Final Trial

[cartesio]

Final Trial

It takes a few minutes after everyone talks with the generic mannequin. The easygoing conversation, the bragging from Gant, Keith's exasperation, it all stops when a very heavy and ominous presence fills the room.

"I think it's about time this circus stopped"

It's the Sergeant. He's standing on the doorway, arms crossed. The shadows on his face wriggle, he seems to be rather furious, but is restraining himself from lashing out

"I should have guessed you bunch would take advantage of all that noise and ruckus to sneak in here. I was careless, I admit. 'Oh, this is over in like four hours, it will be okay if I step away to deal with that'. Careless."

Slowly the Sergeant enters the workshop. Behind him, the door slowly disappears, fading away, until where the door was now there's only a smooth wall. The Sergeant raises an arm, the entire room shakes.

All the mannequins fly up to the ceiling, the one that was now Damon Gant turned back into the empty husk the mannequin was before. The one with a t-pose has the same fate. Once all the mannequins are up on the ceiling, the operation tables are uprooted, bolts and screws flying around. The tables are twisted in the air, formed into knots, disassembled and assembled all over again, until several rustic podiums are formed and deposited on the ground.

Seven podiums, with him at the center. The Sergeant crosses his arms and speaks:

"Get on those spots. Tell me... ...how much do you know?"

Is it a rhetorical question? Who knows. You still have to answer, though

Comments

[pecker]

[Well that certainly explains why the simulation performance is at 3%.

....But hey. If this is capable of fixing that, would she be able to just do stuff manually? Maybe make things even worse? Like, if the instability is what helped the dead talk to them, there might be a way to glitch them together. Possibly with those mannequins up there.... she's going to look into this.]

Eeeh.... that's pretty hard to imagine! What do these influencers do exactly?

[cartesio]

[ Obviously she'd need the Sergeant's approval for anything radical. She's an administrator, but he holds the master key, so to speak. ]

Instigate. I'm sure you've noticed, there are a few of you missing from the enrichment list, after all.

[ He gestures to the percentages, those things. ]

[pecker]

[Right, that would fall under actions, wouldn't it. But playing dumb is a pretty good way to stall.]

Mmm... yeah, that's right! I was one of those, huh? Then, if Dabi-san was here, you're saying he could even influence me? Gosh! If only he didn't die....

[cartesio]

His influence over a lot of people has been excellent. A lot of what's corrupting several people in this simulation was obtained from his mind and being.

[Sarge paid attention to his interactions with people and used them to dig deeper into the targets' minds and set up more stuff, pretty much]

If you want it, I can even give you his powers. I have the ability to do such thing, after all.

As long as you accept the rest of the terms -- getting out of the simulation, that is.

[pecker]

Whoa! I'd be just like a Phoenix then... how cool!

[Niwatori puts a hand on her cheek in a kyaa kyaa kind of gesture.]

You know just how to win me over, Sarge-san... but if I'm going to be a mastermind, shouldn't I be the one picking out how to max my stats? I mean, having you do it... I didn't get here by trusting people. If you could tell me the key to that, though, I think that would be good enough insurance for me to agree....

[cartesio]

I don't trust you not even one bit. Don't think I don't know what you're hiding there, Niwa.

[Of course he knows about the device]

[pecker]

[Well, of course. Time to switch it up then.]

Do you really think I care about helping any of these people. I literally don't.

How about we trade then? Give me access and I'll kill that brat Sakura for you. She's a failure by your standards. Only 5% corruption, huh? Your bosses won't like that at all, don't you think you should sweep it under the rug?

[clearities]

[ SHE IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE and can completely hear this, excuse you ]

[pecker]

[Yes, well. IF Niwa can be trusted, you'd only be dead for a little bit!! Just go with it, okay.]

[cartesio]

I'm pretty sure you'd use the chance to inconvenience me, to say the least. I have no reason to believe you'd do anything else.

[Sergeant doesn't seem willing to jump at the chance of someone dying]

[pecker]

But that's the thing, Sarge-san... I'm exactly like you. I have no meaningful past or future. Following orders is all I know how to do. Betraying others and getting more power for myself was my strategy from the beginning. You gave me back Dotsuku-san's gem so you must know that already.

Wouldn't you do exactly the same thing, if you were in my shoes?

[cartesio]

.......

[Somehow, that's a good argument. The Sergeant considers that]

...I see.

[You have done progress towards the current objective!]

I guess I would.