Chapter Forty-Three: Whisper and Shout (Patreon)

By the time she was ready to playtest, her fingers had gone on strike. 

“Your turn to pilot the character,” Zan Xinyi says, shoving the bloodstained keyboard over to Wei Shengyuan. 

He eyes the bloodstains with deep trepidation.

“Maybe I should try to use the phone controls,” he says. 

“If you want to make an account, go ahead.”

“Actually, I’ll just go and get a wet wipe.” 

And by go and get he means sit completely still while he concentrates on assembling a ball of water around the wet wipe container and bringing it all the way from the kitchen counter to the couch. 

It’s a lot more difficult for him to transport even small and light items than it would’ve been for Zan Xinyi just to get up out of her seat and take a couple of steps back and forth. 

“Jiang Jin’s convinced she can talk to the dog and put in another order for a wheelchair with Zhang Hai,” Zan Xinyi says, mind straying to other tasks. “I told her to order two, so next time we’ll have a spare back at the apartment if we end up having to abandon one again. So we’ll find out if it’s possible to place advanced orders through a dog the next time we head down to Wet Dog Post.” 

Wei Shengyuan’s hands pause on the keyboard before he resumes cleaning. 

“That will be expensive,” he says. 

“The water and soda are free on our end. If Zhang Hai decides he wants payment in other forms, then it will be expensive.” 

>3 new accounts have been bound for a total of seven. Congratulations, host.

Guan Yu’s finally remembered his promise.

>Reminder, you have not yet claimed your compensation. Please choose from the three provided options. 

The list displays itself again, and Zan Xinyi sighs. She forgot about that. Reluctantly, she goes back through the options. The lightning rod is completely unnecessary, their building isn’t tall enough for it. The barrier...

Under specific circumstances, it would be a useful trump card. If their building comes under siege, if another giant monster attacks, that sort of thing.

But their building already has a protector. They have Qingqing. Just as the power plant was the Lightning Beast’s territory, its nest, their building is already the nest of a similar monster-- a barrier would be something that acted as a simple secondary option for defense, not some desperate thing that’s the only thing making a giant beast killable.

Which makes the right choice obvious. The crystalline pool. Even if it’s not as full as raw power as the crystal itself, having it will obviously make Wei Shengyuan and Jiang Jin grow more powerful...and it will also greatly power up Qingqing.

Zan Xinyi grinds her teeth together.

It’s a matter of trust. Qingqing isn’t her subordinate. Qingqing is her neighbor, and they are bound together through convenience and because they both refuse to move out of the building. 

Offering Qingqing such a wellspring of power...

Jiang Jin wouldn’t think anything of it. Neither would Wei Shengyuan.

It’s just her who dislikes it. 

The lightning rod or barrier might be less useful in the long term, but they are also far more in her personal control than having a crystalline pool that will benefit everyone except her. After all, Zan Xinyi doesn’t draw strength from monster cores, or crystals, or eating zombies. 

“Zan Xinyi? Are you listening to me?” 

She hadn’t been. 

“Did you say something?” 

Wei Shengyuan scowls at her and points at the screen, which is just displaying the Door to Night. “I said, are we starting from the first level, or just the new ones?” 

“Start from level two,” Zan Xinyi says. 

“Alright. So how do I--”

“Wait!” Jiang Jin calls, voice echoing from down the hall. “I want to be there too! Wait for me!” Her feet make the floorboards creek as she bolts back and opens the door to Zan Xinyi’s apartment.

Zan Xinyi stares at the doorknob oddly, struck by a sudden thought.

She hasn’t locked her door since the negotiation with Qingqing. It’s just too annoying, locking the door when there’s always people going in and out and the building is secure.

“I can’t believe you were going to start without me,” Jiang Jin says, squishing Wei Shengyuan in the middle as she drops into his other side. “Seeing it come together is the best part.” 

“Or not come together,” Wei Shengyuan says. 

He presses enter, and the Door to Night opens, now depositing him into the character summoning menu. 

“It’s me!” Jiang Jin says, pleased. 

A large banner art of Jiang Jin’s character, Secretive Echo of the Wind’s Laughter, takes up much of the screen. On the left side, Zan Xinyi has set up a couple of menu tabs. The character menu for all already summoned characters, the bug report function for Guan Yu, and a final tab that says Shop.

“Do we have a shop?” Wei Shengyuan asks.

“No. That’s a placeholder. Don’t click on it.” 

Wei Shengyuan hastily pulls the mouse away from that and then turns to Zan Xinyi with an expression of dread.

“So how do I get into the main game?” 

Zan Xinyi blinks. 

“Oh, if you click on the character menu that will allow you to set your group for the levels, and then after that, you’ll get a pop up that asks if you would like to enter the main game.” 

“There isn’t a play button? From the main menu?” 

“The beginning player will be dropped straight into level one, so this won’t be an issue for them.” 

“Yiyi,” Jiang Jin starts, looking far too amused, “Wei Shengyuan means it might be a little confusing for people. Since the game doesn’t have a tutorial, after all! What if they enjoy your game so much, but they get interrupted and have to go fight a zombie horde, and then when they come back they’re dropped into a completely different part of the game and they don’t know how to get back to the main game level?” 

“Then they can just keep clicking buttons until something works.” 

“You just told me not to click on one of the buttons.” 

“Because it doesn’t work.” 

Wei Shengyuan sags a little in his seat. 

“Alright. So I go here--” He clicks over to the character tab, and stares at all of the characters. Since this is her laptop, all of the characters are unlocked and available. He frowns as he looks from the Witch all the way down to Lost Soldier and River’s Maw, and then to her poor and sad one stars, Whisper and Shout. 

