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  Vicky’s voice rang out in the hallway,

  “We’re back! Have you finished interrogating Phily?”

  “Phily!” Victor rolled his eyes and dissolved into broken-voiced teenage laughter.

  ‘Gran, I’m thirsty!” Xena announced, appearing in the kitchen.

  Aunt Toma jumped up to pour her some water. Victor rose from the table too. “Thanks, Mom. It was great. Dad, can I go and play now?”

  “Sit yourself down!” Vicky’s father barked. “We’re not finished yet! Victoria, come back here. This concerns you too.”

  As Xena was drinking her water, Victor surrendered his place to his sister. She sat down looking at our faces, very concerned.

  “Now,” Uncle Alexey summed it all up. “Victoria, I've listened to your fancy man and had a think. He sings a nice song, very pleasant to listen too, only I have no faith in him at all. You’re a grown woman now, you’ve been married before so it’s up to you how you want to live your life. All I want to say, don’t expect us to give you our blessing for a match with this loafer!”

  “We won’t! Don’t even ask!” Aunt Toma enthusiastically nodded her agreement. “We don’t believe him and you shouldn’t, either!”

  “You keep your mouth shut, Tamara! No one wants to know your opinion!” Vicky’s father slammed his fist down on the table and pronounced his verdict in a voice ringing with indignation. “A fucking salesman! He calls himself a businessman! At his age, your mother and I already had a small place of our own! We had a car and a summer cottage! You wanted for nothing and Victor was already on the way. And all this we did ourselves, your mother and I! Our whole lives we’ve been working hard without ever complaining! And what is this guy? He’s piss poor! He’s trying to get out of the crap he got himself into through his own laziness by sponging off you! I bet it was you who found him that job in the first place! And then your bosses must have realized what a big mouth he was and kicked him out by the scruff of his neck! And you believe all his bullshit? Or are you covering up for him on purpose? You should think with your head and not with your pussy! That’s exactly what he’s counting on! He wants to make you fall for him and marry him All he needs is a free ride and someone to warm his bed in place of his ex-wife! He just saw you were pretty, had a good job and a place of your own so he decided to turn on the charm, nothing more! He won’t be coming here anymore!”

  He uttered the last words slowly and calmly which added an additional gravity to his words. You could tell he wasn’t speaking lightly. This was a man who’d thought everything through in his own way and made his final decision.

  Your Reputation with Mr. Alexey Koval has decreased!

  Current Reputation: Animosity 10/30

  You’ve been dealt critical damage: verbal injury

  -50% to Spirit

  -50% to Confidence

  “Uncle Alexey,” I closed the devastating messages and made one last attempt at righting the unrightable.

  He shook his head, unwilling to listen. “I’ve said everything,” he said softly. “Get out of my house.”

  I rose slowly, still in disbelief this was actually happening, then very nearly collapsed on the floor. I was feverish and nauseous, almost fainting. My vision blurred; I wanted to rub the strange haze from my eyes.

  I closed the Reputation message with Vicky’s mother without even reading it. She would agree with everything he said or did, anyway.

  Supporting me by the elbow, Vicky sat straight as a rod and said in a level, mechanical voice staring fixedly in front of herself,

  “Phil, wait. Xena, get your stuff together. We’re going home.”

  “What’s that now?” heг мother protested. “The child has no business living under the same roof as a strange man! That’s a scandal!”

  “Mom!” Vicky exclaimed, a tear rolling down her cheek.

  “I’ve been your mom for thirty years now! I’m not giving you Xena! Once you’ve split up with him, you can have her! The school is on vacation, anyway, she has no business being in town! At least here the food’s decent and the air’s better!”

  “Mom, please don’t cry,” Xena tried to console her.

  Vicky gave her a peck on the cheek and eased herself away. Kicking the chair away, she rose and dragged me to the door.

  “Vick, wait,” I tried to stop her.

  She snatched her hand away. “I’ll be waiting for you in the car.”

  With those words, she left.

