Grey gritted his teeth and started the marking on his arm. The ink seared into his skin, making something like a tattoo. The runes had names, but they were difficult to translate into English. He had come up with his own instead.

Scripting was similar to coding in a way. It had a syntax in the runes, but simply knowing the syntax didn’t quite mean he knew how to Script. If he used a Kin rune, for example, he was only identifying the energy he wanted to use was kinetic energy. From there, he had to add an Abs rune to absorb the kinetic energy and an Inv rune to store the energy. An Ext rune would then allow him to blast the stored energy outward, while an Int would allow him to internalize the energy as his body’s own strength.

That was only the software part of it, however. His Rank was like the hardware. At a higher Rank, he could support more Scripts and stronger ones. Identifying the Scripts as simply another coding language helped him visualize it quite easily. It was nothing he had not done half a dozen times before.

He finished the circular script and pulled his sleeve down to cover it. His body could only support four at a time, and he had two others on other parts of his body, each of them linked to a transformation Script in the center of his body that would allow him to properly internalize the energy.

It was two weeks since the rooftop. Two weeks in which he had studied and trained. He wasn’t ready. Far from it. This was just another step towards the peak, towards the Ultimate Player.

He felt the runes link under his Evolution, and he closed his eyes. Grey needed Evolution Points. There were a few ways to get them, but the two main ones were what he had termed cultivating and hunting. Cultivating was what it sounded like: sitting and visualizing the Chi around you to condense it. It was a safe method but very slow. Hunting was also self-explanatory. Killing took Evolution Points from others.

Grey had decided it was time he hunted. Not humans, of course. They were worth more EP’s, but he didn’t want to tip his hand to Jessica too soon. No, he was stepping into a Dungeon today. To conquer.

He pulled on his armor and pulled out his spear. A few daggers went in sheaths around his body, and a short sword rested at his waist. He was ready.

The Dungeon was a grassy plain. Monsters that looked like chimeras of the Greek myths strode about. They had bodies of lions, tails on snakes, and all manner of odd parts.

One leapt at him. Its paw crashed into his shoulder, and he stabbed at it. It slipped out of the way. His momentum carried him into a stumble. Another hit, this time on his side. He grunted.

His spear darted out, missed, and slashed down, drawing a red line in the thing’s skin. His boot connected with a leg. Then again. Another paw hit him. He stumbled and fell. Back to his feet. Another hit.

A claw cut a line through a gap in his armor. He circled, the monster doing the same. His slower speed and strength was making him sloppy. Causing him to miss.

He calmed himself. His speed had fled. His strength had left. His perception, however, had not. Observe.

Its tail struck with the head of a viper, but Grey had seen the action coming, his armored arm catching the blow instead. His lips parted in a smile. He had the pattern.

Battle plan started.

The familiar swipe came. Grey ducked under it when he saw the muscle in its foreleg twitch. Sidestepped the next. When the viper head struck once more, the Script on his chest burned. He blurred past the fangs, his spear sprouting from the other side of the monster’s chest.

It dropped to the prairie, limp. He raised his head. Other monsters watched now, some walking closer.

It was the desert all over again. He was weak. Pathetic. He spat a mouthful of blood. The Tutorial had taught him an important lesson, however.

Grey Shor always won.

---

“Do you humans not sleep?”

Grey visualized the Chi around him condensing and entering his body. “Yes.”

The paper-man tilted its head. “Then why do you not?”

Grey gritted his teeth. “I do.”

“When?”

“When. I’m. Done.”

“Mhm.”

Grey sat cross-legged. His chest was bare, stitches running across several wounds along his body. Bruises covered his face.

Pain. It was nothing. A conjuration of the mind. He had overcome the desert. Overcome death.

He spent his mornings in study with the paper-men. The Dungeons claimed his afternoons. His nights? He devoted those to observation. He studied memories, reviewed habits, and searched the recesses of his mind.

His first purchase came another week after entering the prairie Dungeon. It was an Evolution called Regeneration, which increased his natural ability to recover from injuries. The rest of his EP’s over the next two weeks had gone into Single Player, which when combined with the EP’s he already had leftover, raised him well over halfway to the next Rank. Single Player was necessary to his plans moving forward.

It was not enough to beat the Steel Legion’s exam room, after all. He had to be indomitable. A leader. They would not follow weakness.

