NT Rangers - Lad 35 - Missdirect (Patreon)

Lad moved past his nerves and the grave threat he felt from the innocuous looking Aoian and started to actually think for a second.

`Adapt... Adapt...` His eyes widened, then centered on the imposing figure of Cao Young. He breathed steadily and relaxed somewhat, gathering his thoughts and his words properly. Lad suddenly felt very rational and very confident.

`If it's adaptation, he hasn't adapted to me yet. That means that if I didn't take the opportunity to misdirect him here I wont have any chances in the future.` A smile crossed Lad's lips. Cao lifted a brow quizzically.
“Actually... I have a way to know about the past lives and even the world outside.”

His eyes widened. He let Lad go. “The world... Outside?” Young seemed unsure, but desperately intrigued. Then he adjusted and shook his head.
“Not much different from in here, I'm sure? I get those weird echoes some times. I see things the way they are now. Some people, but mostly just similar things to what we already have. Nothing interesting. “

Lad stared at him. “Hah... You don't know?”

“Don't know what?” Young leaned in.

“It's a shame, because you ended up dying purposefully out of boredom, but in reality if you stayed a ton of new challenges and experiences would've opened up for you.”

Young's mind was blown. “S-sorry, what?”

Lad shrugged. “I dunno. You're probably not interested.” He turned around and folded his hands behind his back. He took one, two, three steps then smiled as he felt a hand on his arm.

“Hey! I'm interested. Tell me.”

Cao Young was not asking why Lad knew anymore, he was completely focused on the subject, not the context, as Lad intended. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned around.
“There's honestly so much, and I feel like I'd be giving it all away for free.” Lad hinted.

“Okay. How about this? I kind of doubt that it's as you say it is so for everything you tell me I'll do something for you.” The deal made sense in Cao Young's mind, and also made sense to Lad when considering Cao Young's mind. He figured that if there was as little as he thought he would not need to do much, and if there was as much as Lad claimed... Well it was a win win.

“That sounds fair.”

“Not unreasonable, mind you. I'm not stupid. I'd say information is probably 1:1 but if you want me to beat someone up I would need at least four good pieces of info.”

“Yeah, I understand. I'm fine with that.” Lad nodded easily. He lifted his chin, smiling benevolently.
“Video games. Things that work by electronics. You play them by mastering the controls and-”

“That's one.” Cao Young grinned widely.
“That sounds interesting!”

Lad scoffed. “You didn't let me finish. First... Arcade games. Physical shelves with big controls that are all different. Oh, by the way, all the controls for each game are different and there are different genres and styles so all of these got sub-categories as well.” Lad announced.

Coa Young's brain was going into overload as Lad spoke. “Yeah?”

Lad began describing everything from fighting games to racing games and RPG's and min-maxing and different builds for things and niche builds that make everything different, and challenges within games that can make the experience totally different. The fact that some people timed themselves and tried to beat other peoples times to complete tasks within the games and that each single speedrun had it's own rules and it's own meta. Then Lad began talking about VR and Deep Dive and real modern racing with cars and the different vehicles and their varying races and rules and metaplay. Halfway through, while Lad was not even done Cao Young held his head, almost pulling his short hair out. He shouted.

“I fucked up! I fucked up bad! Holy shit I left too soon!” He shook Lad as he ranted and looked around in a panic.
“I-I've already almost done everything there is to do in this whole damn world.”

Lad cocked his head to one side. “And think about it, Young, once you do all that you'll just be reset... Every time you're going to be doing the same shit with a new memory so you're just stagnating. All of the things ahead of you in this simulation are going to be things you have already done, 100%. Think about it. Is there a world where you couldn't conquer the undersea like you are now and wouldn't do it?”

“No... No way. I would've done it. I would've done all of it.” He began to sweat and wipe his hand down his face to cover his mouth.
“Fuck... Fuck fuck. What do I do?”

Lad crossed his arms over his chest and tried to think. It was the hard part. “I have also been trying to figure this out. You're alive. All the people in here are alive. I think that's true philosophically based on everything I know.” From the beginning, Lad had a generous understanding of living from accommodating and learning to accept Drianna so he was always going to take such a stance regardless.
“In a perfect world I would bring everyone that is in here, out. Alive. But that seems...”

