Free Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy by William D. Arand Page A

Persuaded
     
    This would be acceptable.
     
    “New part of the deal. I’m also going to give you the entire entry on common sayings and slang. You’re not a robot, are you?”
    Shoving one of the blueberries into its little mouth, the squirrel picked up the next one. Runner flicked another blueberry towards it.
    The blueberry rolled to a stop at the squirrel’s feet. After stuffing the second one into its furry face, it immediately grabbed the third.
     
    No, I am an Artificial Intelligence.
     
    “Yeah, not buying that. I’m betting you’re no different than the rest of my group. You’re questioning, watching, learning. How about this then. Are you male or female?”
    Runner threw one more blueberry out and the item vanished. He turned and began walking back to his room.
     
    My host was female.
     
    “I dub thee Srit, female of her race. For our personal relationship, the common sayings and slang database is free. For your help with the database tables, we’ll begin the deal as described.”
    Selecting the appropriate file in the mainframe, he packaged it up and brought it up into his personal desktop space. He created a username and profile for Srit in the ship’s computer, then sent the file over.
    “I’ve constructed you a username to use in the ship’s system. You’re now Srit001. I’ll need you to create a profile for yourself. Please attach it to the username I just provided for you. This requirement will be in addition to all previous terms and conditions. Please respond in the affirmative, without using ‘Acceptable,’ ‘Yes,’ or ‘Agreed’ for confirmation of your acceptance to my terms.”
    There was a delay in her response, a pause. There had never been a pause before in his conversations with Srit.
    Reaching the door to his room, he jerked it open and stepped inside. Looking up to the ceiling, he waited.
    Making the best use of his time, he called up the logs of the quests he’d been offered today. He’d need the flags for each Natural he’d encountered. As well as the quest name to begin identifying each quest node and its owned flags.
     
    Sure.

Chapter 4 - Quest Breaker -
    3:31am Sovereign Earth time
    11/07/43
     
    Runner stopped and pressed his hands to his eyes. It had taken far longer than he had originally expected, but they were close. Very close. Only a few more nodes and flags to check and he could get a few hours of sleep.
     
    You are weary.
     
    “Very. My pod works to put me to rights during sleep and administers things to balance out any imbalance in my head. The less time I spend sleeping, the less time it gets to fix me,” he said with a frown. Dropping his hands from his face, he tapped at the screen and linked the flag he’d finished to the princess.
    “I think I’m done. Please confirm?”
     
    Confirmed.
     
    Runner cleared his throat and tapped the table he had been sitting at since he came back to the room.
    Unacceptable response, Srit…
     
    Good to go.
     
    Nodding his head, he checked his workroom one more time. It was empty.
    Nadine and Hannah had checked in on him briefly when they returned, then went to bed. The separate sleeping arrangements had spared him from worrying over disturbing them with his frequent nightmares. They were coming on more violently each time. Certainly the pod was doing its best to help treat him, though it had limited tech in comparison to the medical server.
    There were times he felt like his sanity was starting to crack, where intrusive thoughts would appear and dominate his mind .
    Thoughts quickly became reality. He would swear he could smell and taste Hannah’s blood. Splashing over everything in torrential gushers. Ted bathing in it as he laughed over Runner. Dripping, flowing blood. Ted’s lifeless eyes.
    With a grunt and a firm shake of his head, Runner copied the window onto a piece of paper that could be traded in game. After shoving it into his inventory, he ended up hesitating on closing the window.
    A piece of