Mask of Humanity

235: The Information Guild


Buildings rose around him, streets disappeared away. Hulking undead beings with huge arms and legs, but no heads, lumbered slowly through the area.

Nicolai took it in all in through cameras and out through his helmet's visor, while slipping through the crowd around him

The majority of them were standing still, staring at the City. They started to gradually move around, slightly complicating his speedy manoeuvring around him as they drifted about, staring around like tourists as they filtered into the city.

Via drones he saw how the "leaders" tried to get people to stay in one mass—under their leadership—and many did stay close to them. But he saw their frustration as many, with the realisation that there was going to be no fight, simply wandered off.

Nicolai spied, around the circular area they stood upon, a few People who wore a similar outfit as the Guide—more of the same. Many were clustering towards these guides, eager to ply them with questions.

Doubtless worthwhile, but Nicolai felt he had a better source of information and so didn't bother. His steps sped as he broke out of the edge of the crowd, and he quickly lost sight of the large mass of people when the wide street he'd entered turned. He couldn't help but do his own gawking at some of the buildings. This city must have been constructed by the People, though it was quite different to the castle. This place looked like one might expect a city made by necromancers to look.

Gothic in nature with plenty of pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses, at first he'd thought the buildings made entirely of white, black, and grey marble, but Threat Analysis recognised the truth—some were of stone, but in many places the buildings were formed from bone, or the designs were enhanced by it. And that wasn't the only biological building material. A bridge he saw drifting across the street, connecting two buildings, was a combination of large, smooth bones supported by a network of dried out tendons.

There were also a significant number of bell towers. Sprouting here and there from the city, they tended to be tall towers which emerged from large, boxy buildings. Buildings that had quite a defensible look to them, and which were patrolled by undead.

Guard towers, of some sort? He imagined the bells were for raising an alarm, if trouble was spotted.

Nicolai had never been overly interested in architecture, but he'd never seen a city made out of literal corpses, either, and found himself slowing to examine what he saw more closely as he passed by. It took an effort of will to resume his walk, doing his best to tear his eyes away from a cart that passed him by, but a reminder that at last he might have the answers he'd sought for so long got him back on track.

The cart did not have wheels. It walked on its own four legs, and in that regard actually bore a resemblance to unmanned transports from Earth. There they also had what were effectively skips that transported themselves, only those had wheels rather than skeletal feet.

He also spied some People as he went, not Guides but simple citizens, strolling around on business of their own. They regarded him with expressions thoughtful, irritable, contemptuous, and wary, by and large. In clothing they resembled the human Cultivators much more than him and others from Earth, wearing similar robes and with what looked to be Imbued weapons or Artifacts of their own.

Shortly he found himself stood before the Information Guild. It was a large building with a rather unique design. It was in the shape of a gigantic skull. A Person's skull, based on the third-eye socket. It was constructed from many, many skulls used like bricks. He noted that while the ultimate shape formed was that of one of the People's skulls, none of the actual skulls used in construction were from a Person. They came from a vast variety of races. Slaves and enemies, perhaps.

The entrance was the mouth, with two front teeth, likewise made from many skulls, serving as doors. Currently those were open, with a guard either side. The open 'tooth doors' was, he felt, a somewhat unfortunate design choice that gave the entrance a faintly ludicrous air. The guards were huge undead beings, much like those he'd seen lumbering around the square. They were armed with halberds big enough to cut a horse in half.

He strode towards them, paranoia readying his body. But the guards showed no sign of even noticing him, and he passed between them. Inside there was a large, grand hall, with many doors set into the walls. A small crowd of People filled it, chattering quietly. They turned, looking his way as he walked in.

'Ah, our first client,' came a voice. A smiling female Person approached him. 'Welcome to the Information Guild. What do you seek?'

Nicolai couldn't help but smile back, excitement tingling through him. 'There is a great deal I wish to know. Perhaps I can write you a list. How does this work? How do I pay for what I learn?'

'You can pay in many ways. Oma crystals and points-tags are the most basic. You may also agree to perform a service for us, with the agreed upon information being provided upon the completion of this service.' She gave him a thoughtful look, and he thought he saw her third eye twitch. Her practised smile returned. 'But many of our clients, especially in Game worlds, like to make use of our information-for-information payment method. For that, you would simply tell us something—anything—you think we might not know. If indeed we do not know of it, then we will credit your account with Guild tokens, which you may spend here or at any of our other branches. Perhaps that would be of interest to you?'

Nicolai's heart thumped with eagerness. Information-for-information? He smelled opportunity. 'Have you talked with anyone from my planet before?' he asked.

Her smile grew. 'I have not. However, you should know that we have many branches. In each Sector of this city, there is one such branch. As you will know, today is the first day of the opening of the Phantom City.' Her expression turned distant. 'Right now… colleagues of mine are currently in discussion with twenty eight… thirty one people from your planet. The number only rises.'

His eyes widened. 'I would like to take the information-for-information payment method. Please take me to whoever or wherever we go immediately and I will tell you anything I can think of.'

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Her smile grew positively predatory. 'That is exactly what I was hoping you would say.' She flicked her fingers and the world shifted around him.

Now, he sat across a table from her in a plain white room. It was lit by sourceless light. He immediately performed a 360 scan using his Soul Sense and the camera's on his suit, checking his blind spots. There was no door or window, which caused a stir of unease within him.

She waved to her side, and a pane of light appeared.

CURRENT INFORMATION VALUE: 0

TOTAL TOKENS GAINED: 0

'At the top, it tells you how much the information you are giving us is worth, shown in Current Information Value. Total Tokens represents what you've gained over the session. The Current Information Value changes moment-to-moment, and the value you will receive is that shown at the moment you speak the final word of the information you are giving.' She tapped her chin. 'I recommend short sentences, and you should know our Guild is more interested in practical matters of power, governance, military strength, capability and utility and so on than abstract scientific facts. You should also know that right now, many others of your race are spilling anything and everything they can think of.'

