Corn fell on his knees. After all that struggle, he would be back in chains. It was all pointless. In the end, his masters had won.

What if he hadn’t chosen Magic as his Stat? He might be a free man now.

Nope. He shot down that thought. Better to live free for a few days, than to live a lifetime as a slave.

Corn took a breath. He scanned the crowd, the slavers hadn’t come yet. So, he ran out of the Screen booth and into an alleyway with a view of the booths.

He was screwed, but he was going to take these fuckers down with him.

In five minutes, they came. An elf and a rabbit kin walked to the Screen booth that Corn occupied. The edges of their uniform were a glowing yellow, the same shade as Freedom counters.

He edged closer.

“It’s not him,” someone shouted. An enraged dwarf fumed out of the booth. The two of them left the booth. Corn stood behind the adjacent booth.

The elf swore, “Track his soul marker.” The rabbit kin took out a Screen from her satchel. “It’s not working. It’s like he’s cut off the System. We can’t find him.”

“Huh?” blurted Corn.

“Huh, what? What are you looking at bozo? Get lost! This is official Enforcer business, Ministry of Ascension. I swear, eavesdroppers,” blasted the elf, chasing Corn and everyone using the booths back into the boisterous crowd.

Corn repositioned himself so they wouldn’t see him, but now he couldn’t hear them. The two of them argued animatedly. The elf waved her hands, swearing her way to victory. It was strange, from her tone she was a Strength user, but her ears were incredibly sensitive. Could she have two Stats?

More importantly, from the way they stopped arguing, they weren’t going to let him go. A Base Slave was worthless, but someone who could escape the System wasn’t that harmless. He looked down to the bracelet on his wrist. If he released the bug, they would track him immediately. But then what?

The elf got a phone call. The two of them left in their car. Corn followed. Because of the Player parade that was singing, dancing and spraying flowers on the streets, he managed to track them. They arrived at a balloon shaped glass building. The slave market where Line had sold the old man. Corn swore.

They entered while Corn waited outside. He had no choice. It was clear that bug he kept crushing was a ‘soul marker’. If he released it, they would track him.

Two hours later, the elf and rabbit kin left the building. Just behind them was a human. For a second, Corn focused at him in confusion, his third vision was distorted. Then the picture became clearer. It was his old slave master.

“No.”

“No.”

“Fuck, no!”

He ran. Through the winding alleyways and canals, he ran. Until he had put as much distance as he could between that monster and him. He would be laughing at himself if he didn’t know what the freak was capable of. Two hours with that freak, just two hours and even the most battle hardened warrior would be pissing and shitting themselves. Thankfully he was only a passing torturer, not a permanent feature in the slave camp.

It couldn’t get worse. Not only were the Enforcers after him, the slavers were also coming back to retrieve him.

If he ran, he would be caught. If he followed them, he would be caught faster. Whatever he did, he was doomed. Even Hunger, whose constant moans he had to ignore, cowered in fear. Should he commit suicide? No, given what he learnt from the dwarf’s funeral, BlueEyes might find a way to make that even worse.

“Ahhhh!”

Where? Where was that coming from? He spun around. A beggar rummaging through rotten pizza boxes, flashed a charm that was hanging on his neck. Wheezing with fear, the beggar inched backwards.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

It was everywhere.

Corn ran towards the beggar. The beggar ran faster than Corn.

The wails turned to weeping.

Soft. Then loud.

Then laughter.

“Betrayer.”

Then silence. All sound ceased to exist.

“Traaaaitor”

That voice, it was familiar.

“Did you think you could escape?”

Corn slumped to the ground. It couldn’t be.

“You’re dead?” he croaked out, tears in his eyes.

“I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. MY NAME, MY LOVE, MY HEART. And what did you do?”

A hazy form appeared in front of Corn.

“Did you think that if you killed your friends and your lover that you would be free? Did you think that if you ran away you would not be a slave? We are all slaves, Corn. Forever and ever. Nothing can change that.”

Even in death, she wore a tattered hair band and torn clothes. Except for the metal collar fixed on her neck, her features were a pale imitation of what they had once been. Through his third vision they glowed weakly, almost intangible.

“Now.”

She paused.

“I. Will. Have. My. Vengeance.”

Corn felt tears run down his eyes but shouted at her, “Ok, Wall.” His voice softened. Since they both had the same name, she called him Corn and he called her Wall.

“Feast on my body, my mind and my soul. But don’t say that I betrayed you. How could you stand living like that, undergoing all that torture? I had to escape.”

“Liar. Liar. Liar,” she screeched.

“When I escaped, I called you, all of the slaves, but you especially. Countless times. You abandoned me, so I had to escape alone.”

Her eyes filled up with tears.

“Of course, I couldn’t. We can’t disobey their orders,” she said tugging her metal collar.

“I have no idea how you could escape. I begged you not to go.” It was now her turn to slump to the ground.

