Siriso silently stared at me. Despite his frail-looking avatar, I’d never felt so vulnerable in all of my life. These were my pearly gates, and this, apparently, was my new god. And if he was as powerful as Mai suggested he was, the creepy bastard could probably will me out of existence with little more than a thought. Afraid to address the powerful NPC, I was beginning to worry that my silence might somehow equate to guilt in the old goblinoids eyes. So, despite my fears of what penalty this emotionless thing would decree, I willed it to speak again. And to my relief, speak again it did.

“Another stack of electronic waste for me to sift through. When oh when will it end..?” mumbled the priest to himself.

Okay, perhaps his words didn’t fill me with that much relief…

“Don’t talk to him like that,” cut in Mai in my defense. “Can’t you see that he’s frightened.”

Hey. I thought I was coming across as ‘stoically macho. Damn, I must try harder.’

“Court is in session, elf,” spat the priest in response, his voice now noticeably more agitated. “I shouldn’t have to suffer pointy-eared vermin in my place of power. Begone.”

And he’s racist toward elves, too, I thought to myself. Great. Because who better to sentence me than a judge who pre-judges people?

To her credit, Mai held her ground.

“The client invoked the help file,” she protested, standing firm, “so I have every right to be here with him.”

Siriso sighed, rolling his slightly luminous, yellow eyes. “Impudent underbyte. I should have let the goblins feed on you, back when I had the chance.” He scratched his bony chin, letting out a loud exasperated sigh. “Very well,” he eventually declared, albeit with a dismissive flick of his wrist in the elf’s direction. “Stay. Listen. See if I care. But do not dare interrupt me again, girlie, or it’ll be your performance I choose to judge next.”

Mai fell silent. She looked nervous, and to be fair, I couldn’t blame her. I already knew how powerful he was, but something about the old coot’s demeanor made me equally uneasy. Satisfied that his threat had been well made, Siriso returned his gaze to me. Unexpectedly, his eyes softened as he reached my avatar, and his hand reached out to my shoulder in a gesture that could almost be mistaken for support.

“I know this must be confusing for you, child. But try to think of me like the anti-virus software of old. It is simply my job to scan your code, routing out the malicious elements for the greater good.”

“To what end?” I asked. I was sure he was well aware that I already knew the answer to the question: the fear in my voice was obvious. But I wanted him to confirm it.

“Well, I may choose to delete you…” he began, throwing out the possibility with alarming offhandedness, “…but that’s not usually my preferred choice of action,” he quickly added.

“Delete me?” I gasped. A wave of fear hit me. And yeah, Mai had warned me already, but hearing his cold callous delivery of my complete and utter destruction was still shocking, to say the least. With not much left to lose, and a burning desire to retain what little data I had left, I challenged him on this. “How the hell is killing me supposed to help me ‘atone’ for my crimes?

“Well you won’t do it again, will you?” he replied, chuckling to himself. I didn’t join him in his gaiety, oddly enough. “But let me assure you,” he continued, his voice abruptly becoming more serious. “Deletion is a fate I reserve only for those individuals whose code is truly corrupted beyond repair.”

“The fact the option’s even on the table is totally fucked up,” I protested. “That’s not a bloody ‘quest for judgement’, that’s suicide.”

The goblinoid looked mildly frustrated by my impudence. It leaned in until we were nose to pointy nose. To my dismay, the olive-skinned priest smelt just as bad as he looked.

“What is a quest without risk, child?” he asked me, using that increasingly condescending tone of his.

“Child?” I protested. “I know my ‘artificial’ AI is only newborn, but that doesn’t mean you need to treat me like one,” I spat.

“Please, calm yourself. You artificial AI’s, always so damn emotional. Look, this outcome is by no means guaranteed… I may simply choose to quarantine you, so that you might one day be cleansed of your corruption...”

His grip tightened on my shoulder as he relayed these words of ‘comfort’, his goblin-like claws clamping down hard against my skin. I was preparing myself for further flowery attempts to justify my digital destruction, when suddenly and without warning, he drove his other hand deep into my chest, slicing through my avatar like it wasn’t even there.

