening to songs and focusing on your breathing makes the waiting less… unbearable. I did that while I waited for you to finish,” Aisling said, using a word in that beeping and booping language that I now knew to name her Stat. “Talk to me later tonight, I’ll show you what I do to make nighttime less miserable.”

  It was an interesting one, just having her entire self sped up in a way that ignored physics was pretty cool. I wasn't sure how she was capable of holding an actual conversation with that as a Stat, though. Maybe another one of hers fixed that issue?

  “Does the music player come with music?” I asked.

  “No, it’s a subscription service.”

  Of fucking course it is. Why would it be any other way?

  “Also, what do you mean by Noesis?” Makesi asked.

  “That’s the best word I could think of in English,” I told them before listing the names of my Stats in System Default. My tone warbling slightly screwed up the words, but they got it.

  Makesi hummed in contemplation as I listed the last one.

  “Obviously, there would be no English word that meets the definition. Stats are defined by their studied effects. Which means you are likely the first Contractor to ever receive Entelechy. Its definition sounds like something the System spat out when it didn't know what to make of it,” Makesi explained.

  “That's great, I'm really glad even the interdimensional organization I just joined doesn't know what the fuck is going on with me. Fuck what is life even going to be like when I get hundreds of points in Noesis?” I said, focusing on how my mind was running now.

  While we were talking, it felt like I was able to focus on the words being said as if everything was normal. But in between each person's turn at speaking, my mind made up for that slowed perception by shoving a ton of extra time to think in, as if it were trying to compensate, I guess. There wasn't a way to shut it off, because it was just doing that by default.

  Makesi let out a laugh, which probably happened the moment after I spoke, but it was delayed enough that I could unpack my own mental state and analyze it before I even heard it.

  “You don't have to worry about that, you'll likely never reach that point. How many Stat points do you have assigned at the moment?” he asked, and I read out my Stat values to him. He nodded in response before continuing. “Plan what you're going to do with your next five points carefully, none of us has more than ten Stat points in total right now, and it will likely remain that way for a while.”

  “Why's that?”

  “If your Weight Capacity goes over ten, then you wouldn't be able to access Tier One Worlds anymore. But until we find a fifth member to complete the Operation Group, we are ineligible for Tier Two Contracts. So you'll be stuck at ten. Unless you decide to join another team…” Makesi said, trailing off at the end.

  I kind of understood why he was hesitant based on what I saw in his trial. But I wasn't going to feed into his insecurities like that.

  “No, obviously I'm joining you guys. You saved my life, and I'm not going to repay that by jumping ship. As long as you treat me as fairly as you have so far, I'm not going anywhere. No matter what happened to your—” I started only to cut myself off when I realized I wasn't supposed to speak of his trial.

  “It's okay, they already know the details of my last team members. Just… well, you know,” Makesi said, his sombre tone didn't fit the body that it was coming out of.

  I let out a long breath. I had calmed down about the time perception difference. Being given a lot of time to think while we talked helped with that. Even though I fucking hated being forced to just sit and think, I could admit there was some use to it.

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  “If you ever want someone to help you in any way, I know we just met each other, but I am happy to do something to help,” I said, pointing to my eyes. I had tried my hand at therapeutic techniques using my Aspect, and there were a few different ways to go about it. Memory erasure did wonders for PTSD, though I wasn’t sure if that was the right path for him.

  Makesi nodded, and a notification appeared in front of me.

  Join Provisional Operation Group Champs-436?

  [Yes] [No]

  It seemed reality had a sense of humour sometimes. Even if that humour was a little sick. My subject code number when I was at Atlas? Really? What were the chances of that happening?

  I accepted the prompt anyway. Several new functions appeared in my mind the moment I did so, including a team chat and a location sensor. Everyone on the team had their location turned off, so I also flicked mine off, ignoring the pop-up that I was breaking regulations by disabling it. It was nice that they respected each other’s privacy on this team.

  “Oh, sweet! Finally got that performance bonus! Thanks, Ren!” Vivi said as she sat up and stretched. Her ahoge followed suit and curled up into itself before flicking itself out and returning to wagging. “Damn girl, did you get the Appeal Stat or something? You look like someone straight out of one of those dreams you never want to wake up from."

  I realized then that the single strand of hair that made up her ahoge made her somewhat charming as a child, but watching that strand of hair just do its own thing as if it were alive on an adult would be a little bit weird. Did she keep the thing when she grew up? Was it based on her personality, or was it just one of those things like Aisling's ears and Makesi's eyes?

  Would I keep a human trait when I reincarnate? Or just my eyes? Because Vivi's eyes were yellow, which absolutely weren't normal unless her parents were rich, eccentric, and decided to pay to genetically modify their child. Which was entirely possible, honestly.

  I'd have to compare what she looked like in her next life to this one.

  Or you could just ask.

  I shut the stupid part of myself that had the rebellious thought up before it could suggest any more nonsense. Then focused back on Vivi, who hadn't finished stretching while I was distracted. This is going to get old fast.

  “No worries, Vivi, glad I could be of service. Since you're all done, I'm gonna check what's taking Aurin so long,” I said, then went to lie next to her instead of getting on my knees this time. It wasn’t pleasant waking up to horrible pins and needles.

  I unlocked her mind and hopped inside, this time ensuring I remembered my appearance had changed and updated my sense of self to reflect that fact. Staring at myself in the mirror shard while I descended into her psyche. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being excited about seeing her reaction to how I looked with the improvement from Venust.

