Reincarnated in Quality Assurance

Six days later, Marke tried Grace again. They had split the stats between Agility and Soul. Marke felt like his Tai Chi exercise was easier and more productive than before, and Kente just felt really, really good. The ‘more real’ feeling he described was tied to the Soul stat and they figured that the ‘clear thinking’ feeling must have been from Intelligence. Kente’s abilities didn’t change in a measurable way, but Marke was happy to split the stats because it gave Kente so much satisfaction to feel real.

“I’m a real boy!” Kent told this joke for the fifth time.

“That makes me the Blue Fairy, you know.” Marke teased. “When you wish…” Marke tried to sing but his new voice still didn’t act right.

“We still don’t know why you can’t sing. Maybe there is a physiological reason for it? A quirk of evolution that impedes singing or something like that.” Kente’s voice spun around the room.

“Are realms developed through evolution?” Marke asked.

Kente seemed to freeze in place. “What.” It wasn’t a question, more a statement indicating mind-blowing.

“Maybe the realm creator just put all the dinosaur bones in the rock layers to provide enrichment for us humans.” Marke chuckled at the idea.

“What? No. No! We didn’t have a System, we just… It wasn’t like a realm, earth was in a normal universe. It’s gotta be!” Kente’s voice held existential panic.

“Having no System would be a great loophole to bypass our efforts to break the System. When we get out of here, we should try and look up a QuARK certificate for good old Gaia.” Marke shook out his arms and took his Grace testing position on the cot.

“Marke, you can’t mess with my worldview like that. I haven’t got a body to keep me centered. When you upend my worldview, you upend my innermost self. I’m like a ghost. A ghost with the unfinished business of not rethinking everything I’ve ever known.” Kente scolded and lamented with an over-the-top tone of voice which Marke interpreted to mean it was ok to tease Kente about the subject very infrequently.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Here, I’m going to try Grace again. Make sure nobody bothers me, ok?” Marke closed his eyes as Kente muttered sarcastically, “Oh, yeah, right. I’ll do that.”

Marke focused on Grace and went through the same steps as before. Breathing was fine. Head turning was fine. Arm lifting went fine. Yes! Marke thought. Minimal muscle strain and fatigue. Arm raises are good. Kente wrote a note in the log. Marke rested a moment and went to the next testing stage. He did several sets of raising each leg. Leg raises are good. Some fatigue.

“Take a rest.” Kente ordered.

Marke dropped Grace and relaxed for ten minutes or so. After the rest, he decided to skip a few steps. “I’m going to try it with Tai Chi.”

“I thought you might say that. It’s reckless, but I admit it’s a reasonable sort of reckless. Take it easy though.” Kente said.

“Will do.” Marke said. He took a step to the center of the cell and relaxed into the opening posture for Tai Chi. He never actually knew much Tai Chi, but Kente and he had reconstructed a few movements from their memory. Marke focused on Grace and began. Marke’s entire being was consumed with coordinating his motion and balance with his breathing. He felt weightless, but also heavy as a mountain. He dropped Grace as he finished the first movement. His body ached, but it wasn’t too bad.

“That was amazing.” Kente said sincerely.

Marke grinned. “It felt amazing. That was an incredible experience. I’m gonna sit down.” Marke took a shaky step over to the cot. While he rested, he pulled up his stats and skills.

Stats:

Strength: 10

Agility: 8

Endurance: 10

Intelligence: 2

Soul: 8

Skills:

Basket Weaving – level 3

Grace – level 1

Climb – level 0

Walking – level 2

Juggling – level 2

“Oh! Grace hit level 1!” Marke said. “I think I forgot to check the new skills this morning, did you?”

“No, I skipped it to. You look, I’m writing up more observations about Grace.” Kente said.

Assign skill. Marke thought. The skill list popped up. Marke found the new skill and immediately picked it.

Hide – level 0

Kente was still writing in the Grace log, so Marke just wrote a note at the bottom of one of their progress tracking logs: “First stealth skill acquired: Hide” Marke looked around the room and wondered how he could practice Hide in a cell that contained one cot, one bucket, one ladle, several straw baskets, and one waste hole. Feeling a little foolish, Marke tried to hide under the cot. Because of the cot’s construction, there wasn’t any room for him under the cot and he was just sort of huddling under the edge. He didn’t feel like he was hiding, and that probably meant it wasn’t contributing to his Hide level.

He sat up and looked around the room again. Why is this so difficult? I’ve played hide-and-seek a million times, I should be able to think of something more creative than hiding under the bed. He picked up the straw baskets tried to stack them on top of himself as he lay on the floor. This was slightly better, but still not very good. He juggled the straw baskets a bit while he tried to think. I could try to make a bigger basket and hide under it. It would be the very first place someone would look if they tried to find me. Does that matter? Is hiding really hiding if I can be found? It must be, otherwise you couldn’t play hide-and-seek, it would be maybe-hide-and-seek. Marke was still laying on the floor when the Captain summoned him again.

The guards led him down the hallway and through the same double set of doors into the Captain’s office. The guards sat him in the same chair in front of the desk. The Captain was not behind the desk, instead, a platter of food sat on the desk in front of Marke. The food seemed to have latched onto Marke’s eyes and refused to let him look anywhere else. There was meat. It was probably meat, Marke wasn’t an expert on different animal products. Gravy had been ladled across the meat and onto some sort of potato-like thing. Syrup dripped slowly off pieces of fruit. Something tan and poofy sat at the far end of the platter. Maybe it was a pastry? Marke wanted it badly. He took a deep breath through the nose to sample every smell within reach.

Woah, why are we in the Captains office? Kente must have finished his notes on Grace. He would be jealous of Marke because he couldn’t smell or taste. What is going on? Something is in your head, Marke. It’s like someone is playing radio ads in here trying to get you to buy things. Marke couldn’t listen to Kente, Marke needed to eat the food. Marke was so hungry.

Hey! Listen to me! Marke! Marke Clarke! Kente was trying to distract Marke from the delicious food. He wanted it for himself, selfish Kente. That doesn’t even make sense, you said two seconds ago that I can’t smell or taste. Let’s try this: Focus on the food, Marke. Really focus, like you did for the poison water. Yes! Marke wanted to know everything about the food. He looked intently at the platter on the desk.

Platter of Food

Mesmerizing (Strong)

The box popped up right in front of Marke’s eyes. He blinked in confusion. He was standing and leaning over the desk. Drool dripped off his chin. Since the box blocked his view of the food, he looked around the office in confusion. He sat back in the chair and wiped his chin with his shirt sleeve. He felt slightly ill.

The weird radio ads are gone now, so I guess we should be safe if you leave that box in place to block our view of the food platter. Kente’s thought voice sounded cautious. Why would the Captain suddenly try to ‘Mesmerize’ us? That sounds like some sort of hypnosis, but he already questioned us with his truth detection orb.

Marke ignored Kente’s question. Kente, I didn’t like that. I fell ill and scared and violated. I don’t want to do that again. Kente replied in a soothing voice. Hey, it’s ok Marke. I’m here. I’m sorry I was distracted with my notes. I might have been able to snap you out of it faster-

Marke interrupted. No, Kente. I want us to have a skill or something to make that not happen. Don’t Suffer. We can’t follow Priority One if someone is controlling us.

Understood. Kente replied.

Marke sat in the chair in front of the Captain’s desk for nearly half an hour before the guards received an order to return him to his cell. I don’t think that was the Captain. Marke said. Someone else decided to take a look at us.