“Excuse me…”

The secretary flashed me a weary glance as I glanced up. The signs of the average corporate drone were present—empty coffee mug, inordinate amount of holo-tabs and drained, pale cheeks from all the computer use. I would sympathize, if my life wasn’t in danger right now.

“Welcome to GreenFuture.” The man said. He drawled the words like a B-movie actor. “How may I help you?”

“Yeah, I’d like to start that new food treatment of yours?” I said. “Did a pre-register of yours before coming here.”

“What number were you?”

“195, I think.”

The secretary clicked his mouse once, then shook his head. “Apologies kid, you didn’t arrive on time, so we’ve skipped ahead. You’ll have to take a new number.”

“C’mon, man! Let me jump ahead. That treatment sounded super sweet and I need the boost.”

“Our rooms are all booked. Sorry.”

“Please! I’m dying over here!” I faux-pleaded, clutching the edges of the table and leaning in. The secretary recoiled despite the glass panel separating us. “My vitamins are on the decline. If I don’t get treatment, I’ll develop cancer or something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” The secretary snapped, “You are not about to develop cancer or any form of illness. I’m sorry that you feel unwell, but the rules are rules. Please take a new number from the machine over in the corner, sit down and wait. If you keep causing a scene, I’ll have the security guards remove you.”

I made a show of slumping my shoulders, kicking at the ground and turning around with an audible huff. “Cheapskate.” I grumbled, sitting back in my seat with my arms folded. The secretary called out another number, having filtered my existence out of his mind already. But I had gotten what I wanted from the conversation. The same anomalous symptoms I’d seen on the other patients—mild slackness in the facial muscles, unfocused irises and odd lumps like spikes on a landmine—was present on that man too.

It’s everywhere. I thought. My nose twitched at the earthly, almost sickly sweet smell. I stared upwards at the air conditioners attached to the roof and covered my mouth. That woman who got dragged away must be an advanced case. Is it an airborne toxin? I can’t be that fast, considering I’ve been here for nearly an hour.

The clock on the wall had glitched up, flickering between random numbers like a fallen stack of papers. A teenager with sideburns and a punk-rock T-shirt yelled into his phone, unaware that garbled static was playing from the speaker. I peeked at the person next to me and tapping into thin air. I shook his shoulder and pointed at his switched-off phone. Guy shoved me aside and resumed his automated movements.

Guess contacting the outside world isn’t an option. ALICE, will INTERFACE-OS notify me if any of the Ally Units are lost?

Correct! If an Ally Unit is killed or irrecoverably incapacitated, you will be notified immediately. This includes severe mental corruption, by the way.

That meant Teric, Comsos and the Heretic were all still fresh, for the moment. It also meant that whatever malady infecting the staff and patients was slow-acting. Time still was of the essence; there was no telling what else that Impurity tree was capable of. Time to begin a little investigation.

The first item on the agenda was to discover where this place was. A quick browse of the offline tablet brochures provided me the answer. GreenFuture was a hot new startup company specializing in experimental agriculture and health science. Their recent claim to fame was an innovative brand of genetic injection into wheat plants, exponentially increasing their rate of growth and overall yield. They stayed away from anomaly-related business, save for distributing relief packages in the wake of Impurity disasters.

Localized in America…wait, am I in America now? The thought struck my nerves, before I shook it off. The quickness at which I did that then gave me another pause. I was growing too accustomed to this madness. Then again, it’s not like the choice of country would make the Impure Zone any less unbreakable.

Personal greenhouses hosted in each of their therapy centers…cultivated plants, including the rare natural-grown ones…freshest genetic hormones in each batch…

Bingo.

Now, to find a map.

“Could I get a latte?”

“Sure…sure…”

The barista, a lanky teen girl with a blonde ponytail, nodded slowly and dumped milk into a plastic cup. The frothy white milk spilled onto the counter top. It dripped onto the floor where it mixed with a layer of runoff coffee and trash. She handed me the half-empty cup with a hand with white branches growing out of it. I took the cup and tossed it at the wall behind her. It splattered a brown swear like dogshit straight down GreenFuture’s logo. No reaction.