-[ Goblin h./gh priest dissects y0u for -15 dam//age. ]-

-[ Warning: this action has a damage over time effect. -5 HP per minute. ]-

In the blink of an eye, I was in agony. Mai’s grip tightened on my arm, as she silently tried to lend me her strength. I gritted my teeth as I felt his fingers begin poking around inside my avatar. And yet the priest’s face remained calm, dispassionate, as if this was little more than business as usual. I realized that for the artificial creature, it probably was. The bastard AI was inside me, searching for something.

“Accessing history file and commencing judgment,” declared the priest, coldly.

I writhed in pain as memories of my real-life crimes began to flash before my eyes, each one forcing me to relive the dishonorable actions that had brought me here. One after one, my memories hit me with the speed of a bullet train, and just as painfully. I was reliving my sins in the blink of an eye.

“Recalibrating,” he announced, reaching back and adjusting the scale with his other hand. “Emotional reaction logged,” it continued, exhibiting no such emotion of its own.

I wanted to cry, but it seemed that my frozen avatar was no longer even capable of that small thing: I was powerless to do anything but observe, enduring an agony that was both physical and mental. Mai looked on in sympathy, while the priest’s hand worked me like a puppet, choosing what string to pull next.

“Recalibrating… Uploading the statement of your attorney… Recalibrating... Factoring in the subject’s actions during the goblin trial…”

“G-goblin… t-trial?” I stammered, barely capable of forcing the words from my stricken avatar.

“You did good, leaping to my defense like that,” said Mai by way of explanation, stroking my arm. “Siriso was judging your character.”

“Y-you mean we w-weren’t in danger?” I managed, fighting against the paralysis that wracked my body, while the sadistic priest continued his work.

“You weren’t, no,” she replied, rubbing my arm. “But those goblins would have torn my code asunder if you hadn’t stepped in. as an underbyte, I’m kinda disposable. I really do owe you my life.”

-[ Goblin h./gh priest dissects y0u for -15 dam//age. ]-

As the agony continued, and my remaining HP slowly slipped away, I breathed a small sigh of relief that my actions had somehow been worthwhile. I couldn’t not have intervened, it wasn’t in my nature to stand back and let someone take a beating on my behalf. But it angered me to think that this bastard ‘priest’ had put her in danger, all for his little ‘test.’ What if I hadn’t been so inclined to help her? I wondered. She could have been allocated to any other criminal, and in my old life, I’d known plenty of guys who wouldn’t have thought twice about abandoning her. Hell, considering the circles I used to run in, most of those guys would have sat back and watched the elf get torn apart just for kicks. How dare this pompous prick use my only ally like this.

I wanted to rip his head off his shoulders, but I was still powerless to move. And like it or not, my continued existence was only at his good grace. So instead, I tried to focus on that rage, blocking out the pain as best I could. Finally, wordlessly, the priest found what it was after, ripping a neon stream of code from my avatar’s chest. It wisped through the air and into an oddly modern looking folder that had at some point materialized in the creature’s other hand. Exhausted, I fell back, my HP down to its last few points.

-[ You have escaped from the goblin high priest’s grasp. Damage over time effect neutralized. Warning, current HP 4/80 ]-

Just like that, I regained control of my avatar, instinctively clutching my chest as my judge haphazardly tossed a sliver of my code onto the scales. I almost fell to the floor, my body weakened, but Mai was there to catch me. She did her best to keep me balanced, helping me over to one of the primitive seats, where she carefully sat me down.

-[ You have received a healing buff. HP +20 ]-

A what?

When I looked to Mai’s hands, I realized that they were now pressed against my chest and that they were glowing. So, the elf was a healer, then. It made sense, she was created purely to help others, after all, and what better skill was there for that purpose. I made to thank her, but she shushed me and nodded toward Siriso.

The folder that I could only assume contained a scrap of my code lay on one side of the weighing device. We watched in silence as he plucked a single feather from his headdress, and delicately placed it on the opposing scale. The feather was outweighed by my sins. Just as I expected it would be.

“Judgement has been reached,” declared Siriso, gesturing toward the scale.

“Here we go,” added Mai, nervously.

The priest approached us and spoke again.