  Me, I couldn’t do the same without giving some answer to her father’s slanderous assumptions. I knew very well that my every word could be conceived as a feeble attempt to redeem myself but I wanted to pour some oil over troubled waters, unwilling to burn any bridges.

  “There is some truth in what you’ve just said,” I told him. “I’m not going to justify my behavior. I can’t prove anything to you now, anyway. The time will come when you realize you were wrong. Thank you very much for your hospitality. Aunt Toma, your pelmenis are out of this world. I’ve never eaten anything like them.”

  No one replied. Vicky’s mother had demonstratively turned her back on me, rattling the plates as she cleared away the table. My once-potential father in law was rolling a cigarette, ignoring me entirely.

  “All right. All the best, then.”

  Staggering (what was it with me?), I headed for the hallway and began putting my shoes on. Victor was the only one of them who came out to see me off.

  “What a shame you’re gonna miss the soccer,” he whispered. “It’s starting in an hour and you’ll be on the road for at least two or three hours.”

  “I might make it for the second half. See you, Victor. Nice to have met you. Don’t play too much Counter Strike. Stay in touch with the real world.”

  He grinned and shook my proffered hand.

  I softly closed the door behind me and left their hospitable abode. Stumbling, I managed to negotiate two flights of stairs before my legs gave way under me and I slid down the wall to the floor. I felt weak and lethargic. Could this be the consequence of him having critted me?

  I reopened the closed messages and carefully read through them.

  Aha. It had nothing to do with the crit. While we’d been busy eating pelmenis, I’d received a system quest. It was the first time I’d ever come across such an ad hoc system ability to generate quests. And to top it all, the quest description seemed to run forever.

  System quest alert!

  Family Bonds I

  This is the first part of the quest chain concerning the Koval family.

  You need to win their trust and approval, bringing your Reputation with each family member to not less than Amicality.

  Current Reputation:

  With Victoria’s father Mr. Alexey Koval: Animosity 25/30

  With Victoria’s mother Mrs. Tamara “Toma” Koval: Animosity 10/30

  With Victoria’s brother Victor: Animosity 10/30

  With Victoria’s daughter Xenia: Indifference 0/30

  Rewards:

  XP: 2,000 pt.

  Reputation with Victoria Koval: 30 pt.

  Current Reputation:

  Psychological Reputation: Amicality 25/30

  Emotional Reputation: Love 1/1

  Penalties:

  Reputation with Victoria Koval: 20 pt.

  Current Reputation:

  Psychological Reputation: Amicality 25/30

  Emotional Reputation: Love 1/1

  XP: 2,000 pt.

  Warning! A decrease in your Reputation with any one family member to Animosity or lower will result in your failing the quest!

  The quest message showed my old Reputation numbers with them. I had a funny feeling I knew what the next messages would be about. Nevertheless, I read them too.

  System quest alert: Family Bonds I. Quest failed!

  Your Reputation with Victoria Koval has decreased!

  Current psychological Reputation: Amicality 5/30

  Current emotional Reputation: Love 1/1

  XP los
t: 2,000 pt.

  Current level: 13. XP points gained: 8700/14000

  Ouch. That was tough. So that’s how the system “rewarded” a user for failing quests and the loss of XP? By making them feel sick? Oh well. This was the proverbial carrot and stick, I suppose. I’ve already consumed quite a few carrots and I’d finally got a taste of the stick.

  Frankly, I didn’t wish to repeat the experience. What I felt could be best described as an extreme case of alcohol poisoning coupled with a fever and high blood pressure. Was the system indeed capable of controlling my body’s biochemistry? Was it possible for it to synthesize some nasty substance and inject it into my blood stream? Some kind of toxin, maybe?

  What I also found strange was the division of Reputation into psychological and emotional. With Yanna, it hadn’t been like that. Nor with Kira or my parents, come to think of it. Their readings were simple: Love 1/1, period. What was this now, some new approach offered by Insight? But it hadn’t reached level 3 yet. Or was the system capable of self-learning so it could now tell the finer aspects of human relationships?

