Chapter 40: Chapter 40 – Hugh: Subtext

When Julia left, Nat and I went ahead and ordered dessert, a slice of cheesecake for the two of us to share and a piece of chocolate cake for Julia - Nat said that was her favorite. The dessert arrived shortly before Julia returned, so, all in all, pretty good timing.

When she sat down, she again said the last thing I expected to say, "You win."

Uh, yay?

"I can't figure out how you did it," she said. "There's got to be a way, but I just don't know what it is."

In the chair next to me, Nat tensed, and I reached out to squeeze her hand.

Julia's words were telling me that there was no way she was going to accept the system, but I wasn't positive of that. Considering that refusal meant pretty much certain death for her, I needed to make absolutely sure.

"Where does that leave us?" I asked.

"It leaves me believing that you have access to technology that well exceeds my expectations of how advanced it should be," Julia said. "It leaves me wondering what other kinds of technology you might have access to. It leaves me very reluctant to believe that you can actually help me in any meaningful way because I don't see how holographic projector technology intersects with medical technology in a way that would facilitate that help. But it also leaves me curious as to what you think you might can do for me and what the cost to me would be."

What she said was easy enough to understand, but I really got the feeling that she was trying to say something else without saying it. Understanding subtext, especially regarding girls, was so not my forte, though.

"Look into Nat's eyes," I said.

Julia chuckled. "Is she going to hypnotize me?"

"No. I want you to look at her contacts."

"Huh. Did you somehow put projectors on a contact lens? But how did you get them in my eyes?" She started rubbing her eyes vigorously. "Make the box pop up again."

I resent the invite.

She rubbed her eyes again. "It's not going away."

Well, she was nothing if not persistent.

"Can we proceed now?" I asked.

"Sure."

I received another notification that Julia Terrell had rejected my invitation. This time, though, the pop up contained information that I wasn't expecting.

Oops. The next time I sent her an invite was the final time I could do so. No more playing around.

Meanwhile, Julia was staring into Nat's eyes.

"Uh," Julia said after a while, "I don't see contacts. Did you get surgery?"

"No, I didn't."

"And you can see right now?"

Nat nodded.

"You're serious? Pinky swear serious?"

Nat again held out her hand, and, again, the two grasped pinkies. If the situation wasn't so serious, it would have been funny seeing two college girls acting like kids.

"I don't understand," Julia said.

"Nat accepted her invite," I said. "She has system access, and it allows her, like it does me, to increase each of six stats. One of those is C-O-N, which we believe stands for constitution. When Nat increased that stat by one, her vision got better to a degree that her glasses were too strong for her. She then increased the same stat again and now believes her eyes to be somewhere close to 20/20."

Julia frowned. "You realize how insane that sounds, right?" She turned to Nat. "You realize how insane that sounds."

"I absolutely do," Nat said, "but it is one hundred percent the truth."

"But-"

"No," I said.

"What do you mean, no?" Julia asked.

"I mean that there is no way we're going to be able to convince you that this is real. That's a pointless waste of time. We need to get down to brass tacks."

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"And, by that you mean explaining to me how much your assistance is going to cost me," Julia said.

I blew out a breath. This was going to be the hardest part of all. Still, just like always, I felt it was best just to lay my cards on the table.

"Do you have any experience with online role playing games?" I asked.

"Like going to a chatroom and I pretend to be a naughty nurse and the guy is my patient? That kind of role playing?"

I face palmed, well, in my head, anyway. I swore that the next girl we added would be a gamer, not that I had any intention of adding any more.

"No, but never mind that avenue of inquiry," I said. "The general concept of a system is that a user gains experience points for performing tasks, either by killing goblins or by completing quests given by the villagers or whatever. After a certain amount of XP, the user levels up and gains points they can use to make their character stronger, like Nat did with her constitution. With me so far?"

Julia, not being an idiot, nodded.

"I know that was all a little obvious," I said, "but it's important. Obviously, Nat and I are living in the real world. As of yet, we have not seen a single goblin. There hasn't even been a hint from the system that we will ever see a goblin. So how do we get experience and level?"

Natalie looked away, her face red.

Julia noticed. "Oh, oh. Let me guess. Sexual favors. I have to sleep with you or her or both of you. That's where the three-way comes in."

"No," I said. "Hard no. No one has to sleep with anyone."

"Has to?"

I sighed. "Nat's first quest was to flash me her bra."

"Okay. I can imagine that being difficult for her."

"As far as I can tell, actual sex acts are not valid quest subjects unless they're inherently embarrassing to the person performing the act," I said. "But the things she has to do tend to, uh, I'm not sure the best way to say it."

"Make both you and her horny as fuck and compel you to mate like rabbits?" Julia suppled helpfully.

"Not exactly," I said.

But not really completely inaccurate, either.

Nat's face was burning. Julia smirked.

"Anyway, we'd want things to be much different with you," I said. "Nat and I have just started dating, and neither of us want to risk messing that up. If you decide to do this, there would be a strict no touching policy, and you and I would never be alone. You’d mainly be doing quests with Nat present, not me. And, to be clear, I'd only be doing any of this in an attempt to help my girlfriend's friend. She is my priority, not you. If not for your circumstances, neither Nat nor I would even consider doing this. Understood?"

Julia laughed and not just a chuckle, either. It was a full blown belly laugh.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"You. This situation. Take your pick."

"I'm sorry, but I don't see anything funny about this."

That made her laugh louder. People at other tables glanced over at us.

When she finally settled down, she said, "Look at this from my point of view, right? I'm an attractive girl. I have guys trying to get into my pants all the time. I've seen it all. Guys with game, guys with no game. Everything. But this?"

I shrugged.

"A guy comes to me, tells me he can cure my cancer. Does things that are very improbable. I can't figure out the con, so I tell him to give me his pitch. It soon becomes apparent what the price is going to be. I have to have sex with him, right? It's logical, fits all my life experiences to date. It makes sense. But no. Instead he's only begrudgingly helping me and warns me off, telling me that there is no way he's going to have sex with me under any circumstances. I'd almost think you were trying reverse psychology if I didn't see the way you're looking at Nat."

Okay. I mean, I guess it was a little ironic, but it wasn't like hysterical or anything.

"You know what? Screw it. I'm in," she said. "It’s impossible for you to cure my cancer, obviously. My odds of survival for the next five years are worse than me winning the Powerball, and nothing about your little blue panel is going to change that. But, this is entertaining. The two of you keep surprising me with things completely out of left field, and, honestly, I'm willing to trade a little of my dignity for a distraction from the pure hell I'm facing."

That was one of the first times her façade had totally crumbled. This girl was in pain. I felt horrible for her.

Normally, I'd have gone through the whole "are you sure" confirmation thing with her, but there was no reason to mess around. I sent her the invite again.

"If you don't accept this time, the system won't let me ask you again."

I need not have bothered with the warning. A box popped up almost immediately.

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