Master PC - The Great Game Ch. 01

Helen and her husband started living in Imperial City about ten years ago when the island first opened up to the public, courtesy of Samuel getting a promising job offer from one of his old friends from highschool as an investment banker, and has since worked his way up to owning a local bank of his own.

It was safe to say that the couple used to fit in with the crowd of studs and bimbos back in day, but the tole of time and half a decade of living the night-life to the fullest hadn't been too kind to either of their bodies since then, so they hadn't done much other than work and live their lives without ever having children of their own during the past few years.

Which, after having Amy and Andy under their roof for the past few months, might have been for the best.

"And besides, you two experienced plenty of indecent things around your parent's mansion when they went out of town for weeks at a time. Don't think I'll fall for your little guilt-trip routine just because I'm not letting you both tie up poor girls and torture them under my roof."

"The maids were willing test sub-"

"Participants." Amy quickly interjected.

"Yes. And we were told that they had experienced more pleasure in our care than in their entire-"

"Okay." Helen raised her right hand, cutting off Andy before he could finish. Jesus, she thought. Those two could talk about such bizarre sexual activities like they were chatting about the weather. "I don't want to know the details, I just want to know that you aren't going to be up to anything indecent after I drop you off here." Their prude, pudgy aunt said, pulling up into the parking lot of the shopping mall where Comic Sins was located.

"Understood."

"We will not do anything that jeopardizes the obtaining of our inheritance."

"You have our word."

"Good." Helen turned back to face them as soon as they came to a stop, the ends of her 'can I speak to the manager?' haircut whipping around at the quickness of her head-turn. "Now, I'll be back at six to pick you up. If you're done before that, call me right away."

The robotic duo finally put their phones away, matching her flickering gaze and nodding.

Dressed in full-sets of expensive, authentic, leather armor with light-green, hooded tunics under them, Amy and Andy stepped out from the back doors of Helen's silver, pick-up truck, grasping five-foot-long wooden sticks that stood as tall as they did.

She sighed as she watched the blonde-headed pair head off towards the comic shop, walking inside and past the chubby sweetheart who owned the place after stopping for a moment to greet him.

Those two were many things, but they weren't liars, Helen thought as she pulled out of the lot and drove home with a hint of anxiety lingering in the back of her mind.

-----

- Sunday - 11:39 A.M. - Comic Sins -

"Go and get set up, you guys. I've gotta' make my bi-hourly prayer to the Death God before we get started."

"Hail to Remnis." Andy said.

"Indeed. The Legion of Dusk are fearsome allies." Amy agreed.

The two entered and Matt released the left of the double-doors that he'd been holding for them, then walked over to the side of the building as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his jeans' right pocket.

Just as he lit up a smoke and took his first drag of the day, he spotted a rather familiar-looking, muscular gentleman wearing a red tracksuit come jogging out from behind the corner of the store furthest on the edge of the run-down shopping strip.

The man was headed down the sidewalk and towards the street, then rounded the corner and continued down the path across the parking lot from Matt.

There was something about crew cuts that just bugged Matt, he didn't know why.

Maybe because it made you look like a douchebag with limbs, he thought.

Matt and the man made eye contact as he took another drag of his cigarette, then the man smiled and slightly altered his course, trailing off of the sidewalk and across the lot directly towards him.

Oh no...

Please don't stop and talk please don't stop and talk oh for the love of fuck please don't stop and talk to-

"Hey there!" Crew Cut said, beaming with energy and positivity just before he stopped on the walkway a few feet away from Matt.

"Howdy." Matt said with a flat tone, giving him a nod as he looked the college jock up and down and made an assessment based off of his appearance and immediate personality. It was safe to say, people like this guy weren't interested in what he was selling. "Not to sound rude, but I don't know where to get any coke, bud."

"Wha-? No, no. You've got the wrong idea, my guy." He said with a laugh, not out of breath in the least despite the amount of sweat that his white-trimmed tracksuit was soaked with. "You must be Matthew, I'm Trent." He said, extending his arm for a handshake.

The guy smelled like a walking locker room, Matt realized as he attempted to mask the stench with another drag.

