Polynya

“To be frank with you, I’ve already heard some about these digital hallucinations. I haven’t looked into it because I’ve been busy with other things. Now that the city has come under attack, and the fact that I believe an old foe may once again be making its presence known – although I can’t be sure – I haven’t spent as much time looking into the issue as I would have liked to. Chuntao,” she says aloud to some invisible entity, “compile all data related to Proxima-related hallucinations. What is your humandroid’s name?”

“Hajime.”

“Is that all you know? Do you know his handle? Most humandroids have a handle. For example, oh, I dunno, FDA Monitor 1351885. Something like that.”

“He works for MercSecure. He was created by the creator of humandroids.”

She scoffs. “I highly doubt that.”

Hiccup: Damn this one is, snooty! You didn’t tell us your old guild leader was a fickin’ biotch, Marbles. Actually, I kind of like her. Reminds me of Spewy’s mother. Real sexy broad.

“Really, that’s what he told me. Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Hold on. Chuntao, attempt to contact a humandroid named Hajime who works for MercSecure in Japan. Tokyo, right? Near Shibuya?”

Mind Mage, Ryuk reminds himself. “Yes, that’s right,” he says. “I’d give you my family name, but … ”

“But I can read it here and since this is a MercSecure humandroid, the name won’t necessarily match. I won’t pry deeper, but I do find it odd that you have one of these private security humandroids assigned to you. They’re dangerous.”

“You have a MercSecure droid?” FeeTwix nods, clearly impressed. “Those things are badass!”

“A humandroid?” Zaena tilts her head. “That’s right, your world’s version of NPCs, like me.”

“You’re not just any NPC,” FeeTwix tells her, even as Hiccup rolls his eyes.

“Good,” Sophia says as she reads a message that no one else can read. “Chuntao has established contact. If your humandroid can share their data with my AI, it will speed up the process.”

“He will,” Ryuk agrees, “but there’s another, related thing that Hajime suggested and I think it’s even scarier than the hallucinations that are taking place.”

“By all means, tell us,” Empress Thun implores.

“I know you don’t believe me,” Ryuk says to Sophia, “but my humandroid really was created by Hewman, that’s his name, I think.”

“Dr. Richard Hewman, the creator of the humandroid. Yes, it’s his name, and now that Chuntao has verified what you’ve said, I believe you.”

Ryuk glances at FeeTwix, who nods for him to continue. “Hajime mentioned that there was an experiment in the 2050s in which an NPC took a humandroid’s body. Know anything about that?”

Sophia lowers herself to the ground. “Ahem. Aiden?”

“Yes, Sophia?”

Hiccup nearly does a backflip when the masked man steps out of thin air next to the goblin. He’s the same guy who cuffed them in the courtyard earlier, the NPC member of the Knights of Non Compos Mentis.

Hiccup: Holy fick! It’s the ninja guy!

Ryuk looks at Aiden, who has a slice bang strapped across his back. “He’s been here the entire time?”

“We spare no precautions,” Sophia says. “Not after what we’ve been through. Regarding what you just said about an NPC taking a humandroid body – look no further.”

Aiden steps in front of the group and pulls his mask down to reveal a wolfish grin. “What? Were you expecting someone else? I’m not the only one who did it.”

Sophia cuts him off. “Before we continue this discussion, I need to know a bit more of why it is your humandroid mentioned this to you.”

“I think Hajime’s point was this: whatever is trying to come through to our world using people’s iNet feeds hasn’t discovered that it could be done via humandroids,” Ryuk says. “I wanted to bring this information to you, because I had a feeling you’d know more about who performed this experiment and what became of it.”

Sophia bites her lip, nods, and looks at the four of them, double-checking with FeeTwix to make sure he isn’t broadcasting anything. “It was me,” she finally says. “Through what I called ‘R-diving,’ reverse-diving, I was able to bring an NPC, Aiden, to a humandroid’s body.”

“So he could actually function up there?” FeeTwix asks.

“Yes,” says Aiden, his eyes suddenly sad. “And it was marvelous.”

“I was also able to do it with an RPC,” Sophia says. “But we shut it down not long after that. It was too dangerous.”

“Then you see where this is going,” Ryuk says. “If whatever force is causing these digital hallucinations discovers that it is possible for NPCs to take humandroid bodies, then it could … ” He shakes his head. “It could be the end of the world as we know it!”

“And you’re saying a Reborn Player Character can do it too?” FeeTwix asks. “What about just a regular Player Character? Could I take my avatar, and then using my avatar, R-dive, as you called it, and return to the real world?”