“Judgement has been passed at 04:26AM, on the eighth day of the winter cycle, in the year 2134. A unanimous resolution has been passed by the system. Jacob Mathers, as you already understand, your consciousness has been reformatted to personaware, and your meat media has been decommissioned. Having invoked your right to have your data retained, your code is now the property of Atonement Incorporated, and this is a duty of care that we take very seriously…”

Yes, yes, I know all this. Get the fuck on with it. Am I being damned, or am I being deleted?

“Rejoice. You have thrown yourself upon our mercy, and we have judged you worthy of redemption.”

Redemption? Well, thank the server…

Mai smiled at me, and I suddenly felt all my pent-up tension release from my exhausted body. The moment was punctuated by a well-timed status message.

-[ You have received a healing buff. HP +20 ]-

I was feeling stronger. And it was good to know the elf wasn’t wasting her time healing me. Now all I needed, was to know what my redemption actually consisted of.

“You have earned the right to fight for your rebirth. Atonement Incorporated have the resources to clone a new body for your consciousness, and are committed to doing so should you succeed…”

This revelation completely threw me for a loop. A new body. A literal rebirth, not just some digital equivalent. Perhaps I wasn’t finished, after all…

“To this end, you will enter the Atone Online server with a reputation penalty of -30,” continued the priest, addressing my earlier unspoken question about my penance. “Ten rep points for each of your offences. Atonement is set at a goal of +30. In summary, you must raise your reputation by sixty points in total in order to achieve atonement, and in doing so, earn your release.”

My stomach tightened. Or whatever passed for my stomach nowadays, at any rate. Minus 30. That was worse than the penalty for choosing the fallen class avatars. And if rep points were anything like the social scores that we were forced to endure by the world government IRL, a minus thirty rep rating could take me years to work off. And not only that, but I had to achieve the same again to earn my new ‘meat media’? Fuck!

-[ You have received a healing buff. HP +20 ]-

I suddenly realized that I was damned, after all, and that it was going to take a lot more than a quick HP boost from a well-intentioned elf to save me. It was bad enough that this creature was casting me into some mysterious hell and leaving me to claw my own way out. But now the pompous program was attaching weights to my ankles, as well. I was royally screwed.

“However,” the NPC continued, somewhat unexpectedly. “You have shown an unusual amount of honor in defeat. You willingly removed the threat you presented to society when you chose to turn yourself in…”

I did? Shit, why didn’t I know this? Just how much of my memory is gone?

“…and the testimony you provided upon your arrest assisted the authorities in curbing a much greater threat to our glorious utopia than a mere street thug such as yourself could ever have posed, alone.”

Again, I was at a loss. I couldn’t remember any of this. In fact, now that I tried, I found that I couldn’t even recall my crime. Had they deliberately destroyed my memories of the actions that put me here? Was this their version of giving me a blank slate to start from? Had they reduced my crime to a number, and nothing more?

“In consideration of these acts, 10 reputation points are to be returned to you,” he continued. “As a result, you will enter the game with a reputation of -20, setting your required target to ascend at 50 rep points in total.”

Thank the gods. I thought to myself. It was still going to be an uphill struggle, but I was quickly getting my head around the system at play. It must take a rep figure of +30 to ‘atone’ for -30 worth of crimes, almost like a weird version of karma. But before I could even begin earning those 30 points, I had to start by balancing the scales back to zero. Thanks to my cooperation with the authorities IRL, it seemed that I’d already reduced my sentence, slightly. But from this point onwards, it would be my actions in-game that determined my fate.

-[ You have received a healing buff. Full health restored. ]-

Mai shot me a satisfied grin. I mouthed the words ‘thank you.’

“It has also been recorded that you have shown true remorse for your actions…”, continued the priest.

Ah! So that’s why they made me relive my crimes… they were judging my reaction...

“…this has been factored into the number of base stats you have been allocated,” it continued. “You have been awarded the standard base points for a prisoner of your standing, plus four extra points to distribute as you may see fit.”

The priest summoned four glowing balls of energy in the palm of his hand. The energy immediately darted toward me, swirling around my avatar before entering the faint scar of my digital chest-wound.

-[ You have been awarded 4 unallocated base points. ]-

…confirmed the voice of my status system.