Cao Young grinned widely and hugged Lad, speaking over his shoulder into his ear. “Impossible? Nah, let's do it. Got any ideas, Boss?”

“B-boss?”

“Yeah. I'll follow you now, since that seems like the more interesting thing to do. I don't think there's a world in here where I would've done that yet, right?”

Lad did not even have to lie. He nodded slowly. “Y-yeah. I'm pretty sure that's the case with one-hundred percent absurdness.”

Cao Young released Lad and shouted back at the Blue Dragon. “Lamasu!”

“Yes?” The man approached, still wearing his blindfold.

“I'm quitting.”

“What!? You literally can not! You promised to serve me!”

Cao Young narrowed his eyes. Lad felt nervous over what was about to happen. After a tense moment Young threw his head back and whine.
“Nooooo. I did promise. How am I supposed to break a promise?” He scratched his head.

Lad interjected. “Maybe instead we can make our goals align. Your Highness Lamasu, was it?”

“So respectful.” The man blushed.
“Please, call me Lamasu.”

“Sure. Lamasu, what are you hoping to get out of this.”

“New territory and riches. I also want to top the Tryskans. I don't want to be beat by that manipulative Emerald cunt.” He explained. Cao Young stepped back and watched the two go back and forth.

“Where do they rank for you?” It was a sensible question.

Lamasu smiled brightly. “Beat Cunt. Gain land. Acquire riches.”

“We can work with that.” Lad found a way to be completely truthful while strategically avoiding other important info.
“We want to make it so the Trskans do not reach their goal. We have to contact them before then. That's probably going to give you the upper hand, regardless.”

“We're not strictly at war yet, so I think it's prudent.” Lamasu shrugged.

“If you all want to slow them down with whatever you're doing, we may be able to leave to follow the route ahead of them.”

“Great! Let's do that.” Lad nodded. He felt like he was over the hump. The rest was simply negotiation.  The two handsome men were looking at him with their heads cocked like curious animals. Lad cleared his throat.
“Make contact with Fin and Fiona... Slow them down and allow you-” he pointed to Lamasu.
“To get ahead. So it should be fine for you-” He pointed to Cao Young.
“Cao Young, to come with us from this point?”

“Unless the Seafolk attack, which is unlikely, I'm pretty sure I don't actually need to go to the absolute depths. We intimidated them pretty good.”

Lamasu looked a little annoyed. “Are you saying we could have left at any point?”

“Why would I tell you that? If you knew there was zero threat we'd have to leave. Plus, conquering them on the side is something you'd like.” The Hero teased with a coy smile while prodding at the Dragon.

“You little-” Lamasu groaned.
“Fine, whatever. He's your headache now. Fulfill your promise.” He waved his hand and want to order around his servants. People began pulling things off of the beach. He walked to the front of the beached ship and said something out loud.
“Manifest.” He formed a bright circle in front of him and pushed his hand through it. A giant circle appeared a few feet away. A giant, scaled hand with thick black claws and overlapping sapphire scales came through the larger circle and began pushing the ship back out easily. Lamasu was yawning, looking a bit bored as he just fed more of his arm through. The arm that appeared was terrifyingly large. Almost as thick as the ship itself. When it was floating again he retracted it.

Lad whispered. “Why does he even need people?”

Cao Young looked at him. “Dragons follow higher rules than most things. It makes them stronger, but it also makes them worse off in other ways. I could beat him up, for example.”

“Good to know, I guess. Are you ready to go back and meet the crew?”

“Oh yeah.”

As they boarded the ship, Lad looked at the Captain. “What? You still want to raid them?”

He shook his head. They all saw the claw. “Don't fuck with Dragons.”

“Glad you know.” Lad smirked, happy that it worked out in such a way and he did not need to offer an excuse.

Lad lead Cao Young down into the lower decks. “Woow.” He whistles.
“Got em wrapped around your finger with the Slayer angle, huh?”

“I guess. Surprisingly easy.”

“Not really that surprising.” Young stated.