A gust of wind would be a godsend, he thought.

"Matt." He corrected, reluctantly returning the gesture with his empty hand. "So, Trent, how can... I...?"

As soon as their skin made contact and the traces of perspiration on Trent's hand were absorbed into Matt's, it was over.

"How can you, what?" Trent asked, releasing Matt's hand and letting it fall to his side. "Help me? Is that what you were going to ask?"

As if a switch had been flipped, Trent dropped his bubbly, personable persona, and his facial expression and tone became much more serious and professional.

"Yes." Matt said softly, his eyes glazed over and vacantly focused on Trent's face. "How can I help you?"

"You could be more welcoming, for starters." He said, watching the cigarette slip from Matt's limp fingers. "Secondly, help yourself by kicking that disgusting habit. You'll be better off for it."

"Yes, sir."

"Too formal. Just call me Trent, for now."

"Yes, Trent."

"Good." He smiled.

Robert Stone forbade Trent from using the program or any of his abilities, but he didn't see any harm in keeping one trick up his sleeve for potential business matters.

However, just telling this overweight giant to hand over the deed to his store would likely bring on a scolding from his father about secrecy and discretion.

On the other hand, if he were to make a friend and then buy their business establishment from them for next to nothing, there wasn't a logical conclusion one would arrive at that didn't have the mighty Trent Stone coming out on top without his father batting a suspicious eye in his direction.

Despite Trent's awareness that there was a potential serial killer targeting users of Master PC, he believed that if he and his father ever would've been on their radar to begin with, they would've died alongside Willis and Richmond.

With everything those two were tied into with Robert, the killer had to have known they were users as well by now.

His father knew more than he was letting on about the situation, but that's a conversation for another time.

"We just met, but you feel as though you can trust me implicitly. If you're asked a question, you'll answer it openly and honestly. If I personally have a request, you will take it into consideration if it doesn't align with what you want, but will always and ultimately find a good enough reason to fulfill said request. Lastly, nothing about this conversation or your new attitude towards me will seem strange to you, and you are not allowed to look back at and ponder anything I've told you up to this point.

"I'm glad that we've come to an understanding." Trent spoke slowly and clearly as a confident grin spread across his full lips.

"Right." Matt said with a yawn and several rapid blinks. "Wait, what did you want?" He asked, giving Trevor another ocular pat-down.

Something wasn't right, Matt realized immediately.

He didn't even need to try and recall any of it to notice that the last ninety-seven-seconds of his memory had been... Turned into static?

"Just not a people person, huh?" Trent asked with a wince. "Sorry, I guess I am being a bit forward."

"No, I'm not, C-Cre-... Trent. Now, answer the question." Matt growled through grit teeth, with his mind short-circuiting, his eyes fluttering, and his left arm occasionally giving off a slight twitch.

Trent was taken aback by Matt's response.

He'd recited those exact words to countless people he'd met in his life, aside from slightly botching the 'answering questions' line in his command just then, and every single one of them treated him like a long-lost brother as soon as they came out of their trance.

Who the hell was this guy?

And another thing...

"What were you just about to call me?" Trent asked, his mask slipping as his eyes widened and his nostrils flared.

Matt smiled, his teeth still locked together as he spoke.

"Crew. Cut."

Trent paused for a moment to absorb the words as if he was taking them in through the deep breath he inhaled.

Never before had such an inane comment made him as furious as he was in that moment.

He exhaled, returning Matt's gaze with a smile.

"You're as interesting as you are frustrating." Trent said.

"Three."

"... What?"

"That's how many times I've been told that exact same sentence."

Trent cocked his head and raised an eyebrow.

"And how are you so sure?"

"Photographic memory." Matt said without hesitation, then winced at his new forthcomingness.

"Hah! Wow." Trent chuckled. "If you don't mind, would you let me have some fun with this? I've never met anyone who was actually born with that trait."

Matt didn't respond, he just glared at Trent.

"... Well?"

"I'm thinking."

With his rage long-forgotten at that point, Trent exploded with laughter upon hearing the statement.