Since Wei Shengyuan had only ended up giving her one one star design to work with before the deadline got too close, Zan Xinyi had made the two of them twins, one boy and one girl. And not only that, but both of them borrowed heavily from Secretive Echo’s lounge singer aesthetic with a large feather fan held clearly meant to be used for someone else’s big act. 

“You really just named them Whisper and Shout?” Wei Shengyuan asks. “That seems so...plain.” 

“They’re one stars,” Zan Xinyi says. “They’re lucky, actually. My first idea was Junk and Rot.” 

Jiang Jin laughs as if Zan Xinyi was joking about the initial concept. 

“I think they’re adorable!” She says. “Wow, Secretive Echo has cute little helpers!” 

“Did you design their abilities to be complimentary to Secretive Echo?” Wei Shengyuan asks, clicking on Whisper. 

You have chosen Whisper as one of your three companions alongside Witch Beneath Clear Skies and Siren Hidden in the Storm. Would you like to start your progression on: 

Floor 2, Floor 3, Floor 4, or Floor 5?

“I didn’t want to pick her, I just wanted to see her abilities! How do I go back? And why isn’t Floor 1 even an option?”

“There’s no back button,” Zan Xinyi says, rolling her eyes. “Floor 1 isn’t connected to the game the same way the rest of the floors are, so it’s annoying to link to it. I’ve put in a work around where after you’re in one of the main levels, if you then attempt to enter the Door to Night, you’ll get an option to return to Floor 1 or proceed to the main menu.” 

Wei Shengyuan covers his face with his hand for a moment.

“Let’s go, Wei Shengyuan,” Jiang Jin says, patting him on the shoulder. “I want to see the pretty floors you’ve designed.” 

“They’re not that pretty,” Wei Shengyuan says, but obediently clicks on Floor 2. 

The Door to Night loading screen reappears one more time, and then with a creak, it opens.

LANTERN-BEARER: I didn’t know the sun could be this bright...the sky looks so beautiful.

WITCH BENEATH CLEAR SKIES: You’ll grow to hate it.

Red and orange autumnal trees rattle their leaves and branches as the wind steals away their colors for itself. The road is cobbled, like this is some rich neighborhood lane that anyone could simply take a stroll down and kick a few piles of leaves here and there that someone had painstakingly raked off the walkway.

The music is limited, just a few string instruments in the background so as to emphasize the wind sound effects. 

“Wow,” Jiang Jin says, appropriately impressed. “It worked really well!”

“I should’ve used less details for the leaves,” Wei Shengyuan says, moving the Lantern-Bearer forward. 

Within the first step, enemies are immediately triggered. Still the same shadows as from level one, as when she’d been designing the level that was all she had. 

“Just speed through this, we’ve got a lot to get through,” Zan Xinyi says.

“Speed through it-- Zan Xinyi, I don’t even know what Whisper does! You still haven’t made it possible to read character abilities while in combat!” 

Ah, oops. 

“Whisper’s got two cards-- ah, good, both of hers came up so you can see them. One of them is Voice in the Crowd and one of them is Sweet Lie. Voice in the Crowd deals a low amount of damage to all enemies, Sweet Lie is a heal for one party member at a time. Both of them have their sparkle power requirements clearly labeled. Got it?” 

“Why is the one star a healer? Wouldn’t that make her too precious? She has almost no health. She’s going to die.”

Zan Xinyi ignores him, unconcerned about the current game balance. 

“I love her ability names,” Jiang Jin says. “What about Shout?”

“Shout also has Voice in the Crowd, and then he’s got Bitter Heckle, which is a taunt.” 

“Oh, they’re such a cute little family,” Jiang Jin says. “It’s a shame Whisper’s here all alone. And then they’re designed to work as a trio with Secretive Echo, right?” 

Zan Xinyi shrugs. 

She does need to work on the current party selection system, but it is what it is. Compared to implementing all of the character abilities, enabling the player to select a specific group composition just completely slipped her mind. 

“Secretive Echo is good for being in a trio in general,” she says finally, after realizing Jiang Jin actually wants a response. “No matter if it’s her and Witch and Siren, her and River’s Maw and Lost Soldier, or her and the two one stars, she’ll be fine. It’s the other characters who weren’t created with synergy in mind.” 

“Next play through, let’s take Lost Soldier into the group,” Jiang Jin says.

“Next playthrough? We’re not even halfway through this one. How about if Wei Shengyuan manages to get all three of these characters killed, you can pick out the next batch.” 

“Oh, that’s much better.” 

Jiang Jin looks over at Wei Shengyuan. 

“Loose quickly!” She cheers. “Pick the wrong cards, Wei Shengyuan!” 

“Shut up.” Wei Shengyuan’s shoulders rise up defensively and Zan Xinyi realizes he actually is losing the easiest battle on the floor. 

“Here.” She shoves herself up and leans over so she can pay closer attention. “You’re picking everything in the wrong order, and you have the wrong priorities. The Witch can always go last, but you’re too cautious and having Whisper heal her to full instead of having Whisper do damage. Remember-- the only health point that matters is the last one.” 

“But you were telling me that the Witch and the Siren don’t regenerate their health after battle,” Wei Shengyuan says quietly. 

Zan Xinyi shrugs. 

“Still, it doesn’t matter. Victory is more important. The whole point of that mechanic is to force you to summon the other characters.” 

Even though she’d just told him what the problem is, Wei Shengyuan’s next turn he has Whisper heal the Witch once again. 

“I’m telling you, that’s the wrong way to do this,” Zan Xinyi warns.

“Heal her again, Wei Shengyuan.” Jiang Jin says. “You definitely have to.”

It’s odd.

That time, Jiang Jin didn’t smile at all.