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"Now, I think it would be in our best interests if we formed a contract, an in-game deal to assure this, just in case. Not that I don’t trust you, but, well, better safe than sorry, after all. How does that sound? Alan, are you listening?”
Alan blinked, then quickly had Eve replay Thiago’s speech at a faster pace. He attempted to activate hypercognition, but failed. He probably looked like an idiot though, as he stared blankly at Thiago for a few seconds. He glanced at Aphrodite nervously, hopefully he wasn't making a fool of himself in front of her. She smiled at him.
“Um, yes, of course, sorry, just getting used to a few quirks of my new class,” Alan muttered after he got caught up in the conversation.
“These classes and the Game can take some getting used to.” Thiago glanced at Aphrodite, who continued to simply sit in her chair, smiling at Alan. “I’m sorry if I caused any offence, it just looked like you were staring at the wall.”
“Right. Anyway, the contract?”
“Ah, yes, here we are.”
Thiago opened a screen, pressed a button, and a message appeared in front of Alan:
| For a minimum period of one year in-game the following players agree to not discuss, sell or divulge any information gained about a separate player during and before the in-game Tutorial without said player’s explicit consent. Everyone’s future plans and affiliations will not be mentioned to anyone not in this group, unless the specific member wishes to make this information known. Should anyone break this contract, they will immediately owe the group as a whole 1,000,000 credits.
Players: Ace, Adampwnage, Aphrodite, Daisy, DaLong, KingArthur, Kitana, MadMerlin, Thiago
Note: This contract is renewable on a one-year basis if all parties agree. Once you agree to this contract, you are unable to exit it unless all other players let you. |
Everyone else’s name appeared green, while Alan’s remained black. He assumed this was because they had all already agreed to this contract. He was about to agree when Eve said:
Wait. Something feels off.
Alan waited, he could sense that Eve was running various calculations.
Close your eyes, try to think of nothing.
Alan did so, although it was rather hard to think of nothing, as once you tried thinking about nothing, you were of course thinking about something, which wasn’t nothing.
“Is there a problem?" Thiago asked. "As you can probably see everyone else has agreed to this contract.” Aphrodite was still sitting in a chair, smiling at Alan. Oddly, she had the exact same expression on her face as before—
I believe Aphrodite is trying to coerce you to agree to this contract using some sort of telepathic, psionic ability.
“Are you using some sort of power on me?” Alan asked, pulling out his knife.
“What? Of course not, I would never—” Thiago said.
“Not you, her.” Alan pointed the knife at Aphrodite. The moment it was brandished in her direction she quickly stood up, backing away from her chair.