Vivi looked like a really expensive model of an anime girl you'd see used in one of those VR chatrooms, except with skin that physically interacted with the chair she was seated in instead of clipping through it.

  The adorable grumpy expression on her face was really expressive, like a Vtuber with really good tracking.

  “I could ask the same thing. Why do you look so… fucking cute? I don't know, shut up,” she grumbled, sticking out her tongue and pulling down her eyelid at me, before taking a look at the console in front of her. “Oh, fuck, I died under mind control again!? How does this keep happening?”

  “Sounds like a skill issue to me,” I replied, leaning on the table and hiding my grin behind my hand. Didn’t she only go through five worlds before? Yet more than one of them was completely deleted from her memory now?

  That's rough, buddy.

  Vivi glanced between the console and me, only to glare my way, “You clearly have a social Stat. Was it you—”

  “No, I don’t completely overwrite the minds of those I consider important friends,” I interrupted. Sure, I might nudge them into acting in ways that would be best for both of us, but that was just being helpful? Like helping your friend with their homework, or smoothing over a problem they had with you so that it didn't bother them anymore by altering their mind so they never thought of it.

  “So you confirm that you are a Whisperer… wait, friends?” she said, then paused and looked down at the console with a distraught expression on her face. “So do we have a full group then? We aren't provisional anymore, so we'll get full benefits?”

  “No, the other woman is part of Ren's Aspect. She is not Dustborn, nor is she alive depending on your definition of life,” Aisling helpfully chimed in.

  “She's alive! Just because she doesn't have a soul doesn't mean—” I started only to be cut off when Aurin placed a hand on my shoulder to prevent me from standing from… some kind of emotion? I wasn’t sure how I was feeling, but there was pressure behind my eyes. Which usually meant a strong response.

  Huh…

  Continuing to speak while experiencing those strong emotions was usually a bad idea. So I sat down and turned my chair to nuzzle into Aurin, whatever the feeling was dispersed into the warmth of her arms. I took her offstage after she tapped my arm in a way that meant she wanted a break from being visible.

  That was probably for the best. I'd rather Makesi not come to the same conclusion Vivi did.

  “Not… a Whisperer then? A Sheppard?... No, that doesn’t make sense either since she's still there even after being unsummoned. What the hell are you?” Vivi stuttered out.

  Aisling seemed confused, staring into the space Aurin used to be but likely seeing nothing. Vivi was just weird being able to pierce Aurin's offstage intangibility when she knew she was around.

  “I’m a Noememetic Architect (Eunoic) obviously,” I said in System Default, announcing my full capabilities to both of them. Thinking about it, I hadn't actually told it to Aisling or Vivi, the only one I had provided the System definition of my Archetype to was Makesi.

  Who now wouldn't remember it… A pang of something went through me but I pushed the emotion down before it could affect me.

  Vivi’s eyes went wide, and she started floating out of her chair.

  “A bearer?! Can you sign my… shit, we need a pen.” She held her hand out, and a pen appeared, probably purchased from The Stream. Did she really just waste Dust on a pen?

  Well, I spent dust on a mirror, so I shouldn’t judge, I guess.

  “My forehead, please!” Vivi said, while floating through the air towards me, her arms flapping as if she were a bird.

  I took the pen from her, which was weirdly heavy, and went to quickly sign her forehead, only to be interrupted.

  Because that was the moment when Makesi appeared in the form of a tall, buff lizard man that looked to be wearing formal wear from Sumeria.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I was right, he was a lizard person! I knew it!

  His first reaction was to glance at the console, then he scanned the room and ignored Vivi floating over the table. His eyes landed on me while I finished the signature. Several emotions crossed through his face before he regained control and returned to a neutral mask.

  Not that I could read most of those lizard expressions. From my perspective, his face just twitched, and his tongue flicked out a couple of times. The only one I caught was alarm at my existence, and that was only because of seeing his mental model.

  “We… failed. But have a new team member to welcome! Except we would have already welcomed you… I'm sorry, did anyone retain their memories? I need to file a report with the Bureau… Dust take me, this is a mess,” Makesi said carefully, a morose tone in his voice. Then he paused as if to arrange his thoughts while leaning back in his chair. The metal of the chair seemed to mould around him perfectly as he did so.

