“ROSE!” I screamed.

  Jujud dragged me to the ground, grabbing her earpiece. “Soise! Soise come in! Do you hear me?! Grind’s having another—” she groaned. “Stupid technology isn’t working.”

  I was breathing heavily, my three remaining bands burning against my wrist and ankles.

  Rose stood, walking under the shadow of the trees. Her eyes were blank, turned black, and she had grown much, much heavier, each step crushing foliage into a paste.

  {Rose : 40k Hp 12k Str}

  [This unit has been afflicted by {Unknown affliction}]

  She charged.

  Master Jujud barely spared her a glance, flicking mana off one finger. But that break in concentration gave me the room to wrench myself from her grip, flinging Crapshovler out into the stream of energy. The two projectiles bashed against one another, throwing each other to the side.

  And Rose was still sprinting toward us.

  There had to be something I could do.

  “Grind!” Master Jujud shouted, grabbing me by the heel. I fell, ducking beneath Rose’s swipe to kick Master Jujud’s feet from underneath her. She fell hard, splitting the boulder we stood on.

  She grit her teeth, throwing the halves of rock into the distant sky.

  I stood between her and Rose. “I’m okay, Jujud. But this is a friend of mine, and I want to help her. Okay?”

  “NO!” Master Jujud clenched her hands into fists. “What part of ‘exterminate the monsters’ can’t you understand?”

  “I stopped the infection,” I stated, holding up Rose’s screen. “So she shouldn't spread it to anyone else.”

  Rose swiped at my head, cracking her nails again.

  “Shouldn’t—” Jujud cut off with a sigh. “Grind, no. I don’t fully understand how your ability works, but it’s far too much of a risk to keep any trace of that disease alive!” She massaged her head. “It was a mistake bringing you here in the first place. You weren’t ready and I’m sorry for that.”

  I waited. “Are there other villages in this area?”

  “Of course,” Master Jujud stated. “Probably hundreds. Why?”

  By that point, I was already in the sky, holding onto Rose.

  “GRIND!” She shouted.

  I ignored her, diving into a speck of brown on the edge of the forest. Rose bit my thumb, snapping out of my grasp and vanishing into the forest, moments before I hit the ground, scattering dirt into the sky.

  “Rose!” I shouted, wiping the black blood off my finger. “Rose—”

  A piece of straw crunched under my feet. Twine had been wrapped around the top to form a neck and stubby little arms.

  This was a doll.

  I looked up.

  It was a village, recently blown apart. Goblins lay dead, some strewn over houses and roads and others heaped up into piles as they dissolved, dropping stats. If I looked closer, I could make out their moments before death. Some had tried to fight, nicking their claws or chipping teeth. Others had used themselves as shields in a fruitless attempt to spare loved ones.

  I saw multiple dead children.

  Not one of them had been infected.

  Sip laughed, cracking another orb.

  {Sip : (+40) 3k Hp}

  [Iron]

  When he saw me land, he gave a cheerful wave. “Grind! Guess who made IRON!---”

  And then I was holding him off the ground by the front of his shirt, staring directly into his eyes.

  Sip cut off, more in shock than fear. “You good?”

  I forced myself to drop him.

  “Sip,” I whispered, “none of those Npcs were infected.”

  He seemed almost taken aback. “You know I can’t fight the big guys. Is it that—”

  “No.”

  “Ah,” he chuckled nervously. “Of course not.” when Jujud landed, Sip whirled toward her. “Hey, is he—”

  “Grind’s acting up, Sip!” Master Jujud snapped. “Careful!”

  Sip took a step backward.

  I wasn’t paying attention.

  Someone, somewhere inside the wreckage had started crying.

  I moved first, ducking underneath Master Jujud as she lunged, skirted through the remains of a fallen watch tower to find a twelve year old girl, holding onto the decaying remains of her father.

  When she saw me the girl screamed, pulling a knife from her belt and half-heartedly throwing it, bouncing off my shoulder without the slightest bit of injury.

