THE MOMENT
"Your job is to slay her," Oren reminded 23 of the important part. The pale teenager and the young girl with dusty blonde hair were traveling through the forest on the way to a specific destination. "And, there's a bonus for efficiency, so get it done fast if you want a shot at the leaderboard."
"Of course I'm going to move fast," 23 shook her head. "But without knowing the layout of the cabin or where she is, finding her is going to take up most of my time."
"Really?" Oren smirked as they continued through the still forest. It was mid-afternoon, and the sun was high in the sky while they moved through the shadowed path beneath the canopy. "Wow, you're not like your dad at all," he chuckled.
"What do you mean?" 23 asked. Nuggets like that were the main reason she enjoyed playing with Oren. She didn't have any friendly emotions toward him one way or the other, but she liked games and learning about her father. And, since she had barely spent any time with her father, his best friend was a close second.
"You're trying to plan how to get in the cabin and to the target as fast as possible," he shrugged. "Your dad would skip that part and just destroy the cabin with her in it."
"What?" she giggled at the simplicity of it. "But, what if there are other people in there?"
"They're all NPCs; if they don't reward anything for not killing them, then doing it accidentally doesn't have any repercussions," he said.
"He wouldn't do that...," 23 shook her head. Sure, technically, NPCs were nano-swarms programmed to look and act human. But even so, something about killing 'innocent' NPCs that weren't programmed for that felt uneasy.
"Yeah, he wouldn't," Oren nodded in agreement, and 23 sighed in relief. "But, Darkmoon would," he added with another laugh.
"What?" 23 stopped walking and looked up at the tall teen. "My dad's Darkmoon, right?" she asked. She didn't know too many details. She'd been trying to save up her questions for her dad, but that conversation hadn't happened yet. She knew her father, Aurelio, had a history as a Supervillain named Darkmoon, and he still held a lot of leaderboard records.
"Darkmoon grew up and became your dad," Oren nodded first, then he shook his head. "But, your dad, Aury, is a totally different person from his 'Darkmoon' days. The current him probably couldn't even reach any of his old scores," he added with a laugh.
"Oh," 23 nodded and started walking forward again. She could see Oren's point and didn't have enough experience with her dad to say one way or the other. But, it did start some wheels turning in her mind. "So, when he was Darkmoon, my dad didn't have a problem killing NPCs?" she asked. She knew the answer already, but she needed to hear it stated plainly.
"I dunno," Oren shrugged with a grin. "I wouldn't call it a problem as much as a goal." 23 stopped walking again. Both in response to Oren's statement and the Princess's cabin coming into view. It was everything a Princess-owned log cabin should be; it was two stories and made of pink wood with white shutters behind each window. Gold dust sparkled on every surface as if sprinkled with glitter.
"You ready?" Oren asked as 23 stared forward, stuck in indecision.
"Yeah," she nodded after a moment. It was a lie, but a hopeful one. She would be ready when she had to be.
"3, 2," Oren started counting down. "1, and Go."
23 took two steps forward and danced around in frustration. She spun once as she worked through her emotions, then, she yelled angrily and charged into the cabin. Oren watched the outburst in amusement, and he couldn't hold back a comment once she crashed through the wooden door to start searching the cabin.
[/p: You'll never get into the top ranks with that kind of weak strategy. - Oren]