Matt somehow knew that deep down he couldn't tell Trent no, and even though he physically wanted to just blurt out, 'Sure, buddy! Watch me make an ass out of myself for your amusement!', every coherent thought and each of his trillion frames of memory were scrambling against the urges he instinctively wanted to act on without question.

In other words, his overactive frontal lobe and hippocampus just declared war on one another to avoid giving Trent the satisfaction of an inevitable answer.

And while Matt was relatively calm about the immediate situation, his subconscious was constantly setting off red-alerts all throughout his thoughts on the lack of consistency in his feelings toward the man he would now forcibly refer by his name, even in his mind, he begrudgingly thought to himself just before a chipmunk-like voice called out to him.

"Hi Matt!" Mars yelled from across the parking lot, giving him an enthusiastic wave as the long dress she wore trailed behind her just inches above the ground. The black lipstick on her soft, angelic face complimented the dark blush on her cheeks and made her long, fiery red hair shine all the brighter.

The armor was a nice touch, too, Matt thought as he held up a friendly hand, trying not to draw her towards the guy that could rewire a person's brain somehow and was looking Mars' slender body up and down like she was his for the taking.

Screwing with him was one thing, but if Trent decided to do whatever he did to him to his little sister's best friend, Matt would literally-

"Do you like the get-up? It was pretty cheap, but I think I made it work for how my character is supposed to look." She confidently giggled as she stepped up to the doors of the shop and opened one.

"The radiance of your beauty is superior to that of the sun's." The words escaped from a wide-eyed Matt's mouth a second too soon before he had the sense to throw a hand over it.

Mars' face flushed bright pink, and a crooked, nervous smile broke out across her lips before she bolted into the store.

Matt turned to Trent with wide, annoyed eyes.

He had already been staring back at him in disgust.

"I can't believe you just unironically said that to a solid eight, my dude."

"What do you expect? I'm a writer, not a crew cut." Matt spat.

Well, that was a fun workaround for the roadblock on using his nickname, Matt thought as he watched Trent's face become red with a fury that he desperately wished he could feel as well.

"Since you've decided to make this personal, I'm going to take my time with you." He spat back.

-----

- Sunday - 11:42 A.M. - City Hall -

"Everything is ready, Mayor Willis." Donna Summers said, adjusting the thin, rectangular glasses she wore over her sharp, Japanese face.

"Excellent." The hulking, seven-foot-tall giant of a man said as he adjusted his tie in the full-length mirror that he kept in the corner of his office, his low, deep voice carrying across the entirety of the room without him needing to emphasize his tone. "Go ahead and clue your friends in on what I have in store for this city."

"That's a bold decision, Mayor." Donna stated as a smile broke out across her lips. "If I were to tell Delta and his Master that one of the Alphabet was eliminated, as well as warn him of the Awakening, I'd be openly declaring myself an enemy of the state, and he would likely take immediate action."

"Is that what you think?" Mayor Willis asked with just a hint of playful doubt in his smooth voice. "Those fools likely already know of what's happened to the Omikron A.I., of what they suspected would happen to her. I'm sure the Epsilon and his dogs were already on standby when she killed my father and Thomas Richmond, after they were informed that one of them secretly had a version one-point-nine in their possession."

"Very perceptive." She said with a slight bow, the iris' of her hazel eyes flashing with a bright, cyan color for just an instant. "I would expect nothing less from the Master of Pi."

The Mayor turned around and walked over to his desk, his white suit and short, spiked, silver-black hair glowing in the sunlight that poured in from the large window of his very modern-styled, thirtieth-story office.

Underneath his suit and tie, he wore a vest that had a geometrical cut styled across its surface and looked as though it was both constantly and slowly shifting; disconnected from reality in way, as if it and the matching pupil-less iris' of his eyes were openings to another dimension that was devoid of anything but shattered glass.

"I know exactly what's going to happen next, just as I know how this is all going to end. The Pillars of Reality will fall, and the next stage in human evolution will begin here in Imperial City."

Donna wordlessly strutted over to the Mayor, who turned his chair to the side to face her as she approached and ducked down onto her knees in front of him.