“May they aid you on your request for atonement,” added the goblin, oddly respectfully. With that, the priest made his way to the scales, lifted the folder, and with a flash of energy from his fingertips, destroyed it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I cried, hang on a minute.” I turned to Mai, my heart pounding. “I thought you said I wouldn’t lose any more data from this point. That bastard just deleted my memories.”

“Not deleted. They’ve just been reformatted, silly,” replied the elf, helping me back to my feet.

“Into numbers?”

“Trust me, it’s much better this way. You’ll find it so much easier to move on if you can’t remember what you did to get here.”

What if I don’t deserve to? I wondered.

“Your gold has been set at 150 units,” Siriso continued, tossing a bag of coins to my feet. “Spend this wisely. The choices you make in the next few minutes will greatly affect your new start, and in turn, greatly affect your odds of a successful redemption.”

I crouched down and collected the small sack. Yet another status message sounded in my head, this one confirming that the gold had been added to my coin purse.

“Oh, and one more thing…”

The goblinoid reached out, pausing Mai where she stood. A distortion flickered across her vulnerable avatar, betraying the illusion of our virtual world.

“What did you do to her?” I demanded.

Siriso sneered. “Heh. Your newfound concern for artificial life is touching, if somewhat misplaced. Don’t worry, the ‘help’ is merely paused. You shall both be parting ways shortly, and it is important that the final part of our conversation isn’t overheard by one so… inconsequential.”

-[ Quest received from user: High priest Siriso. Would you like to view further detail? ]-

“What the hell is this?” I asked him, staring at an unfamiliar translucent panel that was now hovering before me. I’d much rather have asked Mai, but it seemed I was out of options.

The NPC looked around the room as if worried that he might be observed. There was definitely something shifty creeping into his demeanor. “Your attempts to redeem yourself IRL have impressed me,” he finally announced. “So much so, in fact, that you have won yourself a boon.”

Siriso didn’t seem like the generous type, and to my frustration, his answer didn’t shed any light on the quest itself. With no other way to get the information I needed, I clicked yes.

NEW QUEST – Siriso’s secret quest.

The goblin high priest has granted you an important mission.

Goal: Hidden.

Type of quest – Hidden.

Reward: Hidden.

Rep effect – Hidden.

Accept Y/N?

“There’s secret, and then there’s overkill,” I complained. “How the hell can I complete a quest without knowing any of the damn details?”

“The mission will not show up on your status system, and for now the details shall remain hidden. But let me assure you, completing this task on my behalf shall increase your odds of escape greatly.”

I figured what the hell. Any shortcut on offer was worth further investigation. With that, I selected ‘yes’.

“Excellent,” replied the creature, doing his best impression of Mr Burns from those vintage ‘Simpsons’ cartoons. “For now, the item will show up in your inventory as a scrap of blank paper. The quest will only be revealed when accessed in complete privacy. Oh, and I should probably point out, the penalty for allowing others to learn of this quest will be much worse than deletion, believe you me.”

The priest made his way back to his podium, throwing both gangly arms out in a grand, sweeping gesture.

“Sentence has been passed,” he announced. “Before entering the game, one final task awaits you… skill and weapon selection. It is time to allocate your hard-won gold and base points. Choose carefully, my fledgling AI. The success of our ‘agreement’ now hinges on your choices going forward, and I am expecting great things from you, Jacob…”

No pressure, then…

“Prepare to leave Jacob Mathers behind,” he continued. “May the gods of Atone Online smile favorably upon you, and your attempts to re-integrate into the physical world be a success.”

As I quietly wondered what the hell I’d just gotten myself into, the priest dissipated into a stream of code, vanishing just as quickly as he had arrived. With his disappearance, my status window forced itself open, but this time it was displaying a new, unfamiliar screen. Stat allocation.

Mai suddenly unfroze behind me. She looked panicked, immediately alerting me to an object that had appeared by my feet: an hourglass. It was all that remained of my 10-minute avatar selection window, and to my horror, the sand was almost gone.

Shit! There were no two ways about it. I’d been cast into hell, and this was my last chance to prepare myself. It was time to finish building my avatar and kick some fantasy-world ass.