Chapter 10: A Failure

“No!” 

Fear, guilt, and pain slammed into Spencer as blood red claws ripped free from Andrea’s limp body. It might as well have been his own chest that had been torn open from the stabbing sensation in his heart. 

Three quick shots struck the creature’s head as Spencer continued to pump the action and pull the trigger even after his weapon was empty.

The slugs ricocheted off the creature’s abnormally flat face and did little more than get its attention.

“Andrea get up!” Spencer shouted. His hands shook violently as he forced himself to try and reload.

Blood dripped from the creature’s claws and it stepped toward Spencer with a haunting howl. Imagery of the school bus flashed through Spencer’s mind as he watched the droplets fall down and join the large puddle forming beneath the motionless Andrea.

Again. It happened again.

“Sarah!” Spencer called out in desperate fear as the faceless one extended a claw his way.

It took a swipe at him and Spencer fell back. The claw struck his plate carrier and left three long scratches across its surface. The material held up remarkably well, but certainly wouldn’t protect the exposed parts of his body if and when the creature struck again. Even as Spencer thought it the creature’s second hand swung at his head from the opposite direction.

“You won’t touch him on my watch!”

Sarah was there in a flash. Her sword swept up from the side and severed the creature’s hand from its elongated arm. The faceless one released a reverberating scream from inside its chest as it turned to face the elegant sword wielder. Spencer could barely follow Sarah’s movements. She moved like the wind, precise and deadly. In less than a minute the creature lay strewn in pieces across the concrete. The once rough light grey material now dark and slick with blood.

“The other one?” Spencer numbly turned to his left where Sarah had originally fought the first faceless one.

“Dead, as you ordered. Its movement had been impaired and made it an easy target.” Sarah announced coldly while she wiped blood from her blade with a dark cloth she had retrieved from seemingly nowhere. “The area seems to be clear for now. Though we should move away from here as soon as possible.”

Spencer scrambled to his feet and ran over to Andrea. He suppressed a shudder as he looked down at her green eyes. Where there used to be excitement, joy, and fearlessness now reduced to a cold empty void gazing up at him.

“There has to be something.” Spencer’s chest shook as he knelt down next to her. “You can’t… I didn’t…”

Her body began to glow with a familiar blue light. Spencer felt an initial surge of hope. Maybe it was a recovery animation. That thought crashed down to despair as Andrea’s body began to break apart into blocks of light and fade away to nothingness. He glanced over to Sarah’s pod and confirmed that it was vanishing in much the same way.

Andrea was dead. Her body was despawning.

“Commander.” Sarah placed a gentle but firm hand on his shoulder. “We need to move.”

Distant howls emphasize the urgency in her voice.

“There’s got to be something I can do.” He opened his menus and began to frantically sort through them.

******

Sarah bit her lip and nervously palmed the hilt of her sword.

That engie must have meant a lot to the commander…

Despite the heavy atmosphere around them Sarah felt a flash of annoyance flicker through her heart. 

Surely I’m more than enough-

The thought only existed for a moment before a flood of shame buried it whole. Her commander was mourning and her first reaction was jealousy. That’s not the right way to make a first impression. Sarah wasn’t about to let petty selfishness spoil her first victory with the commander. She straightened and kept tighter control over her own feelings.

The commander frantically swiped through the air and muttered quietly to himself. It wasn’t clear to her what he was doing. Sarah desperately wanted to give him time to mourn, time to calm down, time to come to terms with his team member passing, but she also had to ensure the commander remained safe.

Sarah looked at the destroyed cars, monster bodies, and blood all around them with concern. Though she was new to this world, Sarah could tell that some type of calamity had fallen over these lands. If the commander had been navigating this battlefield with only a single engie with him then the situation must be quite dire. While she debated the best course of action the last bit of the engie her commander referred to as Andrea faded into the air. The commander slammed his fist into the concrete and swore violently.

“Please forgive me, commander.” Sarah stepped in front of him and grabbed his arms in her hands.

Pulling both of his arms over her shoulders Sarah lifted the commander easily into a piggy back position. She glanced at the broken entrance to the large structure in front of them, a shopping center of some kind by the look of it.

This structure could contain more foes. Sarah glanced at the parking lot around them. But it’s the closest place to get out of the open. I’ll find a safe place to put down the commander and deal with whatever else might be hiding inside.

With that decided, Sarah raced into the broken glass doorway away from the faded engie.

******

I didn’t see any option to revive her. Spencer closed the menu with a defeated groan.

There was too much he didn’t know. Too much about his own powers that he didn’t yet understand.

If only-

Sudden acceleration momentarily blocked all of Spencer’s thoughts. Andrea had been fast, but Sarah easily outpaced her. Air rushed over Spencer’s face until his eyes watered. The mall’s entrance blurred past and Sarah wasted no time in carrying him into a dark clothing store. 

The normally neat organized shelves and racks full of clothes were a disorderly mess left behind by frantic shoppers fleeing for their lives. Sarah navigated the isles with light steps as her eyes kept a vigilant watch on their surroundings. They made it to the back of the dark store before Sarah sat Spencer gently down inside of a rectangular changing room.

“I’m sorry for moving you without your orders, commander.” Sarah said in her flat professional voice.