Once she had his thick, semi-erect cock fished out from its confines, Donna slowly began to stroke it to full-mast as she looked up to the man who was going to kill the gods and would one day sit in the Creator's empty throne.

"Let me indulge myself for just a moment before I deliver the bad news. I haven't been this excited in quite some time."

-----

- Sunday - 11:48 A.M. - Comic Sins -

"I'm glad that we've come to an understanding." Trent Stone said with a warm, friendly grin, walking around the group in a circle with his cellphone raised in his hand.

The seven of them fluttered their eyes and felt as though they'd just woken up from a deep, deep sleep.

Matt found that he suddenly had on his long, black, hooded cloak he normally wore as he sat at the end of the long, decorative, rectangular oak table that the group played Castles and Conquerors on.

Everyone else was located in their usual seats with expressions of confusion written across their faces while they looked around at one another.

As soon as his eyes were open and focused, Matt's first instinct was to flip the table and charge the man wearing a fine-tailored, back suit, who was at one of the opposite corners and standing between where Sarah and Mars were seated.

However, he found himself unable to get up, or even make a sound.

The muscles in his face also felt somewhat numb, as if function was cut off to some of them to prevent him from showing too strong of emotional expressions.

Matt was virtually trapped inside of his own body.

As he weakly grunted with a mildly irritated look on his face, Matt felt like a snarling wolf that was chained to a post and watching helplessly as his pack was about to be slaughtered.

His memories of being hypnotized by that freak's sweat were no longer a haze to him, he realized, but the ones after the moment he was under once again had been completely erased.

Either that, or Crew Cut just knocked him out and carried-"

Matt visibly winced in pain and let out a long, drawn-out groan.

"You okay, Matt?" Jamie asked with concern, sitting on the corner to his right and was dressed in a full set of blue-and-white, paper-mache samurai gear that he made himself.

"Ha!" Trent laughed. "Even when you're just monologuing in that fat head of yours, you're still being an asshole, it seems."

The rest of the group, who's attention had been drawn to Matt's sounds of distress, all looked towards the origin of the voice.

"Ah!" Sarah squeaked, attempting to jump up from her chair and dart away from the menacing figure that had suddenly appeared behind her.

"Sit down, there's no need to worry or be afraid." The handsome stranger said to Sarah as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

Matt grumbled from the other end of the table, but no one seemed to be paying him any mind.

Just as her small butt lifted off the seat, his sweet, soothing words seemed to have had an immediate effect on her.

"Oh, uh... Okay." Sarah muttered, feeling a sense of ease hit her like an ethereal tidal wave as she rested back down onto the wooden chair's soft cushion.

Everyone else seemed to become more relaxed at his words as well, settling themselves comfortably in their seat but baffled as to what was happening.

"Who are you?" Amy asked, placed across from Jamie between Matt and his sister.

"Yes. And how have you pacified us?" Andy followed her sentence without pause, a curious glint in both of their eyes.

"It's quite fascinating."

"But it defies logic."

"Are you willing to teach us this power?"

"What other abilities do you possess?"

Trent held up the hand opposite the one that was clutching his phone. "Alright, woah. Time out." He chuckled. "One question at a time."

"Who are you?" Mars quietly asked, looking up at the man beside her.

He returned her gaze and gave a warm smile.

"I'm happy that you asked, beautiful." He said cooly, lightly stroking a couple of fingers over her pale, lightly-freckled cheek. "My name is Trent, and I'm here to make a few new friends."

Trent glanced over to Matt for a brief moment, who would most certainly skin him alive if he was able, judging by that fire burning within his big, brown eyes, he thought.

"The thing is, when I tried to introduce myself to the owner of this fine establishment, he was very disrespectful. Called me a name, even."

"Yeah, he does that." Sarah said with a sympathetic nod in the same, boring clothes she always wore, crossing her arms and giving Matt a look of disapproval. "Rude."

"Right?" Trent chuckled. "And, you are?"

"I'm Sarah, his sister." She said with a welcoming smile, offering up one of her hands. "It's nice to meet you, Trent."

"His sister?" Trent asked in a way that sounded as if he'd stumbled across buried treasure. "How did that oaf wind up with someone as adorable as you in his gene pool?"