  I might have to ask Martha about it. At the moment, it was all academic.

  I clambered back to my feet and staggered down the stairs, holding tightly onto the banister so as not to fall flat again. I still felt awful but the system didn’t seem to think so. It rewarded me with the same debuff I’d received when I’d just started tackling the interface.

  Apathy

  Duration: 18 hours

  You’re emotionally drained. Your central nervous system needs some rest. We recommend that you get some quality sleep, a balanced diet and some exercise.

  Warning! The state of Apathy can easily escalate to Depression!

  -5% to Satisfaction every 6 hrs.

  -1% to Vitality every 5 hrs.

  -6% to Vigor every 6 hrs.

  -2% to Metabolism every 6 hrs.

  -5% to Confidence every 6 hrs.

  -2% to Willpower every 6 hrs.

  I clenched my teeth and, mustering the last of my strength and willpower, stumbled out of the front door toward the car.

  Everything was fine. Everything would turn out well. Come to think of it, what had happened just now? Just a misunderstanding, that’s all. I would go home now, open my business, employ Alik and start working. Clients would come and with them money would start coming too. We’d make a name for ourselves. And then Vicky and I would come back here. I might ask my own parents and also Kira to come with us to lend it more weight. The main thing now was, I had to get my act together and make sure I didn’t lose what was left of Vicky’s Amicality.

  Strange. Whenever had I lost her Respect? I met so many people these days I made a habit of closing Reputation messages without even reading them. One day I was absent-mindedly crossing the street and I was absolutely flooded with Animosity messages from all the drivers. More than likely, that was how I must have overlooked the message informing me of Vicky’s drop of Reputation.

  By now, I was shivering and shaking all over. I staggered over to the car, grabbed the passenger side door handle and yanked on it several times before I realized that the door was locked and there was nobody in the car.

  Where was Vicky, dammit?

  Then I heard someone scream.

  Chapter Three. I’m Free!

  You couldn’t wipe it out, no matter how hard you tried:

  Freedom is just something I carry inside.

  Sergei Shnurov. Freedom

  I LOOKED AROUND, trying to locate Vicky, but I couldn’t see her. Some children were playing in a sandpit; a young mother on a bench was looking anxiously right and left. She must have heard her scream too.

  Suddenly I felt a whole lot better. My fever, weakness and nausea were gone. Apparently, the penalty for the failed quest had just expired.

  The pain from the stick was much worse than the pleasure derived from the carrot. It was out of all proportion, really: they only rewarded you with a couple of seconds of pleasure for reaching a new level while this agony had lasted for a good five minutes.

  The scream definitely seemed to have come from the row of doors at the far end of the apartment block. I took another look around and ran over to them.

  I had to go almost to the end of the building when I noticed a group of people by one of the many front doors. Only then did I take the situation in and breathed a sigh of relief.

  Vicky was standing there surrounded by women, chatting to them cheerfully. No, she only appeared to be cheerful because her Mood was still not too hot after the visit to her parents.

  “Vicky?” I asked.

  “There he is!” she said to the women and only then turned to me. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I nodded, looking at her friends.

  I’d overestimated their age at first glance. Now I could see they were the same age as Vicky but slightly worse for wear. Two of them — Irina and Olga — resembled little sheep with their hair permed short in an old-fashioned way. Their clothes, too, befitted women in their forties or older. The third one — Natalia — was probably considered a raving beauty by local standards: she was wearing an acid pink track suit, her long raven-black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She had Botoxed lips, thickly painted eyebrows and the waxen complexion of an Instagram doll.

  All three sported high Interest in my respect, Natalia’s being the highest at over 60%. I had to play it cool with them considering Vicky’s jealous streak.

  “Okay girls, we’ve gotta go,” she said to her friends. “I’ll see you around!”

  “Wait a sec, Vic! Aren’t you going to introduce us to your fiancé?” Natalia pouted her lips. “Please!”

