BEEP! The wristband of the Teddy Emperor made a loud noise and, lifting his arm, pressed a button on top. A small holographic projection extended upwards. It was an about 20 centimetre tall Teddy.
"Sir! We just installed the feature for live-tracking the creature and… It has entered the village."
"WHAT?" Stress and panic overcame the Teddy Emperor, yes, he was being escorted by knight robots, but walking through the village knowing there is an unknown creature roaming around is dangerous.
"The extermination squad you requested is almost at your position, but so is the creature." The Teddy sighed, "We advise a retreat towards the walls, so we will reach you first."
The hologram turned off and he opened the map on his wristband with the live-tracking feature. "Shit!" He exclaimed, "It is almost here." The Teddy Emperor jumped behind his knights, throwing his arms around and yelling: "Defensive position!"
The front row of knights fell to one knee, guns pointed at the point Lukas had pointed with his hand. Behind them was a second row of knights with guns who held them above the first row.
Sweat drops started to form on the forehead of Lukas. He was showing his teeth in frustration. "Why did I leave the citadel?" He muttered.
From behind one of the houses something came into view. Once the whole creature was in view the knights' fingers pulled the triggers. A barrage of bullets and lasers came flying, all of them hit.
"What… is… this?" The creature asked. All bullets which were fired dropped to the ground in front of the creature and behind her on the house were burned holes due to the lasers.
"A new… damage type?" Her voice became a little clearer, easier to understand the more she stared at the Teddy Emperor.
"Im… possible." Lukas screamed as he looked at her unhurt body,"Why are you not dead? FIRE! FIRE AGAIN!"
The knights started to shoot until their bullets were empty.
The creature ignored the bullets and tried to catch a laser. It just passed through her hand: "Interesting… that's new, I don't know… this type of attack." She tried again and again the laser passed through her hand, but this time the bolt was redirected. And again she tried, this time she caught it. "New code! Hahahaa!" She started to get excited, analysing the bolt from all sides. "Fire damage moving like… light? That is quite an upgrade from bullets."
"Who…" Lukas coughed, "who are you?"
She stared at the bolt and her hand. Something in her eyes was visible before her hand started to burn and the bolt disintegrated. "So that's how it works." She lifted her head towards the Teddy Emperor starting to walk.
The knights dropped their empty weapons and took out their swords and daggers, running at her. Some of the swords passed through her body, others disintegrated and some exploded as the creature ignored them and kept walking towards the Teddy Emperor.
"My name is copyofTest-subject_1_female." She finally answered him.
Lukas stood in front of her, trying not to appear scared as she started to go up and down his body with her hands, analysing every little part of his clothes and his skin. "What are you doing?" He asked.
She lifted her head to face him. Her black eyes staring into his eyes. Some kind of code appeared before vanishing with the black, revealing her white eyeball and pupils and her green irises. "Your code is quite complicated and your model is… so detailed."
"What do you mean? My model—"
"You are beautiful." She said.
As her hand touched his face— and he was lost in her eyes— he noticed, in the corner of his eyes, how her body started to transform. Her skin became more detailed and her hair softer. The sharp edges all over her body vanished and became smooth. Suddenly he could see freckles on her face and the texture of her skin. Her hand, which was touching his skin, also became softer, as a hand should be.
"What the…" He took a step backwards in shock and saw her whole new body, still not wearing any clothes. He now realised that this creature was a human woman.
Noticing that he had taken his face from her hand she was startled: "So this code makes me… feel? Wait… I can smell!" Her excitement died down a moment later once she noticed another sword hitting her back and this time, it stabbed through her back and came out her stomach.
"STOP!" The Teddy Emperor demanded.
In less time than it takes to blink she faced the knight who had stabbed her and held the sword herself. She punctured through the robot's body deactivating it.
The Teddy Emperor subconsciously lifted his hand towards the wound on her back, touching it. The sensation of real human skin made him truly happy for the first time in months. It did not matter to him that he not only felt human skin but also living flesh and blood as his fingers slowly pushed into the wound.
"That feels weird." She said, "I… dislike it." The woman took a step away from him and looked at his bloody hand, dripping blood onto the floor. She lifted her gaze into his face and noticed the delight on his face as he stared at his hand.
⟪⚪⟫
The lone Lukas of the Supercitadel, now in A24's crew after disguising himself as one of them, was now excited because they had just murdered the rest of the crew which came down with them.
Earlier, during a break, he had strangled one of A24's crew and stole his armor before throwing the body to the undead for food and garbage disposal. He had started to scream and shot around into the horde, killing all of them after the corpse was unrecognisable. The rest of the team thought that Lukas and the one he had strangled were attacked while making sure their surroundings were clear and Lukas had died.
They ran through the corridors, weapons deactivated as they were sure that A24 had cleared the way for them. The rooms were just disgusting to look at. Due to their speed at which they progressed through the rooms Lukas had not enough time to look at the rooms fully, but he noticed bandages and metal scraps laying around everywhere.