“That’ll be five…uh…ninety…something.” The barista slurred. The way she spoke reminded me of a stroke.

Wow, this is worse than I expected.

Cognition hazards or memetic effects often cause one to neglect their physical state. In her mind, everything must be as normal.

ALICE, give me my tomahawk and gas mask.

Of course!

The items fell out of the Mailbox and onto the counter. I strapped on the gas mask, climbed over the counter and gave the barista a solid whack on the back of her head. She crumpled in an instant. I grabbed her before she fell into a rack of rotten sandwiches. A quick rummage through her pockets found just the thing I was looking for.

Acquired Basic Clearance Pass!

Sorry for this kid. Hope you don’t get brain damage.

Next was a quick wardrobe change. I put on my new cloak and swapped the EMP Grenade for the tomahawk in the inventory. ALICE deposited the accursed doll out of the Mailbox into my pockets.

Ready, Boss?

As I’ll ever be.

The locked door near the back slid open with a single swipe. A lit hallway with cameras, security guards and more of the cloying sweet smell awaited. I took a deep breath, pressed my body against the wall and began to move. Combat started almost immediately as a security guard with vines growing out of his scalp wandered down the hallway. His neck craned to the hallway. His face met the butt of my tomahawk. Unconsciousness was immediate.

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

That was the last free shot. It turned out the mysterious plantlife affliction had a beneficial effect on their victim’s physical state. It made the security guards faster, stronger, though not smarter. My teenage body came close to getting pulped by their sheer brute strength. I was caught by another guard through my travels, whirling around the instant I stepped into his range of hearing. Bastard charged at me with the furiousness of a mad bull. He barreled down the hallway, face full of vines, squealing incomprehensible bloody garbage with his fist outstretched.

But even the affliction couldn’t halt a human’s innate fear of sharp objects. I gave him the same treatment as IO-HMN-016: a feint (with the threat of my tomahawk), before bashing his head in with the butt of my handgun.

The encounters continued down the hallway until I reached the main security room. A few I caught off guard, the rest I had to flat-out eliminate with my tomahawk and Impurity Resonance or, worse, my handgun. After dispatching the guards there and shoving their restrained bodies into a nearby closet, I turned to the security terminal.

Damn, I can’t access anything but the most basic of functions. Fuckers logged off before I beat them up. Not that I was in a mood to interrogate beefcakes with leaves growing out of their ears. Teric could hack into this, I knew. I’d seen her alternate incarnation destroy a corporation’s multilayered security system using a second-grade laptop inside a coffee shop. My new objective was set in stone, then.

The only solace was the map of the building. It was a single-story affair, with a large space dedicated to a greenhouse at back. Patient rooms were to the right, laboratories were to the left.

Map acquired! +16 EXP!

I ran out of the security room, locking the door behind me, and sprinted straight for the patient rooms. I opened one and stared straight into a goddamn miniature jungle. A patient was lying on the bed, an entire tree sprouting from his chest. It shook as the patient—couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman—gave shuddering breath after shuddering breath. Grass had sprouted around a layer of fertilized soil around the bed. Poison ivy blocked the window. Rough, green particles floated around the room like a swarm of insects.

I slammed the door shut, evading the sensation of someone watching me.

Second door. Empty. Third door. Man not moving. Fourth door. I found the woman from earlier, still unconscious. She didn’t notice me. The two nurses did.

“What are you doing here?” One of them asked. He moved quickly to block my vision, as I did. “This place is off limits.”

“Sorry, I got the wrong room.”

He wasn’t convinced. “May I see your pass?”

Ah, fuck it. A whack to the head solved that. It helped this guy was a regular human instead of a roided up security guard. His colleague wasn’t so forgiving. I shot him in the back before he called for security via intercom attached to the wall. A second shot to the forehead finished him off.

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

Are you alright, Boss?

Why are you asking me? I examined the woman. Hispanic, blue eyes, shrunken cheeks and one hundred percent out of it. In other words, not Teric.

You ended that man’s life rather quickly! Most teenage boys, from what I understand, would hesitate at even the thought of doing so. ALICE chirped. Hence, I am inquiring about my mental state.

It’s not something I do for fun. I responded curtly. Casualties happened in my line of work. You wished they didn’t happen, but it was my life or theirs.