  “She’s right, Vic,” Olga nodded. “Introduce us.”

  Vicky nodded her permission.

  “My name’s Philip,” I began. “And you must be Vicky’s friends, of course.”

  “I’m Natasha,” the dark-haired girl said languidly.

  “Olga... Irina...” the two little sheep echoed.

  “Was it my imagination or was one of you screaming just now?” I asked. “Because it was really loud. That’s why I came running. I thought someone was hurting Vicky.”

  “As if!” Natasha chuckled. “She could see most people off if she wanted to. She knows how to defend herself! It was actually me you heard screaming. Or not even screaming, I was just happy for her. You've just proposed to her, haven’t you?” she said with a wink.

  “Yes, he has,” Vicky replied for me. “So have you all introduced yourselves now? We need to go.”

  “Where are you rushing off to? Just because you’ve had an argument with your parents? We thought you were coming for the whole weekend,” Natasha butted in. “Let’s go to my place. I live alone. There’s nobody there to pester you. We can sit down for a chat and a drink and get to know each other a bit better. I have some martini left, how about that?”

  I didn’t need my Intuition to tell me it wasn’t such a healthy idea. I already knew — from my experience with Vicky among other things — that this elevated Interest from the opposite sex toward a complete stranger was bad news. And seeing as this girl was apparently either Vicky’s best friend or sworn enemy, I had to tread very carefully.

  Still, I felt a degree of guilt toward Vicky about our failed meeting with her parents. So I left it up to her. If she wanted us to go, fine; if not, we could just go home.

  In any case, I’d already decided to spend all weekend with her. As it was, I’d been busy every waking moment pushing myself to the limit, afraid of missing a single second without having leveled up, so by now I felt completely depleted. A change of scenery would do me a world of good.

  Then I noticed some shopping bags loaded with groceries on a nearby bench.

  “Are those yours?” I asked Olga. “Would you like me to take them up to your apartment for you?”

  She appeared scared. “Oh no, it’s all right. I can manage.”

  “Her husband is really jealous,” Irina explained. “He’ll pu
nch your lights out first and ask questions afterward.”

  “Vick, that’s one knight in shining armor you have!” Natasha commented on my attempt at chivalry. “Can I borrow him? Joke.”

  “Yeah right! Dream on!” Vicky quipped, ignoring the fact that it had been meant as a joke. Her voice rang with the unfamiliar tough notes of a street urchin. “Thanks for the invitation though. We have to be going.”

  “Look who’s talking!” Natasha stood with her hands on her hips, speaking louder with every word. “We’re a big city lady now, aren’t we? Nose in the air, and not just your nose? Too squeamish to visit your childhood friend? She’s got a posh job in a big company, a car and a place of her own! And now she’s getting married to a big businessman! What did you do to deserve that? You couldn’t study at school to save your life! Where’s the justice here? Some people have it all!”

  “Zip it,” Olga said quietly. “Don’t start.”

  “Natasha, please don’t,” Irina concurred.

  “I don’t mind!” Vicky joined in. “Let her speak! It’s perfectly clear what she’s implying. But who’s she to judge?”

  She turned to me and handed me the car keys. “Go down and wait in the car!”

  The attention of all the girls turned to me.

  So that’s how it was, then. Quite an eye-opener.

  Once back in the company of her old street friends, our cute girl next door had reverted to the role of an alpha bitch in our nascent family.

  Without saying a word, I took the keys from her. “Nice having met you, girls,” I smiled and nodded. “See you around.”

  “Likewise,” Natasha replied for everyone. “Bye, Phil!”

  As I walked back to the car, I wondered if I’d jumped the gun with my proposal. As she had just shown, I didn’t really know the real Vicky at all. Could it be that I’d trusted the system’s Reputation reading too much? Love 1/1, yeah right. But what was love, anyway, but a biochemical process in the body? A psychological attachment, maybe? In any case, a romantic infatuation wasn’t exactly love.