She raised a flickering, ghostly arm towards him, “Come back. Let’s go home.”

“No, let me free you.”

She laughed hysterically. “You were the first of us to ever escape. Do you have any idea how pissed BlueEyes was? When I received my Life counters, he killed me and enslaved my soul, just to track you. He won’t rest until you are either dead or back as a slave.”

Corn began to think.

“I know that look. If you think you can escape…” began Wall.

“What was his order to you? Tell it to me word by word.”

“You left us all to die. And you want me to help you?”

Persuading a Base Slave was impossible, so how was he supposed to convince her?

“Do you remember why we both have the name CornWall?”

She wept ghostly tears.

“Find your lover, bring him to me,” Wall related her orders.

“And if I refuse?”

Wall’s appearance flickered in his third vision. “I will have to eviscerate your soul until you comply,” she said.

“I love you. Of course I will come with you.”

This phrase freed her from the compulsion of her order and her appearance returned to normal. “Thank you.”

“I’m just going to take the longer route coming back. Is that ok?” asked Corn.

She nodded. It didn’t contradict her orders.

They both walked (and floated) to the nearest resurrection altar. A grey fort, bricked with stone, sat snugly among the glass and steel towers. Walking towards the entrance, he released the bug on his hand. And then he ran, sifting through the crowds. Enough time for them to spot his soul tracker.

He squished the bug, two minutes later. They ran as far away from the crowd until Corn was panting on the ground.

His pursuers should see his signal pop up next to a resurrection altar and disappear two minutes later. Hopefully, there was only one way to interpret that.

He turned to Wall, “I’m ready, let’s go back.”

She smiled and guided him.

“How are you tracking them?” he asked.

“I can see through the Abyss.”

Damn, that was cool. Would he be able to do that one day?

“Why, you jelly?” she smirked. “You always did dream of Magic. I guess there’s more than one way to get power, huh?”

Despite the circumstances, he laughed.

He tried grabbing her arm, but his hand passed through it.

“Promise me one thing,” he said anyway. “Don’t speak if not spoken to. No matter what you hear don’t utter a word.”

She tilted her head in confusion.

“Your orders don’t stop you from doing so, right?”

She nodded. Corn clenched his fist and his body tensed up with loathing and anger at her blind obedience. Was a Base Slave even a person?

“They’re right around the corner,” said Wall. Corn motioned her forward, while he used his second vision to find the best spot to eavesdrop.

Wall reached BlueEyes and floated in front of him.

“…he’s committed suicide,” said the bunny kin.

“The gaps do seem suspicious. How was there no signal?”

“Like I said, he fails the quest, he kills himself and the soul tracker can’t track him. When he does resurrect, the tracker comes and on and soon enough he takes another of his lives. And boom! True death.”

They bought it. His plan worked.

But BlueEyes was not ready to let it go, “But the timing, it resurrected after a gap of two hours. How is that possible?”

“You think that he is still alive? Ask your pet ghost there?”

‘Don’t speak. Don’t speak. Don’t speak,’ panicked Corn.

Wall turned her gaze to where Corn was hiding.

“Then how do you explain the timing?” asked BlueEyes.

Whew! He didn’t even notice. Wall kept looking at Corn, but her orders were clear, find him and bring him. Nothing more, nothing less.

“An error of the Abyss, it happens all the time,” retorted the elf this time.

“Nonsense, what do you know about Intelligence?”

“Well, what do you know about Intelligence? Nothing. I know more than that, so shut up!”

BlueEyes’ face tuned an unhealthy shade of red.

The bunny kin waved her hands, trying to pacify him, “Look your noble house has no power in Verre, as the Enforcers we hold jurisdiction. If we want to, we can close this case and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The slaver stared at the bunny kin, digesting the hidden meaning behind her words.

“I have nothing to offer in return,” he said at last.

The two of them shrugged and walked away.

Corn watched in horror and fascination. It was strange seeing someone, who held the power of life and death over him, rendered powerless.

BlueEyes paced up and down, wringing his hands.

Corn was hidden meters away. Would he order Wall to find him?

BlueEyes stopped and took a short baton. The symbol of slavery. Through it, he could order a Base Slave to do anything.

He looked at Wall.

He stared, thinking.

“Be in pain, “he commanded. Wall’s limbs contorted into twisted shapes and she screamed.

“Quietly,” he commanded. And she screamed without a sound.

He put aside the baton and walked away. There was no need for anything else. One didn’t console a vase that was broken or a knife that had gone blunt. They were merely objects to be used and thrown.

Corn walked up to his lover. Her face was twisted in agony. But there was nothing he could do. The power that bound other Base Slaves to their masters was beyond him.

“Thank you. I promise you, I will free you this time. Whatever it takes,” said Corn. He tried to stroke her hair but his hand passed right through her.

He was disconnected from the System for life. And to rescue her, he needed help from those with Intelligence.

There was only one place he could go.

The Underworld.