Very professional, boss! However, you could have obtained more EXP if you took the effort to knock the man out.

What, because non-lethal yields more than lethal?

Nope! From the guards that would have rushed into the room.

Yeah, no.

I struck jackpot in the sixth room. The door was ajar, a sign of a hasty retreat. Muffled screamed and loud thumps resounded through the corridor. I poked my gaze through the crack and was treated to the lovely sight of a straightjacketed Teric thrashing about in all directions. Her face was red, her eyes were bulging outwards in sheer anger and no doubt a string of Japanese curses were climbing their way out of her throat. Two guards wrestled her against the wall as a nurse swore and readied a syringe containing a blue fluid.

"Hold it!" I shouted.

I drew my gun and fired it straight into the nurse’s side. Her body dropped to a stone, hitting a medicine cart and spilling more chemicals across a dirt-laded floor. The guards whipped around and Teric chose to headbutt one right in the back of the head.

The guard drew his gun. I dove to the side of the wall as he fired, then back again as his next bullet pierced the wall. The tomahawk was drawn. Impurity Resonance activated, summoning the ghastly fires of IO-HMN-016. The fragment of the Impurity girl giggled and clapped as a tomahawk head covered in flames cleaved through his torso. He howled as branches surrounding his shoulder were set aflame. A punch smashed my cheek, though not before I drew my own gun and shot him straight in the head.

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

I turned around and saw Teric slamming her body over and over against the last guard. Her fragile frame, worn down my computer work, was no match for the man’s physique. But she did it anyway—sure was the Teric I knew. I finished him off by grabbing the guard at the back of his neck, then slitting his throat with my knife. A cascade of blood ruined my clothes once again.

Enemy Defeated! +12 EXP!

“Wait, wait!” I shouted at Teric. She had backed up against the wall, a glare levied in my direction. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I actually came here to free you.”

I lifted up the bloody knife. Teric eyed it for a second, then continued glaring at me. I held my gaze steady on her, staying still. Then, she nodded and turned her back to me.

Charisma Check [Medium]: Success! +5 EXP!

The binds slit easily. She dragged herself around, then ripped off the gag in one fluid motion, heaving a shuddering breath.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Awful.” She hissed. Her arms trembled. Side-effects of remaining still for too long. “Tell me, where does a kid learn to shoot and kill multiple assailants?”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s get out of here first.” I offered her a hand.

“Sounds like a plan.” She coughed, then took my hand. She stood up and promptly recoiled as if hit by an electrical shock. Only the wall kept her from tripping over upturned syringes and crashing to the ground. A cry of pain burst from her cracked lips, immediately silenced by her clamping her mouth shut.

Ally Unit Teric has been acquired! Congraulations!

What the hell did you do to her? I shouted at ALICE.

Oh, she’s just undergoing the registration process. It’ll be quick, as it’s setup to be more streamlined than you. Here's her stats.

[Basic Information]

Name: Kyoko 'Teric' Misawa Level: 1 EXP: 0/100 Rarity SSR

[Stats]

STRENGTH: E PERCEPTION: B DEXTERITY: C ENDURANCE: D AGILITY: C INTELLIGENCE: A WILLPOWER B CHARISMA D INSIGHT N/A

[Skills]

Computer Hacking III Teric has demonstrated excellence in computer security and infiltration. She is capable of breaking into high-security networks with relative ease. Drone Control (Nanobots) II Teric's weapon of choice are a swarm of nanobots that can attack or interfere with her adversaries' plans. She controls them with a chip implanted in her brain, powered by her mental will. Psychology II Teric has lived in the underground for long enough to understand detailed facets of human psychology Firearms (Standard) Teric knows basic firearm handling.

Wait, why are her stats graded by letters instead of numbers? And how come she has an Intelligence stat?

Like I mentioned, Ally Units are streamlined, since they don't have access to all of INTERFACE-OS's functions. As for why the main user does not have an Intelligence stat, it's because that's harder to quantify with numbers.

“Hey.” Teric growled. I dismissed the screen and saw her brandishing a shard of glass at me. “Boy. Explain yourself this instant.”