“He’s going to wake up soon, and now that we are relatively safe, he’s going to want to do an AAR (after action review) and discuss ‘our’, actually meaning ‘my’ mental state about all the dead and survivors we had to leave in the streets yesterday. I just don’t think I can face that right now on top of everything else. Damnit! I just hate myself for wanting to pretend all those people didn’t die because of our spying. Would they all be alive if I never started working for the Agency” Jen asked herself.

Jen thought about how she met Sam, he was just another teacher to her, and she didn’t know he was working a passive intelligence gathering mission for the Agency Unless you were a student in his class, you never really noticed he was even a part of UCLA’s China program. He was just really good at blending in with the background.

Their relationship really began in the computer lab where she went to try and hack into the faculty wireless network. Jen was trying to help a friend prove his professor was torpedoing his grade. Before Jen sat down to hack into the network, she failed to notice Sam sitting right there in the corner of the computer room.

Sam, however, noticed her tech skills when he observed some unusual activity on the network. That’s when Sam’s head just seemed to appear next to her in her peripheral vision, and as he peered at her computer screen, he said, “Not bad…”

Jen didn’t think any faculty were in the room and she jerked like she had been tased with a stun gun when she heard Sam over her shoulder.

He ignored her shocked reaction and said, “It might even work if the professor never downloads her grades from the cloud-based teaching management system to her own hard-drive.”

Jen just knew she was going to be expelled. That’s when Sam pulled out the chair next to her, sat down, and leaned in close with an odd smile and whispered, “We can ignore your little transgression if you can do me a favor?”

Jen’s jaw dropped, her nose crinkled, and her eyes narrowed in disgust and anger. In class, he was your pretty standard boring professor. However, she never expected he was the type of creep that would try to blackmail a student for sex.

Jen almost laughed out loud as she remembered his response to her cringe-face. His eyes had widened in surprise and he turned red with embarrassment and rushed to explain that he wanted her help hacking into an encrypted wireless network in the local area.

She thought about how she trained on the job with Sam doing simple intelligence gathering missions over the next few years, while finishing college, and how just awesome Sam’s wife, Kelly was.

Kelly was an actual professor with the university and would usually accompany Sam while he was abroad teaching. Sam and Kelly had something really special, and Jen understood why Sam had switched from the high-risk agency operations to the passive intel gathering ops to be with his wife. Kelly and Jen quickly became besties. Heck, if Kelly had been single, and played for her team, Jen probably would have asked her out!

She thought about graduating and how she went to work for the agency full time and didn’t get to see Sam and Kelly much, but visiting them whenever she got a chance. Jen never told them outright, but she absolutely loved that Kelly and Sam were always in her business, emailing her, asking personal questions, and trying to give her dating advice. Jen’s family had disowned her when she came out as gay. A grimace crossed her face at that memory “Fuck them!” she thought. Sam and Kelly became her family, the big brother and big sister she always wished she had.

Jen’s heart ached when she thought about Kelly. The memory of her terminal fight with cancer, and how close Sam came to giving up on life afterwards. Sam was hurting bad back then, and she wanted to help, so she asked Sam to try and get assigned to work with her on a few missions. She knew some might think she was getting special treatment by being assigned to work with him, but “screw them” was her attitude. Sam was more important to her than their shit opinions.

Sam had been around the agency for a long time, and was well-known by those with the power to make things happen, and his re-assignment request was approved almost immediately. Even though he had seniority, he had demanded that Jen be made the team leader instead of him. Jen shouldn’t have been surprised when Sam made it absolutely clear that he expected her to actually be the leader in their little team, and not just wear the title. Of course, she soon suspected the old man was really just dodging the bullshit paperwork and responsibility. “Bastard!”

Sam rolled over in his bed bringing her thoughts back to the present, and to Jen’s surprise he said. “We have to stay on mission to get the hell out of here. I intercepted some messages last night about the Agency. Some fuck-shit politician was keeping top secret intel on her private email server, and of course it was hacked and everyone’s locations were compromised, resulting in the drone missile strike by the Chinese on us and strikes against others across China. Anyways, our problem is, all the assets in-country have been compromised, killed, or gone to ground. Right now, the Agency can’t get us out of the country. Sooooo…. what’s the plan, Boss?”

