Red light flickered in the distance, but Jandru barely noticed. His focus was on the new VINE shop window that had appeared in his interface upon completing the quest.

It resembled a traditional RPG point-buy page, except for one major difference. Instead of skill points, stat points, ability points, and experience points, everything had the same currency: VINE tokens.

With a VINE token, he could unlock a special move or a magical attack; he could increase a statistic or buy items. Or he could put it toward increasing his level.

It would take one token for level 1, two for level 2, up to ten. After that, it doubled, then again at twenty, and thirty. So levels 1-10 would require 55 total tokens, while 22 tokens would be required to reach level 11, 24 at level 12, and so on.

He’d completed a simple quest and gained one token for completion plus two more for doing so quickly. At this rate, it would take years to reach the end, even if he spent his tokens on nothing but leveling.

He had to admire the simplicity of it. VINE was cleverly made. It gave you a clear target, a goal to keep you complacent, and then quietly piled on its subtle twisting of the world. If you spent years being shown a certain worldview, if your entire existence affirmed what you were told, it would get to you. There was no way to stay apart from it forever. It would insinuate itself into your mind and warp your behavior, until you didn’t even realize you’d become something completely unlike yourself.

Jandru had to keep reminding himself of that. He couldn’t afford to let himself forget even for a day that this was a war for his personhood, for his self, for his very soul if he wanted to be dramatic about it.

If he wanted to remain himself and not an empty thing, he had to remember that.

He’d need to come up with a strategy for using his points. The faster he could get through the quests, the sooner he could get out. But if he didn’t take any of the perks or skills or equipment, he might not survive. He was already pushing his luck out here. The security countermeasures outside could have eliminated him in seconds if he hadn’t been able to talk his way out of the situation.

Phase armor cost 20 tokens, but allowed him to become insubstantial at will. Not only could he use it to survive deadly attacks, but he could also slip through walls. He definitely wanted that.

Lightblades cost 35 tokens, a pair of thin rapier-like swords that could be set aflame with a thought, becoming hot enough to slice through metal in seconds. Even when unheated, they were indestructible.

Storm Caller, a spell costing 3 tokens, would allowed him to summon lightning and thunder at any time so long as he was outdoors. It could be upgraded with 5 tokens to its second level form, allowing slow summoning of lighting bolts when indoors, and a further 10 tokens to its final form, enabling the creation of full storms regardless of his location.

These were only a handful of the countless options available to him. He could upgrade his equipment, himself, his innate statistics. He could become stronger, faster, sturdier, nimbler.

The red glow drifted slowly nearer as he continued walking without really paying attention, his feet carrying him onward as his attention remained elsewhere.

He could put his tokens into leveling, he could upgrade his skills, or he could save up for something more dramatic. He couldn't possibly have it all.

He had to do more quests. Even knowing that was exactly the point of it. Thankfully, VINES was around to help. It was a lifeline he could hold onto, the one thing that still made sense in this insane world.

The red glow neared, and he finally registered its presence consciously. A small figure stood before him, roughly human-shaped but with the wrong proportions, eyes glowing with red light in too-symmetrical shapes. Its skin gleamed metallic, reflecting its glowing eyes.

"Who's there?" Jandru demanded, wishing he had enough VINE tokens to buy the lightblades. They would make intimidation so much easier.

"A humble ghost in a humble machine," said a crackling somewhat unpleasant voice, its modulations inhuman and grating.

"Ghost? Like an actual dead-person ghost?"

"Yes, that sort of ghost. More or less. Have you seen my sister? I am supposed to meet her, but I can't find her. Have you seen her?"

"No, but I might be able to help you search," Jandru offered, instinctively sensing the potential for a quest.

This is bad. I'm slipping already.

But he couldn't convince himself to give up the potential gains. Always the pragmatist.

Even now.

"That's fantastic!" the machine-ghost said. "Thank you so much, kind traveler."

NEW QUEST: LOCATE THE GHOST'S MISSING SISTER

QUEST UPDATE: CONVINCE THE GHOST TO REWARD YOU FOR YOUR HELP (Optional)

Jandru was beginning to get a feel for these quests. The original VINE quests would all be to help someone; the updated virus quests, the VINES version, would be something more beneficial to himself.

He wanted to know who had made the VINES system, how they'd inserted it into the world, how he'd happened to stumble upon it. But there was no one to ask. Ivy was the only one who might be able to track down the virus's creator, and she was the last person Jandru could trust with something like this.

No, Ivy wasn’t a person. He couldn't start thinking of his slaver, the destroyer who wanted to erase him from existence, as anything but an evil soulless entity of death and chaos.

He continued down the mine tunnel, following the sound of work being done. A small spiteful part of him felt immensely satisfied at having subverted one of the VINE's quests. Even if it had been only through the facilitation of the mysterious creator of VINES.

"I'm going to put everything into spells," Kia said suddenly. Jandru turned; he'd almost forgotten she was following him.

"Which spells?"

"Light Mask first, then the other related illusion branch."

"Why illusion?" Jandru never had time for frivolous time-wasting things like games, so all this stat business was only vaguely familiar to him. He understood how it worked, of course, but he didn't know the first thing about the balance between routes. Illusion vs lightning vs shadow vs force, it was all just different styles to him.

"Illusion is useful and not too restricted. If we're going to do a lot of modified quests, it might be wise to invest in concealment and disguise."

He couldn't argue with that. He felt almost that he should have thought of it himself.

"I will alternate between skills and levels," he decided. He put a token into raising his level from 0 to 1, leaving the other two to go toward a skill or spell once they finished the ghost quest.

"It would be silly to level before you're able to handle the higher level foes," Kia said. She blushed when he looked at her with raised eyebrows. "What, I played games sometimes between jobs, don't judge."

He had to smile at that. At least she remembered who she was more often now. He hadn't seen her playing with the stupid glass lizard for hours.

"I'm not judging. I'm honestly glad to have you along."

"Well, of course. Who wouldn't want me along? I am rather expensive, you know."

"Hmmm," he said noncommittally.

She smacked him. "Stop thinking things like that. You know what I mean."

"Mm? I didn't say anything."

"I saw you thinking it."

"No idea what you're talking about." Jandru continued down the tunnel, and Kia followed.