He went back to cultivating. It was not time yet. He had more to prepare, to do. It was not just the Steel Legion he had to conquer. It was dozens of Dungeons. It was the whole city. It was Jessica Wells.

It was the world. Before anything, he had to conquer himself, however. That was why he searched his mind. He had an Evolution to conquer, and he knew how to do it. As he had with the paper-men and the Steel Legion, it was time to make a deal.

---

Grey’s mind ran over the edges of his memories. Memories were sharp things. A person dulled parts of them with wear, but there was always another sharp edge to be pricked by. At least, that was how they should be.

Grey’s memories of the desert- memories he believed to be sharper than most- were all dull. The images of his many deaths were vague. Blurred. Their phantom pain barely grasped at his limbs. They were simply impressions, small splashes of trauma that only stood out occasionally. Logically, he knew he should be broken. In fact, he had been.

Something had repaired his mind. At the time, he had dismissed it, but that, too, was unlike him. He knew now it was Single Player. It was the only thing that made sense. Months ago, he had begun taking notes on bouts of intense emotional distress that were quickly smothered. Each time, the prompt regarding his Quest to become the Ultimate Player appeared.

After that conclusion, a part of him wondered how much of his thoughts were his own. He dismissed them, however. Grey didn’t act on impulse; every thought- every plan- was measured and thought through. If the Evolution could pass through all of that, then it was already beyond him. Some of his Evolution choices, however, could be attributed to Single Player’s influence, which troubled him.

He sat in a corner of the paper-men Dungeon alone. Over the past weeks, his mind had disassembled this puzzle and pieced it back together. Single Player was more than he thought. Was it sentient? How intelligent was it? How far did its influence extend? Why did it do the things that it did?

Many of them were unanswerable, not without a valid operational definition of things like intelligence or something to measure. The why he could guess, however. It clearly wanted him alive and functioning. The prompts regarding his Quests showed another motivation: it wanted him to grow stronger. Which meant he had leverage.

The dulled edges of his memories had a thin layer over them. Before, it was something his attention had brushed over. Now that he looked for it, though, it was obvious. If he pierced the film, he would shatter. The sharp edges would run him through. Crack his mind.

He needed its cooperation. His physical strength had mostly deserted him, and he did not have the luxury of waiting to see if the curse would fail upon Jessica’s death. He needed power quickly. Single Player would bend to his will and deliver that power.

He pushed against the film. “Reveal yourself,” he said, “or I’ll do it.”

A moment passed. He pressed harder. Images passed through. Scents. Sounds. His heart trembled. He pushed harder. A full memory came, the relived pain stabbing through his body. He started to shudder, but he gritted his teeth.

Speak quickly. Communication is difficult.

“Are you influencing my mind?”

Single Player Effect- Mind of the Player: The effects of trauma and fear are lessened.

Grey kept the smirk from himself. The intelligence was manipulating him, though it had phrased it in a way to make it sound beneficial. His emotions were not his own, not wholly. A new game had begun.

“What are you? Who are you?”

Single Player was crafted from the remains of a being despised by the Archons.

Grey wanted to press, but he couldn’t. “Let’s make a deal. When I Rank Single Player up again, I want my learning speed increased. I also want an interface that connects to the Dungeons under my control and the territories I accumulate.”

Swear to climb the Tower of Conquest.

Grey considered the request. Nothing was known about the Towers beyond the fact they had appeared with the Genesis. Their doors were tightly shut, and nothing left them.

“I swear.”

Single Player: E (110/200)- Diamond -> Single Player: E (110/220)- Diamond

The presence withdrew from his thoughts, and the screens disappeared from his view. He felt exhausted. The beginnings of a smile crossed his lips, however. The being- whatever it was- was like any human or monster. It could be pressed, manipulated. He knew the things he could ask for were not unlimited. A Rank up had only a certain amount of power to distribute, but since Single Player was a Diamond Rank singled out for its growth potential, it had more power to distribute than most.

The trick was asking for things that fell under Single Player’s umbrella. City-building games were not uncommon, so Single Player could provide. Increasing his learning speed was a part of any player in any RPG game. The difficult part would be gathering the EP’s for the upgrade, but he had plans. After he defeated the room in the Steel Legion Dungeon, his training could truly begin.

Before that, however, he had some things to do. The paper-men had finished his requisition the night before, and it was time to ensure his hold over the Steel Legion. No matter Single Player’s nature, Grey had always wanted to win. Nothing could ever change that.