“Don’t play that ‘Boss’ shit with me right now!” Jen growled. “We don’t have time to sit and wait for the damn Agency to get us out of here. You know we’ll end up lab rats if anyone finds out we’re Lottos, and in 30 days, we’ll have a 95% chance of death upon transfer! And before we do anything else, I want an answer. Why the hell did you demand to join me? If I hadn’t been so stunned by the lottery, I would’ve never asked the system to add you as a companion with its odds of death your now facing!”

Sam just stared at Jen for a second before saying, “Let’s get this straight right now! I will never leave your side. You and Kelly are all that’s important to me in this world. Kelly is gone, and without hesitation, I would walk through hell with you. Death? You think I care about dying? What’s left for me but you, huh? So cut the bullshit.”

After his short tirade, Sam just stared at Jen challenging her to question his right to go with her. “Damn you, Sam.” Jen spit out angrily as she held back her tears. She was frustrated with Sam’s choice to risk the death of the Lotto with her, but another part of her felt terribly guilty for being relieved that he was her Lotto companion.

Jen redirected their conversation to get her mind off the risk he was taking and to focus on their next step, “Just tell me your stats so I can decide what to do. All you have to do is think of the system interface and what you are looking for and it will pop right up.”

Sam followed Jen’s direction and simply “wanted” to see the stat message he had received, and it immediately popped up in his vision. “Wow that’s kind of scary how it can read my thoughts!” Sam said. He then paused and had to forcibly ignore all the questions he wanted to verbalize, knowing there were no real answers, and focused on reading his stats to Jen.

=====

System Message

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Congratulations! You have been chosen to accompany a lottery winner! Team members to be transferred with you. Jennifer Cho You have 30 days to train and prepare for transfer. Attributes and skills will increase 12 times faster for the next 30 days, full implementation in 5 days. System supplied mana for 30 days. Current odds of death on Earth: 70% Current odds of death upon arrival in the Seven Decks: 95% Beat the odds by travelling through all Seven Decks and you can return to Earth! Number of Lottery winners returned to Earth: 0

Character Sheet

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Name: Sam Nguyen

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Level: 0

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Race: Human

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Strength: 8

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Agility: 9

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Stamina: 5

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Mana: 5

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Mana Regeneration: 5 per minute

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Stamina Regeneration: 5 per minute

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Luck: 7

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Title: Paranoid Survivor II

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Your extreme paranoia has kept you and others alive, and you have taught others the value of this skill.

===

Rewards: +1 to Luck

===

Luck: 7

===

“Dick: 11 inches” Sam finished with a grin trying to lighten the mood.

“You wish, old man; Kelly told me everything!” Jen smirked at Sam.

Jen thought about Sam’s excellent physical stats. She’d expected as much, he was no longer in his prime, but he was still much stronger than average as a result of a lifetime of physical conditioning. “My stats are similar to yours, some a little better and some a little worse.” Jen replied, and then gave Sam a rundown of her stat sheet.

“Well, you’re the nerd gamer girl. Any idea what the title paranoid survivor means?” Sam asked with a smirk of his own.

“Don’t play stupid, Mr. Paranoid, and it’s obviously rubbed off on me over the years.”

Before Jen could stop him. Sam hit her with, “That’s what she said,” annoying her with his old man jokes for the millionth time.

Jen shook her head, and asked, “Why are you so childish with me, when you are so over-the-top professional with everyone else?”

“Because it’s my job to toughen you up millennial!” Sam laughed.

Ignoring Sam’s reply with an eyeroll, Jen continued “At least the paranoid title appears to increase our stats, but why did it increase our luck stat?”

Sam shrugged, “No one that’s talking knows, but maybe that’s why our Seven Decks death rate is only 95%, instead of 97% or greater, like all the other Lottos.”

Jen and Sam discussed their options. They both wanted to get back to the U.S. to say their goodbyes. Sam just wanted to visit Kelly’s grave, while Jen wanted to try and reconcile with her family.

After explaining her plan to make their way south and cross the Vietnam border, and from there, catch a flight back to the States. Jen sighed, “I can’t get it out of my mind, how absolutely screwed we would be, if we didn’t have a second safe house with the resources to get home on our own.”

Sam chuckled, “You’re going to level up your paranoid title if you keep it up.” They were both keeping their game-face on, they had to, if they wanted to survive.