Chapter 236: A Place with Uncomfortable Memories

Chapter 236: A Place with Uncomfortable Memories

Milo was regretting meeting at this place; he had too many uncomfortable memories associated with it. They'd won a huge battle, but at the time, he had been hurt so badly that he'd just wandered off to feed his growing cheese addiction and been captured by the Slaver Mage. When he returned, he was self-absorbed and only focused on fixing his head, regaining his bones, and trying to understand what had happened. It took time to recover from that. Finding Limburger Hollow had been good for him. He was much better now, more confident, and better trained in his abilities. Most importantly, he was free to go where he wanted.

But the ordeal on the airship would haunt him. He was very glad Philistron was dead and that he'd helped kill him. He had met no one else in the game who was so cruel and inhuman. That the Slaver had been created by a human player, not the AI running the game, was ironic. The anti-AI groups always talked about AI being 'inhuman.' The whole encounter had been like being in hell, but he'd learned so many new things and, in the end, helped people. He needed to focus on that. Freeing the clan of halflings and children from the city and everyone else in those cages. And the two people trapped with him and tortured by Philistron. He thought about them from time to time. Wally's revelation that there might be people like him somewhere in the world had been shocking. He'd denied it at first but slowly unwrapped the idea. There could have been another batch created. If so, they were strangers and could be friends or foes. He had a tendency to paranoia, but some of his siblings, like Bork, had been consumed by it. That would make them dangerous.

A small part of him considered the idea of it being some of his family. Deaths could be faked. He had gone back over the reports about the deaths of each of his family members. The early reports were brutal. 'Subject 4G dead of seizure, body disposed of by incineration. Subject 4J died from unknown causes. The autopsy showed a possible stroke. Body sectioned and sold to {redacted} for research.' His own was interesting. He was listed as 'Subject 4M lost in transit, assumed dead.' It was the file with the last report that he went over again and again. There was little information. 'Subjects 4A, 4B, 4N, 4O, and 4Z dead from vehicular wreck, explosion, and subsequent fire. Remains of bodies consumed by fire found in the wreckage of vehicle used in the escape confirm deaths.'

They would have been very smart and capable by then and could work flawlessly as a team. Yet, their escape plan seemed simplistic. He started a new investigation, focusing on every person who had worked at that facility and followed them for years. He found three people who seemed very well off for their jobs. Each year, on a day near the anniversary of his family's death, a fairly large chunk of money was deposited into the accounts of each of the three men.

If Wally was correct, and someone was using the same tools he used, tools which left tell-tale signs only detectable by an AI, it might be his family. If they were unaware they were leaving clues, Wally might be able to get information on their whereabouts and what they were working on. Someone using those tools had cleaned out the majority of Victor's assets that were invested in Syllabary. Milo had taken the rest of his money, leaving Victor broke and on the run. Wally would alert him if the A.I. found anything. Milo wondered if he had already met two of them. This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

It would be a strange coincidence, but they fit the profile of what Milo would expect in his siblings, and he had large doubts those were two of Victor's employees using the specially programmed pods. Firstly, based on the strange quest, if one person was logging in to use a special character, why not all 37? Only three of the special pods had been used. The others had been found in different countries, linked to thousands of Mark 2 pods. Secondly, they had been smart. He'd argued with them, especially the cat. All three of them were crazed and in withdrawal from their individual drugs. But they were smart enough to converse using a code that would be difficult for a highly intelligent person to follow and impossible for a normal person. They were too good at it, even considering they'd been there for weeks. Wally could find no record of them. They never logged back in. That was smart or paranoid. If that had been part of his family, he would be insanely happy to find them. But for now, he'd wait for Wally to complete his search. He hoped it was them who had stolen Victor's money. He deserved it.

He smiled a little. "Not bad; I like it in the caves. I know most of the rules down here. I'm not as good up in the city, and I think I'd freak out if I had to deal with being on the surface much.

"Sort of like the habitat? You don't mix with a lot of people there, do you?"

"Nope. It's why I'm so bad with people. I get tied up in knots, and it's hard to talk sometimes."

Belinda bumped him with her shoulder. "Yeah, I've noticed. I think that's why we're here today. You ready to talk some things over?"

Milo looked around the cave, then at where the boss had died. Maybe it wasn't such a bad spot after all. If you were going to talk about uncomfortable things, why ruin a good place? He took a deep breath and prepared himself for another tough battle, mostly with himself.

"Sure, time to talk."