The Lone Healer-Chapter 131: Obstacles, Part Six

{Charlotte}

"So, what are we to make of this new message?" A news anchor asked Charlotte. The pink-haired woman sat on her couch, speaking to this anchor in a livestream that was currently holding the attention of over two hundred thousand viewers. "What are the potential implications of it?"

"Well, the fact that the Forces That Be have seen fit to raise the price of internet service so dramatically shows that the failure to communicate with the other nine groups that attempted the Final Challenge was not an accident and was not due to human failure. It was by design." Charlotte said, subtly reading from the notes she’d written down prior. "Given that it’s been so long since they went into the Final Challenge and yet the players have been unable to make this purchase also shows that the rate at which one gains tokens in the Final Challenge is not increased."

Some guild representatives were in the call as well. Luna Ilyvain, one of the top mages working for the Valkyries, said:

"We sent in quite a few players who had large stashes of tokens. If they each used their donation system to funnel money into one person, by now, they should have been able to buy it."

"So, what does this mean?" The anchor asked.

"From this message that Charlotte received," Luna continued, "we can deduce that players are likely deprived of their tokens when they are sent into the Final Challenge."

The stream’s chat went crazy as people reacted to that information. It was moving so fast, with so many sudden messages, that Charlotte could barely read it.

"However," Charlotte added, "although they are unable to keep their tokens going into the challenge, they are able to receive donations."

"I feel like I’m going to be asking this a lot over the course of the show, but what does that mean?" The anchor asked once more.

"It means that the Forces That Be likely meant for us to fund the players ourselves. To fund their journey through the Final Challenge through donations after they’ve entered."

"I like the idea," Walter Strickland, a representative of the Steel Hearts, said. His voice boomed in Charlotte’s headphones. "But, how can we be sure that the money isn’t being wasted? It’s possible for us to send donations to dead players. What if thousands and thousands of tokens end up being thrown at a dead body?"

"We know of one player who is alive and well, don’t we?" Charlotte quickly replied with a smile. "See, I have a bit of a suggestion."

"Okay, let’s hear it." Walter crossed his ironclad arms, leaning in a little too close to his webcam, almost like he’d be able to hear Charlotte more clearly if he did.

"Once this call is over, a fundraiser will go live that I have set up," Charlotte declared in front of 200K listeners. "Neve Stephens. I wish to raise 100K tokens to give to her. Send her all of the money we can and ask her to buy internet. Wouldn’t that be our best option?"

"If we can trust her, sure," Luna replied sternly. "But, how do we know she’ll use it for the internet? What if she wastes it on something else? There’s a very real chance that internet service isn’t the only thing that’s had its prices adjusted. Food could cost more and shelter could cost more. What if we all just lose that money?"

"It’s a risk we’ll have to take," Charlotte responded. "I fully believe that this is the best chance humanity has had to learn about not just the Final Challenge, but the Unity Trials as a whole. I don’t know Neve Stephens personally, but I am willing to bet my wallet on this. I hope others feel the same way. Besides," she added, "there are 200 thousand people listening to this right now. If you all sent just a single token, she’d have all the money she needs and then some, wouldn’t she?"

It was done.

Charlotte had just planted the seeds of hope in the viewers’ minds.

Now, all she could do was wait.

As she’d noted before, giving Starlight City an injection of hope was the best way she could think of to deal with the Hidden Blade guild. This was a war that Charlotte had declared on them. War for the minds of Starlight City’s citizens, and this had been Charlotte’s first punch.

The rest of the call went by smoothly. Charlotte gave her farewell and left the call.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her laptop and leaned back on her couch.

[I... I think I did a decent enough job.] All of the words she’d just spoken played back in her mind. She criticized herself, wondering if perhaps she could have worded certain parts differently or not.

But, it didn’t matter. The call was done and the message had been sent.

[... It would actually blow, however, if Neve doesn’t buy internet with that money. Please, don’t let the crush I have on you sour like that,] she pleaded in her thoughts.

At that moment, Charlotte smelled something.

The peculiar scent of something burning reached her nostrils. Immediately, her first thought was to check her kitchen. Maybe she’d left something cooking and forgot about it. As soon as she saw that this wasn’t the case, though, she quickly realized what was probably happening.

[Merde.]

She ran over to her window. Opening it and leaning out of it, her thoughts were confirmed.

Someone had set her house on fire.

---

{Neve}

The object Erin had seen earlier but been unable to grab was something that resembled a thick needle with a few ridges along its length. Helpfully, there was a message above it that read:

{Key 1}

Behind the floating object was a ghostly child, one with no face, no eyes, and yet Neve could feel it staring at her.

[There’s no level over its head... Part of the Floor Quest, maybe?]

"Um... Hey."

As awkward as it was, Neve couldn’t think of how else to approach this thing.

The child showed no reaction. Erin slithered over to it.

"Is this an enemy? Some illusion meant to lower our guard?"

"Don’t think so."

Neve kneeled in front of the kid.

"Uh... Is there anything you need? Anything you want to say?"

The child tilted its head.

[Am I missing something?]

Just as she asked herself that, the child extended a hand toward her like it was asking for a handshake.

[Hm. Okay. After what Lia ended up doing, I’m pretty hesitant to trust any NPCs but, I don’t really see why the Forces That Be would put something dangerous literally right next to the first key on the floor. Fuck it, let’s see what happens.]

On that note, Neve placed her right hand over the child’s own.

As soon as she did, the world went blank.

A couple of seconds passed and, suddenly, Neve was no longer on that tower.

Instead, she was in the middle of one of the streets she’d just been walking on prior to this. Only, she was a lot shorter, and there was no green fog clogging up the area around her.

People walked through the city with bright smiles and cheery attitudes. Their features had been hard to discern due to their ghostly appearance, but as they appeared now in the flesh, Neve realized something.

These people looked quite a lot like Ahlakan.

In the moment, she had no thoughts about that, though. Mainly, because the thoughts going through her mind currently did not belong to her. She was licking some sort of a lollipop as she walked across the street with the others, her short, thin legs pushing her across slowly.

Until the sky suddenly darkened and the air grew colder. Confused screams began to sound off in the distance, but Neve had no clue what to make of it all.

Not until her father, who’d been walking along with her, picked her up and started running away from something.

The shouting turned to crying, roaring, and yelling, and Neve could hear blades cutting through flesh behind her.

The last thing she saw was the hint of a monster up ahead, descending from the skies.

She didn’t get a good look at it, though, as everything went black immediately after, and a sharp pain reached the back of Neve’s head.

Neve opened her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Erin asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You went into a trance."

All of the images Neve had just seen went through her mind once again, burning themselves into her memories.

"... Yeah," Neve replied, taking a deep breath. "I’m fine."

The child disappeared.

Neve grabbed the key and put it in her Inventory.

[1 down, 3 to go,] she thought, as she tried to get those memories out of her mind. The ones that did not belong to her, but were now as much a part of her head as any others.