“No. Thank you.” Spencer wiped the corner of his eyes and tried to swallow down the vile ball of terrible feelings that threatened to enter his throat from his stomach. “You’re right. We shouldn’t have stayed there any longer. I just thought…”

He trailed off.

If only I had a guide to read.

Realization struck him in an instant. He felt his pocket and fished out his cellphone he hadn’t looked at since the morning. The screen illuminated the dark changing room with artificial light.

Has it really been less than a full day? Spencer shook his head and unlocked his phone.

He still had plenty of battery, but he could see that there was no signal. Unsurprising. He’d probably lost signal on his phone pretty early in the day. Either from calls overloading the network or the cell towers being destroyed in the initial attack. He opened up his download folder and spotted the file he was looking for.

“I’m an idiot. A stupid, idealistic sack of dead brain cells.” Spencer slammed the back of his head against the changing room wall.

Sarah crouched down next to him. Unlike Andrea, Sarah was far harder to read. Her expression, tone of voice, and motions were all made with stoic professionalism that hadn’t changed once since she stepped out of the pod.

“You shouldn’t say such things, commander.” Sarah noted quietly. “And please don't harm yourself. You may be my commander, but I’ll restrain you if you continue.”

Spencer shook his head. “You shouldn’t call someone so incompetent your commander. My name is Spencer and I’m nothing but a failure.”

The corners of Sarah’s mouth twitched down slightly, but she remained silent. Spencer read the title and felt guilt rise within him once more.

‘Everything you need to know to be a god amongst peasants while dominating the world of Zero Conflict’

Under normal circumstances Spencer would be between rolling his eyes and laughing aloud at his best friend’s lengthy title that nearly spilled onto a second page. Instead he numbly scrolled upward and began to read.

‘The first thing you need to understand about this game is that it’s a dating sim disguised as a combat game. Most gacha games focus on leveling your characters as their primary source of strengthening your team. In those games improving your relationship with them is mostly for fanservice with only small stat boosts for your efforts. Zero Conflict inverts this blueprint by making your relationship with your engies directly tied to their power level. You can also get equipment and stuff to help, but love is the primary driver. 

The more they love you, the more romantic encounters you succeed in, the stronger your overall team will become. (Look I know you joked about this being a *ahem* cultured game, but dude please trust that these gals are well worth your time.) Besides, it should be good practice for you. Still scared to talk to your crush? (I’m in no position to talk, you know what just happened to me so let's move on). Build up your affection score with them first, that will give you better odds at succeeding bonding events.

TLDR: Focus on building strong relationships with your team. That matters more than raw stats or strong team synergies, especially early on. An ‘A’ or ‘S’ rank engie with strong affection and many passed bonding events can easily carry you. Particularly the first kiss. First kiss is a huge boost.’

Spencer cursed himself for not reading this sooner. Had he simply taken the time to get to know Andrea better, to take her to the bowling alley like she had wanted to, she probably would have been much stronger. Strong enough to survive whenever they went out to recruit Sarah.

This made his ‘Suave Commander’ ability incredibly powerful. With maxed out affection it would be a breeze to level up his team. Or… it would have been. Spencer turned on the find feature and searched for the word ‘revive’. It only showed up a few times and he read those sections carefully.

‘Losing doesn’t really matter that much so don’t be afraid to try out levels even if you’re not at the recommended strength. If you fail you can just try again later. You don’t lose team members or pay for repairs or revives.’

Spencer’s heart sank. That sounded fundamentally different to his encounter outside with the faceless ones and hellhounds.

I don’t think I can count on the real world being a perfect one to one to the game. But maybe that will lead to other opportunities.

He felt the scratches on the chestplate of his personal protective gear he received as a quest reward.

As he pondered Sarah leaned out of the dressing room door and cocked her head as if she was listening to something. 

“I’m worried that other creatures might be lurking around this store.” She straightened her outfit and glanced at Spencer. “May I have your permission to scout our immediate surroundings commander?”

Spencer nodded. He needed time to sort through his thoughts anyway.

“Go ahead.”

Sarah dipped her head to him before silently stalking away from the changing room. Spencer finished scanning through Chris’ guide and confirmed that quest rewards and personal protective gear were not mentioned anywhere. That meant that the system that had given Spencer items that existed outside of the restrictions of Zero Conflict. From the various status messages and updates he had been receiving early on during the attack Spencer got the feeling the system was generating most of this as events unfolded. That meant there was a chance he could influence the quests or the rewards that the quests offered.

Maybe.

It was a thought. A wishful one at that.

Spencer checked the quest screen to confirm he still only had the one initial quest to purchase his first five engies. He got the sense that he wouldn’t be receiving any more quests until the retrieval of his pulls was complete.

“Three more to go.” Spencer sighed aloud.

He shifted in place before speaking to the air once more.

“System. I don’t know if this will work, but what I want more than anything is the chance to bring Andrea back. Please. Give me that chance. Please offer me that quest reward.”

A soft plink sounded in his ears. It wasn’t the usual chime he’d grown used to. He checked the system menus again, but there was nothing new. Nothing to indicate what that sound was. He looked at his phone but saw nothing there either.

Did the system respond to my plea? Or did I imagine it?  

Left without answers, Spencer’s phone fell back asleep and plunged the room into darkness.