Page 342 of Light Leech

“Each player is their own, as is every deck. You’ll figure it out. You’re sharp, even if I make fun of you.”

“Anything you can tell me about this card, at least?” I held out Zhu’s card. “Or do you have any idea what these Light Leechs actually are?”

“I’ve never heard of them in the game, but maybe they are a new expansion that has materialized to help real-world assassins? That is, if you think the people who tried to kill you were elite Luminate League players.”

“I have no zegging idea.”

“Great, because neither do I. It’ll be one of our many questions for the shac at the end of the line.”

“Then can you tell me anything about my card?”

“Let me see. It’s an elite rare–”

“Is that the best?”

“Yeah, but like most games, all it really means is that it is valuable. A lot of guk cards are ER, but you’ve got a better chance at something worthwhile. He’s a spirit type card, go figure, which means your deck is probably all spirit based. Duo-type decks are quite uncommon, especially for beginners, so I would go for a spirit-based strategy. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to choose your ability cards, but you’ll want to focus on cards that increase team synergy. His abilities though, well–”

Ralia disappeared. My card floated before me and increased in thickness. The deck had formed and joined me in the starry ether of black and grey pixels. I couldn’t see anything besides my cards and the empty abyss around me. There were no walls or ceiling. I could not see the solid ground beneath me, but I felt something supporting me. Despite my trembling, I didn’t dare move, worrying that I might plummet to some absence of existence.

The number fifty appeared before me in bright white light. A subtraction sign floated on the left with an additional sign on the right.

The announcer spoke with subtitles appearing below the number like game captions. “Please select your preferred ability card count.”

“Can I look at them before I choose?” I shouted into the ether. I had no idea what my strategy would be, especially not knowing any of the cards in my deck, but I figured reading through the ability cards would give me a better idea of how to play. Abbas, when he had been Ali, had been into some complex strategy games. I wonder if he still was. Back when we used to play together, I had figured out that the best way to learn was through immersion and feigned confidence.

“Please select your preferred ability card count.”

“Can I look at my deck?

“Please select your preferred ability card count.”

Frightened that I would lose any choice, I adjusted the number to thirty. I paused and a green accept button appeared below the number. Just before hitting accept, I moved to thirty-five, feeling that I might play a more conservative style than Ralia.

I hit accept.

The pixelated abyss shifted into a colosseum with rows of spectators cheering.

I would have been terrified if their shouts didn’t have the off-human aftertaste of programmed beings. I stood on a platform that I felt was ten feet by ten feet. A few feet in front of my panel four rectangular panels floated beside each other, each a metallic platform the size of a skyride with the numbers one through four. The other side of the colosseum floor was a reflection mine, though there was a field between us, large enough for a soccer match. The field was a blank canvas of multicolored pixels that appeared more substantial than the abyss that had previously encased me. To my misfortune, I had not left the pixelated abyss. Despite the augmented scenery, the abyss spanned below the platforms like a ghastly ocean.

My gaze shot up to avoid the haunting sight below. The ten by ten platform across from me was no longer empty. A woman, though not the neurocore outline that I had grown used to seeing, stood in extravagant Violet-district-worthy apparel with cartoonish accents that made me feel like I was in some kind of animated card battling mindshow.

A deck appeared on my right and five cards floated before me with a slow bob. A video cube appeared in the air above the pixelated battlefield. As it rotated, each side showed a different angle. One focused on me, another on my opponent, with the other two forced on our respective platforms for playing our four legend cards, if my assumption based on Ralia’s rules was correct.

I prayed she taught me well, knowing that Ralia had her own set of rules for almost everything out there. Programming, hacking, speaking to authority; anything that required constraint usually changed according to her preferences. Unfortunately, it worked for her.

“Welcome to the first round of the Luminate Test!” I looked up to an artificial face on the video cube. It looked human enough to distract the untrained eye. Its face and voice were androgynous and lacked any qualities that would cause one to remember who it was moments later. Lacking all significant features and possessing the most vanilla forms of human identity, it was the perfect mask for whatever being was running this Test.

“Challenger PetNeb joins us on the red side of the arena. Let’s hear it for Challenger PetNeb!”

I stared across the arena at my opponent. The distance obscured her face, but I was sure it was as contemptuous as mine. How could she not be filled with resentment? Neither of us knew each other, but that didn’t matter. Failure could mean elimination. I didn’t care whatever self-adoring crusade she was on. Mine was selfless and for that, I had to be selfish. If she knew what my failure could mean, perhaps she would surrender, but I doubted the humility of a prideful Scholar. Perhaps I was wrong for thinking her motives were so shallow, but I couldn’t let any justification for mercy pass through. I had fed on innocents before and found a way to justify that. If ghosts lingered from these defeats, so be it.

“Challenger MayWat joins us on the green side of the arena. Let’s hear it for Challenger MayWat!”

The crowd erupted with mirrored vigor.

“The gamble deck has been set to match the theme for this round. This rounds’ theme is…” The voice paused as the field took shape, morphing from a nondescript pixelated field into a fleshy platform with a moist pink sheen. Small pockets dipped throughout the field with some bubbles popping up like mounds of malignant tissue. The edge was trimmed with villi that moved like sentient tentacles. “... the human intestine!”

Any idea what this means?