  Master Jujud tore the wreckage apart, aiming another blast of mana. “Sip! We’ll likely have to restrain Grind until—!”

  Sip stood between me and Master Jujud, arms extended. “Whoa, okay, settle down.” he pointed to Master Jujud. “This is clearly some sort of atrocious misunderstanding and absolutely is not going to help Grind if he is in some sort of state.” He pointed toward me. “Seriously though, what’s going on?”

  “These are Npc goblins,” I hissed. “They’re people!”

  “No, they’re monsters,” Sip snapped back. “C’mon Grind. You get exp and orbs from them, which you don’t get when killing Npcs. Second, they live in the wild, while Npc goblins live with human civilization. The game makes it very clear what is and isn’t a ‘monster.’”

  The girl quivered. Too scared to run, she sat behind me, watching and shaking.

  She had slightly longer fangs and claws than Rose or Junior, and there was a difference in her skin’s green hue, but her eyes were real. They had to be. But Sip was also right, judging by the accelerating rating the goblins were decaying, they were also monsters.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  But not all monsters are monsters. Some monsters are people.

  Master Jujud’s expression softened. “Do you feel bad for them?” She grimaced. “That’s…explains a lot. Look, why don’t you go home?”

  “Home?”

  “We’ll take you back to the Union,” Master Jujud stated, kneeling beside me. “You can go on another mission somewhere else. Fight a couple Cores.”

  “No.”

  “Grind…”

  The girl hunched over.

  Black spots appeared on her skin.

  Then stopped.

  I was panting for breath, dizzy after freezing another screen as the power in the bands increased.

  By this point, I was already well over my mental limit, and I could feel the strain that was putting on the rest of my mind. I grit my teeth, forcing myself to keep conscious.“I’m not leaving unless you promise not to kill them.”

  “They’re already getting infected!” Sip stated. “This town has some good cover and walls, so they’re better off than most, but if even one infected goblin gets in, we’d face another crisis all over again! Grind, please, be reasonable. They’ll all respawn in a couple days, right? What’s the harm?”

  “Actions have consequences, Sip,” I stated. “No matter how many times they can be done and undone.”

  There was a crash of foliage and a familiar rapid pitter-patter of feet on grass.

  “Where’s Rose?”

  She tore through the brush, grabbing the girl by the arm, teeth bared.

  She was going to kill her.

  Blood stained the ground.

  {NOTICE}

  [Party member : {Rose} has been killed]

  [{Rose} has not met the requirements for respawning. {Rose} has been erased]

  [[Large Purchase Offer] [Warranty] has expired.]

  Sip backpedaled the moment he saw the screen. “Oh. Oh! I didn’t know you had slaves!

  “He doesn’t, or he thinks he doesn’t,” Master Jujud sighed. “Let me guess, Grind. You pitied the monsters, so you bought them, and rather than put them to work, you ‘freed’ them. Some of those slaves ended up here, and now you think all goblins have feelings, right?”

  I nodded in cold silence.

  The girl screamed, running away.

  “But Grind, monsters are not human. They cannot be. Nor do they truly ‘feel’ anything. It’s all fake.” She knelt beside me, gesturing to the air. “All of this. It’s all fake. Buying monsters doesn't make them your family.”

  “I know that.”

  “Monsters are meant to behave realistically, but that doesn’t make them real. What’s with the change? You don’t feel anything killing a core, do you?”

  I grit my teeth. “Cores kill people.”

  “Goblins kill other goblins,” Master Jujud snapped back. “Haven’t you learned anything in the Academy? Every single monster must kill other beings to stay alive.”

  “Is that their fault?”

  Master Jujud hesitated. “Look, whether it’s their fault or not they have to deal with the consequences. I’ve seen too many people make hasty generalizations regarding the systems in Tetratera, tearing themselves to pieces for what they considered a ‘worthy cause.’ Monsters don’t care if you save them. Monsters don’t care if you kill them. Anything they do, they do because that’s what the game expects of them. Don’t you understand?”