  I found myself standing outside a cabin by the side of a lake. Looking around, I couldn't actually recognize the area. I wasn't sure if this was because the trial made it up or if this was something Aurin fantasized about.

  Walking around the side of the building, I peeked into one of the windows, the only one at a height I could reach. Inside, I saw a bedroom, which confirmed to me that it was a real cabin, not some kind of trap. Unless the doorway was the trap.

  That was entirely possible. Makesi’s trial used a ton of deceptive imagery that I ended up having to drag him away from. His old team was there even though they had already long since permanently died, their souls completely annihilated, but it was like he couldn’t remember that fact for some reason.

  Opening the front door, I entered the cabin and immediately let out a sigh. I just stood there for a couple of minutes watching her antics as she repeatedly failed the chastity trial.

  A clone of me, completely naked, was sitting on the couch next to Aurin, begging for her to hold it and a few more things. To Aurin's… well, not credit because this was clearly the reason she hadn't passed the trial, but she was absolutely trying to give in to the clones' demands. But every time she did, she was reset back in time a few seconds after barely making contact.

  It was honestly kind of funny watching Aurin repeatedly try and circumvent the mechanism and grab hold of the copy. How did she even get like this about me? Was it just the time we spent together? I mean, that's why I… liked being around Aurin.

  Coward.

  I tended to get attached to people I spent a lot of time with, and Aurin and I spent five years together. It didn't really matter who it was, as long as we got along and I spent enough time with them and we were emotionally open with each other, I'd eventually grow attached. That ended up kind of being a problem in my early twenties. It turns out that just because someone is around you for a long time doesn’t mean you’re a good match.

  Who could have guessed?

  The clone noticed me before Aurin did; its eyes went from titillated to glazed over in an instant, and it hopped off the couch in an attempt to skitter away. Before it could get more than five feet, I broke into its simple mind and disassembled it. It was sort of like a clockwork mechanism that was stuck doing the same thing over and over, not even a real person. When its mind broke, it shattered into shards of light.

  It was very similar to the copies in Makesi's trial, except far less numerous, and it didn't appear to be about to respawn. Was the trial scaled to her level of power?

  “Ren?” Aurin asked, sounding actually distressed as she stared at where the thing had ceased existing. I guessed she was also experiencing weird memory alterations if she genuinely thought that was the real me.

  “Over here,” I called out from the doorway, waving at her as she turned towards me.

  At the sight of me, she froze in place, “You can't be real,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

  “And the other one you couldn't touch was real? Sorry, darling, got an upgrade to my body without asking if you were okay with it first,” I twirled to show myself off, every motion unconsciously graceful. Venust didn’t excel at any single thing, but it perfected all the small details: the way I turned, the rhythm of my stride, even the way I held my body. Every adjustment existed for one purpose. To make me stick around in the minds of those who saw me just a little bit longer.

  To improve my memetic adhesion.

  Wait… that wasn't part of the definition before. Did it just update?

  Aurin stood and rushed towards me in a way that was all too familiar. I could feel something reaching out to yank her back into place. The trial's control system had attached itself to me in place of the broken idea that used to be my clone.

  I ripped it off, allowing Aurin to collide with me. I managed to remain standing, without even needing to brace myself. I could not, however, prevent her from picking me up and swinging me around.

  She was more excited than I expected her to be.

  I held the trial component at arm's length with my mind while it writhed, attempting to pull itself from my grip to reach Aurin and flick her back to where she was originally sitting.

  Why couldn't I have been given one of these trials? I was practically immune to memory manipulation, and the power of the idea itself couldn’t enter our minds directly, so completing this would have been trivial. If only my mental construct weren’t some kind of Lovecraftian forbidden knowledge that the mere sight of drove me to madness.

  I wondered how Aurin handled it, because she didn’t have any issue staring directly into madness itself.

  Aurin’s hands started wandering when I received a message from Makesi. I had to shove her off of me so I could respond to it.

  REB Secure Chat Line V1.23G

  Makesi: Almost done in there? We’re ready to head out whenever you’re out.

  Ren: Yeah, she’s done. Give me a second to drag her out.

  “Alright, let’s go, the solution is and always was just to leave the cabin behind,” I said, heading out the door and allowing the trial control system to reattach itself to me. Aurin tried to put a hand on me from behind and found herself back in the chair. “Holy fuck, just control yourself for an hour!”

  “But you’re so cute now, and it feels like I haven’t been able to touch you for a whole week! Every time the thing resets, it feels like we spent a whole day together, where the whole time you refused to… never mind,” Aurin whined as she trailed behind me. Huh, interesting, that wasn’t how Makesi’s trial screwed with his mind. That explains why she was repeatedly failing as well. The trial was basically forcing her into a specific mindset where she could do nothing but fail.

  When we passed some sort of invisible line, the world vanished around us, and I woke up on the ground, shuddering and taking a deep breath.

  “Okay, ready to go,” I said as I stood up.

  Something in the middle of the Mandala that I hadn’t noticed until that moment popped, and we were coated in gold Dust, which was sucked up through my skin into the part of my body where the System was installed. Thank fuck they got Aurin a protective suit.

  “Woo! Finished the first layer!” Vivi yelled.

  “Finished the first layer,” the fox spoke, reminding me of its existence.

  +150 Dust

  Dust: 1107

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