By Thursday, I’d decided I’d made a mistake.
Not with Camila.
With Quest Master.
I’d spent most of the week watching what it could do to her—XP, Attributes, Role Progress, Alignment.
Monday night had reminded me there was another half of the System.
Mine.
QUEST SELECTION Lv.1 → Lv.2
Four successful Standard Quests.
Master Level Two.
Those requirements had existed before I’d even known Mastery conditions were a thing. Quest Master had only shown them after I’d already satisfied both.
Which raised an obvious problem.
What did Master Level Three unlock?
No idea.
When did Assess improve?
No idea.
Assign Role?
Same problem.
Player Capacity still read:
Players: 1 / 1
No indication whether that ever changed.
The Master Shop being locked until Level Five was apparently the one piece of future information the System felt generous enough to advertise.
Everything else?
Figure it out.
Whoever had designed Quest Master had apparently considered documentation optional.
So I changed how I used it.
I’d been too passive. Waiting for Camila to complete Quests. Waiting for menus to appear. Waiting for the System to explain itself after I’d accidentally done whatever it wanted enough times.
That worked for her.
It wasn’t going to work for me.
So from Tuesday through Thursday, I experimented.
Six Standard Quests.
Two per reset.
Some for rewards.
Some because I wanted answers.
Quest Bias came first.
CONTEXT — PROFESSIONAL
Cost: 3 Authority
The next set was unmistakably work-related.
None of the options were what I’d actually wanted.
So Bias influenced.
It didn’t obey.
Then I spent another two Authority on a Reroll just to see what changed.
Three entirely new options appeared.
Five Authority for two answers.
Expensive curiosity.
Still worth it.
Assess got the same treatment.
I tried it on a stranger in Aurelia’s lobby.
ASSESS FAILED
INSUFFICIENT TARGET CONTEXT
Later, I tried someone from Audience Development I’d actually worked with.
Success.
Another Future Leaders candidate.
Success again.
Nothing happened.
No Rank-Up.
No requirements.
Apparently Quest Master would tell me what I’d been supposed to do once I’d already done it.
"Great design."
Assign Role was harder to test casually.
Assessing someone cost me nothing.
Configuring them was different.
I’d done that once.
I wasn’t assigning Hidden Roles to random coworkers just to see what happened.
Not yet.
Camila’s side was easier to measure.
LAST 72 HOURS
Standard Quests Completed: 6
Player XP Earned: +60
Attribute Progress Earned: +60
SECRETARY Role XP: +3
Alignment: +3%
PARASITE I
Master XP Copied: +3
Master Attribute Progress Copied: +6
Authority Spent: 5
Four of the Quests had been straightforward progression.
Speak first.
Challenge a weak assumption.
Make a useful connection.
Finish something unpleasant personally instead of passing it down.
Camila completed all four.
Her XP moved.
Her Attributes moved.
Her Alignment didn’t.
The other two had been deliberate.
One asked her to protect another person’s ability to contribute when doing so cost her something. A last-minute revision landed on my desk Tuesday afternoon, and Camila took it herself, telling Rachel I needed the time for PULSE.
Alignment: 2% → 3%
The second asked her to redirect a useful opportunity toward someone whose success strengthened her own position.
She sent me to an Audience Development meeting she could’ve taken herself, then told them I was better suited for the technical questions.
Alignment: 3% → 5%
That mattered more than the XP.
Alignment wasn’t obedience.
It moved when Camila voluntarily spent something she valued—time, opportunity, status—and pointed it toward me.
I opened her profile.
CAMILA REYES — PLAYER Lv.2
XP: 110 / 150
PER 12 — 35 / 150
WIL 12 — 20 / 150
CHA 15 — 20 / 400
PRE 15 — 0 / 400
SECRETARY Role XP: 12 / 100
Alignment: 5%
EXECUTIVE PRESENCE — 1 USE
Forty XP from Level Three.
Five percent from FAMILIAR GROUND.
Close.
My own status was less impressive.
QUEST MASTER — Lv.2
Master XP: 3 / 100
Authority: 21
Players: 1 / 1
Free Master Attribute Points: 1
Three Master XP in three days.
Parasite wasn’t going to carry me.
Not with one Player.
I opened the Trait again.
PARASITE I
No progress bar.
No evolution requirements.
The Roman numeral had to mean something.
Maybe it improved through use. Maybe it needed another Master Level. Maybe both.
Quest Master wasn’t saying.
Fine.
I didn’t need a manual to see the pattern.
Camila leveled, I gained.
Camila aligned, I gained.
Using her Quests developed my Skills.
Everything kept pointing in the same direction.
More Players.
The problem was still sitting right there.
Players: 1 / 1
And the System had given me no indication when that would change.
The second PULSE test had backed up the first: recognizable faces and repeatable formats brought people back.
My laptop chimed.
PULSE — VESPER ACCESS REQUEST
Camila had turned our rough idea into something that sounded far more expensive than it was.
Short-form vertical content.
Controlled access.
Opt-in guests.
Creators. Artists. Promoters. Fashion. Nightlife.
A glimpse behind the rope without pretending we were investigative journalists.
At the bottom:
Proposed Pilot: Friday Evening
A message appeared.
Camila: Send?
I changed two lines that promised access I couldn’t guarantee.
Me: Now.
Three dots appeared.
Camila: You’re getting annoyingly useful.
I almost wrote I’ve always been useful.
Instead:
Me: Send it.
Forty-three minutes later, the reply arrived.
GRAHAM VALEGeneral Manager — Vesper
Camila rolled her chair toward mine.
"Well?"
I scanned the message again.
Vale was willing to discuss a limited pilot.
In person.
Today — 6:30 PM
One line underneath caught my attention.
Ms. Brooks will attend regarding operational restrictions.
"Brooks?"
"Talia Brooks. VIP Operations."
Camila looked at Vale’s name again.
"You know him?"
"Not really."
Her eyes moved back to me.
"He’s your manager."
"He’s the general manager."
I closed the email.
"I’m a part-time bartender. People like Vale don’t usually need to know people like me."
Camila studied me for a second.
Then smiled.
"Maybe that’s changing."
I looked at the clock.
Then at the Master Quest waiting on my phone.
BEYOND THE OFFICE
Four hours until the meeting.
For most of the week, I’d waited for Quest Master to show me what came next.
Maybe I needed to start giving it something worth rewarding.