  “Are we monsters?”

  Sip scoffed. “Of course not.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I’m a player.”

  “Which means?”

  Sip frowned. “We’re humans, Grind. We have dreams.”

  “Monsters don’t?”

  “No.” He hesitated. “Well, I—I’ve never asked one.”

  “Grind,” Master Jujud warned. “You’re getting off topic.”

  “Do monsters think they’re monsters, or do they think they’re people?” I grit my teeth. “If a monster thinks they’re people, how is their belief invalid when we use the same logic? If a monster believes themselves to be a monster, isn’t that the definition of self-consciousness? And if they can change, isn’t that worth something.”

  Master Jujud's mana was visible in the air, crackling in low blues around us. “Grind, I know you think you’re right, and you may truly believe the whole world is wrong, but you have to understand that we—the Union—have played this game for a long, long time. We must have priorities.”

  There was a scream and the sound of orbs clacking against stone.

  Ardenidi walked around the corner. “Hey, is something going on?” She glanced from me to Master Jujud, then to the screen above her head.

  Ardenidi sighed. “Barely anything.”

  {Ardenidi : (+25) 10k Hp}

  “What’s with the monsters around here?” She muttered. “Nobody had any good loot.”

  “The goblin,” I started. “Is she dead?”

  Ardenidi frowned. “I just fought one on the way here. But it wasn’t infected, so there's no need to worry.”

  Our eyes met, and she flinched back. “Grind? Hey, are you feeling okay?”

  “No, he’s not,” Master Jujud said, tensing for a fight.

  “He had a servant in this region, who got infected,” Sip stated. “Master Jujud had to kill her, and he’s taking it hard.”

  “I didn’t know you had servants—” Ardenidi cut off. “Oh. Ah. Bought and freed a slave, right?”

  Sip nodded.

  “Well that sucks,” she said. “I haven’t seen it a lot, but it makes sense. No offense Grind, but you’re definitely the kind of guy slavers prey on.” She took my hand into hers, briefly startled. “Your pulse is really fast.”

  Ba-bump bump. Ba-bump bump. Ba-bump bump.

  Ardenidi smiled. “Grind, it’s going to be okay.”

  Ba-bump bump.

  “Why don’t we take him back to the Academy,” Ardenidi offered. “I’ll watch over him.”

  Ba-bump bump. Ba-bump bump.

  “Are we players?” Sip whispered.

  Master Jujud glowered at him. “Not you too.”

  Sip shrugged. “It’s a trippy thought, but actually pretty reasonable. If we’re all AI, we may convince ourselves we are human because of preferential treatment from the game. In that case—”

  “In that case all our actions are governed by a computer, and nothing means anything,” Master Jujud snapped back. “And in that case, if it doesn't matter what we try to do, we might as well try to beat the game, even by killing other AI.”

  Sip nodded slowly. “Ah. Well that clears that up.”

  Ba-bump bump bump bump bump

  “There we go.” Ardenidi squeezed my hand. “Does that explain your problem?”

  “No.”

  She sighed. “Soise? Could you call Grind a ride back?”

  “It’s wrong.” I said.

  Ba-bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump.

  Everyone glanced at me.

  “It just feels wrong.”

  “Hardly an argument,” Sip chuckled.

  “It’s true, though,” I sighed.

  Master Jujud clasped her hands. “You’re very stressed, so why don’t we resume this discussion some other time? For now, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Okay?”

  “Okay.” I stood. “I’ll believe as I see fit, and you may believe whatever you wish. I will not claim any sort of moral superiority until I have a better understanding of this whole mess.”

  Sip let out a sigh of relief. “Glad that’s over.”

  “As for me, I feel a belief without action is meaningless.”

  I jumped and the ground disappeared.

  // {Notice} //

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