“Ah...” Lad gulped nervously.
“Did you finally adapt to it?”

“What's done is done. I already kind of like you so it is what it is.” He shrugged.
“If you were a worse person, and you used it to take advantage of me it'd be different. All in all-” He gave a thumbs up.
“Good job! You got me.” He offered in good humor.

Lad chuckled, wondering if Cao Young had some type of social trait or if he really was just like this. “It was all true.” Lad added.

“I know.” Young was looking around the inside of the ship, seeming to lack attention span.

Lad lead Cao Young inside his lower room. “Alright. Here we are.” As they entered kara and Cao Young's eyes met. Her jaw dropped.

“Young?”

Young gasped and pointed. “I- I know you somehow! It's a happy echo.” He explained simply, but quite clearly with a big smile he began to walk towards her and Kara stood up, ready to go towards him as well but Lad stepped in front of Young and stared at him.

“You haven't earned that, yet.” He looked back at Kara.
“Right?” She seemed surprised initially, then offered a slow nod in agreement, her big ears flattening over her crimson hair as her hands folded nervously in front of her.

“Right.”

“Wait... What'd I do?” Cao Young asked genuinely.

Lad wanted to explain but he felt it was not his place. He turned and approached Kara, whispering to her.
“I don't want to overstep.” As he said those words she blushed deeply.
“This is your experience that you went through, not mine.” Her lip began to quiver as he continued.
“With that in mind, I'll deffer to you with how you want to handle it, and help you out if you need strength or advice or what-have-you.”

Kara burst into tears and hugged Lad. “I was about to go to him... After he hurt me like that.” She muttered into Lad's neck. Her tail swayed behind her.

“I've been thinking about you and what it could be.” He waited.

“I'll hear it.” She sniffed.

“Part of you thinks you deserved it for the things you've done to others, right?”

“Y-yes.” She nodded in shock.

“You kind of find the pain to be a convenient thing for you because you're still looking for ways to repent for how you were. But, something that we need to acknowledge is that those things happened, and those are separate from things that happen to you. As someone that's also been through... Stuff and done stuff, I know that being treated like you treated others doesn't absolve or fix anything.”

She hugged him tighter. Snugly. “I thought you were gonna sleep with me. Dominate me. Make me yours. But.. You somehow knew that all of those things would happen and instantly confirm my current framework. You kinda just shattered that, Lad.”

“No. I can't do that in an instant. We have to keep going and continue to be good. There's no one moment of change that makes everything after, it's other moments building and building, each as important as the last.”

Kara laughed and nodded, wiping her eyes. “Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. I'm ready.”

Lad let her go and stepped back. She stepped towards a confused Cao Young with a contented smile. “I'm weak. This was only possible because of him.” She nodded to Lad. Because although I've been thinking a long time about what I'd say to you, I know the moment you walked in that I would always lose to you. No matter what I said it would be lost on you. You wouldn't get it and you probably wouldn't care.” Her smile widened.
“So instead you get nothing.” Kara waved.
“No words. No confrontation. There's nothing you can do. No challenge and no way to fix it. It's just over.” She took a deep breath.

“Eh?” For reasons beyond his understanding, before he even knew it a tear rolled down his cheek. Then the other. He reached up slowly, touched his face and looked at them drying on his worn finger tips. His mouth fell open and he frowned. He looked up at her. She seemed satisfied so she turned and strutted back to sit down, crossing one leg over the other.
“What did... What did I do?” He looked to Lad.

“Do you believe it was bad?” Lad asked.

“Somehow... Yeah. I don't even know but after hearing that and looking at her I guess I do.” He admitted.

“Then take the pain and use it to be a better person. She doesn't think you need to know right now.”

Cao Young rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Okay.” He looked down and off to the side.
“I feel sorry and I don't even know what I did. I can read expression and tones pretty well. I guess it was bad.”

Lad looked to Cao Young and said honestly. “I... Only really needed you to give her closure. So we don't actually need you. Feel free to go back or do whatever you want.”

He held up his hands. “I wanna stay with you guys, if that's okay.”

“It might be, but you maybe need to-”