  How did he make it do that? The backrest on mine had zero recline, and I couldn't seem to physically force it back.

  Vivi drifted down onto the table and crawled back to her seat. A scribbled signature on her forehead and a beaming smile on her face. Aisling finally broke the silence after confirming I wasn’t going to speak up with a glance, as I was also one of the Contractors on the team that retained their memories.

  “The dimension was already nearing the point of unsalvability when we arrived. At my time of death, we had reached Threshold State Nine, and advanced Class Three anomalies were roaming the world. There were several shielded rifts that we were still in the process of tracking down when we ran into what I estimate was a Class Four leadership-focused command anomaly,” Aisling stated in a dry tone as if reading from a phone book. “Ren and I were unaffected as I was out of range, and she seemed to be immune. Only you and Vivi were affected, with your minds being seized completely. With you and Vivi's minds under absolute control, the two of you blanket cycled the team in only a couple of minutes.”

  Vivi let out a low whistle, “Well, at least we were paid in part upfront. Did we ever find out why this was listed as such a high-priority Contract?”

  They got paid upfront?! But I didn't get anything…

  Aisling glanced towards Makesi as if to ask permission to speak, but he raised a hand, signalling he needed a moment while his eyes darted back and forth, looking like he was reading from the System.

  “So, how much Dust did you walk away with?” I asked Vivi while the other two figured the team's shit out.

  “Wouldn't you love to kn—” she snarked back at me, only to freeze mid-sentence, her expression fell, and she looked away. “Right. Uhh, I have…” Vivi's face turned white as a sheet of paper, and her irises vanished.

  “That bad, huh?” I said. How was our next Contract going to go if everyone was broke…?

  “That's odd. There isn't a provided reason for the escalation of the Contract to emergency status…” Makesi muttered to himself.

  “Is everyone here nearly out of Dust, then? Because Vivi and I definitely are, and I'm pretty sure Aisling is,” I asked, ignoring Makesi. I wasn't sure how we would handle a Contract with absolutely no equipment. The hovercraft was essential back on Earth; without it, we would have been stuck trying to find a way out of the Americas while Atlas hunted us down.

  The look on Makesi's face answered that question.

  “Vivi and I are down to our last lives, while you and Ren only have two left. Our team is completely Dust-starved at the moment. We can't even travel to the Nexus to look for another option because Ren and Vivi don't have bodies there. I believe we need to request a Terminal Contract,” Aisling said, her face hardened as she glared at Makesi.

  “You know how I feel about that. I will not march us into a situation where we are risking our very souls,” he growled out a low hiss with his response, and moved in close to Aisling.

  While they argued in hushed tones, I leaned over to Vivi.

  “What's a Terminal Contract?” I asked in a whisper. Aurin leaned in with me, and I squeezed her arm in reassurance.

  “I haven't been on one myself, but from what I've heard, they're meant for Contractors who are on their last Lives. If you can't afford to buy a Life the regular way, your team takes a Terminal Contract, which guarantees a Life to be paid out on a success,” Vivi responded, her eyes looking hollow, like she had looked into her bank account the day after payday and seen it was empty.

  “So what's the catch?” The name of the Contract implied it was potentially lethal, but weren't all contracts?

  “Terminal Contracts always have a high risk of Contractors permanently dying. I heard of one taking place in a dimension with a very easy-to-use magic system that could kill souls. Just entering that world risked being hit by a spell and having your soul destroyed. Basically, they are always high risk Contracts taken by teams on the brink of losing their last Lives. Might as well send the chaff into the grinder,” She glanced over at Makesi after finishing the explanation. He had his head in his hands while Aisling stared him down. It looked like they were done.

  When Makesi finally sat up again and faced the team, he spoke, “Fine, as Aisling pointed out, our options are limited. There are no pending Emergency Contracts, and the Contract payout has dropped for Provisionary teams again. It is no longer enough on its own to purchase Lives for the whole team, and we are practically out of Dust. She is right in that our only option is to take a Terminal Contract. Are there any objections from you two?”

  With nobody disagreeing, he let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

  The console in front of me flashed, and a notification appeared on it.

  Afterlife 2.0, I may be bringing it back from Hiatus soon. Released a new chapter for the first time in a while with more details in the Author's Note.

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