Castle was taken aback by the confidence with which these men spok37e about Aster’s death and it took her a moment to compile her thoughts: “Bullshit.” Efficiently compiled.

  “I’m serious,” Derrick said.

  “So am I. I’ve been keeping an eye on her for longer than that.”

  “Keeping an eye on her? I thought you were her nurse,” Matt said, moving in such a way to trigger Castle’s sense of danger. She needed to deescalate, and soon.

  “I was,” she said, lowering her voice abruptly, making the men lean in to hear her better and simultaneously disrupting the flow of the conversation. Seeing it worked, she kept the play going. She turned around to grab her halberd, using it like a staff to lean on as she continued. “She wasn’t very receptive to my help.”

  “Sure sounds like her,” she heard Derrick mutter.

  “Before we continue,” Castle said, “can we agree to not allow this to turn violent?”

  Derrick turned to Matt and shrugged. “Fine by me, but I still want to know what’s going on.”

  “So do I.” Castle breathed a sigh of relief. “Now, can you tell me your story?”

  “Tell us yours first,” Matt said, clearly not liking how the situation had calmed down.

  “Why should I?” Her grip tightened momentarily on her halberd.

  “Because we outnumber you,” he smirked.

  “Then go and get some more friends and we’ll call it an even fight,” Castle shifted her weight, casually lowering her center of gravity.

  Their pissing contest ended when Derrick intervened. “Chill, man. Fuck,” he swore as he pushed Matt back. With a deep sigh he turned to Castle and motioned at the ground. “Maybe we can all sit together for a bit and talk? We came here for water, but there was no rush. I’d rather hear your story, but I don’t mind sharing ours.”

  Castle agreed, ignoring the glare Matt gave her and clearing a space for them to sit. She was thankful she hadn’t stripped completely when she’d rinsed off in the water, though her trousers dripped and her undershirt clung to her chest. She threw on her shirt and took a seat across from the men.

  They told her their story, of how they were in class together when the initiation hit and the tutorial started. They and some classmates had banded together and set up a camp closer to the edge of the island. There were maybe forty people there as of earlier that morning, with most following one of their professors who’d taken charge of the situation— a Professor Charles who taught in medicine.

  Castle filled them in on the basics of how she and Aster had ended up entering the tutorial together and how they’d fought the springclaw raptors. This met her with looks somewhere between befuddled and impressed.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  “You actually fought those things?” Matt seemed completely taken aback.

  “Yeah,” Castle said, running a hand through her hair. “Honestly, once you get your feet wet you can get the hang of it pretty quickly.”

  “The hang of what, exactly?” Derrick asked. “Fighting?”

  She shrugged in response. “Moreso the System itself. Skills and skill selections and whatnot. It’s pretty user-friendly, and once you’ve made a skill selection it kind of… fills in the gaps? Now,” she cleared her throat. “Tell me about Aster. What happened?”

  “Well,” Derrick said, taking a breath. “There isn’t really much to say. It was a long time coming, from everything I’d heard.”

  “Yeah,” Matt followed up. “I don’t know what kind it was, only that it was bad. Like, really bad.”

  Derrick continued. “I got the news from a friend, who said they heard it from one of their professors. I think Aster was supposed to participate in a trial or some testing or something because her cancer was so aggressive. It never happened, obviously.”

  “We all had a little candlelight vigil at the lab,” Matt shook his head. “It was stupid.”

  “It was her favorite place,” Derrick admonished. He turned back to Castle. “She spent more time in the lab than anywhere else. I vaguely understand some of the stuff she worked on, but a lot of it was beyond me.”

  “We’re medical students,” Matt clarified. “Aster’s work was adjacent to us at best.”

  “She was a lab rat,” Derrick agreed.

  “So how did you guys meet?”

  “Murph,” the boys said simultaneously, as if that meant something.

  “And who is Murph?” Castle asked.

  “Aster’s girlfriend,” Matt said.

  Castle blinked. “She’s gay?”

  “That’s the surprising part for you? Not that everyone thought she was dead?”

  “No,” Castle shook her head, “obviously not. I just didn’t know.”

  “Well,” Derrick said, “she and Murph have been together for a couple of years. She took it badly when Aster passed.”

  “So she’s how you all know each other?”

  “I doubt anyone would have met Aster outside the lab without Murph, yeah.”

  Castle frowned and considered what she knew. She’d been hired to help Aster around the same time these guys said she’d died, which was already a while after she’d stopped attending classes. Was there any sort of correlation?

  “Is Murph in the tutorial?” Castle asked.

  Derrick nodded. “We saw her yesterday. She should be back at the camp right now.”

  Castle perked up. “You have a camp?”

  “Yeah,” Matt said. “Back the way we came.”

  “Do you think you’re leveling up fast enough in such a large group?”

  Derrick took of his glasses to wipe them on his shirt, and Matt was suspiciously silent.

  “What’s going on?” Castle could read the room and it felt weirdly tense.

  Derrick sighed and spoke, explaining like a child apologizing for their parents’ behavior. “Our professor has taken lead of the group, and is of the opinion that this is all some sort of mass hallucination or virtual reality test or something. He thinks the only way out is to not participate, and a lot of the people there agree with him.”

  “…What does that mean, exactly?” Castle asked.

  Matt’s shoulders slumped. “A large group of people have collectively agreed not to try and level up. They think once the week’s over, if we’re in last place we’ll be expunged from the hallucination or whatever.”

  “That’s crazy,” Castle scoffed.

  “Crazier than the universe ending and being replaced by video game logic?” Derrick met her eye.

  Castle didn’t hesitate to respond. “Fucking yes, it is.” She stood up and moved to grab her things. “Let’s go.”

  “Go where?” Matt asked as Derrick stood alongside Castle.

  “Take me to your camp,” Castle said. She’d already been set on helping the other people in the Tutorial, but now she really felt the pressure on her. Their situation was worse than she could have guessed, and she wondered if Aster was faring any better.