The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

The trio were back in Mida’s small space. Flor decided to stand for a bit rather than get more sore.

“Now that you’ve given your story, and I’ve made a few notes, I have a few topics of questions that I want to know about. I’ll bin my questions for you, primarily by the Interfaces you’ve unlocked, in general. So, if my notes on your story are correct, you’ve got access to something like settings, the ‘daemons,’ displays, and maps. Does that sound right?”

Flor nodded, so Mida continued.

“Your story didn’t get into the settings so much. Do you remember what you’ve been able to do when that was your only setting?”

“Alastair and I both were able to skip cut scenes, log out, and engage in puzzles, although puzzle interaction has been more imposed than by choice. At least I’ve been able to pet cats. There might have been more, but I don’t think either of us noted it.”

“How do you engage the interfaces?”

Alastair answered, “We just think about it, and mentally it’s kinda in front of our vision. I’d call it a heads-up display, but I’m not sure that necessarily has meaning to you. Selecting an option, or swapping interfaces, is a simple thought.”

“Do you think someone with verbal or other impairments would have difficulty engaging those interfaces?”

Alastair said, “Uhhh…”

Flor jumped in. “It’s not something I think either of us have thought about. Maybe as long as there is a general understanding of what the interfaces are presenting, there shouldn’t be an issue. But that’s highly speculative.”

“Okay. Since you say it’s different, describe puzzle engagement.”

“Alastair, you want to take this one?”

“I think you’ve had a wider variety of experiences, so you go ahead.”

“So, yeah. The first puzzle I remember, I was climbing on a roof chasing a cat.”

“To unlock interfaces?” Mida asked.

“Not that I knew at the time, but yes. So I stepped onto a roof of ill repair, and as I did, my interface automatically activated and a grid overlaid the roof. Upon completion, the game called it a ‘General 2 Puzzle,’ which seems non-descriptive. Oh, there are also the manacles. When we’re first released by Rudolf, the warden, we have a Sudoku to solve. Are you familiar with Sudoku?”

“No. Can you explain it to me?”

“I can probably do it easier if I draw it out. Can I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?”

Mida nodded, and Flor drew out a simple six-by-six grid. She filled in several spaces, leaving several others blank, then explained it to her.

“So, starting, you have a grid with numbers or symbols of various types inside. The objective is to fill in the blank spaces using deduction and having only one of each symbol in a row or column. Guessing is allowed but frowned upon because there should be a solution that can be deduced. The grids range from tiny to gigantic with variations. The largest I’ve seen is a fourteen by fourteen, but maybe there are larger. Difficulty changes based on the number of spaces filled in at the start, and maybe there are advanced techniques for creating difficulty, but I don’t know them. Do you think you can solve this one?”

“Surely.” Mida took the puzzle and completed it in about a minute. “Like that?”

“Yeah. So the game calls these Sudokus, which is what we call them also, and they seem to be used to open locks. I was able to use lock picks to decrease the difficulty of the lock on the kidnapped kids’ carriage.”

“What other puzzles are there?”

“When we got mugged, there was a combat gem puzzle.”

“Please explain combat gem puzzles.”

“Again, paper and pen might be useful.”

Flor drew a small grid and a stick figure on either side and a tiny smiley face at the bottom. She filled the grid with three symbols and then explained her experience with the thugs.

“The objective here is to match three or more similar symbols. Once the symbols match, they disappear from the grid and new symbols drop from above into the grid. The game here had three sets, but since we’ve only had one combat, we haven’t tested it. One set attacks, one set blocks, and the third set restores health. Occasionally, Alastair assisted me, which I think occurred when I matched four or more symbols. Then, the puzzle plays to atrophy, which, for us, is three health. Infrequently, there were also bone symbols that combined into a skull and crossbones. Clicking those had me skip a turn, but then do a more powerful action on the following turn.”

“Seems a confusing way to fight someone.”

“I could see it going sideways pretty easily.”

“Any other type of puzzles?”

“At least two more that we know about. Combine puzzles and Nonograms. Combine puzzles, also aligned to a grid, require selecting like objects and merging them into higher categories. For example, in a garden, we combined piles of dirt into healthy plants. Eventually, the map is cleared enough that the piles open access to new things to merge. It’s kinda like a game called 2048 where the objective is to combine like numbers into a certain value.”

“That’s kinda a confusing explanation.”

Alastair jumped in, “It’s unfortunately not easier to explain. Listen, the puzzles aren’t interesting. Can we jump ahead?”

Mida said, “No. I’ll grant you a reprieve from further explanation on ‘Combine puzzles,’ but tell me about nono…what did you call them?”

Flor said, “Nonograms. I haven’t done one yet. Alastair?”

“Again, there is a grid, but this time there are numbers along the top and left side which correspond to the number of blocks inside the grid that need to be filled in. Once filled in, they tend to form a pixelated image.”

“Oh, yeah. We conduct these puzzles here. We use them to create items, like cooking and such.”

Flor and Alastair considered what she said. Then Flor sat on the stool and said, “Does it seem like what we call the interface?”

“Perhaps? It just occurs and is an inherent part of how we do things. I suppose I don’t think of it as a puzzle.”

“Wild. That’s all the types of puzzles we’ve encountered so far. We keep getting plus one to puzzles, but not sure how they help us out here. In the game we came from, enough pluses allowed us to engage in more challenging puzzles, but it seems like Flor was able to engage in a high-level lock puzzle without significant experience.”

Mida looked over her notes. “I’ll heed your warning and stop with puzzles for now. The next topic is the daemons. You engage them with the interface, right? You said they manifest physically?”

“Are you okay with having animals in this space? To the best of our knowledge, they are well-behaved.”

“Yeah, sure. Go ahead.”

Flor activated her interface and summoned Kec. Alastair did likewise with ETC.

Mida’s eyes grew wide. Then she frantically started taking notes, including drawing crude sketches of the daemons. Flor and Alastair remained silent for a while until she was happy.

“So, uh, can I pet them?” Mida asked tentatively.

“I’m not sure. You could try.” Flor held out her arm and Kec jumped down from her shoulder and went to her hand. Mida reached forward slowly, and Kec nuzzled up against it.

Mida giggled. “He’s so dapper and soft! What does he do?”

“To the best of my awareness, he stores my progress and allows me to remember what I’ve done previously.”

Mida stopped her giggling. Kec tried to nuzzle her hand more, but a blank look came over her. She whispered, “If I had a daemon, it would solve my persistence problems. How do I get one?”

“I got mine by petting cats. I don’t know how many I petted before the interface indicated that I unlocked the daemon. And there he was.”

Mida remained quiet. Alastair held ETC and rubbed it between the ears. ETC looked positively sleepy. Kec ran up Flor’s arm and back to her shoulder, then brushed off his coat and gave a little shake.

After a time had passed, Alastair broke the silence. “Do you…is there a way you think we can get you a daemon?”