That came as no great surprise. The other humans from Earth weren't dumb. This was an opportunity for the early birds to make some big gains. Some might think something like: I shouldn't betray my race by giving all this information to some shady alien "Guild."

But the problem with such a line of thinking was that many others would feel no such compunction, and would make huge gains by sharing everything they could think of. It was the Prisoner's Dilemma with thousands of participants. Nicolai thus felt no guilt, and managed to convince the Mask there was no need for it to feel guilt, either. Whatever he shared would be shared in time regardless. He'd simply rather he got the value out of it than someone else.

'You're very helpful,' he observed, speaking absently while internally, he and the Modules were considering what to share. All the others would currently be sharing the big obvious things they could think of. Our planet is called Earth… its population is over seventy billion… we are a race called humans who evolved from monkeys… and so on. The information he spoke should be something less obvious.

'I earn commission,' said the Person, answering his unspoken question.

Nicolai snorted. 'Fair enough. Let me tell you about GRECKON.' He'd hit upon this because GRECKON was a very major player on Earth, one of the biggest, richest, and furthest reaching corporations. He also happened to know a great deal about the Corporation, things the average person on the street wouldn't know, due to once being a tool it had made significant use out of. 'When I left, the primary military units they were interested in were…'

As he spoke, the value shown in the screen would shoot up when he first mentioned a piece of information. Then, as he talked, he would note the value occasionally decreased. Sometimes slightly, sometimes greatly. This would be because others, at that very moment, were sharing information which held some similarity with whatever he was giving.

He paid attention to that number. If whatever he was sharing had a low value, he simply abandoned it and switched to discussing something else. The number also told him the kind of things the Guild valued especially highly, which transpired to be details on military capabilities, space travel, and energy production. It also told him what they currently had little information on and thus valued even more highly.

He talked until his throat was dry and his voice was raspy. During that time the numbers given for information first rose as he better worked out what they wanted to know, then began a gradual decline.

By the time he finally finished, stopping to pull his Green Water Bottle from the Big Mouth and taking a deep drink of the especially hydrating and wakefulness enhancing liquid, the values were down to the single digits no matter what he shared.

He, along with many, many other humans, had finished sharing just about everything this Guild had any interest in.

It'd taken less than an hour to share every secret of humanity in easy reach.

TOTAL TOKENS GAINED: 1,654,234

'Is one-point-six million Tokens a lot of Tokens?' he asked the Person, who wore a huge grin.

This was the point where he, and the other humans, would find out whether they'd been scammed or not. Perhaps this "Guild" was simply a way to extract information from new entrants to the game, and his million Tokens would be enough to buy a cup of coffee. If so, he hadn't actually lost much—personally, at any rate. But if it wasn't a scam… then he would at last be able to learn everything he'd wanted to learn, all this time.

'It is not a ridiculous sum, but it is certainly large. In terms of Tokens held, you are now amongst the top 1% of our clients across all branches,' she told him.

He couldn't help but grin, a sudden joy roaring through him, warming him from head to toes, sending the Modules buzzing happily as they soaked in the emotion.

He had so very many questions. The ones that most immediately came to mind were regarding the Lizard. Who was he? Why was he important? Was it actually worthwhile for Nicolai to find him?

But he dismissed the thought, pulling back and conferring with the Modules. When I asked Paxolnaz about the Lizard, the Demon's attitude immediately changed. Back then he had decided that in the future, when interacting with new individuals, especially when arranging Contracts or other similar items, he would not ask about the Lizard until the last possible moment.

Only once he had extracted any and everything else he was interested in, only then would he ask about the Lizard. If he asked now, and this being underwent a similar change in attitude, then he might seriously struggle to gain the full use of all those Tokens.

He went through all he wanted to know, he and the Modules working to arrange it. He would ask about the matters he felt were the most innocent and least likely to cause him trouble first, and then the more difficult areas last. That meant the layout of the Game and Nightmare, this Phantom City with its Guilds and services, the jungle, Symbiotes and resources, mental attacks (he remained curious about the mental trickery Hao had attempted to use on him), Souls and Soul Sense, the other human-like race that was here with his own people, and anything else that caught his fancy, came first. He was hoping he would be able to purchase some guide books or even Memory Tomes.

Finally, once that was out of the way, he would ask about the three items he felt were more risky, in order of least risky to most. First the Tier 3 Artifact Blade, then the Black Gift, and finally the Lizard.

But before getting to any of that, he had to clarify some things between himself and this information trader.

'I'd first like to know your policy on client confidentiality, regarding information I don't explicitly sell. Even if I don't formally sell something to you, but simply mention it in passing or as a part of my questions, will you keep that information and sell it on to others if asked?'

Her lip quirked. 'A wise question. I can answer that for 1 Token, it is part of our terms of service. Anything you share with me will be recorded by us for training and legal reasons. However, we will not sell that information to any individual or group, it will only be held internally within our organisation, in private storage. Only if you agree to sell this information to us, or if another source sells us the same information, will we be able to sell it in turn.'

'I see,' murmured Nicolai. He knew all about "training and legal reasons." Basically, they kept the information and used it however they wanted, and they might not openly and outright sell it… but if they had any shady deals, that information would get out somehow. He'd have to take care and share as little as possible. Unfortunately, sharing was unavoidable if he wanted to get any answers to his more important questions.

Alas, that was simply how things were. No matter. It changed little. He still needed those answers, and now, at long, long last, he would be able to seize them.

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