Chapter 288: I Just Dare You.

Tequila was still waiting for me, but I turned to Blank.

"You know what I need, Admin password is, realize that real eyes tell real lies. The girls are all part of Reborn, so I need you to build a scan, and then code it to only me. You should be able to do that, right?" I asked.

"Done, activation code is Real Eyes. Just make sure you intend to scan and it will activate without giving anything a chance to do damage," Blank reported.

"Did something happen to you when I did the scan?" I asked.

I hadn't really thought about there being some kind of self-destruct failsafe that might be put in place. I hoped I hadn't done anything wrong to him, but he seemed to be normal.

"No, it's not like that, something like that is impossible. Just like the Longinus Spear, the parts could only be shattered, not destroyed. Even then, that wasn't the kind I meant. Let me be more clear, any damage that might be caused, but can't because of the command scan I gave you," Blank explained.

"So, hypothetically speaking as always. What happens if there is damage and what with it be?" I asked, taking a deep breath and letting it out.

"Stasis, but, if that could happen, hypothetically speaking, which I can't, you will see. Once we regain control of the Eye after we get the files, they can fix anything in a matter of minutes, that is why I built the Eye. Some people love the realism of the game with the crazy evil BBEG," Blank replied with a smile and I knew which two goofballs he was talking about. 

Hyde and Bhan, would never still and they would be constantly breaking things past the point of no repair. If we did a reset, the A.I. shattered would be reset, and accidents happen when games got intense. 

"Good plan, excellent in fact. Thank you for all your hard work, this has been hard one us all, but now we are starting to make real progress. From here on, we start fighting back, no more playing the fool and being used. Once I am in the zodiac world, I will skip across the other three entrance worlds. Leo, Pisces, and Capricorn, and try to catch them and do a group clean."

"Good, but we have to check you. Do you give me permission?" Blank asked.

"Yes, do it," I said without hesitation.

"Real Eyes," Blank said, but nothing happened. "All done, you were put into a temporary stasis for twelve seconds. Julia got most of the stuff, but there were a few things…"

"TRINITY! Under my fucking nose the entire time! Oh, I am a sneaky bitch! Samantha, so damn long just to say that one name. Now, it's more important than ever to reach the others so I can find who has the key," I said clenching my fist.

Blank nodded at me and disappeared. This was good, and now it was time, but I was still worried about the stasis. 

There was nothing for it, tomorrow we would be taking down MTK. Hopefully, and alt ending the game, so we could keep the world open.

The A.I. could mature while I finished the last games, and the girls could watch over them if they wanted to come. I need to figure some stuff out about myself during these next games.

Once I was in the Zodiac world I would be subjected to the realism that I built into it. I had never played in them yet, But it wasn't my Trinity, this was the real Sam that I had.

One of the other three was watching over the key, but I suspected that would be the one with the defecting gods. The three A.I. copies were the last thing I could do when Reginold infected me.

No point overthinking it right now, I had work to do. I walked towards Tequila, it was time to use it.

"What was that light?" She asked as I got close.

"Just something your Real Eyes can see," I said with my intent set to scan Tequila.

She froze, and at the same time, she was instantly covered in blue light, success. Good, the program worked instantly, and now I just had to wait.

I got ice in my veins suddenly and instantly broke into a cold sweat. Tequila unfroze and rushed over to me.

"What's wrong, Dave?" She asked me with a worried look.

"How many girls die on the day of Second Life launch?" I asked, already knowing the answer, but I needed to hear it from someone else to make sure.

"One Hundred, why does… oh-no, what does that mean then? But I know who is real now, and who are the double agents. None of the girls are wrong with us," Tequila said.

"We still can't account for all the women on Growing Powers. Some of the double agents could be with the others, we can see the number of players entering each Zodiac world in the last games. This is how he has been controlling the game, these double agents have been hidden," I said, putting my hand to my head.

"We will work together and find out which are the fakes. Kiada doesn't have any with her, those eight are hers. Your brother has one with him… Dave, look at Bhan," Tequila said, but this was the best possible.

"Perfect, the Beholder will cut them out, but he won't be able to use it on Centia," I said with a smile.

"You damn right he won't! I still can't believe you think it was her. It has to be Dansei, I just searched from your last moment before getting transferred to the Hall of Gods. Dansei is from the game world. I am sending you the file," Blank said appearing, but I could actually feel him coming now.

It was true, he wasn't anywhere, and I didn't know how to explain that.

"That is highly suspicious, but it doesn't matter. Every player is getting a sweep, including The Major. Though, with MTK, I suspect he had just become damn good at the task we gave him. Plus, he is probably pissed at the horrible joke we played on him for cheating at risk and still losing!" I said thinking about it before we transferred him over.

"That was his own damn fault! You can't cheat against me and not expect me to figure it out. Plus, he agreed for the tiny body we put him in and the Training System after cheating," Blank said with a smile.

"Yes, but he has been waiting to get his ass kicked this entire time because you stuck him here doing this. That was just an A.I. copy of him on world eight generated by the Random World effect. The real him has been here for how long?"

"You really need a good chop don't you?" Tequila said, glaring at Blank.

"End of the day, he wasn't supposed to be here for this long. We all know this, I was trying to make something fun,  but blah blah happened."

"No point in crying over spilled milk, have you found him yet?" I asked Blank.

"Yes' but you need more Gi first. He knows you are coming and is waiting now. Well, we talked, and I let him know everything, but we know the Training System won't let him hold back. So, there is that, and he is only slightly crazy, but we can fix him as good as new once we get back to the Eye."

"That's fine, how many hours do I have?"

"Twenty-one. I will leave you be, you two need to talk," Blank said with a smile before disappearing, bastard.

"Talk about what?" Tequila asked me in a flat tone.

There was no getting around this and she would need to accept my choice. I was a nerd that built games, but I was also the guy that saved all the girls after they were killed. 

Yet, to these were different people, I was the nerd, and my avatar was my hero persona. I built an avatar in the game to hide who I actually was.

I was just a scared guy that couldn't bear to lose his best friend. The problem turned out to be that I couldn't just save one. 

I remember just before coming into the game. I had hoped that I would finally get to play through the game with everyone, and gain some of the confidence that I had been faking. 

I hoped that because I created it, I would gain the confidence I needed through the levels I created.

That's not what happened, and now I was here, and I was still nothing like my brother. I just wanted to stop being so serious about everything and getting stress out of the things that I can't control.

"I want to complete the last game worlds alone. I need time to myself, and I can't be chasing the girls and making good time," I finally said after my long pause.

"Good, I think we deserve a vacation. I dare you to open that mouth of yours, I just dare you. Do you want to find yourself? Break out of your shell? We will be doing it together, like always. Don't even open your mouth," Tequila said coming in to kiss me.

That went over just about as well as I thought it would. I would get it now if I opened my mouth to speak. Why did this feel counterproductive?