Lukas' stamina had almost fully run out. He could not tell them to take a break, each one of them was trained and so was the Max he had killed, it would be obvious that he was not part of their original crew if his stamina was already empty.
He had to come up with an idea so as not to run out of stamina and be caught. His eyes wandered quickly around each room, scanning for the possibilities: "Start to pick up the scraps? Or could I bring attention to the bloody bandages and medical equipment laying around? No! They definitely noticed these already and are ignoring it." His mind started to panic, "Do I need to hope for undead in the next few rooms? Or… wait!" An idea came to his mind, "Could I artificially create an adrenalin rush and keep going for a lot longer?"
He slowed slightly down, starting to jog.
"Good idea." Said one of them and they all slowed down a bit to preserve energy.
"How did it work? Something with my breathing." He just could not come up with how it worked.
The crew noticed him, sunken in thought. "You good?" They asked.
"Deep quick breaths, I think." Lukas started to quicken his breathing. With every breath his heart started to beat faster and louder. His lungs started to hurt and his skin started to sweat but a quick burst of energy overcame him and he suddenly sprinted past the rest of the crew.
The crew quickened their pace again, trying to keep up. Lukas ran through a door into another room, and again he burst through a closed door. He ran for what felt like dozens of minutes but was at most a minute long.
Entering another room he was startled by the sight in front of him. Trying to dodge it but instead he tripped over cut up parts of flesh on the floor and crashed against the creature filling the room.
A24's crew entered only seconds later.
A24 was sitting on a creature they could only assume was Lina. It was a mess of tentacles and green acid. He was resting his arms on his legs and his head hung facing down. In his hands were two small pistols.
"Captain!" They screamed and quickly climbed the creature to pick him up as he was unconscious. Behind them Lukas stood up. His eyes wide at the sight.
"No… No!" He whispered loudly, "I wanted to kill it! It was mine!" He started to beat his fists into the corpse over and over in anger and blood came shooting forth from the wounds he inflicted.
His gaze went towards A24 as he was being picked up from beneath his shoulders and joints. The blood shooting out of the body hit his skin and he noticed something crucial: "It's still alive!" His voice cut through the quiet of the room and Lina's body started to move, tentacles rising from the ground into the air.
"A trap!" Lukas yelled and quickly ran up the path which A24's crew went up, staring at them as the tentacles opened up beneath them, swallowing some of them whole while others were cut in half once the tentacles closed again. The remaining members threw A24 from the body onto soft and dead flesh to save him from Lina.
Lukas reached the remaining members, pushing them down towards A24 taking the sword one of them was carrying. "Time to shine." He muttered.
Thousands of tentacles surrounded him or opened beneath him again and again. He dodged the holes and cut most of the living tentacles in two. "LEAVE!" He screamed.
He continued to cut the tentacles. His strength leaving him again after they had left he searched for the body of the creature. "Where is it?" He stepped back, dodging a tentacle from the side and accidentally stepped into a hole behind him. "SHIT!"
He dropped into the dark moving cave of tentacles and flesh. He quickly activated his armor before hitting the floor, losing consciousness.
⟪⚪⟫
"So let me get this straight: You are a clone—"
"Duplicate, yes." The woman interrupted him.
The Teddy Emperor sighed. "A duplicate, got it. And you say this world— my home— is a simulation?" He glanced at her with scepticism, "Did I get that right?"
She nodded: "Yes."
The Teddy Emperor was sitting cross-legged at the table, one hand on the table, supporting his chin while the other one was stirring his hot chocolate. He leaned back in his chair and took a sip, pinky not on the cup.
He put his cup down and looked her into her eyes. One of the two was staring back at him, the other one was moving. She was analyzing the room they were sitting in, and it was obvious that she was astonished.
"You want me to believe all that?" He asked and raised an eyebrow.
Both her eyes focused on him: "Of course. And if you don't believe me, I can prove it." She stood up and leaned across the table. It was hard for the Teddy Emperor to keep his focus on her and not her chest hanging onto the table but he was trying to restrain himself.
Suddenly she pushed her fingers around the Teddy Emperor's eyeball. "Ah!" He started screaming at the feeling of dry but smooth skinned fingers touching his eyeball. He grabbed her lower arm with his nails trying to rip her hand out of his face, but his nails could not penetrate her skin and she would not budge.
"Keep still." She commanded and the Teddy Emperor could not move anymore.
He tried to speak, to complain, but he felt that he could not. Once she pulled her fingers out of his eye he could move again. Rubbing his eye he muttered something under his breath.
"Put down your hand and look at my world." She said happily. Her voice was filled with delight at the thought.
He pulled down his hand and said: "Holy Shit!" He could see the world normally but at the same time he saw letters and numbers and weird symbols making up the world.